Welcome to Gaia! ::

Joshua was sure this place would have a library of some sort somewhere. After all, this was a school, wasn't it? Although I haven't even found the classrooms yet, Joshua thought to himself. Perhaps they were closer to the labs. For now, though, he supposed he wouldn't worry about that. He knew where the cafeteria was and where to get medicine if he needed it, the next thing on his list was where to find books. He brought some of his own, but if there was new reading material around, he wanted to know where he could find it and what was available.

Finally stumbling upon the entertainment room, Joshua cast a glance around the room, and spotted the magazines and books. Ah, well - not quite what I expected, but I suppose it's better than nothing. He walked over to the shelves, scanning over the books. There sure are a lot of books on animals here...

Full from a quick lunch, Nita wandered around the village center, searching for something to do. Her sensitive ears caught a few rustling sounds coming from the entertainment room. Perhaps there had been a new shipment of books or movies.

Nita peeked in, braids swinging. "Er, hello?" she called across the room. "I'm not interrupting or anything, am I?"

Joshua turned when he heard a voice. "Ah, no, I--" he hesitated. You've got to be kidding me, he thought when he noticed the redhead's fur. Why was everyone here... modified? "I was just looking to see what kinds of books were available here." He was a little disappointed by the selection, as there didn't seem to be very much learning material - although he was already thinking about how to borrow the one or two romance novels he spotted, without being seen.

"Ah, I am Professor Rivers, by the way - I'm a new teacher here. What's your name?" he asked, before he heard a familiar voice from behind Nita, and smiled when he recognized it. Her nudity still made him uncomfortable - perhaps I should explain to her why people wear clothes? - but he attempted to ignore it. "Colche! It's good to see you again," he said with a smile at the cheetah girl.

Nita moved from the doorway with a sideways grin at Colche. The 'princess cheetah' really was too cute. She didn't particularly mind Colche's nudity, almost envying her the freedom. Even though she wasn't terribly furry -yet- the heat and humidity was certainly rough.

"There's a pretty decent collection of science-fiction and fantasy here," she offered. "Must be the labs' sense of humour, but I don't mind much." Nita plopped herself onto one of the squishy couches, slipping her sandals off and sitting on her feet. "Nice to meet you, Professor. My name is Nita MacNeal." She realized rather suddenly that that was probably the first time she'd introduced herself and included her last name since her arrival.

She shrugged and patted the cushion beside her. "Hi there, Colche! Is that a new book there?"

"Ah, yes, I was noticing there seems to be quite a few animal books here," Joshua replied, not really understanding what Nita meant by the labs' sense of humor. What was so amusing about that? "And it's nice to meet you, as well. May I ask what you are studying here?" Perhaps that might explain her fur. He hoped all the students here weren't that enthusiastic about their studies. Joshua liked a student who was actually interested in learning, but he was starting to feel there was such a thing as being too enthusiastic.

"Speaking of reading, Colche, I have something for you." He reached into his pocket, walking over to the couch. He had brought the present with him as he planned to pay a visit to the cheetah girl later. "It's a bookmark," he explained as he took the present out of his pocket and held it out to the cheetah girl.



It wasn't a very fancy bookmark, with palm trees on the front and decorated with a blue tassel, but it would serve it's purpose well enough. "Instead of marking your place with a piece of paper, you can use this instead. I brought a few with me, I thought you might like to have one?"

"Charlotte's Web is a very good book," Nita told Colche. "Was that one of your birthday presents?" She patted the cheetah girl's fuzzy arm, glad that the girl was getting some real help with her reading.

Nita peered over at Professor Rivers. Did he not know? But.. he had been helping Colche! Baffled, Nita simply nodded and said, "The animal books are pretty useful, once you've changed, or if you know what you're becoming."

"Studying here?" she repeated, blinking. "I was an English major back home, but there's not a lot of studying to be done here. At least not on our part. The staff likes to study us, though," Nita finished, her tone just a tiny bit bitter.

