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Bed rest did not suit well with Thom. After a day of attempting to follow Sabin's instructions, he had given in and fled his duplex for the much more interesting outdoors. Though, interesting my have been an understatement...

He had spent a good few hours simply wandering the jungle just beyond the village, admiring the unusual plantlife and enjoying the near-tropical atmosphere. A high class establishment indeed if they went to such efforts to allow their guests a chance to relax--and in such peace! Thom hadn't seen a single tourist--nor anyone else--all day long and was positively thrilled. Perhaps he could make the best of his short stay after all... Relax away from the crowds, heal up a bit, and come back with a will during the game.

As evening began to approach, he retreated back towards his duplex, remaining indoors just long enough to produce, oddly enough, a yo-yo from his belongings before slipping onto the front porch to amuse himself with said toy. Just because he couldn't play football yet, didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself.

Antony had long given up on trying to hide her changes, and was back to wearing her short tank tops and a pair of low slung board shorts. With the cast, pants were more of a hassle than a comfort.

Currently, she was crutching her way back to her own duplex from dinner at the cafeteria when she caught scent of someone she didn't recognize in the wind. She stiffened and went perfectly still, though her tails fidgeted nervously as she breathed in the strange scent.

Thankfully for her albino eyes, the sun wasn't in her eyes when she looked over at the source of the smell. He looked new, human, and quite content. And that usually meant he was oblivious to what was going around here, or he was rather demented. Either way, he seemed harmless, and she relaxed, watching his yo-yo tricks absently before sighing and crutching towards him.

Better her than someone like Billy right?

The unmistakable sounds of someone approaching provoked a grimace, and Thom pointedly ignored the stranger until he had successfully run through another few yo-yo tricks. However, when Antony didn't seem to be leaving, he spared her a glance, preparing a dry comment in the hopes of scaring the stranger away.

However, it never came. He opened his mouth to speak, but found himself completely lost for words, having forgotten whatever it was he had planned at the sight of the squirrel woman. This...she was much farther along than Nita with...whatever it was that was happening. But nothing was happening, he reminded himself, though the sight was nonetheless rather disturbing.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he managed a weak grin, cocking his head up at the woman. The yo-yo had long since fallen to the ground, hanging limply on it's string form his unmoving hand. "...So, Aaron send you, then?"

The squirrel woman again went stiff, only this time it was out of fear of the known.

Aaron.

Certainly he couldn't be here?

She tried to cover her panicked expression by coughing, tails moving sharply behind her as she composed herself once more. He had an accent. Aaron was from the states, and this guy obviously was not from around there. Besides, Aaron was a common name. Right?

"There aren't any Aaron's on the island," Antony responded while crutching over to where he was situated. It was obvious that her though her broken leg could be faked, the fur and the tails were very much real and attached.

Ahh, she had recognized the name. Lovely, Aaron had slipped up and picked a bad actress. Nita had been nearly convincing towards the end there, but with this woman's reaction, Thom no longer doubted that he was in the middle of his friend's prank. With a few acceptions, naturally. The crash had been real enough.. But Aaron wanted to put everyone at ease by pulling a joke. It made perfect sense.

"Island?" He raised a brow, absently tugging up the yo-yo and beginning to wrap it back up. "We aren't on an island."

With his comment Antony actually burst out laughing, nearly loosing her balance as well, but her tails kept her upright. "And I'm an actress in a movie," she choked out between chuckles. Despite her amusement, Antony was starting to get rather irritated at these new people who were in denial.

Maybe she should carry around the damned picutre of her before she changed.

"Once you're injected, there's no going back," she stated simply, shrugging slightly before moving to turn and head back to her duplex, tails in clear view. "I'm really not in the mood to coddle and play Freak Show Tour Guide tonight... Maybe tomorrow."

A dismissive wave was given to him as she started to crutch back towards her duplex.

He frowned, losing interest in his yo-yo at present in favor of glaring at the squirrel woman. What on earth was she talking about? Injection? Tour guide? Tails...? He stared after her, utterly bewildered, and not even at her rear, for the multiple tails obstructed his view. Moving tails. Twitch, swaying, mocking him. Those couldn't possibly be fake. But...

"Now, wait one moment," he snapped, pocketing the yo-yo and starting after her. "What in God's name're you talkin' about? I 'aven't been injected." Not that he knew of, at any rate...

"I'm sure you have," she replied simply, not even bothering to look back at him. He may be cute, but the squirrel woman wasn't exactly interested in 'breaking in' a new islander, sexually or otherwise. "Regardless of what you think lad, you're stuck here, and you won't stay human."

Along with her tails, the squirrel woman's leg structure only supported her statement. Either way, she wasn't a ******** babysitter.

