“Stay back.”

Glitch must have been out of it that afternoon. One moment, she was crossing the street. The next, she was suddenly was faced with a woman in a tan uniform shirt.

“What?” Her tone was surprised at first. Then, she saw what was behind the woman. “Oh...”

Several similarly clad adults were loading tranquilizer guns. They spread out, in search of something. The parked vehicles with “Animal Control” printed in big letters said it all.

“We are investigating reports of a wolf in the area. We can't let anyone through. Not even if they think their mutation will keep them safe. It's protocol,” the woman continued, giving a shooing gesture. Glitch just nodded and stepped back from the scene.

A wolf? In the middle of the city? The officials may have stopped her from passing, but they couldn't stop her from watching. She walked to the edge of the perimeter to join the handful of onlookers.

Sometimes, Adder really hated city people. He'd just been walking along the sidewalk, and some idiot went and reported a wolf wandering around town like he were nothing but a stray animal escaped from the zoo. Did people still not realise that mutants were real?

Never mind that he'd only been in his wolf form because the ground was cold, or that he was acting more like a pedestrian than a predator. Nooooo, stupid city human had to be completely irrational.

End result, Adder was in a bad mood and was sullenly watching the idiocy pan out from the general crowd. Like he'd put himself at risk and try to tell these people that the wolf wasn't a threat, since that would lead to admitting that he personally was the wolf, and confessing to whatever led to uniformed people being sent out was absolutely not on his list of things to do casually.

Didn't stop him from grumbling to the -

Wait. Why did a robot smell like a person?

Oh right, mutants. Eh. Adder shrugged.

"You'd think they would have to learned to ask if the random animal sightings might just be mutants by now."

Glitch eyed the skinny teen who spoke to her. “Yeah. Shapeshifters.” He was probably right. This was New York City.

It made her wonder why a shapeshifter would do that in the first place. As her mother told her, wandering around in public disguised as a snake, or any other dangerous animal, was not smart. Namely because it tended to freak people out. And freaked out people did crazy things.

“Can you imagine trying to explain that the wolf was you? Talk about embarrassing. I'd hate to be that guy – or girl,” she said with a small laugh. She watched animal control move from one alley to the next. “But who knows? Maybe these guys will surprise us and bag a real wolf.”

Adder had quite a bit of practice at doing things expressionlessly, and he drew on that wealth of experience now. His ears still twitched a bit, but he just tried to make it look like he was listening to things. That was the whole point of mobile ears, after all. It wasn't like pretending they couldn't move, the way human ears were limited, would make him look human. He'd have to cover his ears and eyes, and keep his mouth closed - and not be around noises or scents beyond human notice.

He still wasn't exactly sure what humans could and couldn't detect. The line didn't overlap much with his, so he could only judge from the outside, and the situations never seemed to match up enough to figure it out.

And then there were mutants. Mutants could have the same senses as humans, or less, or more, or senses that humans didn't have at all.

"Why don't they have a mutant who can track? It'd make their jobs easier and waste fewer resources." Adder wasn't speaking from some faked place of education; resource management was how he'd survived as long as he had. Energy, health, food, shelter, temperature, time. It was all resources, and playing each off the others to keep any of them from running out.

The teen did not look amused. Was it something she said?

Wait... He had yellow eyes and pointy ears, both wolfy traits that betrayed his mutation. Oops. If this guy was the wolf, so much for the excitement potential. There was no good reason to rat him out, so Glitch only shot him a knowing look. Well, as much of a knowing look that her largely immovable face was capable of. Glitch could only hope her expression didn't come off as something else.

“Seriously. It'd save me time, too. It stinks to have to walk around this,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe they can't find people. I know if I could psychically track or whatever, animal control wouldn't be my first choice.” Compared to other available options, animal control just seemed dull.

Bratty robot.

"If you want to get past them, it's not nearly as hard as they make it seem." This hadn't been the first time he'd walked right past them, though it was usually to go the other direction because they were in his way.

