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 Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 12:58 pm
She was almost back at her dorm room now, she realized. A faint, familiar hope flickered within her chest. Maybe Clerise would be waiting there this time. She turned the final corner with her usual anticipation, and stopped short. Someone was coming out of the shared room. Someone tall, with a vaguely familiar shape - similar to what RA would have looked like if the hologram had been closer to a human's size, but not quite like RA in all aspects. Cerceris's bright blue eyes scrutinized the figure, trying to determine who it was. She raised her tea to her lips without thinking about it, taking a slow sip. She always thought better with tea.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:23 pm
Clerise stumbled out of their shared dorm, legs not coorperating entirely. She had pestered RA for new clothes, and it wordlessly supplied, almost guilitly so. She shook her head, and hissed. She heard clicking on metallic walls behind her, and she wondered if she dared to turn around.
Clerise had seen herself. She was ugly now. She clenched her teeth, now larger and sharper than before (Clerise had already cut herself several times on the glistening points).
With a deep breath that rattled in her chest with too-many ribs, Clerise turned around.
"Cerceris!" A wave of relief came over her as she stumbled over the Aanida's name. She wanted to run to the girl that was now almost two heads shorter than her.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:37 pm
Cerceris's breath caught in her throat as the figure turned, several emotions battling for dominance. After a brief conflict, relief won out over surprise, bewilderment, and fear - Clerise's voice had brought her back to her senses, though her brain reminded her weakly that it was different than the last time she'd heard it.
Cerceris fairly launched herself at the other girl, reaching her almost before her forgotten tea hit the floor. Six arms wrapped tightly around Clerise with surprising strength for one so small. Blue eyes shut tight, Cerceris buried her face in Clerise's shirt. There were weird smells clinging to the fabric and the skin beneath, but Clerise still smelled like Clerise and all was good.
"Missed you," the Aanida mumbled into the cloth. There was a small part of her mind shouting at her that Clerise was too tall and different in other ways too, but she ignored it completely. Clerise would supply details later, if she wanted to. Right now there was the most important hug in the world, and a little nagging voice was not going to interrupt that.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:09 pm
Clerise felt her good eye tear up, and she wrapped her arms around Cerceris.
"I..." she coughed, and flicked her tongue. "..Changed?" She closed her eyes and clung to the smaller Aanida with her right arm.
"How...long?" she asked, quietly. Was it one day? Three? A month? Her head was swimming with all the possibilities, and all the things that could've gone on without her.
Clerise had been afraid that Cerceris had maybe forgotten her. Or worse, it had been her own fault and she went and killed everyone and that was why whenever she saw Aerin he was crying.
She tried to move her gnarled arm, and whimpered. This sucked. Royally. She wanted to go home, but then realised that this was her home now and wanted to cr-
KILL.
She blinked awkwardly, and shuddered slightly. She hoped that was kept inside her head, clinging to her tighter than before.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:27 pm
Cerceris cuddled into Clerise as the taller girl returned the hug with one arm. A frown passed over her blissful features as Clerise coughed, and she turned her head to put an ear to her chest. Her breathing was sort of raspy, like there were parts there that didn't quite belong. And the shape of her torso was different than maybe it should be. With her new position, Cerceris had a better view of Clerise's injured arm. The frown returned and settled, turning down the corners of the Aanida's mouth as it did.
"You changed," she repeated, more than a hint of worry in her voice. "I didn't think humans grew this fast." She paused at the quiet question, counting briefly in her head. "It's been days. Maybe a week. Classes haven't started yet, or else I've been missing them." Her voice grew softer. "I've been missing you. I was worried." She angled her head to look into the other girl's face at the quiet whimper, eyes bright with concern. "Are you hurt? Where were you, anyway? Your poor arm... are you okay now? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 3:00 pm
Clerise nodded morosely. "We...don.t" She tried breathing deeper, and coughed again. Nope, still can't do that. "They...put me inatank?" She closed her eyes, trying to remember. "I was still on the infirmary bench bed thing but was sorta...in liquidy dark. It was weird."
Clerise looked down at Cerceris, and pulled away to lookat her. "...a week?" She started to slump to the ground. One week, and she had aged...a lot. She even felt older, inside her head.
"I missed you too. I was all alone except for this one voice..." she made a series of clicking sounds, trying to tell its name but she couldn't. She didn't even realise that she wasn't speaking standard anymore.
"NO!" she looked up, eye blazing and already slit pupils going even more narrow. "NO infirmary! I was THERE! And they wouldn't let me...do...anything..." Clerise felt the energy draining from her, and sighed. She rubbed her eyes with her right arm, and bit her lip.
Oh, bother. "Ow!" She wiped at the blood (was it...darker than the normal red? Weird.) that dribbled out of her and slid onto the floor.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 3:38 pm
Cerceris absorbed the information quietly. For whatever reason, it seemed that Clerise had undergone some sort of artificial growth process. The tank would have played a part in that, though the images she had of that sort of thing were incomplete and probably inaccurate. She would ask the library later.
The Aanida reluctantly loosened her grip on Clerise, allowing her to pull away slightly. Her head tilted as her friend stopped speaking a language she knew in favour of a series of clicks that her Feed didn't translate. It seemed like it might have been a name, but she couldn't really tell. An odd sort of name it would have been, too.
