Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I can understand why." Shenzi said with a twisted smile as she looked after the spirited dog. She gave the other woman a glance, even as Emelyn watched her, and the bitter grin returned. "Can't guess, can you?" She asked dryly, wrapping her arms around her knees. The heavy jeans were getting a little hot, but she could bear it. She pulled up one of the pant legs, holding a foot out with a look for the hedgehog woman. "Any guesses yet?"

Shenzi nodded, leaning forward with her elbows on her awkwardly bent knees, her tail thumping behind her. "Mm-hm. I don't know what sort of combination, beyond a bird and a cat. "Dear" Dr. Duvert decided to turn me into a gryphon." She said, an ironic, twisted smile on her face.

Shenzi gave an unlady-like snort, but nodded readily enough. "Yeah, I guess. That's gonna be real enjoyable..." She said, wrinkling her nose while wrapping her arms around her knees. "How was it for you?"

Shenzi remained silent as Emelyn described it, though at her question, she shrugged. "It was painful, definately. The first change was... Surprising. I had a friend with me, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, I guess. The island in general isn't so bad, being turned into a gryphon aside. Missing my parents and friends, but that's to be expected, I guess." She said, shrugging again. She wasn't happy to be here, that was for sure. But she was making herself adjust to it, at least.

Shenzi looked at the ground as Emelyn spoke, but when she felt the touch on her arm, she turned to look at her. Giving her a small smile, she nodded slowly, lightly resting her hand ontop of Emelyn's. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." She said, nodding slightly at her last words. "And I can understand why they can." The soon-to-be gryphon gave another small shrug, but she really did appreciate the offer.

Zach leaned against a forlorn tree left growing in the wide sweep of a path that wound between duplexes and the main building of the village. Between the buildings he could see the jungle as a silhouette. It seemed he'd slipped into being nocturnal now, though he could still see as clearly as he could with sunlight. The only darkness he knew of now was the utter absence of light, and that was quite rare to come by here. Regardless, here he was with what was either a case of insomnia or instinct, and trying his best not to think about Victor. There were other things to think about. His wings, for instance. With all this open space he could spread them wide, as far as they could go. The right was still sensitive and scarred. It was hard to imagine flying when he was not built for the task, but maybe there were ways... certainly he could ask again about the possibility...

A light breeze swept up the loose ends of his scarf before gently dropping them again. This was winter weather in paradise. Once again he carefully readjusted the hat on his head. Along with his simple clothes order following his... rebirth... he'd asked for a simple thing, another hat. Not just any kind of hat, either, but a top hat, universal sign of a certain doctor in this island. Unlike his previous one, this one matched the other clothes with its pure white. With care he'd punctured horn-holes into either side of it, and it fit quite well. He'd learned, though, that wearing it in broad daylight was asking for trouble. He needed to work up the courage, as he certainly took pride in what he was, but it was slow in coming after being slugged by Gaius. Until he did, he could still wear it at night.

His ears weren't what they used to be, but the shrill sound that hit him made him wince and hiss anyway. What the hell was that? As usual, his first guess was the wolf, Annie, but then he realized that she probably wasn't one to expose herself with a whistle. He repositioned his wings and turned around, intent on driving away any potential predators if necessary.

Zach was expecting something dangerous lurking behind him. He had an adrenaline rush from the noise cutting into an otherwise quiet night, and he always had to be on the lookout. He always had enemies. What he saw seemed to be an inconspicuous bat of a man. He stared a moment, heart still pounding from his fear. The other guy was staring right at him, but not moving at all.

This was awkward.

He turned the whole way around, tail swishing as he moved. It was too dark out to care who this guy was. The interruption didn't make him feel particularly keen for conversation. Was the guy in shock? That would've been funny. Zach knew he was an awesome sight, but nothing that could freeze another man in his tracks. His reputation definitely preceded him sometimes. He was itching to flap his wings, given how rare such opportunities were, but he folded them back instead. After giving the other man one last chance to speak or move, he tossed out a vague question, not bothering to disguise the amusement in his voice. "Something wrong?"

Zach didn't miss the change of expression, and he matched it with his own grimace of disgust. Oh, this was just wonderful. Some other psychotic, lab-hating islander. What did they want from him? It wasn't like he'd gone up and jabbed the guy in the eye or anything. Was it the hat? Damn, most likely. They just never gave up. Confrontational, irrational, and unwilling to see the truth. He hated this. He hated being treated like he was something worse than they were when he was far better than any of them. They were animals, just animals. He was a dragon! Zach felt a flush creep under his scales at the last comment, though his lizard-shortened temper was already reaching a critical point. He'd had it. He didn't even want to wait for whatever else this moronic bat planned to say.

"Oh, funny. Very funny. Look, if you want to be an ungrateful b*****d you can go do it somewhere else and leave me out of it. I like it here, okay? I get enough trouble from idiots like you who think punching me is going to make me magically see things from their selfish perspective. You're disgusting, all of you. Whining and whining about how horrible you've got it. What's so horrible, huh? A few aches and pains? Be a little more mature, would you? It's not all about you here." He took a couple breaths, raising his wings a little more. He wanted to look threatening, dangerous. He took a couple steps forward, but he didn't want to get too close to the bat. He'd sworn off violence himself. He knew Sabin didn't like it, and he knew he got buzzed for it. So why bother? People who tried to hurt him would get punished... "So what, you think you can take your petty anger out on the guy who disagrees with you? Gonna have a go at me? Try investing in a punching bag or something, it'll save you a lot of trouble."