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 Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 9:11 pm
Back on Track in the Middle of Nowhere
Thmp thmp thmp.
Thmp thmp thmp.
He semi bounded, semi trotted along in the leaf litter on his hind legs as he persued dinner - a rabbit. He had been following it for near half an hour now, and it was becoming quite tired. But he persisted with following it, and soon enough, his efforts were rewarded as the animal slowed down enough for him to jump out at it, grabbing it up in his teeth.
He took almost no time to bite into it's neck, chewing the head off in one quick smooth bite. With the head gone, he casually swallowed the entire remains whole, seeming content with his work after the deed was done.
This was how Seth normally carried on now. Although the human side hadn't quite accepted what he had become, the more animalistic side was placidated and even enjoyed the hunt - it felt natural. Although Seth himself was still unaccepting of it, he knew that one day he would have to - it was inevitable. He would never be his old human self again, and he would just have to deal and get used to what he was now.
He trotted out of his base territory and began to make his way north-east. There was still much to be done - He had told Oz, Gaius and Jordan of his intentions to dig a tunnel under and into the Feral Labs territory border fence, yet he had been all talk and no action. He figured that while he himself probably couldn't go home to his old life, he could stop others from ending up in the same situation - or at least get some payback on the idiots that trapped him here.
It was time to do something about it... he headed out of the territory, two thoughts on his mind. A starting point for the digging, and to locate a certain islander to help him out with a digging start point...
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:49 pm
Everything was spiraling out of his control. Though he was at the center of this tug-of-war between islanders and the struggle for an inanimate object that was of no use to anyone, he was simply a removable pawn who served no purpose in the conflict anymore. It had evolved into something far worse that had taken on a life of its own and Jordan was livid.
Five angry paws stomped clumsily over the terrain. Who cared if he attracted the wrong sort of company now? The drama from the past several months was eroding his patience and possibly his sanity as he growled with his muzzle pulled back at every stick, rock, and shadow. Yup, he may very well be cracking up and there was no hope in sight. If it got in his way, he smacked it away with a backhanded motion and a threatening snarl.
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:07 pm
He stopped dead in his tracks as he heard the foreign snarls and growls in his domain. His instincts immediately screamed at him 'threat, threat, threat!!' and Seth reacted in kind, diving for the nearest cover of a nearby wide-leafed low bush. He crouched low and remained on 'all fours' as he put his nose forwards, sniffing the air, banded tail straight out and rigid behind him.
The smell was... quite familiar to say the least, a sort of... well, dog smell. He knew it well, and had smelled it quite a few times before. He had a pretty good idea whom it might be. These thoughts calmed him somewhat - at least it wasn't Richard. The last thing he needed right now was Round Two of the battle-royale for territory. And especially even less so since he established this new base land on the southern side of the island. He had just established it recently, the last thing he wanted was for it to be taken away so soon.
He shook off the desire to hide and rose to his feet, calling out in the direction of the noise. It may have been a stupid thing to do, but if he was wrong in assuming whom it was, he could always make a run for it. Or defend his patch of land.
"Hey, Jordan?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:24 pm
He’d been wandering aimlessly in the venting of his anger on everything in his path. Jordan just wanted to give up now. He had nothing left to care about. The displacer beast was taking his life away, his best friend had chosen her allegiances against Jordan, and he knew now that living like the rest of them wasn’t going to fly long, not at this rate. He was being forced to choose sides as Awen already had in her betrayal. He could disappear into the wilderness for a while, so they couldn’t have him to kick around. He was sick of being used by everyone. That’s all he was anymore, an expendable pawn. No one really needed him around and he certainly didn’t need the stress of being a pawn.
Another stick infront of him… he snarled deeper and balled his paw into a fist and shattered it into smaller pieces. It felt good to vent his rage physically. It gave him that rush that inevitably would lead to a state of calm. Calm wasn’t a destination for miles yet.
Then he heard his name. His muzzle remained pulled back in anger, slowly registering the voice through the blinding rage. His ears perked and twitched in a swiveling motion to pinpoint the direction it had come from. Was he in more danger? Who knew. Was Seth still an ally? He’d soon know that as well. Jordan was fighting mad and his capacities for vocalization were hampered at the moment, so he kept himself ready for a skirmish. He was thinking right. Jordan was behaving like a rabid junkyard dog. Perhaps that’s what he was meant to be this whole time, nothing more than a mindless animal.
