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 Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:25 pm
I'm so not made for a forest. Cecil thought to himself.
He was lying on the grass of a patch of forest clearing. Beside him was a decrepit pile of large sticks and branches that were supposed to be the tent-like shelter he was planning on making. On the other side of him was another pile of smaller sticks that were supposed to be the fire that he had planned on making also.
Judging from the way the pieces of wood were thrown around, it was obvious that Cecil had gave up on his plans. He was trying to sleep, his body was curled up on the ground. Cecil shivered, he held himself close, trying to hoard the little heat he had.
Soon, sleep fell upon him.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:52 am
It was another day for Alex. Oh sure, he'd just changed not too long ago from just being slightly messed up to being totally screwed up. But, being a freak of nature wasn't all bad. He made his way through the forest, in a slight crouch as he walked, using sharper talons and claws to make his way over fallen trees and up inclines.
His ear tufts twitched in the wind, as he looked for something to eat. He needed to do something more to help Damian with catching food, especially since it was quite a bit harder to hold something in his hands. He couldn't even call them hands anymore. His thumb had moved far enough from where it should have been to make holding things a much more daunting task. He sighed, tufts laying back.
And those little... arm... shoulderblade... things... they itched. His tail twitched as he tried to put that thought from his mind, and continued forward. Back to finding some food. Or at least that was the plan. What he found though was a small clearing, with what looked someone had tossed a bunch of sticks into piles. Alex looked around, left, right, making sure that the coast seemed to be clear, before slowly making his way towards what Cecil had tried to make into a campsite.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:03 pm
Cecil's ears twitched at the sound of rustling. His head popped up like a shot bow, instantly alert of his surroundings- the dark forest was unsettling, the sounds and the glints of things under the moonlight made things seem erier then daylight. After a quick lookaround, he let out a breath. Nothing seemed to be wrong. He layed back down. If he ever got back to his own dimension, he was never going to take artifical light for granted again.
Cecil stroked his cheek hairs. He wondered if it was possible to have dream deja vu. Like dreaming the same dream again. It wasn't recurring- like having the same dream- more, having a similar feeling to it.
It was the subway. Cecil woke up again. Damn! That was an odd dream. It's like a abstract painting. It's a dream in a dream in a dream. Well, now it seemed he was finally awake. For real. He pinched himself. To his relief, he felt his skin being pulled. The train's robotic voice said his stop. Cecil pulled himself together and got off when the train stopped.. He exited through the turnstile and started the stairs, where a man in a hooded cloak was waiting for him.
Cecil froze.
"I'm never gonna get out of this ******** subway, am I?" Cecil said out loud, then he smacked himself. The only time he could talk as well as he did was when he was dreaming.
"The time has arrived again. Prepare yourself." The man said, before walking away.
"You've got to be fu-"
Then he woke up.
His ears caught the sound of rustling again. Cecil slowly reached for a large branch and stood up. Whatever was out there, it was watching him. His ears veered backwards. Behind him! Cecil let out a loud grunt as he swung the large branch towards the intruder.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:39 pm
Maybe it was the fact that Alex wasn't used to his altered form yet that made his footsteps less than feline quiet. Or maybe it was his beak edges clicking together as he stared at the thing that was laying on the ground. Oh sure, it was person shaped, but it didn't look quite local. Most locals wouldn't be caught dead sleeping out in the middle of a grassy meadow where all manners of scary beasts might get them.
While Alex pondered the situation of the sleeping person, he didn't notice until just before contact, the swinging of the large branch. The hybrid's body twisted with the blow, making it look more impressive than it really was. Oh, it hurt, but not as much as it would have had he not moved. But that didn't help the sense of pain that he felt from where his shoulder got clubbed.
Alex kneeled down on all four, gasping and panting. What came next was the vocal statement of "Lio Coh Jwei Ji Neong Hur Ho Deh Yung Duh Buhn Jah J'wohn!!!* The chinese words rolled off Alex's tongue, and a sharp breeze seemed to snap through the meadow, sending some of the loose leaves in the trees rustling too and fro.
Ok, the pilot wasn't going anywhere, at least not until he could stand back up on all four, which might give Cecil plenty of time to see what sort of foul beastie he just clubbed. A beast that cursed in Chinese. And had feathers and a tail. Sound familiar?
