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Ian follwed Amaya into the cafeteria just as silently. He approached the food and gave it a quick look.. all he really wanted was apples, he could get some grass later. He went to the apples and took a *very* large helping. He could smell the apples and his mouth was watering. Since getting apples was faster than making a salad Ian chose out a place to sit in the corner.

Ian chewed on an apple. He had been doing almost nothing the past few days.. "I have not done much. I was intending to visit Emerwyn soon, but may have to postpone that event in the case that I still be sore on the morrow." His apple lay heavily in his stomach - now that was odd... "Awen wanted me to give her a book. There is a new girl on the island as well. Her name is Joliette I recall... And thou?"

Chubbs swung the door open to the cafeteria wide, looking towards the food trays, he was really hungry and couldn't wai. He slipped inside first though and held the door open for Joliette, force of habit for him to do.

Ian halted mid chew as two people entered the cafeteria. Joliette and...someone he didn't know, but that guy was huge. Ian tried to remain inconspicuous and finished chewing the bit of apple before swallowing. He sniffed the air - the big guy didn't have an oder that Ian's brain deemed threatening, but maybe his nose wasn't strong enough yet. He frowned. "Is that man Joliette is with new as well?" he asked. There weren't noticeable changes so probably, but he had to make sure. "And gracefully? What dost thou mean by that?"

Chubbs made his way in, rubbing his hands gleefully at the thought of a nce big meal. He smeeled the food from across the room.

" That'll be umm good.. ya have to.. umm come show me ya ah pics"

Chubbs grabbed a plate and eyed the food along it, selecting some baked vegetables and a big helping of roasted beef and gravy, he nabbed a couple of dinner rolls, a knife and fork and headed for a table to sit. Hearing someone talking, Chubbs looked over and saw Amaya and another person talking and eating in the corner. Chubbs blinked when he saw him, no matter how many times he would see the changes he feared he'd never get use to it. Blushing slightly he waved to Amya to at least stop his initial shock and went about eating.

The next day, Ambrose was feeling... at least partially better. Amaya had been right - after having some time to cool down, Angelina had come around, and seemed at least understanding of his actions. She was still overwhelmed - to say the least - but he saw hope.

She still wasn't ready to leave the duplex and meet the 'others', however, and Ambrose had volunteered to go to the cafeteria to get some food for her (and probably eat there himself as he wasn't quite sure how she would take his massive apetite for meat.)

Seeing that there were people (and familiar looking at least) there already, he first went though the lunch line for himself, getting piles of freshly made steaks before heading back to sit down at the table with a greeting to Amaya, Chubbs, Joliette, and Ian.... where he promptly did a doubletake at Ian.

He had changed again... drastically - just as much if not more so than himself. While he may not have been covered completely by fur like he had been, his face was stertched out into a short muzzle, and his antlers had grown to an impressive length.

Ambrose... cocked his head as he looked him over, and his stomach gave another kick, reminding him that he hadn't yet eaten today. At first, Ambrose didn't think much of this - it was normal for his early morning state to be hungry, and he picked up his utensils to slice his meat. The smell of the cooked steaks did indeed send his stomach clamboring for him to hurry... but that wasn't the only smell in the proximity - adn the vegetables on the plates of three of the people around him wasn't it.

It was then that a cold shudder passed down his back, setting his fur on end for a moment. It... couldn't be... no... he was jsut ungry was all and there was food in front of him. But... the thought of the conversation he had had earlier... abotu predators and prey.

Ambrose shoved a bite of meat into his mouth to quell the thought and appetite, hoping desperately that the thoughts didn't show in his eyes.

Finally, he spoke up, trying to avoid eye contact with Ian. "Hey, Amaya - I wanted to thank you again for the talk yesterday.." He smiled. "It really did help... and you were right about Angelina at least." He still hadn't seen Emelyn... and he knew he needed to....

Ian listend to Amaya nodding when appropriate when he heard the cafeteria door opened. Glancing over he spotted someone and stared, his mouth dropping open. A scent reached his nostrils and he became paralyzed with fear, his eyes becoming very wide. It took a few moments, but Ian finally recognized the person as Ambrose. He took deep breaths trying to calm his insticts down, surely Ambrose would not hurt him..he hoped...and prayed.

