Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Aug 7, 2019 15:10:34 GMT
She'd never shared herself like that before. It was like ice, cracking on the river in the first spring morning. In winter, the ice was hard. Impenetrable. Yet somewhere beneath there was a living stream, with the power to seize you and carry you away if you only slipped through once. She had slipped through. She had been carried. She had not meant to let her come through so. In trying to offer him words of comfort she had let herself raw. I am not skilled at this.Then, of course, the terrible thought, the one that she had not let herself think before writing. Because whenever you showed yourself, whenever you set down your weapons, there was the risk, more painful by far, that it would be for nothing. That you would bare yourself and find, not understanding, but confusion. The confirmation that you were really and truly alone. Had she been foolish to try and bridge their shared experiences? Surely he would understand. Moments ticked by in silence. He doesn't understand. I was wrong. It was for nothing. Still she did not face him. Now she felt only foolish. I should have guessed... I should not have tried..."Miss Anna?"She turned, and found him looking at her. Their eyes met. It was... strange. There was compassion there, feeling. Concern. She had meant to comfort him. She had not expected to need comfort herself. They were beautiful, those eyes like ice. Their eyes were locked. She couldn't look away. Slowly her hand reached out and took the phone from the table. Still their eyes met. "Are you all right?"So gentle. So unthreatening. Her breathing sped up. Another moment passed where she didn't move. Then, almost imperceptibly, she shook her head. And that was the end. She could no longer stand this. Emotion was welling up behind her eyes and a voice in her mind was screaming Weak! and Whore! and she couldn't bear the thought of him or anyone seeing her like this for a moment. In an instant her world was filled with the need to leave. The door was nearby, but she didn't go that way. Turning the knob would have taken a precious second. Shielding her face with her arms, she leaped through the window in a shower of glass. She landed on her feet, facing the house. For just a moment she stood there, staring through the broken window. Her lips formed the shape of words- something that might have been, "I'm sorry". Then she ran. And she ran. And she ran. After five miles her so her heart had finally slowed to a reasonable level and her arms had stopped bleeding. She dropped her pace to a walk. A little while longer and she stopped, took some deep breaths, rubbed her face and ran her fingers through her hair. Then, face carefully composed to blankness, she took out her phone and summoned a ride for the rest of her trip home. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Aug 6, 2019 15:11:14 GMT
Morning. Blue-tinited light creeping in through the windows. She awoke as she always did, suddenly and without a hint of grogginess. Rising, she put on gym shorts and the pink shirt with the rabbit symbol that Cory had given her, paused to splash her face with water and pull her hair back into a braid, and went downstairs to the weight room. She did a hundred pushups balanced on her left forefinger, then a hundred more balanced on her right forefinger. Then she buckled on a weight belt and worked the bars, the horse, and the rings. When she was done there was a sheen of sweat on her face and she went to the mat to work on her forms. Americans called them "kata". That was a Japanese word and she refused to use it. Punch, kick. Jump, spin, land. There was a rythym to it, a way of honing and sharpening your mind into a single point. Punch, jab. In the moment you didn't have to think, didn't have to feel. You could be pure motion, pure action, swift and clean as a mountain river. She found she preferred it to the alternative. Jack Fontaine |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Jul 25, 2019 17:05:07 GMT
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Jul 25, 2019 17:05:07 GMT
It came as a shock to him. She the glassy look creep over has eyes, the distant expression, the tensing of his (sculpted, crafted) muscles. The remembering. So he did not forget what his other form did, at least not completely. He only shoved it off, avoided it. Hid from it. Slowly he made his way into the other room, and she followed. It was strange. To back away, to sit down, it was a display of the sort of weakness she despised so. Yet something in her seemed to catch, made her hesitate before passing judgment. He sat down, and after a moment's hesitation show lowered herself onto the armrest of the same couch. In this way their faces were on the same level.
She let him sit. Let him remember. And realized, as she did so, that perhaps she understood slightly what must be in his mind at this moment. For she too had an animal side to her, a ferocious predator that, if not sated with blood, was not fully under her control. Didn't she remember those many hours of trying to integrate the two, to find a path that was herself and not the beast? An integration that was, even today, unfinished?
