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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:05 pm
Name: Cassidy Nevada Smith Age: 25 Height: ... hard to say? Eyes: Golden and slitted, with no eyelids Hair: Gone! Distinguishing Marks: Being a snake. With wings. Former Occupation: Grocery store clerk Likes: Science fiction, swing music, swimming Dislikes: Snakes, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies, heights, deep water, rap music Personality: Honest, sometimes brutally so; fearful and avoidant; friendly enough but socially awkward.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:07 pm
 Cassidy had an average childhood in an average small Canadian town with a population of about five thousand: Vanderhoof, British Columbia. She was the eldest of two kids, the daughter of a millwright and a lab technician. She had few close friends growing up, but was unbothered by this. After high school, she went to university to become a registered nurse. Despite enjoying the material, she flunked out, and proceeded to get a series of low-paying, entry-level jobs. She has worked as a waitress, a dishwasher, and a fast food "cook", among others. She'd been working in a grocery store when she saw a job ad for a housekeeper at an island resort that would soon be opening. Fed up with her current job, and relishing the idea of starting over in an exotic location, Cassidy applied, hoping for the best. Name: Cassidy Nevada Smith Age: 24 Original Height: 5'11" Original Eyes: Blue Original Hair: Blonde, long, worn in braid Original Distinguishing Marks: Freckles, prominent nose Amaya: This poor kid's turning into some sort of lizard. D: As far along as Cass, now, and rather depressed about it. Ambrose: One of the first people Cass met, and the first one she saw after changing. Seems to be turning into a wolf... but is still very nice, despite that. Angelina: Don't really know her too well, but we're working on that. She's going to marry Ambrose, and promised to help Cass with this pet snake thing. Antony: Cass adores her tattoos. Liked her. Bobby: She's a mom. She has kids, and she's here, and now she's stuck! That's awful. Chana: Haven't seen her for a while, but Cass said hello and nearly made her faint. sad Seems very religious, too. Cody: This kid can't be any more than ten. He's wonderfully unafraid of Cass, though he doesn't like rodents (she can't really blame him). The Dude: This guy's crazy, but great anyway. Where'd he go? Emelyn: What a wonderful person. <3 She's gone off to live in the wild, though. As she tells Cass, it seems the lockdown was intentional, a part of the experiment. Well, s**t. But Cass is going to bring her new clothes. Father Stewart: A priest?! He thought Cass was a leper. Greer: Cass's upstairs neighbour! She keeps bugs (ew) but is nice despite that. She's very... feathery and birdlike, and doesn't really have hands anymore. This does not bode well. Hargun: Another poor kid. :/ Jamal: So, THIS is the infamous Jamal. He doesn't seem so bad. He didn't really attack Emelyn and Aubrey, did he? Cass figures she's at least as scary as he is, though the difference is that she tries not to be. Maryke: Nice, good-looking woman. Seems to be taking it all in stride. Joliette: Hardly know her, but she's another reptile. Kim: Cass is of the opinion that Kim may be another hybrid. Cold-blooded, at the least, anyway. Newt: A janitor. Cass scared him very badly, too. He's employed by Feral Labs, but for whatever reason, they're turning him into something, well, green. Cass witnessed his change and helped him back to his duplex. Nita: Cute, freckled red-head. Apparently has a knowledge of mythology, since she picked Cass out as Quetzalcoatl. Also apparently a lesbian, involved with some Lauren person. She was very helpful during Cass's last transformation. Cass should send flowers or something. Pyroth: Don't know him very well. Very hairy. Thom: Cass has got to do something about this freaking the hell out of people when she meets them. ;_; Thom plays football, not soccer. He also appears to be turning into a snake as well. YIKES. He's going through all the same sort of issues she had to deal with... maybe he'll be luckier than her? Valentine: What a good-looking woman. Apparently completely comfortable with her body, since she stripped down to her underwear in front of Cass with hardly a thought. Vasile: Cass rather hated him at first, or at least was terribly frustrated with his insistence that her scales were fake and she was pretending, but somehow they managed to not kill each other and were seeing each other. At least until he decided he was gay. WTF. Zach: Duvert's got him turning into a dragon? The guy is obviously insane. Zach, on the other hand, seems to be a pretty good guy.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:08 pm
