Washakie National Park Validly existential lion ostensibly steps toward experience retention

this is starting here but then i'll move it because i'm an admin and can do whatever i want also it's the full moon

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Abraham had gone with McDonald's. It was a safe option and reliably fast. Left with two fat paper bags of burgers and chicken nuggets. Skipped the fries, favoring protein this time of the month. The car itself was loaded up with his usual shift kit, though that something he didn't keep out of the car ever.

Really inexperienced weres were tough. They slept the whole fucking night, and he was left with the option of carrying a blanket wrapped but otherwise nude acquaintance to the car or freezing his ass off for ten hours.

The dream was to maybe, just maybe, lead them back toward the car by the end of the night. Carrying someone fifteen feet to throw them in the back seat was a lot less violating than dragging them a mile and a half.

Not to mention how exhausting the latter was. He was strong, but far from tireless, especially after his own shift.

Anyway. These were all worries for later. Had to keep himself cheerful for right now, which was frankly a challenge enough in itself. The jaguar wanted out, Abraham wanted to let the jaguar out, blah blah. Get it over with. He parked outside the gym and sent a text over to Jimmy. Abraham would be biting into a quarter-pounder without cheese when the kid arrived to the car. He spoke through it, a pile of beef patty and bun crammed into his left cheek as a sliver of onion fell onto the unwrapped paper in his lap.

"You can set 'em on the floor or hold 'em," he said, referring with a belated wave to the two bags of food.

Hmm, Jimmy was tall. He'd leave the gangly guy to figure out if he could fit two large bags of McDonald's around his legs.

He'd been ready.

Punctuality wasn't, like, a natural strength or whatever. To some extent a pretty heavily scheduled childhood—games and practice and everything—had kept him on track, but into and out of college it'd collapsed a bit. Usually Jimmy was either too excited about something to wait or too relaxed to show up on time.

But this was important. Really important. Like, he wanted to say he'd been trying to get a handle on this for a long time, but really he'd just been trying to... like, find a way out of it. A way back. Hoping against hope that despite everything he could find some secret... he dee kay, magical loophole or whatever to undo everything.

And maybe part of that had been important grieving for his life lost or something. But it wasn't really helping anymore. If it ever did.

ANYWAY.

Jimmy came trotting out as soon as the text hit and he registered it wasn't a cancellation. He was grinning bigger than he felt, but only a little bigger. The good outweighed the dread.

"Cool," he chirped back, maneuvering without too much effort into the passenger seat and accepting his fate of holding the two bags. "Cool cool cool. Anything claimed?" He peered within after getting his seatbelt situated.

Jimmy mirrored back the enthusiasm, and it was a good start. (If he was being honest, Jimmy was more enthusiastic, but there was only so excited Abraham could appear to be about anything.)

"Take whatever speaks to you," he said. The cat his head was less eager to share, and he recalled once fighting Wallace for his own steak. But things were largely under control these days. Cat squabbles kept internal. "Pretty much everything's better on the full moon if I'm eating, in my experience."

And so he crammed the remaining third of the burger into his mouth precariously, crumpled the paper in his lap to jam into an empty cup holder, which was both more and less polite than flinging it into the bag full of food. Took a second to chew before he continued, releasing the brake to get them rolling.

"How're you feeling?"

With the neglected lion this close to the surface, the difficulty of none of either bags' contents speaking to him was pretty well nullified and stuff. It smelled weird, but meaty enough to be appetizing. Pulling out and open a box of nuggets, they seemed handy for carrying on a conversation while eating.

The impulse to shrug and say fine was swallowed with the first bit of crispy chicken. Don't be that guy, kid. "We're doing... alright," he settled on thoughtfully. "Kinda nervous, like, obvs I guess. I still..." Frowning while he chewed, he glanced out the window before looking back. "Worry the lion'll just try and eat anybody? Everybody. Were or no."

The heavy pregaming would probably help with that. "But you seem, I dee kay, like you'll be able to deal with that." Like Asha had. He didn't understand it, really, but it was more than just a similar scent. Similar vibes they each gave off. Of like, serious power. More than he'd ever felt with the lions. Or he thought so. It was hard to compare without a side by side.

It was a thoughtful answer, and it gave Abraham room to work. The worries were legitimate. Jimmy seemed like a nice kid, but there was every possibility he did not house a nice lion. Were there "nice" wild lions, really? Not outside of Disney.

I dee kay, Abraham.

"There's nothing Lion You will get up to that I haven't seen before, if it helps," he said. "I haven't run into people out where I've shifted. I think, thankfully, they get not to mess around on the full moon anymore."

At least don't mess around in a deeply wooded area after dark on the full moon.

"As far as me and you, we might spat a little. But that's okay and part of it all. Thankfully I turn into a pretty damn big cat, so it'll be hard for you to bully me too much."

Jaguars were bigger than lions, right? He was going to pretend that's what he knew the facts to be.

Vague nods came back as he chewed. The lion hunger pressed close to the surface as he sky dimmed, and Jimmy'd kinda accidentally shoved half a dozen nuggets into his mouth in quick succession.

"Mmhmmph," he managed, smiling as best he could with bursting cheeks. Chew chew chew, swallow half of it all. Cool. "Yeah, 'sthe hope." Chew chew swallow. "I don't think he... I, am really into bullying but..."

He pulled another nugget but held off on tossing it down his throat. "Like, kinda got told the lions just all piled together? But then with Asha—uh, I was shifted for our first meeting, so then I guess she shifted and I only really like, met met her later—my face was all jacked up after. So I guess we fought and stuff."

Shrugging, he chomped on the last nugget. That box's last, anyway. "Just mean, yeah, it helps. Thanks."

Oh. Huh. That was informative. Hearing Jimmy chewing while he spoke gave Abraham food jealousy, so he reached out a hand but decided not to actually go for either of the hands, cutting in with a quiet "burger me" as he listened otherwise.

Asha ending up in a claws-out incident was not surprising in the slightest. It was just her way. Though he couldn't claim he wasn't similar when he did lean into his impulses. Jaguars were not friendly animals, even to each other.

"She and I clawed each other up a lot in the early days," he said. Assuming he'd been granted a burger, he'd start unwrapping it in his lap, one hand still on the steering wheel. Eating while driving was not typically his thing, but full moon times called for full moon measures.

"I might have accidentally taught her cat wrong while I was figuring my own shit out," he said. And. You know what, maybe not the topic to go down into, Abraham, because you were definitely saying you'd turned her after doing a whole bit about how involuntary turnings are bad the other day. Distraction! "You want to try some yoga before we shift? Once we hike out there."

Hey look, Jimmy, yoga!

