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The time had come, there was no more putting it off... Sid had to do laundry. He wasn't in the habit of doing it in his boxers, but he never packed heavy and it likewise never occurred to him to ask for new clothes. The chances were slim, he hoped, that someone else would come in. If they didn't like what they saw then that was their problem. He sat hunched in a plastic chair across from the dryer his scant few shirts and pants were being run through, impatiently smoking a cigarette as he waited for the buzzer to sound. He'd tried reading earlier, and the magazine he'd brought along was still lying nearby, but he'd found it too damn hard to concentrate on the words.

He felt off, and it wasn't just because he was wearing nothing but sandals with his underwear. Denial was a wonderful thing, it made him write off the stiffness and headache as the effects of a hangover that just wouldn't go away. He'd stayed up too late again, spent too many hours trying to coax his muse out with offerings of whiskey and cigarettes. The nightmares that followed faded out of memory within minutes of waking and throwing up, the usual morning routine. The pain wouldn't go away, his clothes still weren't dry, and the water bottle he'd brought along had been emptied before the rinse cycle had been completed.

Sid glared at the dryer and kept smoking. This was why he hated laundry day.

Sid, naturally, wasn't going to let Gaius get away that easily.

"What?" he said irritably once Gaius passed. He looked down at himself. So he had a few extra pounds, you couldn't even call it a spare tire. Love handles, maybe, but the term itself was generous.

He took another drag off his cigarette. The nicotine wasn't helping, but it was going to take a lot more than that to get his teeth to stop hurting. If anything he was gradually feeling worse. He blamed it on sleeping on his head wrong... somehow.

And his clothes still weren't done drying.

Sid pointed across the room with the hand that held his cigarette, exhaling a plume of smoke in the same direction. He was content with staying quiet if it meant avoiding more awkward conversation.

He brought his hand back up for another drag. The cigarette was just a few inches from his lips when he paused. He frowned as he pressed his tongue to what felt like a suddenly sharp spot. Suddenly discovering canker sores was one thing, but this...

"Ah, s**t," he said, his tone the kind of ire reserved for, say, suddenly remembering one locked their keys in their car. How could he have been so stupid?

Denial, right. It wasn't supposed to happen so soon.

The pain hit before Sid could say anything more, it forced him to his knees on the floor when he meant to stand up. The cigarette was knocked away as his hands went out to break his fall. The jolt from his right knee was old hat, the rest... that was new, and worse.

Sid didn't answer, he couldn't. His eyes welled with tears of pain as his mouth sagged open... and kept sagging with the distincting cracking of bone stretching.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. He held one hand up as though he expected it to drop off entire, as if he meant to catch it if he did. Instead his lower jaw pushed out into a hellish underbite, each of his teeth growing into points at the same moment. The bottom front fused together to grow a little longer and leave wide gaps between them.

He hadn't screamed yet, but the hand he was still holding up shook fiercely.

The dryer beeped as it finished with the clothes.

Sid, meanwhile, wasn't quite finished.

Sid only had a moment to glare at Gaius before a new wave of pain hit, one even worse than before. That was enough to make him scream. He fell forward, his chair knocked aside as he stretched and dug his fingers in to the tile. His lower jaw smacked floor, but he was well beyond caring as something pressed outwards from just beneath the waistband of his boxers. The tail gave its first spasm when it was few inches long, then again as it broke free of the polyester blend. Dark scales dotted with a few odd light spots began to crawl up the length of the tail before it was even finished growing.

"Ah... fuh... nah!" Sid gasped. He was panting heavily, unable to form words as elongated jaw didn't seem to want to close. The tears had fallen down his cheeks somewhere in the midst of that, stopping at the beard that had stretched with the rest of the skin.

The tail gave a final, seemingly triumphant wiggle as it finished growing. The exposed bone at its end split, drawing a feeble whimper from Sid as at the same time thin webbing spread between fan created.

Sid pressed his palms against the floor, meaning to push himself up. He only managed a few shaky inches, barely enough to lift his head up, when his fingers began to turn pale blue. He quickly forced himself into a sitting position, as if touching something at the same time would leave them stuck to it. He held his hands up and stared at them as thin webbing grew between his fingers to match his tail.

He kept staring, kept shaking. It was finally over, but his mouth was still hanging open in shock. If he was lucky he'd be able to close it when it passed. Not likely.

In response Sid grabbed Gaius's arm, then a handful of his shirt. It might have been a little more intimidating if he wasn't still trembling, but as he used the young man to haul himself up his face, gaping maw and all, was brought uncomfortably close to Gaius's... close enough to appreciate the needle-like quality the bottom ones in particular possessed. He grunted with the effort, his breath reeking of mint mouth wash that barely covered some less pleasant lingering odors.

And then he let go.

For a few seconds Sid seemed taller, but that was only because he was foolishly standing up straight. A few inches were subtracted as he shifted his weight back until his good leg and resumed his normal harrassed slouch.

His cane lay not far from the overturned chair, forgotten in all the excitement.

"Nah," Sid said. "Ahm vewy fuhking fah fom okay." Talking felt about as wrong as it sounded. His mouth wagged, but there was seemingly no getting it to close enough to let his tongue hit the roof of his mouth. He reached up and put his hand to his chin, but he couldn't quite work up the nerve to see if he could force it. If he looked down he could see it jutting out, and those teeth...

He sucked in a breath, but turning his head to look away wasn't going to take it out of his line of sight. He pointed a shaking, webbed finger at where his cane lay. If he didn't ask, if he just pulled himself up, if he just pointed... it technically wasn't asking for help.

The cigarette was laying a few feet away from the cane, the smoldering tip slowly burning a hole in the tile.

Sid nodded his thanks as he took the cane. He curled and uncurled his fingers around the grip as he put his weight on it, trying to get used to the strange new feeling. Something still felt off about them, but he was trying very hard not to think about any of it. Without a word he turned towards the overturned chair and, forgetting his little phobia of throwing his back out, righted it with his free hand.

He sat down, yelped, and changed position so his tail could pass through the hole conveniently molded in the back. His expression, as least as much as was readable in his eyes, was grim. He winced as his tail gave another involuntary flick.