Welcome to Gaia! ::

Zach stepped outside, the heat a change from the air conditioning that had been blasting in his duplex. He blinked as his eyes adjusted. How long he had been planning to stay there with the lights off and the shade down was uncertain, but if he had to eat, he would. After slowly descending the stairs, he set off at a slow pace in the direction of the cafeteria.

The ruckus outside caused Kaveri to swing her head around towards the back of the duplex. It sounded very loud, it sounded like... it came from her garden?

"Goddamnit." Was some errant herbivore looking for a snack? Kaveri wouldn't have that! She rose from her seat to look around for her big shovel before she found it and took it into her hands.

"Get outta my ********' garden!" Kaveri roared as she flung the door open and heavily ran down the stairs, her bare feet loudly smacking against the wood as she brandished the shovel in the air to face whatever four-legged foe might be planning to make off with her crops.

Or in this case, eight-legged. The long-necked woman stopped in her tracks, letting her arms drop down as she squinted at the vaguely familiar, purply-blue man tangled in the mess of greenery. She squinted and barely registered that it was someone she'd met before but there was no possible way there would be more than one purply-blue octopus men on this island. He'd changed, that's for sure, but it seemed like everyone she met had. She walked to the edge of the fence, poking Billy with the wooden end of her shovel.

"Man, I didn't think you were the kind to be into veggies," she said, offering another prod, "Get your a** up."

Billy's head lolled, his mouth hanging open as his tentacles coiled and uncoiled, sliding over his chest as he gaped at the shapes looming above him. Up and up and up and up and up she went far and away and insane and wrong and people's heads shouldn't be so high he was shrinking! His eyes jerked down to the curling octopussian appendages wrything from where they webbed to his arms, and he wondered if he had changed again... changed into what? His skin was greyed, dried out from his trek away from the lake, but underneith the semi translucent skin, blue veins stood out. His eyes swept up, locking on Zach's with a look of utter horror.

The demon was there! The horns and teeth jutting from a twisted, reddened face snarling down to rend his stomach open. With a wild cry, the octopus produced it's best defense, ink gushing from Billy's mouth once more, but oddly thick for his usual consistancy. He gave another panicked cry, scrambling backward against the short fence, glancing back and forth between them frantically.

Zach looked up and over at Kaveri, puzzled, then back to the writhing octopus-man. Unconsciously, he started to curl the fingers of his left hand as if in preparation to strike. He hadn't forgotten about the first time they'd met. This time, at least, he'd have some defense. "Is he... sick? Maybe he just changed..."

"Aah!" Zach had momentarily locked eyes on the bluish-purple Billy, enough time for spray of thick ink to splash out and horrify him. He grimaced, his ears fanning out a little as he did so. "What the hell is that stuff!?"

After a moment of panicked confusion, he stepped next to Kaveri by the fence.

Kaveri shook her head silently. "He doesn't look good at all," she said. She was tempted to give another poke at Billy, but decided against it for fear of startling the man further.

She narrowed her eyes. That ink was going to be a b***h to wash off of her plants. "Looks like he puked on you, man," she wrinkled her nose, stepping away from Zach. That stuff really smelled! "But I didn't think barf ever came in tar black... something isn't right."

She chanced a step over the short fence to get closer to the writhing, vomiting man, holding out a hand and trying to be reassuring and comforting -- as reassuring and comforting as a long-necked, silver-eyed monstrosity can be. But before she can try saying anything to him, the man is out like a ********!" Kaveri cried out, tensing up and clenching the outstretched hand so her talons splayed out. "I think he ate something and it poisoned him pretty badly... maybe some weird island plant or something." After all, there was no way he'd be able to get his hands on any hard stuff, right? As much as his behavior suggested otherwise, it was impossible in such a controlled environment like this!

"Zach, hurry up and go to my duplex and call those ******** on the intercom right now!" Kaveri commanded, waving an arm and pointing towards the top floor of the duplex. "I'll stay here with him in case something happens. Be quick, he might die if he's not dead already!"

A few moments later a bored-sounding male labtech answered the intercom. "Feral Laboratories. What's the emergency?"

"I'll patch him through." The voice responded, sounding unimpressed.

There was a few clicking noises, and then about thirty seconds later an overly familiar french-touched voice. "Zachary? What is is this about Billy? Dying?" There was the sound of quick footsteps and the voice sounded more tinny than usual. Unlike the labtech, there was more of a hint of urgency to the doctor's voice. "Tell me what is happened!"

"Merde!" came the bitter curse over the intercom before there was a muffling sound. Billy was supposed to be HIS responsibility now. And it seemed the moment he had been down in his lab as opposed to being on moniter duty, something had happened.

Was this more of Moreau trying to get him into further trouble? Pilling all the work on him, putting a hostile subject under his authority, and now THIS? Had Moreau poisoned him? It wouldn't surprise him.

He rounded the corner at a jog to the video moniters, peering over the tech on duty who had answered the phone after an irritated smack to the back of his head and a violent gesture to the camera moniter displaying Billy lying on the ground outside Kaveri's duplex.

He muffled the mouthpiece as he accosted the guard, who was sent to a flurry of activity as he dispatched a group of guards to the area.

Finally, picking back up the intercom "Thank you, Zachary. We have someone heading there immediately. Thank you for notifying me." There was an indirect frustrtated growl in his voice.