Private Finished Three Days Later

Xavier was awake, although groggily. His eyes remained closed and he could feel that he was laying on his back. What time was it? He couldn't care, he felt tired and wanted to sleep. So, he did something out of pure instinct. He rolled onto his stomach and attempted to pull a blanket more over himself. Except he didn't have a blanket. Then he realised he also wasn't in a bed. Not to mention whatever he was laying on felt soft, but not bed soft. Also definitely wet. Most certainly wet. He groaned a little then opened his eyes. He had to blink a few times to really clear any grogginess he had. He was on a beach, the side of his face pressed into the sand. His memory felt foggy... He ran through what the last thing he could remember was. He was at the beach with Xarrah, he had been trying to explain the prank. Then Dani... Dani...

"DANI!" He shouted with a jolt. Now he really felt awake. He quickly attempted to push himself up, he had to get up fast. The last thing he could remember was drowning as he desperately attempted to keep her above the surface. He must have fallen unconscious, or... something. But he had to make sure Dani was safe. But Xavier couldn't even get on his feet. As he tried, the moment he stopped using his hands as support he fell right back down. He quickly gasped for air after being winded. Something was wrong with his legs. He felt sick to his core... Dani could be in trouble and he couldn't move.

Xavier had to see what kind of damage was with his legs. He managed to roll onto his back again, it'd be easier to see his legs and all. But was... very surprised to not find any legs at all. His breathing hitched as he stared. From the waist downwards, there was a tail rather than his body. Xavier laughed nervously. This had to be some kind of joke, right? A prank. He checked to see if there was some way to get rid of it, like if someone was over his legs. But nothing. Maybe it was a dream??? Perhaps this whole thing, including what lead him here, was just some nightmare that was about to wake up from. He quickly pinched himself on the arm, prepared to wake up but...

He didn't. He felt the pain from the pinch. Xavier felt cold, partly from the water that lapped onto his body, but also because of the horror he felt. Just... to make sure, he leaned forward and pinched the tail. He flinched when he felt pain. This... this is so messed up. He needed help. His hand instinctively reached to go into a pocket, but he just kind of jabbed himself in the side. He had taken off his jacket before he got into the water anyway, but...
That doesn't explain why all the other clothing he had beneath that was also gone. He had a hoodie, a t-shirt, gloves. All of that was gone. Xavier had no clothes, no phone, no wallet. Oh, also no legs. This was one awful way to wake up.

For the next five minutes, Xavier attempted to commando crawl away from the water more onto the beach but who knew that it would be so hard to try and crawl with only the arms, on wet sand, with a fish tail that because he still attempted to use his 'legs' to crawl out of habit would wiggle and just make things harder. He had barely gotten anywhere and he felt irritated, anxious and tired. He needed help from someone. He was about to resort to plan B, which was scream until someone found him, but thankfully someone was already walking along the beach before he had to.

Then passed another ten minutes while Xavier tried to convince this person to let him borrow their phone to make some calls, and that he wasn't insane. Also try and get them to not call the police. He sat, could you say sitting with his current condition? Sure, sitting, with the phone as he remembered all the numbers he could. But at the moment he found himself only able to remember three. He cringed hard.
Xarrah, Gabriel, Angelo. Xavier considered them all friends, but he most certainly assumed that he couldn't have been gone that long. It meant that he was likely on bad terms with all of them still. When he checked the date, he felt himself cringe more. Three days. He had seen Xarrah on Saturday, now it was Tuesday. He was gone for three days.

Deep breath. He typed the first number into the phone. Xarrah. She was there when all of this... happened. Maybe she had some idea on what actually happened. He waited, hearing the phone ring. Eventually, it was picked up. "Uh, hey Xarrah. First of all, what the fuck. Second... is Dani okay?" That was all he needed to know, really. He sighed with relief at her response. Dani was fine. "Uh, yeah I think I'm fine. Minus the fact I currently can't walk. Umm, I'm not really sure where I am right now." He looked at the person who had let Xavier borrow their phone. They rolled their eyes then told Xavier where he was. He decided he wouldn't tell Xarrah right now... he wouldn't be able to handle more than two people right now. He felt like he was about to be sick. "No, no it's fine. I'm about to call for help, don't worry." He sounded like he usually, even added a slight laugh at the end. He hated the idea that Xarrah could be worried right now. Then he flinched and pulled the phone away from his ear as Xarrah shouted. Then it suddenly clicked silent. He sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. Guess that went... sort of well. Although the fact Xarrah had been crying over him... he felt a twinge of guilt in his gut.