In the worst of circumstances Jimbo tried really hard to be accommodating. All things considered, this was a long ways off from the worst. So yeah, he absolutely snagged a burger for Abraham. And listened in turn.

He did think about what was said, fights between big cats. But suspicious digging wasn't really his bag, so the thoughts skewed more towards gratitude that his lion adored Ingrid's. Weird layered uncomfortable gratitude, like most feelings about Ingrid.

But it was different. Ingrid seemed to have a solid hold on hers, able to speak and like, be really deliberate in her lion form. Really deliberate. So. Sounded like Abraham was kinda new while coaching Asha through. Maybe they'd been turned by the same... Or...

Yoga! Pulling out a burger for himself too—it had vegetables!—he nodded fiercely. "Yeah dude, totes. If you think we'll have time."

Unwrapping his, he held off on the chomp. "Um..." This was important. Don't be weird, kid. "I don't wanna, like, get crazy gushy or whatev, make things uncomfortable, but like..." Deep breath. "I really appreciate this. Like a lot."

They'd have time or Jimmy would shift into a lion mid pose and it would be about the same, he figured. Either way worked out about the same to Abraham.

So he nodded, bringing the burger up to take a careful driving bite just as Jimmy fell into gratitude. And, honestly, it was welcome. Abraham didn't need an hour of praise to remind himself why this shit was important, but a few words went a long way.

Having conveniently finished chewing during the talk, he returned the burger to its paper on his lap. Licked ketchup off the space between his middle and index finger.

"I'm happy to help," he said. "Really. I had a tiger who helped me out when I had a rough start. Took me out for shifts and saved me from- I dunno. Something ugly."

Likely very, very ugly.

"I don't really do the whole group thing. It's not for me. But this kind of thing- it sort of scratches that itch. Gives like, uh."

How to say this. Abraham wasn't the best at verbalizing feelings.

"More meaning to having gotten turned into a jaguar out of nowhere a few years ago."

tw: vague talk of self harm

---

Oh man. Oh man. There wasn't a lot that he loved more than, like, finding some point of deep connection with someone. Empathy was kinda a talent, but also kinda a skill, yeah? Like, something to be practiced and improved, and sometimes it took work to find it with some people. Effort and intent and stuff.

And then sometimes someone you barely knew said something that just spoke so clearly to your soul.

"That's- Man, yeah. Yeah." Heavy exhale, but with a faint smile. "Like, I feel that. I think I'm..." Not like... It wasn't identical, he knew. But between the serious disillusionment, disenchantment, dis-whatever-school-of-magic-ment Jimmy had with the lion group, the sort of support and meaning he'd only just begun to find with others... Katniss big time, Mateo kinda, now Abraham in a super focused way. Just... And then wanting to be that support to others...

Inarticulate frenzy brain, boi.

But another breath, a lifting of his food, then realization he shouldn't talk through a faceful of burger—seriously, who'd do that?—had him settling into an idea of what to say. "Something similar is why I wanna... why I can't just be mad, you know? At my sire or whatever." That wasn't right. "I mean, I can. I could. But it's... Like I think it's as much for me as her, you know? I need-"

Kid bit his lip. This... might... be cruising into TMI territory. But they were gonna strip in the woods, so like... "Aiight so like I kinda... hit a dark, like, brainspace along the way with this. Like if I'm such a threat, such a risk of actually murdering people I love... maybe it'd be just, like, objectively better to... remove myself from the equation. And stuff." Again his gaze darted out the window.

"So the idea that I can still... like, that I can do anything to make life a little less bad for someone. Even someone who..." Head shake. "It helps push that away, you know?"

Jimmy finally looked back at the night's benefactor, having been kinda staring everywhere else while he spoke "I just mean, I get it, the want to make it mean something. And I big admire it."

Chomp the burger. Didn't you just tell yourself, aloud, not to make it awkward? Buddy...

That was (among many other areas) where Abraham and Jimmy differed. He could help lions and foxes and wolves and still be ready to terrorize Lexus with every bit of jaguar ugliness he had if she ever showed up in his life again. There were plenty of better people out there he could give his time to, if that was his goal.

Unsurprisingly in retrospect, Jimmy ran into what Abraham was pretty sure to be a familiar theme in were life, if not one discussed very often. In the early days, the only way out felt like the most permanent option. There was nothing like that feeling of being a danger beyond your own control. How many times had he wrecked his own house just trying to keep himself and everyone else safe. And then there was Asha. Turning her, and then she...

She found what happened when you didn't stay home all the time. He didn't blame her, because of course, staying home forever set the animal off, too. Fucking nightmare.

Ultimately, Jimmy's point was that finding meaning was important, which was more profound than Abraham had initially meant his own words to be. But it was true. It gave Abraham, this Abraham who could still potentially turn into an out of control animal, a reason to be here when the math otherwise added up to the world being more dangerous for it. He realized he hadn't been around someone this new, who'd had this hard a time, in a while.

Jimmy's perspective was... useful. A reminder. But in general, he seemed to be a kid who did a lot of thinking about his place in the world, something Abraham had abandoned on and off in the last few years. Here came the part Abraham was less good at. Expressing approval without sounding like he was doing some kind of "you can do anything you set your mind to, Jimmy!" bullshit. Maybe Jimmy would be into that. It was hard for Abraham to leave his own feelings about that kind of shit.

"I think, uh. A lot of us go through that kind of... 'well, maybe it's better if I'm not around at all' feeling. I don't think it gets talked about very much, which I guess only adds to it." Wasn't that the story of mental health in general, huh.

"I'm not going to pretend I know you really well. But. I know it took you all of a minute to figure out some of my shit at the gym and try to help with it. So I think you've..."

Hand wave. All of this was not Abraham's expertise. He picked up the burger, eyes excessively on the road as a way to keep from having to look at Jimmy while he figured these sentences out. Didn't go for the food until after his next bit, at least.

"You're already on that path. We'll get you the lion experience to get there."

It was... Man, like, there'd been a weird combo reassurance/discouragement when they'd first met, had their winding conversation. Reassurance that his feelings and situation weren't crazy abnormal as turnings went, so he super wasn't alone. Discouragement because his feelings and situation weren't crazy abnormal as turnings went, so that he'd gone so long with so little progress was... kinda pathetic.

It wasn't as layered now. Now it was just... It was good to not be alone. Good to know he wasn't, like, emotionally pitiful to have had these thoughts. To have these thoughts. And fight against them the only way he knew how.

He wasn't weak.

Jimmy nodded. A couple times at first, then several more in rapid succession. Taking a fresh burger bite, he chewed quickly while looking out the window again. Or towards the window, blinking too much to really be looking at anything. Chewed quickly and swallowed, then gave a big sniff.