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:34 pm
Seth's ears pinned back as he heard Jordan shatter a stick. What was wrong with him, and why was he so angry? Seth was intruigued and wanted to speak to him about it. He opened his maw as if to say something, then suddenly backed up as he observed the white canine's behaviour - was he harping for a fight? Was he coming to attack him? Or worse, try to steal his territorial patch?
The thylacine responded in kind with a low guttural noise, and a stern yaff-yaff noise made mostly through his nose. He didn't particularly want to fight, but he was ready to defend himself if need be.
"Calm down, mate," Seth said, scowling slightly. "What the bloody hell has gotten into you?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:47 pm
The Samoyed braced himself by lowering the awkward, five-legged stance to the ground. His tail fell between his legs limply. Jordan did not want to get into a battle with the superior marsupial in the situation. Seth could tear him apart with those wicked jaws. Hell! Seth could friggin’ still walk without tripping over himself! His ears flattened to his head, keeping his fangs bared. Just in case. No way was he going to back down… and for whatever reason that was, the dimunitive portion of Jordan’s human mind that still remained was panicked and afraid, but mostly pissed at life.
There was no mercy in those big brown eyes, no sign of compassion or humanity. In fact, they looked glazed and soulless. He was being controlled by animal behavior and losing the struggle with himself. Jordan appeared to be struggling as his muzzle opened slightly, as if trying to speak something, but in his mindset, words were so foreign. He’d been struggling to speak since his change. It drained him completely to pronounce the butchered words. It was only enough to utilize all his efforts to walk and propel himself on five legs, while one had failed to grow into a sixth. Just by his appearance, it could be estimated his body was bothering him, but it went deeper than that and he couldn’t explain it into words Seth would comprehend. The threatening growls lowered in pitch as Jordan snapped his jaws at the thylacine-man.
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:00 pm
"Hey, um... are you coocoo in the head or something?" Seth backed up, not wanting to be bitten. He stood back a bit to take in Jordan's appearance. "You changed again, ey?"
He scratched the side of his head and sighed in frustration. He had encountered this more animalistic behaviour before, when he had last seen Newt. The man had completely lost himself to the frog he had been changed into, and Seth wondered if Jordan was the same. He wondered if the same would happen to him at any point in the near future.
"So are you completed then?" He wondered. "I'm guessing not though, I mean..." He pointed a clawed index finger to Jordan's smaller middle paw. "That isn't grown properly. But seriously mate, calm down. I'm not your enemy here. Can you understand what I'm saying?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:12 pm
Jordan heard him. And he could understand the words coming out of his mouth. He just couldn’t reciprocate those same words. He struggled to form the slurred words and he tried to keep himself still long enough not to actually work through with his defensive threat. He placed a paw forward, his body moving on its own accord as if he was readying to attack. The rest of his legs were also moving into action, slowly and so low to the ground he wouldn’t be likely to trip.
“Sheeeeeeeeeth…” he growled out the thylacine’s name with an elongated ‘e’. “…keeeel muh---eeee…” the last word he spoke was broken. ‘Seth, kill me’ he growled out. It was obvious speech had become difficult, if not damn near impossible. Jordan would rather die at this point than be forced to endure anymore. He wanted to end this personal hell.
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:22 pm
"Wh.... what?" Seth blinked, the expression on his face could only be described as dumbfounded. "Why on earth would you want me to do that?"
He grunted sharply. "I'm not going to kill you - do you have any idea how much s**t we'd get into if I tried that? I could try, sure, if I wanted to. But then I would get buzzed and fail. And then Moreau or Duvert, or whoever the hell's runnin' the shebang here would kick our arses from here to Sunday." He shook his head. "No. We need to get off this fricken' island first. Then you can do whatever the hell you want - kill yourself, find a cure, whatever the hell. How does that sound?"