"I 'aven't," he snapped, stubbornly following along just behind her. Had he? Duvert had said he was out for a couple of days, perhaps they administered this injection during that time? ...But why did it matter? The situation was utterly ridiculous. Even if the woman's tails and legs argued for the possibility.

Quickening his pace, he stepped around before her, standing squarely in her path. "Tell me what's goin' on."

"Why should I have to play teacher when you're not going to believe me anyways?" Antony retorted, dutifully ignoring the pleasant smell of the attractive man in front of her. Damn her senses to hell. This was -not- the time.

Regardless of how close or tall he was, she stood her ground and looked him square in the eyes. Let him be freaked out by her changed eyes. "You act like it's natural for people to look like this." She made a sharp gesture to herself accompanied by an irritated sneer.

At least she'd get paid if this were a circus.

Her eyes served their intended purpose, and a faint shiver ran down his spine, but he quickly brushed it off. Contact lenses. Some sort of bizarre contacts. That was all. Though try as he might, he still couldn't logically justify the malformed legs and multiple tails. Nor, at that, the woman's face itself, which before he'd thought to be a mask, but a closer inspection proved that theory impossible.

He held up both hands as if to ward away, though the gesture seemed more mental than physical, for he remained where he stood. "I never I said I wouldn't b'lieve you." Which did not necessarily mean he would, mind. "I've only been here... Three days, I've been told, but I've only been awake since mid-yesterday. Dr. Duvert claimed this was some sort of hospital...?"

"It's only a hospital if you get hurt," she explained curtly, scowling at his gesture, absently grinding her teeth when he didn't move out of her way. At the mention of Dr. Duvert's name, Antony only grinned. The expression wouldn't be too comforting either. "I guarentee you've been injected if you were under Dr. Duvert's care."

It seemed this one would only shake his denial when he changed for the first time.

Thom's head reeled, a dull, pounding headache beginning at the back of his skull. Not a hospital? Of course it was a hospital. What else would he be doing here? After the wreck--he had a game on Friday! She was mad. Mad as Nita, and suffering from the same disease. Yes. A special center. But why was he here? He was perfectly fine. Only a mild concussion...

"Injection. What injection?" he questioned, interrupting his own thoughts. "Why's it important?"

"Do you need to ******** tug on one of my tails to get it through your THICK skull that I'm not in costume?!" The woman suddenly barked. She didn't have time for this, nor did she really want to deal with this s**t. It was humiliating, and she had better things to do. "They're changing people into animals using some kind of gene therapy. We're all science experiments damnit!"

Her hands gripped her crutches tightly as she tried to keep her bottled up anger from spilling into physical violence.

And there it was. The sheer absurdity of the statement made him relax, and he even went so far as to chuckle softly, shaking his head. Changing people into animals. It was the same thing Nita had said. And despite the fact that this woman's appearance made the notion extremely convincing, he wasn't quite ready to accept it just yet. Science hadn't progressed that far. The mere idea was absolutely mad. Beside, people would notice if he was kidnapped to be turned into some creature.

"Thank you for clearing that up," he finally responded, nodding absently. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." Trailing off, he stepped around her and started for his duplex, retrieving the yo-yo from his pocket.

A growl left her throat at his blatently dismissal of her and the truth, and with a cheerful flick of her tails, she slid her crutch out to the side just enough to trip the Brit. "You're not excused," she chittered in annoyance, not really waiting for the sound of his body contacting the ground before she too began to crutch off towards her duplex.

"Oh and there's someone from your neck of the woods, accent wise, in duplex 33," she called back to him with a small smile.

Billy was one reality check this one couldn't deny sober. Period.

He tripped, stumbled, by righted himself and resumed his steps, well used to doing so from countless football games of avoiding opponents' kicks. Satisfied with the conversation's end, he ignored her, though her parting remark caught his attention and he stowed away the number for future reference.

Briefly, he wondered how it was that he could meet two Americans but only one Brit in the south of France, but he brushed it aside. That was a puzzle for another day. For now, he ducked into his duplex, retreating to the safety of his room rather than risk another conversation outdoors. Meeting a squirrel woman was quite enough for one night.

The fact that the sun was beating down unrelentingly outside had caused the albino woman to take cover from the heat indoors. It had been a while since she had borrowed some DVDs, or actually watched one in theatre. Suddenly, the rest of her day was planned.

With her crutches leaned against the couch, Antony was on her knees in an awkward, cast protecting position as she thumbed through the available movies. All of her tails were moving here and there behind her. She was in a pair of jean shorts (low slung under her tails) and a tank top, per usual.

It took Joshua hours to calm down after his conversation with Aubrey. It was all so overwhelming - would he ever get used to the idea that he was turning into a giraffe?