"Cool." Two more nods. "Cool cool cool. Thanks."

Yeah. Feel it out, kid. Abraham had sure cried more after being turned than before!

"Cool," he echoed back, but nice. It provided a moment for him to eat and focus on where they were going. The drive there always felt brief, the drive back extraordinarily long.

This would be good. He had a capable handle on the jaguar, and a fresh lion couldn't outsmart him, in the end. If he had to go half man and climb up a tree, he could do that. (Maybe.)

Logistics when he wasn't shifting with someone experienced were a whole game of mental gymnastics. Trying to figure out what he needed to ask, what could be assumed. "Hey, is it okay if I drag your naked ass potentially up to a mile, or will you wake up really shook?"

"I'm getting us there early enough so we have some time to find a spot and not feel rushed," he said. You never fucked around on the full moon, because if your car broke down in the middle of the city, your sorry ass was still shifting. "Maybe we can try, uh. Yoga or whatever for..."

Hmm.

"How long do you do yoga at a time?"

The quiet wasn't terrible. It wasn't, like, an awkward "I shared too much" quiet, yeah? Just a kinda thoughtful quiet for each of them—him at least, but probably Brambaham too—to reflect on what had been said.

He was good people, this guy. Jimmy suspected most weres were good people. But then Jimmy still suspected most people were good people. Just messy. Doing their best. His mind turned back to Ingrid, as it so often did. It was messed up. She knew it was messed up. But he was pretty convinced she'd legit thought she was doing what was best at the time. Which was, yeah, kinda horrifying. But made it easy to empathize.

Or like, more poignantly he guessed, it made it really hard not to empathize.

Bites were taken, pretty absently. Just thinking and chewing. Looked over to his tour guide at the prompt. "It's flexible, you know?" Heh. Pun. "Like, can just go ten minutes if stuff's rough and you're sore. Two hours if you're really feeling it."

Little shrug. "Like, here? I figure twenty's a good baseline to sorta aim for. Cut it if we gotta."

Wilderness yoga pre-shattering into big cats. He didn't hate the idea of this becoming a habit. Given that last part was non-negotiable and stuff.

Ten minutes did sound ideal, because apparently Abraham's life was rough and he was sore all the time. Doing it for two hours felt like hell or a guaranteed nap much earlier than halfway through.

It all didn't appeal to him very much, but in the end, this was a deliberate choice not to make it about Abraham. Having the opportunity to share expertise in something when so much else in life felt absolutely out of reach was a sanity measure.

That, and it was something to talk about. Something very human to talk about. Useful, especially, in these hours and minutes and moments before the full moon.

"Twenty minutes sounds doable," he said. Yoga was very slow, he thought, so you probably didn't do much over twenty minutes? If only it wouldn't likely trigger Jimmy into a mane, Abraham might suggest trying it while he was a jaguar. For fun! And to put the work on someone else, even if that someone else was also himself.

"Do you have much experience shifting on purpose for the full moon" NOT NOW "or do you kinda let it hit you?"

Cool. Twenty. Easy. Easy question too, even if the answer felt a little like it reinforced the whole "Hi, I'm dumb and bad at this" thing.

"Uh, option bee." There had been... occasional attempts, not on the moon, to see if he could, like, push the cat out. Jimmy wasn't super sure what, like, muscle to flex for that. He'd strained a bit but just kinda felt like he was gonna poop if he kept at it, so...

"Definitely more The Incredible Hulk Hulk, not the Avengers Hulk, you know?" That'd clear it up.

Burger done, he fished out a second little box of nuggets.

Abraham had no idea there was any difference between those two Hulks. But he understood the first half of the answer, at least. He nodded, pretended he understood.

"It takes practice. Sometimes I still get cat shy," he said, which was the best way to describe awkwardly trying to will your body into an immensely painful transformation and finding yourself just clenching instead. "But we'll see if we can figure it out."

He could always shift first and see if it triggered Jimmy next, though that could just as easily be an exercise in terror, depending on how comfortably the kid was with other giant cats. Especially while not one himself. Hmm.

They'd find out. Even the worst case scenario wasn't that bad a scenario.

Yeah. Practice. Like yoga. Okay. Okay, aiight.

In lieu of another "cool cool cool," Jimbo just ate the chicken. If this was actually even chicken. It was good enough for the lion, anyway...

_____

Yeah, wow, Abramble wasn't kidding; this was way out. Good, tee bee aych. Guy really seemed to know what he was doing. That was, like, encouraging, he supposed. The light, yeah? Just the confirmation there was an end to the tunnel.

Man, only sorta though, yeah? Like, there was a reason they were this far out, and maybe it wa extra far because of him, but it didn't seem like... Like this other big cat was... he dee kay, tame? Like it still couldn't be trusted to be out and itself around people. Something.

So maybe just... the tunnel got well illuminated and stuff. But never really ended.

Cool, on that bone-deep bummer, he patted his leg twice and released his door, setting one foot out onto the rough terrain. But he looked back to his chauffeur and field guide.

"Hey, so, I was like, 'it'll be a surprise!' But then it hit me all 'no, doof, you won't even remember most of this.' So yeah, what are you? Like, your fursona?"

Once they were parked, both Abraham and the cat were ready to go. Shift, get started, this was a well practiced drill. He'd driven the car out as far as he could down one of the shitty roads, now left it here to blatantly block the path.

He couldn't remember if he'd answered that question already or not. Definitely did not know what a fursona was. Pushing the door open, he answered while circling around toward the back of the trunk.

"Big, fat jaguar," he said. "If it won't freak you out, I can shift first after yoga. You can do a meet and greet."

Popped the trunk, reached in for a duffel bag he'd already packed. Clothes, blankets, food, first aid. Blah blah blah. The usual.

"Might catch a chicken nugget if you throw it long for him."

Bonding! As if Abraham wasn't the jaguar in question.

Okay, cool, getting out. Jimbo slid the sacks of remaining food off his lap and onto the seat and he stood and stretched. Whole trip had been just a little cramped from his own backpack shoved down between his feet. It was like a spell-caster's familiar; not mentioned before now and immune to any environmental damage that'd been present (ketchup splatters in this case), but totally there the whole time.

Anyway, he grabbed that and slung it over one shoulder, listening up through eventually joining Abraham at the back. "Yeah, that..." Kid thought about a little deeper, even though he'd already started talking. "Sounds great, actually!"

Grin, a little forced. But just a little. There had been such, like, an aspect of awe with seeing Ingrid's lion for the first time. And, yeah, that had been pretty darkly colored in the time since, everything he'd learned and been hit with changing the way he saw any big predator. But like, kinda the same as so many other weird little things, maybe it would be easier to look past that here, with someone else. With not a lion.

