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It was well into mid-day by the time Gaius managed to drag himself from his duplex. The only reason he even considered leaving the place in his state was the need for pain killers, and something to take care of the queasy, nauseous feeling he’d been fighting all morning. Once his latest dry-heaving fit had abated, he stumbled out of his duplex, groaning at the bright sunlight that assaulted his hung-over senses, and made his way for the cafeteria building.

The infirmary staff lady smirked knowingly as he stumbled in, all too experienced with the other islanders coming to her after a night of over-indulgence. Gaius just glowered and took the two pills and cup of pink stuff she passed him and nodded dumbly as she ordered him to eat something. As if he could keep anything down.

He wandered back out as she continued to lecture him, rubbing absently at a pointy ear. Everything ached. But then, he should’ve expected that after all the booze, right?

“Never again…”

He paused outside, tossing back the pills, but kept the cup for later. It wouldn’t be a good idea to mix the stuff yet. Besides, his throat felt like an asphalt driveway. What he really needed was some water. So, Gaius headed back through the duplexes, head ducked and eyes half-lidded.

Gaius' first reaction was to wince as the shouting pained his overly-sensitive brain. He looked up, forcing a lopsided grin.

"Might as well be morning..."

He paused in the midst of raising up his hand to wave, face instantly going slack. The balded man didn't match the voice he'd heard. But the glasses, the laptop, the goofy grin, they all said differently.

"L-Liamh? Is that you?" he gawked. "Wha... did you shave your head for Halloween or something?"

Gaius had walked a bit closer and was now standing under Liamh, looking up at him. All his hair fell out?! It boggled him how easily Liamh could make light of the situation.

"Somehow, I'm worried it had something to do with that camping trip and a nasty island virus, but considering how the rest of us look around here..." he snorted and chuckled, but the laughs were cut short by a coughing fit. "Gah..." he grimaced. "The party really did me in... I went and drank way too much, but I had to after that... path stuff." He made a face, waving back in the direction of the hidden jungle path. Despite the drinking, his memories of the previous night were all too clear, and he still recalled the nightmare from this morning. Gaius cringed, feeling his stomach bubble testily.

"I sure hope you had a better time than the others."

Gaius ran a hand over his face, wondering if hangovers could really make him feel this miserable. He took a deep breath, trying to stem off another wave of nausea.

"Y-yeah... you remember when the music cut out and the lights dimmed? A bunch of us followed those red lights, which led into the jungle... Stupid decision. I... I think it was the lab's sick version of a haunted fun house... only this definitely wasn't fun..." His mind flashed back over the events of the path as he spoke, remembering the rats, those twisted bodies... Annie... He flushed with shame, but quickly shook it away. "It was bad times. I... don't really want to go into it much. You'll have to get the details of what all happened from someone else... but at the end of the path was a graveyard. Apparantly there've been folks that have died from these experiments..."

He shuddered. The whole thing had disturbed everyone on some level. He himself still had so many injections to look forward to, if Ambrose was right... what would happen to him? Or would he end up like one of the animals hanging from the trees? He didn't want to think about it.

"And..." he said, changing topics slightly, "apparantly that wolf-girl who got rid of her chip is still at large... killed a couple staff just a couple days ago. There were fresh graves up there." He shook his head. "Looks like they've made a monster for themselves..."

"Yeah..." Gaius sighed, agreeing with the sucks comment. "Yeah, it does. But nothing we can really do about it, unless we can come up with a way to escape this place..."

"A glass of water... would actually be really appreciated. My throat feels like gravel right now, and tastes even worse... I'd go for some food, but I haven't been able to keep anything down all day."

Gaius started up the steps, grabbing onto the rail as a sudden wave of dizzyness hit him. He was afraid he was going to fall over for a moment, his sense of balance utterly abandoning him, but it passed as quickly as it hit, leaving him looking a bit pale, but otherwise sound.

Up in the duplex, Gaius gave the number a passing glance before following Liamh in, and stopped to lean against the doorway, rather than intrude. Up here, where he didn't have to fight the glaring sunlight, it was easier to get a look at the guy and notice the greenish lines that showed like wires under his skin. Gaius winced. That was definitely a change, though into what, he couldn't fathom.

"Maybe a lizard..." he spoke aloud to himself.

Gaius jerked up from where he'd started to sag against the doorframe. "Wha? No, sorry, I said 'lizards'... was just trying to figure out what the labs stuck you with." He chuckled self-consciously, running a hand over his face - he was really feeling lousy.. "The hair stuff... and you do look kinda - urp - greenish..." He gestured to Liamh's general appearance and shrugged. It did seem rather self-explanatory.

His stomach gave a sudden, violent lurch, doubling Gaius over as it fought to expel its non-existant contents. Gaius groaned, clutching his mouth, and bolted for the bathroom. Slamming the door open with little regard for whatever there was inside, Gaius threw himself down on his knees in front of the porcelain thrown, clutching the rim, and hurked noisily. The waves continued, shaking his whole body with each one, but all that came up was a bit of burning acidic liquid, his stomach long-empty.

Gaius groaned and whiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Nevuh... drinking... 'gain..."

Gaius groaned again, resting his feverish forehead against the cool, solid edge of the toilet seat. Amidst all the puking, he hadn't even noticed the hairs along his tail growing out, not even when they started to pile up on the floor. He did, however, at least acknowledge the itching, burning sensation in his scalp as hair follicles worked overtime to push out longer, jet-black hair.

Another wave of pain hit, but it began so subtley, as a soarness in his throat, Gaius just passed it off as residue from the dry-heaving. Turning his head stiffly, Gaius gave Liamh a weak smile. "Hey... what else... is beer... for..."

His voice croaked, any other words cut off by the constricting pain in his neck tendons. But it went deeper than the muscle. The burning shot right down to the very vertebrae of his neck. There was a loud cracking as cells split at too-fast a rate, the cells in his muscles and skin struggling to keep up with the new growth. His neck stretched out like someone had caught his head in a clamp and was pulling, but at the same time it thickened, muscles bunching up to support the new length, eating up much of his shoulder space in the process.

Gaius let out a strangled gasp, clutching the bowl with bone-white knuckles. He wasn't even aware that he was changing - all he knew was the pain that made him want to cut off his own head.

The swelling musculature finally proved too much for the shirt Gaius had been wearing. With a loud POP, the seams split, providing a bit of relief from that bit of pain at least.

As if that was a cue, something similar began growing in Gaius' feet, heralded by the burning of hyper-active cells growing far too fast. At first it wasn't noticeable, hidden away inside his shoes. His toes butted up against the inside walls, curling painfully as the space grew tighter and tighter. Worn leather dug into the back of his heels. It became too much. In a moment of lucidness, Gaius freed a hand and reached back behind him, tugging the heels off before they could break too.

Inch upon inch, Gaius grew at both ends, his neck growing precariously long, and feet stretching out like warm wax. Gaius clamped his teeth, holding back a whimper. He didn't even know when the ears, those pointy, silly ears that Liamh had mistook for elf prosthetics, crawled up the sides of his head and flattened back, broadcasting the fear that gripped him.