Borygmus, a cranky & introverted man who resents attention, is suddenly turned into a lizard-man. He tries to remedy this by eating various fruits prescribed by his "doctor", named Steelie. However, these fruits remove any ailment except his condition, while giving him weird power-ups. On top of this, he's attacked by other mutated patients who seem to have also eaten similar fruit from the same person. Any exits from the hospital are closed off, and any form of outside light is gone. Thus begins Borygmus' journey to escape from the "hospital" he's trapped in.
- Abandoned Hospital: What the hospital starts to look like after the title character sees how messed up it is, amongst other things.
- Acrofatic: Downplayed; while the main character can certainly run fast, anything beyond that is a challenge for him.
- Balloon Belly: Happens a lot due to the fruit Borygmus eats. It gets a bit detrimental when he's trying to defend himself or hide.
- He also finds out the hard way why eating two fruits simultaneously is a bad idea.
- Big Bad: Steelie, the doctor maintaining the hospital.
- Body Horror: Patients have been given a "dark fruit", which makes their appearance go from animalistic to borderline Lovecraftian.
- Other patients who ate the "regular" fruit will rarely have "accidents" involving their "power-ups", such as rapidly changing their biology to impossible rates. It's not pretty.
- The Chew Toy: Borygmus does not have a good time here.
- Eldritch Location: The hospital the story takes place in look normal at first, but starts to become dark and dreay upon tye realization that something's wrong. Hallways and rooms seem to replicate and go on forever, and the building gains qualities similar to a sunny jungle or forest the further you go in...despite the outside being Always Night. It's also meant to "protect" anyone who resents the outside world for any reason, turning them into strange monsters, making them undetectable from others, & drawing them in. Anyone who wants to leave will be convinced otherwise, since that will likely make others want to leave.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: On top of looking weird, the fruit will cure an ailment of anyone who eats it, but it gives them a "power-up" that involves one of their body parts. And it HAS to cure their respective ailment or the power-up aspect won't work. Some of these include:
- Light: Cures blindness. Lights up a certain body part.
- Water: Cures dehydration. Fills up a certain body part with water.
- Flame: Cures hypothermia. Engulfs a body part in fire.
- Balloon: Cures breathlessness. Inflates a body part with air.
- Rock: Cures lightheadedness. Turns a body part into rock.
- Freeze: Cures fever. Severely lowers the temperature of a body part.
- Festering Fungus: A strange type that merely causes a medical ailment when touched.
- Formerly Fit: Downplayed; while the title character wasn't exactly the most athletic throughout his life, he seems to have a bit more trouble moving around due to his more pronounced gut post-transformation.
- Foreshadowing: Despite being in it, Borygmus can't seem to remember the name of the hospital, and very few people seemed to be there at the start of the story. Likely because it's not one at all.
- You'd think that more people would notice a lizard-like humanoid walking around, even if he covered himself. Turns out they couldn't see him.
- Freudian Excuse: Averted; the title character is the way his is due to multiple things that build up over time (such as his lacking social skills and regularly witnessing the worse in people), meaning he had symptoms closer to C-PTSD.
- Growling Gut: The title character's stomach often growls from hunger or indigestion, especially from the fruit he eats.
- Grumpy Old Man: Borygmus' core personality.
- Humanoid Abomination: Many of those who consumed a dark fruit appear to be horrific, shadow versions of humans. They also utilize strange abilities, many which involve Body Horror.
- Meaningful Name: The main character's name comes from the word borborygmus, which is a sound of a stomach growling.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Steelie, given that he's giving Borygmus fruit that alters his physiology, and seems to view everything in the hospital in the most casual manner. Then it turns out he's not exactly a doctor...
- Only Sane Man: Even with other characters that aren't actively trying to kill him, Borygmus seems to be the only one who acknowledges the situation and is actively trying to get out. Though that's mainly because they don't wish to leave.
- Shout-Out: Steelie is likely a reference to Steely Dan. The fact that he's a doctor could be a reference to "Doctor Wu", a song from Steely Dan's "Katy Lied" album.
- Stuck in the Doorway: Becuase of his stomach, the title character often has trouble getting through small spaces, which proves to be a problem when he's trying to hide.
- Surreal Horror: The whole premise.
- Was Once a Man: Borygmus was originally a regular person, but was turned into a lizard-man via currently unknown means.