Joshua suddenly looked a little aggravated; was everyone in on this joke? It was getting old, very fast. "I know people here aren't really turning into animals, so please, don't waste your time with that joke on me. It has already been done." He reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose with a sigh. He didn't want to deal with this every time he met someone new, especially because of that constant, nagging feeling in his gut that something was indeed wrong with this place - but he trusted Dr. Duvert, and he didn't want to make a fool of himself again for freaking out and asking stupid questions. Like if people here were turning into animals.

No, he certainly wouldn't let himself fall for that again.

Nita's jaw dropped and she stared blatantly at the older man. She would have yelled, if Colche weren't there, and besides, she didn't like yelling. She always ended up crying, and that wouldn't help at all.

How was it possible that Professor Rivers didn't know? He had been helping Colche, he hadn't stared oddly at her fur... Nita couldn't imagine being so far in denial. Up to his neck in the river, at least.

"It's not a joke," Nita managed, as calmly as possible. Her eyes flicked to Colche, staring intently at the television. Had the cheetah-girl tried to tell him as well? Nita sighed. Why did she seem to be the one who had to convince new people? This guy was the third in a week. "I don't know who you've met, or what you've been told, but I assure you, Professor Rivers, I most certainly am not joking about this."

"Miss MacNeal, please do not play me for a fool. I have already met your classmates, Kaveri and Zachary, and they tried to tell me the very same thing. Dr. Duvert already explained to me Kaveri is studying the Pai Dong people, and Zachery is working with animatronics - he also explained that the students here can get carried away with their little pranks on the newcomers."

He was trying to keep his voice down, so as not to yell in front of Colche, but his tone still gave away the annoyance he was feeling. When the cheetah girl walked up to him and held out her tail, he felt uncomfortable. Even though she said she was happy to be what she was, he still couldn't help but worry she didn't understand it. He lifted his hand, taking hold of her tail gently, feeling the soft fur against his skin.

It wasn't true.

But the fur on her tail felt just as real as the fur on her paws had felt. And it was warm - not cold and loose rubber like he imagined an animatronic tail would feel. How could this be?

"But it's impossible," Joshua murmured, staring at the tail in his hand.

Nita glowered and would have said something rather nasty in reply (respecting your elders be damned!), but Colche went over to the professor and offered him her tail. Surely that was proof enough to convince anyone, Nita thought, if her own changes were still subtle enough to be explained away.

She walked over and put her arm around Colche's shoulder's. "You see, Professor, it's true. It's not a prank. The doctors here, they did this to us. They'll tell people pretty much anything to get them here, to deceive them..."

Nita sighed, her voice soft. "I'm sorry, but apparently it's not impossible. Colche and I are proof." She held out her other hand and laid it gently on Josh's arm. The darkened nails were not painted on, and the soft reddish fur was clearly growing from the skin and could not be attributed to excessive hairiness.

"But then why would Dr. Duvert tell me otherwise?" Joshua asked, letting go of Colche's tail. It didn't make sense. Who was lying to him? Obviously someone was, but he was having trouble figuring out who... and the evidence right in front of him was very strong indeed. "He's the one that brought me here. Why would he lie? It doesn't make sense. None of this makes sense..."

But he couldn't deny how real everything seemed, and wondered for a moment if the injection he was given when he arrived was still having side effects. Even if it was real, it wouldn't happen to him, right? He didn't sign up for this...

He looked down at the cheetah girl after she pressed her nose to his chin, and tried to offer her a small smile. "I'm not mad, Colche... I'm confused. I don't understand this, or what's going on..."

Nita smiled sadly and patted Josh's arm, both to reassure him and to drive home the fact that it was all real. "Dr. Duvert lied to you in order to get you here.

"All of the people living in this village here, we have all been brought here under false pretenses and injected. It's been just under two months for me, and I know others have been here since at least last October. All of us have been injected, watched constantly, tested, and changed." Nita looked down at her hand and reached to touch her soft leathery nose.