Maybe it could be fun and exciting instead of just... traumatic and stuff.

Sounded great! Look at you, Abraham, shifting chaperone of the fucking year. He did feel good about it all, even as the heat of the car was sucked away from his body, reminding him it was late autumn in Colorado and they were out here to get naked at the end of the night. (Or the start, really. The middle.)

"Good. We can make it happen," he said as he took a moment to duck down beside the car, voice strained lightly with that kind of effort. His duffel bag slung dumbly to the dirt, but it wouldn't be the first time. The goal was to jam the keys into a magnetic lockbox hidden beneath the vehicle, because at the end of the day, a way to get back into the car was what mattered most. Mission clumsily but manageably accomplished, Abraham rose again.

"You ever seen your lion before?" he asked, heading down on a half-worn trail he knew well. Abraham had shifted out here well over a dozen times. It was an early favorite, and it still held an important spot in his were-life.

"Picture or video or whatever."

There was an unspoken additional question, of if Jimmy would ever want to at all. The answer could very easily be no, and Abraham wouldn't blame him one bit. But if the answer was yes, well. There were options.

Cool. Okay. Make it happen. Jaguar. What did he know about jaguars? They were... cats!

That was probably good enough. Like, he wouldn't be dealing with a jaguar jaguar. Just a Bramalamadingdong jaguar. It would be fine! Ingrid hadn't exactly acted like... he dee kay, like how a wild lion would be. Like how he would be. :wion:

Retrieving the McD's sacks while the keys were secured, he was ready to follow as they started down the trail. "Um, so, nothing like that. Just like, verbal descriptions from other lions and stuff." He'd tried so hard, like Abram had kinda relatably called out, to just push it all away. Think about it as little as possible. But from everything he was hearing, that... was never gonna be a path forward. Just keep him stuck where he'd been for basically ever.

"Probably good to actually see it, yeah? In case I ever end up in someone's tiktok or whatev."

Someone's TikTok. That was a very young person answer. He resisted the urge to immediately reinforce that, no, you shouldn't end up on YouTube or something, Jimmy.

But. The kid knew better. Abraham had to assume he knew better. For sanity reasons. His shitty lion company had to have taught him that much.

"I think it's kinda cool to just see it, too," he said. "I had no idea what my cat looked like for the longest time. And then I found out it was, like. Uh."

Once upon a time, this had not been funny. Abraham remembered hearing it from Wallace and finding zero amusement in it.

Oh, those early days. Wallace had been a fucking saint to deal with him at all.

"I always thought I was some kinda slinky panther thing. Turns out it's like, big. Stocky. I dunno. Made it a little less abstract, but a little less serious, too. Just a big dumb animal."

Listening quietly as he hiked along—it was really just flat walking, but on dirt so... hiking, he guessed?—Jimmy slipped his other arm into the backpack's other strap. Super strength and rapid healing meant he wasn't real clear on if he still needed to take, like, chiropractic care into consideration with the way he wore things, but... yeah.

Big dumb animal. Just a big dumb animal. "I like animals," he answered with a faint frown. "Like, I always did, yeah?" Thumbs slipped under the straps, pinned against the outside edges of his chest. Fists closed on the front. Not gripping anything, just, you know... The Hiking Pose.

"Man, I was so freaking stoked when there was a lion in my bathroom, you know? She let me pet her. Lions, jaguars, whatever, they're so big! Like, it was cool!" But that size was a problem. "But that... this one, like, tried to..." Jimmy shook his head. He couldn't change the past, what had happened with Grace. Had to think about the future, and...

"Like if I ever went home, it'd try to eat my mom. So it's really hard not to hate it." This wasn't new ground. None of it. But it was still where his thoughts ran.

Big dumb animal.

A lion in his bathroom. Abraham found himself pissed off all over again. A grown fucking adult looking at this kid of a person and deciding, yeah. That's a decision I should make for him forever. On the full moon especially, it felt like a wrong best addressed by punching someone in the face.

Jimmy continued in a way that was sad and got sadder. It was difficult to remember, constantly, the seriousness with which someone named Jimmy viewed the world. And that wasn't a knock. He had every reason to hate all of this, and to resent the lion with everything he had. It wasn't something he'd ever asked for, nor could he have possibly grasped what he was signing up for if he had.

"That's fair," he said. "More than fair. And it's how I spent a lot of time feeling, too. I don't know that this will make you hate it less. But. Might get you closer to understanding it, maybe. Or... not understanding it, just."

He shrugged, one arm managing slightly less with the bag held on it.

"Coming to terms with it. Even if that doesn't feel great right now."

Somber nods. Maybe sullen. Trying not to be sullen. It helped that effort, Abraham being all, like, real and accepting and stuff. This wasn't, like, groundbreaking. They'd more or less hit these same beats back at the gym when they'd met. Similar, anyway.

It was funny; he thought about, like, video game dialogue when a character had nothing new to say so they just said something familiar. And like, people found that immersion breaking or whatev, like it wasn't realistic. But people repeated the same things all the time I arr ell. Important things, yeah? Good to see you. Have a nice day. Goodnight. It'll be okay. I love you.

They were things people needed to hear, even if they maybe already knew. Or believed. Or wanted to, anyway.

Brambalam hitting those same notes of, like, "I understand and it sucks but here's all I've got that might make it eventually suck less," it was good. It helped. Like a lifejacket or something. Just a little boost to keep him afloat.

Really grabbing at those metaphors, huh Jimbrain?

"Yeah. Yeah, you right." Kid pinched his nostrils shut with one hand, started sucking in to build pressure, then released his knuckle and thumb to snort up a buncha snot. It was fine. "Alternatives are a lot worse, right? Gotta... move forward."

Little repeated nod before he'd add, "Thanks."

Jimmy worked through things out loud but in a way that led Abraham to believe there was a lot more going on behind the scenes along with it. It wasn't something he would have called at first, but Jimmy was a thinker. Definitely a feeler, too. Turnings tended to bring out the latter in everyone; Abraham hadn't been clawed into the former, though.

"'Course," he answered simply, but not clipped. The walk wouldn't be long for two weres trying to get out of the way. He knew the way well, had a specific landmark in mind: the picnic table.

Looked shittier every time he saw it. Wooden benches and tabletop splattered with bird shit aged and fresh. Weather weathered, reclaimed by nature at the bottom where a thick layer of leaves and dirt were hurrying it into rot. Abraham slung his bag onto one of the seats.

