Tyson was tired. Mentally and emotionally tired. Since his arrival at the mansion he had been through alot in a short time, from learning that he was doomed to be, for lack of a better term, a werewolf for the rest of his life, to dealing with the unpredictable instincts that had on more then one occasion resulted in him attacking people. His nightmares hadn't stopped since his arrival, slowly evolving into worst case scenereos of him devolving into a total animal and going on a killing spree. It all weighed down on him, a constant unrelenting pressure that wouldn't let up. He was irritable and stressed, while at the same time his body was full of pent up energy that had nowhere to go. His body wanted to hunt and run wild, while his human mind rebelled, but had no avenue for an outlet since his hands were ill suited for any type of activity that would relieve the stress. He had gone into the city a few time to break the monotony, but it often resulted in another incident where his instincts ruined everything. As a result he was slowly losing his mind as things continued spiraling out of his control.



He was pacing about the grounds, having dropped to all fours a while ago without realizing it. The constant movement helped relieves some of the stress and placate his instincts somewhat. He tried to ignore any other stimulus about him, small animals in the wood that he could hear or smell, any students in the gardens talking and laughing. His breathing was a bit labored, not from any physical cause, but from his frazzled state of mind. It was becoming overwhelming, and he wondered how long until he snapped again.

There was a new power on campus.

Oh, it happened all the time, but usually Jude could suss out what the power was first. The Mansion grapevine was his for the picking. This one, though... this one was different.

He didn't believe what he'd heard.

Jude stretched himself out belly-down over the Mansion's pristine grass lawn. Laying as he was at the edge of the garden, the tall blooming daffodils and irises kept him from being easily spotted from inside and he had a pretty good view of everything to the west of the building, all the way to the fence. It was a great spot to practice. It was an even better spot to soak in the watery spring sunlight.

"Mountain fold... what?" He ran a finger over the last line of text in his library book and flipped his paper around. It was fine to say an origami pattern was easy. It was quite another thing when the picture in the book looked nothing like the paper in his hand.

"Bah." Jude lobbed the paper without bothering to see if it'd landed in his discard pile. He'd folded and unfolded that one too many times. It was time to start with a fresh paper and maybe a fresh pattern. Yeah. That's what he needed. He'd never get to test this power if he couldn't actually make anything.

Tyson fell into a wider gait, speeding up a bit as he tried to silence the beast in him. It was advice he had been given, give in to his instincts, let the wolf out. Unfortunately he didn't trust the wolf in him enough to not hold on tight on the leash he tried to keep on it. To many times it had betrayed him and proved that he wasn't human anymore, too many times he had realized too late that he was covered in blood. He wanted to run away from himself, he wanted to wake up in a normal body, he wanted not to be enticed by the smell of raw meat and blood. It wasn't going to happen though, he was trapped with no place to go, so all he could do was run blindly and hope that he exhausted himself enough to where he would pass out into a dreamless sleep and forget he existed for a moment.

He turned around the west side of the building, moving quickly. He was quite fast when he went all out, and he was trying his hardest to make everything a blur, to make it so he didn't have time to smell or see anything as the wind and scenery blurred by. The unfortunate thing about doing that was it meant he wasn't exactly watching where he was going as he tried to push the world away, and running around the edge of the garden, he didn't see the guy laying in the grass until he was just about on top of him. His eyes went wide as he suddenly became aware of the obstacle in his path. It was too late to stop, if he tried he would only end up tripping over and rolling over the guy, but he was already reacting that way, and could already feel the inertia pulling the weight of his top heavy body forward.

Then his instincts kicked in, and his hind legs kicked the ground hard, forcing his body upwards, and instead of tripping, he was suddenly flipping over, tumbling over in the air above the guy before landing off balance on the other side of him and rolling over. He let his weight carry him back over to his feet and his claws dug into the ground, stopping his momentum as he left gouges in the ground. He was panting a bit, partially from the sudden scare, the other from stress and exertion, leaving him looking like some mad animal his teeth bared as he breathed hard, looking at the guy he almost trampled.

There were some pretty simple looking animal faces, but the thought of animating a severed head kept Jude flipping through his options until he found something more suitable. A dog. Rowan might appreciate that.

