The lines, they go by [o, experiment]

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Ever since Caustic had first arrived, Aurum had seen fit to keep an eye on the wolf, even from afar. For one thing, the other had smelled faintly of the Pitt when he had gotten to Tanglewood, which while explained away by Octane and Caustic himself, still held a certain suspicious air to it. For another thing, Caustic was just... unnerving all on his own, no Pittian scent required. The tigon wasn't sure if it was the strange scent and coughing fits, or the way that he looked at everyone so coldly in a similar manner to how Abathur did but somehow even less warm. No matter what the motivations were, Aurum saw little issue with him observing Caustic on occasion. After all, he was the proxy of Tanglewood, and it was his job to make sure that everyone within the group was safe. If Caustic was in some way a threat – which the angel was very much unsure of – then he needed to be... supervised, for lack of a better word. Aurum didn't doubt that Caustic would hate putting up with such a thing, especially considering the excessive amount of signage surrounding his home very pointedly discouraging observation, but the proxy didn't much care. If Caustic really had such a problem with it, then he could come and confront Aurum on his own.

The male had just finished his midday meal when his one blue eye caught sight of Ivan, his nephew seemingly entirely ignoring all of the warnings outside of Caustic's home. Aurum felt a soft curse leave him as he watched the boy squeeze through to the other side, hurriedly getting up to his feet and going after Ivan. He obviously wasn't able to go through the same tiny hole that Ivan had taken advantage of, but luckily for him, there were a couple of missing boards big enough for his tigon form to squeeze through, even with a faintly swelled belly. Once he was on the other side, he continued following after Ivan's scent, freezing up when he saw what was going on in front of him. His stomach tossed and turned unpleasantly at the sight of the empty syringe, and his gaze lingered for a long sustained moment on the poor, defenseless rabbit that had been made a subject. His attention was only torn away when Ivan finally spoke up, the small boy's defiant voice ringing out strongly. Aurum's heart practically leaped into his throat as he moved a bit closer, protectively, "Careful, Ivan..." He then turned his one eye towards Caustic, taking on a certain glare as he spoke, "You... why are you doing this? What even is the purpose of this besides hurting that creature? You're not even eating it." Aurum had little idea of the full extent of Caustic's experiments, which he was sure could grow far worse than this, but he found that he didn't really care to find out more. After all, this alone was enough to make him feel vaguely sick, and he wanted to scoop Ivan up in his jaws and leave immediately.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.