Welcome to Gaia! ::

An exasperated sigh escaped Gaius. Now the man-thing was swimming away from the wheelchair. He wasn’t about to chase the man. While Gaius wasn’t a squeamish person normally, and was used to handling nasty materials for work, but the idea that that skin was once human… He couldn’t bring himself to do it. It’d make this surreal meeting all too real.

“I don’t want anything from you, I swear,” he said honestly. “How could I leave anyone in your condition alone?” He bit off the bit about Billy being unable to lift his own wheelchair. “Call me a boyscout if you want, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gotten that, but I’m not helping you for anything personal, aside from duty.”

Gaius held up a hand defensively. It was already too late to not anger the squid, but he didn't need him getting violent. "I meant knocked out unconscious by whatever got you. I'm not saying you can't do anything - hell, with eight limbs I bet you can do plenty of things!"

Then maybe you should be more careful with them. Gaius had to fight back a snicker, letting his goody-goody-ness slip a bit to enjoy a bit of personal wicked humor. He couldn't keep all of it from showing in his face, a twist of the lips and twitch of the eyes giving him away. He'd never been a good poker player.

The water had long soaked into his shoes as he remained standing there in the shallows with one hand on the wheelchair, which he now shook to make the chair rattle. "Do you want your wheelchair or not? I can move it onto more stable ground for you."

"Alright." That was an easy enough request to complete. It took a bit of lifting to get the wheelchair over the edge, but he managed to maneuver it easily enough to where Billy'd wanted it, and kicked one of the locks into place.

"There. Is there anything else I can help you with?" He fired off the last question out of politeness. "If not, I'll stop bothering you..."

Gaius stepped back, letting Billy propel himself. It wasn't entirely due to Billy's appearance - yes, it creeped him out in a way that a horror movie monster gone real would - it was for the same reason Gaius hadn't helped Tommy get to his feet. Every man needed and prided his autonomy to some extent. However, it didn't mean he had to watch Billy's slithering-sliding crawl. Gaius averted his eyes, looking out over the lake instead.

Billy's question made him glance back briefly, then look away again. "I'm Gaius... And yeah, as you've pointed out, I'm normal. Hope to get out of here before that changes..." He stole a glance back at Billy, wondering if that was the extent of the lab's terrible experiments. Reducing them all to half-animal freaks... "What do... er, what can I do for you?"

It was against his better judgement, but Gaius obeyed, taking one step, then another, until he was standing beside the wheelchair-bound octopus-man.

Gaius blinked. But he was standing right next to him! He couldn't want him to... He gulped, grateful he could stand unpleasant smells.

He leaned forward, crouching slightly, so his head was closer to Billy's level, and looked at him cautiously. "So I've learned..." he muttered.

The man's eyebrow bounced up in a curious look. "Yes... What about it?"