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 Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:19 pm
(A little while earlier...)
Liamh groaned and stretched. He'd been sitting at the computer for hours, doing... a whole lot of nothing. There were only so many games of Reversi, Alchemy, and Bejeweled even he could stand. Without the internet, it left him feeling disconnected and wanting more.... no mail, no chatting, no funny YouTube videos, no webcomics, no message boards... not even wikipedia. He knew now how a goldfish must feel, swimming around in the same stale water for days. He needed something fresh!
He pushed his chair back from the little table and glanced around. After several days of mostly keeping to his duplex, running briefly to the Caf for packaged foods, and general lack of upkeep, the duplex was pretty thrashed. Clothes on the bed, clothes on the floor, wrappers and boxes on the table and any other flat surface. His Chewbacca action figure had committed suicide head first into a box of fried rice leftovers.
He shook his head. Definitely time for.... freshening up. He went back to the computer, plugging his ipod in and turning up the laptop volume as high as it would go. With a quick scan through his music volumes, he set it to 'Cleaning Tunes'.
With a sudden blast of what sounded like 1970's dance music, he struck a pose, then dove into a whirlwind of laundry-flinging and garbage-piling, while lip sync-ing enthusiastically.
While the lack of bass didn't shake the floor and walls of the duplex, the loud noise certainly had a way of travelling...
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:53 pm
The last week or so had been hell for Seth. After his transformation, he spent most of his time locked away in his duplex and horizontal on his bed, recovering from the aches and pains in his body that had bothered him after the tranformation process. He found himself not motivated in doing anything as of recent and because there was not much for him to do anyway, he hadn't really cared enough to go outside and explore any more.
He had taken Tommy's suggestion to look in the mirror - immediately disliking what he had seen. It would take some getting used to. He had never been paticularly interesting to look at in the first place and cared little about his appearance, but in recent times he found himself being very concious of his overall appearance now. He figured he could still pass as a human though, if he stuffed his hands into his pockets and wore bigger shoes.
"Damn that stupid doctor..." He muttered to himself. The transformation hadn't discouraged him any, in fact it made him even more motivated in trying to plot a way off the island. But without his laptop to write up his thoughts on, he hadn't recorded anything useful recently.
The man slumped down on his bed, idly staring out the window. It was sunny outside, but Seth couldn't have cared much. The time of day had become even more meaningless than it was when he still worked as a freelance Network Engineer, if that were possible.
He relaxed out on his back and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep - not for very long however. Just as he had managed to drift off to sleep, he was woken in an abrupt manner by a sudden loud noise above him. His sensitive hearing picked it up easily and he woke up in an instant. His attention turned upwards to the roof and he narrowed his eyes.
"What the bloody hell is that...?" He grumbled to himself. It sounded like music, or at least the beat of music. The melody wasn't carrying through the floorboards. Seth rose to his feet and headed outside in bare feet, forgetting to place any shoes on in his haste. He bounded up the stairs to the upper duplex with relative ease, faster than he otherwise normally would have.
Once he had reached the top of the stairs, he banged his fist on the door in a mild aggressive manner, grumpy with being woken up. He intended to give this loud music player a piece of his mind.
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:29 pm
There were sounds of stomping and a faint crash, mostly masked by the bright, brassy music pumping behind the door. Most likely his knocking had gone unheard in the torrent of noise going on in the other room.
Liamh, making good headway in the disaster area, had gotten almost all the food packages into a couple of sacks to take out to the trash. The laundry was another matter... it involved the sniffing and sorting of each item into 'dirty' and 'dirty but wearable' - clean itself had been long forgotten in the triage.
Grooving to the beat, he danced past the window with an armload of underwear to dump into a makeshift suitcase laundry-hamper.
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:52 pm
Seth put his ear to the door. He could hear somebody moving around in there over the loud musical racket that was playing. At least he could hear more of the music aside from the beat now. But that still didn't make him any happier.
He raised his arm again, banging on the door louder than before this time.
"Hello in there?" He called out, the annoyance in his voice apparent. "Shut that bloody racket up!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:18 pm
The sound of thumping and a muffled voice cut in through the upbeat J-pop track that was blasting out of the laptop, garbled but coming from close by...
Liamh paused, dumping his unmentionables into the suitcase and glancing around. He didn't remember that being on the track... he walked over to the window and peered out onto the front 'porch'.
Someone was definitely out there. He moved to the door and swung it open a ways, the music still going on loudly in the background. He grinned and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "HI! WHAT"S - er, what's up?" he smiled. Nothing like a good cleaning to get the blood pumping.
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:54 pm
Seth stepped back from the door as his upstairs neighbour opened it. But Liamh's smile did nothing to calm his annoyance. He was more sour-tempered than he really should have been under the current circumstances, but he was tired, his jaw still ached, and being woken up had done nothing to lighten his mood.