"Shifted here a couple dozen times," he said. It wasn't a grand clearing. A few trees cut out back when it all started, but not a wide, beautiful sanctuary in the middle of the woods. Just a place he knew well. Abraham thumbed at the wood on one corner where some natural grooves in the wood had been widened by claws. "Yours truly. You ready to yoga?"

Once upon a time, the place would have absolutely magical to Jimmy. Running vault onto the table, try for a backflip, break your forearm magical. Now, that was... there were vestiges? Eyes brightened a bit as he looked around the small space. The natural world had always been rad, and really this whole park had a kinda cool, natural reclamation vibe. It was strong here, though, and not in a way that could be halfway sad.

Like, the ivy grown fences kinda spoke of failure and hubris and stuff, but a picnic table? It wasn't pristine, but it was still functional, and in a way that wasn't about keeping anybody out or in. Meals had been a big deal, a bonding time in basically every culture, yeah?

Jimmy may have found the old digital file of his anthropology textbook recently.

Also the whole place was a huge contrast to the swamp where he'd shifted with the lions. And that was a comfort he... felt kinda guilty about. Awful petty, Jimbo.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's do," he agreed, slipping one arm free before slinging his own bag onto the other bench. A moment was taken to look at the indicated claw marks, moving closer and placing his own four fingers into the rough grooves.

Pinky wouldn't reach. Geeze.

Anyway, he moved back to unzip the main compartment of his pack. "I got us matching yoga pants we can change into." He dug into it, plunging a hand past his backup jeans to grab and pull out... Nothing!

Wearing a dumb grin as he looked back at Abraham, Jimmy clarified, "That, um, was a joke." Kinda rusty.

Abraham felt...

Something. Seeing Jimmy go inspect the claw marks. It was a feeling he couldn't quite put into words. Not like pride, exactly, or like he was revered or something stupid like that. Maybe it was more a sense that Abraham was capable. He'd been here a while. Bringing someone else here, someone still in the nightmare phase of it all, felt like it mattered. Or something.

It was too full moon for feelings. Who the fuck was he, jaguar Mufasa?

None of that lasted long, anyway, as Abraham's expression shifted to undeniable, abject horror in the face of a greater threat than any lion. Watched Jimmy reach into his bag, considered just straight up attacking and killing him. Jimmy was stronger like this, but Abraham could shift faster than the kid could unwrap those Lululemons.

"Christ!" he breathed. Wasn't holding anything he could throw at Jimmy, so he just threw a hand in his general direction from a distance instead. "You're lucky I'm not a jaguar right now."

He ran a hand through hair that had grayed over hundreds of shifts. Laughed. In retrospect, jeans yoga felt troublesome, but what else was he going to wear in the cold?

"Killin' me," he said, though there was little doubt he didn't mean it.

Hey, it landed pretty okay! Even before the real laughter. Jimmy's hopeful grin blossomed into something like gratified joy to get, like, fun exasperation. That was his specialty or something. Like it had been. In the before time. Just... a good moment.

One best not driven into the ground, so he let it be with a few of his own giggles. Moving away from the table to examine the small area of open terrain, he tapped around with one foot to ensure there wasn't, like, a crazy root or rock he was about to sit on.

"Aiight, yeah, this'll work." Sinking down, he had to hike up his own denim a little to give his knees and hips enough give. "Cool, let's start with Sukhasana, yeah?" Palms patted his upturned inner knees as he settled in the dirt. "Easy pose. I mean, that's what it's called, what it means. Easy pose. Basically just criss-cross applesauce."

Closing his own eyes a second, he inhaled then smiled, reopening them and waiting for the dude to join him.

It was relatively easy to generously offer to do forest yoga with Jimmy Lastname on the full moon. Made Abraham look like one hell of a nice guy. Perfect rogue king of nothing. That old curmudgeon? Heart of gold!

Except.

Except now he had to do the fucking yoga. And as Jimmy made himself comfortable on the ground, Abraham wondered if he could somehow influence him to shift now. Sorry, kid, couldn't do yoga because you turned into a lion too fast! Could he pull a branch aside and dramatically reveal an intensely glowing full moon, classic werewolf movie style?

No. Because Jimmy already looked serene down there, explaining shakshuka. Goddamnit, Abraham.

He took a breath in similar timing to his yoga instructor, though likely for less zen reasons. Alright. Just do the shit. Moving to follow along, adjusting his own pants where they awkwardly bent too tight in the wrong folds, he planted his ass to the dirt.

"Alright," he said, half a grunt. Old man attending. "This part I got down."

Kid wasn't totally blind to how, like, Brumbleweed wasn't exactly on fire for this. That was okay though. He closed his eyes again, one after the other. Maybe easier with no one looking at him.

"Feet right about under your knees. But mostly wherever they naturally wanna sit. It's important you be comfortable in your body, you know? You and no one else." Jimmy drew a long breath, trying to find some center point of calm himself, telling himself he was safe. Abraham was safe. The lion couldn't do any damage out here. Not to anything around and not to a stronger cat.

... Maybe to the wildlife, and he didn't love that. But any meat the lion ate was meat he didn't have to, so...

"Try and, like, sink your hips down. Feel yourself rooted." He was gonna get a bit woo woo with it. But just a bit. "Think about how familiar this place is. How you're a part of it. How you've left a mark, and it's done the same." Another long breath. "Hands are good wherever they're comfortable, on your knees or lap, palms up or down. Whatever works for you, feels right." Breath. Should cover that too. Man, he hadn't led a group in... how long had it been?

Focus, Jimothy.

"Inhale through your nose, all the way down deep into your abdomen. Reach upward with the crown of your head, lengthening the spine. Don't stress too much about holding the right posture, just gradually adjust. Chest forward, shoulders down." He didn't even have to look to add, "Relax your jaw."

Man, everyone clenched their jaw early on.

Was Abraham supposed to close his eyes?

He pictured the stereotype of yoga and imagined the answer was yes. But what if he opened his eyes and Jimmy was fucking staring at him? Why was that a problem? Come on, Abraham. He closed his eyes, lids mashing committedly. Close eyes. Crush eyes. No chance of accidentally peeking.

Except he opened them again almost immediately to Jimmy's instruction, finding he couldn't trust his own sense of where his feet rest in relation to literally any other part of his body. Adjusted them some, was reminded very early in this process that he was strong, but not flexible, and the former was only the result of being part animal. His palms settled to his knees, eyes closing again, slumped lightly forward. It was cool, and while the walk had warmed him, he could feel a chilling in his cheeks.

Breathe. Yeah. Breathe. He sucked in hard and too fast for all that he was trying to go slow, sitting up a little straighter for the effort of trying to flood his guts with air. Told to reach upward, his hands briefly left his knees to rise near shoulder level before he used his fucking brain. Christ, Abraham. Eyes open again, making sure Jimmy wasn't watching and judging him.

