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Post by Alex Linus on Jul 24, 2008 21:55:20 GMT -5
She felt the rain coming down on her, but ignored it as it began to soak through her clothes and drench her. Her hair became plastered to her forehead as she looked up at Richard, becoming slightly relieved when the houses came into view. However, her hands remained tightly locked on Richard.
Alex heard him call her father's name - but Ben obviously wasn't home. When her feet touched down on the floor, she finally let go of Richard, standing on the ground. Drops of water fell off her body from the rain and she frowned. After a moment, she ran down the hall, going to the hall closet where she knew several extra blankets and towels were kept. Standing on her tiptoes, she grabbed two of them and bounded back into the living room, handing one to Richard.
"That was scary." She whispered.
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Jul 26, 2008 21:04:11 GMT -5
That was the thing about the Island, is when it rained, it poured. And poured. And poured. The water dripped from his clothing and his hair. However, as Alex moved off towards the hallway, and came back with a towel for him, he nodded slightly in thanks, and moved to dry his hair. His clothes would just have to air-dry, he figured silently. He heard her whisper that he was scary, and he bent down to her eyeline. "That is why you don't go out into the jungle by yourself, ever. The Island...it's a very scary place out there, some place where little girls shouldn't go alone."
Richard knew that she wouldn't be little forever, but the Island was no place for Alex. He had known that when she had been taken; the Island was no place for children. The children that Dharma had...well, they had been protected. Told not to go into the jungle. But Alex...Alex was a wondering little girl.
He moved to the living room, moving to place paper into the fireplace to get it started. As the fire started going, he looked over at her. She still looked terrified, however, the fear he could see was quickly going down.
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Post by Alex Linus on Jul 26, 2008 21:12:14 GMT -5
"I don't want to go out there alone now anyways." Alex told Richard as he headed into the living room. She followed, shaking her head rapidly to dry her air, and splattering anything nearby with water as well. Grabbing the towel she had dropped on the floor for herself, she dried her clothes as best she could so she wouldn't get the furniture wet. She didn't want her father - or Richard - getting after her.
"What was that Mister Alpert?" She questioned softly, climbing up onto the couch. Tucking her feet under her, she pulled the blanket laying on the back of the couch over her, slightly chilled from the cold rain. She was curious - smoke was never supposed to hurt anybody, so why did the black smoke seem so scary?
She watched as he began the fire, the gray smoke furling up and out through the chimney. That smoke wasn't dangerous - at least until you inhaled it. Of course, the fire could hurt you, but the smoke, well, it was just smoke. You could run through it and not be hurt. But something told Alex that if you tried to run through the smoke monster outside, you wouldn't make it to the other side.
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Jul 27, 2008 19:45:25 GMT -5
As Alex spoke, Richard glanced at her before looking firmly at the fire once more. Once he figured it going, he moved, running the towel across his hair to dry it before sitting down next to Alex on the sofa. She asked what the monster in the jungle had been, and he stared at the fire for a moment before reguarding her. "Do you remember when I told you that I've been on this Island for many, many years?" he asked, looking from the orange fire to Alex's face. "Before you or your daddy were born...there were people on this Island. People who thought of nothing but themselves. They hurt people without even thinking and made people believe that there was evil in the jungle. On the Island." he paused, and then continued. "The monster in the jungle...they made that monster as a tool to try to scare people. Scare people into believing their way."
He took in a breath, and let it out in a sigh. "Those people are gone now, so you don't have to worry. The monster, however...well, it doesn't usually hurt people. Just...just think of it as a dog, Alex. A giant dog. We startled that dog and it attacked." Well, it was a lie. Or m aybe it wasn't, but it was the best way that Richard could explain it to Alex. The most childish way.
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Post by Alex Linus on Jul 27, 2008 20:29:19 GMT -5
She listened carefully, nodding when needed or asked. Those sort of people that he was talking about seemed bad. Evil maybe. She didn't like people like that - especially people that made a giant monster to scare people. Alex didn't like being scared, either.
"I though doggies were nice...." She murmured, looking from Richard to the fire, pulling the blanket around her tighter. Alex was disinclined to go out into the jungle anymore because of that thing. But Richard had said it would be all right if she were with someone, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. She sighed.
