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RP continued from here

The two walked down the empty halls of the Town Hall until they entered the cafeteria door. "This whole building has sure gotten alot bigger since I've been here." There had been constuction like mad and certainly lots of remodelling had been finished throughout the island. He could only imagine the heaps of cash Moreau laid down to make this place the quality it is.

"I'm sure finding out the exact species of the animal would help you out alot. Thankfully lions are pretty generic. There aren't many, if any, differnet species. They're all just slightly different depending upon where the pride is as a whole. I know that the entertainment room has all sorts of books on just about any animal you can imagine. I bet that's a good place for you to start." Rex couldn't help but wonder how much of his humanity he'd lose. In the end would he just be a completely normal lion with absolutely no memory of being human? Enveloped in his animalistic instincts and left to lead a lonely a prideless life? Sure, he'd developed into quite a catlike being... but so far he'd kept the majority of his own common sense and human knowledge. Only time would tell...

Rex didn't need to stop to think about what he had a hankerin' for. MEAT was at the top of his list. He bee-lined straight to the carnivore section of the cafeteria and piled his plate high with an array of different meat dishes, humming a happy little tune as he set his plate down at the nearest table and got a drink.

"Yeah, maybe you could just figure out what ind of snake it is by the markings on that tail of yours. Can't be too far off from something in one of those books." He returned to their table, said a quick prayer, then sunk his fangs into a piece of steak. Delicious.

Rex washed down his large bite with a sip of juice and gave his two cents on what Thom had speculated. "I dunno... there's alot of animals on the island that you wouldn't exactly expect to see. I mean, yeah, a lion is pretty generic and dull. But Awen is a manta ray, and that Joli chick is a komodo dragon, Nita is a red panda, half of those I wouldn't really imagine to see on this island... or at least not for a while. Not until the labs ran out of ideas for animals to use." He shrugged and took another large bite of his meal, "Not to mention I think it'd be cooler to have a rare or exotic animal. Some of those guys have some seriously weird attribute. Cool, but weird. I mean, you could go around saying 'Well I have the rare and elusive suchandsuch' and everyone would think that you were just so cool because the animal you were turning into is just awesome." He paused. Rex realized he was just sounding like an idiot and ranting again.

"...nevermind." He took another bite of steak and pretended like that never happened.

Rex cleared his throat and sat tall in his seat, recovering his composure before continuing in the conversation. "Ahh, well in that case, yeah, it makes sense. I don't think that the doctors would do anything terribly unheard of... like some weird blind deep-sea crab or something like that. That's just senseless." Rex just ate over his words, hoping that would fill in the empty pauses in his theory since he realized what Thom had been getting at was true all along. Get with it, Rex. WAKE UP!

"Yeah yeah, you win." Rex looked to his plate and mock sighed in defeat. He stared off into his plate to continue the game he was playing, though that caused him to not even notice that the man was choking until his fork clattered to the floor and gasping sounds could be heard from the commotion from across the table. "What th-?"

The realization hit him hard. Thom was choking!

Rex quickly planted one hand on the table and swung his body across as if it were a vault. Those gymnastics days actually came in handy for once. Thinking quickly, he pulled Thom out of his seat, wrapped his arms around Thom's stomach with a balled fist, then pumped his hand up and under into Thom's ribcage. He'd only done the heimlich maneuver a couple times before on some careless friends. Thankfully he knew the proper form, the only problem was would it actually work for him this time around. "Crap, Thom, spit it up!"

"You just don't want to give that thing up, do you?" Giving him water to wash it down wouldn't do the trick judging by how badly the man was choking. Rex would just have to keep at it until the guy hacked it out or passed out. Thankfully the islander's medical office wasn't far away from the cafeteria in the town hall.

The lion inside him was freaking out and in the end only made things worse. In order to make him stop writhing all he wanted to do was snap Thom's neck. The lion pounced with a wild roar, claws barred and flying straight for Thom's tender neck. His paws flew over Thom's shoulders and his body weight nearly caused the two to topple onto the table. With a swift swing of the neck and a rabid look in Rex's eyes he brought his fangs down straight for the jugular--

"NO!" Rex yelled, regaining his self control and shaking the lion's instinct from his mind. He switched his arms from over Thom's shoulders to back under his arms, balled his fist, and gave the heimlich a couple last tough thrusts. Thom's time was running out, and if it didn't work this time...

Several minutes, several seconds; whatever the case, Thom was a fair shade of blue by this time. The cobra was absolutely furious at the interruption to its meal, and likely would have whirled around to strike at the lion in response had not it been half strangled by its own meal. Determined to finish its meal, it tucked its normally pointless arms between its torso and Rex's arms, effectively blocking the attempts to force away the hamburger bite.

And then the sounds of someone running and the door slamming distracted it, and in that brief instant Thom's thoughts returned clearly once more. He freed his arms, allowing Rex the ability to work properly, and only seconds later heaved a deep breath as the hamburger piece fell to the floor. Falling still, he allowed himself another few deep breaths, regaining some of his normal color, then chuckled breathlessly. "..'Ave t'remember t'chew next time.."