Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nita woke up late, her stomach growling protest at its emptiness. And of course, Nita's supply of food was gone. She squinted at the noontime sun streaming into her window. The trek to the cafeteria would be uncomfortably warm, but at least the building was air-conditioned.


A few minutes later, the girl was casually dressed, her hair confined to braids as usual. She entered the cafeteria with a sigh, thoroughly grateful of the chilled air. Nita went through the line, nodding at the serving woman, before taking a seat at a nearby table.

Nita jumped several inches out of her chair at the sudden noise. She had seen Marshall enter, but it hadn't registered that he was still completely human. Or that he might not have known the truth about the place yet.

"Um," she began, eyeing the spilled food. "There's some paper towels over there." The red panda girl pointed across the room, doing her best to act as if guys dropped trays at her appearance every day.

"It's alright," Nita told him. And it was, really. A dropped tray and a bit of staring was hardly the worst reaction she'd received. Like being felt up, or having it made obvious they thought she was crazy.

Nita blinked. "Paid?" she repeated. Oh boy. "Unfortunately, I'm not paid anything." Except for Moreau giving her that enormous TV and the clothing. She sighed. "Let me guess... I'm the first person you've met here," she said dryly.

So much for the vain hope that this guy already knew what was going on.

"That would have been Dr. Duvert. And he gave you a shot for what's supposed to be for some nasty tropical disease." Nita's tone indicated that she spoke from experience.

She nibbled idly on a handful of bamboo leaves. "Look. You might want to come sit down. Some people take this pretty hard."

Oh boy.

"Not exactly. It's rare, all right, and it only happens here. But it's something they do to us. Dr. Moreau is in charge, and has been developing a serum-based technology that basically turns humans into animals."

Nita looked directly at Marshall, trying to judge his reaction. After a moment of silence she added, "I'm becoming a red panda."

"If this is a costume, your head is made of tissue paper." Nita cracked a grin and held out her arm. "See? Fur. Growing from my skin. If you pull on it, it hurts. Same with the tail. Lemme tell you, that thing was a b***h to grow!"

The girl cocked a brow back at Marshall. "I'm Nita, by the way. Apparently I got to play Welcoming Committee this time."

Nita was distinctly relieved to see Marshall taking the news so well. Of course, she was hardly the most disturbing person he could have met. And at least she would tell him the truth.

"Nice to meet you, too," she said with a grin. "So. What'd they tell you to get you here?" Nita sat back in her seat, sipping at her soda.

"Well, the island does look like a resort.. and it is private!" Nita snickered. "No offense taken. You learn pretty quickly there's no real point in getting all huffy. Since everyone's turning into something.

The red-head tugged thoughtfully at the end of one long braid. "Let's see. My neighbor downstairs is a shark of some sort. The guy next door is a giraffe... I have a friend turning into a lion and another is a snow leopard." She hesitated for a moment.

"If you see a purple guy with tentacles, that's Billy. He's.. not exactly the friendliest of people." Nita shuddered, remembering her last encounter with the octopus-man. It had taken ages to get that nasty black ink out of her fur.