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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:02 pm
Kaveri didn't know how long she was walking. She just picked a random direction and started going, anything the could to get away from that awful scene. But no matter where her feet took her, she still carried the scent of blood - not only was there still some on her chin and neck, but it was caked on her shoes with the mud. She seemed to be going deeper into the jungle... at least it wasn't the village. While it was easier for her to get lost in the jungle, it would be harder for any lab staff to find her.
But there she was, wracked with guilt and immeasurable fear for her very existance. What if it wasn't her, what if she was framed? But then... who could have done it? And why would they choose her? Was it because she was new? She shook her head, fighting back tears as she stepped into a particularly green and mossy part of the jungle, a place where a log had fallen some time ago. The taste of blood was still in her mouth, she couldn't get rid of it.
She sat down on the moss-coated log, letting her neck droop as she folded her hands in her lap. She stunk and she wanted to get it off of her.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:12 pm
The trees usually held a certain security for Cassidy, if nothing else, but today... not so much.
She had finally decided to descend, her motions slow and careful. She was soaking wet, and as such was having difficulty grasping the branches (this, in addition to certain... conditions that she was afflicted with today), but she managed, somehow. As she made her way down, she was aware of the smell of... of...
... what was that?
Cassidy looked down, her tongue flickering. A stranger, though obviously she had been there a while--what sort of animal had a neck like that?!
"Er. You all right?" Cass slithered down from the tree, and coiled some distance away; a large bulge in what could be called her abdomen was clearly visible, the scaly skin stretched taut like a pregnant woman's belly. That was, indeed, what it looked like. Her tongue flickered again.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:12 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:22 pm
Great, just great. The vulture woman looked up at the two new voices, jumping with startlement as her silver-grey eyes widened in fear. She started scooting backwards, catching herself just moments before she fell off the log. She looked between the serpent and... no, no, that's not Ambrose, this wolf-man is someone else. She held up her malformed, crooked hands defensively, curving her neck back and splaying her claws out. She didn't expect anyone to find her... but no, two new animal-people coming out of the woodwork - predators likely lured to the scent that she carried with her like a red flag.
"Who are you people?" Kaveri called out nervously, her hands still held out. She probably wouldn't stand a chance if either of them decided to attack her or something, but the talons offered a very slight feeling of assurance and safety. "I'm fine. Leave me alone..."
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:34 pm
"I'm sorry," Cassidy said automatically; she drew back a little. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I was... I was just up there... I'm Cassidy." Her tongue flickered again. That smell was... oh. She knew that smell. It had taken a minute to sink in, but she knew it, sure enough.
She gave Pyroth a small wave. It had been a while since she'd seen him; she wasn't even sure if he'd seen her like this. He'd certainly been less hairy last time. "My god. My god, you're hurt!" she exclaimed.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:41 pm
Pyroth stepped back instinctually from Kaveri as she panicked, not wanting to intimidate too much. Besides, added the coyote, in this state, those talons would take him out easy. He flicked back his ears appleasingly, not wanting conflict, not right now.
"Sorry." he said, following on from Cassidy's comment, his eyes on the ground. Wait, Cassidy? He looked up, surprised by the extent to which she had changed, but it passed quickly, they had all changed, hadn't they?
"I'm Pyroth." he muttered, feeling more light headed than he had in a while, his stomach rebelling on top of it all. He had zoned out so much that he only vaguely heard Cassidy's exclaimation. He looked up.
"Huh? What?" he looked down at his shoulder "Yeah. Hell if I know what happened though." He wanted to be indoors again, dry, stitched up and aware of what the hell was going on, not queasy and confused.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:52 pm
Kaveri breathed a small sigh of relief. Okay, it seemed she wasn't going to get eaten... at least for now. After this entire mess, she just didn't want to be around anyone, though -- but if her scent alone could bring two people towards her within such a short time of wandering, it would be impossible to travel the jungle completely alone.
She had idly wondered how far she had walked away from the place where Aubrey's body was found -- there seemed to be much more blood there than on Kaveri herself, but the scent could have been thinned by the dirt and rain. But still...
"I'm Kaveri," she said slowly, lowering her clawed hands and slouching over, saying nothing else for the time being. Taking a paranoid glance over her shoulders, she wondered if there were any cameras here, too. She wanted to keep moving in the vain hope that nobody would see her whereabouts and come out on the jeep to catch her, but she felt so weak.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:57 pm
Cass shifted in her coils, slightly. The movement was awkward, due to the stomach bulge; you finally start to get used to the way you had to move, and things went and changed on you! She ran a hand along the side of her head, as one with a headache might, her scraggly hair dripping.
"You're both all... well. Bloody," she stated, rather uselessly, and looked curiously at Kaveri. "Are you hurt too? I don't even have anything to rip up for bandages..." She shook her head.
There was no appeal for her in the scent of blood. It simply was, but it was strong, between the two of them.
