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 Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:00 pm
((This is a continuation of The Random Encounter )) Georgia didn't get very far before she collapsed on the stairs of a nearby duplex. Her body heaved as she sobbed quietly to herself. It wasn't only the arguments that had set her off, it was everything. A list she didn't wish to run through her head, ever. Right now her mind seemed to just shut down as she stared blankly at the dark shadows on the ground. An occasional sob left her throat, tears were left to run down her red cheeks until they became too tickly to bare and was swiftly wiped away with a white hanky.
She didn't know how long she sat there, it seemed like forever, but if anybody would have seen her they would noticed her head was bowed and that her long auburn hair covered most of her face, hiding her puffy red eyes. It was the calm after a storm, she had run out of tears and couldn't seem to grasp a thought. A peaceful lure, at that moment nothing mattered, time could have stood still and maybe it did. It was a pleasent feeling that couldn't last for long.
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:26 pm
Noah walked along up the beach, heading in the vague direction of the duplexes. He was sure that was the direction that Georgia had run off towards...and he knew that when he got upset, the duplexes would be the first place he'd run to go hide away.
Granted, he also knew that if he had gotten upset enough to retreat to his duplex, he wouldn't want to be bothered. But he had to apologize to that girl. It was probably his fault she was unhappy anyways. He had overreacted. His utter pessimism and outbursts had driven her away, upset her.
His teeth chattered nervously and he huffed unhappily. He was one big disaster.
He kept the hood of his makeshift cloak pulled up over his face-- it was probably for the best, anyways. The girl would probably be upset enough without having to deal with looking at his face.
He kept his steps slow; he knew that Autumn girl had said she wanted to come too, and he wanted to make sure she'd be able to keep up. Why she would want to go with a mouse-man like him was beyond Noah's comprehension, but he figured it was best not to argue with someone who more or less tolerated you. it wasn't like he had many friends anyways.
Girls made him terribly unnerved, though. He wasn't sure why, but they always evoked feelings of unease in him. But better a group of girls than a group of males, he figured.
He sighed, flicking the tip of his tail slightly. It was getting pretty dark out now. It was dangerous to be out at night, or so he thought. But he had to find Georgia and apologize. He had to do this.
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:38 am
Autumn followed Noah as he walked towards the duplexes, as they both went looking for the upset girl.
Autumn had figured that she had might as well start to make friends. Noah seemed like a rather nice guy. A bit timid, but she wondered if any of that was due to his serum or not. She had heard that along with changing physically to whatever animal one was injected with, that animals instincts also interfered with their thoughts actions, & the person could act more animal-like than desired. It again lead her to wonder what she would become.
Either way, he was still a rather nice man. Autumn wasn't going to just call him a friend just yet, but she figured she had to get to know some people. After all, she wasn't going to be going anywhere, & her old friends would never see her again.
Suddenly, she began to wonder what her friends & family would think when she didn't return home.
"Hey.. When they get us here to the Island, what do they tell friends & family when we don't come back home from whatever it was they claimed this place was?" she asked. "Do they just have another c**k-and-bull story that they go around telling?"
((Posting on my main for now. Hope that's ok))
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:22 am
Voices were heard coming closer. Georgia roused herself to wipe away the tears and snot, she always hated people seeing her upset. It caused awkwardness for her and them and worse when they say 'aww' and cuddle her as that was sure to release the floodgates again.
She sniffed, feeling better at least, although it hadn't changed the situation one bit. She gave a shakey sigh to calm down. Georgia could see the pair down the path, she could also make out the sheet in the darkness so realised it was the strange man and someone else from the group.
She felt sluggish to think what to do. No doubt they would have spotted her by now even if she did get up. No use drawing attention to herself, they might just be walking back, but she knew from experiance that if she just sat here alone, someone will ask her if she was ok. So Georgia just sat at the stairs, sniffing every now and then, trying not to think about what had set her off in the first place and hoping they wouldn't notice her.
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:00 pm
Noah threw a quick and curious look over his shoulder. The Unchanged One was still following him. It made him feel somewhat more comforted now that he knew that he wasn't totally alone. Good, good. Maybe she could help if he started messing up with his apologies. No, he snapped at himself, you're going to do this *on your own* instead of other people bailing you out.
