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"Dengue fever?"

She'd never heard of that before, but she certainly didn't like the way it sounded, especially since he seemed to be referring to her animalistic features. He had to know, he just had to know they were turning into animals...right? However, when he asked about the serums, her blood ran cold and her eyes widened. He didn't know. He actually didn't know.

"I-I..." Sophie found herself at a loss for words: how was she going to explain this to him? The guy didn't even know what he was in for! She wanted to leave things just like they were and run, find some corner and hide, but she knew she couldn't: she knew that he had to learn, just as she had, just as everyone had.

"I d-don't have any disease," Sophie weakly asserted, her voice starting to climb in pitch from her tension. She looked at her hands to avoid his gaze, then ran her elongated fingers through her hair, her ears flattening in the process. "It's, well, it's a little hard to explain, but the labs did this to me. They're testing on all of us, and it makes us like this."

"The fact is...they're, uhm...they're turning us into animals." Sophie broke away from his gaze the moment her words left her blackened lips. She wanted to see the look on his face about as much as she'd wanted to tell him in the first place.

The way Topher yelled made Sophie's ears twitch, and they went back against the side of her head as she jumped: she still wasn't used to how things were amplified.

"I'm not testing you," she whimpered, feeling worse than ever, "and none of this is a costume. I mean, does it look like a costume to you?" She held out a furred hand for examination, and brushed her bangs away to show where her ears met the side of her face. There were no wires, straps, or adhesives anywhere.

"This is who I am now, because of the labs. They do this to everyone. And the shot on your arm is how they do it. The serum."

"No, no, I don't mind if you...pull the fur," Sophie responded, her voice getting weaker with each word. She didn't want him thinking that it was all a fake, but even so, this was probably going to hurt. So, keeping her hand extended, she looked away, trying not to think of the pain that'd be going up her arm in moments.

Sophie winced from the tug at her fur, but it wasn't as bad as she'd thought. Once he'd finished inspecting, she pulled her hand back, understandingly not feeling very sociable. Upon being asked about the disease again, she shook her head, her ears almost flat against her hair.

"It's not dengue, or anything natural like that. It's an experiment. Everyone around here looks kinda like me. Some better...some worse...but we all started normal." She tried smiling, but it failed, and she looked away. "It's not what anyone wants to hear, but it's the truth. They keep us here, and after things start to get bad..." she paused, holding up her hand to reference her changes, "...well, they don't let us go home."

"Well, not everyone's furry," Sophie responded, shrugging meekly as she did her best to hide her anxiety. "Some people are frogs, or penguins, reptiles...pretty much any kind of animal, I guess." It was only after saying that when she realized that her words would likely bring no comfort to the man, so she quieted herself, looking down sheepishly at her feet.

"I came here because I was taking medicine for narcolepsy-this disorder where you fall asleep, y'know?-and it made me change because it had serums in it. They brought me here, and I guess they intend to finish the job." She shrugged again, trying to make the whole situation seem impersonal. She just needed to be detached. "I don't really know what I'm supposed to be, though..."

Sophie's arms flailed as she jumped back in surprise from the sudden outburst, and it took a moment to get her rattled breathing back and shape, her posture bent away from him as she shielded herself like a wounded animal. A hurt expression came upon her wide blue eyes, and she looked down, a passing glance to the food on her plate that she knew had gone to waste. However, food was the farthest thing from her mind, and she did her best to calm herself so that she could calm the man.

Obviously, it wasn't working.

"None of us can help it, it just happens. And I'm sure everyone's tried getting off...it just doesn't work. We can't beat guns and boats and the security they've got." She shook her head, her eyes starting to well up with tears. "And I do understand that it ruins your plans and messes things up. But it's not something you can change." Wiping her eyes, she got to her clawed, bare feet, her ears and tail drooping. "I really wish I could tell you otherwise, I do, but you'd have to talk to the labs about getting a free ride out, and they don't even do that for the people they like."

"I'm sorry, really. But it's not something anyone around here has the power to change." She paused to wipe her eyes again: it was getting harder and harder not to cry. If this guy didn't get it soon, she was going to end up severely embarassing herself.

"Oh, I'm not crying, really, I-I just-"

Sophie stopped trying to wipe her eyes and just put her face in her hands, letting out a squeak of a sob as she wept into her hands. Her shoulders shivered as she gulped and forced herself to stop, wiping her eyes once again to slow the flow that stained the fur a darker color where it'd become wet. She weakly laughed, as if the whole scene were trivial, then looked back up to the man with eyes that were slightly red from tears.

"I'm sorry: I, y'know, I feel really bad...I've only been here since late December, January...I was in your shoes just a few months ago..."