Healing factor. Those were pretty common for the physical types too. Guess each curse came with a blessing to make up a teensy bit. Still, it was a good thing to note in case he needed to borrow it.

Jude turned his nose up to weather the laughing storm. Pah! That wasn't all that weird was it? "What? It's easier than asking her." She was... pretty and that was terrifying.

You know what was easier than asking a girl anything? Origami.

Jude started by folding it in half, just as instructed. He folded both of the papers that he'd gotten out and by the end, he had two sort of lumpy, sort of inflated balloons. It wasn't really puffing up right and Jude didn't want to slobber on them in front of his new pal.

"Here. This one's yours." Tyson could tear his to shreds now if he wanted. Or try to fix the inflation issue. Whatever. Now it was time to see how Claire's power worked.

Every power might have been different, but for Jude he could thrown them roughly into three sections: always on, controllable, and passive. Claire's power had no passive benefits that he'd noticed. No magical origami powers had infused and guided his fingers. Clearly. It wasn't always on because once the balloon was done, it didn't mutant magically turn into a bigger more balloony balloon either. So that was controllable. And every controllable power had a trigger.

Jude looked at his balloon.

His balloon sat in his hand.

Maybe if he imagined it... like what it was supposed to do? Jude sent floaty, balloon thoughts toward his paper.

Tyson listened for Jude's explanation and chuckled again. Talking to girls was hard, he had forgotten that. He hadn't had any trouble since he changed, when you were a hulking wolf man, the ice tends to get broken very quickly, but it felt good to be able to talk about something normal for a change. He doubted he ever needed to worry about impressing a girl, as he was a relationship would be impossible, but it was sort of a guy thing to be able to talk and joke about it. "Hrrr Easierrr then learrrning an entirrrely new skill," he teased as Jude made his way through his instructions.

In the end, Jude produced two... well, sorry looking balloons. It looked like he'd folded the proportions a bit off so it was tight in one place and loose in another, which deformed it slightly, but they were balloons none the less. As jude passed him one, he tried to steady his hands, trying not to put any pressure on it at all. He knew he would likely either crush it, or puncture it with his claws if he did anything other then hold completely still. "Hrrrr so now what?" he asked, not knowing exactly how Claire made her powers work. He didn't have any abilities that required active concentration to perform, so had no experience in that arena. The look on Jude's face said he was concentrating, so he watched and waited to see if anything would happen to the orb of paper in his hand.

Tyson didn't know. His handsome mug kept him safe from such things, but girls? Women? Deadly. "I would rather try out the new skill." Clearly, since they were here and all.

The paper balloon continued to sit in his hand until he felt... something. Balloons were light. Filled with helium? Right? Rubbery. Lighter, certainly, than the paper he had on hand. And yet...

it sort of filled out a bit. And lifted up slowly. Excited Jude looked to Tyson and then back to his new toy. Did he see? "It's working!" He whooped in triumph! Victory was sweet!

But, he had no string. And it was a windy day. Jude bobbled to catch his paper balloon which no longer entirely felt like paper.

Tyson chuckled at Jude's hesitations, ahhhh girls, the source of eternal angst, confusion, and entertainment. "Hrr I could prrrobably put in a good worrrd forrr you if you like," he offered, still in a teasing manner, "hrrr if a mutt like me can talk to a girrrl, Surrrely you have some hope." He had to admit it was easier for him since he really had no expectations. He really didn't have to worry about embarrassing himself when your whole body was a major turn off.

Tyson watched as Jude finally made some progress animating the balloon. Of course it wasn't a major change in the structure of it, it was supposed to be a ballon after all, but it was defiantly floating in the air. Looking at it, he couldn't help but wonder... "Hrrr hey, you think if we rrr attach a paperrr cup and some paperrr tetherrrs, we could hrrr make a hot aired balloon?" He didn't know if there were any limitations to Claire's power to animate origami, but the idea was interesting. Who hadn't thought about going up in a hot air balloon at some point in their lives? And chances were Tyson would never be able too, at least not under any normal circumstances. It would definitely be cool, and maybe things wouldn't seem so bad from up there. It was just a thought, maybe he was just being silly.

"No!" Oh me- that came out stronger than he'd meant for it to. "No. Thank you." At least he'd avoided jumping to his feet in protest of the idea of Tyson talking to a girl on his behalf. It was that dire of a situation, though.

"You don't understand. Girls are tricky and dangerous and not to be trifled with. The last one I..." Nope. Jude snapped his mouth shut. It was shut up time. He wasn't about to admit all his previous shenanigans that had both attracted and driven away the love of his life. "Pretty sure she'd shoot me if she ever saw me again." And that was NOT an exaggeration.

He had to course correct his little floaty friend.

Yeah. Jude wasn't about to date. Maybe ever again.

> "...a hot aired balloon?"

Jude tuned in kinda late. He'd been wallowing in self-doubt.

"What is this? A Hot air balloon for ants?" Actually... now that he was looking at it... "I sink this might be big enough to hold the little kid class pet." If it had enough lift... and a cup...