His mind had cleared and managed to form some form of coherency and temporary stability on the walk, which would be good for anyone around him. How long it would last was anyone's guess. That last change had really done a number on his poor psyche.
His ears twitched up under his cloak as Autumn spoke. It was a good question. What did they tell everyone? He wriggled his bewhiskered face and chattered his teeth in thought.
"Vell...I am supposing that...perhaps zhey..." he furrowed his brow in thought. "I suppose zhey say somezhing like...ve died." he finished quietly.
It was the only way he could think of the labs explaining the disappearances of the Islanders. Dead. Was that how it worked? They were explained away as being dead? He didn't have any family that cared about him to be informed of his 'death,' just his workplace, if that. He supposed he was ideal for the labs-- no family to question his disappearance, no real friends either. No ties, no mess.
But what about the people that did have a family? How much the families must have hurt. What bad men, to make people so sad. To ruin lives. Bad, bad, bad. He didn't like those doctors...they had that 'thing-that-will-kill-you' smell on them too...but in a different way than it had been with owl-boy. Different, but still bad.
But in a way, wasn't it like dying? It was like death from the Outside World. Once you came to the island, you couldn't leave. Couldn't talk to anyone off-island. It was like you no longer existed. Like death. Noah shuddered and shook his head to clear those thoughts. He hated thinking about death.
He looked up ahead as he came into the Village. He searched around, looking for where Georgia might be. His eyesight...wasn't that great, lately. He sniffed at the air, whiskers instinctively twitching as well. Finally, he took notice of the girl sitting on the steps and hurried over, pausing briefly to turn back to gesture to the Unchanged One he had found who they were looking for.
He gave a sort of wave to Georgia and called out.
"Halo, Miss Georgia! I...I vish to speak vith you for a moment, if you do not mind..." he started, pausing a few feet away from her.
He wasn't scared, but he found it would be respectful to give the girl her space. He tended to give people a good breadth when dealing with him. After all, who wanted to be inches away from a mouse-man?
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:23 pm
Autumn quickened her pace to walk alongside Noah. She tried to look at his face, but the cloak he was wearing made it hard to do. Perhaps he really was that self-concious about his changes, she thought.
When Noah said that he believed that they were explained away as dead, Autumn felt stupid. Of course, what would they say? Oh, we're experimenting on your son, daughter, friend, employee, or whatever the person was. She just wondered what sort of stories they came up with.
"I wonder if they have enough creativity to come up with enough different stories for each of us," she said. She was sure that stories like a plane crash would be unbelievable if it happened frequently. Her mind began to go over some possible stories when they finally found Georgia.
Autumn gave a quick wave with her hand to the girl, & stopped alongside Noah. She wasn't sure how the poor girl acted when she was upset, but when Autumn was upset, she didn't like people around her. She didn't like people coming into physical contact when she was upset, either. Despite the good intentions of a hug from someone, she hated them. They always made her cry more, & Autumn always felt the need to bottle up her feelings, away from everyone. She never wanted anyone to see her upset.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:37 pm
The girl rubbed her red eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed as the pair waved to her. In response she gave a weak wave of her fingers, then pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them and nodded to Noah's request and to reinforce it she shuffled down the steps so if either of them wanted to sit down they could. Although she wasn't fond of mice, she wasn't squeamish either and he was still a man... just trapped in a rodent's body.
She wondered what body she would be trapped in, and with that thought her hazel eyes stared dolefully into space, through the ground by her feet.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:02 pm
Noah did wonder if the men in the labs-- the white-coats-- he wondered if they had the creativity to make up individual reasons for the disappearances as well. Maybe that was how they got their jollies- sitting around, making up new stories and laughing. Laughing at what they were doing.
Bad, bad men. The mouse-man gave an unhappy chuff. Thinking about the labs always made him unhappy.
He regained his composure though and upon seeing Georgia wave them over he took a few nervous steps toward her. He knew she wouldn't hurt him. She was a nice girl. Nice like the Unchanged one. And she didn't have that smell of something-that-would-kill-you. But still...he was apprehensive. Maybe it was more a self-confidence issue, though. Maybe.
But the mouse took a deep breath and sucked it up for once. He carefully sat down next to her, taking care not to crunch his tail. It took him a few instances of crimping the appendage to remember to sit carefully.
