InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Captain, My Captain!"

River Tam (girl_albatross) wrote in labyrinth_rpg,
@ 2009-06-02 23:26:00

Current music:	Full Moon--The Black Ghosts
Entry tags:	active, day eleven, jacob black, river tam

Who: River and Jacob
What: Jacob learns his tribe's legends are not exactly legends...
When: Mid-morning
Where: Woods near the dorms
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Status: active

River had been spending time on and off with her new best friend. She knew Wash and Kaylee were in the labyrinth somewhere but she hadn't had the luck to run into them yet. Rather she had stuck close to her brother and Jacob. It seemed that since the day in the field they have claimed that as their own meeting place or sometimes a place to play at or just simply talk. So it wasn't unusual for River to end up there after she had woken up and wait for him. After twenty minutes of waiting for him she became worried and searched for him. When she found him in the woods she was suddenly hit by his voice. It was so frantic and in pain. Frightened sudden she ran in the direction in which she could hear him as fast as she could.

Running this way and that she finally made it to where he was but he was...different. She stopped in her tracks and gasped at what she saw. Jacob was...changing...into an animal! That had to be the thing she felt in him that was so different. River just hadn't expected it to be this! "Jacob!" she screamed to him though it came out more of a long belting note. Though she was confused as to why it came out in that way she was more worried about him.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-04 01:09 am UTC (link)

Running into Jacob changing was hard for River to watch. He looked as if he was in so much pain and it hurt her to see him in that state. She heard him say her name and then be cut silent by the change. It was a good thing she could pick up stray thoughts from others or they would have been in for a rough time. Unfortunately at the moment she could only pick up the pain in his thoughts.

River went to Jacob's shaking body feeling helpless. She was unsure of what to do to make the pain stop and bring him back. She tried to just pull his head into her lap and rub his back to calm him down. Or was it more like pet his...fur...that was going to take some getting used to.

"Jacob I'm here." she said quietly to him, or rather sang to him. She made a face at her sudden interest in living her life as a musical but still pushed it aside yet again so she could focus on Jacob.

River looked at his russet colored form over. Well it did make more sense now that she saw what exactly she had been picking up, but...could he come back? She could hear him inside the animal still. River had never dealt with anything like this before. A human turning into an animal was something out of a book in her world.

“Jacob…” she began to say/sing but let herself trail off. What was she to ask? River shook her head and started to just come to terms with the fact that her friend was going to be a wolf now. She still needed Jacob and if it meant playing fetch now instead of dancing or wandering around the labyrinth than River could agree to that as long as she still had him with her.

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black_moon
2009-06-04 12:49 pm UTC (link)

Still quivering and traumatized, the wolf boy barely noticed the presence crouch down next to him and began stroking his dense, fluffy main of light brown hair. What he did notice, however was a voice, a very familiar and cherished voice to him. It was the rhythmic melody of River Tam, and she was singing to him. Singing? He had never heard her sing before, but she must have been doing it to sooth him, because that was exactly what it was doing. His shaking eased up slightly, but most likely would not quite until his newly formed muscles stopped having a fit.

Jacob was panting heavily, and puffs of hot air escaped his open snout. Though his body temperature was now an astounding 118 degrees, and could be felt without even touching him, it actually felt nice and not at all like a fever. It didn't even occur to him that the heat may be making River uncomfortable. He was pretty sure they had other things to worry about at that moment.

Slowly getting his mind wrapped around the situation, he soon became aware that his head was in River's lap and she was petting him like a beloved puppy. His eyes were clenched tight but he knew it was her from her scent. He knew that she was wearing that floral red dress that he loved because it smelled of cotton and silk. He also knew that she had bathed this morning because of the strong scent of soap and shampoo. Huh, that's interesting, Guess he got all the heightened senses stuff along with his new look. His new look! Oh God, he couldn't be a giant wolf, He just couldn't! What had this damned place done to him!?