The copycat pulled a fresh sheet and started folding when a whoosh that sounded and felt like a near collision made his head bob up and his single-fold paper tried to escape in the following wind-wake.

It was a flipping animal shifter. Literally. First overhead and then horizontally, this one whirled around and bared his teeth.

"Uhhh. Hey."

Jude swatted at his paper as it wafted up and slammed it down onto the book. That put a few new folds in it that weren't in the directions, but Jude was pretty sure he was about to get mauled for something and no amount of ninja training was going to get Jude off his belly and into any kind of defence. His mind reeled through all the possibilities and couldn't settle on just one reason why he might have elicited the anger of a burly shifter so he opted to play it cool.

His words said, "Bearshifter. That's cool." But his tone said, please don't murder me.

Breathing hard, Tyson tried to compose himself, adrenaline still pumping through his system as he tried to focus. Scents began to flood in again, and he smelt paper and the guys scent, tinged with fear. It was probably just a natural reaction, most of the students were nervous around him at best and he feared it was becoming more and more for good reason. He shook his head trying to clear it of the hazy fog that clouded his thinking. "hrr, wolf, not bearrrrr," he said, growling just naturally entering his speech. It was no where near as bad as it had been, he was at least understandable most of the time, he had trouble with r's, but besides that he was getting better at it. "Rrrrr and I'm not a shifterrrrrrr. He wiped his hand across his face, his claws scratching his skin a bit as he tried to wipe away fatigue. His eyes felt strained, heavy and sore.

He recognized the scent somewhat, not from interaction, just one of the many scents that trailed through the mansion. He could generally tell when someone lived at the institute or not, either from coming across their scent in the mansion, or smelling the mansion on them. That meant he was most likely a mutant, since everyone he had met so far had been. He vaguely wondered what his powers were, but honestly he couldn't focus enough to really ponder it properly. "Sorrrrrrrry forrrrrr almost hitting you," he said, sincerely sorry for almost hurting him. There wasn't much else he could offer in the way of apology, if he had anything he would have offered. Unfortunately he seemed incapable of anything that didn't somehow hurt people.

Fear wasn't exactly what he was feeling. Jude was more afraid for what he probably had done rather than the direct, immediate, and toothy consequences. He was a teenager, after all.

"Are you sure you're a wolf?" He was sure it was rude to ask, but the words sort of came out anyway. Curiosity was like that. "I thought wolves had tails-uh. Not that I was looking or anything." Jude stopped craning his neck, where he was obviously trying to look.

Not a shifter? Jude stopped himself from whistling that long and descending whistle that indicated just how much Jude knew that sucked. Maybe he liked it? Even if the bear tailless-wolf didn't like who he was... well, he was stuck as who he was. There was no point in rubbing that in.

> "Sorrrrrrrry forrrrrr almost hitting you,"

"Naw, man. No harm, no foul. Clearly you have a lot on your-" paws? Probably too far. "-plate."

Also, Jude noticed that they were having a polite discussion and his face was still in place. He felt a bit silly laying on his belly at the worm's eye. It was too much like grovelling. He swiveled his way up to a more regular boy manly way of sitting: tailor fashion.

"I'm Jude." He offered his hand, pretty confident he could keep from catching the wolf. Maybe. Probably.

Tyson's thought processes stopped for a moment when Jude mentioned a tail. Oh god, that would be all he needed, extra limbs, he shuddered at the thought. At least the comment broke through the haze for a moment, who knew utter dread could be so sobering. Tyson sat down, still rubbing his eyes a bit. He looked at the guy more clearly now, though honestly he looked ordinary. How he wished he could look that way. He envied everyone in the school whose abilities had no effect on their appearance, or their mind. At least the guy didn't seem mad he had almost been crushed or slashed, either would probably been easy, Tyson knew from the amount of times he had clawed himself by accident. Probably the only reason he wasn't covered in scars was that he healed quickly.

