Welcome to Gaia! ::

Liamh paced the floor of his duplex, wiping the chilled sweat from his brow and trying to shake the jitters still plaguing him from the dreams he'd woken from that morning. At the memory, his insides twinged and he rubbed his arms as if to get free of the feeling as he wandered back and forth.

He paused, going to the window and staring out blankly at the view of the island and village. The sunlight blazed down fiercely despite the lengthening of autumn; October in the tropics was still the tropics. It cast it's beams like a heat lamp through the glass panes, falling across his skin, thawing the inexplicable chill he'd been feeling in his bones.

He gave a small shudder, but his skittery heartrate seemed to slow a bit. Something felt... off.... inside. He guessed his mental state was to blame, but he'd never felt this rattled by a dream. All his skin seemed to be prickling, his nerves on end. Rubbing his arms again, he tore himself away from the sunlit patch. He needed something to do.

Heading for the intercom, he passed the open door of his bathroom, catching sight of himself in the mirror. He didn't look so good. He turned away, ignoring the small clumps of hair that lay in the sink from earlier that morning. The stress was really getting to him. He just needed to take his mind off it a bit..

The cold metal of the intercom plate felt strange against his fingers as he pressed the buttons for duplex 59 and pressed #.

"Hey... Marshall? You there? Wanna come down to the Entertainment room? We could get in a couple rounds of something on the Xbox or whatever... I gotta do somethin', i'm getting restless."

As Liamh left and locked the door behind him, he paused at the top of his duplex steps, feeling again the strange sensation on his skin. An awareness of the sun on his skin, as if he were sunburned - yet without the burning, just a strange prickling, tingling sensation, which quickly became a sort of itching down beneath the surface.

Scratching absently at his arms, neck, and head, he made his way down the steps, pausing again only to shake off some hair that had come off when he'd rubbed his head. He looked at it distastefully, and at the rub marks on his arms. Ugh. He knew what had happened. He'd gotten some kind of rash or bugbite or ... bugbite-rash-DISEASE.. out in the jungle. Did they have poison ivy out here?

He shuddered, ducking his head and pressing onward toward the village center. He didn't want to deal with it today, just not today, it wasn't that bad. He'd go get some kind of checkup - did they have a clinic? Probably at the center, for scrapes and rashes and colds and the like. He reassured himself that he would deal with it when he was feeling less out of sorts. Tomorrow.

Making his way toward the buildings in the middle of the village, he headed toward the Entertainment Room, pushing the door open. As he passed out of the sunlight and into the air-conditioned comfort he was so used to, he felt a slight twinge. He shook it off stubbornly. He was a little sad to leave the warm sunshine, but there'd be time for sunbathing later. Right now, there was bloody death to be had, and he was having.

Liamh leaned against the wall slightly, feeling a little lightheaded - and that blasted itching, tingling sensation had persisted. Spotting Marshall in the room, he raised a hand and smiled lopsidedly.

"Hey, how's about some Soul Calibur, whaddya think? I'll totally let you win once before i kick your arse," he grinned. "Dibs on Kilik.."

"Ugh," Liamh walked over, hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting and itching. "Um, number two, unless you're feeling generous. I'm in more of a copilot mode at the moment... "

He grinned, picking up his controller. "Yoshimitsu, eh? You like the Tekken version better, or the Soul Calibur? And namu my geek arse, i'm not dead yet, Mr. samurai roboto.."

He smiled, feeling a moment of control over the growing restless, roiling feelings he'd been experiencing all morning.

"Bullying? Nah. Unless you count Gaius bullying me into going on that blasted camping trip. I swear, i'm never going outside again." he shrugged as the game flickered to life and began. "Well, at least between my duplex and here and the Caf. What about you, causing trouble?"

His head was itching something fierce, and he twitched his nose, trying to ignore it. His hand snaked up from the controller and scratched at a spot.

"Heh..." Liamh made a lame attempt to go along with the joking, though he was feeling quite out of it. "Yeah... something tells me Gaius never sacrificed any lunch money on the arcade altar, growing up. We'll.... nngh... we'll have to... get him train with us. Better yet," he flicked through arenas and selected the match. "Make him think he's doing well, then start betting with favors and clean him out.."