"Speaking of that... er.." He paused awkwardly, trying to remember how much he had told Jordan of this crazy plan he'd had in mind for months. "Remember how I told you about the thing with me needing to have a hole dug? Well, I think I found the starter point for digging. D'ya think you could help me?"
"Seriously though, what makes you wanna top yourself off? Surely its not that bad, huh?" He watched Jordan curiously. "I'm not gonna help you bump yourself off mate, but if you want to try an alternative, I have probably a year's worth of liquor buried underground if you wanna get absolutely trashed."
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:48 pm
And there it was. The bottom of the barrel. Jordan couldn’t go any lower than begging another person to kill him. The anger was.. disrupted. It was chaotic energy but now more unfocused than before. He’d just openly begged to be killed and surely infront of some camera that would relay those words towards the labs. He was such an idiot! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! His heartbeat sped as he was scared to do anything for the moment. He just stared at Seth and waited to see what he’d do. He wasn’t able to goad Seth into doing anything stupid while temporarily (?) insane. The changes and the mind-tampering were destroying his psyche as he knew it. Jordan hung his head and his face was nearly making contact with the dirt. Seth was correct that the labs would teach them a lesson to remember for all time if they even bothered to kill one another.
Slowly, he lowered his muzzle lips and the fangs were hidden once again, as well, the growls were diminishing, but every few seconds, he kept uttering quiet growls, like an on-edge Chihuahua. He shook his head, flapping his ears and sending the tangles of blonde hair swishing to and fro. “No-ruh… nort… com..prete..” he was panting as he spoke. His vocal skills were degrading so horribly.
His head rose as Seth mentioned the hole digging and he gave a slight nod. “Yesh… aaah.. rahmembah…” He didn’t know how useful he could be anymore. He was no longer in much of a position to be useful at anything anymore. He pawed at the ground, knocking around a rock, rolling it back and forth between his claws, under his paw, and with the back of his paw. “Ahm.. nort.. ushefuull ahneemowe..” But, the fact that Seth still wanted him to help meant at the very least something. “Shore.. ah’ll shee..”
“Rook aht meee… ahm.. ahm… rut ahm ah ahneemowe?” he knocked away the rock with a ferocious swing of his paw, a disgusted look of contempt as he snarled. He pushed himself closer to Seth, stumbling even as the malformed leg twitched and tried to move like its big brothers. He huffed at the suggestion of alcohol. “Wah nort? Ah dun plan go-eeeng home.. mond ef ah shtay in yer tarritoree… a while..?”
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:14 pm
"Hey," Seth smirked. "You're not useless if you can still dig a hole. In fact, s**t, far from it my friend. I'm not sure how much you know about what's being planned, but a number of people around here are willing to participate. If you're prepared to listen and help out, and well... not tell anyone in cahoots with the loyal lab idiots... we can kick those lab-bastards right where it hurts. As well as any other p***k who wants to stand in the way or stop us."
He grinned with happiness. Just thinking about it always made his mood higher, and it continued to give him hope.
"Who knows what anybody is any more, ey?" Seth glanced down at his legs. "I'm no longer recognisable as the fat lazy internet-loving Network Admin guy I used to be. But that's through no fault of my own. Instead now, I'm a fuzzy animal hopping thing with a stripey arse, that seems obsessed with owning it's own land. But I'm still me, do you know what I mean?" He grinned. "I'm still the same fat-arse slob I've always been. I still have my booze and my laptop. Apart from that..." He shrugged. "This island's made everybody change, including you. But you're still you. And don't worry about anything else, or what anybody else says. You're you - and you're always gonna be. Nothing can change that."
"Hmm..." Seth tilted his head slightly, curious at the thought of Jordan's last question. "You want to hole up here for a while?" While normally a solitary guy, made even moreso by the fact he was a nomadic male thylacine now, the thought of somebody else hanging around his little patch of land did not actually displease him. It was not uncommon for multiple allied Thylacines to share the same territory and come across each other in their travels. Seth's instincts didn't see Jordan as a threat either - the man himself thought of Jordan as a potential ally. The animal within didn't seem threatened by the prospective of another ally in the home territory.
