[Chloe] Ch-ch-ch-changes!
Who: Chloe
Where: Camp Crash
When: Day 23, Early Morning
Invited: Carrie, Open
Status: Complete
“Chloe? Chloe, are you awake?” The insistent voice was accompanied by a persistent jostling.
Chloe groaned and covered her eyes with her arm. “I am now,” she muttered. “Go 'way.”
( Chloe suffers a rude awakening followed by a moment of enlightenment. )
Where: Camp Crash
When: Day 23, Early Morning
Invited: Carrie, Open
Status: Complete
“Chloe? Chloe, are you awake?” The insistent voice was accompanied by a persistent jostling.
Chloe groaned and covered her eyes with her arm. “I am now,” she muttered. “Go 'way.”
( Chloe suffers a rude awakening followed by a moment of enlightenment. )
(Well, it's official--I'm a meteor freak.)
And she couldn't be happier about it. Chloe found herself giggling uncontrollably. It really wasn't funny, but the sense of relief was more than she could contain. Her future, so recently and so cruelly truncated, stretched indefinitely ahead of her again.
Chloe threw her arms around Carrie and hugged her again. For a moment the giggles threatened to turn into tears. Carrie seemed to understand. She patiently returned the hug until Chloe stepped back again.
Carrie's gaze traveled over her repeatedly, returning again and again to her eyes. "How--" Carrie began, then paused. "Not that I'm not glad for you," she said, "but how?"
Chloe looked around for the velvet ring case. "It's a long story," she said.
Rose interrupted, ducking into the shelter. "Chloe--my god, child! You're young again. It's a miracle!" She sprang with surprising speed and Chloe found herself enveloped in another hug. "Praise the Lord, child."
"Yeah--praise the Lord," Chloe echoed weakly. Rose eventually stepped back, holding her at arm's length to study her. "My word, Chloe, your eyes are a sight!"
"Is everything okay in there?" Chloe recognized Kate's voice outside the tent. "Chloe? You okay?"
"I'm fine," Chloe croaked. She was feeling choked up, her throat so tight she could barely talk. Chloe took a breath and tried to calm herself. "I'll be out in a sec," she continued. Chloe looked at Carrie and at Rose. "I guess I'd better get back out there. All the screaming we did...."
"You're sure you're up to it?" Carrie asked?
Chloe grinned hugely. "I feel fine! I feel...incredible!" And she did. Chloe had never felt better in her life. She felt ready to run a marathon or climb a mountain. Or throw some cute guy down and ravish him, now that she thought about it. (Oh yeah,) Chloe thought, (my hormones are in good working order.)
She took a deep breath--and it was so good to be able to breath deeply and easily--and ducked through the doorway of her shelter. Straightening up, Chloe looked around at the crowd gathered around her.
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Culsu looked around at Walt in surprise. Today, per Michael's request, Walt was making rope out of stripped pine fronds. Evidently Michael was quite serious about finishing off Dr. McKay's raft and sailing into the great blue yonder. (No thank you, drowning for a few hundred years is not my idea of a fun past time.)
The boy didn't look up from his braiding, brow furrowed in concentration, chewing on his lip.
"Walt, what are you -"
"Chloe. Cat's eyes. She's got them now so you're safe. Won't end up like Dr. Pierson unless you want to."
Two thousand years taught her to hone her reflexive reactions, but every now and again, something slipped. This was one of those times. It was a soft flinching, could be contributed to the balmy ocean breeze if anyone was watching to observe, but it was flinching none the less. Walt's words hit home, and chances were the boy hadn't even realized it.
Torn between attacking the window of opportunity where Walt was far from a normal ten-year-old boy and seeking out Chloe, Culsu sat there a moment, braided ropes in her hand. Finally she leaned over and asked, "What do you know, Walt? Really?"
His head lifted up then, eyes dark with an intensity that nearly made her flinch again. "You're made of a lightening storm." Then his head dropped and he returned to the braiding of rope.
Somehow, Culsu couldn't explain it, but she simply knew that once again the window to wherever Walt went closed and she simply sighed, searching the beach, her eyes pulled towards Chloe's tent.
She watched as three figures emerged, Carrie, Rose and a young blonde - Chloe.
Culsu leaped to her feet, dropping the braiding as she swore in Latin, Greek and followed up in English. It wasn't possible, but somehow, some way, Chloe was young again.
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Walt concentrated on his rope-making. Sue had been upset by his confession that he knew what she was. One of the Syni Molniya. The Sons of Lightning. Her reaction didn't bother him too much. He was used to it.