Yes. She did know. And perhaps that made her look more gently on him than otherwise. He asked if she was "one of them" and slowly she nodded. She watched the expressions go by on his face: the confusion, the fear, the memories he had pushed aside rushing back. For all his great size and strength he looked very small. With a note of surprise she thought: Why, if he is a cat, then he must be a kitten! How strange. Where was the posturing she always associated with men? Where was the need to be bigger, stronger, more imposing? She had seen men afraid before, but it had always been an agry kind of fear, a fear that said how dare you be a threat to me; don't you know what I am. But this one had fear that ran him through and through. It was, she thought, unassuming. It was not a facade or fury that a facade had been broken. It was really, truly him.
Suddenly she had the immense urge to touch him. To tell him, somehow, that he didn't have to be afraid of what he was, that what he was was pure and swift and beautiful (not only the lion). It was as if she saw the spark of some distant fire in him, and in that second she was gripped by the possibility of what could be. As if- as if there was something good and important that they shared, and that it was vital, so vital, that he see it.
For a moment all she could do was stare. Her throat seemed to dry and tighten, an odd sensation given she had so little feeling there. She wanted so badly to speak but felt at a loss for what to say. But the moment could not be allowed to simply pass. Swallowing, she pulled out her phone and typed.
She showed it to him. She waited for his approval. And she began to write.
She didn't understand why she started to write. Or she did, but she had hidden it from herself, as he had hidden his lion acts. A dozen things seemed to come together in her mind at once. The beast in the forest, the romp and play. The kindness of the mand before her. Jack affectations and mocking sneers, so different from what Alistair showed her now. Cory. Cory in the old mattress factory, telling her she had to share to know others. It was as if everything had built towards this moment.
She had to swallow, twice. And she rubbed the back of her hand furiously at something in her eye and turned away so that he would not see. But she wrote, and she kept writing, and it seemed to all pour out of her at once, so that she could hardly stop and at the end had to drop the phone in his lap and turn away suddenly, hands clenched, eyes shut and looking away-
-because that was all she could say. And somewhere along the line she had lost track of what she meant, and everything she had written seemed wrong and not what she meant at all, yet she wrote it because it seemed she had to say something, because something in her had changed in a way she didn't understand and somehow or other she had to communicate this glorious and beautiful man and make him see himself, just once, the way she had in that moment.
|
|
Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Jun 26, 2019 2:44:05 GMT
He was not exactly a confident man, she was coming to realize. The sort who wilted under a confident gaze, who took the constant implication he was doing something wrong. A man who was never quite comfortable in his own skin, always glancing over his shoulder in concern for what might go wrong. Understanding this, certain other things about him began to fall into place. The playful, nervous monster of a lion who hated to kill, who covered his eyes in fear at loud noises. She had dismissed this as a womanish spirit on his part, before. Yet it occurred to her now, knowing he had the power of transformation, that it might be more than weakness. If you were naturally a kind and gentle man- (-the words, “kind and gentle man” rolled back and forth in her mind as she thought them, not linking to anything she had held in her mind before, impossible to simply dismiss, nothing she had ever suspected she might find, a “kind and gentle man”-) -if you were naturally a kind and gentle man, then you might be concerned that if you transformed in the wrong place or at the wrong time, you might hurt someone, and it might weigh on you, and you might seem nervous and discomfited as you tried to keep the beast inside. She understood that, at least a little. The need for control. To hide the inner brutality. And it softened her towards him, at least a little, making her see better how those two disparate halves she had seen could be united in one person. Perhaps there was not a hard break. Perhaps to a person who had lived with power that brought the necessity of caution, such hesitation was required. The would be a life far different from the one she had lived. She could only imagine it, but it seemed... pleasant. Then the dawning realization across his face. Some barrier broke, and he came face to face with what he had been. He placed her face in memory, and his voice came out as a whisper. She couldn't explain it. Fear- but of what? Of himself? Of her? Of being exposed? Suddenly she felt a wave a sympathy breaking over her. He really didn't understand this thing he was, did he? He really was concerned. He really was afraid of hurting her. And it was such a novel realization, such a strange thing to feel from a man, that for a moment she, too, had to pause in her response. What an odd thing to realize, in this moment. To have lived with defenses always up for so long, to have forgotten what it was to be relaxed and at peace. The last time she had felt this had been in the presence of his animal self. Now she was catching a glimpse of it from the human side. A smile pulled at her lips. She tried to suppress it, mostly out of habit, but the edges of her lips still curved, just slightly. She typed. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Jun 4, 2019 2:42:27 GMT
