Since his transformation, Tyson had dealt with many strange impulses, chasing cats, flight or fight reflexes, territorial urges, and all manner of triggers to do with his heightened sense of smell. At first he's had severe reactions when his human sensabilities conflicted with bestial urges, usually after his wolf side had taken lead. He had told himself that these things would pass, when he was cured they would disappear and he would be normal again. However, the news that he was a mutant, that his condition could not be 'turned off', that his father had set him up with a permanent fur coat, it had become a fact that none of it was ever going to go away.



So here he was, in the kitchen, struggling to come to terms with the current dilema. He hadn't meant for it to end up like this. He simple couldn't sleep, like a number of nights before his mood made sleep difficult, and transitioning from the bed to the floor didn't help much. He had destroyed it some time ago in a fit of anger and refused to let the school replace it since he would likely do it again. He was sleeping in a pile of torn up blankeds and pillows. Comfortable enough, but he still had trouble, both his dreams and mood made it hard to relax and stay asleep. Tonight he also felt hungry, so finally after a lot of tossing and turning, he gave up and padded down the hallway to find something to eat.



When he got to the kitchen, that's when the trouble started. He should have expected it really. After all it had happened before. He was more prepared for it this time, so he hadn't mindlessly done it, but he had pulled out a number of uncooked slabs of meat and was currently staring at them on the counter. He knew he didn't want to, but at the same time his animal side was telling him this was natural, and he was having a hard time finding excuses. Things had changed since the last time. Last time he had hope. Last time he had something to hold onto. Now... well, he was always going to be a wolf. What was the point of fighting it? Currently he was going back and forth in his mind between the part of him that saw a plate of delicious bloody food, and the part of him that saw it as a pile of uncooked meat that a human being wouldn't think of eating.

Living indoors wasn't the weirdest part of this change.

Really, it wasn't. Adder had lived indoors many times over the previous years. Yes, "indoors" had previously counted when he was hanging out in abandoned basements and untenanted rentals. And school buses. School buses counted as indoors, didn't they? They provided shelter, and were more insulated than some buildings.

This whole thing was weird.

And yet he stayed. He stayed in that room, used the pillows and blankets even though it was downright warm, even at night, even in rain - not that he slept in the bed. No, he'd hauled what he'd wanted into the closet - eerily filled with empty hangers - and set himself up there. It was far more reassuring, and easier to sleep.

You know, for all of five minutes at a time.

That wasn't what he was doing now, though. He'd done it earlier. Snoozed, then prowled around the confines of his room again. The last time he'd hesitantly opened the door there had been people outside it.

The door was a little too good at blocking sounds and smells. It was both restful and disconcerting.

At any rate, he wasn't in the room now. It had darkened to night outside and he had eventually risked opening the door again. The hallway was quiet, and empty. He could smell the traces of people, layers and layers he tried not to delve into. He closed the door behind himself, pushing against the frame to leave a casual streak of his own scent.

The carpet squished around his feet, and now that it was quiet he could hear an unplastic squeak against his skin. He was used to plastic squeaks from carpet. The air was filtered, cleaner than his skin.

He wandered without intent other than to know where all the spaces were and where they went, and eventually his nose twitched at the smell of meat.

Food.

And a wolf who wasn't completely a wolf.

Hm. Well, he'd vaguely figured he would run into the hybrid again at some point, seeing as how the hybrid lived here and now he was here.

But food.

He poked his head into the room. Well, someone looked confused.

The conflict Tyson was having merely made him angry. It shouldn't be so hard, shouldn't be so much a war within himself just to get something to eat. It wasn't fair. He had been using that phrase alot. Nothing was fair anymore, his face, his voice, his hands, his behaviors. Nothing was as he wanted anymore, and he knew who to blame. Of course that man was nowhere around for him to vent his frustrations on, not that he wanted to looking for him anyway. If he did he would likely end up ripping him apart. Willingly. First time for that too.

A part of him still wanted to hold onto what humanity he had, he wasn't getting a cure, he would never be normal, but that didn't mean he had to be an animal, right? People didn't eat raw meat.

But the meat smealt good, he wanted it, he knew he wanted it, the juicy bloody chuncks with bits of fat on it. Only thing that would have made it better if it were warm and moving... but that was the wolf in him.