Most adults got upset when he slipped and revealed what he knew. What he saw so clearly. Too clearly. Sometimes he thought River had it easier. Everybody already thought she was crazy, so they didn't get upset when she told what she saw, what they were thinking.
On the other hand, she was crazy. Walt didn't want to be crazy. He couldn't help it if he Saw.
Sue and Dr. Pierson looked like lightning in a bottle. Pop the top and the lightning comes pouring out. Chloe was different--she was blinding to look at. Like a mirror reflecting the sun. George and Daisy would get no Post-it note for her.
Not now. Maybe not ever.
But she'd never have...Clark? Yes. Clark. Her new green eyes would hurt him. It would hurt her feelings, though, to know that losing Lex would hurt him even more. Walt could feel the whole future changing, like a line of dominoes toppling, falling into new patterns.
Walt sat motionless, caught up in the visions. They were coming thick and fast now. Fragmentary and uncertain.
Rose was seeing that too now. It hurt her. It hurt Walt sometimes too. Sometimes he turned away from it, refusing to look. Rose would learn that eventually.
Ami and Scott were fighting. But not like his mom and dad. They didn't try to hurt each other. They made up. That was good, 'cause there were children and grandchildren ahead. Lots of them, rolling their eyes and groaning at the "lovey dovey" behavior of gramma and grampa.
Not like Locke and Daisy. In some indefinite future George and Locke were holding each other and crying. "She said to tell you she loves you," George says to him.
Ethan leaning over someone, close as a lover. Twisting a knife. "Hurts, doesn't it? But this will hurt more. Listen closely...." He wasn't lying. It does hurt more than the knife.
George crowding Captain Jack against a wall. "Are you all talk," she's asking him with a hungry look, "or what?" Jack grins. What follows embarrasses him. Look away.
Then Sue is gone and his father is shaking him, calling his name, asking if he's okay, what he's thinking about so hard.
His father doesn't really want to know what he was seeing. He says he does, and maybe he even believes it. But he doesn't.
Walt shrugs and says, "Nothing."
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*applauds*
That is all.
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Twenty three days on this piece of weird rock and he'd noticed things. Like everyone else on the beach, he just didn't talk about them. Sawyer knew - from first hand experience - the Ripley was off and wrong; she moved too fast and was too strong. River knew all sorts of stuff she shouldn't, like she got into your head and read you mind. Anyplace else but here and that would have been laughable, but Sawyer knew now that the world wasn't he thought it was.
It was bigger, but that didn't mean it was scarier. It just meant that one had to take things slowly, digest it all bit by bit or else end up a gibbering lunatic like Veronica. (Hell no, I ain't gonna let no freaks and no weirdness turn me into a slobbering, drooling monkey.)
Sawyer knew that those things - everyone was calling them space vampires, had killed a bunch of people - (Less food to have to share) - and turned Chloe into an old woman. Which was a right shame, because while she might have been a bit of a know it all and standoffish, she was right easy on the eyes. Especially in those low cut shirts and bikini tops that just put all of her feminine wares on display. Sawyer'd heard old Big Ears talking about chemical interactions, some sort of biological weapon, but Sawyer didn't care much what it was or what it did. He was just glad none of those lab bred freak killers hadn't touched him.
And he was pretty pissed off that it wasn't much fun to watch Chloe sunbathing anymore. He didn't even con old women. Even he couldn't fake it that far.
But today was a new day, and there was a ripple of rumor that the "island magic" had made Chloe young again. Well, seeing was believing, so Sawyer made his way over to the crowd forming outside of Chloe's tent. He slowed as he drew near, taking in the truth of Chloe's restored youth, even if he didn't know if he trusted the suggested means.
"Well, well, well," Sawyer drawled, raking his eyes over the newly restored - better restored, even because he was absolutely positive that those breasts had not been that firm or that high a few days ago, "Looks like the rumors are true. From crone to cleavage in forty-eight hours. You should find yourself a way to bottle that up and sell it."
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She didn't think she'd ever met anyone with less concern for the opinions of the people around him than Sawyer. Well, probably sociopaths from what she'd read on the subject, but Sawyer didn't seem to be one of those, thank god. Rude, crude, and a grade-A asshole most of the time--but not a sociopath.
And it was galling to admit, even to herself, but Sawyer was right. Chloe's spontaneous rejuvenation was impressive as hell.
Even as she watched, Chloe suddenly coughed and made a face. She coughed again with a wide-eyed look, then clenched her fist and continued talking to the people crowded around her. The clenched fist fell to her side, then opened casually.
Kate watched several tiny dark flecks drop to the sand at Chloe's side. Judging by Chloe's behavior, she wasn't at all concerned that they'd all just spontaneously dropped out. (Fillings,) Kate thought. (Those are her fillings.) She was sure of it.