She stood by and watched him gulp down milk, vaguely in awe of how much he was able to drink at once. Was that part of his transformation? Was it like her dependence on blood? That seemed odd, but she supposed it was no less odd than her own quirk. Less convenient perhaps, in some ways. As he drank, she glanced around the kitchen, observing in more detail the crisp, clean counters, the scrubbed floors, the gleaming metal of the sink. It was far cleaner than she expected for a man living alone. The drive to keep a space clean had always struck her as a womanly urge. The thought made her somehow uncomfortable and she pushed it away, going back to watching him. She found herself studying his body again, the way his Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he drank, the muscles in his forearms, the shape of his seat-end as he bent over the sink. A very slight pink crept into her cheeks when she realized she was looking and she quickly jerked her gaze away. Not that it was anything to be ashamed of, of course. It was perfectly natural to notice things. Still, perhaps this was better noticed later, even if her interest was purely academic. He turned towards her suddenly, terror written on his face. Did she... wash her hands? No... of course she hadn't. Why would that matter? She raised an eyebrow to meet his gaze for a moment, then carefully brought her hand to her mouth and licked her fingers to demonstrate how she had cleaned them. She had done quite a good job. She was not one to leave the least drop of blood on her hands. Apparently it didn't satisfy him. He held out... soap? She didn't know if she should feel insulted. The situation seemed balanced on a knife's edge between humor and horror. There was fear in Ali's eyes, but a strange kind... something almost comical. Carefully, never removing her eyes from his gaze, she accepted the soap and very deliberately washed her hands in the sink. That took a minute. When she was done she stood staring at him with dripped hands, trying to take his measure. Trying to understand what was going on his mind that made him behave this way. There was a towel by the sink. She dried her hands on it. Her gaze never left him. She kept staring as she took her phone from her pocket, moving her eyes only to glance at the screen before handing the phone to him. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on May 16, 2019 2:50:13 GMT
Anna was actually a very clean eater when she wasn't under the effects of a blood rage. She pulled the squirrel apart very neatly and licked up the mess as it occurred and finished by licking her fingers clean. On the whole it was a very civilized affair, and she felt proud of herself for managing it. The man-who-had-been-a-lion seemed to have a less sanguine view of the whole affair, if his nervous breath and somewhat erratic driving were any indication. He seemed too embarrassed to speak, which was too bad, but she supposed she was the last person who could criticize that. In all honesty, she had begun to find the whole affair rather amusing. His frenzied concern, verging on panic, had the air of a man who was trying to bail water out of a sieve: a noble attempt, but ultimately futile. Still, perhaps she should try to have some more empathy. The whole thing seemed to be a great shock to him and she was well familiar with how an ability could affect your state of mind. She thought it odd that he seemed so concerned about the blood, though. He'd eaten bloodier himself, and she'd been there to see it. Well, perhaps he was still coming to terms with himself. She understood that. Coming to see that you were something unlike other people, something new, different, that was a hard thing. Perhaps he was even as she had been in the long-ago days, unaware that there were others, unaware that there was any word for what he was other than monster. The thought made her glance at him again. Yes... now that she looked, she could see the outline of real fear in him. This was not humorous, not to him. She had been free with her own abilities because she had thought, on some level, that seeing them would give him a measure of comfort; now she began to wonder if she had only thrust him into a more confusing world. As they turned into the driveway her face had become more thoughtful and she watched her host with a contemplative expression as he rushed into the house with a blurted word of instruction towards her. Shaking her head, she exited the car and locked the vehicle behind her and buried the squirrel in a shallow hole beside the driveway before making her way to the front door. It was a nice house. Orderly, and very clean. It smelled nice as well, and the couches looked comfortable. A slight glugging sound greeted her ears and she followed into a room where she was greeted by the sight of a half-naked man taking milk directly from the carton in massive, noisy gulps. She couldn't help it. She laughed. No sound came out, of course, aside from a slight hissing, but a smile broke across her face and she covered her mouth and looked away with obvious mirth. It was probably horrible and would leave him terribly upset, but the image was simply too ridiculous. After a moment of laughter she straightened, crossed the kitchen floor in a few strides, and hopped onto the counter. She tried a cabinet- luck was with her. Taking a glass from it, she hopped down and came close to him, glass extended, eyebrow raised. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 29, 2019 2:39:42 GMT