"What kind of racket are you playing?" He grumbled. "I live in the duplex below you and the base from your music was just eating through the floorboards..."
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:26 am
"Oh, this?" Liamh gestured behind him. "Just some Abba and L'arc En Ciel..." he glanced over at the laptop, then back at his neighbor. "Wow, the speakers must be better than i thought. Sweet." he stopped and scratched his head. "Oh, right, i'm sorry - i'll turn it down. I guess i figured since it was the middle of the day...." He smiled apologetically. He moved over and leaned to turn down the volume to a much lower setting.
Glancing over the other man, he noted some... slight oddness in his features... but nothing he could put his finger on immediately. He must have started changing into some kind of beast already... Liamh swallowed. He held out a hand determinedly. "I'm Liamh. I guess we're neighbors then? I'm not so good at going around introducing myself, guess i shoulda brought a jello mold or whatever. Fruit basket."
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:45 am
Seth seemed a little less annoyed once the music was turned down. He eyed the laptop when Liamh touched it, immediately curious to know more about the device. So interested in it was he, that he did not notice the fact that Liamh was watching him, taking in the way he looked.
When he stuck his hand out to shake Seth's hand, he took it in his own clawed hand, seeming calm once more.
"Yeah, seems like we're neighbours then," He nodded. "You don't have to give me anything, I just swipe whatever's needed from the cafeteria." He managed a lopsided grin. "And don't worry about playing music during the day normally. I was just trying to sleep, that's all. I don't care if you play it at night either, heck, I'm practically nocturnal myself. Or at least I was before my laptop died. Nowadays I'm just bored."
He glanced past Liamh and into his duplex. "Heh, looks to be the same layout as mine..." He frowned slightly, noting Liamh was still quite normal looking. "So um, how much of the island do you know about so far? Did anyone fill you in on the details?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 1:52 am
He clasped Seth's hand warmly, feeling rather strange about shaking the man-paw. Now there was certainly something he could put a finger on. "Good to know... and, just bang on the ceiling or something if you're trying to sleep - better yet, page me on the intercom thingie, in case of bass..." he chuckled.
At the mention of Seth's machine, he stopped and blinked. "Your laptop died?" His eyebrows bounced. "Can you fix it, or get the labs to.... eh, well, i'm not sure i'd wanna send it to them, they'd either get their hands in places they shouldn't go, or you'd never see it again; i'd bank on the latter. I'm just glad mine's held up with the humidity... But if you ever hear a tortured soul screaming 'Claaaiiire!' in the middle of the night," he gestured with both hands, grinning, "You'll know what's happened. There will be a funeral and hired mourners."
"Yeah, i think the duplex rooms are all about the same..." Liamh leaned against a chair as Seth looked around. "The island? Eh. I know the story. Don't worry 'bout that.... Though i admit, i had a rather confusing night before they broke down and told me." he shook his head with a wry grin.
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:48 am
"Bang on the ceiling? Unlikely." Seth grinned. "You didn't hear me knocking on the door over the noise just now, what makes you think you'd hear a muffled knock through the floorboards with that racket?" He grinned. "I doubt you'd hear the intercom either. But I didn't think of that. Good idea - will have to try it some time."
He nodded, looking a little sad at the mention of his laptop. "Yeah, my old faithful Compaq friend died. It didn't burn out, but... I kinda dropped it. Then I stepped on the screen." He looked rather sheepish upon admitting this. "I'd call up the labs and ask for another one, but I don't want them to send me an iBook or any other stupid Apple product. But my word, do I need another one... at least I can salvage the hard drive and ram out of what's left of mine though."
"Yeah, humidity does no good for them." He chuckled at Liamh's comment about burying his laptop. "It would be a sad day indeed if yours died. My laptop didn't have a name. It was a Compaq Presario, that was about the only name it had."
"They told you about it then?" He looked curiously interested. "Who broke the news to you?" He glanced down at his claws and thrust his hands into his pockets. "I still don't want to believe it. There has to be some way off this prisoner island though."
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Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:44 am
"Dropped it?" Liamh blinked in surprise. "Stepped on the... Oh crap in a hat. I mean, there's time when i've WANTED to do that... but come on, man! That's downright uncivilized." he laughed darkly. "I'd almost wish one of those iFruit things on you just for that." He shook his head, biting the laughter back. "I"m... heh... i'm sorry to hear about it, though. Mabe if you requested another Compaq..."
He turned and glanced at his own computer. "Heh. I've found that the only computers that have given me much trouble over the years are the ones i haven't named, funny as it may sound. So it's kind of a preventative measure. Claire here's been an angel.... a slightly bitchy flaming-sword-wielding angel at times, but don't let her hear that."