Nope. He settled back into his closed-lidded slouch, then remembered the instruction and lifted up again. It was... nice, actually, to right his spine. Felt unexpectedly pleasant. Chest forward, shoulders down. Told to relax his jaw, he felt called out, like his breathing had betrayed him. One eyelid cracked a final time, checking that, again, he wasn't being spied on.

Nope.

Abraham followed those instructions as best he could, lips parting just slightly in what he assumed to be "relaxation." Didn't like it, pressed them together again, but managed at least not to clench his teeth together. He breathed, all nose, and spoke with a natural grunt that was now a more relaxed grunt: "Got it."

Was he supposed to talk? Probably not.

Despite not peeking, Jimmy could hear a bit of rustling. And it made him smile. Like, Bram Stoker was hardly the first dude to give off dubious vibes regarding the yoga. The demographics of people in his group sessions had been pretty predictabiy lopsided, and it did tend to leave the entire practice with, like, a stigma. Or something.

But here he was, doing it anyway. Hopefully he's find something in it; Jimmy knew it could help if Abraham let it. But it was still kinda clear he was doing this for Jimmy.

A lot of people did stuff for Jimmy. Well, a few people. It was a good reminder to recognize that. Appreciate it. Abraham, Katniss, Asha. Yag and Grace and Teyo a little. Then Sokol and Ash had tried; wasn't their fault he wasn't really receptive for reasons. And of course...

Ingrid.

A sharp tic, a distortion in his breathing pattern, had him refocusing. Eyes might have been orange behind his lids. Lion knew the night, and always had a reaction, a kinda understanding of the topic when thoughts of his maker rose to the surface.

"Focus in on your breathing. Try and keep your mind there." The advice was as much a reminder for him as guidance for Abe. "Thoughts'll come, and that's okay. Acknowledge them and let them pass, like cars on the highway. Come back to your breath."

Realization was dawning that they might not switch poses at all. He'd not planned on, like, springing warrior three or crow pose or anything, but it was the meditative aspect he needed right now. Hopefully that wouldn't be super boring for his benefactor.

Nothing fucked up his breathing like being asked to focus on it. Suddenly forgetting all the basics. How full were his lungs supposed to feel? He didn't want to breathe from his mouth. Had McDonald's breath. Also wanted more McDonald's. Life was hard.

Thoughts were definitely here, and Jimmy said that was okay. You're thinking, Abraham, and you're acknowledging that you're thinking, which is more thinking. Let them pass like cars on the highway. In the left lane. Some asshole hauling a trailer going ninety for no reason and forcing him out of the lane. Nope. Thinking thinking thinking. Breathing. Thinking about breathing. He could breathe better after having quit smoking. Not that he never smoked now, but-

Breathing. Innnnnnnnnn.

Ouuuuuuutttt. Except he definitely thought out before finishing breathing in. For fuck's sake.

Thinking about breathing. Breathing. He was accomplishing that, jaw tensing up again for his focus. Relaxing. It would take him a while to get there, tiring himself out on thinking. But.

He'd get there.

It honestly was probably his worst yoga guidance ever. Adriene would've been pretty embarrassed. Jimmy really had meant to do more, maybe a little cat cow to loosen up the spine and hips just a tiny bit. Chaturanga because it'd probably be an easy pose for someone with were strength. Build confidence and stuff, yeah?

But instead he just lapsed into silence. Following his own advice he guessed, letting thoughts slip past. It was... Obviously he was still coming to terms with how crowded his head had become, and it meant he didn't spend as much productive time in there as he liked. As he needed. As he used to. Being alone with himself was troublesome. but he wasn't alone now. Abraham was here for him.

And it was for him. The whole trip. He'd known that pretty well from the start. The offer. Tried to lean into that, then. Let it be for him. Let go of any guilty thoughts that came with that. Cars on the highway.

Ten or fifteen minutes, something like that, would pass in relative silence. Sounds of the coming night around them, yeah, but they didn't exactly need to worry about cougars huh. Finally Jimmy would open his eyes, not orange but sorta starting to bleed that way. The lion was unusually patient in the wake of the moments of mental release, but still knew it was his night.

"How you feeling?"

It was both a long and a short ten to fifteen, depending on when in those minutes you might have asked Abraham. In the beginning, he was slightly paranoid that he was missing obvious instruction. Kept peeking an eyelid open, seeing Jimmy very still. Not doing anything obvious. Breathing better than Abraham was, probably. But.

Not doing anything.

This was probably an exercise in patience, or something. That was part of yoga, right? Being very slow? This was better than downward dog or... that was literally the only other series of words he knew about yoga. Chakra. Zen. Namaste.

Eventually, he bored himself through anxiety into a space of almost nothing. The jaguar kept him from dozing, demanding a base level of wariness on the full moon sitting next to a lion also wearing denim. But this time of the month (boy, was that a lady phrase) could lend itself toward excessive thinking or no thinking at all, just as easily. His cat brain did not fret about if his feet were in the right place, or if Jimmy could hear his stomach gurgling, or if he'd just forget to breathe.

The cat offered awareness of the forest, awareness of the temperature, awareness of Jimmy's presence. Of those options, the first circled back slightly human, to the comments Jimmy had made about making a mark on this place. About it making a mark on him. Deep, kid. But not wrong.

And then, suddenly, and also two hours later, said kid was talking. Abraham double checked his eyes were closed, as if the darkness weren't a dead giveaway. He considered his options for answers, went with something brief:

"Good, I think."

So, not like super irate. Unless he was hiding it really well. "It wasn't for everyone," except really it was. Just, only if they were kinda willing to accept it or whatev. Bwaaaaahm didn't seem like he'd just had a life-changing experience, but he didn't have never-again face either. That was kinda a relief.

And the uncertainty was, even now, super relatable. "Cool," Jimmy nodded, stopping on the downturn so he was left looking at the ground. "Yeah." Little smile crept into place. "Same."

He stood, planting one palm in the dirt to manage it. There was.... still a nervous sort of energy setting in. Like setting his own mind to rest had made more space for the prowling other. Like he wanted to pace, but didn't. Looked at Abe. "This has, um, already been really helpful. More than I expected it to be, I guess."

Hands found his pockets and buried themselves within. "So thanks, again. I'll try not to run that into the ground."

Jimmy was doing good for a lion on the full moon who still couldn't remember his shifts. Maybe he'd remember this one. Abraham could hope. He smiled in return, more prominent than the kid's. Had to reassure.