The effect of the injection was instant, and noticeable. A shiver went down her spine. She had been tested once, she thought with a drug like that, something to make her faster... the memories were fuzzy. By the end she had mostly been given horse tranquilizers. She wondered what was in the needle, and how long it would last. It seemed to give him purpose, or least enough of one to want to flee. She pursed her lips, not quite understanding his hurry, and shook her head when he asked if she lived there. His look of betrayal seemed to stab her. She found herself immediately justifying her lie of the previous night; she had been working under an illusion, attempting to avenge the innocent. That had been the right decision, she told herself, even if it seemed ridiculous in retrospect. It was his innocence, she thought, his transparency, his guilelessness. Somehow, without quite realizing it, she had come to see him as a man who did not tell lies- perhaps one who by his simplicity was incapable of them. It was a strange thing to realize she believed. Hiding oneself, for her, came as naturally as breathing. Jack and Cory had been the same. This one was not like that; he was- and this thought surprised her again- like the beast she had met at first, without a second face he kept hidden from the world. She had trusted that impression when it had been of a predatory animal. She mistrusted it now that it was of a human male. He asked her to get in. He wanted to leave; that much was clear. Well, perhaps he wanted to dress himself, she thought wryly. At any rate it would be easier than walking. I won't hurt you. What an odd thing to keep repeating. Had he not noticed how she had felled him the previous night? Did he not remember how she had carried him just moments before? Surely he must have guessed there was more to her than met the eye. Did she still look so weak to him, so vulnerable that she had to be reassured? She pursed her lips again and held up a single finger, then dashed off into the trees. A minute later she was back with the sleeping bag she had left at their makeshift camp in one hand and a dead squirrel in the other. What? She was starting to feel the need for her morning blood, and the squirrel had been near at hand. A leap, a grasping, a wrung neck- it had been no trouble at all. She tossed the sleeping bag into the back and sat down on the passenger side and shut the door. Her nails began to peel back the skin of the squirrel, teeth finding an artery. Blood, tangy and fresh. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 19, 2019 1:55:16 GMT
He asked two questions. She gave him one shake of the head for both. Actually, the idea of being mistaken for the FBI was somewhat offensive to her, but she was more and more seeing a man in a trying situation and she restrained herself from making a matter of it. The notion of being an agent of any government made her angry, really, and then there was the fact that in Soviet stories the FBI had always been evil and her reaction to them was still negative by default. She had never (well, not for a long while) been sold on the goodness of her home nation, but that didn't mean the US was any better. Before coming here she would have said she supposed it was worse. Even now she was not quite sure she could trust anyone who worked for a government in a science capacity. She saw him reaching for the trunk and set him down while he muttered something about a blue bag. She used the keys she still had to open it and found the blue bag quickly enough. Inside... she frowned, not understanding at first, but there were instructions on the side and she... ...hesitated, fingers lingering over the injectors, staring, half remembering, half fearing to remember... ...before she realized that it was stupid of her to get hung up on old pains, that these were perfectly ordinary devices with no nefarious purpose whatsoever and she should stop being an idiot about it all, and quickly returned to Alistair and poked him in the thigh. She stood over him, arms crossed again, staring. She hoped he would recover enough to drive, because she didn't know how and calling someone else to drive her somewhere was how they'd ended here in the first place. Plus the fact that he was in his underwear. She'd... prefer not to have to answer questions about that. There were two parallel scars on his chest, the only blemish on his otherwise excellent figure. Parallel, on the left pectoral. Surgical scars? She frowned, leaning slightly downward to stare at them. There seemed no point in offering him the phone in his present condition, so she didn't. Hand language was far more convenient, truth be told, but too few people knew it. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 14, 2019 3:31:59 GMT
While he struggled for words she studied him, trying to set her mind properly on the man before her after yesterday's mistake. It seemed madness now that she had ever thought of him as something dangerous- something that had threatened her friend. Yet his size and his toned muscles bespoke of someone who might have been dangerous, at least to an ordinary woman of her size. There was an odd contradiction in him. Power in his body, strength in his limbs, but very little, now that the question of the blood was resolved, indication of the will or desire to use it. It was... strange. It was unlike most men she had known. Strength was what made them men, strength and the casual use of it on the weaker. Men with haughty eyes and twisted, laughing mouths and a crude joke or leer as you walked by. Those were the men she had known. Watching this man, she saw none of that. Quite the opposite. She might have been tempted to dismiss him simply as a weakling, but the sight of his bare chest before her prevented that. Judged by the standards of ordinary men, he would be strong. So why did she not sense the same common contempt? She took a step closer to him, catching his scent again. Yes! There is was. The wild, woodland smell, the one she knew from running through the woods with a great cat. It made her heart skip a beat. Her