Whining loudly like a beaten dog, Jacob covered his face with his paw and held his own private pity party. "I hate this place," he shouted in his thoughts, "I hate it! Why is this happening to me?"

Such negative thoughts were very foreign to him. He never thought like that. What was happening to him? Attempting to control his shaking body, he buried his muzzle in River's dress and wished that she could make it all go away.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-04 02:44 pm UTC (link)

River could feel the heat of Jacob's body. If she could feel it so intensely on the outside she worried what he could be feeling on the inside. Was he sick? She debated about just getting up and running to Simon at the clinic and pull him by the hand to her friend. Seeing the wolf cover his face with his paw prevented her from getting up. Jacob needed her with him right now. She couldn't just leave him alone to fend for himself while this was happening.

She heard his yelling thoughts loud and clear and felt sorry for him. She had disliked the labyrinth as well but since Jacob finding her and then waking up to seeing her brother sitting next to her it hadn't been so bad. Not to mention the fact that she and her brother did not have to worry about the Alliance coming after them. For once things had been a bit quiet. Well with the odd things excepted, including her sudden impulse to sing at the moment. But dealing with uncontrolable singing was easier than reavers or bounty hunters.

River held Jacob closer to her as she searched deeper inside him for the answer to his unspoken question. It was then that she could see it in his genetic makeup. She gasped at what she saw in him. A human that could change into a wolf and back again? This place truly was strange. Though from what she saw it was not the place that was causing this but rather the presence of...something else. Vampires? River looked back up and scanned the labyrinth. There did seem to be a new one of those that was just arriving that day. Perhaps the increase in numbers of vampires is what trigged the change to happen now. She looked back down at Jacob and continued to stroke his fur as he buried his muzzle in her dress.

"It's a part of you." she tried to explain, "Genetics. Family history..." she tried to examine the actual root of it more so than the current cause at the moment, "Involving wolves...root of existence..." she hoped what little bit of an explanation she could read was enough to click something inside of him to understand. Though the singing was still weirding her out a bit she was gradually getting used to it.

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black_moon
2009-06-04 03:54 pm UTC (link)

River continued to sing to him her reassuring words, which was a little odd, but Jacob liked it. It was soothing and slowed his quaking body even more. He managed to concentrate on her words and registered what they meant. 'I got this from my family," he thought. Then all of the legends of my tribe were true!'

Everything suddenly made sense. All of his childhood bedtime stories, the folklore and tales of his forefather becoming one with a wolf spirit in order to save their people from vampires. Everything that he had been denying all of his life was suddenly slapping him in the face.. er, muzzle. What a fool he was. But if only his father would have come out and said, hey, your going to shift into a massive wolf one day, this may not have been so traumatic. 'Thanks dad'.

With his breathing slowing, the wolf boy was now only panting lightly, and the smooth sheen of perspiration from all the exertion of the shift was beginning to dry. He slowly lifted his wide head, which was easily the width of River's middle, and looked up at her with those black, black eyes. Could she see him in those eyes now, was he even recognizable to her? This was all too much. He didn't want to be a wolf for the rest of his life, It was so unfair, to find a friend such as this amazing girl, only to have a massive barrier slammed down between them.

With a small, pathetic whine, he let his ears drop and wondered if he would ever change back. Life could not be so cruel, wait...yes it could. Realizing that River probably still had a mental connection to his thoughts, he gazed into her kind eyes and thought, 'I'm sorry, I've abandoned you, but I really didn't have a say in the matter.' Would she hear him? Who knows, but he hoped so.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-05 12:44 am UTC (link)

"Family. Genetics, yes." River said/sung to him still stroking his fur. River listened to him shift through everything he had been told growing up. They certainly were interesting stories from the sound of them. She tried her best to keep her own brain together as she focused on the reality of the situation. She did have Jacob in her arms and he was real. River just needed to get herself to finally accept that this was her reality now. "Perhaps he could not say..." she said/sang, she could see something in him about being bound in secrecy. She let out an annoyed laugh, "Just as I cannot...not...sing..." she shook her head as if that would force whatever had it's hold on her voice to unlatch itself from her.

