Experiment #362 (ily)

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

OOC//: This is a closed thread between Ily and me for now, but I will probably make it an AW after a few posts. I will let you know, personally, Kuna, when I do, so we can have some RP time :)

I’d been working on it for just over two months now, this little experiment of mine. The children had still been blind and deaf when poor little Daniel got a bit too curious, and wandered a little too close. Oh, I didn’t bite him or anything, I merely spoke. I planted the seed, and like the good little garden he was he came back every day to get the plants watered. I never had to take him unwillingly--that was not my style. You see, it is a mortal need to be abused, I have learned with time. They so love to have their deepest fears brought forward. Or maybe they just love to be given reason to doubt themselves, to run away from what could happen, no matter how small a chance it was. You see, I never lied to Daniel. Not once did I tell him he would, without a shadow of a doubt, turn against his beloved. Not a single time did I say Ashley had no choice but to kill Jacqueline at some point. I merely said the programming was there--that is was possible. That was all the man had needed to fall right into my little chess game.

Experiment #362, A Seed of Doubt. Objective, to see how a Folami reacts to the mere thought of not being on control, despite having already proven they are not under the human’s power. Hypothesis, if a Folami is told there is even the slightest chance they will return to their programming, then they will convince themselves they are turning. Subject, Daniel--chosen for his clear position against harming felines. Results, hypothesis has proven valid.

A cruel smile curved along my slim maw as golden eyes fixated on the gray brute scurrying rather awkwardly to where a lioness cub rested in the shelter of a pine. My ears flicked forward as Daniel demanded Jacqueline tell him where Ashley was. The woman merely shrugged and went back to her nap after mumbling something about not being the young Folami’s keeper. Daniel twitched and I caught his guarded expression as his eyes scanned right over where I hid a short ways away. He thought Vice and Jacqueline were in danger, clearly. He had convinced himself that he was a threat to his wife and adopted daughter, and Ashley would be one day, as well. He had shared a deer with me and my children yesterday and our dinner conversation had resulted me in laughing suggestively that the only way he could be sure he and Ashley would never hurt Vice and Jacqueline is if they are not around. The man had responded with his own thoughtful, dry laugh agreeing, but declaring weakly that he could never leave Vice, or separate his children, and he would never hurt them. I went on to call him a good father and mate sweetly, but with a hint of warning I bid him farewell with a ‘you’re probably right, I hope for your sake’. Seemed my final words to him had had their desired affect, that final thrust to his self-doubt. He was looking for Ashley and the two would simply disappear. That meant my children and I would leave soon, my pleasant little experiment done with and the three of them old enough to adapt to my nomadic lifestyle.

Besides, it was time to introduce the pups to their Aunty Carska and Cousin Mahal.

Careful not to draw Daniel’s attention to me, I moved out of my covering, deciding to search for Dalek and give him the good news. I had spoken of Carska and Mahal to all three children, but it was Dalek I had told about the experiment. My little clone boy was so very much like your’s truly--manipulative, self-serving--how I loved him. I was eager to share the results with the child, and perhaps the two of us could stalk the fleeing Folami for a few final observations. How I did so love my little research assistant--I looked forward to the day I got to witness his first experiment, should be any time now. The pups were walking around and thinking rather clearly at just over two months of age, sharp as a cat’s claw, and sly as a snake. My dear Dalek did so take after me, and I found myself rather fond of him.

Rather fond of all three of them, really--my dear friend, Twenty-Seven, made sure of that.

[I L Y I C H]

I knew mother searched for me. Hidden as she was I could still smell her. The others were stupid. They would assume it to be from previous times where it was not. A sad day it was when men and women aged old and white were not quite as clever as a young child. Morons. Their silly little tribe grew so large and so strong but not a one thought to protect themselves. To set up in preparation for war as it surely would come. Mother had told me of the others and the humans. Folami were not meant for a world of peace, even I at my current brain capacity knew that. The peace would chip away until sooner or later war and violence broke through. One more enemy faced the monsters to the south. One more massively well prepared enemy. Esson was slow and dimwitted to think man would leave them be to simply dismantle their machines. Man saw all things as machines.