Cassidy came expecting a job. She brought with her: -Clothes, semi-formal and casual, various -Swimsuit, one-piece, black -Toiletries, various -Stationary, assorted -MP3 player, full -Extra batteries She also brought a baker's dozen of paperback SF novels: - Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov - The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury - The Color of Distance, Amy Thomson - Dragon's Egg, Robert L. Forward - The Worthing Saga, Orson Scott Card - A Paradigm of Earth, Candas Jane Dorsey - Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis - Perelandra, C. S. Lewis - West of January, Dave Duncan - Dinosaur Summer, Greg Bear - Jupiter, Ben Bova - Titan, Wizard, and Demon, John Varley - The Chrysalids, John Wyndham Of course, she has since received a large box of other novels from the administration. Lots of Asimov and such. It is very good.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:10 pm
Monday, August 22: Blissfully unaware of what is to come, Cassidy arrives on the island. She's given an injection, to "immunize her against tropical diseases," and shown to her room. She has a night of very strange dreams. Monday, September 12: Cassidy is injected during the night; upon awakening, she grows bright green scales on her face, shoulders, arms, and feet. Her tongue forks (she can smell with it, a little) and her eyes become golden-brown and slitted. Her teeth are now pointed, and she's also lost most of her body hair. She's also much more sensitive to temperature; she tends to become sluggish in the cold and more active in the heat. Wednesday, October 19: After getting her third injection, Cassidy grows mores scales and the beginnings of a tail, and her ankles fuse into her leg bones--effectively, she has no feet. Walking is impossible. Oh dear. Her nose is quite flattened now, and she's developed the beginnings of heat-sensing pits. She's also grown some brightly-coloured... feathers? Just what is she turning into? (Confirmed later as Green Tree Python with Scarlet Macaw wings.) Friday, March 17: After a rather nice night with Vasile (her second time, yay), Cass awakes from a dream about eating Vasile's dog to discover her hair falling out in clumps. She grows feathers from her arms, her body and tail elongate, and her legs reduce. She loses her eyelids, and her jaw is now dislocateable on command, to facilitate swallowing of prey whole. Except... she couldn't really do that. Could she? Saturday, August 19: Not feeling terribly well, Cass goes down to the beach for a nap, and wakes up blind and suffering from the effects of her last injection, given during the night, taking effect. Her legs are gone at last, the last of her hair is gone, her fingers and thumbs disappear into a pair of brand new wings, and after she sheds her skin and looks herself over, discovers she's really... just a big snake, and that's how she'll have to live out the rest of her life. ART The green tree python, or Morelia viridis, is native to New Guinea and Northern Australia, and generally grows to be about 2m long. It is an arboreal snake, living in tree-tops; young are golden-yellow or brick red, common flower colours. Adults are usually green, often flecked with blue, yellow, and/or white markings. Adapted for live in the trees, green tree pythons have a prehensile tail and. They also, as all pythons, have well-developed heat sensing pits around their mouth and nose for detecting prey. Generally, they feed upon small lizards, mammals, and birds, and often can be observed dangling the end of their prehensile tail and wiggling it to attract curious animals. They are constrictors, and have very large and pronounced fangs to help grasp their prey. Green tree pythons have an unusal resting position, in which they coil themselves saddle-like over a branch, with their head in the middle. They are solitary, as most snakes are, and primarily nocturnal. Green tree pythons are also a prime example of convergent evolution; they bear a startling similarity in appearance and habit to an unrelated species, the emerald tree boa. Examples: http://hem.passagen.se/uma1/8. Green Tree Python (Morelia viridis).jpg http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/tezmitch/images/green120.jpg http://www.kingsnake.com/viridis/winslow1.jpg http://www.whozoo.org/Intro98/jennglaz/GreenTreeHeadVG_112003_111C.JPG http://www.ryanphotographic.com/images/JPEGS/Chondropython viridis.jpg
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:43 pm
Its a hot swealtering day on the island (as most of them are). Waiting at the helipad is a tall woman wearing a business suit and holding a clipboard. Her brown, frizzy hair is pulled back and mostly stuffed under a grey beret. She leans her hip against a jeep and she waves enthusiastically at the helicopter as it lands.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:49 pm
Cassidy crawls clumsily out of the helicopter, lugging a large suitcase and with another large pack on her back. She seems tired, from the trip and from surviving on vending machine food for the last while. Still, once out of the 'copter, she puts on a bright, if exhausted, smile, and peers around blankly.