As he wrestled over it, another scent came to his attention, a familiar one. He felt his hackles rise as he recognized another wolf scent, an automatic territorial reaction, however, he realized the coming reaction, and slapped himself in the face to snap out of it before he could start running and barking. Adder was around. Last time he had seen him he had been walking away without a word, leaving him feeling like he had somehow offended him. Apparently he had decided to join the school after all.

Of course now he wasn't in the mood to feel bad about it anymore, he had had enough bad news to where it felt trivial, and looking back he felt more mad about it then he did guilty. Mad at himself maybe, mad at Adder. It didn't matter, he was just mad. Mad and hungry.

He turned to the door as Adder poked his head in. "Hrrrrrr shoooowed up anywaaaaay?" he said, the tone in his voice holding a bit of incredulous anger. Adder had acted like he was upset at him, and now he was showing up here? Okay, maybe some of that was territorial wolf stuff, but he still hurt his feelings, and dammit he had to vent at some point.

Adder swallowed a snicker at the hybrid's reaction. Predictable, wasn't he? In the same way feral dogs were. He understood much of their perspective and instincts, and definitely shared the drive to survive, and they were almost always threatened by his existence.

This was at least a less lopsided threat, and he could hold a conversation with the hybrid if he wanted.

Maybe when he wasn't twitchy from lack of sleep, and probably on the verge of it showing through the black that naturally lined his eyes. Whatever, that wasn't his concern.

He didn't really have active, here-and-now concerns, actually. He was just exploring. And maybe fighting off a slightly higher stress level than he liked, but that had been a thing since he'd nicked a not-cop's wallet out of her pocket.

Whatever, whatever, whatever. "'Anyway' has nothing to do with it," he replied. He didn't intend to be so short, but the words slipped out in clipped tones regardless. "There's more than you to my decisions." Whatever the irritation in his voice, none of it was really personal with regards to the hybrid; everything was just starting to catch up with Adder, now that he consciously didn't have to watch over his shoulder for Aura.

Instead, he had to watch for the hordes of other people here, people he didn't know, people who didn't know how to give strangers space, rich people.

"'Anyway' has nothing to do with it, there's more than you to my decisions."

"hrrrr waaalked off wiiithouut ahhhh worrrrrd rrrrr" he retorted, trying to keep a reign on things, "hrrrr deciiiisioon haaas rrrrr nooothing tooooo doooo rrrr with itt." He was more upset over his actions, not the final decision. Of course he was particularly sensitive right now, a bit of a raw nerve with the twist and turns in his life. He already knew Adder acted a bit... differently then others, but was not familiar enough with him to distinguish what he was thinking or what he meant as an insult. He may not feel as much betrayed if things were different.

"Hrrrr whhhaat arrrre yooou dooooing now?" he said, turning his attention back to the plate of meat, his tone more accusative then normal. It was different from last time they had met, last time his tone was more restrained and confused, trying to fight his instinct, now his tone was just annoyed and mad. He supposed it focused him more, kept him thinking more as a human. Of course it didn't change the conflict he had with eating the raw meat.

Walked off without a word? Adder supposed that was true, although it wasn't as if he hadn't communicated at all at the end.

It also wasn't that Adder didn't care about how the hybrid felt. It was just...

Well, honestly it boiled down to Adder caring a whole lot less than he cared about his own situation. Self-preservation and priorities and all that, right? He might have some energy to spare for someone else later.

A lot later. Possibly never, if his life of experience got to imply anything.

"I'm just looking around," he replied casually, leaning sideways a bit to let his eyes confirm what his nose knew already. Food was always food. Always. "Is part of your power eating things by looking at them? Because it doesn't look very effective."

And if the hybrid wasn't going to eat that, Adder would.

Tyson let out a huff of annoyance. It seemed like Adder didn't care one bit about it. Go figure. He supposed it didn't matter, they weren't really friends or anything, about the only interaction had been a short conversation. He had cared more about it then, he had been searching for support. Now he knew that was just wishful thinking, there was no point in expecting support through this, it wasn't going to end, so why bother? In the end he was on his own, stuck in the body of a beast and fighting urges that were just a part of his life now. Why would Adder care, why would anyone really care?

"Is part of your power eating things by looking at them? Because it doesn't look very effective."

