Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sophie felt terrible about missing Marshall's party. It hadn't been her fault she'd been sick, after all. Everyone gets sick at some point in their lives, and that's not taking into account if they were being turned into some creature of some sort. Even so, Sophie couldn't help but feel a tad bit guilty for the whole ordeal, and it was for this reason that she happened to be out and about that particular day, taking the long way to Marshall's duplex to offer her sincerest apologies.

She hadn't gone directly to his room, partially because she was nervous and partially because she hadn't quite figured out what to say. She'd angered the penguin man once, however inadvertently, and she didn't know what she'd do if she'd upset him again. Pacing the shore of the lake, she began nervously itching at her arm, which irritated her even more so than usual.

Looking out towards the lake, she sighed, ruffling her hair with a furred hand. She just needed to relax, that was all. Perhaps a nice little swim would do her some good. Rolling up the legs of her jeans as best she could, she sat down on the shores and gently dipped her feet into the water, testing the temperature. Deciding she didn't quite want to take any sort of plunge just yet, she stayed content with her paw-like appendages staying submerged, and for a moment, forgot of her worries.

Even so, why was she so itchy today?

Sophie wiggled her toes, relieving her hand of it's itching task to dip itself in the water as well, making ripples with her clawed fingertips as the moments idly passed. In fact, were it not for her random drawings in the lake, she wouldn't have noticed the movements of another, and her ears pointed forward as she looked out with curious eyes at the...boy? She thought it was a boy, but couldn't be sure: he had greyish skin, after all, and despite the oddities of the Island, she had no doubt that the thing could be something other than a boy, or had been something other than a boy at one point in time.

"...Hello?" Sophie called out to the thing in the friendliest voice she could muster, her hand resuming it's itching against the opposite arm. "I've never seen you before...what's your name?" She felt somewhat silly, calling out to something that in all likelihood wouldn't respond back. Even so, it was something better to do than simply scratching at the mosquito bite that dotted her arm with a red welt, and it's not like anyone else was there to hear her.

Sophie blinked as she took in the sight of the boy, whom she was now pretty sure was actually a boy. Some sort of fish boy, but a boy nonetheless. "Hey there," she called out again in a friendly manner, only to hear whistlings in response. She furrowed her brow as she looked at the boy, confused. "Are you okay?" She wasn't quite sure what to make of his clickings: after all, she didn't speak dolphin.

It was in this moment of weakness that her changes struck, the itch intensifying as fur began to creep up her arms, spreading over the patches of skin on her face. With a cry, Sophie's feet retreated from the lake, only to have a tan coat replace where water had been. She gave a frightened glance to the boy, her brain overloading with surprise, shock, and fear, only to double over a moment later, curling up to hide her face.

Sophie's hands clenched as her ears began to grow even larger, spreading past their previous points and shifting to the top of her head, where animal ears would be. Fur continued to sprout from her pores until it engulfed her entire form, and as she tightened the ball in which she'd curled herself up in, she suddenly realized that her pains had abated, and whether or not her change was finished, it had stopped for the moment.

Looking out towards the lake again, she noticed that the boy was still there, and crept towards the waters despite a growing sinus pressure. "D-don't worry, I'm okay..." Sophie murmured, almost afraid to look down at the foggy reflection the water's surface to see her new appearance.

She never got the chance: before her gaze could turn downwards, her nose began pushing out into a muzzle, and she recoiled again, whimpering as her tail pushed out from her spine, the bones popping with each new vertebrae. It wasn't long until that, too, was covered in fur: a long, bushy tail reminiscent of a foxes.

Sophie's teeth gritted even as her face elongated to it's final length for the moment, and her newfound tail thrashed about in random spurts of pain. There was a feeling of resolution with a final twitch or so, and Sophie took that to mean the actual end of her change, flopping to the ground as she let out a pained moan, holding her head in her arms. It occured to her in a moment of hatred how cruel those in the Labs could be at times. All the money they spend on subjects, and no anesthetics to speak of? Even so, after a moment and a whine of protest, she made herself lift her face to meet the dolphin boy's gaze.

"Sorry 'bout that," Sophie gently responded to his clickings, her exhausted face attempting a weak smile. "I-I think it's over, actually." Her voice was shaky, and afterwards, another whimper escaped from her muzzle. As much pain as she'd endured, she hoped she hadn't scared the boy: after all, she couldn't tell his age because of his changes, but he couldn't be much older than mid-teens, could he?

"So, uh, how's it look? One click for 'Not too bad,' and two clicks for 'Geez, Sophie, you look like crap,'" she blinked, softly grinning at her joke from her stationary position. "My name's Sophie, by the way."

"'Not too bad', huh? Cool."

Sophie rested her head against her arms, prompting a sneeze as her nose brushed against her fur. She wasn't quite sure what to think of herself now: did she even have the courage to face exactly how she'd changed? Sophie knew she could see her nose without having to make herself cross-eyed: it was more of a snout now anyways. But exactly how much of her had changed? With a curious streak, she brushed a hand to her face, testing the texture. All of it was fur. Oh, boy.

Glancing down, she noticed the boy spelling something out, and read it to herself as he wrote with his webbed hands. "...Cody Archer? Is that your name?" She gave him a sympathetic look, and her ears twitched downwards in response, only to jerk back up again as she winced again, an ache caused by the tenderness of her ears after the recent change.

"So, I guess you really can't talk, huh? That must suck," she commented, almost deluded to her situation. After all, here she was, newly changed, talking to a dolphin boy who couldn't speak, and she somehow didn't care. Maybe she was just dreaming again. Maybe it was just that the Island had finally gotten to her.

The sound of splashing was enough to make Sophie scramble to her knees, though why she was being so jumpy, she didn't quite know. "Hey there, it's okay," she responded in a concerned voice, her head shaking to get the water from her face. Slowly, she nestled back down in order to be eye to eye with the boy, though she couldn't help looking all the way down to his tail. So...the island made mer-boys, too.

"Did this just happen to you or what? I mean, you don't look too happy," Sophie responded, trying to search for answers. A more social person would have been fine with this one-sided conversation, but Sophie kept it awkward at best, her tail twitching in anticipation. "It looks like you've been here a while, though...am I right?" Sophie tried to think of exactly how long she'd been on the Island, and decided it was long enough.

Sophie looked down at the writing, blinking in surprise. "June? That's gotta be almost a year, I'd guess," she commented, shrugging her shoulders. As he retreated to the water's edge, however, Sophie hesitated: she wasn't wearing a bathing suit, nor was she even sure she could swim.

"Uhh...hold on, let me try something."

Was it worth getting her pants wet to swim with the boy? She didn't want to disappoint him, but then again, she enjoyed her dry pants, too. She looked around, then to the water, her eyes set in thought. She then looked at her fur covered arms, frowning. Would it even count as being naked, she being furred as she was? Now that she thought about it, her pants seemed uncomfortable and restraining, and a part of her wanted to be out of the restraints to warm her fur. Sighing, she shook her head and unbuttoned her jeans, wriggling her way free within moments.

Tossing her pants to the side (she kept her underwear on to maintain some decency), she looked to Cody with a grin, and wiping the hair from her face, gave him only a singly auditory warning. "Cannonball!" the fox cried, and with that, she lept, curling up her legs to create a splash.

For a moment, her arms flailed awkwardly underwater, but she somehow maneuvered herself to air, and took a deep breath once she surfaced, shaking her head to rid some of the water from her yellow ringlets. Her fur stuck up in the strangest of ways, and had she been looking at herself, she likely would have laughed. Then again, had she been looking at herself, she would have realized the extent to which she was no longer was human, but hey, ignorance was bliss.