He didn't want to stay hiding in his duplex forever... and felt that he might feel a little better if he knew what kinds of things to expect. With that thought in mind, he headed out of his duplex towards the entertainment room, remembering there had been a large selection of animal books there. Maybe he could do some research on giraffes.

However, he paused in the doorway when he spotted a white-furred woman in a cast kneeling on the floor in front of the movies. And did she have... more than one tail!?

He cleared his throat so as not to startle the women as he approached. "Ah, hello there... I don't believe we've met."

At the unknown male voice, Antony straightened up and peered cautiously behind her before nodding in his direction. "We haven't," she stated simply, tails continuing their movements after she relaxed somewhat, "And it seems like you've already been, ah, broken in shall we say..."

A sarcastic chuckle left her as she dipped her attention back down to the movies on the shelf. "I'm Antony." The introduction was short, but not as curt as one would expect. Probably because she didn't have to play one man freak show.

"It's nice to meet you, Antony," Joshua said. "Yes, that's one way of putting it... I've only realized it was true a few hours a go," he laughed a little, sounding nervous and still a little shaken. "I'm Prof-- well, you can call me Josh. I suppose I'm not really here to teach, so no need for formalities..."

He smiled, a little bitterly, before walking over to the bookshelves. "They told me I'm going to turn into a giraffe. Can I ask, what are you becoming?"

"Pleasure," she murmured, glancing thoughtfully back at him when he mentioned that he was a professor, or at least started to mention it. "Besides, I graduated from college a while ago." Though she grinned, Antony was quite curious as to what subject he was a teacher of, and where he had taught previously.

Before she could ask her questions, he asked a rather upfront one. It startled her simply because not many new islanders were usually as blunt as herself. "Ah," the squirrel woman began, attempting to imagine him as a giraffe and failing, "Well won't you be tall... I'm turning into a grey squirrel. Albino variety, and Doctor Carrot Top apparently decided I needed more than one tail." Her tone echoed his own, and she gave the appendages a loose glare before grunting and moving to sit onto the couch. Her ankle was aching.

"Yes, I suppose I will be getting rather tall... I've tried to imagine what I might look like, but..." Joshua shook his head. "I just can't imagine it. Hopefully not nearly as tall as a normal giraffe," he said as he took a book on giraffes off the shelves.

He looked over at the squirrel woman, glancing at her tails. "Interesting. I guess if they can turn people into animals, anything is possible..." he murmured with a sigh. "... the answer may be obvious, but is the change... painful?"

"Yes," she answered immediately, shifting so that she was facing him more before shrugging, "To be honest, my tails felt like someone was slicing my spine apart and rather skillfully ripping them from my back."

Again, she was quite glad that he was respectfully remaining rather honest with her, and as far as she could tell, non-judgemental. "Not trying to change the subject," Antony started, "But how long and where'd you teach... All that jazz."

Joshua smiled, "I worked at the University of Colorado, I taught English Literature and a few side tutoring jobs for various subjects. I've been teaching for..." he trailed off as he tried to remember when he started his job. "Over seven years now. Lived there my whole life..."

He paled, suddenly. He didn't know why it didn't occur to him before - he was never going to see his family or his friends again.

He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. Don't get upset, don't get upset... Joshua told himself over and over. He hated to lose control of himself in front of others, preferring to keep his emotions bottled up instead.

"And... where are you from, Antony?"

Part of her inately picked up on his inner anguishings before she actually noticed his forehead rubbing. An eyebrow of hers raised, but she said nothing, instead content to answer his question.

"Lived in Maryland, though I was mostly in D.C.," she replied, shifting again so that she could prop her broken leg up on the rest of the couch without bothering him. "Both my jobs were there." There was a brief flicker of sadness, but otherwise, Antony showed no other signs that she was bothered. There was no going back.

Joshua took a couple other giraffe books off the shelves, and then walked over to the couch, sitting down on the far end so she wouldn't have to move her leg out of the way. "How long have you been on the island? And what did you do there before you came here?"

"Since the day after Christmas," she said bitterly, sneering slightly under her breath before taking a deep one in to calm down. The next question was much easier, "A mechanic, mostly auto, and a professional tattoo artist." A look crossed her features that dared him to judge her on either of the two. Teachers in the past had a funny way of doing that to her.

Joshua managed not to roll his eyes when she mentioned she was a tattoo artist, but he still was obviously not impressed. He never understood the need to mark up one's body in such ways. "A mechanic? That's impressive, those kinds of things are beyond me, I'm afraid," he smiled.

She was waiting for it, and picked up on his attitude almost immediately, clucking her tongue despite his next, more positive comment. "Did you teach because you love to or for the prestige?" The woman asked coolly, red eyes held unwavering on his own in a challenging manner. There was one thing that she was sure of, most teachers didn't teach for money, or the status for that matter, though some did.

