#s729

The first time he’d changed back it had been from necessity. He’d been in so much pain from the wound that the shift had been unintentional and nearly unnoticed as he’d stumbled back to his den, all his focus entirely on getting to safety and treating the injury. So much so, that he hadn’t even really realized he was human again until he’d nearly finished stitching the bullet hole shut and finally noticed he had hands. Once he’d finished with tending the wound, he’d popped too many painkillers to take the edge off both the gunshot through his ass and the lingering body pains from his transformation and had passed out on his cot, not caring what he was till he’d woken up the next day still human and angry as hell about the asshole who’d shot him.Today was different. Now he’d been regularly changing back, not out of necessity but purely because, well, he wanted to be a damn human so he could go hang around with the same jerk who’d put a bullet in his butt. 

This time when he’d done it, he’d been fully aware of the bone cracking, sinew shifting, tearing down and rebuilding of his entire physical existence. Standing in front of the filthy silo bathroom mirror staring at the reflection of a man who was still breathing heavy through recently reshaped ribs that felt achingly too tight to hold him, Rick struggled to recognize the human looking back at him. He’d even on instinct growled at his own damn reflection until he’d realized what he was doing.When he’d originally gotten infected, there had been such a distinct contrast between his coyote form and human form’s thought patterns. While he was always still undoubtedly himself, it had been like his coyote brain functioned with all the same data on a completely different operating system. He was processing information and prioritizing it differently. It had been so easy to get addicted to the simplicity of letting himself run on that mode. But after so long spent that way, he was feeling less certain that all the settings were switching seamlessly back as he caught himself often having moments of being extremely disoriented by his humanity. Fingers ran through the stranger’s messy hair and he took a painfully long moment to recognize it as his own hand combing through his own fur- no that was hair. Fuck. Get it together.

Haha Yote Form! I’m keeping that. He’d sound like any normal human Rick trying to howl or growl or whatever yote sounds he’s making. He’s got human vocal chords and a human shaped mouth, so it’s obviously not gonna be the same sound as his coyote form. He does sometimes express himself in more coyote mannerism though when human out of habit cause he’d been shifted as a coyote for a long while. But he honestly probably looks pretty crazy and stupid doing so.

Ha! I know it and I can definitely dig it for that AU! If you’d like a few of my own music recommends for Chupacabrick, some of my favs to listen to while I was making art for that au were any and all Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (If you want some specifics: Stranger Than Kindness / Thirsty Dog / Hold On To Yourself / Midnight Man), Icarus - Jason Webley, Pretty Pimpin - Kurt Vile, and Old Man Song - KT Tunstall.

It varies from AU to AU, but if we’re talking the standard flavour of current show age Stanchez, I’d peg Rick for being close to or around 70 and Stan for closer to 65-ish. Give or take a few years on each of those estimates. I’m not too hard set on specific ages for either of them.