Frightened, Chimera? [Remake] (O / A)

[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: So. Uh. Sorry about my random disappearances. Things are kind of...busy. Plus sick.))

Apsalar eyed the vehicle. She had gone quiet again for a few minutes, trying to sort out her own confused feelings. This world was...strange. She didn't know yet if she could trust her own instincts in it.

Though her gaze had flickered ever so briefly towards Hiccadu and Pup, her mind was more focused on picking through her own thoughts.

Smoke asked his question (questions, rather), and Apsalar waited.

And waited.

And no one said anything.

She wasn't used to putting herself in a position where people would either agree or disagree with her. By training and temperament, she was not much of a leader. But she knew that there was nothing she wanted to do less right now than get into that van.

"Yes," she said at last, hoping he would understand the answer, and hoping - since he had their fate in his hands for the moment - that it was the right answer. "Wrong."

Wrong was a good enough word for it, she thought, though she was once again cursing her inability to make herself as clear as she would have liked.  

[AninOnin]

((That's alright Shadow. I hope you get better!))

Smoke turned back, watching the scene between Hiccadu and Jacobs unfold. Needless to say, he was a bit surprised when he saw Hiccadu on all fours, upside down, licking the windshield. That wasn't compared to the shock of seeing Jacobs' true heritage, however. Smith was a chimera, and now Jacobs as well. What other secrets was he keeping, Smoke wondered.

Since no one appeared to be about to speak, Smoke took this as a sign that, although they agreed with Apsalar, they were afraid they would later regret that decision and so didn't want to be held responsible for anything they'd said. It didn't matter, really. Somewhere in the back on his mind, he felt faint relief that they wouldn't be going.

"Hiccadu. We're leaving in the morning," he spoke quietly, perfectly aware of her acute hearing. Then, somewhat louder, "I apologize for the inconvenience, sir. But we would rather take our chances elsewhere." So saying, he carried John back up the steps to be deposited on the couch. He was uncomfortable of the fact that they would have to stay there another night, a location known to Smith and Jacobs. They needed to keep moving, but John was far too weak, and Smoke was unwilling to uproot the chimerae until the morning.

((We can timeskip. I'm going to say it's safe to assume they won't be getting in the van xD

Go ahead and timeskip to the next morning. Jared will be arriving at the casino [where, I'm assuming, they were to be hidden?].))

A faint hum, perhaps that of a motorcycle, quickly grew louder. The address he had been given appeared to be that of an old, much worn-down casino. The walls were still intact, but the entire building was in dire need of a few new coats of paint and some advertisement. There was one very old car in the front, and a van looking only slightly better.

Jared stopped the engine and dismounted his vehicle, AutoMag tucked away in the back of his pants. He strode toward the entrance of the casino, keeping an eye out for Smoke and the creatures he'd adopted.  

[SpokenSoftly]

((Ex-kweez me??? What makes you think that someone as paranoid and overprepared and stuffed up the a** with backup plans as Smith and all his associates would let anyone stay out of the loop when, for example, the targets fail to take the bait?))

Jacobs rolled his eyes as he drove off, waiting until he was a block away to call Smith. "Smith. It's Jacobs. They refused when they met me, big surprise. You know I don't do well with our kind, I see too many of them as food. They're staying in the warehouse tonight. Might want to call the buyer and tell him where the human is."

------

Smith was very nearly put out. He'd interrupted a very nice dinner with his wife and youngest son to take a business call, and the last thing he wanted to hear was that Jacobs had managed to ******** up yet another abduction/pickup. "You have judgement issues, Jacobs. I expect this to be the last time you let a group slip away. The buyer will not be pleased at this last-minute change of plans."

So saying, he hung up and dialled Yani, getting voicemail after the third ring. His voice sounded nothing like it had when he had visited earlier today, and the number he was calling from was untraceable. "Hello, Mister Vent. This is an associate of your business partner. He has given me a message to deliver, and it is this: "They are where they were. A hotel or something similar. Please change my message to 'I do not appreciate those who do not follow through on agreements. Consider our business permanently finished.' I wish the human to be left alive if at all possible." The message ends. Goodbye, Mister Vent."

He hung up and walked back into the dining room, smiling as he tousled his son's hair. "Sorry about that, I couldn't wait on that. I'll put it on silent."

