the journey of a thousand miles;

[notachickenhawk]

Characters: Tobias and anyone who runs across him.
Setting: Floor 22 (art gallery), floor 25 (meadow), floor 81 (lounge)
Format: Whichever.
Summary: Tobias does some exploring, some eating, and some thinking.
Warnings: Mentions of child abuse/neglect and death. Animorphs is a kid's series, you guys! 8D


[Floor 22]

[He had thought this was going to be a decent idea.]

[At first, he doesn't really see anything too off about the art here. Some of it is strange… or gory… or just plain unsettling. But as he pads around the corner in his human morph, he stops dead in his tracks.]

[Well, it's like an honor. I mean, the committee picked my drawing out from hundreds of entries. Just something I sketched during art class. I had no idea it would make the state show.

Do you get prize money?

No.

No? So then what's it worth? If it won't help pay the bills, what good is it?]

[He shakes as he stares at the drawing on the wall. He digs his nails into his palms as he remembers how the rest of that conversation went - and the conversations after, and the yelling about how he wasn't doing anything to help support them. The things thrown, and how he'd left the house to try to find somewhere, anywhere to hang out that wasn't that house.]

It's not my fault…

[He turns and goes to try to find his way out, but the blood all runs out of his face as he sees another one. His legs shake, and he collapses, hands and knees on the floor. He tries to hold the noises back, but he can't. He lets out a sob, dragging himself to at least a sitting position so he can press his face into his knees. He should have come to terms with this by now, right? But he can't help but let out whimpering sobs at the thought of it.]



[Floor 25]

[Once he's gotten himself back together, Tobias heads to the meadow. Once there, he morphs, allowing himself to slip into a form he hasn't used in a while. He allows himself to bask in the feeling of the sun for a moment before he rears up and then starts galloping along. While grass isn't his usual kind of meal, right now he'll take it. It feels good to have legs that he can stretch like this.]

[… Of course, it's probably a pretty odd sight to anyone just stumbling across it.]



[Floor 81]

[After a while, Tobias heads upstairs. He can't help but like the lounges - even if they can't really be outside, the open space is nice. And it's the space outside the tower that draws him - or at least the suggestion of it. Tobias perches on the back of a chair near one of the windows, staring out at the stars.]

[That doesn't mean he's not paying attention to the rest of the room, though. A hawk is hard to sneak up on.]

Comments

[nordic_dovahkiin]

[Brunwulf just stared at the creature and listened to the voice in his head. It was odd being spoken to this way. He rather found it surreal and slightly disturbing, as it wasn't natural for him.]

I can change form too into a wolf.

[notachickenhawk]

<Really? I have friends who can change into wolves. That's not one of mine, though.>

[He had better morphs for what he needed, anyway.]

[nordic_dovahkiin]

You have friends who have the blood of the wolf of them inside also? [Brunwulf narrowed his eyes.] What manner of creature are you?

[notachickenhawk]

<Sort of. We can turn into any animal we can touch. And me? That's kind of hard to say. We got given this power to fight ->

[He gets the sense this guy is not from a time when ET is popular.]

<To fight otherworldly invaders. It's technically science, but it's nothing our race came up with. So it might as well be magic to us.>

[nordic_dovahkiin]

You have to touch the animal to be able to transform into it? How strange. For me to change into a wolf, I had to first drink the blood of a wolf. [Not that much difference, right?]

[notachickenhawk]

<It has to do with absorbing part of - part of what makes them what they are. It doesn't hurt them. It just makes them sleepy for a moment.>

[Explaining things in non-science terms is hard.]

[nordic_dovahkiin]

[Brunwulf nodded. He understood what the creature meant by absorbing part of the animal.]

Do you have a name? I am Brunwulf-Bear Claw.

[notachickenhawk]

<I'm Tobias.>

[Yep. Definitely not from anywhere near him.]

[nordic_dovahkiin]

Well met, Tobias. How long have you been within the Tower?

[notachickenhawk]

<About six months. Half a year, if your calendar doesn't have twelve months in a year. And a month is about thirty days on average.>

[He can just hear Ax in the back of his head saying 'your months'.]