Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thom did feel a bit better for the reassurance, but.. Well, he doubted Alec was staying away for the same reasons he was. That anyone was, for that matter. He was hallucinating. He was terrified of his duplex. But no matter how much he attempted to convince himself it was just hallucinations, he was still scared to go back... Which, really, wasn't a good thing at all given that the only clothing he now had was the dress he was wearing.

He was thankful when Alec fixed on the change of subject, but grimaced at the explanation. "Pulled 'em out? All of 'em? Sick bastards. Good that they grew back, but it couldn't've been pleasant." He shook his head, then shrugged, glancing around the room. "Did indeed. Woke up outside th' tent, zapped when I tried t' walk away from it, so 'ere I am. I 'ardly recognize anyone..." He searched the room for recognizable faces, which was difficult between the costumes and heavy amount of alcohol in his system.

He did, however, recognize a bikini-clad hedgehog near the door. Apparently Emelyn had made her own costume. Good for her. Thom waved her over. "Oi, Em! C'mere!"

Hearing Pyroth talk about having carved out a niche of territory that he was living off of... his brain wanted to finish the though of 'like an animal', but he swallowed it down. It was strange. He remembered Pyroth the man, disdainful of that sort of lifestyle. It seemed so far away.

"A memorial...?" He didn't know quite how he felt about that. Another painful reminder. Even if he hadn't seen it personally or met the people in question more than a time or two... another danger of the island, another sign of the madness that was all around him. A danger much more acute than the physical changes meeting them all. Perhaps there was a reason he had become such a hermit recently. "I.... that is surprising that no one else had taken the initiative."

Or perhaps it wasn't that surprising at all. Maybe everyone else wanted to try to pretend that everything was okay. That this island was defeatable....

Ambrose absently watched Richard cut his meat with a sigh. A lot of the party atmosphere seemed to be leaching between the minor attack, and at least to him, some much more painful reminders of how much things had changed.

Alec shrugged the teeth subject off as another sorry trick from the Island staff, wrinkling his nose at Thom's description of his personalized 'prank' though found it somewhat amusing at the same time. Someone was definetly going through a lot of trouble to make the snakeman's life a living hell and the bloke was doing a grand job of dealing with it, he decided.

Grey eyes darted in the direction where Thom was calling to, giving the bikini girl a superficial glance before deciding he didn't recognize her as well. She'd changed since that first meeting by the lake and Alec's memory wasn't the best anyways. Expecting her to wander over eventually, the teen went about leisurely scanning the crowd again around the immediate area to entertain himself. It was only after noticing Marshall did he see who he was standing beside, a barely recognizable Amaya.

"Shhhite." He grunted and turned his face away as an immediate response.

Emelyn heard a voice beckoning to her, and she turned- expectant to see someone very different than the snake man in a dress that her eyes finally alit upon. She blinked- then laughed, and her mock-veil billowed out a bit as she did so. Someone across the room who had noticed her- he she had not seen, and perhaps... it was well that she hadn't. Living with the fond memories of the past is very different when the edgier reality of the present comes into play.

"Thom," she said softly, coming towards the man with a smile on her muzzle. "You look very... lovely." She parted her arms as if to put her own self on display, but instead, said "See? No dog for you to eat tonight." The words came easier to her than she thought they would, and a part of her wondered if the past almost year had been a dream- and whether she had ever left this glossy, surreal Halloween world.

Now here was a proper subject! Someone who fully appreciated the fine work that they were doing!

"Yes, yes, absolutely!!" she exclaimed. "You see what I mean! It is an honor to be brought here. It is a privelage to be a part of our -" she caught herself again. She'd have to be careful; not get so carried away. "-of their great work!"

Her smile was genuine, but behind it, a modicum of worry for the mentioned pooch lingered. She'd still not been able to contact Lucas... and there was just something ill-fitting about leaving her thanks in a note on the door on his duplex. Some thank yous- however difficult for one who had practically made a religion out of strength- had to be said in person.

"So... who or what are you, might I ask?"

He had broken another promise to himself. One had not to let the tentacles get out of control, the second was not to make anyone more depressed. It was a party, a time to forget troubles. Not remember them. Unfortunately for Ambrose his reaction had led to a annoying bristle of rightousness in Richard. And he was far to tired to suppress it.

He looked at Pyroth. "No I didn't know either of them but that really doesn't matter to me or to anyone for that matter. The fact is it happened and if we don't remember it, then it might happen again. It cliche but true. We've learned things from it haven't we? Let predatory villagers have room when they change right? If there is prey islander around, you'd try to get them away right?"

He took another bite of his steak, "Not to mention, would Fiona want to be forgotten or remembered? If you want a positive spin on things it truly appears that the labs attempted to prevent her death. You can classify it as a tragic accident." Richard was absolutely sure of himself in these statement, except for the bit about the labs.