Sat on my haunches I stood abruptly, purple paws shuffling awkwardly against the ground as I purposely almost tripped over myself with the motion. Go forward. Mother was running an experiment. It had finalized it seemed, or so my eyes told me as they followed Daniel's hectic motions about the camp. Searching for his own child. A grin, cold and cruel tugged onto my features before I replaced it. Pulling a clay built smile onto my maw, it's edges bright and cheery, I made to the gray man. Mother's games were done and her test subject let alone but I had my own questions. Such as Ashley's reactions. The girl was far more loyal then Daniel proved to be, and she while fearing what she was at times had only ever shrugged off my attempts to play this game with her. What would it take of dear Daniel to reach through such a hard bitter loyalty?

Electric eyes bright I stumbled up to the man, mauve muzzle lifted and smiling up at him. Innocence as it was meant to be. Innocence as I had mimicked it form my darling sister who was so much less then what I was. "What 're you lookin' 'or Mr. Daniel?" Words falling in on themselves I pent up my face to make myself look contrite. Concentrating on the words like a child just learnt to talk. Not a boy who spent every waking moment demanding what words meant and slowly building his vocabulary. No need for this man to know such things. He was a finalized experiment and nothing more. Tipping my head to the side and flicking ears too big for my stature I smiled widely at Daniel. Expecting him to react in some way. Such a jumpy boy he was. Taking a step forward on too big paws I rocked as if trying to keep my balance. Oh I was such an ungainly child. So very clumsy.

I could hear her now, padding along just outside camp moving within. A rabbit was clutched in the mottled girl's jaws. I swung my head aside, pandering to the man's frantic search. "Lookin' for Ashley?" I turned on large paws, bright eyes turning playfully to the girl. His adopted child whom Daniel trusted just as little as he trusted himself. It made me wonder how horrible that would feel to the girl who looked onto this ebony pelted man as her father and by extension a small form of god. How must it feel to be told your father doesn't trust you enough to let you be happy? A new question. And I could even reuse old test subjects. Wonderful. Backing up, playing at having been distracted I turned fully and bounded away from the man letting out a loud squeaky bark to draw mother's attention as I focused on a bug to shake off Daniel's attention if it was even still on me which I highly doubted.

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[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

My dear sweet little boy. I paused in my wanders and sat, lifting a paw, licking it, and swiping it over my ears. My back was to where I heard my son questioning my Subject as I pretended to groom myself, masking over the way my ear turned in their direction. Daniel's shuffling paws stopped and I heard him turn towards the bruise-colored boy. I felt my eyes narrow if only slightly. I dared him to take Dalek for a fool and lie to him. I would be within my rights to approach him and chew on his tail if he did so--protective mother and all that hormonal driven shit. But I didn't have such luck, Dalek pointing Ashley out and then drawing my attention over to him.

"Don't play with icky bugs, baby." I put on the fretting mother charade as I met the child halfway. Dalek, of course, knew it was an act, but this little display of prissy mothering acts are the only Denerbe these fools knew. Just like I was well aware Dalek was not some silly, naive little boy. He was a mastermind, and a professional actor. Just like is mama. I bent down and swiped my tongue over his forehead. "Wonder how he will get Ashley to leave. I bet you the heart of my next kill he will use the pack as his reason." I nipped the words coldly over the boy's ears, careful not to let anything but my hearing range direct at the father and daughter not even fifty feet away.

Before giving my son a chance to accept or decline, Daniel was speaking rigidly, desperately, in a hushed tone. "There has been word the pack is looking for rouge Folami. They are following scent trails and murdering any felines harboring such dogs. We have to go into hiding for a little while, to keep Vice and Jazz safe. No one is allowed to know, or else they may not be able to convince the pack they really don't know where we are." He was already making a quick paced march towards the trees, clearly expecting Ashley to follow without question. Questions would be answered later. I wondered absently in the man had been smart enough to even think up answers yet, or if he would just wing it and, ultimately, let the lie become unraveled.