Starting the match, Liamh battled furiously, making use of Kilik's long range defense and quick attacks, but just couldn't seem to get with it. He lost the first round, getting hit with a whirlwind fury of Yoshimitsu's wrath. He gritted his teeth, pushing the prickling, crawling sensation to the back of his mind, and managed a comeback victory in the second round.

"You're goin' down now schnozboy. Domo arigato, Mr. roboto..."

As the final round started, Liamh lept into the battle with a flurry of attacks... and then suddenly doubled over his controller as his body convulsed. "Ughhh... i don't... feel good.." He dropped the controller, both hands clutching his head.

He felt something give way beneath his hands, and straightened, staring numbly as he saw the full clumps of hair that had simply pulled away in his hands. "What the hellmonkey..."

"Oh... hogawd... I..." Liamh stared, a violent shudder creeping up his spine. His skin... the horrible crawling sensation, the sick feeling of angry bees throughout his body. He balled up again, clutching his arms as the slight friction caused the hairs there to give up and die, brushing away at the touch. He jerked his head and more hairs shed away, falling like just so much thin straw on the couch. The sick feeling welled up inside him. He had to make it stop... it wasn't pain, but it was going to drive him out of his mind!

"Auugh... it.. it's... inside.." he grunted incoherantly. With his hands on his arms, he could feel something strange - something shifting - beneath the skin. "God... please..."

His hands left their deathgrip on his arms for a moment in shock as the veins in his arms swelled beneath his touch, bulging slightly through the surface of his skin. He took a deep breath, a momentary pause, then convulsed again, clutching his head. The bald patches seemed to have veins bulging slightly as well, bluish beneath the surface. Under his hands, the hair gave way, dropping like water to expose more and more of his scalp, slick with sweat.

After several long moments - if they were minutes or hours, he couldn't tell - the writhing, angry currents raging over his body seemed to slowly subside, twitching here and there as he groaned and slowly uncurled to lean back into the couch. "Nnnghh... oh Lord, what hit me?" He let his heartrate and breathing slow steadily, giving a last shudder. He brought his hands up, brushing them off and rubbing his face vigorously, not noticing that his eyebrows were already long gone.

Liamh dropped his hands to his knees limply and took a deep breath. He stared at his hands, looking at the creepy trails the now-visible veins made just below the surface... was it just his imagination, or did they look a little greener than blue? He shook his head.

"It... it can't... I - No, it can. Dammit!" He balled his hands into fists. "They got me. I thought i was just sick, but... The bastages got me." he scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

Slowly he bent over and picked up the glasses that had fallen off during his episode, putting them back on his nose. "How bad is it?" he glanced over at Marshall, raising a bare naked eyebrow. He glanced back at his arms, and hesitantly explored his hairline with his fingertips.

Nothing.

It twisted his insides to find every bit of it simply.... gone. Like a field of mown wheat, it lay scattered on the couch, on his clothes, everywhere. He felt a particular sense of loss like he'd only felt on the occasions he'd discovered a large batch of personal files deleted or his hard drive corrupted. It was his, and it was..... gone. He took another deep breath to steady himself.

Liamh nodded, trying to FEEL like he'd gotten off lucky. "Yeah. Yeah, i'm still me. They can't change that." he looked up and smiled lopsidedly at Marshall. "Thanks.... ugh, this feels weird... but at least i feel a bit better now - how odd is that?" he chuckled wryly.

He drew a deep breath and let it out again to sort of reset his brain, reaching up and giving his head another rub. "Uh..." he glanced over at Marshall, "D'you wanna... keep playing? I'd understand if you've had a little too much excitement today, but... still bet i could own your arse."

He leaned back with one arm up against the back of the couch, brushing off the hair from the cushions. "Dang, i should save some of this stuff." He grumbled under his breath.

Liamh gave an accepting nod at Marshall's declining, but then paused as he continued. His half-arsed smile slowly widened into a beaming grin. "Oh hell yeah. That has win all over it..." He pushed himself off the couch and scrambled to the DVD shelf, picking his way quickly through the titles.

"Age before beauty, my friend - How about Samurai Zombies, THEN Cheerleader Cannibals?" He turned, holding up the two cases with a devious grin. "And we'll go from there...."

He rolled his eyes at himself mentally. It didn't take much to distract him, he knew that much, but he was glad. He gave Marshall a grateful glance - this was exactly what he needed. He switched the system over and popped the first disk in, settling back with a grin.

"Feudal undead hordes and katana decapitations, here we come!"