Taking a deep breath, Nita elaborated, "Duvert himself told me I'm being changed into a red panda. Colche is a cheetah; my friend Lauren is a yellow mongoose."

"But I was already here when I asked Dr. Duvert about Kaveri and Zachery," Josh protested, "so why would he lie if I was already tricked onto the island? We spoke over the intercom, so there was no reason for him to lie about it." Joshua shook his head, trying to take in all this information. No matter how many times he heard it, it still seemed so... outrageous. Impossible.

Aubrey? Yes, maybe he should talk to her, then... perhaps she could explain without him having to accidentally make a fool of himself with Dr. Duvert again, if indeed this was still a joke. "Alright Colche... I'll come by and see you again later to read more of your book," he smiled at the girl, giving her paws a very gentle squeeze before watching her walk away.

Then he looked to Nita again. "... I don't know what to say."

Nita agreed with Colche; Dr. Lockheart was more likely to be trustworthy. At least, she took good care of Colche. Nita wondered absently if the woman was alright after being attacked, and if they knew who had done it. But that was hardly relevent at the moment. She waved goodbye to Colche and turned back to Professor Rivers.

"Like I said, the doctors here have an odd sense of humor. My friend Cass is turning into a snake, and Duvert gave her wings so she'd be like Quetzalcoatl." Nita leaned back and perched on the arm of the couch.

"Quetzalcoatl... right," Joshua laughed a bit, shaking his head. "And you think that I'm going to turn into an animal as well?" Maybe he was just brought here to teach the people here, like Colche, and not to be like one of them?

He sat down heavily on the couch. "This is a little much to take in all at once..." Joshua felt like he should be panicking right now, afraid that he was being used as an experiment, too. Instead, he just felt... numb.

Nita spun around on the arm of the couch to face the professor. She nodded, a wry smile on her face. "I'm sure of it. Did you get an injection when you got here?"

She knew it was hard to take, and Professor Rivers had held out longer than most. Nita was sympathetic, of course, but it was high time he faced reality.

"Well, yes - but it was only an immunization shot..." Joshua said. At least, that is was Dr. Duvert told him, at any rate. Now, he was starting to doubt that. He rubbed his arm where he received the shot. "So you're saying that was the, what, animal injection?"

Immunization, indeed. Nita sniffed, barely masking her derision. "Something like that. I called the labs once, to ask them about it." She paused, not wanting to mention that it had actually been Dr. Duvert with whom she'd spoken. "Seems the first injection is a preparation, and the subsequent shots induce changes."

She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "That's how it happened for me. Injected the day I got here, and about a month later a group of guards came up to me while I was eating and injected me again. A few hours later, I changed this far." Nita stretched out one furry leg and touched her ears and nose again.

"Then perhaps I need to speak to someone other than Dr. Duvert to get some real answers around here," Joshua said, looking up at her. If this was true, there was no way he was going to stay on this island. In fact, he wasn't sure he wanted to stick around even if it wasn't true. "Miss MacNeal, I think I'm going to try and contact one of the doctors and ask them some questions," he stood back up. "It was nice meeting you... thank you, for explaining this to me..."

"I think that would be a good idea," Nita said, biting her lip. She stood up as well, no longer in the mood to browse through the island's small library.

"You're welcome, I guess. I mean, you needed to know..." Nita turned away for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "And please," she said finally, "Call me Nita."

"Then, you can call me Josh..." He figured he wasn't really a teacher here, so formalities didn't matter. "I'll see you around, Nita," Joshua said, and then he left the room, heading back to his duplex.

"See you, Josh," Nita said quietly. Giving Josh a few minutes' head start, she sat staring at her furry arms, contemplating how well and how quickly she had adjusted to life on the island, new people aside.

With a sigh and one last glance at the bookshelves, Nita retrieved her sandals and left for the solace of her room.