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Lauren shrugged, this was starting to feel like a 'drugs are bad kids don't do them' episode on some popular sitcom in the 80s. "Well ********, your lungs are going to thin down to nothing even without the drugs, your turning into a fish... they have GILLS." She fidgetted with her lighter some more, "Well like I said at least you're not dead." She couldn't take it anymore and pulled out a cigarette and lit it up.

"Geuss it's about exciting as brushing my teeth, but it's just a ******** cigarette. A few won't kill ya and I don't have to worry about gills." She smiled at Sid wryly as she blew a puff of smoke in his face.

Lauren waved, "See ya, hope your new found sober self works out for you!" Lauren waved as she walked off trying to finish the cigarette in a hurry. Perhaps she could find some mouthwash and some body spray in the storage shed. She wondered why she took this habit back up anyway. It was dumb, but it sounded good at the time and ******** she looked cool doing it she was sure.

She walked back home away from the sulking fish.

A warm day, cool water, fish glinting in the sun... It was the perfect day for Thom to set his plottings aside and just relax down by the river. The warmth of the day was enough that he could tolerate the lower temperature of the water with relative ease, and he had opted to risk a swim.

Swimming had become a favored past time since the loss of his legs, but with the unpredictable rains and slightly lower temperatures that marked the tropical winter, he had avoided the water in favor of what warmth he could find. At present, however, with the sun shining down through the trees, Thom was floating lazily along on his back, the very end of his tail looped around a thin tree on the bank to keep him from floating away, arms occasionally moving to keep him in open water, rather than let himself drift towards shore.

It was quiet, calm, and utterly perfect for an afternoon of nothing in particular, and Thom was just debating the procs and cons of a nap while swimming when a splash a short while down the bank startled him to the present. He straightened up, which nearly sent him flipping over sideways before he remembered to release his hold on the tree, and somewhat awkwardly tread water, eyes wandering the shore and river for whatever had made the splash. His tongue snaked out, experimentally tasting the air, and with its aid Thom focused in on the boy near the bank.

He was familiar... And he had hardly changed at all? He looked no different from when Thom had first met him, and that was months and months back. Oh, what was his name..? "Cody?"

"Thom," he reminded the boy, not surprised in the least that Cody didn't recognize him. It had been months, after all, and Thom...didn't exactly look like Thom anymore, much to his displeasure. "Brinley. Remember me?"

Ahh, the stare. Most of the islanders Thom met nowadays had been around for a while, so the stare was rarely won anymore. Having such a stare come from someone who had been around the island for nearly as long as he... Well, had Cody been any older, Thom would have taken offense. As it was, knowing himself how much he had changed sing they had last met, as well as taking Cody's age into account, Thom elected to ignore it.

He waved a hand dismissively following the apology, even managing a smile for Cody's benefit. "No worries, eh? I don't exactly look th' same as when we last met, it's perfectly understandable... You, 'owever, don't seem to've changed much. Are they delayin' your changes for some reason?"

"Three times?" He raised a scaled brow, cocking his head down at the boy. Thom himself had changed three times, and comparing himself and Cody, he would have given about anything to be in the boy's shoes--or lack thereof, though he didn't know that just yet. "What are you turnin' in to?"

"Ahh..." Oh, yes, he could easily see the dolphin, Thom thought sarcastically, and immediatelyl regretted it when Cody pulled himself onto the bank to reveal the tail. "...Ahh..." he repeated, but his sympathy was clear in his tone.

So Cody had lost him legs too, hmm? Thom knew how that felt, but he was torn as to who had the worse deal of it. Cody still looked like Cody, but Cody didn't seem like he could manage on land with a tail like that. The good with the bad.

"I see what you mean now. Sorry to 'ear that. But 'ey, we're no-leg buddies." It was a bit easier for him to shift up onto the bank than it was for Cody, and one he had it was clear that only a stub of his left leg remained. Otherwise, it was all tail. "They must save th' legless serums for th' best of us."