His mind had identified the smell as wolf....someone that could eat Ian. He needed to do something...Stop gaping,he told himself. That is horribly rude. "Morning Ambrose, Joliette." he greeted. "Hast the morning brought good tidings upon the both of thee?" Why the hell couldn't he stop speaking like that....he would have to try to speak normally....but perhaps after he persuaded himself that Ambrose would not eat him.

Chubbs started to eat into his delicious meal heavily, he always took big bites. Some people use to say he was being a pig and he was eating too fast, Chubbs just felt like his mouth was empty with the tiny bites people took.

Chubbs watch Ambrose walk into the room, he was something to look at, covered in fur as he was. He remembered the first time he met Ambrose and remembered to be delicate about staring so much. Chubbs didn't want to do what so others had done to him.

He gave Ambrose a wave and watched him sit with Amaya and the deer looking guy. Chubbs smirked a bit and looked to Joliette.

" This reminds me so much like high school"

Ambrose looked over to where the Chubbs and Joliette were sitting, giving them a friendly wave and a smile. It only struck him after he had sat down whether the 'segragation' was due to familiarity.... or how developed they were.

Ambrose then swallowed as he caught a different whiff from Ian, Fear. His ears folded to the back of his head - was he having ... instinctual reactions..? No... no - it couldn't be. Ian must just be reaction... to his change! He hadn't seen him like this yet. That was all.

"I'm sorry... my appearance is probably rather startling to you" he winced. "I... changed not too long ago myself. I... hadn't seen you since the beach party - I wasn't aware you had changed as well." Ambrose had no idea that this was a recent development for him as well.

"I... I'm doing alright. Could be better.... but could always be worse." He gave a small smile. And why was Ian talking like that? He had always been rather... strange... what with that whole 'druid' thing he spoke of... but not THIS odd. Had he?

Ambrose shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned to Amaya with an apologetic look. "No... she' not. She's still scared, understandable. And not ready to come out and deal with things outside of the duplex quite yet. But better. I'm going to be bringing her some food when I'm done here. I just... felt awkward pigging out like I do in front of her." He scratche the back of his head.

As the subject turned to Emelyn, his tail tucked. "N...no. I havne't seen her yet...." To say nothing of the fact he hadn't made so much of an effort to even go see her yet at her duplex.

He followed her line of sight. "Do you think we should invite them over...? Or do you think it would be awkard...?" He gestured to the three of them, all after their second transformation.

Chubbs, couldn't help hearing the the conversation over the other table, he looked up from his meal from time to time, blushed and decided to talk to Joliette to avoid prying ears. He didn't know what Ambrose was worried about, Chubbs ate worse than him.

" Let me guess Joliette, you, umm were in the... hmm.. smart kids section yeah?"

He was trying to figure out where Joliette might fit in a school cafeteria.

Ian finally got his instincts under control and managed to look as normal as he could. Ambrose's ears told volumes and Ian knew he had to control his instincts or it could cause many problems. His own ear twitched a littleand he felt he needed to aplogize to Ambrose. "Yes, it has been awhile." his voice was soft...he needed to try to talk normally... "I changed earlier. Amaya found me right after and together we came here." Ian knew Ambrose thought he was strange, what with talking the way he was, Ian thought it strange as well. "It would be rude not to extend an invitation to dine with us. If they refuse, then what injury would be done to our own meal?" That sentence had managed to avoid using words like thee and thou, though the hrasing was still not what one would term as "normal".

Ian looked towards Joliette "I fear that that condition shall almost permanently become thee..er, you, trapped on the island as we all are." Damn, and he had been so close too.

One of Ambrose's ears turned to the side, a further sign of his finding Ian's speech patterns strange, but he said nothing, not even aware how much his ears were acting as signal flags to his thoughts.

"Earlier... by that you mean today? Oh, lord, I'm sorry, Ian. You must be quite sensitive to all of this then.." Maybe that's what the fear he smelled was.... that... must be it. The realistic side of him doubted it, thought.

Ambrose nodded to Amaya, between hasty bites of food. "And I'd love to introduce her to you. I promise I will soon, as soon as things settle down a bit with her. And... maybe after I speak with Emelyn... we'll see." his tail flicked back and forth a bit.

He swallowed and nodded at the chiding from his 'little sister.' "You know, maybe you should be the big sister sometime." He said with a wink. "But seriously, I know. It's not easy... but I know. I Know I need to be the one to tell her, too, so... I need to do so before word spreads.

