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Zach wasn't doing particularly well himself. Sabin's note had been a significant weight on his mind, making him feel needlessly threatened from all directions. He knew the doctor meant well, but whole of the message was demeaning and belittling. He wasn't a child! And how was he supposed to know Gaius was going to come barreling into his duplex if he opened the door? He'd never met anyone with that little a sense of self-preservation. He'd been minding his business the whole time. It was infuriating at first, but he couldn't just stay mad about it. Sabin obviously thought that was the way to get the message across, and even if the truth hurt... he'd have to accept it, just like everything else.

It had taken him a while after the incident to work up the courage to leave the village. After all, he could get ambushed out there by Gaius, or worse. Once again it seemed unfair. He was one of the people who actually liked it here, so why should he have to hide? He didn't need any more injury than he'd received so far, but it was just unavoidable. Eventually, the crazy islanders would learn to stop. Until then, he'd have to refrain from fighting back and hope they didn't tear his throat out before they were zapped.

Zach would not venture into the jungle save along the open path that led down to the beach. Every once in a while there was a tiny but audible sound of a camera focusing or moving slightly as he passed. Though he was unaware of it, his chip activated any and every camera in his immediate area.

He was keeping to the top of the dunes, where the ground and sand mixed and weren't a burden to walk on. He would have passed the beach bar on his little power walk if he hadn't seen a diminutive figure slouched over it. He blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen anyone on the island that short since Gaius's lesbian raccoon girlfriend. Whatever he was turning into had to be pretty small. But, presumably, a mammal. Zach heard mumbling, but couldn't make out some the words, so he inched closer. He had no intention of drinking, himself. His tail flicked idly while he scratched at the outside of his eyepatch out of subconscious nervousness. "She?"

"Huh. Well, there'll be other women. And it's not like you'll see her again, so why worry?" He knew the man was drunk, but hoped his words would get through. Zach supposed that the man had recently discovered that this was going to be his permanent new home. The first change must have hit hard to shrink him down that much. Being lovesick would pass. No one else stayed particularly loyal to past love on the island when they realized how little it mattered. He himself was no expert on love, nor did he . Dealing with eight radically different preferences in an ideal mate left Zach finding absolutely nothing and no one 'sexy'... not even Kaveri.

"Watch yourself," he growled irritably, still standing a couple feet away. His hand lightly brushed against the panic button at his side as a reassurance in case the miniature man decided to go for his throat. What the midget said sounded like an accusation to him. He was no pervert! Not that he really understood what the man meant by 'furry' - even a drunk would have to be able to tell the difference between fur and scales. Suddenly, something seemed off about all of this. If he'd changed... but he didn't seem to know anyone else had... "So how long have you been here?"

"I'm not furry," he corrected idly, figuring the man wasn't able to tell he was scaly when he was that drunk. His frill flared a little anyway in irritation. He was surprised to hear that this woman was also on the island. It was apparently easy enough to make one person vanish, but two? That was unusual. Dangerous, even. He'd heard of it happening before, but not two people at the same time. "You... both came here? At the same time? Have you talked to anyone else here?"

Suddenly, it all made sense. The guy was a midget, or a dwarf. Something like that. This was a new one. Did he know anything about the island? Probably not, or he'd be singing a different tune entirely. After all, he thought Zach was in a costume. He smirked, figuring Sabin had given him a story. Likely the man wouldn't even recall half of what they talked about here, given how drunk he was. "There's no bartender. I don't think you need any more than you've already drank, though."

"I wasn't born tall," he started, dredging up some wistfulness that didn't sound entirely truthful to sober ears. He didn't care about his past much, finding it a burden to recall things from it that predated his arrival to the island. It sounded like the midget was distraught about his stature. Whatever he was getting turned into could fix that, right? Zach hadn't been that much taller than the guy when he got there, but now he towered over the man at twice the height. "But I've had some good fortune since I came here."

Well, this was certainly a first. Two people at one time must have warranted some serious reasons behind it. He still didn't quite get what a midget would have to do with the man running the operation here - not that he was particularly bothered by the man referring to Moreau as a d**k. "What would you need to talk to Moreau about?"

"Dr. Duvert?" he asked casually, mildly curious. It had been months since he'd actually seen the doctor, and certainly it had been some time since the incident that had prompted him to leave a note. Zach couldn't help but wonder how the eye situation was. He wanted to think that everything had been forgiven, but Moreau... he doubted there was any forgiveness there. Obviously this drunk wouldn't know anything about it, but there was always that faint hope. If nothing else he'd be able to find out what sort of mood the doctor was in. He didn't want to interrupt the doctor with an intercom call if he was in a bad mood. "No one else? Really."

"I wasn't always this way," he started, trying to ignore the furry comments. Was the man that wasted? His tail's energetic movement betrayed his amusement at the whole story of his own life. He'd been an unlucky fool before but now he wasn't, was there any more to it? "And you're not going to be human very long either, fortunately for you."

"I wouldn't be calling him that, if I were you. The labs have eyes and ears everywhere." It wasn't a lie at all. He felt confident that there was a camera around somewhere at this very moment, watching. It was a thought that would bother any sane person, but Zach had long since swapped his sanity for a guarantee of protection. He parted his scaly mouth in a grin of sorts, hearing the reason the man was on the island. "Well, you can forget money now. I don't mean to be blunt, but you and... Jacky... are here to stay. Fortunately for you, what happens around here will make your height issues seem normal. Hell, depending what animal you get you might not stay short at all."

Zach stretched his wings out a little, making a small sound as they cut the air with a casual movement. Like the tail, neither were something a regular person would be able to move if they were in a costume. His gaze was on the ocean not far away, which stretched across the horizon. "Were you given a shot?"

"My name is Zach," he responded flatly. Zach nervously averted his eye at the mention of pot, choosing instead to examine the many shapes, sizes, and colors of vodka bottles arranged on a shelf behind the counter. The first and only time he smoked pot, he'd ended up blood-soaked in a cave a few days later. The pot wasn't to blame, of course, but he wasn't keen on experimenting with the stuff ever again. Just in case. "Like me? Not... exactly. You'll be lucky if you end up anything like me, though. Most people around here get regular animals. Still nice, but not as nice."

"That's the right perspective to have," he smiled with a hint of his sharp teeth. He hoped that wasn't sarcasm the midget was giving him. He'd effectively traded his for a new arm, so it wasn't an impossible concept. It just seemed surprising for a new arrival to be so keen to make a similar trade. Even he himself had been... apprehensive... at first. The man was drunk, so it was difficult to tell what he really thought. The dragon traced a small circle on the bartop with a claw, frill opening slightly in his agitation over his past. "Neither did I."