* Don't ask what this means in Chinese. Seriously. Just assume it sounds none too pleasant.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:08 pm
Damn! Alex?
Cecil's eyes lit up and he let out a breath of relief. He wanted to say sorry, but you know, mute and all. He scratched the back of his neck, crouched down and offered Alex a hand. Sorry man, you just caught me at the wrong time.
He moved his head a bit to get a better look at the man. There was something different about him... It might be a trick of the moonlight, but there were things sticking out from his back. Little arm things with some kind of flat things sticking out of them.
No, it was nothing, just some stray shadow or something. Yeah. That's all. Despite the reasoning and logic running through his mind, Cecil found himself fighting a losing battle with himself. The part of him saying that those arm things were real was winning against the part that tried to stick with reality. The main weapon of the arm things side was that Cecil's definition of "reality" was in the middle of getting it's legs torn apart.
He reached into his bag for a notebook and pen.
Oh Crap, Alex, I didn't know it was you! Sorry. Panicked, not very used to the forest... Cecil tilted the notebook so it could be read in the moonlight, You seem.... Different.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:33 pm
Alex muttered a bit and took the offered hand in his much more mutated taloned grasp. "Uuuuh. Cecil? Uh, oww." He rubbed his shoulder a bit as he stood up, to try and work some of the pain from it. He was almost glad it hit his shoulder and not his shoulderblade, where those little 'chicken wings' were. That would probably have hurt a lot more.
His ear tufts twitched as he looked at Cecil, and noticed some of the changes that he hadn't noticed at first glance, but now that he had a chance, he could seem them better.
When he got handed the notebook, the pilot raised his eyebrow and then nodded some. "Oh, yeah, that's sokay. Getting hit with branches is my hobby or something." He moved to sit down a bit and brushed some of the dirt and grass from his feathers. "Uh, you out here all alone? And... I guess you changed as well", he commented quietly, looking from side to side, just to check to make sure that there was no others around that Cecil might have had hiding.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:06 pm
Cecil's ears drooped when he sat down with Alex. Inside, he was pleased. He was getting ever better expressing his emotions with them. Cecil looked down and played with his fingers. Yeah... Awkward. He quickly changed gears from embaressment to what Alex was saying. A notebook snatch and a few scribbles explained,
At the moment... What about you? You hiding too? What's that on your arms? He noted the feathers. That wasn't there the last time he saw Alex.
He scratched his face absently, the fur was beginning to itch. Not like it was anything new, but this particular itch was in another class of annoyance. Cecil scratched at his fur again, this time, with his whole hand full of claws. What was this, fleas? Fleas were not a good thing in an era where plague existed.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:54 am
Alex looked at the notebook and then nodded, then handed it back. "Me, I was hunting, actually." He reached back to rub the back of his neck with one of his deformed hands as he sat there. "Not hiding, just... not thinking that I can go back to town. Thats all."
He looked down at his arms and chuckled, "Those? Oh, those are feathers... or do you mean my hands?" He held one out, showing off the altered appearance of them. "I got out here and well, I guess whatever changed me when I was in town decided to keep effecting me." He wasn't sounding so thrilled at the concept.
After a short pause, he looked back to Cecil, "But anyways, its good I ran into you. I've been looking for the others. I have this camp... or well, a friend of mine has a camp and if you want to, you can tag along, and I can take you there. I mean, its not a huge camp, but its gotta be better than sitting out here, with no shelter at all."
Yup, free room and board at Damian's camp. We'll leave the campfire on for you.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:20 am
Cecil backed away. His face made a mixture of shock and a receeding frown. He looked at Alex at a better angle to get the light on him. Alex looked like he got hit by a car, a very feathery car. Cecil's eye twitched.
Really. Uh, Alex? When... That happened, did you have some sort of trippy dream with some hooded guy in it?
His fur was really starting to itch now. Not only on his face but in... Other... Places? He accidentally scratched his arm a little too hard and felt the blood on his claws.
Cecil's ears stood up. Uh oh.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:55 am
Alex sat there a bit, before standing up, his tail twitching behind him slowly. He then looked down at Cecil's note and tilted his head. "Uh, well, I'm not sure I remember a guy, but I do sort of remember this voice saying something." The pilot wasn't much for remembering his dreams. His life felt like one at this point. Why remember the stuff when you sleep when you can remember the dream that is your life? Plus, the only thing he really remembered was the pain he had when he changed.