To be fair, he hadn't lied really. He was about to call for help. But likely not for the help Xarrah had specifically hoped for. He started to type in the numbers to call Angelo's number... but then erased it. He grinded his teeth. He still felt guilt about the prank, about keeping secrets. He remembered that he promised to himself that he would tell them more. But then... He decided not to dwell on it too much, thinking about it made him feel sick. He typed in the numbers for Gabe's number, then started ringing. The wait for this call felt like it lasted forever, but then it was picked up. "Um, hey Gabe. It's Xavier. I guess I'll start by saying what the fuck." He laughed a little, although awkwardly. After a moment he then said his current location. "Uh, not exactly. I, uh. Can't walk." He looked down at his... tail? It felt weird to mentally process that. "Weeeeellllll. I was hoping... uhhh, you'd come down here." He breathed a sigh of relief for only a moment before his eyes suddenly widened. "W-Wait you're gonna call Ju- Angelo?" Shocked, his voice raised slightly. "Ga-" That was all he managed before he heard the phone click. He groaned loudly. What could he even say to Angelo???

Guess he just had to sit here and wait... He handed the phone back to the person with a brief thank you. Xavier's face contorted in concentration as he stared at the tail. Maybe he could shift or something? But, no such luck. He huffed as he tapped his fingers in the sand. He was only kind of out of the water, with water that lapped over the lower half of the tail. It felt impossible to process. His chest hurt... From anxiety or the memory of drowning, Xavier wasn't exactly sure. But for now, all he could do was wait.

@Romi @ArcanaFate

Xavier had his arms crossed now. He really wanted to fidget, but kind of just shuffled where he sat instead. His fingers drummed against his arm. Xavier wanted to try and work it in blocks, but this... Xavier felt afraid. Terrified. Ever since he realised that both Gabe and Angelo had been avoiding him, not that he could blame them, he had felt he likely lost something. Maybe something that couldn’t come back. It hurt, and he really wanted to just go back in time to slap himself before he decided to that prank. In a way, that prank lead him to this. Not that he knew exactly what ‘this’ was.

Xavier saw Gabe and Angelo before either of them saw him. A small... moderate... large amount of Xavier wanted to crawl into the water and just not come back out. But then he also internally punched himself because the idea of going back into any kind of water really made him feel like he would rather get beaten up again. He kept his arms crossed, and looked away from the arriving pair awkwardly. He felt tired again.

Xavier pretty much refused to look at them. He felt awful that they were here. “Y-You can’t exactly say I’m wrong.” He muttered in response to Jude. He wasn’t wrong, Xavier really couldn’t walk. He hadn’t lied at all in this situation. Except, maybe, he lied a little to Xarrah about being fine.

Still he kept looking away from them. He felt like his chest hurt again when Gabe spoke. He... couldn’t remember what happened. Was he even conscious? All he remembered was drowning. A sensation he doubted would really ever go away. “Well, yeah it’s a recent development...” He hunched his shoulders. “I... I can’t remember... I don’t know what happened.” It started to catch up. He remembered when he first arrived to the island, and it finally caught up to his family likely died. But back then he still had hope they maybe they hadn’t. But here... he wasn’t human anymore. He held his face in his hands and shook. He felt cold, tired, worried, angry, relieved, sad.

He felt numb. In pretty much a sentence, all hope that Xavier mustered that maybe he could go back to normal... any control he felt he had in this situation. Vanished. He had to stay in the water? But he didn’t want to, the idea of it was sickening. It seemed to also mean he couldn’t walk anymore. But... what about his skateboarding, his running and parkour. What about any of that? He just had to forget about it?

He couldn’t hear what was said afterwards. His mind ran so fast as he tried to process it. Even it Xavier had legs still, he doubted he would’ve been able to stand or remain standing. His chest really hurt now. He hadn’t even realised he had started to breath a whole lot faster.

Xavier, quite abruptly, just fell back so he was laying down on his back. He was taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. He pulled his arm over his face so it covered his eyes. He kept cursing beneath his breath, and it was pretty clear from how his chest rose and fell that he wasn’t breathing as calmly as anyone would hope. He likely wouldn’t be able to hear anyone if they spoke to him, since all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears.