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Well, that at least felt a lot less angry than previously. It wasn't Oz's fault that he couldn't really see past was put in front of him. He could relate to Marshall, but that was as far as he could go. And even then, it didn't seem far considering his hinted insistance that Oz didn't have as bad a change as he.

"Hey, I'm allowed to mope and feel useless if I want to. And I'll bear that in mind. Nose bleed equals bad," he said, an awkward playfulness at the end.

He began to walk back over to his abandoned tray of food, feeling quite uneasy about what had just transpired. Things just didn't feel settled yet. Maybe Marshall would need more time before a better apology.

"Just...take things easy...nothing's worse than a penguin with a nervous breakdown..."

"Umm sure," he replied as he sat himself down in the corner again, half-picked sandwich not looking attractive in the slightest.

Oz was in no rush to be anywhere, he could sit and pick at his meal for the rest of the day if he wanted to. He settled into his chair, which creaked and groaned in protest, and started to feel a little better about this, although a part of him feared Marshall still had another ace up his sleeve.

"What did you mean when you called me Kong just then...?" he asked casually as he peeled a banana, not yet making the link to the popular and recently remade film.

"King Kong? Isn't that the thing that climbs the empire state building?" he pressed further, a smirk across his face. "You think I'm turning into a King Kong?"

The disbelief was hard to mask, even if he had tried to. Oz was still at that fine point between disbelief and despair. Having spent many of the previous moping about what had happened to him, he hadn't put any thought into what he was going to become. He'd wanted to avoid thoughts of that personally, since it would almost seem like an acceptance of what was happening.

He looked at his hands, and in particular the half-eaten banana in his right hand. With a carefully considered expression, he put it on the table and slid it to one side, picking up an apple instead which seemed a lot less conspicious.

"Hehe yeah...but I'd make a terrible king of the jungle," he half-chuckled, a part of him screaming at the fact he was discussing this so openly and light-heartedly when he'd just spent days hating himself for what he was becoming.

"I'd almost started to think of a hairy rhino or something, look at this freaky thing on my head," he said, lifting up the black mop of fur that obscured the embryonic sagittal crest that was just forming on his forehead.

It was almost like swapping gross out stories or battle-scars. Was Oz kind of proud to have this odd adornment to his head, just so that people had something to talk about with him?

Oz relished the reaction from Marshall, reminding him of the days when he used to show off a new bruise or a new scar from rugby to all his team-mates and drinking buddies.

"Well, it doesn't hurt...at least not yet," he said, continuing to touch it and follow the length of it to the top of his skull even as Marshall kept talking.

"Hah, king of ice more like then. I bet you prefer the warm weather though."

Oz had made quick work of his apple and eyed one of his chocolate muffins with lust. Should he imbibe in something that was, or should, be in his diet? Did diet even matter anymore? Nope! He began nibbling on the muffin.

Oz wasn't even going to wonder how Marshall could make his duplex so cold and instead concerned himself with the penguin boy's request for a muffin. He pulled faces in mock thought, as though he was going to think and then refuse to give him a muffin.

"Weeelll...go ahead. I shouldn't be eating so much anyways," he said, pushing a muffin across to Marshall.

Oz began eating his remaining muffin, and only became blindingly aware of how normal he still was when he saw Marshall 'peck' at his dismantled muffin on the table. He watched him with a morbid fascination, maybe staring a little too hard and a sort of disbelief etched on his face. The kind where you've just seen a snake swallow a rabbit whole.

In between bites, he felt at his nose and face, for the fuzz factor and for any other signs of animals he was going to be. Maybe a trip to the entertainment room was on the cards.

"Did I miss anything? Y'know, whilst I've been a hermit."