He nodded as Seth questioned him. "Eh, two guys, Marshall and Gaius, they're pretty cool. Once they figured out that i had kinda the wrong idea bout the place, they let me know... dang, i was pretty dense. But you just don't expect this sort of thing, do you..."
Folding his arms, he wrinkled up his nose and one side of his face. "Oh, I'm sure there's ways off.... just none anyone wants to try. Even Alcatraz had escapes, but.... no one knows if the sharks got 'em, or if they just never showed their faces again..."
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:56 am
"Hey! I didn't mean to step on my laptop!!" Seth quickly responded, flustered. "Bah, I'd rather NO computer than a mac though... God I hate iMacs so much, I could go on all day about their problems, stupid pieces of crap they are. I hate them so much that I bought a Creative brand MP3 player just so Apple wouldn't get my hard earned cash for their worthless products - iPods are overrated anyway. Sorry if you own one, but..." He shrugged.
"What kinda computer is 'Claire' anyway?" Seth wondered. He had to admit that he felt strange calling the computer by a name, but if it worked as an identifier, he would use it. "It looks decent enough... what's it's specs?"
"I was dense too when I was told about the island. I didn't wanna believe it myself, hell no." Seth grumbled, peering into the room. "And now look at me - my shoes don't fit, I have claws on the ends of my fingers, and a stupid little tail growing out of the area above my arse." He snorted. "Lucky me huh? Once you're here a while you'll probably start to change too... as horrid as that sounds."
He spoke the last part in a low voice. "I am planning a way to get off here though, if you'd be interested. Sure yeah, there's probably sharks out in the water. But what I'm thinking of would involve getting out of here by air, using that helicopter we all came in on. We just have to overpower that bloody pilot first..."
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:27 am
Liamh nodded along. "Yeah, i've got an ipod," he grinned. "I admit, i got sucked in. Can't give it up now, it's a terrible thing. Ah, if only i knew how to quit you..." he smirked. "But yeah, anyway."
He glanced back at the screen behind him, cycling away with the music on pause. "Claire's an IBM, the Thinkpad. I've been happy with it. Gets the job done, though i've been thinking of upgrading..." he shrugged. "But i'll probably wait a bit longer, at least until..." he trailed off, coming to the realization again that he was quite cut off from that world. He shook his head. "T43, getting a little older now. I've been eyeing the T60."
Liamh scrunched half his face up as Seth spoke of the changes. "Yeah, I"m... i'm sorry, man. I mean, you don't look so bad now, though? Guess it'll just get worse." he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I keep thinking of asking what's going to happen to me, but... i just don't want to know, yet. Not yet... I've had my finger on the intercom button, but i don't wanna hear it."
"The pilot?" Liamh leaned forward conspiratorially. "Silent Jim, the big black guy? I dunno, i guess if we had a bunch of us... how would we know when he was coming and going? And what about the guards?" his heartrate and his mood were picking up a bit now. If there was some sort of plan, some way this could work...
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:04 pm
A broad grin made it's way across Seth's face as Liamh mentioned a plan. He leaned closer and spoke in a low tone, seeming quite happy.
"Oh, I'm working on that as we speak..." He began. "I don't know how to overpower the pilot or guards exactly, but if there were a lot of us and we could disable them somehow..." He trailed off, pondering. "Car battery acid would do it... severe damage at that. If it was put into some ordinary plant spray bottles and sprayed into the eyes of the guards and the helicopter pilot, we could easily get by them. But how to acquire it in the first place... and then what? I don't know how to fly a helicopter." He sighed. "But oh man, if we could do that - we could get at least ten or fiveteen people out of here at once. More if we crammed them into the back of the helicopter."
He looked Liamh square in the eyes. "You want to get out of here, right?" He asked, his expresion turning dead serious. "Perhaps you'd like to help me come up with a solid plan?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:08 pm
"Battery acid," Liamh mused. "That could work... But with a frontal assault, wouldn't they just knock us out? I heard about the whole control chips thing, only one person has got theirs out, i think, and she went freakin' crazy and ran off into the woods... Dunno which came first, the insanity or the chip, but either way, i don't think it'd work..."
He rubbed his nose thoughtfully. "We'd have to be really sneaky. Sneaky with a BUNCH of people at once. Nobody meeting in groups, nobody talking about it.... out loud..." His eyes widened and he snapped his mouth shut. He shook his head. Damndamndamn.... don't talk out loud!
With a sudden change in demeanor, he sighed and shook his head. "Nah, i really don't think that'd work either. I mean, all those people? THey've got surveillance everywhere, they'd be found out in five minutes. I mean, they're probably watching... right now..." He said meaninfully, making eye contact with Seth. "But i'm sure we'll find some other way."
He made some eye and hand movements to try to convey the 'play along' message. If they were going to do anything, it'd have to be completely inaudible and invisible to the cameras.... somehow. He'd have to leave Seth a note or something....
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