"Actually, I teach because I love to," Joshua replied, raising an eyebrow at her. "It also pays well, of course, which doesn't hurt the appeal - but I enjoy helping people, and even more so if they truly wish to learn."

"I did my jobs for the same reason, because I loved them... Not for the money, obviously, or because I wanted to 'rebel,'" she said curtly, making quotation motions in the air to accompany the last word. "Trust me, some of the places people want tattoos..." When she trailed off, she made a sort of disturbed face, remembering a few of her more interesting clients. "Better than being a piercer, I'll admit."

Joshua didn't want to know all the places people wanted tattoos - he could just imagine, and the thought made him cringe. "Yes, I can agree with that. Although, perhaps I just don't understand the appeal - there are much better forms of art than permanently marking up someone's body. And much less painful, as well. Why use skin - why not just use canvas?"

"Did it ever occur to you that I have used other mediums for my art? Besides, it's a passion of mine that I can no longer be a part of thanks to this island and this fur." She frowned, absently running her hand through her hair in order to mess it up some more in a nervous habit. If he looked carefully enough, her tattoos would still be visible underneath her fur, and it was obvious Antony was not pleased about the fact that they were covered.

"It is not something easily explained to those who don't 'get' the who tattoo 'thing.' Some people view their own bodies as canvas. Same reason some women wear make up and people in general dress a certain way. Unfortunately, people like to judge books by their covers."

"Of course it occurred to me, I am just curious as to why you picked skin over paper," Joshua shrugged. Now that he was sitting on the couch instead of standing by the bookshelves, he was able to notice the now faint tattoos under her fur - although that didn't change his option of them any.

"I'm afraid it's just something I'll never understand, I don't see the point of altering the body you were born with."

"Self expression isn't a finite thing," she said clearly, her voice loosing some of its sharpness when he didn't seem to speak negatively about tattoos, just his opinion. "And I just didn't want to waste my life not being myself, but everything changed when I came to realize..." The squirrel woman offered a wave of her hand over her changed features as she turned to stare at something other than him.

"Some 'vacation' huh?"

"Indeed," Joshua muttered. "At least I won't have to worry about finding another teaching job. My contract seems to have been extended indefinitely..." That bitter smile was back again, and as he watched her turn away, he felt almost detected from the whole situation. Here he was, sitting on a couch on some island who knows where, speaking to a woman who was half squirrel about tattoos.

If someone had ever asked him where he thought his future was going, this would not have been at the top of his list.

"Does it ever get easier to accept?"

Antony didn't take her attention away from whatever she was staring at as she replied, "I suppose."

It was a rather insufficient answer, but she was trying to find a way to convey some of the thoughts sloshing about in her mind at the moment. Her expression was thoughtful, yet rather unpleasant overall when she finally attempted to explain. "Sometimes I don't feel like myself anymore... I'm more skittish now, and of course there's the damned fur..."

She didn't really know what else to say at the moment.

"So it isn't only our appearances that are changing, then..." Joshua looked down at the books in his lap, studying the cover of the top book silently. He didn't have any idea of giraffe behaviour, and so he had no idea what to expect. "Well... I suppose I have some reading to do," he said, picking up his books and standing up.

He paused, glancing at the cast on her leg. "Before I leave, would you like me to put a DVD into the player for you so you don't have to get back up?" he offered. "If you still want to watch something, that is."

She shook her head to confirm his statement, and then again with his question, waving his offer aside. "I should probably get back to my duplex before the sun comes out from that cloud," Antony stated with a sigh, skillfully shifting and standing while collecting her crutches and sliding them under her arms.

"Pleasure to meet you, and I'm in thirty if you ever need... Anything," a smile all too characteristic of Antony spread across her lips before she made her way out of the building and started towards her duplex. Suddenly, she really missed Owl.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Antony. I'm sure that we'll be seeing each other around again." Joshua followed her out of the entertainment room and all the way towards the housing area, and waved to her once they split ways to their own duplexes.

It was gone. The damned cast was gone.

Antony was positively brimming with excitement, and after immediately limping home and washing her left leg, she had pulled on her bikini, grabbed her beach stuff, and headed for 'her' cove. Though part of her was sad that her surf board had to be left behind, her ankle probably not strong enough to deal with that yet, she hummed one of her favorite Godsmack songs.

Once sand had squished up through her toes, she took a few more steps and then dumped her bag and towel onto the sand unceremoniously. With no glasses to worry about, the squirrel woman headed to the water stopping only when the cool water crashed into her legs.

A slow smile crept up onto her lips, and without so much as a glance around her, Antony tugged her swimsuit off and tossed it up the beach with her bag. Moments later she was carefully jogging into the water, and once it was deep enough, she dove gracefully under a wave. It had been too long.