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Aug 1, 2008 21:48:43 GMT -5
"This one...isn't." The first time he had spotted the black smoke out in the jungle, after a few months of the Dharma people being there, he had watched it kill one of his people. Hurl it back and forth as almost as if it was a giant rabid animal, going after blood any way it could get it. The man's body had to have been broken in hundreds of places. "I think...that something happened on the Island that made it not nice anymore."
He wasn't really sure what happened, or why it happened. Maybe Dharma had made it kill them all along, he wasn't sure. But after the Purge, it had calmed. Until Alex was around. What it meant, Richard didn't know, and he really wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.
"But you're safe here in the house. There's nothing to worry about." He would protect her with his life when he was around her, that he knew. He wasn't sure if h e was just following orders, or if it was something more. That part of him had been long cut off, dormant and empty that whatever act he had to play out in the real world, away from the Island, it was never really him.
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Post by Alex Linus on Aug 1, 2008 21:54:54 GMT -5
"Oh." She murmured simply, still slightly confused about the matter. Her childish mind just thought of it as a bad thing, something she had been told to stay away from. Even though Alex had a thing for not following the rules, she was definatley following this one. She didn't like the evil thing any more than Richard did.
"What about you or daddy Mister Alpert?" Alex asked after a moment, looking up at him with questioning eyes. "You both go outside lots of times and never worry about it." She stated, blinking at him. Of course, both of them were grownups, and she guessed it didn't really bother them. Why did it not like her - why did it bother her? She had never seen it before, really, except in her dreams where she always woke up before something happened.
Now at least she knew what sort of monster terrorized the jungle. But then again, both her father and Richard spoke of other monsters that roamed the island. What else could be worse than that monster?
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Aug 2, 2008 15:06:53 GMT -5
"Honestly," Richard started, looking from the fire to Alex's wide questioning eyes. "I don't know." And that wasn't a lie; he wasn't sure why the Monster didn't react the same way with Alex as it did with Ben or himself. either way, he'd just be there to stop whatever.
"In fact, I don't want you going out of the campground." he said after a moment. "I've been on the Island for a long time, I know what's out there, but you...I just don't want anything to happen to you." And of course, if something did happen...well, Richard honestly didn't know how he'd feel about that. He had watched people die, many people die over the course of his time, and had a hand in many of those deaths, but how would he feel if this little girl suddenlly died? Was killed?
He couldn't bring himself to answer that because he wasn't at all sure himself. "If you want to go to the Black Rock or the Ruins, I'll take you. But I don't want you leaving the camp."
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Post by Alex Linus on Aug 2, 2008 15:12:41 GMT -5
"Oh." She said again. That seemed to be her new favorite word of the day. She smiled slightly when he said he didn't want anything to happen to her - Alex didn't want anything to happen to herself either. Burrowing down beneath the blanket more, she let out a sigh, her gaze drifting slightly back to the fire before looking back up at Richard when he spoke.
"Mkay Mister Alpert. I won't go nowheres." She murmured quietly with another small smile. "Maybe if its not raining tomorrow we can go to the Black Rock. I think its neat." She continued, her small smile breaking out into a large grin. As long as she had Richard with her, Alex was sure she'd be safe. He knew more about the island than anyone, according to her father, and knew ways and secrets in the jungle she hadn't discovered yet.
But it was on her list of things to do.
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Aug 3, 2008 19:48:15 GMT -5
"You won't go anywhere." Richard corrected. "Anywhere. Just because you're born on an Island, doesn't mean you can use improper grammer. And if it's not raining, we can go to the Black Rock, yes." He told her surely, nodding as he watched the smile grow wider on her face. Partly, he felt bad that this had happened on her birthday, because birthday's were important to her. However, Alex was a small child; she'd forget it easily enough. He mentally debated on whether he should tell Ben what had happened, but he figured that Alex would tell her father soon enough, and he'd explain everything when that time came.
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Post by Alex Linus on Aug 3, 2008 19:52:52 GMT -5
"Oops. Sorry." Alex said, then smiled when he said they could go to the Black Rock. She loved that part of the island. Actually, she loved most of the island - except for the darker parts of the jungle. She never had liked the dark.