River let out a heavy sigh as everything sunk in. Her friend was a wolf and it seemed it was inevitable. She moved her hands from him when he got up to turn to look at her. She stared back at him unsure of what he was going to do. He could change back couldn't he? She read in him the genetic make up for the morphing part but the wolf to human? His father was human wasn't he? Still...

She was pulled out of her concerned thoughts when he started to speak directly to her in his mind. Well if he ever did become human River was going to have some explaining to do. Explaining to the best of her ability though.

"Abandon?" she made a face at the wolf. "No choice." she said/sung sadly but then noticed a stick. As a joke she picked it up and looked back up at him with a smirk on her face. "Technically we can still play." she laughed waving the stick in the air. She put the stick back on the ground realizing she should probably be a bit more serious, "Do you...have a choice to come back?" she asked/sang to him. It was the million dollar question she had been hesitating to ask. River didn't want him to think she would not want to be with him now that he was all furry on the outside. But she could not help but wonder if he could.

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black_moon
2009-06-08 06:10 pm UTC (link)

So, she was being funny? Now? Well, if River was anything, she was unpredictable. This was why he liked her so much. With a cock of his head to one side, Jacob looked at her lopsided to show his confusion and surprise at her words and actions. No power on this earth would make him play fetch!

Wait, so she had heard him when he talked through his mind! She had read his thoughts! He knew it, he knew that she could poke around in there, he just needed to be certain, and coming out and asking questions like that was always harder than it seamed. Well, at least they had some good news. River being able to pick up on his thoughts was a tiny ray of light in an otherwise hopeless situation. They could still communicate with each other.

Feeling the tiniest bit of relief, Jacob nudged the stick that River had offered to him with his nose and hesitantly picked it up with his mouth. His eyes went heavy and sad, and a tiny squeak of a whine escaped his throat as he lowered his head and dropped the stick to the ground. Who was he kidding, he couldn't even be a proper dog. It just wasn't in him to pretend.

Lowering his heavy, fluffy head into River's lap, he dropped his ears and made a grumbly sound of frustration. She had asked if he could turn back to a human again. How in the hell was he supposed to know that!! For all he knew, Jacob was going to be a flee ridden mongrel for the rest of his life! Why now! He was in no danger, his clan wasn't here, and no one he knew was in danger either. None of it made sense.

Once again, the anger and spite was welling up inside of him. He had no idea that it was a natural side effect of the spirit wolf transformation. Jacob just figured that he was loosing his soft heart and composure because he was week and couldn't handle the situation. 'I cant even be a wild animal correctly,' he moaned.

'Will you really stay with me if I'm like this for good?' he projected his thoughts to her and hoped she would catch them. 'Why would you do that? I'm no company for you anymore.' Jacob whined softly into the folds of the soft dress and burrowed himself deeper into her lap. He was sure that he would never have gotten away with that as a human, but he wasn't thinking about that at the moment.

'I can't...I can't dance with you again, River.' His thoughts were angry, sad and frustrated and all he wanted to do was scream.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-09 09:18 pm UTC (link)

River watched with curiosity as Jacob nudged the stick to her. She had been joking before but watching him play along made a small smile form on her face. However the smile faded as quickly as it had come when she heard that pained whine escape his throat. "Jacob..." she quietly sang/said when he lowered his head into her lap. She began to pet his face as she listened to him go through the angry thoughts. River was worried for her friend. Being no stranger to extreme emotions she knew this had to be a heck of a toll on him.

"You're not an animal." she said/sang to him as she pet his ears. "You're still Jacob."

