At some point Koda had zoned out, focusing on a growing babble in the back of his mind. He was nearly convinced he was a telepath, there was just no other way to explain the mental sense of voices surrounding every living thing he passed without defining it as outright insanity- which is why he labeled himself [i]nearly[/i] convinced, insanity was still on the table after all. This new sound though, it didn’t sound like the others, and he seemed to be the only one to hear it, so he knew it must be his powers picking up on it, but it was so… clear. Not that that was any help, but when listening to the others’ minds it was like listening to a foreign language being whispered just behind his ear, this one was… not talking, but communicating [i]to him[/i]. He swore he could see it, red triangles in the edges of his vision; no matter how quickly or slowly he turned to look they remained just out of clear sight, and they were so [i]demanding[/i].

[color=#d5c7b1][i]But what do they want?[/i][/color]

There was a cucumber in his hands, having appeared at some point, but… for all that he had fantasized about an all you can eat buffet, even a simply salad, anything to eat, now that it was here? There was nothing less appetizing in the world. It was weak, wasting, useless, why would such a thing ever be considered food? It had no strengths to contribute, no threat to dominate, no experiences to learn from- it was as good as dust.

He must have stared at the thing for hours- except no one seemed to notice his withdrawal from conversation, so maybe it hadn’t been long at all. As he contemplated the green slab of useless microstructures and detained dew drops his mind warred with his stomach, he couldn’t eat this, but he was so hungry he might just try it.

It didn’t occur to him that he would have considered this perfectly edible food not 24 hours ago, but now his mind was so… triangular. It had few sides and lots of sharp edges, he felt two dimensional and simple, but also just honed enough to rip and slice.

He’d infringed on Stormy’s personal space on auto pilot, not even realizing until he looked up from his empty hands, cucumber discarded at some unknown point, and found her just within grabbing distance.

[i]She[/i] was different. Experiences to learn from, power to gain- or the potential anyway, and flesh and bone worthy of becoming… of becoming… [color=#d5c7b1][i]part of me.[/i][/color]

His hand fell on her shoulder, and he faintly noticed how dark his skin had gotten, taking an almost shiny violet hue reflecting the day’s light, and the previously transparent, thin covering of dark mist hovering around his skin was now opaque and billowing, reaching, almost like tendrils threatening to burrow deep into flesh. Perhaps they would, one mouth was a stupid idea, all of him should be able to eat. He tugged on her shoulder, just enough to tell her he wanted her attention, because he wanted to see her eyes, to look one last time directly into her mind so he could steal her experience as well as her flesh and her gift.

His mouth opened as she faced him, but for all that it looked like a smile, it was the last breath before his lunge. His lips stretched further than they had any right too, his teeth sharp and jagged and so inhuman, and his eyes narrowed into glowing red embers of [i]hunger[/i]. [color=#d5c7b1]”All of it, give me all of it,”[/color] he whispered, half to himself, half to her, and then all semblance of humanity fled as he became a being of semi-solid shadow with a drive only to eat and grow and learn.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he realized something was wrong, that something terrible had happened and he was no longer as he used to be. But, at least he knew what the triangles wanted now, it was almost funny that their telepathic grumbles had so confounded him, they imitated a growling stomach perfectly.