Jude offered his hand, but Tyson just looked at his claws disappointedly. He didn't trust his hands not to accidentally claw Jude's. His hands were clumsy and ill coordinated, he would most likely end up either stabbing of slashing Jude's wrists, such was his luck in getting them to corporate. "Hrrr Tyson," he said simply, at least able to offer his name to Jude even if he couldn't shake hands. He looked down at the pile of papers folded and the book. Looked like he was trying to do origami. Kind of weird to be doing it outside. Says the giant wolfman who apparently looks more like a bear then a wolf. Yeah, he had no place to speak about what was weird anymore.

Jude saw it. Bald panic at the mere mention of a tail. Ooooooh yeah. Tyson had it bad. He was fresh off the human truck.

Well... merde.

The Frenchman wasn't exactly sure what to say. He'd spent years knowing that he would eventually become a mutant, never once questioning that he may appear inhuman. And then it'd happened and he'd done his time stuck looking like not-himself.

For how little time he'd been a mutant, Jude had an immediate grip on the problem. And absolutely no good ideas on how to make this moment suck less. He couldn't walk up to someone, point out his insecurities, and then tell the guy that those insecurities were dumb, especially since Jude had been so insistent that he find a way to be himself again.

Jude started by taking back his hand. Easy to do when a breeze plucked at his papers and he had to, again, slap at them to make them stop.

"It is good to meet you. I am learning that I suck at origami. D'jou know there's a chick on campus that can make origami things like..." Jude struggled with the right words and defaulted to talking with his hands. "More? Bigger? Like real? I think?"

Tyson actually knew who Jude was talking about, having met her himself. Admittedly he didn't know the particulars of her powers, having not witnessed them in action himself. He did know it was supposed to be some form of paper figure manipulation, but that was about it. But at least he knew who he was talking about. "Hrr Clairrrrrrre," he said, supposing he should probably know her name, "She's new." He wasn't sure why he was interested in her powers, or why it was inspiring him to try out origami himself, yeah it was interesting, but that didn't seem to warrant it in his mind.

He looked at the over folded paper. To be honest he envied the fact that Jude could even attempt it, which was more then he could do. The only thing he could do with paper was shred it. Great for disposal, not so great if you just wanted to read. He looked at the open page at the complicated folding instructions. Sure it was only pictures, but it was at least something new, and he quickly memorized the details, hungry for any form of none beastial stimulus. "Her what arrrre you rr trrrrying to make?" He asked, hoping somewhat that he could look through the book with him.

"Yeah. Claire. Sure. I haven't actually met the girl." He just got close enough to co-opt her power. Jude wiggled his fingers mysteriously. "I want to see her power in action, don't you?" Of course, she was likely a pro origami folder person. Origamist?

Jude pulled the book over and made another few folds. Clearly, the folding part was practice and not power.

> "Her what arrrre you rr trrrrying to make?"

He sighed in misery. "Dude. I mean, can't you tell?" Jude held up the paper because Tyson really just hadn't gotten a good look. Surely that was why it was unrecognizable. "I mean, it's not done, but this is the body..." He also provided some lovely hand gestures to highlight the good parts.

And, when Tyson still looked lost?

"It's a dog, okay. My little bro has a dog nose and ears and I think someday he'll grow a tail just like his dad. So I figured... you know." Jude shrugged. It was totally a dog.

Looking at the folds, all tyson really could make out was that the thing was made of paper. Well, maybe if you squinted... no, it still looked like a mess. Obviously he must be new to the whole origami thing. He had dabbled in it somewhat when he still had proper hands, though honestly he had only really learned how to make a paper balloon, which was one of the easier tricks. Not that it mattered now. Honestly though, Jude's talk about his family made him paranoid about his own body. Having people who had similar mutations who apparently kept on changing hit too close to his panic buttons. The implication that his mutation may be an ongoing process hadn't really occurred to him, but now that he was aware of it, the prospect freaked him out. He already had issues with his bodies wild behaviors, what if that got stronger, or if he started changing more? His mind raced through all the worse case scenerios, his heart rate picking up with anxiety. Not only that it reminded him about his own family, his mom, who he would likely never see again...

'Change the subject, change the subject, change the subject!' He thought to himself, for the sake of his sanity.