She let out a heavy sigh and bent over to give him a hug with one arm under his neck and the other around his middle, as in answer to his quesiton. "Because you're my friend." she held him closer, probably too tight. "I need you." she said/sang quietly to him. It was more than she would have normally admitted but at the moment she felt he should hear it. "Of course you can still dance!" she laughed, "Not...well but..."

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black_moon
2009-06-09 09:54 pm UTC (link)

River's hands on his strange, animal body was comforting, even though he was having trouble controlling his emotions. Her thin fingers against the folds of his ear eased the rampant frustration running through him momentarily. She was trying to help him in the way that she knew how, and it was working, but did she realize that her mere presence was helping him deal? It must have been fate that River ran across him at just the right time. Either that or she followed his thoughts, but either way, Jacob probably wouldn't have been able to cope with the situation without her.

Jacob glanced his fluffy wolf head up at the gentle girl's face when she called his her friend, and that she needed him. Those words would have been music to his hears an our ago. To be needed was a thing of beauty, and to be needed by River Tam, well,.. there wasn't much else she could give him that would be a better gift.

She tried joking again about his awful dancing, but Jacob's mid was now fixated on her previous words. 'Not an animal?' he thought to her. How is this still me, how can I live like this? How can I take care of you?'

The frustration overwhelmed the stricken boy, and he lifted his upper body from the ground, threw his muzzle up into the afternoon air and howled a cry of anger, regret, loss and sorrow. He howled until his throat grew harsh and his breath ran out. Then, slowly, he flopped his russet head back onto River's dress and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed and his body relaxed as the release of all that emotion finally allowed him to calm.

If only he could just lay here a little longer, may be he would doze off, and awaken to find that it was all an awful dream.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-09 11:32 pm UTC (link)

River continued to hold him close to her as she tried to think of a way to answer his many questions. "You're still you inside." she said/sang as she tried to understand what he could be going through. One question did cause her to pull back and look into his eyes. "Care for me..." she tilted her head as she studied the wolf's dark eyes. River had always relied on Simon for everything. It was only when Jacob thought the question did she realize just how much she needed him.

She moved back a littl when he howled towards the sky. Since she had been able to hear his thoughts so clearly she jumped in surprise when it was a wolf's sound that came out of his mouth. She shook her head at Jacob trying to disregard the questions he asked her, "No, I don't care if you're a wolf now. You are still the Jacob I know and it will take more than turning you into a wolf to get rid of me." She began to pet his face again as he closed his eyes and slowed his breathing.

River could hear and feel his hopes of it all being a nightmare that he would wake up from. She held his head in her hands and leaned her own on his shoulders. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was that it had all happened the way it did but being River she could not find the words. She had only finally came to terms with magic herself recently and now seeing it first hand in Jacob was still a bit confusing. She chose to push it aside and just hope for the best for her friend.

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black_moon
2009-06-11 04:52 pm UTC (link)

The poor boy was exhausted. With this being his first shift, and the most difficult, he was worn out mentally and physically. His throat was sore, and his skin still itched and tingled from the odd new sensory intake. But at least his muscles were no longer twitching uncontrollably. He should have opened his eyes and sat up. Now was not the time to take in a quick nap, but River's arms around his new self, and her body folded over his was more soothing than he could have believed possible.

His rampant, angry thoughts were being quelled as well, leaving behind only a need to rest. 'Was this River's doing,' he wondered to himself. 'Can she ease people into a calming state as well as read our thoughts, or is it just me?'

River Tam's soft, singing drifted into his tufty ears as he drifted peacefully into a light doze. He didn't so much hear her words as felt the gist of their meaning, as if they were said to him in a dream. She said that she didn't care if he was a wolf. She said that he couldn't get rid of her. He believed her words, as unbelievable as they were, and reveled in them. In his dream he was smiling at her sentiment and was back in his human form as he did so. It was a nice dream.

