Dinosaurs - [Veronica]

[plantfood]

Three weeks on the island now and Mathias thinks he's ready to leave the Compound without assistance from alcohol. He stands near the front steps, watching the trees with a faintly wary gaze and waiting for Veronica. He'd asked her a few days ago to show him the dinosaurs, thinking that he'd need those few days to prepare mentally, but even with that time he's not sure just how prepared he really is. Maybe the only thing that can prepare him for going back into the jungle is actually going into the jungle. It's not ideal, but it is what it is and Mathias can no more change the island than he can change what happened to him before this place.

The weather is warm, hot and humid, and already he can feel sweat prickling his scalp, but it's a comfort to know that no matter where he goes on the island, the Compound is never far away. Despite this, despite knowing he's in no danger here, he's learned his lesson from last time and is carrying a small pack with enough water to last two weeks and several bags of nuts he's found in the kitchen. It isn't enough to survive on for longer than a few weeks, but it's more than he'd had in Mexico. Just in case anything should happen.

Around him, there's constant movement. People coming to the Compound from their homes elsewhere on the island, people leaving, fresh from showers or breakfast, clean, warm laundry piled high in baskets. There are children in the playground nearby and he watches them for a moment, watches their parents, wonders which of them came to the island on their own and which were born here. It's still strange to him, how this place exists, but it's preferable to whatever might have happened back in Mexico.

He's early, he thinks, but it gives him time to think and to watch, two things he's very good at. So he waits, his thumbs hooked tentatively in the straps of his pack, making sure not to aggravate his healing burns.

Comments

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Sometimes she had to take a moment to remind herself that it was okay - that one drink didn't mean anything, that not everyone was at risk to turn into her mother. That she wasn't her mother. The older she got, the harder it became.

"For the most part," she agreed, nodding. "I mean, not that we've been entirely without our share of murders and psychopaths, but hey, what's society without those? And they're a lot rarer than back where we were before." She would have said the real world, but there were some levels of irony even she didn't want to mess with. This one was realer than Neptune had ever been. "Plus we have an overabundance of cops, detectives, secret agents, soldiers, vigilantes and superheroes, so we're doing pretty good on that end."

[plantfood]

As they walk, Mathias remains silent, taking in everything Veronica is saying and trying to see how he fits into this world. He's a German mechanical engineer with someone else's face, he should be dead, and he's yet to really deal with anything that happened back in Mexico. There doesn't seem to be a niche for someone like that, but Mathias isn't prone to self-pity and so he just nods. He'll find his place in time.

"And the population seems to remain relatively small," he adds. "Even with a thousand people this place would be safer than what we came from." There's nowhere near that many people on the island from what he can tell, although he isn't sure just how large the population really is.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

As far as Veronica could tell, most places were safer than Neptune. She wasn't about to spin the sorry tale of her life for him, though, no matter how nice he was, so she refrained from mentioning that. "People actually work together, not against each other," she said, "and the killer always gets caught. I'm still not entirely sure this is real."

[plantfood]

"Everything was done for us before this place," Mathias answers, mostly just thinking out loud. "Services and government, it all existed whether we participated or not, but here... what is the saying? You reap what you sow?"

Although he's been supported by his parents for much of his life and had to work for little, he's never been lazy. He likes to work, loves to travel and be involved and he expects his life here will be no different.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Whatever people said at home, it had never been true back there. In the world beyond Tabula Rasa, enough money could meaning getting away with murder - literally. Here, people actually seemed to have hearts and a willingness to help. It never ceased to amaze her, but she had, for the most part, stopped expecting the other shoe to drop. "Just so," she said, smiling a little.

[plantfood]

Considering this, Mathias smiles as well, watching his shoes as they walk. He brushes past a vine and barely even flinches, letting the tapered end trail over his fingers as he pushes it aside.

"It's good to find a place where such a mentality works," he says, reaching up to scratch his stubble thoughtfully. "Unexpected, really, but not unwelcome. I don't know that I've ever met so many people so willing to help each other out."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"I know I never have," Veronica said wryly. Before she could crack a joke or say more, though, she spotted the IPD outpost off through the trees and smiled, triumphant. "Nearly to Jurassic Park. It's just past that building there." The trek was about the only reason she didn't come out this way even more often. There were times when she just had to remind herself these things were actually there.

[plantfood]

Mathias pauses, looking through the trees to the building Veronica is referring to and he smiles, unable to stop himself. There's still a part of him that believes this isn't going to happen, that dinosaurs don't actually exist and maybe Veronica really has brought him all this way just to kill him, but he wants it to be true. All his life, he's been pursuing the next adventure and this is it. This is the biggest one yet.

"You said there is a fence, yeah?" he asks, scanning for it. "Something to keep them away from the other side of the island?"

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Veronica couldn't entirely help herself. The way he lit up when she pointed out the outpost made her grin right back, some of the smugness of her usual smile leached away. "Yes," she said. "No. Not a fence like you're thinking of. An electric fence. It's - I'm not actually entirely sure how it works, something to do with a field of electricity that reacts when the dinosaurs get near it. Whoever was here before all of us got collars on all those things. I try not to question for fear my brain will explode if I think about it too hard."

[plantfood]

"I think I'll follow your lead," Mathias decides after a moment spent wondering how in the world anyone could get collars onto dinosaurs. There's no answer, not one he can come up with, and he knows he'll just drive himself crazy trying to find a solution that may not exist.

"Have they ever gotten out?" he asks as they come closer to the outpost. He lifts his hand again, trailing it over leaves and branches as he passes them by, half-hoping to find or feel the electric fence in some way.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

In truth, Veronica didn't actually know just where the fence began. No one had, to her knowledge, actually mapped the thing out yet, and probably the only people who knew for certain the exact lay of the thing were those who had put it in place and were long since disappeared. She hated not knowing the answers, having to leave things up to chance, but as far as not knowing how something worked went, she could let this one slide. At least it kept them safe. Mostly, anyway.