Ambrose gave an agonized shrug. "I'm not sure.... maybe we could get it out of the way quickly, just jump out at them and say 'hi, welcome to the freakshow." He commented bitterly, his ears pointing back. "But seriously... I don't know how much more or less difficult it will be for new people to cope with seeing us like this... versus .. whatever we look like then. I know that given our progress, we will likely be some of the firsts to... finish."

Now it was time for Ian's ears to go back. "Yes, today."z He needed to apologize to Ambrose as well. "and my apologies for the way I reacted to th..you. It was most rude." He had to make more effort to be "normal". Ian had no clue about who Angelina was but he knew Emelyn and was able to guess a tiny bit about what was going on. And Ian definately did not want to hear about "finishing". With his hands the way they were he didn't want to change any further. The apples that were seeming to lye heavily in his stomach suddenly decided to bother him. He stood up unable to resist the heave that overcame him. He stood p and both his hands were on hte table supporting him. He wasn't vomitting, that his instincts told him...no this was different. He began to chew the partiallydigested apples letting his deer intincts take over entirely, that was disgusting. When he finally swallowed he looked sick. "Dammit...why me?..."

"That is a possibility. Very blunt, to the point. It could work."

Chubbs kept peering over at the other table, he wasn't trying to stare, it's just the were together, and he felt a bit oucasted being where her was. Chubbs smiled to Joliette, he knew she was smart, but she sounded like she had a good time at her high school.

" Sounds like ya umm.. got the best spot in ah school"

Chubbs heard the talk over the other table, he was deffinately she about approaching them but it sounded like they wished to have two more there. Chubbs slowly stood up and grabbed his plate.

" Think we should .. umm.. well go.. say hello"

With that he walked toward the three, only to see the deer guy look like he was about to barf all over the table. Chubbs winced, seeing that would probably make his dash to the bathroom and he went a little pale. Then the guy didn't throw up and instead chewed. Oh boy... close call but. still... yuck.

Ambose shook his head. "It... it's alright. Really. I've had worse reactions, and I've at least had some time to get... somewhat used to it myself now. It was harder when I still was newly chagned. But... I have to admit... I still somewhat feel like a stranger in my own skin now." He took several quick bites of food. "The fur covering me.... a different face in the mirror... I feel so ... out of place still. I know I'll get used to it... but in the meantime I still feel so strange... so...." He swallowed, the word was there, but he was almost scared to vocalize it. "so... inhuman. animal."

Ambrose cocked his head at he noise that Ian made, and then, with widening eyes, guessed at what had happened. The poor b*****d. At least He didn't have to deal with anything quite like that. Just... a penchant for meat.

"I... wasn't exactly being serious" Ambrose winced. "though... it is ONE way. I... ah.. .was speaking about that with Emelyn the other day - what IS the best way to tell - or not to tell others. We finally said that everyone's going to react differently. Everyone's here for different reasons, and thus there really IS no single good way that we could think of at least to tell people."

Ambrose smild to the pair as they came over. "Hi guys. YOu don't need to be strangers. Scales and fur aside - we don't bite." He winked.

Ambrose nodded to Amaya.. "You're right - I do need to do it alone. And I will. I promise you. You can kick my a** if you see me next time and I havent' spoken with her. Speaking of - we need to get back to your fencing lessons. Hope you've been practicing." He winked and clapped her on the shouler.

Ambroe glanced down at his wristwatch as he finished the last bite of food. "Yeep... Angelina's probably waiting for me. I need to go bring her breakfast, she's probably waiting." He stood up and smiled to the group.

"I'm sorry, I hate to eat and run, but I'm sure I'll see you all about!"

With a wave, he bussed his tray, piled an assortment of food onto another, and carried it out.

Ian still felt really sick from what had just occured. He looked at his plate of apples and the realization hit him that he would regurgitate and chew all his food for the rest of his life. That really hit a nerve and he started to shake. "I....I must go...sorry for any inconvenience....." He grabbed his apples and took care of his plate before dashing out the door hoping he would be able to get back in his duplex.

Chubbs blinked as Ambrose left just as he arrived, sure he was busy with things but Chubbs wouldn't have minded the company. Then no sooner had he sat down then the deer guy dashed off out the door. Chubbs watched them go and sighed a bit, looking at his half eaten meal.

He looked up at Amaya, half expecting her to go now, maybe for the deer's sake. Chubbs hated being new, there was so much he didn't under stand or know and people he had to keep meeting. He just lowered his hat brim and leaned on the table with one arm, stabbed a potato with a fork and nibbled it.