Pain, far worse than he expected, throbbed behind Toby's eyes. At least his heart was regular, despite every beat almost driving him to scream. He did scream once, but unsurprisingly, he was loud enough to be worse.

Hangover is historically bad. Let's keep those screams internal, he thought (quietly).

Toby generally kept an internal monologue going. He often joked (to himself) that he liked talking to the smartest person he knew.

At least It's Sunday, and I've all day to recover. Last night, oh man, what was in those shots? Last time I compete with marketing in a drinking competition.

Toby's education was as an electrical engineer. After a decade in the field, he became a new hire for an AI developer. He was tasked with assisting the researchers with the more practical side of their endeavours. Ten years later he was leading the research team and success came with its own peril, drinks with marketing.

The throbbing reduced. His fervent wishes for his heart to stop must have been effective.

Let's just say that Toby was very smart and well-educated (but you would never know from his internal monologue)

What was that smell. Dear god... is it me?

Waking up and finding yourself lying in your own vomit... let's move away a bit. The room was dim, but there was a chair next to the bed (fortunately with no vomit). He felt strange, and a brief pat down didn't find the soft and under muscled limbs and belly he was expecting.

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How had he lost so much weight?

The things that were wrong were beginning to pile up. The room was unfamiliar, and odd in the crudeness of the furnishings. He didn't recognise his clothes, they were rough and looked homemade. Worse, the body changes were inexplicable, and a faint panic began to form.

A large bucket of water and cloth were on the nearby table.

Let's ignore what I can't understand for the moment and get clean. A few seconds and his cloths were on the ground. One button on the pants and no underwear was unexpected.

Adding it to the list.

There didn't seem to be any toilet or sink, and the only door pretty obviously lead to outside (based on the sunlight sneaking through the cracks). Deciding to drink deeply of the water before using it to clean himself, Toby picked up a wooden cup and filled it and drank deeply, repeating the process twice.

A quick wipe down and new cloths on a hook on the door, and he was done.

There was a knock at the door. Toby opened it.