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Zach wasn't really sure what he did. Anger, response, it all meshed into one simple action that was copied out of the effectiveness it had had in the past when others had used it on him. It wasn't something he normally did, not at all, especially not to people at least a foot taller than him with a mutual hatred. Had he just punched Gaius? Stinging pains in his hand answered quite readily that, yes, he had. It didn't quite make sense up in the brain. Trivial details of the situation. There was too much adrenaline for him to pull back and think, leaving him standing there practically gaping and little by little re-realizing himself, what he'd done, and why he'd done it. His heart was beating in his throat and his headache was the least of his issues.

He completely failed to notice Gaius gearing up for a punch of his own, and didn't even get a chance to step back or away. Even with his stomach plated over in scales, they did nothing to protect him from the force of the jab, making him double over in a mixture of surprise and pain. His tail stiffened and wings shot out to their full span, but all he could do was stumble backwards and suck in a breath of air. For all the machismo he tried to convey, it was pretty clear why he didn't normally pick fights or enjoy them. With both hands clasped over the fresh injury, he tried to straighten up again, though the pain was still there.

There was hardly anything to be said. He snarled, seeking renewed confidence from his animalistic habits. The tail that had been stiff as a board before fell into a bout of thrashing around his feet.

"You're wrong," he growled quietly. It was fact, simply fact, and unchanging fact at that. There was nothing wrong with wanting revenge if someone else was willing to carry it out for him. Nothing wrong with having a laugh at someone else's expense if no one got hurt. Deep down everyone liked to look at the next person wallowing in misfortune and think to themself 'I'm glad I'm not them'. Why should he be held to a higher standard than that of every human being? Perhaps he was no longer human enough for the strict guidelines of altruism to apply to him any longer. There was a thought.

Still, the punch... that was human. It was a gesture of blind violence, solving problems with force and not words. He had to leave now, before something drove him to violence again, next time with a more feral twist - not for his own safety, but for Gaius's, from the claws and teeth that had nearly rendered Aubrey dead months before. Wordlessly he slunk out of the room, thoughts of books and clever last words farthest from his mind. There was no compassion to the choice to back down, merely fear of consequence. In a sense, it was defeat, but it was a fight he didn't want to win.... this way.

In contrast to the Dr. Bia, Richard's thoughts lately had been hard, sharp with anger. He had been working on his little farce of the a project for almost a week now and it was simply making him more upset at the situation. He had wrote down the events of the graveyard back when it had happened, from an emotional null zone. In his notebooks it was only a sequence of events, but every time he sat down to write about it, he found himself reliving it.

He had moved on to his editorial, that he had written a dozen times already, only to throw it out when he realized it was just an angry rant.

Frustrated and needing a break he came into the entertainment room looking for any sort of distraction. His entraince was loud, as he had applied far too much force to the door, swinging inward with a BANG!

He scanned the room and spotted Bia, gave her what was meant as a friendly smile but Richard had worked himself up so much that it looked more like he was bearing his teeth at her. "Ah hello."

It had his intention perhaps to watch a movie, but new people always took priority. He took a seat near by her. "I don't believe we've met." Some of the angry lines seemed fall away as he studied her, something other than the chaos of his thoughts.

"I'm Richard. Richard Harrison." Using his last name to fill in the awkward silence. What he really wanted was someone to vent too. His lips parted to tell her something about his frustrations but it just died there. He couldn't unload on some one he had just met, whom he hadn't even had a proper conversation with before. So instead he bite on his knuckle on his left hand as he looked away.

His eyes fell on the remote on the tablet infront of him. "This place is so frustrating." It was almost addressed to the air around them instead of Bia.

SNAP! A tentacle sprung to the coffee table and back. The club now curled around the remote waving above Richard's head.

Richard gave a frustrated sigh when he noticed Bia's aversion of his tentacle. "sorry." he mumbled as he pryed the remote from the club's suckered grasp. He was starting to rely on the things to retrieve small objects like empty coffee cups and such in his duplex.

He turned the TV on and was greeted by a blue DVD menu that clearly stated "No disc inserted." He clicked it off again.

He turned back to Bia to attempt conversation again. "I miss channel surfing. You know being able to just flip through the channels until you find something interesting. Here, "Richard gestured at the walls of DVDs, "they have everything if you know what you want. Silly thing to miss eh?" He smiled a bit.

Well she Bia wasn't a talker appearently. Maybe she would listen to him then? He folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. "Glilded cage. Beautiful cage. Thats what it is. I keep telling myself I've seen worse. I've kids dying of hunger, trains of orphans from AIDs, people living in bombed out remains that could collasp at any moment." He looked at Bia with snarling smirk. "But it does make the mirror an more bearable. Saying it could be worse just doesn't make it tolerable." Richard shook his head and looked down on his clawed hands.

Richard really had not expected a reaction like that. Agreement or perhaps a pep talk. These clipped answers from her were puzzling, a conversation with her appeared to be like squeezing water from a stone.

"Some good things?" He sighed, "I suppose your like Colche then? Moreau rescued you from a place beyond hope eh? This," Gesturing at the tentacle, "Is a perfectly reasonable alterative."

Richard cover his eyes with a hand and leaned on the arm of the couch. "More power to you then. Are you happy then?"

Richard really had no idea where he was going or what he was trying to do. If Bia had remained silent or made a non committal comment Richard probably would have dropped the matter entirely. Instead she had thrown up a wall. Walls perked his curiosity. He picked up his head slowly swung it back towards Bia.

"None of my business? Hrrm." He sat back, studying her. "Why not?"

Richard watched her go. He always seemed to press people to hard, but in this instance he didn't care. Nothing to be done about it now. Alone was better than her frustrating company. Maybe he'd regret his behavior later but he had other things to worry about. Like which DVD to watch.

A gilded cage. Was he just supposed to forget about the freedoms of the world beyond? In the dim room Richard felt himself fall deeper into the emotional pit he had dug himself.