"You find a cup, I'll grab the gerbil!"

Honestly Tyson hadn't been this entertained in a while. Between bouts of depression and self loathing he hadn't found much humor in anything, but Jude's reactions, well, he just couldn't help but find them funny, which felt good after so much brooding. "Hrrr, heh heh, yourrr probably rrright, girrrls can be deadly," he chuckled, not really being all that serious about it. Some people just couldn't open up to women until they found the right one, or, as in his case, circumstances rendered the point moot. Jude would probably find someone he liked eventually, and stumble over himself along the way, but at least he would eventually get there.

Jude seemed unbelieving of his comment, and he did suppose he was probably just giving some wishful thinking. He supposed maybe he was hoping for something like that just to get the experience. Knock it off his bucket list. There were a lot of things he would never get to experience again, and he didn't know what the future held for him with his brain going traitor on him. Yes, he was just being silly. Then Jude told him to get a cup to fly a gerbil, and Tyson laughed again. "hrrr It get full of holes," he said, holding up his balloon cradled between razor shape claws. Even if he found one, he was more likely to destroy it then be able to get it back in a state that resembled a cup.

Finally! Someone who understood. Women were deadly. Incredibly so! Bad for the health! Both good and bad for the heart!

Jude had started trotting toward the kindergarten room when Tyson protested that he would only puncture any supplies he found.

"Tosh! Holes in the cup just means the gerbil will breathe better! It's not like the cup'll bleed to death. You can do it!" Jude waved as he took off. Tyson totally could do it. If he didn't believe in himself then he would just have to believe in Jude who believed in him.

The copycat contemplated mittens or oven mitts for Tyson as he looked both ways to check behind him in the hallways. He was not at all suspicious slipping into the empty little kid classroom. He passed the terrarium for the reptilian creepy crawlies. Passed the jar of bugs. Food or another pet? Who could tell?

Ah. There. In the plastic box with all the elbows and hidey holes.

"Come to papa, Whiskers."

He was relatively sure that the creature was a typical mammal and not a student. Otherwise he wouldn't have popped Whiskers into the little used pocket on the front of his tee shirt before trotting back out to the garden behind the Mansion.

Tyson shrugged, giving in to Jude's logic, he was right, it was better then trying to handle a living creature. Besides, he at least knew where the cups were. As Jude took off after his quest to find a gerbil, Tyson took off towards the kitchen. He could easily outpace Jude if he tried, but took it a bit slower to avid a repeat situation where he may run into someone. Not only that, if he wasn't careful he had a tendency to snag his claws in the carpets in the hallways. Still it wasn't long before he got to the kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards for the paperware. He was pretty sure it had to be paper for Claires powers to work, so avoided anything plastic based. There were a few plastic packets of long stacked paper cups inside, so he carefully grabbed that instead of attempting to open and handle an individual cup. That way, even if he did ruin a few there would be some that survived his manhandling.

He headed back to the garden, trying his best to keep his grip without destroying the stack, even so by the time he got back to where he and Jude had met, a good portion of the stack was crushed between his paws, with numerous parts punctured by his claws. At least the upper portion of the stack had avoided becoming crushed wads of paper. He didn't attempt to open it to retrieve a cup, knowing such efforts would more likely ruin the good cups he had. All that was really left was for Jude to construct the basket and hopefully they would have an airborne gerbil.

Excellent. Tyson had made it back before him with the cups, more than enough, and Jude had a pocket full of ger- wait. Jude stopped short before he reached Tyson. He pat his pocket. He looked down. He looked all around.

"I lost it!" Jude looked back the way he'd come. Gerbil, gerbil, who's got the gerbil? Nothing moved obviously. Maybe a bit of grass. Maybe a bit of wind.

"Can you sniff out a gerbil without munching it?" Jude liberated the cups from Tyson and tucked the package underarm. "He smells like- I mean, he was in here." The pocket, that was. Jude peeked inside to make sure the gerbil wasn't hiding somehow and that he hadn't left any presents.

Tyson looked a bit stunned, not at him asking him to sniff out the gerbil, but the fact that Jude had manage to loose it. It was not like a gerbil was all that difficult to hold onto. Well, maybe for him because of his claws, but for a normal person. "Hrr, so you werrre outsmarrrted by a rrrodent?" he teased. Jude was certainly a character, and fun to be around. He hoped they could maybe hang out in future, if nothing else, to lift his spirits when he was feeling overwhelmed or depressed.

He had never really tried tracking something before, well, at least he hadn't activly tried, his wolf senses picked up food scents pretty easily without actually needing him to 'track, and he hadn't hunted at all, so it wasn't something he had tried to develop. He hadn't thought about it, but he supposed he could try. "Hrrr, so... I guess I just need to sniff..." he said as he brought his nose close to Jude's pocket, taking a few deep breaths through his nose. "HRARGH!" he said, backing off a little, "What do you keep in therrre?" he said. He supposed a persons pockets would have a multitude of scents in it since people carried just about everything in it. Besides Jude's unique scent of sweat and body odor, there was a number of different detergent smells, leather, paper, decomposition, wood chippings, seeds, urine, poop, and of course gerbil, all rolled into one. Admittedly some of those smells probably came from the gerbil itself, but it still was pungent to his senses.

