Naomi had a bit of a panic attack when he awoke. If he was forced to spend any real length of time like this, it was something he'd eventually get used to, but for the time being it was extremely alarming to find himself drifting along, completely submerged, lungs filled with water. More so to realize he wasn't really breathing through them, but a set of gills somewhere on his back. Worst of all though was looking down to see that horrible Thing standing at attention. He pointed it away from his sight, realizing as he did it was prehensile like a dolphin's which somehow made the whole thing worse, and that he actually had a full bladder. He glanced around, looking for a reasonable place to do so, before having to accept he'd just have to let loose in the open water, swim away, and hope the filtering system dealt with it before he was back on this side of the tank. Disgusting.
Charlotte waves her over, looking astoundingly graceful as her hair floated freely, framing her face like some wild untamed curly mane. "Looks like we both slept through feeding time," she said. "I have to wonder how close we are to the coast. It looks like someone just trawled around with a big fishing net and dumped the whole thing in here. Good variety if you don't mind sashimi. Crab, lobster, clams. A few little fish darting around we can pretty much just swallow whole. There's even a big ol' conch over there but... I'm not brave enough for that one."
Naomi nodded, still surprised at how well Charlotte was taking all this. She really seemed to have a gift for landing on her feet... even when she didn't have any. He also couldn't help notice how it seemed they had fewer observers today. "So, if the food hatch doesn't open until we fall asleep, where does that leave us? Sleeping in shifts? Trying to pry that grate off with a clam shell?"
Charlotte pushed away the mass of hair that was starting to settle across her face. "Well, the food hatch plan's a bit risky with only the one of us, and the grate would attract a lot of attention. If everyone gets distracted again like yesterday, that might be the time to try it. Meanwhile, our best bet might just be to play along. The happier we look, the less they worry about us breaking out. Who knows, if we really seem content enough, they might even haul us out to test something else. Couldn't be worse than this, right?"
"So what then? We just hold hands and swim laps, smiling and waving to the sociopaths outside?"
"Well..." Charlotte said, glancing down with a grin. "I could also show you how to have fun with your new friend there."
Naomi glanced down. Oh not again!
++++++++++
Lawrence still wasn't sure about this whole thing. When he'd heard about the wings, he'd worried this other guy might just fly off if he got outside, but apparently they didn't really work like that. Weight was a big part of it, but there was also something about energy and needing to eat like a hundred times his weight to flap that much... whatever, he wasn't a scientist. They had said they might work kinda like a hang glider, but mostly they were just decorative apparently.
There was still the personal risk though. Hey Lawrence, you know that guy who almost broke your neck and shot you in the leg? Why don't we give him a set of horse hooves, lock you two up together, and see if we managed to scramble his brain up to the point he doesn't want to kick you with them! Mark did sound pretty confident about that though. Turned him into some hot babe that'd be so crazy for him she wouldn't want to leave. Still seemed pretty darn creepy, but they'd definitely nailed the first part. Hell, he'd helped load him into the chamber, and even he didn't believe this hot little filly here could ever have been a dude. Just look at her. Lawrence realized he might be a little biased since it'd been so long since he'd really seen a woman. Sure, there were some female scientists on staff, and in the exhibits here, but there was that whole pesky species issue. No female panthers on staff. Meanwhile, now that he was a pegasus or whatever, and this was the only other one that existed, well hey, that did make her the hottest babe in the world.
From the look on her face, she was thinking the same thing. Well, he WAS literally hung like a horse. That was a pretty great perk. "Hi there," he said. "I'm Lawrence. They told me your name was Harry, but from here it looks like they left an -ette off the end."
She chuckled a little and nodded, still studying his body like it was a sculpture as he strode up.
"So I didn't quite catch the whole backstory," he continued, "but apparently you're going to be here a while, and sent me in to keep you company for a while." He spread his wings out wide behind him, not really sure why, but it just felt natural. Really seemed to do something for her though somehow. Made him wish there was a mirror in here. "Well, looks like I heard right! Feels a bit weird not getting to know each other a little first, but if you'd really rather skip the small talk-"
She just walked right over, cutting him off mid-sentence with barely a nod before she had an arm and a leg wrapped around him, with her other hand ruffling his feathers. Well, this definitely beat security work. Still, as he found a place to lay her down and started working out the logistics of how these long muzzles and thick nails were going to play out, part of him was a little disturbed by how fast and hard this switch had been flipped for her. A person shouldn't be able to change this much this quick. Of course, on the other hand, she clearly didn't have a problem with how fast things were going, so why should he let it bother him?
++++++++++
Agent Sherman on the other hand was feeling plenty of regret. "How much did I have to drink?" he asked, sipping the coffee with a hand on his temple.
"Enough that it would have caused a real incident if I hadn't been there to cover your tab. Might have been awkward to get carded too. What happened to your wallet anyway? I thought it was just some fancy novelty until you tried paying your half of the bill."
"That stupid park! There was this accident with one of their chambers, ruined everything I had on me... look, about last night, can we please keep this a secret? I'm really not actually into-"
"Men? You wouldn't be, no. Switch sexes at the park, you keep your relative orientation."
"Wait, how did you know I was...?"
"Well, I could tell you were checking me out, and that stripy suit of yours is clearly a woman's cut. You know, an ex of mine left some stuff here a while back that might be a better fit. Not quite that federal black and white, but hey, if that's all the dress code calls for, most people are fine with anthros going nude..."
Agent Sherman still couldn't believe how lax the law had gotten on that front. "I'd be happy borrowing a suit, yes... and may I use your shower?"
"That depends, mind some company?"
++++++++++
Katerina refused to back down until she had an answer. She was expected back at the firm tomorrow after all, and that was no place to be a rabbit. Her co-workers weren't privy to how she spent her vacation time and she preferred to keep things that way. More to the point, while she coped far better than most with her skittishness, she obviously couldn't appear in a courtroom, and frankly, just dealing with traffic in the city might be overwhelming. From the sound of things, there'd be plenty of work to be had around here too. For now though, she was stuck. She'd either have to extend her trip, or leave as she was. Or maybe not. There was another of these parks in Canada wasn't there? Of course, she didn't exactly match her passport photo like this...
++++++++++
Jeremy had really planned to avoid this whole situation, but that 'Cherry' girl was not in a fit state to be around these creeps, and there were several others in the same situation. Something had to be done to keep them safe, and apparently rescuing just the one had made things personal for their leader.
The huskies were back today, so at least he could count on this being a clean fight. From what he'd seen yesterday, Vinny had an edge on strength, but surrounded by all these does he was clearly letting instinct take over, and he wasn't fighting smart. Jeremy's best bet was to keep dodging around and let him wear himself out. In a normal fist fight, that wouldn't be too hard to manage, but every so often their antlers would get entangled, and he was taking a lot more hits than he'd like. The stakes were too high for him to let himself go down though.