Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shenzi was lying on her double bed, sorting through magazines and posters; she had already gotten her vast array of clothes put away in the closet an dresser, and her cleanly stuff into the bathroom. When she heard the knock on the door, she shrugged to herself, hopping off the bed carefully to avoid ripping or wrinkling the posters, and went to open the door.

She opened the door right as he started to raise his voice, a lopsided grin on his face. "I may like loud speakers, but I'm not deaf." Shenzi stepped forward, shutting her door behind her; she was wearing casual clothes again, like yesterday. "Guess you want to look around then?"

Shenzi started down the sidewalk, shrugging slightly in response. "Eh, where ever they keep the food? Gotta know where that is, first and foremost." She said, grinning over her shoulder at him, her hands stuffed in her pockets.

Shenzi raised an eyebrow appraisingly. "You've got feet, havn't you? We can just walk around till we bump into a wall or something." She said, smirking slightly.

"Hey!" When he grabbed her hat, she vainly tried to jump for it, before running after him. "Heey, that's mine dammit!" She jogged after him, her hair flouncing behind her; she had taken it down from the braids last night, so it was in loose, bright blue waves.

She stopped as they approached the building, looking around for a door before finally locating it. Poking her head in, she grinned. "Cafeteria."

Shenzi trailed after him, picking up a tray and loading with with a root beer and a chicken sandwhich. "Mm, true. I still want my hat back, loser." She said, rolling her eyes with a grin as she sat down next to him. "Yeah. Chain smoker, drugs, booze, just general city s**t. And you're here for what?" Shenzi eyed him; she didn't mind questions in the least.

She snorted into the bite of sandwhich she was about to take. "Welcome to life, hlupak." She laughed, taking a sip of her rootbeer. "You do know medical testing patients get insanely ******** up after a few months, right?"

She raised a dark eyebrow. "Really. Have you ever been in one then?" She asked mockingly, a small, twisted grin on her lips.

To his response, Shenzi made a face, sticking her tongue out while batting his hand away. "I've been in it before, I can handle it. Just not when crotchety white haired doctors take away my light." She said, accompanying it with rolling her eyes.

She rolled her eyes. "What's so disgusting about it? You can get rid of the smell; certain brands add scents. Personally, I like strawberry. And it doesn't have to taste like ash; other brands put flavor strips on the ends, so when you lick your lips it tastes like fruit." She said, shrugging simply. "So it's not so bad; it's the cheap brands that taste and smell nasty."

She couldn't help but laugh and shrug. "Eh. Some people like it, others don't; where I live, most people my age smoke or do something worse."

At the second comment, Shenzi let out another loud laugh. "Best keep that line of thought!" She said, catching her hat and tugging it down over her ears as she grinned at him.

Nita wandered into the cafeteria after a morning spent making minute alterations to her Halloween costume. Her fingers were sore and her stomach empty. Filling her plate with a substantial portion of bamboo leaves and shoots, the red panda girl looked around for a place to sit. A couple of kids about her brother's age caught her eye. Fully human... would they already have been 'initiated'? Only one way to find out.

She walked over and turned a chair around so her tail could hang down, a smile on her muzzle. "Hey, you guys new here?" Nita asked, quirking a brow at them.

Shenzi was about to respond to Miller, when a weird looking woman came and sat down, a smile on her... Nose? No. She was covered in fur, and had a tail and everything. Looked like a red panda.

Raising her eyebrows, Shenzi looked at her top to bottom; fur everywhere. Definately good detail for a costume. "Great costume, but I do believe Halloween is in a few days."

Shenzi's comment caught her off-guard for a minute, since Nita had, in fact, just been working on her Halloween costume. And then the realization hit her; she resisted the urge to smack her forehead. She would just keep running into the newbies. Maybe some good would come of this at least, she thought, remembering her project.

"Technically," she told Miller, not quite aware of the undertones of his question. Ignoring the stares, Nita dug into her plate of bamboo. "It's not a costume, though."

She shrugged to herself at the girl's response; so she wanted to be modest. Alright. "I'm Kamila, by the way. Friends call me Shenzi, though." She said, extending her arm over the table with a warm smile.

"And this doofus is Miller. Ignore the dazed and confused face." Shenzi grinned crookedly at him, prodding him in the ribs with her elbow.

Rehab? Anime convention? Oh Jesus. And Shenzi? Well, whatever.

"Nice to meet you," Nita said. "I'm Nita. And believe me, if you think I look weird..." She shook her head, trying to make a joke of it. "And, well, I guess you could call this place a med center..." The red panda girl shrugged, hesitating. Yet again, she was about to thrust the realities of the island upon a couple of unsuspecting kids. Goddamn.

Nita would have responded quite politely to Shenzi, had Miller not started yelling. And then he tugged on her fur.

