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Thom, sporting a lovely bruise along his cheekbone, had retreated from the relative safety of the village to the solitude of the jungle. He had left Natsumi's earlier that morning, dropped by his duplex, wasted a few hours at the beach, and spent the rest of the day thus far wandering the trees. There were various reasons for this.

For one, it was a chance for a long talk over the matters of Natsumi and whatsisface. Taro, Natsumi had said? Her baby's father. For some reason, this revelation bothered Thom, though exactly why, he wasn't sure. He reasoned that it was because of how badly the man had upset Natsumi just by showing up. That, and the punch that had resulted in his bruise. The ruddy b*****d.

A second excuse to wander the trees: He was bored. This wasn't unusual. He had been tempted to attempt scaling the mountain, but decided it better to wait until he could contact Rex and manage some proper supplies. But trees worked just as well, and even toe-less man weren't difficult to climb.

At present he was a good twenty feet or so up, sprawled out across a branch and lazily picking leaves from a branch beside them, tearing them to bits and letting the pieces float towards the ground. He glanced up at the crunch of someone approaching, but the sight of a giant lizard thing was rather unnerving, and for a moment he was silent. However, something clicked in his memory: the soccer match, the lizard girl. Was this her? This far...? "Amaya?" he attempted after searching his memory for her name.

It was all Thom could do to keep from cringing. She was...a giant lizard. A really, really freaking huge lizard walking on two legs. Was that going to be him? A big snake thing with no legs to speak of? What if his arms went too!? Cassidy had hers, but they were turning into wings... He didn't have any feathers.

He mentally shook off the worries, returning his attention to the girl. It was her, at least, and he had gotten the name right. He debated jumping down from the tree, but ended up simply sitting up, legs swinging over the limb. "Yes, well..." Now what? He had half hoped it wouldn't be her. It was a decidedly awkward moment, after the incident at the soccer match. "...I owe you an apology. Was terribly rude of me, back at th' football match. 'Ope you'll forgive me."

...Don't stare. Don't stare. Try as he might not to, it was unavoidable. She hardly seemed...human at all. Even her voice was unusually soft, and he wasn't sure if she were just shy or it were a result of the change. Lizard. Lizards were close to snakes. Would he be doing that? Tongue flickers and heal tilts and whatnot? He felt rather ill.

She had forgiven him, though. If he had heard correctly, of course. He decided to chance it, forcing a smile and nodding slightly in thanks. "I was still in th' 'I'm walkin' off t'morrow' phase, I think. But yes, I really meant no offense, I assure you. It was a side comment, not meant to 'urt anyone."

"Exactly," he agreed, rising and climbing down to a lower branch to better hear her, even if the iguana-ness was quickly unnerving him. Sadly, that phase had earned him a good many enemies, it seemed. But he probably wouldn't have gotten along with most of them anyway, so booey on that. "You've, ah...changed since the match," he noted aloud, searching for a topic of conversation. "'Ow is it?"

"Understandable," he acknowledged, nodding slowly. It was undoubtably a hard change to get used to. Just the idea of such a thing happening to himself was absolutely terrifying. Not that the idea of it happening to Amaya wasn't, but she had already undergone it... "Could be worse though, eh? Just takes some gettin' used to.... An' you're one of th' first. Give it a few months, more people'll be...complete, an' it won't be so different." He hoped. How he hoped.

At the question, he paused momentarily. While his social life had improved slightly, everything else...well, the foot of the hill was in sight, and he was dizzy from tumbling down it. He decided against replying positively or negatively, instead sticking with the bare fact and allowing her to make her own judgement. "I'm turnin' into a snake."

"Thom," he offered, realizing she had forgotten. He wasn't particularly offended. He had upset her back at the game. Had their positions been reversed, he probably wouldn't have remembered her name either. He merely shrugged in response. At the moment, he wasn't up to a pity party. "Irony. Ruddy doctors. But I'll make due... Some 'ow." Chin up and never say die.

"Indeed." And she was right. There were plenty of legless things worse than a snake that the doctors could have picked. As Amaya said, slugs, worms, jellyfish... It would be miserable to be a jellyfish. He debated mentioning that Cassidy was never a professional football player and was perfectly happy sitting and reading books, but decided against it. "Cassidy doesn't 'ave t'look at 'erself, now, does she?"