What the shaken Native American hadn't realized was that his transformation back to his previous form was no dream. Underneath River's comforting embrace, her friend Jacob was shifting back again as easily as slipping off a pair of socks. There was no pain, no spasms or quivering, just a smooth and effortless change of shape.

Jacob, now completely nude and glistening with sweat, lay motionless under the girl's arms, dreaming of a happy, normal life with River. He was smiling dimly and breathing as softly as a sleeping baby. His dark, firm skin raised up in goosebumps as a slight breeze caught him and sent a chill down his spine, but still, he did not stir.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-17 04:50 pm UTC (link)

River could feel Jacob calm down and she relaxed as he did. She could see the happen in the immediate future to come. River slowly straightened back up and felt Jacob finally change shape beneath her embrace. Wide-eyed she watched him slip into his human form so easily. What she had not expected was for Jacob to be naked in her lap.

Surprised River jumped up and backed away from him. In her haste she accidently let Jacob's head drop to the ground. She stood up and moved away from him trying to look everywhere but...there. She had never seen a naked boy before and certainly this was no way for it to be shown to her. Her eyes moved quickly everywhere. From the trees and back to Jacob's body. It was a moment before she finally gained her voice.

"Jacob you're..." she still couldn't say the words. The suprise of not only finding her friend change into a giant dog...then back to human...and lay in her lap naked...was enough for one day for the girl.

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black_moon
2009-06-18 12:12 pm UTC (link)

The exhausted boy had finally been lying so peacefully in his comforter's lap that the sudden movement was completely unexpected. As his head fell carelessly from River's lap, hitting the hard earth below him, his senses were jarred back to reality in an instant. What was happening?

He hard his companion's footsteps crackle against dead twigs and leaves with perfect clarity as she backed away from him. With a new sharpness, his ears picked up her sudden increase in respiration and racing heart. And she smelled different, she smelled...panicked!

Jacob instantly found his voice in the face of his friend's panic. "River, what's wrong?" Pushing himself up from the ground with his arms, Jacob pulled one knee under himself to stand, and then froze in mid motion. Staring down at the earth where his muscular arms held up his body, the boy gawked at the familiar skin, the normal forearm, the five fingers... He was back! He was back, he was human! Oh great spirits he wasn't doomed to live a half life as a mongrel. It was almost too good to be true.

Bringing his other leg under him, Jacob examined the brand new muscle mass of his body. He was bigger, bulkier, and his limbs looked longer. This was interesting. It must be a side effect from the shift. Well, he always had wanted to bulk up. With a great smile and a look of immense relief, Jacob looked up to River, only to spy an expression of horror on her face.

"River, what...?" At the uncomfortable shifting of her eyes from everywhere but him, the slow learner began to understand. "Oh, heh, um, I seam to be naked." Immediately crouching back down to the ground, the starclad boy lifted a knee up in front of him to keep some semblance of modesty and began searching the ground for his clothes. He didn't even remember taking them off, how strange. When his eyes fell on a crumpled pile of rags a few yards from him, he identified them as what was left of his outfit and his face fell a little as he realized that he hadn't taken his clothes off.

"oh man. Was all he could say as he crouched buck naked on the ground with River hovering uncomfortable in the distance.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-18 07:34 pm UTC (link)

River allowed herself to look back at Jacob once he moved his knee. She still didn't go near him but rather walked in a wide circle around him. her friend was huge now. Searching his head she knew it was the same Jacob but he just looked pysically larger. River held up a hand to tell him to stay and then turned to run back to the dorms.

Upon arriving to Jacob's room she litterally ran into it to force the door open for her. In the room she quickly ran in for a pair of pants and then ran back out. She had to pull hard on the door to make it close again. Jacob was going to have to fix that sometime later. Though River felt a little bad for breaking his door she worried more about Jacob and ran back to where he was in the trees.

When she returned she held the hand that had the jeans out to him, arms length away, while her head was turned in the opposite direction. River was a mixture of embarassed, shy, and unsure in the presence of her naked friend. She shook the hand a couple of times to show what she had brought it for him but still she just stared hard at the trees in front of her.