Hopefully that would get to Yani before tomorrow.  

[AninOnin]

((I was counting on it. This roleplay would get pretty boring, pretty fast, if everything went according to plan.))

Yani had just finished talking with the chimerae and scientists (or, more accurately, talking at the chimerae and to the scientists) about their upcoming change of residence. Everyone was excited, even the chimerae--though they were cautiously so. The mini-TAIS he had left on the table moved slightly with a vibration, and the screen lit up to reveal a voice message. He waited until everyone had left his room before he ordered it to "Play."

A man's message, mostly unrecognizable, filled the room. Yani felt underestimated, and although he kept most aspects of his life professional, he couldn't help feeling slightly miffed. TAIS had broken down and analyzed the vocal patterns in the superior audio recording, and displayed the name of the caller on-screen. Now why would Smith pretend to be his own employer? Did he want to give the impression that he was too busy to personally address his own business partner?

An odd turn of events. There was possibly another reason for this, but this prompted Yani to keep an eye out on Smith... A sharper eye than his own.

"TAIS, track every aspect of this 'Carlyle Smith'. I want to know where he is every moment of the day, the calls he makes, who he makes them to and what they're doing. I want to know details of his business transactions, and I need to know what other identities this man has assumed, if possible." This would take a massive amount of energy and virtual storage capacity, and it would probably take TAIS a fair amount of time. In the middle of setting up a second mainframe on the new site, it could potentially make the processes much slower. But Yani needed to know everything about this man.

((I thought Smith gave Yani the address for the "safehouse" he was supposed to be providing them. Will he know where they're staying now?))  

[SpokenSoftly]

((Smith didn't think of that, but since Hiccadu is with the, likely yes.))  

[LovetoCauseMayhem]

The mini-TAIS beeped in acknowledgment.

"Yes sir," the PDA replied. "Would you like me to pause in the shifting over to the new location in order to set everything up?"

Assuming he said yes, TAIS would pause in the copying and shut down her second mind in order to divert all her attention to spying on dear, dear Smith. It would take her about half an hour to get everything set up, and another thirty to de-fragment and compress a few files of information to make sure there was plenty of room for the file 'CeeSee'.

She never called files by obvious names. All files had interesting names as such. And all were password-protected on multiple levels. She would be back to work on copying herself in, maximum, an hour.

If he said no, however, it would take about six hours of multi-tasking to make sure everything went correctly. And a mistake or fluke would be much more likely to happen.

----

Hiccadu grinned madly as a snake appeared in the driver's seat of the van, and she was just about to turn back into her own Chimeric form, peel the wrapper off the candy and dive in when Smoke spoke softly to her, dividing her attention for just a moment.

Frowning at the knowledge that, no, no food for her, she straightened up on the hood of the van and jumped down to the side in front of smoke, landing lightly. She turned to look over her shoulder and shot Jacobs a look.

"You're lucky," she replied simply, before turning to follow Smoke back into the motel.

----

The next day had TAIS poking her awake at the crack of dawn, and Hiccadu blearily opened her eyes and looked around to see who else was awake. Having curled up on the ground in her Chimeric form, she took a moment to take mental note of her healing process.

The eye was still worthless, but it would be like that for a few days. The wing which had the torn ligament had healed, but was still weak. For a while she wouldn't be able to fly. But her legs were healed enough to operate without a limp and the scars and cuts were hidden beneath fresh animal armor.

She was ready to face the day.

Mentally smiling with satisfaction, she stood up on all fours and gave a mighty, feline-like stretch, yawning as she did so.

Straightening and shaking the rest of the sleep out of her system, she blinked as her stomach began to rumble.

Well, if no one was awake, might as well get some food while she waited.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: I...may just be tired, but I have no idea what is going on anymore. So unimportant post is unimportant.))

Apsalar woke up uneasy. This was nothing new, and her reaction was as usual - all senses on high alert, searching for any of the white-coats who had come in in the night or were coming down the hallway.

Even once she remembered that they were away from the white-coats and the shiny metal tables and the pain, she felt off. Restless, she got to her feet and nearly stumbled - she'd forgotten about the hoodie she now wore, and had expected her wings to help her balance as they normally did.