"Okay, bet is off. You didn't get a chance to accept or decline." I smirked down at the boy. "You can have the next heart if it is feline. Canine is too good to waste of your undeveloped taste buds." I winked playfully at him before refocusing my hearing to the side where I knew Daniel was heading to the trees and listening to see if Ashley would follow.

[I L Y I C H]

"But they aren't icky mommy!" I defended my prize childishly, eyes cutting surreptitiously after Daniel as I did so. Ducking my head into Mother's warm tongue I smiled cruelly against the touch. Of course he would use the pack, that was his constant worry and the deepest pits of his fears. A silly fear, as the pack cared not for what most did, but then Daniel always seemed a step behind the times. So I didn't respond immediately, pricking my ears after the gray brute we had spent the last month or so emotionally traumatizing. It had been sadly easy in the end to flip that final switch of paranoia in Daniel's head. Then again maybe it hadn't been so very simple and mother was just too clever for her own good. Some people liked to say that too. One could never be too clever, and their own good has little to do with it.

Ashley rocked back on her heels to get away from Daniel's desperation. If only for a moment. Shock pooled into those young eyes though, and I knew he had her trapped in an instant. A bur in his fur that he'd rather had pricking at him then at others. Though the young silver woman never seemed much trouble to anything but rabbits. Smiling loudly and half stumbling over my paws I tucked into mother's ebony legs, hiding all but twin golden spheres as I faked not watching the drama unfold. How simple of them really. I was almost disappointed in Ashley for giving in too easily but she threw up her shields abruptly her own tawny gaze narrowing with worry. "We can't tell them where we're going? Vice is already antsy these days are you really just going to run off?" There was no 'we' there and that was curious. Diction was a wonderful tool in these situations.

I could see the fae was ready to give in but only if her demands were either met or placated. Family was more important to her then paranoia, it seemed. Though Daniel obviously loved his feline mate and their adopted children he should know the idea he was setting in all of their heads in this instant. Poor little Vice and her constant fears. Silly old man should know his silly old woman better then this. Paranoia was after all a trait that they shared. Ashley was looking past her adoptive father to the black bodied woman as she whined softly. The jaguar had been asleep but at the noise that head came up sharply and with anxiety. A good mother then feline was, if not a fraction too over protective. Watching from the comfort and confines of Mother's limbs I finally turned and tucked my snout up into her belly. Once my source of nutrients and now simply a source of warmth.

"But mother how am I to develop them if you wont allow me?" I cooed playfully back, my own smile twisting into a smirk as I felt none but my mother's sun-hued eyes on me. I didn't have to act for mummsy. She knew better anyhow. There was little reason for it. A heart was a heart however, and though I was curious as to the taste and texture differences I would allow my mother her knowledge. Teasing she may be but then that was the name of the game here. Eyes bright and jaws parted playfully I nipped at her as was expected of me, but kept oversized ears tipped towards the state of affairs of our little experiment. Ashley was rocking about on her paws obviously uncertain and fearful. Wanting to give their friends a warning but not wanting to put them into trouble. Torn. It was almost funny.

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[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

It still caught me off guard, the way my son’s contact made my stomach clench in the need for more of it. Twenty-Seven hadn’t given me all the details on this emotion he was burdening me with. At first it had overwhelmed me to an unbelievable degree, but not I could manage it. Usually. Now was a time I almost let my guard down and showed a true warm affection, rather than the manipulative, possessive love I typically allowed.

Almost.

I stopped myself from pushing into Dalek’s contact as I had seen Daniel and Vice do to their children so many times--as if the feelings it gave were something they needed, a nutrient they could not get from food. Instead I bowed down and nuzzled him guardedly, still affection, but a little rougher so it could still be seen as rugged. That was my only ambition, to still have to think about every move. I agreed to have love in my capabilities, but I still wanted my brain to call the shots. So I made it a mission to deny the instinctual reactions (like leaning into my son’s touch) and instead doing anything else, as long as it was my brain saying to do it, and not the hormones.