Once he sorted through the scents, he sniffed around for the Gerbil, but didn't detect it strait away. Maybe it had gotten out someplace on the way? So instead he sniffed for Jude's scent which was clearly there. He then tried seeing if he could back track along his trail. It was strange as he could quite easily tell where he had come from, able to detect the subtle difference in age, so despite there being a number of trails, assumably where Jude had crossed the lawn before, he could differentiate it from the latest trail, and began following, nose close to the ground as he did, walking along it in a perfect match to where he had come from.

After yard or so, he caught the gerbils scent, branching off in two directions, one with Jude's scent and one solo, so he guessed this is where it managed to get out. He then followed the gerbils scent, around the garden and finally to the base of a tree, where the trail ended. "Hrrr, I think I found it." he said, though he wasn't sure where it was, that is until he heard some scared squeaking above them.

"Not outsmarted!" His voice squeaked. Why did his voice squeak when he was proving how capable and not-outsmarted that he was? "It probably tried to commit suicide rather than go on an adventure. I mean, you don't want to hold on too tight to those suckers. Poop happens. You know? So I figured the pocket was perfect. I didn't know he had a death wish, honest."

So. Yeah. He let himself be sniffed and that was probably only awkward for Jude given the placement of the pocket in question and his ticklishness.

Jude scoffed at Tyson's question. "I carry only the finest vintage of gerbil, I assure you." And maybe some poker winnings just to rub it in a bit since the front pocket was, seriously, all but useless.

Tyson, for his part, took the assignment seriously. He snuffled around on the ground here and there. Jude waved to a girl from his English class as he trotted along behind the guy. Until he stopped and Jude bumped into him. The Frenchman mumbled through an apology.

> "Hrrr, I think I found it."

"You found a tree." This was very obvious by Jude's reckoning. "Are you sure you don't need some nose calibration or something?" Maybe bear dog people weren't really all that great at tracking.

He did not, with his human ears, hear any squeaking. Nor did he notice a leaf waft gently down from a branch above to settle into his hair, a leaf dislodged by a passing, terrified gerbil.

Tyson gave Jude a sideways look. If there was one thing he had learned the hard way it was that his nose was never wrong. He knew the scent lead here and that the gerbil was somewhere above them. He could even hear leaves rustling somewhere above Jude'The gers head. Well, since he was already testing out his abilities, may as well continue. Still looking at Jude, he raised a hand and slapped it hard against the trunk. Since his transformation, he was much stronger then he had been before. About how strong he didn't really know, he had never tried actually testing it out, he just knew it was way stronger then any regular human being.

The tree visibly jolted from the blow, the entirety sifting suddenly. A number of leaves shook loose, as well as a few acorns, but what Tyson looked for came tumbling down on top of Jude's head. Tyson wasn't worried about the gerbil hurting itself, it was small, and it's mass would prevent it from reaching a speed that could injure it in a fall. Besides, It had Jude's head as a airbag.

Gerbils are small. Their nails are small. They are twitchy little small creatures. Objectively, Jude knew this. But when he was assaulted by a surprise gerbil, rational thought was not at the forefront of his mind. Self-preservation was. And his non-logical brain said whatever was attacking him was HUGE and INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS since it went STRAIGHT FOR THE JUGULAR.

He shouted something that sounded like, "Hwughughigtomme!" Which, had he been thinking properly would have come out clearly as 'What!? Augh! Get it off me!?'

Jude stopped, dropped, and rolled. Yet another brilliant, well trained x-man response to being attacked by a gerbil.

Tyson could only watch in a little bit of shock at the violent reaction Jude had to a gerbil being introduced to his head. For a moment there was just a stunned silence, well, if you didn't count Jude screaming bloody murder. Then Tyson's mask cracked and he let loose a series of snorts and uncontrolled huffs as the hilarity of the reaction hit him. This was no chuckle but a full throated burst of laughter, something his canine muzzle and throat was obviously not designed for as the noises escaped, but it was an uncontrollable laughter none the less. Tyson's chest burned for want of air, but at the same time it felt good.

The gerbil took the opportunity to leap off to safety as Jude rolled in the grass. Tyson was too distracted to really take action, but it simply started making it's escape, though not so fast that they wouldn't be able to catch it once the humor passed.

"It'sonmeit'sonmeit'sonme-!" That was his mighty battle cry as he rolled through the brittle under-tree grass. Jude made the call long after it was not on him. Just to be safe.

Then, as soon as he realized what had happened, Jude loosened up all his taut muscles at once and let his arms and legs flop into the greenery around him. No, actually he crossed his ankles and put his hands behind his head.

Because, he'd meant to do that.

Jude cleared his throat. "It tried to kill me." And, he guessed that it would not be the last small mammal to try and do so.