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The sky had just begun turnin a rather painful shade of gray and burnt orange when he opened his eyes again. A wave of nausea caused him to nearly be sick again, but he managed to quell it. Taro's head felt fuzzy and heavy, he vaugly registered that he had a fever. The subject that stood out most in his mind was Natsumi.

Natsumi... she was here. He wasn't exactuly sure why, but she was, and... he balled his hands into fists, closing his eyes tightly and gritting his teeth. Who had that guy been? Her new boyfriend? It sure seemed that way, she'd rushed immediatly to his side as soon as Taro had taken him down.

What happened... what happened to the girl who had said he was good once? The cute little shrine maiden he had dated... fallen in love with back home? She'd abandoned him in the mere blink of an eye. Had she even gotten his letter? Well.. maybe not, he was sure her brothers or father would have intercepted something like that, they certainly had no love for him.

His heart throbbed. He'd been so happy to see her again. He couldn't think of why SHE had any right to be angry with him. Maybe for having gone for just a little while, but it had only been a short while!

He gave a loud, inarticulate groan of frustraition, reaching up to curl his fingers in his hair. He was going in circles over and over again. No matter what he thought of the same questions and replies were brought up, and always that underlaying hurt.

Taro forced himself to his feet, discarding his clothing and tossing them haphazardly on the floor. They were covered in his own sick from earlier (come to think of it his stomach was still pretty sore) and ruined for all he was concerned. Maybe there would be a place to for him to wash his clothing somewhere. He got into a shower and stood beneath the heavy, hot water for a good few hours before washing himself off and heading unceremoniously to the medium sized bed.

He dreamt about meeting Natsumi in a desert and giving her a flower.

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He spent the rest of the day pacing around his room, the distraction of being in a movie pushing out the sour thoughts of Natsumi from his mind at the moment. He welcomed the distraction, he didn't want to think about her anyway, she'd hurt him.

Everyone would be playing animals, huh... what kind of movie was that, though? And what animal would he be? What role would he have? Would he be the star, or would he just be one of those lousy backdrop characters? No, he HAD to be the star, why else would they specifically trick him and bring him to this island the way they had? He was the star, or maybe the villan. It wouldn't be so bad playing the bad guy.

Taro flopped face first onto his bed, laying into the pillow thoughtfully.

...He wanted to tell Kiki about this!

He flipped over again, sitting up and reaching down beneath the bed, fishing around a moment for his Nintendo DS. Ah, there it was. He flipped it open and turned on Animal Crossing.

Kiki was by far his favourite neighbor, he wrote letters to her all the time and while all the others had packed up and moved away she had always remained. He found that Daisy and PomPom had moved out and a new neighbor named Chief had moved in - a wolf! Those weren't very common.

He spent the next few hours playing until he set the handheld down and fell asleep.

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Language barrier and the girls

That morning you had awoken feeling horribly cold and ill. Your insides ached and felt uncomfortably stiff, your joints hurting as though someone where running ice up and down your bones- a distracting enough discomfort that stops you from noticing the red puncture wound on the back of your neck. Staying indoors to try to rest away what seemed like a sudden island flu, your relief comes from when you finally step outside. Although you still ache, the sun seems to warm the horrible clammy cold feeling that had set through you. It doesn't take long befor the aches get worse, though, as though the hot afternoon sun had triggered some sort of effect.

The flesh under your skin throbs, certain patches along the arm and the fatty areas of your stomach take on a strange, ribbed texture that is tinted a slight greenish brown under the semi translucent skin. Befor you can truly take in the horror of what you see just below the surface of your still human outer shell, you feel your teeth starting to push down from your gums, grinding and clicking and popping free to make way for a row of sharp spines, like twin rows of thick needles. Your toes equally start contorting, twisting, numbing, becoming almost root-like. Fortunatly you can still walk like normal easily, but shoes will forever seem far too confining, and when you stand still for too long, you find your toes attempting to dig into the ground where ever you might be.

There is a breif moment for you to catch your breath from the pain when suddenly clusters of sharp, cactus spines pierce through your skin in waves up and down your body, from your face, from your chest, chin, cheaks, arms, stomach, legs, everywhere in small patches that leak blood from where your skin is torn to make way for them.

A plant seems to be growing inside of you.

It was the screams that finally drew Thom to the scene. Admittedly, he had been on his way to Taro's duplex anyway, but he had been taking his time, working out how best to beat the hell out of Taro without actually beating the hell out of him. As must as it would amuse him, and as much as Taro deserved it, it was likely to only make things worse when Taro and Natsumi spoke again. He wasn't terribly angry either, just peeved that anyone would call Natsumi, of all people, something like that, especially someone she cared for.

And then the screams began. Thom reacted without even thinking, quickening his awkward crutch-step pace to head towards the sounds. It wasn't long before Taro came into sight, screaming at the top of his lungs outside of a duplex. Certainly not the person who would have been tops on his list to help out, but Thom could at least establish what was wrong. He hurried over to the bent-double man, setting his right hand, his crutch-free hand, on Taro's shoulder and making as if to pull him straight. That is, until he noticed the blood strewn pile of teeth on the ground and froze where he was. Taro was changing.

Briefly Thom's eyes met Taro's, but just as quickly the Japanese man was looking away once more, for which Thom was very grateful. He grimaced, momentarily closing his eyes against the sight that had greeted him--blood spilling from a mouth brimming with pointed teeth. And then the screams began anew, and it occurred to Thom that teeth like that likely meant something dangerous, and that he should probably get out of the way in case Taro became violent.

He opened his eyes just as the protruding pins began spreading to Taro's back, and earned himself a handful of spines before he managed to pull away, giving out a startled shout of his own. He backed away a few paces, deciding there was nothing he could do for Taro until he was sure the transformation had ended, and concerned himself instead with the spines in his hand, gingerly giving one a light tug and hissing through his teeth when it refused to budge. Godammit.