"Sure, go ahead." He finally said. "There's less cameras down here and I actually prefer it that way. I keep takin' them out whenever I see em too, I can show ya how to do it too if you want." He nodded to himself, seeming to like that idea. "It's not like there's a food shortage here, and you or I can always go back to the village if we need more food. So yeah, go ahead. Hang around here if you want. Just don't bring Richard here, okay? I ********' hate that pompous prat."
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:40 pm
Seth was being downright hospitable towards him and that set him more at ease. The sporadic growls were fewer and far between, if at all, as he listened to the other man. He was surprisingly positive when he wasn’t being egged on and goaded or punched in the snout. He still felt bad for that one, but karma had seen to reciprocation in spades. What goes around, comes around and even though, he didn’t get punched in the face, he was left for dead after a severe mauling and disfigured into a quadrapedal beast of burden. He pawed at the ground and quirked a brow at his claws as they raked in the dirt. Ould he really do it? Dig a hole that is?
He sat himself down awkwardly on his haunches, propping himself up with the grown middle leg and keeping himself from falling over further by leaning on his ‘arms’ which were now more accurately his forelegs. He didn’t have this whole quadraped thing down and it was showing with his ungraceful stature. He really didn’t know what to say to add to the conversation, though Seth was doing quite well on his own, so he let him continue on his roll, nodding to affirm that he was listening silently.
The answer he received to living in the wild was enough to drag a word or two from his canine muzzle. “Ahm hiding.. from ahvreewon.. dun want tah be fond bah ahneewon.. ahm jusht a puppet ahnd ahvrywon esh pullinh mah strings tah do shumthing.. ahm shick of being ushed.. sho ah won’t shtay where thah can fond mee..” Plus, if he stayed in Seth’s territory, he’d know if anyone he knew was looking for him. His ears and his nose were honing to such incredible levels and he’d know if Seth were upset and agitated by an intruder, as he’d set that early warning from the thylacine off as well.
Whether or not he’d participate in anti-labs activities was debatable, but not here, not now. If he were to truly lose his mind, he’d do whatever he felt like to whomever he wanted to. There’d be no more distinction between friend and enemy. He’d just be. Domesticated dogs weren’t the definition of wild, but anything that feels threatened, has undergone such traumatic stress, and has nothing to lose can easily heed the call to the wild. “t’anks.. ah ahpreshee-ate eet..” that big word was difficult getting out. “Tahk-eeng.. esh… hod..”
Jordan pushed himself forward, the pain of being upright in that position forcing him to topple back onto his paws with an annoyed grunt. “Nah.. haw abot thah drink..?”
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 11:15 pm
Seth watched Jordan's awkward posture and moved on his own front paws.
"You're clearly having trouble there. You remind me of a war veteran with the limping thing. Fold up the middle things and just walk around like this." He began to strut around on all fours, his back legs crouched slightly to keep his torso level. "See? Works great. Though, I don't advise running like that... especially if your back legs like to hop once they hit running speed."
He stood up once again and stratched his head as Jordan mentioned hiding from everyone.
"You won't be able to do that forever. The south side here is a bit more remote, and fortunately for us, it's pretty big. But you can't hide from 'em forever. About the best advice I can give you there is to rise up against em when you're confident enough to do it."
He could barely understand some of Jordan's speech, but he understood the word 'thanks' and nodded. He also understood the word 'drink' and chuckled in response. The thylacine man promptly bounded off the partially worn track, worn by his own footprint marks. He dug around in the soft loamy soil for a few moments, digging up a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey.
"Is the Jack a good enough friend for you?" He called back, moving back out into the open, holding the bottle out towards Jordan. "It's not cold, but you certainly won't give a rat's arse about that once you're tanked."
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:38 am
He was reduced to feeling like such an inept retard for being shown how to walk properly like a quad. It was moreso humiliating that he hadn’t even asked for the help. Jordan was becoming more and more stubborn as the days were passing and the changes progressed, but watching Seth walk around more masterfully than himself made him. Jordan was angry for being schooled like a child, even if Seth had become more experienced with such travel on an all-fours position. It was difficult to mask his frustration when trying to manipulate just that one leg. Each of them wanted to move and tuck and that just wouldn’t work. He made the effort to mimic him, looking up at him then back down to his legs to make sure he was doing it right. He could feel that he wasn’t doing it right when the right hindleg, instead of the middle leg, lifted and threw him off-balance. “ohcrapohcrapohcrap…” Jordan sputtered out as his body rocked back and forth, on the verge of teetering over, until the leg was set back down. With a growl of annoyance, he stomped his paws and kicked up dirt like a frustrated child.