"Dammit, that hurt!" Nita yelling, leaping to her feet. Before she could think exactly what she was doing, the girl smacked Miller across the face. The chair fell sideways with a clatter. She retreated back a few feet, breathing heavily, her tail puffed out with alarm.

Shenzi's eyes widened at the series of events, and while Miller was still reacting to the slap, and Nita was standing there bristling, she laughed.

She couldn't help it, it was just too funny. "Miller, that was one of the stupidest things I've seen you do in twenty-four hours..." Shenzi said between breaths.

Nita glared, hands placed defiantly on her hips. "I am real. The fur's real, the tail's real, and I wouldn't suggest tugging on that either!" She righted her chair and sat back down in a huff, pointedly eating her meal.

"Now. Are you guys gonna let me explain, or just stand there with your chins on the floor?" The red panda girl wasn't usually quite this cranky when it came to explaining the situation, but then, most people didn't start yelling and then tug on her fur.

Shenzi clamped a hand over Miller's mouth, giving him a look. "Shut up, before you get yourself six feet under, alright?" She gave him a small grin. "Most guys don't know when to be quiet, so don't feel too bad." She nudged him in the side, letting her hand drop. "Explain away."

"Understandable," Nita said, giving Miller the tiniest of apologetic smiles. "Basically... this is a place for medical testing, but it's not exactly what they'd have told you. Everyone in the village here, in the duplexes... we're all being injected with serums based on a different animal's DNA. Everyone was tricked here somehow, told different stories, but the truth is, they're turning us into animals." She stopped and watched both of them with a neutral expression on her face. She knew full well it was a difficult story to swallow, but there she was. Proof.

Shenzi looked quite skeptical, resting her chin on her hand, and her elbow on the table. "And how do they manage to do this without authorities knowing, if they've tricked so many people into coming here?" None of it made sense; there's no way a human can turn into an animal. It wasn't physically possible, not in the least. The girl was wearing a really good costume, and obviously liked to roleplay, since she seemed very into what she was saying. Or maybe she was just a really good actor, trying to play a prank on them as a "welcoming" thing.

Nita shrugged. "Money. And if people do start to suspect something, they end up here. I've been here for six months, and a lot of people have been here longer."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Look, there's nothing in it for me to be lying to you. Miller already yanked on my damn fur anyway." One ear flicked in annoyance, a movement far too controlled and natural to be part of a costume.

She shrugged again, unsure of quite what to say. "Stuff can be glued on. I've done it before. Though the ears are very good." Shenzi watched the movement appreciatively. "Didn't know you could get robotic stuff on costumes, only ever seen them in movies."

Nita sighed softly. So they didn't believe her. Of course, she'd never had to tell two people at once; it was easier for them to cling to their fragile hopes. Easier for them to convince each other that the girl in front of them was trying to fool them, wearing a ridiculously elaborate costume.

"You know what? Fine. Don't believe me. Think it's a damn costume. But you'll see for yourselves in the next few weeks. You'll talk to other people who're more changed than I am, and you'll change into whatever the labs have in store for you."

She stood up rather crankily and gathered up her plate, which was mostly empty. "But if you ever want to have someone explain things to you when you're in the mood to listen, look me up. Nita MacNeal, duplex 42."

Muttering under her breath, the red panda girl stalked off. She put together a box of snacks for later, and, without a second glance, exited the cafeteria. If the two teenagers watched her, they would see her tail obviously protruding from her pants, an extension of her spine. Not a costume.

Shenzi couldn't get a word in before the girl, Nita, left. Not that she knew what to say anyways, but still. She sent Miller a glance, before standing up with her tray. "Well then, I think I'll go back to my room. Crazily animal obsessed girls seem a little bit much for the first day..." She grinned sheepishly.

Shenzi looked up as she heard someone mention 'recovering alchoholic.' So she wasn't the only one here on rehab, either. Locating the voice, she saw it was a man in a big gorilla suit, talking to some old guy dressed like a roman. Walking up to them, her smile broadened as she looked at the motley group. "Hullo there. Mind if I join in this conversation?" She asked, straightforward enough.

Oz cocked a crumpled eyebrow at Richard. What was he talking about? Four extra limbs? Ah, the soldiers attached to his back. Sounded like this old fella had been drinking too much, or had seen far too many horror or history films. And who was Moreau?

"Yeah...don't you think you're taking your costume a bit too seriously?" he said to Richard.

Then a delicate voice chimed in just behind him and he craned his neck over his shoulder to spy Shenzi. Oh dear lord, another young one. Poor kid, sent to rehab clinic at her age? And Oz thought he was messed up.

"Hey!" Nita yelped as her tail was grabbed. What was it with people tugging on her? "It moves like that on it's own," she said icily, glancing at Richard. At the moment, she was actually glad he was there; Nita was getting sick of having to convince people she wasn't wearing a costume. Well, that the fur wasn't a costume.

