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 Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:20 pm
Gaius stared in shock as furred ears peaked out over Sophie's hands. His stomach lurched, realizing just what was happening. Quickly, he scooped her up off the floor, carrying her in his arms over to where her bed was. "Don't worry Sophie, I'm here for you. Just hang tight, you'll get through this," he reassured her. Setting her down atop her sheets, he grabbed a chair with his leg and hitched it over to sit, taking up one of her hands in his own and patting it comfortingly. "Be strong, Sophie. Be strong!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:38 pm
Sophie squeezed her eyes tightly, having no desire to see what changes were happening to her. She could feel them just fine. Fur began to sprout from her pale skin, a thin, soft tan fuzz that ran from her shoulders to her hands, ending just past her wrists, where Gaius was holding her hands and would surely feel the new fur. Her fingernails blackened, and the fur began to spread across her chest, leaving a thin tuft poking out from her tank top. However, she seemed to keep a relative cool until a shiver ran down her spine, but refused to stop at her tailbone, pushing out and causing her to yelp in pain, lurching forward and grabbing onto Gaius. No amount of curiosity would allow her to look back between her broken sobs of pain to see a fuzzy dinosaur-like tail, nearly a foot long and the same color as the fur on her arms.
But no, the shivers wouldn't leave her alone, and with a cry, she felt them leap into her legs, slide into her feet, and push from the inside, stretching her poor socks beyond all belief and also beginning to grow fuzz on the tops.
And then, in a strange moment, it was all gone. The pain, it was still there, but the humming in her ears was gone, the spots in her vision, the shivers. Those awful shivers. The only sound she could hear was her ragged breathing and her heavy pulse, the only thing she could feel was her hands against Gaius, clenching his forearms as tightly as she could.
Gaius. That's right, he was there. She refused to lift her head, to look him in the face. As with everything else, she had no desire to see his current expression.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:03 pm
Even going through the change himself did nothing to prepare Gaius for this. He watched helplessly as Sophie grimace, holding her hand and lightly stroking her face in an attempt to offer some small comfort. He felt prickling against his palm and looked down in surprise at the fur growing across her hand and the darkening nails.
Before he could register how far the fur was extending, Sophie cried out and grabbed hold of him. He stiffened in surprise, but wrapped his arms around her back, rocking her slightly as she trembled. He could see over her shoulder the growth of the tail, his own twitching in sympathetic pain. He could only imagine how bad it was, hers was well over twice as long as his actual spine growth had been. Afraid to hurt her or her new tail, Gaius stopped rocking and just rubbed an hand against her back, speaking soothingly. "Hang in there, Sophie, hang on. It'll be okay."
Perhaps he spoke too soon as Sophie's feet erupted, stretching and tugging at her socks. Gaius winced, wondering how bones could possibly stretch like that. Would she be able to walk?
It finally finished, but Gaius remained where he was, holding her in his arms. He could feel her rattling breaths heaving in and out, shaking her small frame. He brushed her cheek with a hand, managing a small smile. "Well, I guess you're not turning into a hamster after all. But the fur is rather cute..."
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:17 pm
Sophie would've snapped at him, had she not been trying to catch her breath. No. Fur was not cute, it wasn't even natural, and it was growing out of her skin! Her ears, her feet, the tail...It was all too much to take in at one moment.
Perhaps she was hallucinating: perhaps it was all just a bad dream. But as she slowly opened her eyes, reality poured in, and she didn't like it one bit. She wiped her eyes with her hand, trying to avoid the fur, and looked up at Gaius for the first time on his side of the Island experience.
"Hamster...? Hamster my a**: I don't even know what this animal is!" Her voice was still as soft as ever, but the frustration clearly rang through. After the moment of ranting, though, she gave him a slightly apologetic look, and asked, "But really, how bad is it?" She tried testing her feet against the ground, and a sharp bite of pain shot up her leg, causing her to quickly suck in breath. "Other than my feet, of course: I think my shoe size just went off the Richter scale."
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:36 pm
"It's... not bad," he said honestly. "Your ears are long and pointy, a bit more than mine, but your face is still the same. It doesn't look bad, really." A coy smile broke across his face as he ruffled her hair lightly. "And I don't care what you say. Fur is cute. Better than stiff hair."
He glanced back over his shoulder at the cupboards, wondering if she had some pain meds. "Want me to get you something for the aches? Maybe some tylenol or something? Or anything else, so you don't have to move?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:46 pm
Sophie curled up with her elongated feet beside her, rubbing the ache away as best she could. Almost automatically, the tail curled up, too, and as much as she hated to admit it, there was a certain comfort in having her tail around her. "I think there's some advil in the cupboard thing where the peroxide was."
Oy. It seemed she was just about using her medical supplies up in the past few days.