"Hrrrr Maybe starrrrrrt with hr something simpler?' he posed as a question, "Build up to hrrr... more complex things?" He had to avoid the word dog in the sentence, not wanting to dwell on the topic. "rrrr I used to be able hrr to make paperrrrr balloons." he offered, wondering if that were one of the designs in the book.

"I don't think this book goes that easy. Or, I mean... I didn't think it'd be this hard, you know?" Jude flipped back a couple pages, but really he was losing interest. At least a balloon wasn't a severed, disembodied head. He'd keep that in mind later.

"What were you doing out on this fine afternoon?" Jude fanned back through the pages fast enough that the artificial breeze poofed up his hair. Some of the constructions in the back were just freaking awesome. "You were going pretty fast there. Do I need to write you a ticket for speeding, young sir?" Officer Jude leveled a not-at-all serious look at Wolf. The guy looked like he could use some not serious right about now.

Things were never as easy as you initially thought it would be. He had thought it would be easy to last until he got a cure, only to find that there was no cure for him. He had thought he could keep things under control and act like nothing had changed. He was wrong there two. He thought he could keep himself from hurting people. Well... let's just say that nothing was how he thought it should be. "Hrrr I kinda rrrrrrememberrr how to make balloons," he said, trying to remember the folds, "rrrr I think I could walk you thrrrrough it," that is, if he were interested. He really hadn't had anything that was normal for a time, if he could at least talk about it, maybe it would help keep his mind out of the animal side of himself.

Tyson considered dodging the question, he didn't like the fact he was on the verge of having a mental breakdown, let alone put that burden on others. However, he had learned that talking about these things usually lead to him releasing the pressure, as well as usually getting a bit of advice, which sometimes helped. "Hrrr Trrrrying to keep a clearrrr head," he said honestly, "My.... mutation hrrrr, isn't exactly easy to deal with." he didn't get into details, but it was what it boiled down to he guessed, he wasn't able to handle the instincts, the physical changes, or the emotional ones that his new form caused, and it seemed to get progressively worse as time went on as he learned he had less and less control over his actions when his instincts took over.

Oh. He could teach him! "Yeah. If you remember, that'd be awesome! I guess you can't...? Like, is it your claws? We could file those." Or mittens. Something! This was the Mansion for mutant-sake. There were many, many devious minds in residence.

Jude fished a fresh piece of paper out of his pile. Actually, he fished two pieces. If Tyson couldn't fold for himself, Jude was just going to have to fold for him. Simple as that. No fuss.

> "My.... mutation hrrrr, isn't exactly easy to deal with."

"Yeah." Jude commiserated. "I know all about that." He made sure everything was ready and got the papers and the book arranged so either one of them could use the outside as a folding platform.

"I'm a power copier and, man, physical mutations are the hardest to feel... like yourself. Sorry, dude."

"Hrr my claws grrrow back," explained Tyson, "Hrr I heal fast, guess my body trrreats it like an injurrry." He had tried clipping his claws, but they grew back within minutes, like his body was telling him that he had no choice but to be furred death machine. "Hrrr not that it would help rrr my hands don't worrrk well anymorrre anyway." Whatever his mutation had decided to due to him apparently had little to do with anything normal.

When Jude said he was a power copier, two and two clicked together for Tyson, "hrrr you copied Clairrres powerrrs?" he asked, "rrr is that why yourrrr trrrying out orrragami?" he couldn't help but let out a bit of a gruff barking laugh, it was just funny that Jude was doing this just to get a look at Claire's ability. He was surprised he could even laugh anymore. It felt good, he hadn't had one in a long time. It helped ease his mind a little. "Hrrr sorrrrrry," he said as it died down, "rrrr it's just kind of funny."

"hrr Okay," he said as he strained his memory for the sequence of folds, "Starrrt with a squarrre sheet and fold it in half..." he said, and went through the basic instructions about how to fold the paper. They were fairly simple compared to the other designs in his book, coming down to folding the paper into a series of locking folds that would cause the paper to keep it's shape once you blew air into one end and keep the paper from unfolding, but the folds were strait forward and fairly uniform, not requiring anything complex or confusing. It didn't require an minute folds that made other designs so difficult.