And then Shenzi showed up. Had the teenager realized yet what was actually going on?

With the bloody ghost's exit Richard relaxed... a bit too much. The tentacles lashed out in the direction of the Ghost's exit, extending a good six feet in front of him. While the tentacles had lashed out and retracted in less than a second the soldiers weren't so lucky, they sailed through air. Over Thom's head and landing near Gallen's feet.

"Oops." Richard laughed and waved at Thom and Gallen. "Sorry about that." He should have been more careful, but he hadn't hit anything and his back felt loads better. Oz and Shenzi could now see the black squid like tentacles waving above Richard's head. They could trace them back to two mounds of muscle on his back.

Shenzi's brows knit together as she watched Nita's tail, and the tentacles above the greek-man's head. More costumes? Now it was starting to seem a little too elaborate. Suspisciously, she reached up to try and grab one of the tentacles; it felt funny, definately didnt' feel like it was a robotic thing.

It was then that she saw Nita from the corner of her eye, catching her gaze. "Everyone was tricked here somehow, told different stories, but the truth is, they're turning us into animals..." Shenzi shut her eyes, shaking her head as what Nita had said the other day came rushing back. "No, that can't be right..." She mumbled under her breath. It had to be robotic; they could get coverings for metal, to make it feel real. They had done for movies, plays, lots of things. It'd cost alot, but it was possible... Right?

Oz immediately let go of Nita when she yelped, and withdrew a little as though he'd done something wrong. How...how did she feel that? Or was she just playing the part? It was Halloween afterall, and from what he'd seen already, the people here made great costumes and took the holiday very seriously. Still...a few things from the night so far had began to nibble in Oz's brain and it didn't feel good.

Still stuck in a half-way state of naivety and disbelief, his little buble of thought was sharply interrupted. By tentacles darting past him. And paper soldiers flying right AT him.

"WOAH!" he yelped and fell backwards onto the floor. "What was that!?" His head darted about nervously, looking for maybe a Halloween prop that had malfunctioned.

"They're sock puppets Gallen, they'd hurt as much as getting wacked with a pillow.

Richard carefully tightened that new muscle that he was begining to think of as a tentacle "safety switch", then looked down at Oz and chuckled. "Sorry about that Oz. Only had my tentacles a week, they're still a bit unruly." He leaned over to offer a hand up.

Then Shenzi closed her hand around one of those same tentacles. In her hand is was warm. The skin is slick, but not wet or slimey. She can feel the muscles moving around a core of something hard.

Something in Richard's brain flips. He stands bolt upright, spine stiff. Its an entirely new sensation to him, something had closed around his delicate tentacle. It was a volation!

A inhuman growl bubbled up from his chest, he whipped around, tearing the tentacle from Shenzi's grasp. With it came his outstretched fist trying to knock her back.

"It's attached," Nita told Oz, her voice tired.

She flinched and jumped backwards as the tentacles shot out. "Hojeez! Get a hold of yourself, Richard!"

Shenzi let out a sound of surprise as she fell backwards into someone, she couldn't tell who. That was definately a controlled reaction; nothing robotic would respond like that. As that thought processed, her eyes slowly widened, as what Nita had tried to explain the other day slowly dawned. "No, not right..." Was all she could say, mumbling under her breath. "Zpropadeně , hrome až k peklo..." The blueberry started talking in another language, one that most probably wouldn't recognize. She held a hand to her forehead, eyes shut as she pushed herself up off the ground.

Richard growled at Shenzi, bearing his enlarge canines, his eyes gleaming with predatory intent. For a moment he just stood there, glaring. Slowly rational thought came filtering back into his mind.

"Don't touch those." The voice was gutteral and filled with implyed malice.

Then his brain cobbled together what he had done, his face fell and he turned away. "Sorry." he mumble. He still felt angry and volated. He could still feel the place she had touched him. He was breathing heavily as he forced himself to calm down.

Richard heard Ambrose's voice. He continued to breath deeply, in and out, in and out. Mentally, he searched for that safety switch in the mounds of muscle in his back but they were too agitated, so he kept his eyes shut.

"Ambrose? I.. I'm fine, she just surprised me. That's all." Richard struggled to get a hold on his emotions, at least his voice sounded human again.

Shenzi was shivering slightly, staring at the tentacles on Richard's back, and now at the big wolf-man that he was talking to. That... Is not a costume... Even she had to admit, it wasn't possible to get a robotic outfit to move that convincingly.

Rubbing her temples, she pulled her hairback, letting the mask drop from her eyes and onto the floor, immediately forgotten. "I-I need to go..." She mumbled, sort of stumbling out of the tent. Can't be real. No, but the arms, the tails... Shaking her head, she managed to steer a course back to her duplex, her mind a cloud of confusion...