Tyson growled loudly, the hackles rising on the back of his neck as territorial instincts kicked in again. Not only did it feel like Adder had just mocked him, but now he was eyeing his food. True he had been struggling between leaving it be and his natural instincts, but it was still his whatever the final result was. "Hrrrrrr dooon't expeeeect you to undeeerrrrrrstand," he said, still growling, "rrrrr usuuuually dooon't eaaat hrrrr rrrrrraw meeaat." At this point he was pretty sure Adder couldn't care less about him and his dilema, or he simply didn't understand. He had his mutation since he was young, so whatever instincts he had felt natural to him, Tyson was still adjusting to extreme differences in how his human and animal sides conflicted.

He wasn't endearing himself to the hybrid, was he? Er. He wasn't trying to antagonize him. He was just...

Just doing his own thing. That was all.

He turned aside slightly. Not submitting, but letting the show of aggression reflect off him without escalating. He wasn't looking for a fight. Not here, not now.

After a moment, he moved farther into the kitchen and perched on a chair. He managed to look a bit more like an enormous cat than a canid, at least at first glance. It was probably just because dogs and wolves didn't usually sit on furniture. Well, Adder wanted to sit in a chair. He didn't do it a whole lot.

Even if 'sitting' here meant crouching on top of it, toes hanging off the edge and curled around that lip for grip.

"I don't usually get to eat meat at all," he said in a burst of spontaneous honesty. "Some things you take as they come."

Tyson found himself gauging the distance between Adder and the plate of meat. It was stupid really, he was acting like a dog guarding a streak bone. He was doing it again, taking his anger out on others, though admittedly part of the escalation was his instincts, most was his mood. Maybe it was that last comment that really got him thinking, the way he said it, not usually eating meat at all. Adder had never really told him anything about himself. Tyson had been too caught up in his own woes to really probe him all that much about it. Now that he thought about it, the guys clothes did look a bit ragged, and he did smell like he hadn't really bathed for some time. It suddenly struck him that Adder may not even have a home, which would explain his interest in the institute. Crap. Now he felt like a jackass.

He tried calming himself, taking a short breath and holding it before letting it out. Not much better really. He just felt angry and stupid at the same time, the plate of meat just mocking him. He really was just an animal wasn't he. To hell with it. He closed in on the plate, and took a few slabs, tossing them in Adder's direction. It felt harder then it should, his first instinct being to claim them all for himself, but he wanted at least some illusion that he had control, even if he already knew it was a lie. He then took the top steak and bit into it, resigning himself to the fact that this was him now as much as he hated it. He was still made at Adder to some extent, but was to sick of himself to really push it further, tearing out chunks of meat. It felt good despite himself, he could at least imagine he was taking a chunk out of his father for what he had done, which helped ease the thought that he was now eating raw meat and enjoying it.

Adder was very much not expecting the hybrid to toss him meat. That didn't mean he was slow to react, though - on the contrary, his hand shot out and seized the airborne cow-slice with enough coordination to put the greatest food-into-mouth-tosser to shame.

Because he had reached out with a hand, there was no indication of shifting and gaining fur. Sometimes it interested him how so subtle a choice affecting things, but right now he was far more concerned with the food his teeth were sinking into.

Cold, cold, refrigerated meat was cold, but it was food and it was real meat and there weren't any fire-blooded maniacs chasing him down for it. He chewed enough to not choke but not much more, and was finished so abruptly that he found himself breathing a little faster than he had before. Just caught up in the haste of eating.

...

"Thank you," he muttered under his breath, playing to the social expectation while examining his evenly dirty fingers for lingering traces of blood.

Huh, so there was some manners in there after all, thought Tyson. The meat was cold, but honestly he didn't care at this point. It wouldn't matter if it were warm, it was still raw meat. It was a paradoxical feeling, he felt as if he was losing a battle he couldn't win, and was disgusted at himself for it. At the same time it felt like a bit of relief to just let it go and give in. He found himself relishing it, but at the same time felt the disappointment in his lack of self control. As such, even after finishing it, he found himself looking at the bloodstains on his hand, seeing the inhuman paw and dwelling on the fact that he was becoming more and more like a wild animal, which was not comforting to him.

"hrrrrr pleeeenty herrrrre," he said to Adder, referring to the kitchen in general. If his hypothesis was correct this was likely the first time Adder had access to a stable food supply. He pulled another slab from the plate, eating somewhat more slowly this time. He pushed the plate more towards Adder, indicating he was free to take more if he wanted. He stopped halfway through his own, processing a few thoughts before asking , "Rrrrrrr everrrrr haaad hooome beeeforrre?" He couldn't really imagine not having a home. His life before had been nothing too special, but after he found he probably took it all for granted. He had never been without the idea that there was someplace he had to go. But he thought, after having his life turned upside-down and losing the ability to go back to those places he considered home, maybe that is what it felt like. Or maybe it was worse, as he knew what he had had, and lost it. He wondered if it bothered Adder at all, or if, like many things it seemed, it was something he just didn't think about.