Either way, he shrugged his shoulders, the little winglets twitching on his back, "Uh, probably. Maybe. Anyways, lets head back to my camp. Damian should have some food cooking, and I'm so hungry I could eat a horse..." He yawned his beakish mouth open, and started to walk in a direction, before looking back at Cecil to make sure he was following.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:01 am
Cecil nodded, and started to follow. It was just coincidence. Right? Well, Cecil didn't put that past him so fast. They were in a different dimension and all. He penned down something with the notebook still in Alex's hand,
Alex, I had a dream like that and- Cecil held his nose. It felt like a person with rubber gloves began pulling at them. A invisible force pulled hard on his nostrils. When the pulling at his face stopped, he felt his nose. It was longer, obviously- but strangely enough, it was wet too. Cecil was hesitant, unsure what to do next. Tenatively, he took a deep breath through his nose, and got immediate headrush as the organic smells of the forest flooded his senses. He fell down in shock, and held his nose again, he didn't want to repeat the experience so quickly. Cecil scratched his head. Was that it? Well, that wasn't-
Suddenly, the gravelly crunching sound of body parts moving filled his ears. He held his head, closed his eyes and braced himself
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:20 am
The pilot nodded some. "Ah well...", he said, then watched as Cecil stopped writing and seemed to be having a sinus headache or something. "Uh..."
"Hey, are you ok?", he asked, as he reached over and poked Cecil's shoulder. His eartufts perked up as Cecil seemed to be getting a pained look to him, or the look that he was expecting to be hit with a wall of pain.
His tail twitched behind him as he looked around, trying to figure out which way was the fastest route back to the campsite, then sighed, realizing that it would probably take a while for them to get there, even if they left now. "Its sort of a decent walk back to my camp... uh... but if you're feeling sick... we can stay here till it passes", he mentioned.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:16 pm
Cecil shot Alex a look. You couldn't tell by now? He would've thought Alex had more experience with changes since he just had another one. Guess the sufferers don't know the symptoms.
Or maybe they were too busy having their ears shove themselves up their skull to notice.
His ears slid up his head like inching caterpillars. Cecil stood still, trying not to look like he was going into a seizure, even though he really wouldn't mind that. Anything to get his mind off the head numbing crunching sound in his head.
After what seemed like forever, it was over- and Cecil found himself holding his head and curled up on the ground. Okay, now it was definately ov-
There was a tingling on his spine. A loud crack came from his tail.
Oh damn.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:50 pm
Well, to be truthful, Alex wasn't paying attention to what happened to him at the time as much as the talon-biting amount of pain. Plus, he'd never watched someone else change in front of him. This was new. And a bit disturbing, especially at Cecil's ears decided to migrate.
"Uh, oh geez... you're changing. Oh geez oh chirp oh man..." The pilot was sort of glad Cecil was a mute, or he'd probably be making a lot of noise.
He frowned, or tried as best he could with his beak. "Don't worry, it'll pass soon", he mentioned, knowing it would hurt but it would get better after a while. He put his altered hand on Cecil's back, and then both his ear tufts perked up, as he heard the cracks coming from Cecil. Maybe his hearing wasn't as good as Cecil's but it wasn't hard to hear the snap and crack and pops that were coming from the tail.
"Uh...", was about all he managed to say, having no clue why a tail would make such sounds. Disturbing, highly.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:27 pm
Cecil on the other hand, had witnessed someone else change. (Alex, coincidentally enough.) He figured that he was looking pretty bad right now. When his ears stopped grinding, he figured it was over.
And by the way, did Alex just chirp?
The end of Cecil's tail felt like a electric shock, and he jumped up, just to be struck down by the sudden push from the bottom of his spine. Cecil was down on all fours as he felt another tail grow it's way in. The extra part of spine streching itself from under Cecil's shirt to his discomfort. A strange tingle surrounded his two tails as fur began to grow on them as well.
Cecil whimpered. Which came out more of a dog's whine, probably because of the new nose. He squeezed his eyes shut, expecting something else to happen. With so many false finishes, he had every right to be suspicous. After a few moments of quiet, he let out his breath, and collapsed to the ground.
Mist began to fill the clearing.
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