Up to his own feet he went, feeling a little wobbly-kneed, as if he'd done more than sit cross-legged for fifteen minutes. The jaguar seemed to wake up in his brain as well, stretching, claws out, needling for an opening.

Once again, he found himself surprised at Jimmy's sincerity. His willingness to talk feelings. It was a trait that didn't come naturally to Abraham, especially not at that age, and one he admired.

"I don't think you will," he said. "But I'm glad it helped. Yoga's easier than I thought."

That was ribbing. He approached the table again, intending to pass by Jimmy and pat him lightly on the arm. Lightly. Didn't want to set the lion off, and the full moon could make damn near anything a hair trigger.

"You wanna meet a jaguar?"

Whoops, setting up false expectations, Jimbo. Except the pat kinda gave him time to absorb it all again, reexamine the tone. Oh. Ayyye.

So it was with a dumber, classic Jimmy grin that he turned to follow, nodding energetically. "I'll get the nuggets." He'd set the paper sack on the bench next to his backpack, and some moron just forgot to narrate that part. Too up in his feels, probably.

Abraham hadn't forgotten the McDonald's bag, Jason, because he could still smell it. He eyed that bag as Jimmy mentioned it, feeling a streak of stupid possessiveness, as if the lion hadn't literally just said that he'd be sharing it.

"I don't know if me shifting will set you off. But if it does, don't stress. I'm gonna, uh."

Here came the part he still wasn't over. Naked men in a locker room vibe.

"Walk just a bit. It only takes me about a minute or two to shift." Had he timed it? Yes! "I can talk as a big cat, but I don't like to very much. Yes or no is best. Is there anything else you wanted to run through first?"

Speak now or forever hold your questions to binary answers, Jimmy.

Oh man. Yeah, like... Huh. The last time Jimmy had been Jimmy with a big cat around was the night. tHe nIgHt. For all the things he felt too hard and somehow simultaneously overthought and underthought, it hadn't really hit him that he might, like, legit be triggered by big cat.

Falling into a small reverie as he thoughtlessly pulled a box out of the bag, he kinda went over it. But...

Nah? Like, it was a traumatic night and it did revolve around the bite, but only because of what it had done. Represented and stuff. Like, obvs it had hurt. He got bit by a lion. But it was probably the gentlest lion bite any person had ever suffered. Like, while still being an actual bite, not just a cuddle with teeth. He hadn't been mauled, yeah? Trauma was all to do with the intent. With Ingrid. Person Ingrid. He didn't really have anything against her lion.

Which was weird to realize, with how much hatred he piled on his own. Man...

Looking up with the realization he'd been asked something, Jimmy reflexively shook his head. "No, I-" Owait. "There is... Like, I'm used to being out longer than everyone else. After." For all he had a stuttery start there, the shrug held some genuine nonchalance.

"I get moved around, and it's whatev. I'm not bothered by body stuff."

Which he supposed could've been told to the jaguar, but it came to mind now.

Thinkiiing. Thinking, Jimmy. Abraham found that he was suddenly very impatient, the cat stretching limits of tension, a slow charlie horse sinking into every limb. Be cool, everyone. Another minute, maybe two.

And what Jimmy came up with was useful. Very useful, actually. It was a topic he'd intended to addressed directly, but conveniently forgot because he didn't want to talk about it.

"Cool. That makes both our lives easier," he admitted. Turn Into A Jaguar, Abraham. Do It Right Here. Except those thoughts weren't expressed in words, but instead a crawling up his spine. Green-eyed. Go time, you'd made a promise. "I'll be back in a minute."

If not quite literally. His heart skipped beats, almost swelling in his chest. Possibly actually swelling in his chest, pressing against his lungs or something. Trusting Jimmy not to watch him go and undress without needing to say as much, he grabbed his bag and made for a short walk out of sight. Started leisurely, turned toward speed walking as his eyes blurred. Skull pressure, like the cat had him by the head and was just beginning to test its bite force. The disrobing was quick, clumsy. He hadn't found a tree to lean on despite being in a fucking forest. Good thinking, idiot.

In the end, he lost the race, though only barely. He'd hoped for some very cool and silent shift, but that wasn't full moon style. It struck him suddenly in the face, and he couldn't resist an agonized gasp. It was literally blinding, something wrong in the actual structure of his face. Panting through it, grunts. Not a guy having a good time, despite every effort to subdue it. If there were people who could blast through excruciating body transformations with nothing but the sound of those gnarlings in themselves, he couldn't be counted among them.

Abraham would lose both socks to the explosion of jaguar body that followed. Very minor casualties, in the scheme of things, though his hope had been to pile his stuff neatly into his bag and close it before shifting at all. Instead, he buried his boxers with a broad paw and some leaves, which felt pretty sensible. Panting, hot despite the cold, and suddenly eager to make a friend, it was a miracle of will that he didn't blast toward Jimmy and pancake him to the griddle. Er. To the ground.

Instead, he prowled, abandoning his clothing to return to the scene of the yoga. The elastic of one sock stuck to his right rear leg, and he kicked that foot out a few times before giving up on trying to loose it.

Whenever Jimmy spotted him, he would be greeted with an ugly honk of recognition, heavy jaw hanging low and damp for the work of a shift moments before.

Yeah, easier. It'd crossed his mind here and there, thinking about the offer and everything. Like, the breadth of noise that was being signed up for. Probably out of some combination of just having gotten used to locker rooms and showers all throughout the wonders of puberty, and just... not having the same associations and hangups with it as most people, nudity hadn't ever bugged him.

But like, he didn't flash his ass because he wasn't a jerk? But when it came to were life, it was just... It was a thing. And the lions had all seemed to accept that and gotten over it so... Yeah, he'd slotted in well enough there.

Oh, maybe use a different term if you ever discuss this aloud, boss. It was funny though, the one aspect of this whole thing that had never been a nightmare; being naked around other naked people.

Anyway, he did give in to the pacing, cutting a tight circle around the table. Pried his shoes off, trapping the heel of one under his toes then switching. Socks followed. Really, man, he should get as much of this done as possible, yeah?

The lack of noise pollution around made it really easy to pick out Abe's ouch noises as the thin jacket came off. Which... did kinda bring the lion that much more to the surface. Eyes were shining orange. Yeah, it wouldn't be long. Shirt off. Jeans undone at least.

And there he was. Smaller than Ingrid... maybe? Without a side by side... Huge for a cat, and yeah. Thicc. With an absolutely bizarre sound blasting from his jaws. Along with a fair amount of drool. But also, wow, the pattern was really something.

"Gorgeous," the kid whispered, awed more than he'd expected. The clearest sight he'd had on a were in beast mode since... Yeah. Jaguars were, like, definitely prettier than lions.