Ears still turned towards the experiment, I heard Daniel’s step pause at Ashley’s almost challenging question. The man could be heard turning around and making a beeline back to his daughter, to lean in and talk at a softer tone. I caught Vice’s scent nearby, heard her muffled movements. I flicked my gaze towards Dalek’s and concluded he could actually see the black feline. Daniel had to be careful or the woman would come over or overhear.

“Do you think I make the decision lightly? I never imagined ever leaving your mother’s--” he paused a moment and I could almost feel the tension as his jaw locked with the slip of the tongue, “sorry, Vice’s side, just I imagine you never thought you’d leave Jazz. But if we don’t, you know they will die for us. I won’t watch my mate take a bullet for me. Could you watch Jazz do it?”

[/b][/i] My smirk grew a twitch crueler. The man had his own little manipulative side. Play the guilt and any good-hearted being will fall into the trap. This was why I had always been so proud of not having the hormones for love--love makes you have to sacrifice for other beings. Ashley would leave with Daniel today, and though Daniel’s reasoning was noble in his own regard, Ashley was the one leaving as a hero.

I shifted my attention back to my son in time to hear his own playful question. The boy had a point, but I loved the hearts of canines and I would not give one up so easily. “Tell you what, my boy, you help me take down a dog and you can have the heart. We can hunt after Daniel and Ashley get some distance. We need to catch something big to fill not only mine and your tummies, but your siblings as well. We leave in the morning to meet your Aunt and Cousin and we can’t have rumbling stomaches because mommy has a reputation to keep up that once the stomach rumbles, closest creature has to die. And I really don’t feel like pissing off your Aunty Carska by eating a member of her family.” Though there was a playful gleam to my tone, there was some seriousness as well. Carska had always been an interesting figure to me, but since my visit with Twenty-Seven, I have actually felt an urge to not only preserve her life, but her feelings as well.

Sentimental and all that shit.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

[I L Y I C H]

Cunning wasn't he? When he wanted to be. Manipulative if need be. Folami were like that though. Programmed to be so very clever if they had to be, or so mother said. I had observed as much in the few months of my life. They were useful at very rare times of extreme stress, but that level of stress was different in every individual and I had concluded that further testing must be done on an individual basis. All that corny 'everyone's different' nonsense actually proved itself to a certain point. Of course everyone in the end wanted the same things, but they all managed to through stupid kinks into the hose and my experiments before they got to that bit. It was almost irritating and perhaps would have been if it weren't so interesting. Find out how the clock ticks and all that. A curiosity.

Ashley's clock had been so simple to find and set in the end. She looked hard at her adoptive father. Heard him correct himself and even I could see the pain that shot across the child's face in that instant. Sweet Ashley who thought she had found a home but was wrong. Proven wrong time and time again. No one trusts a folami. No one wants a folami. That pallid muzzle dropped low and where once she might have called Daniel father the forgotten child merely called him by his name. "No Daniel." The pain in her tone whispered across my powerful ears even as Vice very carefully laid her chin back on her paws, looking somewhat ill.

The ideas bounced into being immediately. How antsy she had been the last few days. How unlike her normally almost stoic self. Was it possible? Oh it was and thats what made it all the more brilliant. "Mommy do you think Vice has a tummy ache?" I asked meekly, looking at the woman with false compassion. This could be far too much fun. Hoping out abruptly from under my mother as I returned her touch I turned in a quick circle. Curious. Teach me. Teach me! The words all but burned in golden eyes I had been told looked far too knowing for a child my age.