Though the freedom of it was still new and strange, she needed to move.

Cautiously, edgy, she stepped to the room's door and opened it. She would walk around for a little while, she thought, just a little while. And then go back, and they would leave.  

[AninOnin]

((Okay, Jared is wherever the chimerae were supposed to be hiding. He's just looking around for someone to point him in the right direction.

Smoke and the chimerae are in a motel. Smoke wants to follow his original plan of getting as far away as possible, and then leaving the country.

Yani's been promised a new lab from his most recent business partner, Smith, and the slaughterhouse will be used for public relations purposes. Basically, chimerae are going to become publicized.))

Smoke slept, gun in hand, sprawled halfway on and halfway off a mattress that smelled faintly of cheap scent-spray. The eyes opened briefly, and, remembering where he was, sat up. He moved to rub his temples, keeping the barrel pointing away, then sat up. Two minutes in the bathroom, and then he moved back out into the living room. Some had taken rooms, some had preferred to sleep in the main room; others, he'd noticed, had chosen the roof for a rest.

"Rise and shine guys," he croaked in a morning voice that made his words slightly hypocritical. "Time to get a move on."

His blurred vision picked up movement in the room, and eventually he identified it as Apsalar, walking around. Seemed she had woken up earlier than Smoke, but she still looked tired. "Morning," he nodded to her, covering the following yawn with the hand that held his gun. He looked at it, vaguely recognizing the metal in his hand, before he retrieved the shoulder holster and slipped the gun inside.  

[SpokenSoftly]

Smith sat up and stretched, instantly awake once his eyes opened. He smiled as he thought of the life he'd managed to build, and how it would come crashing down around the heads of his wife and youngest son when he died, in good time. He had a backup body, with some technical thing he couldn't understand very well that backed up his memories somehow, and he knew it would be activated in due time, but the fact that it looked nothing like him would shake things up a bit.

Shunting his thoughts aside, he abandoned the tangent he usually went off on in the mornings and thought back to his message to Yani last night. He'd been abysmally stupid to do that, but he never thought so clearly late at night. Looking down at his wife for a moment, he scribbled his schedule - in fact a different schedule entirely, but one he would follow in a week or so, she already had the one for today - and left it beside the bed for her to find, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out to his car.

'Carlyle Smith' was a famously reclusive billionaire, 'C.T. Smith' the mysterious and untraceable leader of the organization of men who went by the same name. 'Thomas Smith,' the life he'd just left and the only one linked to Chimerae in any way, was a rich businessman and a ruthless negotiator who could afford to hire muscle if deals went sour. 'Tom Smith' was known among his circle of associates, and to the higher-class sectors of the business community at large, as a person who would, if there was a conflict of interest, always choose the more profitable interest. He had a strict policy of informing disassociated associates if they were worth more than a hundred grand, but lower-class contacts could be cut off without warning. He was going to 'cut off' one of them this morning, a mobster in the Boston area named Ertz.

As he drove, he called one of his many 'Friends,' associates that were, like himself, not entirely human, and asked him to call in to Yani. "I know this is high-risk, Adam, but you are uniquely suited for risky jobs. After all, it's not like you haven't put out spores in the past ten years or so. You can just germinate somewhere and get some clothes. The message is 'I will contact you soon regarding the human, and payment if he is alive and unharmed when I contact you. This man will be my contact to you from here on out. Smith.' Message ends."

The voice on the other end of the line was halting, with emphasis on syllables that no language on Earth used. "Of... course, Mister Smith. But I ex~pect to be paid... for-this. Richly."

Smith nodded, though his contact wouldn't see it. "Of course."

He hung up and shuddered gently. Adam was one of the original two-dozen or so Chimerae, and the only one he'd seen whose species he couldn't quite pin down. All he knew was that Adam could reincarnate or regrow his body somehow, and that he called the process 'germination.' It was a profoundly disturbing sight, for all that it took less than ten seconds.

((Adam is a fungus-dominant, bacteria-secondary Chimera. I can excise this if it wouldn't work.

Also, because I couldn't think of anything to make him stand out among the contacts, he talks like G-man from the Half Life games >.<))  

[Wire_Colossus]

Hound was already awake and sitting in a corner. "Smoke, I have a warning. I'm feeling thirsty, bdespite the amount of water I've drank in the past few hours. I Fear I am going to need blood soon. Let us Hope that I don't lose my mind again..."