friend had been like that too, she thought, immensely powerful and yet thoroughly gentle. Now it turned out her wore another form. Somehow she felt she should have guessed it sooner. Yet she could hardly blame herself for failing to consider such a wild possibility. The beast had not eaten last night. Was that why he seemed so haggard now? “D-d-did I hurt you?”She gave him a flat stare. Hurt her? Ha. Hardly likely. But after a moment her gaze softened and she shook her head. It wasn't wrong of him to ask, she supposed. It was even kind, in its way. He seemed to be uncomfortable. Perhaps he was in pain? He hadn't mentioned it. The thought made something in her turn- in a way she couldn't quite place, but not an unpleasant one. The turn of a screw, but one that was good and right to tighten. He certainly looked miserable. Cold, sweating, trembling beneath the half-dawn light. She might have marked him for a victim of the influenza. Her eyes moved to the side. It was a bit of a walk back to the campsite, and a bit longer to the place he had first transformed. She looked at him again, saw the trembling. There must be pain of some sort. She was quite close to him now. The part of her mind dedicated to such things began to whisper that perhaps she was quite close enough. She stopped moving. She was staring, her face expressionless. Well. This was very interesting, but it was not, truly, her problem. This man was not her responsibility, whatever body he might prowl about in. His vehicle was somewhat nearby; he could reach it and return home. Her home was close enough she could run there in a few minutes. One turn and he would be out of her life forever. She had made a foolish mistake, but it need not come up again. She was free to go, was she not? She thought back on the walk to the campsite and the walk from there to the vehicle. How long was it, exactly? It seemed to be longer than she had thought a moment before. She looked at Alistair, saw him shiver again, and suddenly she realized what had turned in her mind when he had asked if he had hurt her. It was that he had asked about her first when he was clearly in pain and had not mentioned about himself. A crossroads. The feeling of looking over a precipice, then- a decision. She pulled out her phone, typed, and held it so that he could read. She took a step forward- and she paused, because it would mean his skin against hers, his bare skin, his sweat and remnants of unpleasant memories trying to cling to her and drag her into the abyss again- and then she set her jaw, seized him at the chest and thighs, and started back towards the campsite. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Apr 12, 2019 22:57:50 GMT
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 12, 2019 22:57:50 GMT
Concrete walls, green with water-growings in the low light. Cold where it touched her bare skin as she pressed herself into the corner, as far away as possible from that awful door they would come for her through, dread sickening her, fear making her hands shake and her head pound and her stomach roil as inside her mind she begged with a jabbering plea that this time they not come for her, that just once they leave her alone, but under the door she saw shadows and she heard voices and she knew it was time, time, time for pain, the terror making it impossible to move, impossible to act, impossible to do anything but press herself into the wall and silently scream-With a snap, her eyes opened and the nightmare vanished. She was not in a cell; far from it. Outdoors, and with the ends of her hair brushing the dirt. She felt a warmth near her middle and with a jolt of disgust realized what she had done. And the bag was borrowed, too. But an instant later she was distracted from that. The movement she had heard in her dream had been real. It had come across from her, where her friend was moving and moaning under his breath. He seemed not to have noticed she was awake; so far she had moved only her eyes. Her friend seemed agitated. The blanket had fallen off of him and he was moving unsteadily away from her. She frowned, unsure what was happening. She could hear no danger. A bad thought: suppose now he was hungry? This would be the worst time for it, in daylight, in this populated area. She pulled herself out of the bag, embarrassment momentarily forgotten. She left it unzipped and picked up the blanket as she followed the lion. After a few steps it became clear that hunting was not what was on his mind. His walk was odd, as if he was injured. But she had heard no fight; surely she would have woken up for that. It was not until they had gone a few hundred feet that she realized what was happening: the way the feet came down oddly, the posture becoming less and less quadrupedal, the tail shrinking. The transformation was at an end and the man was coming back again. She kept following, curiosity now mixed in with her concern. She was surprised at how muscular the man was. Well formed indeed, she thought, then thought it strange that she had thought so. Still, it was true. He came to the box, which was in a clearing, and she paused at the edge of the trees, watching as he rifled through it and eventually chose a piece of clothing to cover himself with. She was- to her own surprise- somewhat disappointed for it. She supposed such feelings were natural. Still, it had been a long time since she had experienced anything like it. Her past experiences had left a bad taste in her mouth. When he sat down she emerged from the tree line, slowly walking into his line of sight carrying the blanket. The spot on her trousers was visible but, for the moment, she had forgotten about it. When she was close she tossed the blanket to him and stood facing him with her arms crossed. Alistair Lane
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|
Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 9, 2019 14:14:05 GMT
For a few steps she led him, taking him by the mane, drawing him into the trees and out of sight of the apartments. Then he stopped and she felt resistance. He was trying to pull her in a different direction. Why? Frustrated, she tried more gentle pressure on his mane but he was insistent and much bigger than her. Sighing, she released the pressure and let him lead her deeper into the grove. (She heard the dog, of course, but it didn't occur to her that he might want to avoid it.) She walked beside him with a tense, wary posture, concerned both for others that might see them and that he might run off in search of prey. She was unsure how she might stop him if he got it into his head to go running. He wasn't technically too heavy for her to carry, but he was too large for her to pick up and therefore probably impossible for her to stop if he wanted to run without injuring him. Could she get it to understand that they needed to bed down and cause no trouble? It had seemed to understand her beckoning. So perhaps it had some of the intelligence of the man it had been still. Thinking of the man- Alistair- made her squirm uncomfortably. She had been wrong about him. Or, rather, the contradiction she had perceived had been resolved. She had seen with her eyes a kind and intelligent man; it had been only the smell of blood that made her think otherwise. But that was easily understood now. So her first impression had been right all along. She felt perhaps a little guilty; she had been too quick to judge. Yet it was still somewhat strange to reconcile the man from the car with the creature she had run and romped with in the woods those days ago. She glanced at the golden cat next to her, pressing her lips together in thought. What did it say about the man, that the beast had behaved so? How much of one was in the other? They came more or less to the middle of the grove. Here she stopped, and moved in front of him to stop him too. She stroked his muzzle, smiling at the strong yet sad expression in his eyes. Powerful, yet with a hint of dim confusion. As an animal, it was a glorious creature. As something that came from a man... she wasn't sure yet. The strangeness of it lay on her. She glanced around them. The place they were in was flat and mostly free of stones. They could be relatively concealed here, until... she frowned. How long would this change of shape last? It had lasted through the night in the woods. Would it end at dawn? The following day? More than one day following? Remaining here during daylight would be problematic. Yet she was unsure of her ability to move him to a more secluded area at tonight, either. She studied the branches of the trees, considering. She could construct a makeshift shelter for the day, perhaps, and make arrangements to move him the following night. If he stayed changed that long, she reminded herself. The man and the beast were one and the same. It was still an odd thought to her. Her best chance was to hope this change was short-lived, she decided. To stay here, relatively away from prying eyes, for the night, and if this shape persisted... well, she'd have all day to make arrangements. Still in front of him, she crouched and Tked with her tongue as she patted the ground in front of her, a signal she'd seen given to dogs as an order to lie down. He'd understood her beckoning; she hoped he'd understand this. A great pair they made, she thought wryly, one not quite in human mind and the other incapable of human speech. Once he was down she put a finger to her lips and then pressed it against his snout. She was becoming more confident of what he understood. Once more she put the finger to her lips and then to his. Quiet. This next part would have to be quick. She ran back to the vehicle. She didn't know what she would find, but she had to see what her resources were. In the trunk, she found the jackpot. A blanket, sleeping bag, even a pillow. Perfect. A moment later she had dashed back. The blanket was too small to cover him, of course, but she did her best. Not time to hunt. Rest. Surely he would understand. Her first instinct was to snuggle close to him in the sleeping bag, but she hesitated. This wasn't simply a friendly creature. It was a man, and some time, perhaps soon, it would be a man again. When that time came, she would prefer not to be pressing against his body. So instead she rolled out the bag a short distance away, and lay on her side, watching him. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
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Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Apr 6, 2019 4:17:16 GMT
The great beast moved towards her. For a moment she had a sensation of doubt. Suppose it had forgotten her. What then? How effectively could she truly defend herself against such a huge creature? But then she saw it relax, and heart the comforting sound and felt it draw near to here, and she smiled. Pressing herself against it, she drew in a breath, a refreshing scent. Yes. It was the same creature, with the same memories. Her friend, back again, alive and well. How refreshing, she thought, to have a friend vanish and return to you alive! It was her first such experience since she had left laboratory 1. Yet it came to her suddenly that all was not well. This was not the forest, not the open country of the mountains. This was a human city, a land one the one hand of hunters, and on the other of meat that ran much too slow. Danger. Danger to her friend, danger to others as well. She glanced at the apartment they stood next to. Who lived there? Had they seen this? What would they do when they saw a great cat in the parking lot? And what of the man who had become the cat? She thought back to her first experience with it. She had thought it playful, lacking the instincts of a wild thing... tame, she had believed at the time. Yet perhaps not, if her friend spent most of his days as human. Yet he had not seemed quite human then. An illusion? Or was the man Alistair in there, only weighed down... filtered, somehow... by the shape of the great beast? She thought of her own cravings and madness when blood was near. His were not so violent. Yet she was sure he was not himself. No time to think through all the implications. Standing in this open space was making her neck prickle. They had to go somewhere else. Somewhere more private... where she could think and process. Preferably with large game. Was he hungry? ...oh, and there was a running car next to them. She supposed someone should do something about that. Giving her friend a quick pat, she leaned into the car, turned it off, locked it, and pocketed the keys. Glancing around, she saw a grove of trees near the back of the apartment complex. That was hardly a suitable forest, but it was at least some cover. She checked her phone. The nearest thing that could be called a real forest was 2.7 miles away. That might be a problem. But one thing at a time. Clicking her tongue and whistling as before, she motioned for the beast to follow her, using hand signals somewhat more freely now that she suspected there was a human intelligence inside somewhere. She wondered how hungry he was. If he tried to hunt in a populated area... Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked. Well, part of being wild was eating what was on hand. Taking her friend by the mane, she tried to lead him to the grove of trees. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Mar 29, 2019 3:06:30 GMT
For a very few moments, 177 forgot how to think in English. The change was so rapid that- she hated and had to admit it- it frightened her. The teeth elongating, the hands folding and twisting, the skin writhing as it became fur- her eyes widened and she lept back, knife held at the ready. Swear words in her first language filled her mind as she braced herself for whatever this threat was to be. Then the shape before her took a familiar form, and she lowered the knife and stood and with her mouth agape at the creature before her. Impossible. Impossible! The man she had been holding- her friend- one and the same! Impossible! And yet her friend stood right before her, beautiful golden mane waving quietly in the wind, the small of him unmistakable now. The cat. The lion. Her friend. How? She remembered- the woman she had fought during the bombing. The one who could deform her body. This must be something like that. But so entirely different! So entirely more beautiful! For a moment she could only stare. The cat backed away from her, shoulders hunched in a defensive posture. That was right, it was an easily frightened create. She stared at it, unsure how to respond. Was he in there? Was he controlling it? Or did he become a true beast when this change took him, with a beast's instincts? And if he was a beast, did the beast remember her? Or would she have to meet it again every time he transformed? They stood facing each other, the woman and the giant cat. Slowly, she extended the back of her hand as she had long before, and made the same whistling and nickering sound. Alistair Lane |
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Mar 27, 2019 23:59:55 GMT
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Mar 27, 2019 23:59:55 GMT
Fear. She could see it in his eyes. Terror. Good! Let him fear her. Well he ought to. His fear was palpable, nearly coming out through his pores. She watched him squeeze his eyes shut and thought disdainfully of the show of weakness. He hadn't even tried to fight her. Womanlike weakness. Not that it would have done any good, of course, but she despised that he had not even tried. His skin convulsed beneath her, but she didn't ease up on the pressure of the knife.
So great was his fear that for a moment he was unable even to speak. When he finally did it was confused jabbering about getting back in the car. Her eyes narrowed. What was this, some sort of trick to get her to ease the pressure so he could escape? She closed her mouth and set her jaw in distaste while continuing to stare at him. She stretched out her hearing, but heard nothing to suggest they were not alone. A quick sniff- she smelled him, and herself, and the oil of the car and the nearby dumpster, and-
-something of her friend. The scent had grown stronger. She frowned. How?
Her captive was still gibbering. His skin was shivering again. He was afraid, but he was yelling for her to move. She was surprised he had not tried to throw her off. The scent of her friend struck her nose again, thicker and more distinct, mixed with blood. She glanced down and saw the line of red beneath her blade and eased back on the pressure, slightly. She sniffed again. Yes- the smell was there, very distinctly, in blood, but coming from him. How? Had he eaten her friend? Or- the thought struck her for a moment that he could be like her, dependent on blood. But no, that could not be. He would not be so weak in that case.
The blood tickled her nose again. It was reminding her that it had been several hours since she'd had any. She leaned forward, extending her tongue- no, not now! This wasn't the time for eating. She had to get to the bottom of this. Her tongue flicked back and forth over her teeth. This was the kind of situation where it would be useful to be able to talk. Writing would require her taking attention off of her captive. Perhaps she should bind him. The blood was calling to her again and she had to stop her head from dipping towards the cut. She really should have brought one of her boxes with her from Jack's house.
Something inside his chest popped. For the first time she looked away from his face, frowning. Had she done that? She hadn't meant to break any of his bones yet. Without quite realizing it she brought the knife up and licked the blade before turning back to her captive and shaking the phone towards him, emphasizing him.
His flesh kept shivering. Did he have some kind of problem? The smell of her friend was all through the air now. Where was it coming from? She looked down at her captive, and her eyes narrowed. She showed her teeth, and again she brought the knife up to lick it. With her eyes she tried to communicate what her mouth could not.
Tell me what I want to know!
@alistiar
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Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come
ALIAS
Anna
POWER
Hemoconsumptive Augmentation with Magnetoreception
Civilian
|
Mar 21, 2019 14:10:39 GMT
Post by CBE-177/"Anna" on Mar 21, 2019 14:10:39 GMT
She had to hide a smile at Alistair's obvious discomfort with her response. She found his embarrassment refreshing, like a splash of cool water in the afternoon. It didn't hurt that the tilt of his jaw as he huffed was sharp, pronounced, masculine. She found herself leaving her gaze on aspects of his anatomy, studying, drinking them in. His jaw there. His shoulder there. His slightly self-deprecating smile. It was a strange thing to be feeling again after so long. Rather than judging him from an aloof distance, she found her walls melting and her tension easing as she heard him speak. The statement about small talk was pleasant, she thought, because it was honest. It was not often that she heard such honesty- certainly not from Jack, and rarely even from Cory. For herself, being "honest" almost always meant giving a harsh judgment, an unpleasant one. A pleasantly honest talk was something she had not had in a long while. It was a strange sensation- strange, but good... The scent of blood struck her nose again, jarring her as if back to wakefulness. What was she thinking? Those thoughts were useless now, here. The smell of blood- her friend's blood!- had she forgotten it so soon because the man was pleasant to look at? Idiot girl! You know where that leads! You remember what it meant to be cotton-headed with infatuation, overlooking every sign of danger until it was too late. Curse that part of her. She was no better than a mooning schoolchild. Now to steel herself again. Now to restore the right path of thinking. Now to set her mind towards the task ahead and complete it without blinking. She stared straight ahead, away from his jaw, his arms, his silly, stupid smile. It did not matter how handsome he was (yes, she was thinking of him as handsome, curse her) if he had done a terrible thing to her friend. He had no right, no matter his face or his smile. The creature had been more beautiful than he would ever be. Now they were coming to the place. She nodded when asked if they were there, deliberately looking past him. She didn't trust herself. Even after all she had been through, she still had too much of the weak woman in her. Would she never be free of it? Drawing out her phone, she composed the message she would give him. She could not simply show it to him, of course. A woman small as she could not approach a man about such things; he would only laugh. But a thing more than a woman- even if a monster- well, that was not something that could simply be laughed off. To her surprise he got out and came around to open her door for her. She had been making plans to pull him from the car herself. Well, this would be easier. He stood over her, hand in pocket, face still displaying that stupid smile. For a moment her heart wavered. Surely this man would not have- but she stopped the thought before it went further. He was only a man. Only a creature who understood violence. Behind his smiles, behind his pleasant words, if her size had not concealed a greater than womanly strength, or if he had found her as the guard at Laboratory 1 had, vulnerable and unable to exert her strength... Well. She knew men. Slowly she rose from the car. He towered over her, far too close. Thank god she was more than a woman. His scent reached her nostrils, more clear now in the outside air. She caught something there, mingled with his scent. A smell of something outdoors, wild, free, and clear, a smell of memories of life and freedom and splendid, unfettered joy. In that moment her rage and resolve crystalized, and the last vestige of hesitation fell away. Her right hand seized his belt. Her left dropped her phone in her pocket and came up to his chest, pushing backwards. At the same time her right ankle swept both of his legs, and she pushed him downward, slamming him roughly onto the asphalt. Now her right leg bent and came down again, striking his solar plexus- knock the wind out him! And it brought her right calf within reach of her hand still on his chest. A flick of her wrist. Now the knife was in her hand, now she had it against his throat, one knee on his chest now, one knee on his nearest upper arm other hand seizing his hair, pulling his head back, keeping it down. She snarled, exposing her fangs, and met his gaze, telling him with her expression that I am no prey.She held that position a moment, frozen in an implied threat, before her hand moved from his hair to her opposite pocket to draw out her phone. The message was still on the screen. She held it in front of his eyes. RebelAlistair Lane |
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