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black_moon
2009-06-22 07:20 pm UTC (link)

Without a word, River was off like a bat out of hell chasing a fallen Angel, and just like that, she was gone. A sudden wave of depression hit the boy hard and fast, like a ton of bricks. He was not liking these mood swings. She had left him, River must have found the whole situation of her friend transforming before her eyes into a non human mutt too much to handle. He really didn't blame her, not in the slightest. After all, River had her own stuff to deal with. It just made him sad and frustrated and angry, though he couldn't explain the angry part, it was just another emotion, churning in the pit of his stomach.

With self doubt and sorrow, Jacob stayed where he was while the reality of his situation sunk in. He was a freak, trapped in some crazy dimension, and now the only friends that meant something to him had split. This was not turning out to be a good day. He would have to get up eventually, but frankly, he just didn't feel like it right then.

After a few moments of listening to the sounds of the strange forest with a heavy heart, the troubled teen heard someone approaching from the dorms. Oh great, that was all that he needed, some stranger to see him completely nude next to a pile of shredded clothes. Feeling trapped and without any idea's on how to hide himself, he crouched even lower to the ground and visualized becoming a tree. Hell, maybe he would shift into that next.

On swift feet, River cam tromping into the woods with a pair of Jacob's pants over her arm. She hadn't left him? She hadn't left him! Oh jeez, he felt so overjoyed at that moment. Good, so he could still fee joy. That was a plus. Holding out her arm, she shook she pants at him and quickly looked away. The poor girl still looked painfully uncomfortable, and Jacob hoped that it was because of his nudity and not because of the wolfy thing.

quickly collecting jeans from her, he swiveled on his heels to turn around so that he didn't expose himself again, then slipped the pants on and zipped them up. It made him feel more comfy, so he hoped that it would work on his friend as well.

"I thought you were gone, River. Thank you so much for coming back. This really helps." He thought about how he was going to get out of the woods without any clothes and cringed at the thought of streaking their little community. "Really, thank you."

Now came the hard part. Shifting on his feet nervously, he kept a good distance from her as he spoke. He figured that she wouldn't want to be very close to him. "I appreciate you staying with me when I was all furry, that was amazing of you. I don't know what I would have done alone." He looked down and studied his bare feet in sadness. "I'll completely understand if your weirded out by me know, I mean, I'm weirded out by me! I'll stay away if you want." It was braking his hear to say the words, but he would do it... for her.

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girl_albatross
2009-06-22 07:52 pm UTC (link)

River waited with her head turned away from Jacob as he pulled on the jeans. She only turned around when she heard the quiet shuffle of his heels moving on the ground. She continued to stare at him as he awkwardly moved, unsure of what to say.

Unconciously she shifted through his head and could see the mood swings he had been feeling while she was away as well as he stood still. He had gone from upset to worried to relieved so quickly. River tilted her head as she watched him and continued to read the causes of the mood swings. River was never one to comment on the complicated subject of emotions, being someone at their mercy every second of the day, but Jacob's did interest her. The root interest was still unknown to her but the worry for her friend's well-being was what she cared about most at the moment. Something in him. Spirit animals. It all rooted back to the first ancestor who shared a body with a wolf. Two spirits became one and have since been passed down till Jacob experienced now in front of her.

His sudden warm voice pulled her away from her reading and thoughts to focus back on the present. She nodded to his thanks and still did not move. It was not that she was afraid of him it was just that she was trying to give him a moment to get back to being himself.

It surprised her that he would say he would leave her alone if she wanted. Didn't she just promise him she would stay with him even if he was a furry animal? Why would it suddenly change now that he is a shapeshifting human?

"I don't want you to stay away from me." she said/sang as she shook her head at the thought. Something already felt odd about today, Jacob turning into a wolf excepted, she did not want to add on losing her friend.

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