Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I admit it's not exactly warm and fuzzy. But they are not going to hit you. I have it under control... now. I'm just an old man with a bunch of useless limbs." He let the tentacle go and it retreated behind his back. "Hopefully you'll do better." God knows she couldn't do much worse. Richard searched for a more pleasent conversation topic but felt rather disconnected from the youth. "But its what I have to work with. At least you see it. I was talking to a fellow the other day who had convinced himself that the scales on his arms were merely dry skin. Poor fellow."

A time old tactic. Talk about somebody else's problems instead of your own. "His man was Charlie I believe. Said he was a marriage counciler for the good doctor. The Doctor appearently didn't take well to his proffessional opinion." Richard grabbed another roll and shoved it in his mouth. mmm buttery.

Richard hadn't caught Charlie's last name when he had met him but did check the duplex listing regularly and was sure there was no other Charlie on the island. "Yes I believe, thats his name." He leaned toward he, concerned, "Are you alright?"

It was pretty obivious to Richard that Shenzi was not fine. Richard wouldn't have said Charlie was fine either. He took a very dim view of people who could not deal with reality, no matter how strange it was.

Richard's heart went out to Shenzi. he had an idea where her mind was right now. "Shenzi," his voice was soft and insistant. "How long have you been here? Not too long before the Halloween party right?"

Richard debated telling Shenzi that it had been exactly 21 days before his first change. It would only scare her more though. Still she didn't have long, that much was true. He pushed his tray to the side, out of the way. He extended the hand that wasn't bound by the sling to the midpoint of the table and attempted to catch her eyes with his again.

"Its okay." It wasn't of course but what do you say when you face some thing terrible that you can't do anything about? "I've been though it. You surivive it. The people here will help you." He remember Pyroth and Ambrose taking him aside after he had attacked Shenzi. Letting him vent and calm himself.

His hand was there if she needed it. If not, well this encounter would probably end like the others.

Richard placed his wrinkled hand over Shenzi's and gave it a gentle squeeze as he searched for something inspiring to say. "Shenzi, I've talked to several of the older islanders who are done. THey're not changing anymore. And they are all still people. They look different, some of them act a little strange but ultimately they are still themselves." He wasn't sure how much that was streching things, Pyroth wasn't very human at all compared to Ambrose or Amaya but even then, he could still think and reason if he wished too.

"You are still going to be you. I've got tentacles and some stumpy arms b but I'm still the same stubborn b*****d that put Moreau's baby pictures on the internet." He allowed his lips to curl into a smirk.

Richard let go and leaned back, looks like Shenzi had cleared the breakdown zone.

Nodding, "Yeah I came here to interview one Dr. Nicholus Moreau for my blog that follows corperate personallity. I try to trace their child hood in order to figure out what makes them tick. Moreau decided I was hurting him image as his arrogance has appearently been a life long trait. He gave me an interview, I called him a monster and then he gave me a serum to match." Richard cast an accusatory glance at one of his tentacles. The tentacle wriggled.

Richard really didn't see how Moreau's appearence was relevant. "Like a man. Red hair, fairly tall." Richard shrugged. "I doubt he'll stop by to visit."