Welcome to Gaia! ::

Richard had finished his first meal of the evening. The food was much better than what was usually served. His glass of punch had run out halfway through his meal, leaving him rather parched. Time to move on to the next course, a good drink. Desert would come after that. Richard had it all planned out.

As he made his way over to the drinks table he noticed the young man pouring a rather stiff drink for himself. He looked interesting, the spots on his shoulders drew Richard's eyes like moths to a flame. Starving for conversation anyway, Richard walked up beside him.

"Hey there," He nodded at what Tristan was pouring into his cup. "Planning on making this an early evening eh?" Oddly, Richard's tentacles did not regard this man as a threat and the "Soldiers" waved behind Richard's back in a relaxed fashion.

Pyroth smirked slightly, looking almost apologetic in his mannerisms, he hated being a source of surprise or worry in others. Still, his good mood meant he wasn't about to mope about his current condition, it was hard to anyway when you were being addressed by a huge traditional ghost while trying to look incognito. It was actually mildly difficult to keep himself from all out grinning.

"Yep, that's my name. Same name, different appearance. Very different." he didn't look too phased by his current shape, having come to terms with things not long ago. He didn't let himself dwell on it. His own tone mimicked Jamal's not-too-loud one, after all, he didn't want to be the cause of chaos if anything happened, after all, why else would the tiger man be here so disguised if something wasn't up.

He looked around the area cautiously before saying simply "Nice costume."

It was good to see the other man alive and relatively well, he'd heard rumours lately that made him worried.

"Ah, I'm really sorry..." He stood up as well, his frill creeping up into a display of alarm. Count on him to ruin the one good conversation he'd probably have all night. After pushing his chair back in and lightly placing the empty cup down on the table out of the spill area, he made to follow the deer-woman.
Pyroth and someone in a sheet were the only people he saw by the tables, so they'd be able to quickly get drinks and leave.

Pyroth wasn't offended in the least by Jamal's reaction and instead decided he might as well explain. "I wouldn't worry, from what I hear from the labs, they hadn't expected me to end up like this. A mistake." A mistake that had messed him up royal. One good thing had come out of the serum though, he was now a lot more adept at reading body language and noted the tiger man's glances at the meat piled high. He figured, based on what he'd been told that fetching something to eat would mean blowing his cover somewhat. He hadn't heard of the chip removal yet but had learned over the years you didn't pry into someone's business who looked like a fugitive, especially not in a public place.

Still in casual but quiet tones he asked "Want me to go get you some eats? I can sneak about pretty easily, people tend to ignore things below eye level quite a lot. And sheet or not, you are attention grabbing. I could hand the stuff up to you which would mean not having to take the thing off either."

"A mistake they best not make again," Jamal grumbled under his breath before licking his chops and tilting his head in the direction of the food, his attention neatly diverted. "Man, if ya could help me out, dat'd be ********' sweet. I haven't eaten in goddamn days aside from bits of bird 'n' s**t dat otha' meat eaters left behind. Dat rotted s**t's nasty."

He cast an appraising look over the spread before crouching down into a squat, letting his sheet billow out around him like a cloud. The fact that Pyroth had claimed he was rather eye-catching made him unusually nervous. His ears pivoted about, reflecting this wariness, and made interesting shapes beneath the sheet. They looked like a pair of nice running about up there.

"Anythin' bleeding works fo' me. Jus' grab what'eva ya kin."

Jamal would skip the booze as long as it meant he could get some meat in his system.

"Be right back." Pyroth didn't need telling twice and almost right away he headed over to the meat table, to all appearances taking nothing more than an easy stroll to stretch his legs. He vanished under the tablecloth of the predator table, only appearing at the end to hop up onto his hind legs, using his forepaws to balance. It didn't take him long to gather up a few of the most choice pieces on offer, the coyote displaying the aptitude for thievery that made them such skilled bin-raiders in urban places. Wrapping the meat in a few napkins, he piced it up in his teeth, using the napkins as a bag of sorts. He then scooted back over to where Jamal was, holding it out to him at the bottom of his sheet.

As soon as it was taken from him he sat down again. "I wouldn't be too nervous, I haven't seen any guards around at all tonight, their scents were cold on the way here too. Maybe the main lab are holding some kind of event too?" the only reason he remembered this fact was that it had struck him as odd earlier that the usual layers of smell on the ground had been disrupted.

"I'm pretty much here to refuel too, the eating hasn't been great in the jungle lately on my patch either. Distinct lack of alcohol and good stuff out there too."

Tristan laughed politely at the older man, though there was quite a bit of truth to his observation. "Who wouldn't want to leave a nightmare as early as possible?," he asked, half-joking in his usual manner.

He positioned his cup into his left hand and extended his right, "Tristan Wylde at your service." It was then that he finally got a look at the man and noticed.. the... soldiers. Yeah.. okay, he thought, out of sight, out of mind. Eye contact it was. "I'm still sort of new here," he explained. He felt out of place. It seemed like everyone else already knew one another.

"Hurt like a b***h," he said just a bit louder around a mouthful, sending a lovely red spatter onto the sheet in front of his face. "But Billy dun real good consid'rin' what he used ta do it. I ratha' die tryin' ta ******** da labs over anyway then live wit' dat ********' chip in ma neck, so if I died, it'd been worth it." The tone to Jamal's voice almost challenged Pyroth to disagree with him before he continued in a more nonchalant manner.

"When I seen some wolf girl rip out her own, I knew I had ta try. They kin't find her, I bet...'n' they ain't found me yet, so I figger they ain't got a way ta track me otha' then cameras 'n' word o' mouth." The tiger man paused here before leaning forward slightly in his crouched position.

"Ya kin't tell no one, Pyroth...'cept maybe Antony 'n' Kaveri 'n' Billy 'cause they know already...'n' who'eva ain't kissin' lab a**. At least, don't tell 'em dat ya saw me. I don't care who ya tell dat I ain't got my chip 'cause pretty soon ev'ryone gonna know, but I don't want no one squealin' dat I was here in da village or I ain't eva' gonna be able ta sneak in when I need ta."

He chuckled darkly and lapped a pool of blood from atop the piece of flesh he held between his thumb and index finger, savoring the flavor.

"Ya jus' wait 'til I get ma hands on them lab ********."