Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ever found his way back to Bates Diagnostics because some part of him had felt cheated by his last visit -- had been annoyed by the small room his specimen had been locked in, and the fact that he hadn't been granted the time to interact with the fuzzy creature and learn more about it. So on his second venture into the building, he picked another task, one that would hopefully put him within touching distance, would let him curl fingers through the soft fur on the back of the guinea pig's back.

It didn't. Instead, again, there was a small room, clean, with all scent blasted out so that all he could feel and taste was the astringent spray they used to clean up after the laboratory assistants. Its squeaks and complaints and nervous chuffing were all hidden behind the glass, turned hollow and distant.

So he waited until no one was looking and then let the creature out.

It wasn't that he wanted to save it, not really. He just wanted to feel the warmth of its skin through that fur, probe at its strange little toes, let it scurry across the table in front of him. He didn't even mind if it took little nips at his fingers and clothes, at the ends of his hair. Something about the creature made him grin, hopelessly, and he lost track of time just listening to it as it panicked and then slowly calmed, getting used to his strange and somewhat inhuman presence.

Eventually, though, someone would swing around and chide him for slacking, would guide him to put the creature back in its enclosure and push supplies in under his hands. His task was accelerated healing, it would seem, and he was offered six or seven options to offer the squirming creature to see just how successful they might be.

This was the boring part. This was the part Zyk might have liked, or some of the more experimental members of Ever's clan -- but for Ever, it was just the same thing over and over again. Syringe. Testing. Minor injuries, abrasions and pulled hair, things that made the guinea pig whimper and protest, and then failure. He went through several of the things before one actually seemed to work.

It wasn't all that remarkable. The wounds patched up a little faster; the blood stopped running, the metallic tang of it fading quickly to something clotted and flat. The guinea pig didn't sound any more thrilled about the entire endeavor, but at least its whimpering quieted.

With a whoop, Ever sat back. This meant he was free. All that was left was to inform someone around the building that he'd finished up -- and be handed a survey. For a moment, he stood holding it, considering putting unintelligible scrawls on the page. Last time he'd been here, Zyk had filled it out for him, which had been convenient. This time, he turned it over and over in his hands, nothing but a flat square against the edges of his senses, before he finally snorted.

Crumpled it into a ball and dropped it in a waste bin on his way out.