She reached over and hugged Richard tightly for a moment. "Thanks for the presents and for saving me from the monster and stuff." She said quickly, looking up at him with another bright smile.
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Aug 3, 2008 20:10:58 GMT -5
He wasn't sure what it was. When Jacob had told him almost six years ago to take a child that had been born on the Island, Richard had agreed without question. However, as the little girl had grown up, she had managed to worm her way into his life. He found himself doing things for her that he wouldn't anyone else. It was strange, alien almost to his mind.
Her arms latched onto him again, and he felt a slight smile cross his face. "You're quite welcome, Alexandra." he told her honestly, wrapping his arm around the small girl. "I have to go away soon again." he told her, looking from her bright smile to the fireplace. "But I'll be back."
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Post by Alex Linus on Aug 3, 2008 20:16:40 GMT -5
A frown crossed her face slightly, but she nodded, understanding. "You should tell me about it when you get back. I like your stories." She said after a moment, following his gaze to the fire for the briefest of moments.
Alex knew Richard went to places she wasn't allowed to know about. But next year she was going to be seven - then she could know things. But she did enjoy the stories he would tell her whenever he got back. Sometimes he brought her little gifts, which she had stored carefully on a shelf in her room. Before she went to bed that night, she would put the doll up on the shelf too. "When are you leaving?"
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Richard Alpert
original islander.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!"
Posts: 139
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Post by Richard Alpert on Aug 3, 2008 22:59:40 GMT -5
"I'm not sure."
He knew it would take him the better part of the day to get up to the Orchid. And then the travel sometimes didn't go according to plan and he'd get...detoured. However, he always managed to get to where he was going, mainly because he had done it so many times. He hardly even felt the effects anymore; his head spun afterwards, of course, and sometimes he threw up, but most of the time, he could easily shake it off and move on.
"In the morning, probably. And I'll tell you any story that you want to hear, you know that." He knew she liked the stories of the world she would probably never see. Not that Richard was feeling sorry for her; even with the smoke monsters and polar bears and other dangers of the Island, the Island was still alot safer than the outside world. There were a different breed of people off the Island, Richard thought. Ones that killed simply because they could, stole because they needed the rush. There were sexual preditors and child abusers and rapists and murderers on the street...for what? They had never had to fight for their lives. They did it because they needed the thrill, not because they had to.
That's why he didn't want Alex off the Island. Because through everything, even through the idea of the Purge, of what he had to do all those years ago, the simple fact was that the Island was a paradise. A utopia. Sure, there were little things like the jungle with it's many dangers...but Richard knew that she'd be safe. They would all be safe. Because everyone on the Island was right in that campground. And they all knew that if they crossed him, crossed Ben, or worse, crossed Jacob himself...they would be dead.
Maybe that's what the outside world needed. Sure they had God or whatever they liked to think was their god...but they needed someone like Jacob. To show them the way...and to stop them from getting out of control. To calm the masses, that's what the outside world needed. Still, Richard knew when he left the Island, he had to blend in. So much had changed over the years, he thought. So much had changed for he worse, and yet...the Island would always be perfect.
And Richard was perfectly content with that.
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Post by Alex Linus on Aug 3, 2008 23:13:32 GMT -5
She smild broadly when he told her he'd be back in the morning. Sh enever liked Richard to be gone long. And on top of that, she heard he would tell her any story she wanted to hear, causing her to smile even farther. Stories were something she loved, loved to reenact afterward outside in the yard, with her stuffed animals or imaginary friends. Though she always gave her reenactments happy endings, she understood a few stories didn't have such happy endings.
Alex wanted her own happy ending, so she tried to listen to Richard and her father, even if their rules were suffocating. She didn't want anything to happen to her so she wouldn't be able to grow up and get her happy ending. She had dreams of being a Princess, even though she was already - figuaratively - the Princess of the Island.
And she loved being such.
"Will you tell me a story tonight before I go to bed?" She questioned, looking back at him. She knew her dad wouldn't be back until late, by which then she would probably already be asleep. Normally she would flip through one of her books before she went to bed, but on the occurances that Richard or her father were here, she would ask either one of them for a story instead. They were much more fun to hear.
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