Chloe knew it too. And wasn't terribly surprised by the fact that they'd just fallen out.
Or been pushed out as her teeth regenerated as miraculously as her skin. Because that's what it looked like to Kate. Chloe didn't seem to have simply reverted to her previous appearance. Chloe practically shone with good health and vitality, the Platonic ideal of young, blonde and female.
Her skin looked as soft and smooth as an infant's--much more so even than an eighteen year-old's--with a bronzed tone that brought the phrase "golden girl" to mind. Chloe's cheeks had a faint rosy glow that hinted at excitement, . Her hair looked like the "after" shot in a shampoo commercial, soft and fine and glossy. Even the whites of her eyes seemed brighter, though the brilliant green of her irises made it hard to judge.
Sawyer's eyes paused on Chloe's breasts and though his leering was annoying, Kate couldn't blame him. Chloe'd always had a nice figure, but nothing like it looked now. She looked untouched by gravity in a way that even perky eighteen year-olds couldn't manage.
Kate glanced away, feeling a sudden, intense pang of jealousy. It was irrational, unreasonable and unbecoming, but there it was. Nothing had been reasonable since crashing onto this island. One revelation after another, one shock after another as the world was proven again and again to be a wilder, weirder place than she'd ever imagined.
She felt slighted, left out. Not a psychic, nor a witch, nor a grim reaper or an alien or a half-alien. Not even the human sidekick of a time-traveling alien like Rose. Just Kate. She'd taken some comfort in at least being able to take care of herself, avoiding injury or death at the hands of the Others, seeing Ethan for a threat (even if she'd never grasped the true depths of his depravity), staying out of reach of the goddamned space vampires.
Now Chloe, who had succumbed to their attacks, had changed again. She'd become something more. And she'd done it intentionally, Kate knew. She'd been there when Chloe's transformation started. She'd heard her shouting joyfully, "It worked! It's working!"--whatever it was.
Kate wanted to know what it was. She wanted it badly.
When Rose slapped her on the shoulder and crowed about god's miracles, Kate smiled as best she could and agreed. "Yeah--yeah, it's a miracle."
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"Never tried to pretend to be anything else, JLo," Sawyer grinned at the fiery Latina. She was another little bit of eye candy in this godforsaken hellhole, with the added bonus that he could goad her so easily. And like so many very beautiful women, she was even hotter when she was pissed.
That and it was fun.
"But, I just call 'em like I see 'em. Bet you'd kill for a rack like out little Chloe has now, all grown up. And out."
Carrie, predictably rolled her eyes in disgust and turned away from him. He noted that she was heading away from the crowd, so either she had her own issues with Chloe's new fangled restoration or was off on another errand for Rose. Possibly both.
"So, whatcha think about that, Freckles?" Sawyer sidled up to the resident wanted criminal, "Wanna give it a shot? Strip down to nothing and worship the sun?"
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Then Kate glanced at Chloe for an instant before turning her attention back to Sawyer. "Besides, I don't think that's all there is to it."
Chloe's joy dimmed slightly at that. (She knows,) Chloe thought. Then, (She suspects, at any rate.) But Kate didn't say any more, choosing instead to walk away. Sawyer watched her with a smug grin.
After a moment, Chloe put the thought aside. There was nothing anyone could do about it now. What was done was done. Her miracle wasn't going to be taken away from her. Chloe turned her attention to the rest of the crowd gathered around her.
She didn't have any answers for them--none that she was willing to cop to, anyhow. It was just another unexplained miracle courtesy of the island as far as they were concerned. No need to bring the Kryptonite into it. Even if the marble still had it's alien properties, there was no guarantee that it would affect anyone else the same way anyhow.
With no answers forthcoming, the crowd began drifting away. There was only so much oohing and aahing they could do over her recovery. Eventually everyone but Sawyer had left.
Sawyer grinned at her. "Well, I guess it's just you and me, sweetheart," he said. "What do you say? You up for a little nude sunbathing?"
To her surprise--and alarm--Chloe found herself momentarily tempted. If you could look past his personality, Sawyer was awfully easy on the eyes. "N-no," she said hastily. "No, I'm not."
Sawyer's grin only grew wider. "Your mouth says no, darlin', but your eyes tell a different story."
Chloe glared at him. "That's okay, though," Sawyer continued conversationally. "When you know what you want, and you feel entitled to ask for it, you just look me up. I'll be around."
Then he turned and walked away, leaving Chloe to star after him. She was speechless, angry and amused and embarrassed and aroused. That wasn't like her at all. Not like her at all.
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