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Gaius left Marshall still-singing at the work sight, growling slightly in embarassment. He'd been hoping the guy was too busy to notice his encounter with Shenzi, but that hadn't been the case...

He took a deep breath, the flush starting to fade away as he regained his composure. What Shenzi had mentioned had worried Gaius, and he needed to find Billy to make sure nothing 'inappropriate' was going on...

Once he'd reached the edge of the lake, he lifted up his head and bellowed across the water. "HEY! BILLY! I need to talk to you!"

The winged horse-man wasn't sharp enough to spot the ripples amongst the other waves of the lake, taking his lack of appearance as a snub. Gaius' nostrils flared irritably. "Billy!" he tried again, "I just want to talk! It's about the theater!"

Gaius' initial glower faded as the octopus finally revealed himself and was replaced with a look of confusion. During all his time here, ever since he'd first been a human, and through his progressive changes, Billy had been the same. Now, he looked... different. And sounded like he was fighting for air, like an old smoker.

"Billy?" he called to the purple man. "You... okay? You sound kinda hoarse! What happened to your hair?"

Gaius hesitated, but obeyed, approaching the octopus-man slowly. As he drew closer, more of the man's changed features became apparant, from the odd beak-mouth combination to the spines and the missing tentacle. Gaius shuddered, wondering just how he'd lost it in the weeks since he'd last seen him. The labs again? Or Annie? Dragging his eyes away and up to the man's face, Gaius took a deep breath and crouched down so that he was politely on a more level field with Billy, the lengths of his feet flat on the ground and tail twitching behind him.

He managed an uncertain smile, tilting his head slightly. "Hey. We've started working on building that stage you wanted. Got the plans all drawn up and everything. Thought you might be interested to hear."

Gaius' smile faultered as his eyes were inevitably drawn down by the movement on Billy's chin. It was like flashbacks to their very first meeting. Gaius carefully kept his arms close atop his legs, watching the man should he decide to try to grab him again. "Y-Yeah... Sorry about the wait. I... had some trouble with the labs. But it's okay now." He nodded firmly. Done. No more thinking about it.

"But..." His expression hardened, "There was something else I wanted to talk to you about the theater. The performances. I talked to Shenzi just a little while ago, and she said you'd wanted her to do..." he paused, trying to find the right word without recalling his embarassment. "You wanted her to do exotic dancing!"

Gaius listened patiently as Billy gasped and wheezed, wondering just what had happened to rob the guy of his breath...

The octopus' description of Shenzi's behavior made Gaius frown. He... couldn't deny that she would do something like that. Not after how she'd been so easy about that kind of thing happening in New York. But, dancing like that for this kind of character! He'd have to talk to her about decency later...

"If it was just a joke, then I guess it's alright... She seemed a bit miffed about it, but I think it was just misunderstanding." He nodded again, watching Billy's purple eyes, doing his best to present a firm stance. "As long as you don't plan to actually show anything inappropriate like that on stage... What are you planning for a performance?"

It was impossible not to feel sorry for Billy, listening and watching him. The poor guy really was shackled to the water... Gaius' expression softened and he nodded. "Just testing the waters right now? Well, maybe you'll have some luck and find something."

Tilting his head to the side a little so that his bangs and semi-mane hung over, he smiled, trying to cheer up the guy. "You should come check out our progress some time! It's not much yet, but give us a couple days... I could show you the plans and stuff too. And don't worry, there's gonna be plenty of space under the stage. I've got Marshall digging it out even now!"

Gaius' eyebrows met pensively. Much as he didn't particularly like being so close to the guy, it wasn't his fault he was like this, after all, anymore than it was his own fault for his long neck and wings... And the guy had been acting decently lately. Or at least not as crazy as before. His eyes gave away his caving even before he nodded. "Alright, I'll grab the wheelchair for you. We're just west of here a short ways, along the edge of the village."