Looking down at the strange, alien feet, she twitched her toes, making sure that the nerves still worked for more than producing pain. Even though it had only been about an inch or two's worth of growth, she could already tell that there was no way she would fit into her shoes. How was she going to walk? It's not like she needed a wheelchair: her legs were still there, for the most part. But it had certainly hurt to try and stand.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:00 pm
Gaius fetched the pills obediently and went over to the sink to grab a glass of water. Returning with them in hand, he handed over the pills while holding the glass out for her to take them with. His eyes drifted down to the twitching feet and he shook his head, musing over the same thing she was. What animal had feet like that? Maybe with the ears...
"Well, maybe you're a rabbit? A brown one?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:08 pm
"I doubt it, unless there's some rabbit that has a dinosaur tail," she responded, a hint of cold sarcasm in her voice. Taking the pills, she swallowed quickly, having experience in taking medication. It would be a good while before the pills kicked in well enough for her to try and walk again, so she was stuck sitting for the moment...
"Wait, do you think they would make a rabbit dinosaur? I mean, Cassidy has wings...and Zach, well...he's Zach."
Placing the water down by her side, she gently touched the fur on her arms, watching it stand up on end. "This still doesn't feel real at all..." she muttered, subdued in her thoughts.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:30 pm
Gaius blinked, trying to imagine what a rabbit-dinosaur might look like. All he could get was a T-Rex with big feet, rabbit ears, and buck teeth. It made him chuckle.
"I dunno, somehow it seems to work together... the fur, the tail, your ears... There's lots of crazy animals around, right? I'm sure it's something we aren't thinking of. I mean, there's lot of islanders that are just normal animals. I doubt they'll be giving either of us anything weird... And hey! At least you're a mammal!" He smiled encouragingly. "Warm blooded and everything!"
He looked down at her fur as she did so, running a hand over his own bare arm, feeling the bristle of thick hair that didn't used to grow there. "Yeah... it feels more like being in a costume. Or a dream. The sensations are all different, there's new nerves and muscles... hell, I wonder how my brain can manage to control my tail!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:44 pm
Sophie sighed, placing her chin in the palm of her hand to at least give the appearance of difficult thinking. "Well, at least the professor was kind enough to let me keep the warm-blooded luxury," she admitted, still not used to calling the man Sabin or Doctor Duvert. "He knew me before the Island, though, so wouldn't he pick something symbolic. He's mad for symbolism...hold on, I got it!"
She attempted to shuffle out of her position, but alas, her feet still hurt. Pointing to a bookshelf, she said, "I think I packed a children's animal dictionary in there...will you check for it?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:09 pm
Gaius blinked, looking rather confused. "Uh, sure! But what's a dictionary going to help?"
He moved over to the shelf, running his fingers across the spines as he looked for the one she indicated. He found it near the bottom, tucked away to the side. Pulling it out, he tossed it to her.
"I mean, what does an animal dictionary have to do with symbolism?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:29 pm
"Just about nothing. But it is a book with a bunch of really big pictures of a bunch of animals. Chances are we'll get some clue as to what this serum is."
She flipped through the A's. No dice. The B's were the same way, and by the time she finished the C's, she didn't want to read any watered-down explanations, and she was pretty sure that she was neither an anteater, a bear, or a cat. Slightly frustrated, she flipped to the back of the book, hitting the W's and reading the word 'Wallaby'.
Something seemed to click, and suddenly, Sophie was flipping pages, holding out the pages that ended J and began K to Gaius. "Tell me if you see any animal on this page that might be it." Of course, she already had the idea in mind, but she wanted him to confirm her suspicions.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:34 pm
"Uhh..." He scratched hair on the back of his neck as he scanned the page and shrugged. "I dunno, I guess a kangaroo? They have that long tail and all..."
He looked back up at Sophie, eyes widening. "You don't think you're turning into a kangaroo, do you? I mean, with the feet and all..." As much as he struggled to accept it, it fit. The fur, the strange tail... His tail twitched anxiously and he reached out to pat Sophie's arm, unsure of what to do. How would she react to the news?
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:47 pm
"Yeah, that'd be my guess."
She shook her head, thinking of the irony. She'd probably mentioned her biological parent's origin to Duvert at least once while talking, he'd probably taken the idea from there.
"Well, I mean, at least it's a guarantee that I won't be stuck on all fours."
She looked down at her feet again, letting them sway back and forth on the bedspread. As her gaze went back up to Gaius, she grabbed his hand, still getting used to the hoof-like features. "And besides, I don't think I'm the only one here who has to worry about their feet."
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:09 pm
Gaius gulped, blushing as she grabbed his hand, and nodded his head. What she said was true. His hands open and closed, as if testing their flexibility. "Yeah... I mean, at least kangaroos have fingers, huh? Horses just have hooves... What's going to happen to my hands? Am I going to lose my thumbs?"
He sighed heavily, wincing as it came out more as a horsish snort. "I just hope I can keep some use in them. What good are hoof-hands if you're walking on two legs?"
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