He picked up his tail shortly after he sat down, fidgeting with it uneasily. He sat there a few uneasy moments, head down before he finally managed to coordinate his brain enough to speak. He looked up shyly, glad his face was mostly obscured my the shadows of his cloak and the fading twilight.
"I...Miss Georgia..." He paused, not sure what to say. "I'm...sorry zhat... I ah...I reacted so harshly. It...it clearly upset you. I didn't mean to...I just..."
He lowered his head shamefully. Boy, he was REALLY messing this up. He chattered his teeth a little more, hands picking rapidly at his tail in a clearly uneasy fashion.
"I'm sorry." he finished. What more could he say? "I'm sorry." he repeated uneasily.
If this was just a simple apology, why was it making him so nervous? Why was his heart beating so fast? Usually he only felt this uneasy when he was around things with that thing-that-can-kill-you smell...but then again, confrontation had always made him unsettled. I'm such a screw-up... he thought unhappily.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:26 pm
Autumn walked over towards the pair, but did not take a seat. "I'll stand for a bit," she informed them. The last thing she wanted to do was leave a bad impression & make them think she didn't want to be around them. "I've done nothing but sitting around anyways," she added, although it seemed like she wasn't talking to anyone in particular. Mumbling to herself was something Autumn did sometimes.
As Noah began to speak, she fell silent. It was quickly noticeable that he was beginning to become nervous. She quickly forgot about animal instincts, which could have possibly explained the way he acted at times.
Autumn decided then to chime in. "I'm sorry, too, for anything that I might have said that could've offended you." Her mind went racing back to what she did & what she said. Could she have acted in a way to upset her as well? Sometimes, it seemed that all she could do was hurt someone's feelings with her words, & she had been trying better to word her sentences more carefully.
She only spoke that once sentence, & awaited a reaction.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:19 pm
She felt his presence sit next to her after a slight hesitance, and watched his fidgiting movement from the corner of her tear stained eye. The girl briefly looked up at the other women at her announcement to stand and nodded slightly, not trusting her voice to be strong enough to speak.
Georgia waited patiently for what he was trying to say, dabbing her damp hanky to her face, trying to ignore the animalistic way he twitched and the strange chuffing sound of teeth that made her feel uneasy.
The girl took in a shaky breath and coughed, trying to ease the soreness. "I-it's-" She coughed again, her voice was croaky and quiet. "It's ok." She managed a whisper. "Th-thanks." A small smile of gratitude as she looked up at the pair of them, before returning her eyes back to her trainers. She sighed. "It wh-wasn't just what was said, I just- felt over-overwhelmed... I guess. Every-thing, all at... once. Changing..." She cleared her throat, trying to rid the shake in her words, then another small smile. "I'm... very easy to upset, I cry at the littlest of things." she laughed slightly feeling stupid at over reacting, one hand picked at the black skin on her arm uncounciously trying not to think about her limited future. "I'm fine, really." Georgia didn't really sound all that convincing.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:06 pm
Noah's ears drooped under his hood, and he kept his head down, even after the girl had accepted his apology somewhat shakily. At least he had stopped chattering his teeth. He was sorry, though...he knew he had upset her. He didn't blame her...he was a half-mouse, half-man sort of creature, and that alone was enough to upset someone, let alone his utter pessimism.
No wonder he was so lacking in friends.
He glanced briefly at the Unchanged One as she offered her own apology. Noah didn't think she had done anything that warranted her reason to apologize, but then again, he could be wrong (which happened a lot).
He felt bad for Georgia though...the island could be very overwhelming. He remembered how miserably overwhelmed he had felt after his first change. Hell, even this last recent change had made him feel rather overwhelmed. All the new feelings and impulses to adapt to...the strange dreams...the cravings...it was a lot to deal with.
His tail tip twitched slightly, and Noah instinctively moved to smooth the fur out on his tail before he set the appendage back down. For a moment he considered putting his hand on Georgia's shoulder, but he decided against it. No one wanted an oversized rodent touching them. Plus, just thinking about the action made him feel a little nervous.
Without looking up he said "It is very easy to become overvhelmed here." he stated. "Are...you sure zhat you are okay?"
It was sort of a dumb question. If she said she was fine, she was fine, right? And if she wasn't, she wouldn't want to be pestered. He winced inwardly at his stupidity, but he was concerned about the girl's well-being.
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