Vice looked like she was about to get up, though and I was immediately distracted. Not a good control, I don't think. Ashley looked ready to break away from Daniel anyway. No need to ruin in the game. "Vice!" I half wailed the words, rushing towards the spotted feline only to tumble head over too big paws upon catching what would look like nothing but open air. Scrambling back to my paws as the shocked but warmly welcoming smile brought the woman's face towards me, I gave her a wide smile and a hearty wag of my tail. "Mommy's gonna show me how to hunt." A great smile flew up on my muzzle as I galavanted back towards my parent in question, tail waving a mile a minute.

Ashley slipped out of the camp entrance, her tail tucked as her adoptive mother didn't notice a thing. Skidding to a stop before my mother's purple and black bruise of a body I grinned widely. Speaking conversationally in a tone completely at odds with my looks currently I continued to wave my tail. "Are aunty Carska's friends on the safe list?" The truly safe list? Or the just for now one?

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[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

I finally let my eyes carry over to where the pair stood, catching their movements and expressions in my peripherals. Ashley’s own hurt over Daniel’s correction was reflected in his gaze as he saw it. The man saw the children as his own, there was no doubt about that, he just questioned himself far too greatly to let anyone else as close to him as Vice was. My ear flicked down towards Dalek at his question, carrying my eyes carefully over to the twilight feline. I had been noticing similar shifts in her movements and personality to justify a pregnancy, and I could tell by my son’s tone he was thinking similarly. A cold smirk played my expression. This just made it all the more delicious. If Daniel does not return, though I knew he would should he survive a bit in the wild, these would be bastard children and hold enough Folami traits to make being raised by solely a feline quite difficult. Ilyich, for example, had her paws full with the hybrid animals she had birthed, for no kind folami stood by her side to teach the children how to control those deep-rooted instincts. Daniel, unknowingly by not returning, would be condemning his wife and true blood children to a tormented life beyond his capability to imagine. If he did return, however, it would be amusing because the man did not like the thought of being a father. Observing him with Ashley and Jazz, the way he loved them so dearly but found it so difficult to show it, was enough proof to convince the jury he was an unfit father.

“Seems Vice may be pregnant, as I am sure you have already concluded, love. This is why you don’t have unprotected sex because, clearly, Daniel never intended to have children.” I chuckled it cruelly as I watched the gray wolf turn around and carry himself into the covering of the woods. He shot a careful smile in Vice’s direction in case she was looking, clearly trying to relay a message that him and Ashley were off to hunt if Vice was watching. So there it was, the end of the experiment--or this part. Surely Dalek and I would stalk after Daniel and Ashley in their movements every few days so that we could witness their return, or their mental downfall if they don’t return. I was curious to see how Daniel responded if he came home and was greeting by creatures with Vice’s dark fur and thin tail, but his snout and muscle. Would the paternal instinct allow him some joy and love for what he created, or would he fall into fear and distrust right away? Only time would tell.

I blinked approvingly after my son as he distracted Vice was his little charade before bounding back to me. His question allowed a soft smile, though it looked quite the same as all my other not so friendly smirks. “Yes, Aunty Carska and Cousin Mahal are on the truly safe list. The rest of Vea Apxn, however, are only safe on their own lands. Should they happen to wander into unclaimed territory, and we have the recourses to hide that we are what caught them--” I pulled a paw across my throat and stuck my tongue limply from the side of my mouth to pantomime a murder. “The real treats are from the original pack, though. They are fun to fool because they are truly all bronze and no brain. Most of them.” I stood up and stretched into a bowing position, my legs having fallen asleep as we sat. Brushing my squirrel-like tail across Dalek’s nose, I slithered my way over to the black feline. “That I am.” I laughed kindly over my shoulder in response to Dalek’s puppish exclamation over being taught how to hunt. Looking to the black feline, I offered her a sweet smile. “Daniel and Ashley are off to hunt big game, but Dalek and I are going to practice on smaller creatures. Would you like us to get you a rabbit or whatnot, or would you prefer to see if your mate and daughter manage to bag an elk?” My tone was sweet and full of innocence, as if I were not yet corrupted by this world despite having lived in it for years.

One does not live here and come out unscathed, but people tend to forget that.