Cerceris cringed at the sudden outburst at the mention of the infirmary, drawing her spider legs back instinctively and flinching away from Clerise. For a moment, she was afraid that her friend was going to lash out at her. But then she seemed to sag, rubbing at her eyes as though suddenly very tired. The smaller girl reached out again, gently touching Clerise's side. "Sorry. I didn't know. I thought you might be hurt..." She trailed off as the other girl bit her lip, the frown back on her face as Clerise's new razor teeth sliced through the thin skin of her lip.
You look like you're in pain, but you don't want to go where they can maybe help you. I don't really understand. Cerceris's upper arachnid legs touched Clerise's shoulders gently, comfortingly. "You look tired," she says aloud. "If your species isn't supposed to grow as fast as you have, your body will probably need lots of rest to catch up and make sure everything is working right." At least, that was the vague sort of notion she had about the way bodies worked. You got hurt, you slept for a while and woke up feeling at least a little better, usually with things on their way to healing. "I'll stay with you," she added quietly. "Or I could get you some food, maybe, if you want." She had been somewhat alarmed by the cook's blindingly sunny disposition on their one brief meeting, and had actually fled after a stammered apology for the interruption, but she was fairly certain that she could keep her cool under these new circumstances. Of course, she would prefer to stay with Clerise and never ever ever leave her side again, but necessities could be dealt with as they arose.
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 4:14 pm
Clerise winced when she saw Cerceris flinch. "I...don't want to hurt you," more clicks made with her teeth, but in a different pattern than before. "I can't control my own...limbs now. It sucks." she rubbed her left arm, blackened skin less sensitive than before.
"Sleep sounds niiiicee now..." She leaned into Cerceris' touch and let her eyelids droop. "Food is good..." she half mumbles. She flicks a split ear. It felt like RA but not really RA but if it wasn't this RA was it that RA? Was she that RA? Was she all different and strange because of someone not the AI but the other but oh no whatabout..."Dorm? I dunno how much I can...stay together?"
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 3:16 am
Cerceris reached up to touch Clerise's face in a comforting gesture as she leaned into her, slipping in under her good arm to support her weight. The other girl was definitely exhausted, evidently unable to concentrate enough to translate the odd clicking sounds she kept making with her teeth. The Aanida wrapped an arm around her friend, deeply concerned. You can't control your body, which probably means that you haven't adjusted to the new... additions, she watched Clerise rub her blackened arm, and if you won't visit the infirmary then the best thing I can do for you is get you to rest.
"Sleep does sound nice," she agreed. "Food is good too, but it can wait until you've woken up." She took a few steps toward the door of their shared room, sending her ID out to it. Clerise's legs were much longer than they had been before, and she didn't want her plowing into the closed door because she wasn't used to them yet. At the mention of staying together, Cerceris cast an alarmed look at Clerise's blackened arm, and a passing glance at what might have been a wing on her back. If you're going to fall all apart, you aren't going to be able to keep me from hauling you back to the infirmary whether you like it or not. "I'll stay together with you," she murmured. "I'll help you if I can." It isn't just your body that's all mixed up, is it? Oh, I hope you're going to be okay.
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:46 pm
Clerise nodded sleepily, and gratefully accepted the enormous strength of the aanida girl. Built like ants...."Not...gonna fal...kss siisss ckeleekee." she mumbled, and hoped desperately that Cerceris understood. "I'm...Am...okay. RA said so." hoping this would coax Cerceris into thinking she was okay. Cuz...RA did say so.
She failed however, to specify which one.
Clerise desperately hoped she made the bed as she flumped forward, and fell into darkness again.
[ end Clerise ]
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:55 am
Cerceris did her best to guide Clerise through the door into their dormitory room, one arm and two spider legs keeping a firm but gentle guiding hold on her. She smiled weakly at Clerise's reassurances. There was a sort of pattern to the clicks that was becoming apparent to her, though she couldn't work it out into a language just yet. I'm very happy that you aren't going to fall apart, but I'm not so sure you're okay like you say you are. RA didn't say you were okay when I talked to it a while ago, though. It didn't say anything, really, but I think it would have told me if you were okay. And you don't look okay. You aren't breathing right, and you bit yourself, and that poor arm of yours... I wouldn't call that okay.
Cerceris was halfway to Clerise's bed when the other girl pitched forward, evidently unconscious. Being this exhausted doesn't make you seem very okay either, she added to herself as she moved to catch her, now using all six of her available arms to support her friend. She manoeuvered the unconscious girl clumsily over to her bed, unused to moving both herself and another person. It was no exercise in grace, but she didn't run into anything either. The Aanida gently laid Clerise down on the bed, arranging her in a position she estimated would be comfortable for her. Her blackened arm lay beside her, stretching away from her body - it didn't look too good, and it had seemed to be bothering her before. Best to leave it aside. Her vestigial wing (it didn't look capable of flight) was folded gently to one side, with as little weight on it as possible. New appendages should be treated gently, as far as Cerceris was concerned.
Once Clerise was in something that looked like a comfortable position, Cerceris slipped into the small space beside her and lay there listening to her friend's breathing, two spider legs arching protectively over her form.
[end RP]
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