He couldn’t hide forever, huh? “Watch meh.” Of course, at the thought of Richard, even the notion of that damn cat coming near him again, his fur frizzed out and he struck an aggressive pose, hunkering his body low to the ground again. With a low growl, Jordan uttered through exposed fangs. “Ef thah fockeen beech comesh neh meh again… Ah’ll rip hew fockeen throat out…” he spat with such malice that surprised even him. “Thah beech hash bon mahkeen mah life total hell! Turned mah friend againsht meh!” he snapped his jaws at the air at the thought of Richard’s corruption leading to Awen’s betrayal. To think she would believe that old fool.. Richard would be the death of them both, puppets in his scheme. “Ah’m not guh-eeng bock! EVAH!”
Jordan was filled with such hatred for Richard and he busied himself when Seth retrieved the liquor by scraping his claws in the dirt. It was a very crude dirt rendering of Richard, but it was definitely that horrible beast. Te stick figure had tentacles waving around like Doctor Octopus and an angry face, completed with devil’s horns on his head. He was putting the devil’s horns in time for Seth to behold the hideous enemy of them both. The drawing wouldn’t last too much longer. It had only served to enrage Jordan like Stephen King’s Cujo. A bit of spittle dribbled down the sides of his face as he growled fiercely at the rendering of pure evil. His left forepaw landed flatly onto the face of the dirt rendering and scraped its claws down, then the other did the same. Back… and forth… until he was literally eviscerating the dirt doodle by digging a hole where it had been. His anger was being channeled into the physical activity. And it felt so good. He must have dug a good four inches before he’d stopped. He was still angry, but that had felt so good as an outlet.
He craned his neck to see that Seth was handing him the bottle. Any liquor was good, so long as it numbed the pain and made him forget for a few hours. Grasping the bottle and holding onto it was another task. He took it carefully, in both paws, as not to loose his grip. The pawpads made gripping the bottle’s surface easier as he set it down onto the ground. Figuring out how he was going to get it from the bottle into him was another thing altogether. He lowered his snout to the bottle head, sensitive nose wrinkling as he sneezed. How the hell was he going to do this? What he wouldn’t do for a cup. Jordan shuddered at the thought of being humiliated by drinking out of a bowl. There seemed to be only one method that would work, as he kept his grip on the bottle and allowed his body to just ker-thud onto its side. He tilted the bottle towards his mouth and gagged with the initial guzzle, sputtering some out, but he worked past that as he nursed the bottle to avoid another flood in his muzzle.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:57 pm
While he was instinctively alarmed at Jordan's behaviour and was backing up in an attempt to gap a safer distance between them, Seth's expression could only be described as very pleased, content, amused. A wide toothy cunning grin dominated his face.
"Oh, I agree with you there, mate." He nodded. "My biggest concern is that when the docs have finished with her, she's going to be a threat to everyone here that isn't superfriend buddy-buddies with her. Like some b***h-arse leader of a stupid clique or something, D'ya know what I mean?" He sighed and ran a paw-hand through his mess of hair. "Or the schoolyard bully, whatever. In any case, once the scientists are done tinkering with her, my guess is that we're pretty much screwed. Especially me, because I already scuffled with her before over territory and lost - if she comes down here and contends with me for it, I'm pretty much a goner. So yeah, something has to be done if we want to continue living. And who else will that bloody cat target? Who knows..."
He watched Jordan draw... something in the dirt, and then he pinned his ears back as he watched the dog-man dig into the ground.
"Hey, save that for later, huh?" He chuckled. "You're gonna need all the energy you can get for when we start that.
He sat down on a rock once Jordan had his drink and put his head down, thinking hard. Something he did quite often in recent months. He idly watched Jordan work out how to drink the liquor with a muzzle, and gave him a nod.
"Well that's one way to do it."
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