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Post by Jasmine on Sept 20, 2014 20:39:27 GMT -5
(( hey, it's me again ^^; i haven't rp'd in a while, so please excuse me if i seem kind of awkward... ))
His brother, his clone, was gone, for all he knew. Honestly, all he knew was that he was still alive, and that he'd been crouching in his cage, surrounded by other animals, the scent of fear pressing down around him constantly. It'd been so long since he'd been taken out for a test, he almost wondered if the whitecoats even still remembered he existed. Almost, because the occasional distribution of pellets (aka a pathetic, tasteless excuse for food) included him, so obviously he was still registered in the long lists of test subjects. Tao shook himself. It was probably for the better that the whitecoats left him alone. Recalling a particularly violent maze excursion, he shivered. The scars from that test still ached sometimes. When it rained, his mind added. Always when it rained. The perpetual muffled chatter made his fur stand on end inexcplicably. He had lain there perfectly fine before, so why did it bother him now? Perhaps, if he seeked out conversation himself...
"Hello," he called. "Anyone?"
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Post by lewis on Sept 20, 2014 20:52:22 GMT -5
(I'm just gonna casually throw Lewis in there... ) Lewis's trembling ears flattened slightly at the voice, the voice of the rat, the rat whose presence discontented him down to the core. It wasn't like the individual behind him, of whom his gaze tried desperatly to avoid, was rude or mean. No, no, he was just... frightened. And thus Lewis was condemned to the same cold, white thrill of fear that leaked through the weak shield Lewis had attempted to throw over his empathy. His /empathy/. The albino rat's tail twitched, tail twitched and he shivered, biting down gently on his lower lip and willing himself not to talk to the emotional vampire that was slowly draining him. He shifted, scuffing the ground slightly just so that the other rodent would be aware of his presence, without Lewis having to vocalize.
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 20, 2014 21:32:25 GMT -5
Tao caught the movement in the corner of his eye, and turned. He scurried forward until he was at the edge of his cage closest to the other rat's, and gave a small, wavering smile. "Um, hello," he greeted hesitantly. He paused, unsure what to say next. He settled for sitting down, wrapping his tail around his paws, and just watched, narrow eyes unrevealing. After a few heartbeats of silence, he fidgeted and swiped a paw over one torn ear. "What's your name?" he asked in a mumble, gazing straight at the other.
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Post by lewis on Sept 20, 2014 23:16:08 GMT -5
Lewis stiffened, his usually jittery and active body going completely still and quiet. So he had been acknowledged. His shoulders sank as he sighed and turned his head a little, so that he could see the other rat out of the corner of one of his pink eyes. Back still stubbornly turned to the oppressor, Lewis said "My name, my name is Lewis", double-phrasing out of nervousness. Deciding to accept the inevitable, he tentatively turned around and focused on the other rat, still avoiding it's gaze. "You're anxious. Calm down, it's freaking, it's freaking me out." he muttered curtly.
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 21, 2014 16:44:28 GMT -5
Tao frowned. "Huh? I'm freaking you out?" The pale rat shifted, trying to catch the other's eye. "I dunno what you're talking about, but..." He smiled tentatively again. "I'm Tao. Nice to meet you, I guess?" Another thought registered - the repeating phrases. "Why do you talk, talk like this?" he asked, purely out of curiousity. This rat didn't seem too bad. Perhaps he was a bit strange, but in all honesty, they all were around here. Tao smiled inwardly. These were the kind of things he'd talk to his clone about; interesting characters, little thoughts. But of course, Zitao had vanished, and Tao was left to talk to strangers. At least these strangers were nice enough.
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Post by lewis on Sept 21, 2014 17:44:03 GMT -5
His ears flattened again and he turned his head a little to the side, inhaling deeply. This rat, this unfamiliar rat was /mocking/ him. However, Lewis wasn't sensing any hostile or rude vibes so he decided to go with his gut feeling that maybe the ray was just interested. Even though the imitation was unnecessary. But interested. But still unnecessary. "I consider it personally to be a habit, a habit or maybe a nervous twitch of a sort. Maybe some sort of brain malfunction, maybe it's stress induced. Not that I'm crazy," Lewis added quickly, suddenly jerking around his head and locking eyes with the individual. "Anyways what is it to you who has what habit?" The albino rat quieted immediately, worried he had offended him and a little concerned he would receive a retort following his aggressive comment. I, Lewis thought to himself, really am quite terrible at socializing, aren't I?
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 21, 2014 18:30:34 GMT -5
Tao shrank back, alarmed at the sudden aggression. "Oh- okay, I was just curious, I didn't mean to..." He hesitated. "Offend... you?" It was more of a question than a statement; what had he done to make this Lewis snap at him so? His previous thought, that he seemed plenty decent, didn't seem so true now. Oh. "Was it because I copied you?" he guessed, slightly dismayed. "I'm really sorry, ah..." He looked down rather guiltily. "I was just kinda curious." He was really missing Zitao right about now. He understood his clone. Other creatures... not so much.
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Post by lewis on Sept 21, 2014 18:57:26 GMT -5
"No, no, not offended," Lewis said, aware of Tao's guilt and wanting to shoo it away so it couldn't affect him. Really, it was far too late and he was feeling rather despicable for snapping. He had quite a large number of insecurities, as he was exceptionally self-conscious and shy, but Lewis kept reminding himself that all of the other rats he had spoken too probably knew nothing about them, or didn't care. That made him feel better. Yes, they would probably forget that he didn't like it when others mocked him, and that he didn't like how angular his face was, and that he had a problem dealing with females. Lewis resolved to keep his weaknesses and insecurities hidden. "It's fine, curiosity is natural," the lab rat said lightly, giving a quick smile. "So, um, yeah. Your name's Tao so I expect that you would presume that I would present my own. My name's Lewis." he rambled slightly, proud that his words were clean of double-phrasing.
