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Vixen bounded out the door before Gaius could close it, and ran down, nosing Nita in the tail happily as her master followed down the stairs. And she continued to walk between Nita and Gaius as he led them to the construction site, much to Gaius' annoyance.

"It's going to be a theater," he explained. "The idea was Billy's, but most of the actual planning got dumped on me, but that's okay. It's definitely kept me busy the past couple months... That and the smaller projects, like the chairs. I'm working on one for a hedgehog lady right now..." He chatted as they walked across the village, heading almost parallel to the nearby lake.

Gaius chuckled at the surprise in her voice and nodded. "You wouldn't expect it coming from that kind of guy... but I guess he's just crazy enough to go through with whatever he gets in his head. I don't remember how I got dragged in exactly..." he added with a rueful smirk. "Though I remember not wanting him catching me with those tentacles..."

To the questions, he shrugged, at a loss for any information. "I guess? Billy was kinda managing that, but I hadn't heard anything much... he's doing tryouts of some sort over by the lake, so maybe that'll result in some kind of talent show? I know a girl who was trying to get a singing group together..." He glanced away, recalling the last conversation with Shenzi, and the aftermath with a pang of worry. He hoped she was doing alright and could come to grips with her new face, at least for the time being.

As they rounded the outer line of duplexes, Gaius waved a hand to the familiar patch of grass and dirt, his eyes on Nita to watch her reaction. "Well, this is the place! We've been getting a lot of prep work done, but all the wood is good to go. I was going to start putting some of the top framework in today..."

However, the sight that greeted Nita looked far from a busy construction site. It was quite noticeably empty, aside from the great hole and beams of wood sticking out of the ground in it, and the few logs set up for simple benches. No tools, no lumber, not even a wooden horse was there.

Nita's reaction was certainly not the one Gaius had been hoping for. His own expression fell to confusion as he finally turned to actually look at the site...

Or lack thereof.

"What..." Gaius began, eybrows furrowing. He took a step away from Nita, forgetting her in this sudden strange sight. Another step, and another, and then he was running forward to the edge of the shallow pit.

"Wh-Where is the wood? The tools?!" he cried, staring about him in dismay. The indents of wood piles were still fresh in the dirt, but no sign of them was anywhere. Everything was bare, even the shovels in the pit having been taken.

He ran a hand back over his forehead and mane, mind working to try and make sense of it all.

Gaius frowned, still baffled. "Not really... I mean, Zach was lurking around yesterday, but..." He shook his head. There was no way that dragon could have done all this over night! Letting out a low rumbling growl of frustration, he turned back towards the village. Nita's presence was all that kept him from uttering a string of dark curses. "I'm going to have to re-do a lot of work... Come on, maybe we can find some replacements in the storage room..."

He didn't wait for Nita, but stalked off towards the village, leaving Vixen to accompany her if she followed.

The storage room was part of the cafeteria building, so it didn't take long to reach it. He grabbed at the door handle to turn it, but the thing wouldn't budge. He tried again, harder. The thing just rattled against its bolts.

Then his eyes fell on the note taped to the door.

Slowly, understanding dawned on Gaius, and with it a rising rage. Even Nita's company couldn't stem the flare of temper that errupted. Throwing back his head, he roared in frustration, a stream of cursing quickly following, half intelligeable between the huffs.

"Damn that Duvert! Hruah! That ******** b*****d, I'm going to kill that crap-eating toad-spawn..."

At the same time, he'd thrown himself back on the door, this time twisting and rattling the handle with both hands, and then flung himself shoulder-first against the door violently.

"DUVERT!" WHAM! "DAMN YOU!" WHAM! "GIVE THEM BACK!" WHAM!

The force of the last slam sent Gaius falling back onto his tail, the door no worse for his abuse, but his shoulder ached fiercely. The horse-man clenched his eyes shut, grimacing against the pain and injustice of it all.

The labs had taken it away. All of it.

"No..." he responded sulkily, rubbing at his bruised arm. How could he be? They'd cut him off from the one thing he'd thought would bring his life on that island some kind of meaning...

Everyone lives with delusions. We ignore the fact our clothes may be from a factory employing child labor, or the meal we eat came from an animal pumped steroids and chemically charged food every day. Gaius had clung to that fantasy, assuring himself again and again that it was all sacred, free of the lab's taint.

And now that veil was torn away, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

He hung his head, clenching eyes against the frustrated tears that managed to escape anyways.

"Damn... them..." he managed to croak.

Gaius didn't flinch away from the touch, for once not caring about appearing 'strong' in front of Nita. He was ashamed, but there was nothing he could do.

What made it worse was the words in Sabin's note. He could only have known what Gaius had said if he'd been listening, and if he'd been listening, then he'd seen what had taken place between the pegasus and dragon...

Gaius had a pretty good idea now why the supplies were gone.

Taking a deep, shakey breath, Gaius rubbed the rest of the tears away on the back of his hand. Snuffling, he looked up at her with a kind of forced resignation.

"I... think I need a drink," he said.

Vixen, who'd been pawing at the door, came over and licked Gaius' face in her own attempt to cheer up the man. Gaius accepted the licking and sighed, ruffling the dog's head.

"Bar. Definitely bar." He pushed himself up slowly. "Something that'll take me out in one hit, preferably..."

Vixen bounded after Nita, casting a look over her shoulder to see if Gaius was coming too. The big guy paused for a moment, shooting the door behind him a glare, and spun around to give it a quick kick.

That resulted in a muffled curse, and Gaius came limping after Nita quickly.

"It's not bad," he said once he'd caught up with her. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

The path to the beach and bar was calm, and the air warm, clinging with the promise of coming rain. Gaius walked in moody silence for a while, mulling over the developments, and his possible options.

"...Maybe, if I'd hit it harder, I could've knocked the door down..." he muttered to himself.