Welcome to Gaia! ::

After he had helped Liamh back to his duplex, Gaius had returned to his own, but stopped on the threshold. One hand on the door frame, he looked in. Scattered papers and spilled pencil shavings and dirty laundry, all now covered with a layer of flakes of skin, some pieces as thin as tissue paper, no better than dandruff, others as big as a handkerchief and as thick as a wet suit.

He shuddered. Sawdust and skin. It all blended together in his mind, making him feel ill to his stomach.

“I can’t stay here…”

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the duplex, making his way to the bed, where he pulled the last of the sheets off, bundling them up with his pillow. With that secured under his arm, Gaius turned around and as quickly left the apartment.

The open air was a welcome change from the stuffiness he’d had to withstand the past days. How long had he been in the labs? Gaius shook his head and sighed. It wasn’t like anyone would miss him if he vanished… The village would go on, just as the world did outside… Without him. With those cheerful thoughts, Gaius walked out through the village, making for one of the larger trees. Afternoon was quickly turning into evening, the air clear with the recent winter storms, but still tropically warm. Would he end up like one of the folks in the graveyard? Just vanish to the labs one day and never be heard of or missed until his name too appeared on a gravestone?

Would anyone remember who he was?

Beneath the spread of the tree’s branches, Gaius tossed his pillow on the grass and settled down, pulling the blanket over him to keep away the worst of the bugs and night air. The grass scratched and tickled against his side and the tip of the wing closest to it. Gaius had to shift several times before finding a position that was comfortable enough. A beetle buzzed past one of Gaius’ ears, making it flick back, and he pulled the blanket higher, but that just exposed the tips of his feet to the inquisitive insects.

This was still better than what the labs had given them.

At some point, Gaius finally fell asleep, remaining there under the tree throughout the night, and well into the morning, an odd sight out in the outstretches of the village.

Normally Gaius was a deep sleeper, but with the bright sunlight now out, and the less-than comfortable ground below him, the horse-man slowly awoke, blinking an eye. He was… wet? The blanket was damp, and early morning, made Gaius shiver as he pushed it off. Dew. He’d forgotten about the morning dew… or else it had sprinkled sometime during the night, as it was likely to do in the tropics.

Sitting up, he squinted at the dark form in front of him, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the bright light before he finally recognized his friend. However, his greeting was less enthusiastic than it would normally be. “Oh, hey Marshall…”

Running his hand back through his damp hair, Gaius gave it a ruffling before dropping the hand back to his blanketed lap. He yawned widely. When the short guy didn’t seem to be moving on, Gaius figured it would be polite to continue some kind of conversation.

“So, what brings you out here?”

“Ah, um…” The horse-man winced. It wasn’t exactly a question he’d wanted to answer anytime soon… but then, sleeping in the middle of the village, someone was bound to ask.

“I don’t really want to be in my duplex right now…” he said, avoiding meeting Marshall’s eyes. “I… probably could’ve slept in the entertainment room, but there’s usually people in there… Liamh changed, you see, and the place is a bit of a mess, so… yeah.”

He hunkered down. Hopefully that’d be enough for the curious guy.

Gaius coughed awkwardly, rubbing at the still-red marks around his neck. “Uh, thanks for the offer, but I’m fine, really…” How could he explain that he didn’t want to stay in one of those lab-made cells without spilling what had happened the past several days?

Taking a deep breath, Gaius tried another approach.

“Listen…” he said, playing with a piece of grass in his hands, “what do you think of our chances of escaping this place? If we could go… home?”

Gaius closed his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching with contained emotion.

“Did you know…” he continued hoarsely, “The labs choose us… because no one back home will miss us? Right now, my family has no idea what’s happened to me… they’ve moved on. Without me. My friends. My co-workers. Everything is continuing as if I’d never been there.”

His face tightened, lines forming at the corners of his mouth and above his brows, which were furrowed together. “The labs… hired,” he choked out the word, “me because I was the rookie architect no one else would ever take. I’ve been angry at them all this time because I thought they’d stolen a future away from me that I never had in the first place.”

Gaius grimaced, turning his head away from Marshall’s accusing finger. As deeply mired in his self-pity as he was, the horse was too stubborn to be so easily moved.

“Is it a lie? How do I know they even think of me? If I was such a great architect, then why didn’t anyone hire me before Feral Labs?” His cold blue eyes looked back up at Marshall, challenging and impassive. “What if you’re the one lying? I was telling myself the same thing only days ago… but they’re just empty, fluffy thoughts I used to blind myself from this fact: We’re stuck here. Even if I went back, I’m no better than a freak. And sooner or later, that cancer they mention would catch up with me. So leave me to my pity-party, it’s the only thing I have anymore…”

Gaius lowered his eyes, ashamed, Marshall’s harsh accusations hammering him. Maybe… his family would miss him, even if they thought he was dead… “But they still won’t look for me, if they think I’m dead…” he half-whispered.

He hazarded looking back up, instantly regretting it as he saw Marshall’s tear-streaked feathered face. Shifting his weight in equal embarrassment, Gaius shook his head. “I’m a pretty lousy family to have, it seems… If all I do is make you cry…”

Gaius winced, the persistence of Marshall’s apparent faith in him shaming his own obvious lack. “Marshall…” he sighed, “I don’t get what you see in me…”

Pushing the rest of the blanket off, he pulled his knees up to himself so he could wrap his arms around them, and stared down at the two long appendages that had belonged to him for over a month that were now entwining toes. “I’ve been living a lie… believing we’d escape, somehow… but worse, I was leading others to believe that same thing. Even… if I have some kind of value… how can I be forgiven for that?”