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 21, 2014 19:07:26 GMT -5
"Lewis, right." Tao blinked a few times, thinking. "What are you tested on?" He stood, feeling uncomfortable sitting still while he talked. "They cloned me. I do mazes. What about you?" His narrow eyes were childish, yet dark, something Zitao had always said confused others. "You don't look like they really did anything to your outside. Maybe they put something in you?" He was about to say more, but remembered that some of the test subjects were sensitive about these things, and fell silent, waiting for Lewis's response.
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Post by lewis on Sept 21, 2014 19:29:29 GMT -5
"Empathy." Lewis said shortly. He was starting to trust Tao a little. Tao wasn't making fun of him, or pressing topics, or letting brainless words pour out of his mouth like so many other. Lewis decided to expand on himself a little bit, since there was honestly not much else to do and this new aquantence seemed reasonable. "It's a little bit blurred, but I think I've worked it out. The Whitecoats, I think, are testing empathy levels in ratkind. They... Well, it's pretty dark... they put another rat in pain in the same cage as I am and record my stress levels by listening and watching, listening and watching a monitor that seems to be... turning my brainwaves into images. You know, you know what I mean, right? I've figured out how it works, you see," Lewis said with a little bit of pride roughly concealed in his voice. He realized that he was talking rather a lot more than normal, but he assumed that it was because he had finally met someone who seemed fairly intelligent.
"I watched the monitor sometimes, and there were these spikey lines across the screen that got spikier and more dramatic when I was more stressed." Lewis decided to keep to himself the discomfort of being in the presence of one in deep physical pain, and the details that ensued.
"I've always been really empathetic, but once they started testing on me I got considerably more aware of my emotional connection with others and I think it grew because of it..." He stopped rambling to breathe.
Tao's experiments, in his opinion, were a lot more interesting that his own. Cloning, huh? Like, there was another Tao running around somewhere, probably in another cage? Fascinating.
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 21, 2014 20:27:31 GMT -5
"Oh." Tao let out a long breath and realized, "So that's what you meant when you said I was freaking you out." He sat down again, flicking his ears. Talking about tests made him fidgety. "That's pretty clever of you," he complimented. "Figuring that all out." He bent his head. "I don't know what happened to Zitao. My clone. Brother. We decided we'd call each other brothers. But I haven't seen him in a while, and..." He trailed off. "Yeah, anyways... So if someone around here was really really scared, you'd feel it, huh? Like, you'd feel scared too?"
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Post by lewis on Sept 21, 2014 20:47:33 GMT -5
"Oh. Thank you." Lewis said, some warm and fuzzy core forming in his belly. He still four the cloning thing highly intriguing, and contemplated the things he could do if he had another Lewis running around. Well, notthat he looked much different from most other lab rats, with his white fur and pink eyes. But still. He would probably drive everyone crazy, the mischief he and Lewis.2 would get into.
Pulling himself out of his pool of thought, he replied. "Well, sort of, yes. It's pretty easy for me to see and understand how someone else is feeling, and it affects me too a little. Because, because emotions are just really infectious, you know? You understand, right?" Lewis cocked his head to the side and perked his ears, now a lot more trusting in Tao. Which, he thought to himself, was a little dangerous. Trust was dangerous. But Tao was ok. Besides, he didn't seem like the manipulative type and Lewis took note of that.
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 22, 2014 20:19:21 GMT -5
(( i don't think i'll be able to reply as often during the school week, but i'll still try to get on daily, sorry! ))
Tao nodded (a little over-vigorously). "Yeah, I get it. That's... That's really cool, actually." He grinned. He liked this Lewis. He was nice. He seemed plenty okay. Don't get too comfortable, said a little voice in his head. He ignored it. If Zitao was here, he'd probably say the same thing, but right now, Tao just wanted to relax and trust for once. For all the facades he ever put up, he was still a very young rat, and someone to talk to, really talk to? He needed someone like that, especially with Zitao gone. "But you don't read minds or anything super extreme like that, I hope? I mean, that'd be cool too, but..."
I'd be scared.
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Post by lewis on Sept 23, 2014 0:36:23 GMT -5
(( Hey it's all good, I have the same problem, what with two AP classes and Chemistry...))
"Mind reading? No, no, not even close. Really I just infer things." Lewis groomed down his side quickly, pulling at his fur a little with his tongue. Actually, that was an interesting idea to him. If he could read others' minds as easily as scenting the air, he could become a master manipulator and an invincible opponent. Not that it was a bad thing, being an invincible manipulator. That's basically what a superhero was, right? It would put him on the same rank as his hero, the rat locked somewhere far out of his reach but whom he wanted to save so badly. Maybe he could even be his sidekick...? But fantasies were fantasies, and Lewis pulled himself out of his pooling thoughts. Deciding to carry on the conversation for a little instead of trailing off, Lewis asked, "So where do you fall in the world? You're obviously intelligent, but do you seek further knowledge? Any dreams, aspirations...?"
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 23, 2014 22:52:19 GMT -5
"No mind reading, alright," Tao mumbled. Lewis's question took him by surprise. "Dreams? I guess... Well, I want to find Zitao, as of now. After that? I want to see the outside again. I really really miss it, honestly." He cocked his head at the other rat. "Have you ever seen the outside? The grass and the trees? The wind?" He paused, then frowned. "What about you? Is there something you really want to do?"
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