Tibaut stood in the library, standing in a t-pose with his shirt taken off.

  He looked pretty indifferent to the whole thing and it was thanks to how indifferent these two were. He could already imagine the amount of bullshit he'd have to go through if Tina, Vanessa or Ruby was here.

  He had all sorts of circles scribbled on his body with annotations beside them, likely the methods used to discern between the various chemicals and rituals used on his body.

  Bailey wrote some notes down on a notepad and continued looking up at Tibaut. She had black rings on her eyes, so it seemed she hadn't fully recovered from learning what Ezekiel did.

  “Merrill, are you sure his skin isn't having an adverse effect? It's impossible to think nothing would show after so many tests. There would at least have been a false positive somewhere!”

  “d-don't talk yourself down bailey, you did everything right. it's just that… whatever was thrown on him can't be tested through regular means.” She answered. “um, are you okay being like this, Tibaut?” She softly asked.

  “I'm half positive Elizabeth’s gonna kick me out of the house until this stuff wears off. I'm more than okay being shirtless for a few hours if I can keep sleeping on my bed.” He answered. “But no dice so far?”

  “n-no, no dice to be found.” She timidly answered.

  “Gah, listen Tibaut, if this is a curse, this waste of my time, are you sure he threw a vial at you?” Bailey's face twisted as she saw the amount of x's she had made on the paper without a single tick.

  “You can ask Tina if you don't trust me.” He answered. He looked down at his body and sighed. (“At least they're not giving me shit, like that bitch Tina. She's one to talk, she's never had any definition, just size. She's burly if anything, just like I am now. I swear, when she gains back some weight, I'll see how she-”)

  “Well Tibaut, I can safely say, I don't have a single idea what that bastard threw on you. Gah, I get brought out of my room, get told to do something routine and this happens. That man was a curse, he's left me and the rest of them cursed!”

  She wagged her fist to nowhere in particular and Merrill tried to calm her down.

  “I hate biology!” She exclaimed. The two of them had been discussing something for over an hour that Tibaut could only get bits and pieces of.

  “What does that mean?” He asked. There were more circles made on him and it started to look less like various circles and more like a unique pattern.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “um, the best guess we have is whatever was thrown at you altered your body slightly. making it so that you naturally produce a scent that attracts rabbits. but…”

  “But what?” He asked.

  “This doesn't make sense. We did various tests for popular and more obscure compounds from the last hundred years or so that can attract rodents in general and not one was found on you.”

  (“I'm gonna assume the tests she did aren't pedantic enough to differentiate between actual rodents and rabbits. I think I remember a zoology buddy of mine in college telling me it annoyed him when people thought rabbits were rodents.”) He thought as he listened to her.

  “At least if we knew what it was, we'd have an idea of what to fix. Which is why I decided to test something.”

  She headed to the end of the library and pulled out a box. She placed it in Tibaut’s hand and took off the top. It was a snow-white bunny, the same variety as the ones that were flooding the outside recently.

  She pulled a dropper out of her pocket and placed it on a beaker on a nearby table.

  She dropped some on her skin and grabbed the rabbit by its scruff before placing its mouth near her skin.

  It began licking and she groaned like she found out her favourite series was cancelled.

  “Fuck.” She dropped the rabbit and Merrill quickly fell down to save the poor creature.

  “I should have known it was going to be something stupid like this.”

  She kicked a table and slammed her fist against a bookshelf.

  “Woah, you good? (You're making it seem like you're the one with this stuff rubbed all over you.)”

  “No, I'm fucking miserable actually.” She took a deep breath before continuing.

  “That compound was supposed to make the rabbit leave common sense behind and bite me. Yet it gave only a nibble. God damnit, are these things not actually rabbits? Merrill, the rabbits that have swept over Anglia recently, have heard any rumblings of their genetic testing?”

  “N-no.” She answered.

  “For fucks sake, we were probably testing for a rabbit that hasn't been properly catalogued yet.”

  “Does it matter?” he asked.

  “Of course it does! We were testing for breeds within the nation so we just assumed this was one of them. But if it's a new breed, this is pointless. I bet those bastards in the capital already knew this but kept this locked away in one of their many repositories hoping for someone to pay for it. Fuck this, I quit.”

  She threw her hands up before walking to the exit.

  “So, I'm stuck with this?” Tibaut asked.

  “unfortunately, yes, it seems that way. bu-but don't worry, we still have some investigation to do. if we find him then, he can give us the answers we need to help you.” Merrill did her best to seem optimistic.

  “Merrill, this is fucking pointless, just have him sent up to the capital when Elizabeth can afford it.”

  “b-b-but it's impossible!” She said in disbelief.