Pup was curled up near Hiccadu. when Smoke spoke he slowly woke up and yawned widely. He stayed next to hiccadu, having come to believe she was his mom. The only way someone would be able to convince him otherwise, was if another female chimera older than Pup were to show affection towards him and actually treat him like the little boy he was. He had only claimed that Hiccadu was his mommy because she was alot bigger than him and she was a female chimera who seemed like she could put up with him.  

[AninOnin]

((Heya guys. I've been feeling really sick, and I've let it snowball out of control. I will keep up with this, but I'm sorry, because my posts will be sporadic and randomly timed. This will probably continue for the next few months, so please just bear with me sweatdrop ))

Smoke looked at Hound, as though not recognizing him yet, repeating the words a few times in his head before he grasped the meaning. He truly was not a morning person.

This was a problem though. Smoke couldn't really go around and drain anyone of the blood their bodies needed. It was rather a vital thing to living. But then, he didn't want to risk Hound going crazy and attacking another chimerae. Hoping his target would be Hiccadu was too much to ask, and anyway, Smoke had promised himself to give her a chance, however small it was. Pitting Hound against Hiccadu would undoubtedly make the rest of the chimerae hate her even more than they already did, regardless of the winner.

"Would you be terribly averse to going hunting with Hiccadu?" he asked, the question directed at both Hound, as well as TAIS's chimera. He'd noticed the chimera's growling stomach before, as well as her restlessness to get moving. He'd only assumed she was hungry, not that she was going hunting.

((That alright, Mayhem?))  

[Wire_Colossus]

"I would be fine with hunting. The only reason I haven't been doing so to get the blood I need is because you said it would get us captured. And You should try to get Aspalar or one of the other females to convince pup that they are his mother. I have come to realize that I am...what the word....falling for hiccadu. I can't stop those feelings. But I will admit she is the worst possible parental figure for the kid. Don't let his size fool you, he's less than 6 years old. We need him to be raised by a female that won't kill us or get us all recaptured," Hound said. It might have came across as shocking that he'd fallen for Hiccadu.

((It's alright Anin. I hope you get better soon!! ))  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: Oh, that sucks. Been there. D8 Definitely make your priority getting better.))

Apsalar glanced back at Smoke when he spoke to her, and froze. The metal thing pointed in her direction looked dangerous - and smelled that way, too. She remained perfectly still until he put it away. Once he did, she replied hesitantly, "Morn...ing?"

Was she supposed to say it back? If not, what was she supposed to say? Had she said it right?

She had to find someone who would teach her how to make the words do what she wanted them to do. It was so frustrating to be restricted in her communication this way.

Luckily, Smoke was quickly distracted by Hound, and Apsalar could slip out the door relatively unnoticed. Since they were 'timing to get a move on' soon, whatever that meant, she didn't intend to be gone long. Just a breath of air, to remind her what it meant to be free, what they were trying to achieve.

Then she'd go back in, and they would go.  

[LovetoCauseMayhem]

Hiccadu's eyes narrowed, both at Smoke and at Pup. She hadn't noticed him creep up to snuggle against her during the night.

Continuing to scowl, she bumped Pup a little bit to get him away from her and moved towards the door.

"I would prefer he not," she stated over her shoulder. "But if there's no way around it, I suppose I can't really say no."

Turning into her human form, she opened the door.

"Let's make this quick."  

[AninOnin]

((Alright guys. Wire and I were thinking about a one-month timeskip, to give her character time to develop and also for Yani to move into his new lab. Smoke will have taken the chimerae to the coast [off of Florida--humid, hot, rains a lot, and they're on an isolated beach in a big beach house Smoke's parents bought] and is having difficulty arranging for them to all leave for Cuba [unless Smith will have intervened? PM meh]. Jared is having a hard time tracking them down after they leave, but finds a good lead, and John and Hiccadu should be totally healed by then. Feel free to post what they've done before and after the timeskip if you feel you're comfortable enough with the setting.

If anyone doesn't want a timeskip, own up to it. I don't want to move you guys until you're ready razz ))