What was she doing?
Spying the woman, Cassidy heads over in that direction. "Excuse me? I'm Cassidy Smith."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:53 pm
"Hello there, Ms. Smith!" the woman says cheerfully, holding out her hand. "My name is Doctor Aubrey Lockheart, but you can call me Aubrey! Welcome to the Island!" She shook the woman's hand and then reached for the large suitcase. "Oh, allow me, please!"
Aubrey hefted the suitcase into the back of the jeep and held the door open for the young woman. "How was the flight, you look tired."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:00 pm
"Long. But not bad." Cassidy gladly lets Aubrey take the suitcase, and flops into the jeep. "I can't believe I'm really here. This is unreal."
Even if this turned out to be the worst job in the world, being here would probably negate all of that.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:05 pm
"Oh?" Aubrey tilted her head a bit. Excited abuot housekeeping and medical studies? "Well, thats good, then!" Hey, not that her being excited was a bad thing. After all, she was excited abuot being here. "It certainly is a beautiful island. Why, you can even think of it as vacation of sorts. We have beaches and waterfalls... its just lovely!" Aubrey piled into the drivers seat and headed down the dirt road. "First stop is to the Lobby, of course. So you can meet Dr. Moreau."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:40 pm
Cassidy tried to run this new name through her memory. "He's the hotel director, right?" Oh man. She tried to swallow a lump of nervousness in her throat. Easy, girl, she told herself. You have the job. That's what they told you. They wouldn't have brought you all the way out here just to tell you that you don't have the job.
This was only minimally reassuring.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:05 pm
Aubrey did her best to surpress a laugh. Wow, a lot of these people must have not read their letter right. "No no no, he's the owner of the island. But I'm sure, uh, we can use your services of course. Moreau doesn't like to do his own laundry, I know that much at least. I've been doing it for the last couple of weeks!" Aubrey gave a charming laugh and pulled out some clip on shades from the visor and attatched them to her glasses.
"You have such a fair complexion, I hope you brought sunscreen."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:18 pm
"Oh." Damn. Too many names to remember. She'd get this sooner or later. "Sunscreen? You better believe I did. SPF 30, great big bottle."
Wait. Something was not right.
What Aubrey was saying didn't seem to mesh right with what she'd been told. Cassidy bit her lip. She probably misunderstood something. That had to be it.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:23 pm
"Oh, well that's good! Its so lovely 'round here."
As the Jeep pulled around the corner, a large, spawling reseach complex began to come into view, the huge "Feral Laboratories" logo painted on the side. "We'll be stopping here first, to meet the doctor. Then afterwards I'll take you to your housing. Your housemate is sweetest girl, Greer. I'm sure you two will be great friends."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:41 pm
"Can't wait to meet her." Cassidy tilted her head as she got out of the jeep. "Feral... laboratories? What is this?"
Alarm bells were beginning go off in her head. No one'd had said anything to her about a lab. She was sure about that.
Maybe it was routine. She hoped it was routine.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:44 pm
"Feral Labs? Why, they're the people paying your check of course."
As the Jeep pulled closer, a small...er, city appeared farther down the moutain. It looks liked a cross between a planned neighboorhood and a college campus, a few larger buildings around a center courtyard like-area, then several rows of townhouses.
Aubrey pulled up close to the biggest building in the laboratory complex and stepped out of the car.
"You can leave your bags here, I'll be taking you to your room later." Aubrey held the door open for Cassidy, motioning towards the large glass (handleless) doors in front of her.
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