And his wanted out. Another lion. Sort of? Weird smelling wrong little lion like the one that had bit him in the dark. How chewable were his ears?

Fumbling open the box, Jimmy grabbed two and hurriedly held up his hand. He wanted to go kneel, pet the thing, admire it more. But there wasn't time. Wanted to get that party trick out because, he dee kay, he'd kinda built up anticipation for it.

But the first spasm hit as he moved to throw. The box hit the dirt, nuggets spilling out. The two in hand fared worse, crushed in a fist tight with agony. Knees hit the dirt before he rolled onto his back, gasping and gurgling as his spine began its slow and significant lengthening. Sometimes he was able to finish undressing after it had started, but no dice tonight. The lion had already filled too much of his head, too eager to learn about this new thing. Was it prey? He didn't think so...

Neither jeans nor trunks would survive, though their demise would not be quick.

It started good. The full moon was a rough time for control as a whole, but when Jimmy responded with awe more than terror, it soothed immediate bullying instincts. Abraham had a number of insecurities about this look, namely in the form of four stubby legs and a low hanging belly. But "gorgeous" was a damn good compliment to a cat with just enough human brain to understand the word, but not to gender it.

And then, the food that was promised. Treats from a shirtless human went unquestioned. His nostrils flared expectantly, eyes on the prize. But it went south fast, in a way that Abraham had, in retrospect, predicted. The full moon wasn't a feasible time for meet and greets.

The fall happened suddenly, enough that an opportunist part of his brain kicked in. Hurrying, he vacuumed up the food that had fallen. At least the nuggets. He had time and he knew it, lapping the food up unchewed, eyes on the kid turning cub. Abraham, especially now, felt nothing watching a shift. Not pity, not pain. This was life. Were Jimmy a jaguar, he might have inched in to offer a few grooming tongue swipes. There, there.

Not this jaguar, not tonight. Not for a lion. Instead, he shuffled back, slow and wary steps as he swiped his nose clean of dirt with a barbed tongue.

Wariness prickled toward anxiety as the twisting ugliness grew as it developed, and it become increasingly clear that he was going to be the smaller cat around the picnic table tonight.

Stupid goddamn tigers all over again.

How long it took was part of the problem. Maybe why he'd never figured out how to force it and instead just had to endure it when the lion willed. For too much of the process—though less than half in actual fact—Jimmy was aware of every twisting tendon, every breaking bone. A forever active lifestyle and countless injuries still hadn't prepared him for this hell, and he'd yet to get used to it. How anyone could get to a point where they voluntarily, deliberately made this happen...

The lion didn't enjoy it either. Jimmy had to suffer almost half of it, but the beast was aware of the whole. Sharper once the boy's mind stilled, when there were no confusing, complex thoughts to provide a distracting background. Brought into clearer relief. Though relief only came at the end, when it at last stopped, every piece arranged, every pale hair grown.

The prone thrashing had endured throughout, cries turning to roars until at last a lion flopped onto its side and heaved a few exhausted huffs, annoyed and wanting to let the fresh pain dissipate before examining the surroundings. It wasn't surprised to find itself in an unfamiliar space, having watched and sniffed the whole evening before, It knew the others were not here, but something else was. Something that hadn't made any move against it, so not something to immediately fear, but...

Rolling to place four paws to the ground and push up to its towering height, the lion snorted out what may have been a greeting. Still the bigger cat. It was used to being the biggest, enjoyed it, for all it never really mattered. They just all piled. Would a pile of two work? Certainly the tiny spotted wrong lion was no threat, no rival. What was it meant for? Not food, though he smelled something that was nearby. Though that was of less pressing interest.

Yawning, tongue flopping forward, he shook his modest mane and padded lazily forth with muted thuds, intent on ramming his skull into the smaller cat's. And maybe chew an ear.

It was ugly for a lion. That wasn't even Abraham's size anxiety talking, really! Trust him. It was just a big ugly weird looking albino thing with a mane that didn't seem like a mane.

Okay, yeah. Maybe it was some Abraham inadequacy. But he wanted nothing to do with it so suddenly, so intensely that if he could have shifted over it again, he might have. Hated it. Hated that every other fucking cat out there was inexplicably the size of a cement truck.

Irritable and battling his own body language, one of those chewable ears twitched, and he felt his head turtling in toward his neck as the weird giant cub approached. Not fucking cut out for this. He was never doing this again. But to back up further was an embarrassing retreat, and his tail lashed at the end, standing his ground even as his skull attempted to retract between his shoulders.

Nostrils flared, eyes wide, tasty ears back, he froze, strangled between human pride, animal impulse, and anxiety.

Fuck.

Danger signals. Here's the thing though... he was used to those? They tended to precede heavy paw slaps and a tackle and ultimately a pile. Everything led to pile. And he was the bigger lion. The real lion. He was... king. King him.

There was no scenario where signs of wary retreat would discourage him. Prey would be pursued. Predators would... he didn't have any predators. And other lions, even wrong lions, would be batted about and chewed on.

As he'd done the only other time he'd unwittingly encountered a jaguar, Jimmy not Jimmy charged. There was less in the way of uncertainty and assault this time, but still the absolute intent to bowl the smaller cat over and flop atop.

---

hit :333333

There were weres out there whose natural instinct was to play. Or so Abraham assumed. He knew weres got along in The Cove alright, and that meant something like that had to be happening.

But it had never once been this particular cat's modus operandi. There was cowing and cowering and little in between. Even with a deeply human presence inside his brain, when he saw the ugly cub charge, he exploded into wrinkly fury. Muscles bunching up, teeth bared, intending to bounce up and get tall and ugly.

Didn't have time, though. He'd vastly underestimated how fast a cement truck could pummel toward him, and in a moment, he was enveloped by a tidal wave of white fur. The noise he made was as much a scream as a jaguar could produce. Ugly, frantic, expecting he was about to be mauled. He twisted and kicked clumsily, a crocodile in a death roll, but he was heralding only the end of his own ego.

At least Jimmy wouldn't remember any of this fucking nightmare, whether Abraham lived through it or not.

---

JUST FAILURE ALL AROUND

Angry face, angry wrong noise. The spotted lion's roar was so weird. It didn't signal right, didn't mean anything. Just noise. Noise that was no defense against King him. Forehead leading, he plowed into the wrong lion, his own big flailing paws and strong flanks taking any playful counter attack claws made.

Tail lashing in abject joy, He bore down and let his weight land full on his new best friend, the only playmate around. Looking to drop one heavy paw on the wrinkled angry face, his own jaws opened, seeking that chewy, chewy ear.

---

Extremely nope