Adder worried at a bit of meat caught between his teeth. It wasn't really an issue, overall, since his inhuman teeth were so well suited to shearing meat, but they hadn't come in perfectly straight and the smaller front teeth on the bottom were set a little bit too close together. It was hardly a problem, just a source of mild effort at times like these.

The offer caught his interest but didn't convince him to go prowling just yet. Maybe when there was absolutely no one around. Not while someone was watching him.

He glanced back to make sure the entryway was still clear. Relying on some senses didn't mean he didn't use the rest.

Being alone didn't make him immediately inclined to chattiness. He wasn't... Completely against talking. He wasn't really for it, but he was less against it than he was at other times.

Eh. "I used to." So many years ago. "I haven't relied on people in a long time." Or associated with them, or lived near them, or talked to them more than once in a row.

Something about Adder's behavior seemed a bit... he didn't know, antsy? Nervous? No overly cautious was probably the better term. From what he said it would mean he had been alone in the world. It kinda explained a lot really. He imagined what it would be like if he had been like we was from a young age, alone and with only instinct to rely on. Who knows, maybe he would be more like Adder. He supposed being alone all the time probably made it easy to get lost in the instincts and start thinking more like an animal, so maybe that was why Adder acted the way he did. Maybe he was just used to perceiving the world from a more primal perspective where he was only looking out for his own survival.

"Hrrrrr looone woooolf?" he asked, the term the first thing that came to mind when he thought about it. "rrrrrrr soouunds looneeeely." he wasn't sure he would be able to do something like that, turn his back on everything. He was raised normally up until his transformation, so the idea of cutting himself off so completely was a hard pressed idea. Not that he hadn't been cut off from a good chunk of it already. Most of his old life was something he could not return to, and his new one was.... well, all new, so while not the same, the feeling was not too unfamiliar to him. "hrrrrr staaaaying loooong?" he asked tentatively, wondering if Adder was just here out of curiosity. He didn't seem the type that would really change his lifestyle. He had been mad at him, but he was starting to feel like he was starting to understand the more experienced wolf a bit better. Maybe they had a lot more in common then he realized, maybe Adder really didn't want friends, but someone to talk to was sometimes nice. And it made him feel a bit better that he wasn't the only one eating raw meat.

"You get used to being alone," Adder replied without really thinking. And he had. He'd learned early that most people were out to take advantage of others, and the rest would betray you as soon as it benefited them. He'd since learned that people were more complex than that, but early lessons certainly left their marks.

He turned away at the question of time. Staying in one place didn't feel safe to him. It hadn't since the first place had been set on fire, and he really didn't want to be here.

He just... didn't see a safer option. He was watching for one, sure, but nothing had come up yet. Whatever. It was okay for the time being, and he was okay here for now. If that changed, if any threat of any sort emerged here, then he could just leave through a dozen routes - a hundred, even - and play things by ear and nose again.

No, he wasn't staying long, but the future always blurred together into the simple block of 'beyond now.'

Tyson understood that one could get used to being alone. He had been feeling that way recently with everything that happened to him. He felt isolated in more ways then one, and even when among others he had begun to feel alone. In addition to his own reluctance to join the group due to smells, instinct and fear, 'alone' was fast becoming a default state for him. But it didn't make it any less lonely. "Hrrrrr nooot alllwaaays gooood tooo bee alooone," he said, speaking his honest thoughts.

When Adder didn't answer his question about how long he was staying. Tyson was at first annoyed that he was seemingly ignoring him again. Then he analyzed his body language, and thought upon Adders past behavior, and suddenly realized that this seemed in line for questions he didn't want to answer. Maybe he didn't know. Adder's personality seemed a combination of instincts and thoughts, maybe he didn't really keep track of time the same way he did. Or he didn't know. "Hmmrrr hoope yooou staaay loooong eeeennnough to knnooowww peeooplee," he said, thinking that it was probably an experience Adder hadn't had really. Maybe Adder would stay long enough to where he could learn a thing or two about his own instincts.