The whole idea of 'jobs' floated beyond Adder; he knew people had them, and saw postings for them, but had no experience in what they truly entailed and had absolutely no idea how to get them. The fragments which he knew fit into the process were just as beyond him; suits and taxis and shiny shoes.

Whatever. He wasn't trying to get into that world. He was trying to not be in a bad mood, and he was using this crowd to achieve that, except it was being pretty boring and boring didn't help his mood.

"Where are you trying to go anyway?"

Glitch glanced at her hand. Wires, motors, and metal parts comprised it and the rest of her, not flesh and blood. “I dunno. It's hard sneaking around like this.” Her tone bore a tinge of sadness.

If looking like a robot wasn't enough, being as yellow as a warning sign grabbed people's attention, and not the good kind. Even though she didn't hate the color, she wondered if she should get painted a more subtle hue. Which, was kind of a weird thought.

“I'm going to school. Slash home. You know, mutant school. Do you go there, too?” she asked, tilting her head. A few months, and she still saw faces there that she didn't recognize.

After connecting robot with mutant, Adder hadn't given much more thought to the girl's physiology. It wasn't as if he were trying to eat her or anything. What she was didn't particularly concern him.

That he knew where she came from did concern him. It might not be school for him, and he hadn't called anything home in over a decade, but...

Yeah, he knew it, and yeah, he spent time there. A lot of time. Overwhelming but otherwise safe time. His ear was twitching. There, now it wasn't. Why did running into people always become so awkward? Maybe she wouldn't recognize him, though. That was theoretically possible. He didn't know what her senses were. He could just try to only ever be near her in one form, and thus avoid the whole so-that-was-you-they-were-looking-for issue.

Dealing with people was stressful. "I know the place," he allowed, not making eye contact as he refused to admit that he spent his nights there, and most of his days.

So he was not a Mansion student? While he did look the right age, not every young mutant attended the Mansion. Glitch herself appreciated its existence. It was one of the few places where she wasn't constantly faced with fear and hostility. Continuing to attend public school would have been dangerous, considering the threats.

Glitch had a bad feeling that she was annoying the other teen. She was debating whether he was a normal guy bothered by her chattiness or a strange guy who hated talking. Or maybe he was a combination of the two. She probably shouldn't, but she was curious enough to have questions.

“Have you been there before? Oh, are you one of those people who sneak in because they heard of the cool stuff?” she asked, snickering a bit. If she could still grin, the expression would have been very visible. “I won't tell.”

A wild theory, but she had heard rumors. Very funny rumors that included the security system, stink bombs, and skinny-dipping.

Adder fidgeted. "Yes," he answered honestly, and then quickly caught himself. "I've been there. I'm not interested in 'cool stuff.'" He was interested in food and shelter and safety.

He paused. "I did sneak in-" The first time. "To the grounds, anyway. There's not really that much separating the back woods from anything else." He ground his rear teeth together a bit, still agitated but slowly poking around to the reason behind it. Was it really just that he was so bothered by people associating him with things? By actually having ties?

Bah. He was just bored and restless and wanted to go run. Run as fast as he could just because he could, and with no one in his way.

No mistake, he was annoyed with her. It had to be the chattiness. Wouldn't have been the first time she'd talked someone up a wall. The guy appeared to be somewhat a lone wolf, which didn't help. Yet, he was still talking to her. She thought it strange, but she carried on.

“They warned us about those. Apparently, people get lost in them.”

As if she was one to talk. She had yet to venture out to the woods herself. Mostly, it was general laziness. Spending time afterward picking out all the dead leaves and bugs that managed to get inside of her was unappealing – and gross. As cliché as it sounded, machines and nature just didn't go well together.

“Anyways, I doubt they mind it much,” she went on, shrugging. “Visitors come all the time.” If they did mind a harmless trespasser, then that was dumb.

