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To the casual observer, Cassidy was not looking well.

She had been napping on a patch of sand on the beach, half in the sun and half in the shade, comfortable and oblivious to the world for some hours. Her feathers were definitely looking rather bedraggled and ratty, though, and her scales, usually bright, were dull and milky. Her eyes were clouded over; she'd certainly been able to see when she'd come down to the beach, even if her vision had been a bit... off. She'd merely put it down to a sleepless night, or perhaps some sort of virus that snakes might be susceptible to.

At last, she began to stir, the itch that had been bothering her most of the day finally interfering with her sleep.

Startled from sleep, and unable to see, Cass's first impulse was to lunge and bite. "What...?" She propped herself up on an elbow and tried to look around, but she saw nothing. Nothing! Even in the darkness, lately, she'd been able to see fairly well. "Who's there?" Her voice was tight and frightened, and her tongue flickered, tasting Nita's scent. "Nita? Nita, I can't see. What's happened? Why is it so dark?"

She could just pinpoint a warm spot, not far, and she turned to face what she hoped was Nita. Still, it unnerved her, and she could not shake the instinct to bite hard and flee up the nearest tree. She scratched furiously at her arms; she really would have to ask for some sort of cream or something... maybe a bath, when she got back to her room. Her hands hurt, though, and the motions were clumsy.

"They're what?" Cass's voice cracked. "I'm blind, now, on top of everything else? Blind, and itchy, and... they've got to know already. The staff. Them and their cameras." Her tongue flicked wildly, and she touched the corners of her eyes as gently as she could. Her fingers looked sort of distorted, and cramped with pain, but she tried to scratch the scales that were beginning to grow up down the centre of her face; they likely had started while she was sleeping. Cass was ignorant to these facts, however, only aware that she itched, and that her hands hurt her more every minute. "You could help me back to my duplex, maybe," she suggested, though she was doubting her ability to make it that far right now.

That's what she'd thought, when she'd woken early in the morning from a nightmare she'd rather not remember, but nothing had seemed to be changed. "I can't be," Cass protested, glancing around in vain. Her hands did feel strange, but she couldn't feel them properly to find out what was happening. There were pinfeathers beginning to sprout from them, though; she remembered that feeling all too well.

There was an aching in her legs, too, and it was starting to spread.

"I think you're right," she moaned.

Cass hesitated, not sure what she preferred herself. "I can't see, Nita. I really," she winced at a sudden spasm of pain, waited for it to pass, or at least fade somewhat, and finished in a meek voice, "I really don't want to be alone right now."

Her legs, or what was left of them, were already beginning to shrink visibly, and was her neck a little longer? She tucked her head under her wings, birdlike, trying to shut everything out.

Cassidy winced at Nita's voice; this not being able to see thing was sort of disorienting, and worrying, and that alone was nearly enough to make her panic. She raised her head again, her face distorted and snake-like. "Thank you," she said, though the words were strange-sounding from an unfamiliar throat.

She fell down onto the sand, writhing a little on her stomach, whimpering softly, making small cracks and pops as drastic skeletal changes occurred.

Cass could hear Nita making some sort of sound, but she couldn't interpret it. Whether this was partly a lack of visual cues, or partly her own distress, was hard to say.

Her body, slowly and excruciatingly, was thinning out, becoming more and more snakelike, almost completely inhuman. Cass could only lay her head on the sand (even if it was in a way that would have been terribly uncomfortable even that morning) and wait for it to end, her wings spread out over the ground.

Eventually, the pain subsided to a horrible, dull ache; it was not much of an improvement, but it was at least something. Cassidy raised her head a little. "I still can't see," she whispered, her tongue flickering. It at least smelled like Nita was still there. "And I still itch..."

Whether out of instinct or just to soothe the itching, she began rubbing her face against the ground, against her wings where she could reach, and the skin began to peel back a little.

"I never thought of that..." Cassidy was making quick work of it now, and the clouded scales began to peel off in a long strip, showing bright and healthy green beneath, and clear yellow eyes.

She made an attempt to pry at it with her hands, but they were gone, and she could see now she had lost all remnant of thumbs and fingers, it all grown together and feathered.

She glanced over Nita, flicked her tongue, and without knowing quite why, began to squirm, scattering the last remnants of her hair into the sand. The instincts, at least, served her well; the skin began to peel back, though it snagged awkwardly around her feathers.