Walking forward, she nodded. "There was an earthquake a while back - not that bad," she said, "but enough to knock out the power temporarily. The fence went down for a while." There were other times, though, when people had simply woken up in the middle of it all. She wasn't sure Mathias needed to know about that just yet. "That was a pretty epic round up."

[plantfood]

"Jesus," Mathias murmurs, trying to think of the widespread panic that must have caused. He's glad it's something he's missed out on, if only because he thinks he's had more than enough panic and fear to last him a lifetime.

As he follows Veronica, he keeps his gaze on the jungle in front of them, looking for any kind of movement. In truth, he isn't sure what he expects to see here, but he's open to anything at all. "Was anyone hurt?" he asks, although he isn't sure he wants to know the answer to that question while he walks toward the dinosaurs themselves.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no," Veronica replied, waving a hand dismissively, "when the giant lizards spotted us, they just wanted to have a nice chat over a cup of tea." She shrugged her shoulders, coming to a stop for just a moment before turning, walking the line she was fairly certain was the fence or close to it. "There were a few injuries, some more serious than others. No fatalities, though." Not that time, at least. As ever, it was the humans who had proved more dangerous in the end.

[plantfood]

As excited as he is to see real dinosaurs, Mathias is grateful they're behind a fence here, because he's begun to imagine the kinds of injuries that are possible during a dinosaur attack. He's seen Jurassic Park more than a few times and he's using that as a template for what he's imagining. It isn't pleasant.

"I never thought of the carnivores as tea drinkers," he says, following along behind her, his gaze still on the jungle. "They have always struck me as coffee addicts myself."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Like yourself?" she guessed with a raise of her brow and an arch smile. Call it a hunch. Glancing away, she looked off through the trees, tipping her head to the side as she searched for some glimpse of the dinosaurs. It would be her luck, she thought, that she'd pick a spot where they weren't. Bring a guy out miles to see the things and they decided to play hide and seek. But then she thought she spotted movement through the trees, coming to a stop as she narrowed her eyes that way, waiting for something to emerge, just maybe.

[plantfood]

"I enjoy the occasional cup of coffee," Mathias agrees, looking through the trees as well. He stops when Veronica does, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder unconsciously, a gesture he's used on his brother, on friends, on Jeff, even. It's a question, almost, his fingers resting lightly, waiting for her to tell him if she's seen something.

She doesn't need to. A second later he sees something, too, and his head tilts as he peers into the jungle. "Is it..." But he can't be sure what he's seeing.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

There was no such sense of habit for Veronica, so accustomed to standing apart. Though she saw it coming, it still managed to surprise her, her gaze flickering to his hand on her shoulder and back into the trees, not bothering to move away. The animal, whatever it was, stayed just out of clarity a few moments longer, until Veronica was ready to change position and get a little closer. Before she could, though, it lumbered out into the open, not seeming to notice them as it grazed. "We have company," she said, looking over, just holding back a smile.

[plantfood]

"Mein Gott," Mathias murmurs as he stares at the beast. The creature doesn't seem to notice them, something he's grateful for, because he can feel his heart thundering in his chest and although he's not scared, he doesn't ever remember feeling so excited.

"Es ist dinosaurier," he says, then realizes he's slipped into German. "Entschuldigung," he apologizes. "I'm just... having trouble with my own language right now, never mind English."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Es ist dinosaurier," she echoed, expression somehow softened as she smiled. All that time around Inga way back when had given her good practice with a German accent, but she fumbled over it anyway. Spanish and French she could do, but German, she had never learned. "Don't worry about it. It's not every day you see a brontosaurus hanging around. Even here."

[plantfood]

A soft laugh escapes Mathias when Veronica repeats what he's said, but even then he can't tear his gaze away from the dinosaur just in front of them. For a moment, he's nearly overwhelmed with the stupid desire to rush forward and touch it, just once, just to say he has, but he stops himself. He doesn't think that he's arrived here on the island just to die so soon.

"This is real," he murmurs softly, shaking his head in amazement. "Henrich would never believe I saw such a thing."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Would you lie about dinosaurs?" she asked, grinning a little. It was possible that Henrich might have believed, might one day see firsthand, if her own experiences were anything to go by, but she didn't like to offer that up. Hope was all well and good, but there was no use living on an impossible dream.

[plantfood]

"Ja, he would think I was lying, anyway," Mathias admits, knowing Henrich would never believe such a thing unless he saw it himself. It's always been that way, although he knows now there's no way at all for it to be. Not with Henrich dead.

"They just live here?" he asks, still staring at the beast with awe. "All the them? From the same time period or from all other?"

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

She shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "As scattered as everyone else here, I think, but paleontology's never exactly been my field. They just stay in this part of the island and we stay in ours." Except when they came to gawk like tourists. What else could be done when there was something like this around? There were notes on them in the Council office, left over from the people before, but that was one set of details that didn't really stick with her.

[plantfood]

"Strange," he murmurs and for a moment, that's all. There's silence as he stares at the dinosaur, his gaze sweeping from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail and then back again. He's so caught up in staring at the thing that he almost doesn't notice when the second, smaller animal wanders into the clearing.

"I live on an island with dinosaurs," he says, then laughs, watching as the second one nibbles on some of the grass.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"You never really get used to it," she admitted, smiling a little. "I've been here nearly three years and I still don't expect them to be real." They were a fact of island life, but an out-of-the-way kind of fact, something tucked away in a corner and rarely seen, more the stuff of jokes than anything else. That they just went on like this, eating and living and ignoring the humans in their midst, was bizarrely thrilling.