"People get lost on the streets, or within buildings," Adder said dismissively. If anything, the treed area was probably safer than either for most people. There wasn't much shelter, or food, but as a temporary place, rather than an only place, there were advantages. He'd spent a number of summers sleeping in parks.

Did they mind people coming in unannounced? He'd thought about it before. On the one hand, they seemed quite welcoming and didn't ask a lot of questions. There was very little apparent security. On the other hand, he was there to shield himself from certain people. Even if the brats underfoot would give him warning if Aura did show up, was there anything more keeping her out?

It was an uncomfortable train of thought and he continued to try not to follow it. He had practice in not chasing down unpleasant thoughts. "You say you live there but you talk about rumours like you've only heard them," he asked, abruptly curious.

Glitch gave the wolf teen a funny look. That was a strange thing to say about someone who you'd only spoken to for a few minutes.

“Well, yeah. Can't see everything that goes on, so I hear about it from others.” Why he mentioned it was beyond her. She might have asked, but his tone was telling her to leave him alone. Besides, there was some homework waiting for her back at the Mansion, and though she wasn't looking forward to it, it needed to be done. “Anyways, I've got to go, so see-”

“Hey! You two!” shouted an angry voice. Glitch nearly jumped out of her metal shell.

It was the animal control lady from earlier, backed up by her three coworkers. And dang. They did have a mutant in their ranks. There was no way a normal man's eyes could glow blue.

The woman pointed an accusing finger at the wolf teen. “We know you're the wolf! Do you kids think this is a joke?”

Glitch was on edge, frantically trying to decide what to do. Attempt an explanation? Or run?

Heh. She was so confused. Good thing she was going to a school, wasn't it? That was where people were supposed to go when they couldn't figure things out on their own, if he remembered overheard-idle-chatter properly. "You-"

Whatever he'd planned on saying, the thought and its intent vanished at the shout. A shimmer of ghostly fur spread across his throat and shoulders before fading out again, his instincts drawn back to the 'human' side of his internal smear of drives and desires. His yellow eyes caught the animal control guy's glowing blue ones, and narrowed sharply.

And then he considered walking over and biting off the woman's stupid finger. He bristled, but flexed the human shape of his feet against the pavement to remind himself of the different shape. Not going to shift here, not going to shift, not going to shift -

Why wasn't he going to shift? Other than being in a cr-

oh right. Crowd. Loud and smelly. Nauseatingly smelly, were he to shift and take on his stronger senses. He forced himself to swallow and breathe slowly, feeling his small, crowded teeth (by comparison to his wolf-mouth teeth, not to human teeth) and the flexibility of his tongue. The curve of his airway that never went away in this form, since he couldn't actually straighten his neck enough to match the range of motion his other form had. The smaller space between nostril and throat, leaving the tingle of air so much more in the middle of his head (rather unpleasant and hard to ignore in cold weather, by the way).

When he spoke, it was still very much with a growl. He was working on staying human, not changing his mood. "The ground's cold, idiots. Can't anyone tell the difference between a wild animal and a person anymore?" His lip pulled back on one side, disgusted, but he kept a very close eye on each of the officer-people. Any movement towards him and he was gone, but he'd rather not be chased. Cold made him hungry enough to begin with.

Glitch cringed at what she was seeing. You couldn't just mouth off to people with badges, even if they were only animal control. That could get you arrested, she knew that much. Situations like these called for finesse, more than this seemingly socially inept wolf teen was apparently capable of.

An idea was starting to form in Glitch's head. “Play along,” she whispered to the wolf teen, sighing a bit. She wasn't even sure why she was helping him. Maybe it was plain mutant brother/sisterhood.

She turned to the animal control officers, who were glaring at the wolf teen intently. “Sorry about him. He's a little on edge. I can explain.” She gave him a sidelong glance, attempting to ensure he didn't say anything to dig himself into a deeper hole.