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:04 pm
Pyroth eyed Kaveri with apparent interest as he pulled his thoughts together, how had she gotten blood on her too? Or was that just his nose getting confused? He couldn't tell. Cassidy didn't have blood on her though, and he missed out on the stomach bulge completely, not sure if it was part of her recent transformation or something else.
Had he been in better health the smell of blood would have been enticing to Pyroth, at the moment though it just made him want to retch and go have a bath. He finally spoke up "If you need a makeshift bandage I have a few inches of these trousers I don't need." he looked slightly bleary, tired and his tone reflected it. "I think I'll need stitches though."
He turned his gaze back onto Kaveri, deciding to bite the bullet and just ask.
"What happened to you anyway?"
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:15 pm
Kaveri choked. She had hoped nobody would have asked. Shrinking into place, her neck folds itself uncomfortably as she started thinking about what to say. "I'm fine," she said, her voice cracking. "I'm not hurt at all."
She looked at her hands, wiggling her fingers. "I'm still not sure what happened," she said, looking up with frightful eyes. "My last memory was that I was in my duplex, taking a shower... then I woke up in the middle of nowhere... I don't know where I am, which way is home." She fails to mention the body. She doesn't want to think about that anymore, it's only serving as a reminder of her inevitable doom.
She couldn't come up with a good explanation for the blood. "And I just woke up like this, all dirty and covered in... well, blood." She looked towards Pyroth, noting his matted bloody fur. Although he probably hadn't awoke beside a body, she wondered if something similar had happened to him, too. "What happened to your arm?"
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:26 pm
"Er. We're not locked out again, are we?" Cass hadn't even considered the possibility until now, but given what had happened last time in similar circumstances... "I went to bed. Everything was fine. Ugh. And why am I so wet?" She gave her arms a shake, the damp feathers sprinkling water every which way. "The staff's tricks are getting... more unpleasant all the time."
She shifted again. Was this what it was like to be pregnant? That was for the birds, definitely. "Well, I'm glad you're not hurt, anyway," she told Kaveri. "It's been..." Cass shook herself again, her lidless eyes rather glazed looking. "A while since I did that sort of thing."
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:36 pm
Pyroth, despite his mental fuzziness was still pretty decent at reading body language but it didn't take an idiot to see that something had unnerved the woman. He frowned as she recounted what had gone on, it wasn't so different from what he had experienced really, only, it seemed that she was unharmed.
As for him, he almost panicked, what could he say? He decided only to mention one of his suspicions, trying as he did so not to sound embarrassed at his day to day habits.
"I was...hunting I think. Not sure but I think a boar did it, possibly some of this blood is from the boar, certainly smells like it and I know what boar blood smells like. I went to bed and ended up hunting, it doesn't make /sense/."
Still, he had no idea why he was soaked to the skin, it hadn't been raining, had it? He glanced at Cassidy and raised a brow
"You don't remember it raining either?"
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:49 pm
"A lockout?" Kaveri parroted, "Jamal had told me about that once. I didn't think they'd do it again..." And she was pretty sure that the last lockout didn't involve waking up next to dead staff members.
She had been curious about Cass's odd stomach bulge. Was she pregnant, or did she just eat something and swallow it whole? She looked like a snake, after all. A snake... with feathered arms. How confusing.
"I guess boars can do that, I've never run into one, myself," she said in response to Pyroth. "I can tear off the bottom of my shirt if you need any more bandages for that... here." She lifted up her hoodie to tug out the white fabric of the shirt she was wearing, attempting to rip it.
"I wasn't even aware of a storm or rain, myself... well, aside from the water that was coming from my showerhead, but that hardly counts." She shook her head. "Nothing's making any ******** sense here."
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:01 pm
"Rain?" Cass tilted her head. "I don't remember any rain. I don't remember anything much." She looked quizzically down at her bulge. Maybe she'd been out of it for months and months and... she was carrying Vasile's lovechild.
Ahah, no.
She'd be a lot hungrier if that were the case, she was sure. Besides, didn't snakes lay eggs?
"But rain would make sense. How could I be out here and not notice being rained on?" She rubbed her temples. "I don't... like this."
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:11 pm
Pyroth nodded, last time there was a lockout, he'd tried to hunt down Emerwyn like an animal, a memory he didn't want to recall if he could avoid it, but at least at the time he'd known what he was doing. How could a time period have been simply removed from his powers of recollection? It scared him more than anything.
"I didn't think they'd do it again either, I hope they haven't, I don't want to end up out with blood loss or with a severe infection." he gave Kaveri a weak grin, honestly grateful "Thanks, this stuff's soaked right through."
He shivered, colder than he had been in ages. "Speaking of soaked, I need to get back to my duplex, see if it's open, I need to dry off. I know my way around the jungle, I hunt here almost every day. The villiage is due that way from here." he pointed with a bloody paw.
"You both want to come with me? See if it really /is/ a lockdown or just a severe ********>
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