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Pierce's eyes went to his watch for the hundredth time in the last hour, holding back a groan when it seemed the hands hadn't moved a centimeter. It wasn't as if he had any particular place to be today; he'd had two classes this morning and the rest of the day to himself to wander about the campus. Now, however, as lunch was creeping closer and closer the smell of the other students were becoming more and more... Salivating. He was salivating, he realized with a frustrated wipe of his mouth. There was still twenty minutes until lunch would be served in the campus cafeteria, but to the jaguar it felt like half his lifetime had already passed by as he waited. Yes, he was being dramatic. But he'd missed dinner the previous night--thanks to his roommate--and was forced to settle with microwaved ramen noodles with powdery fake meat. Gross.

Languidly stretching himself along the tree branch his was laid out on, he peered down at the bustling figures moving below him. He'd grown up knowing that he was different and unique compared to the primates around him, told that being what he was was rare. Back in his hometown his parents were the only two Genus around-- not that his hometown was very big. Solaris University was different though, every person he saw around him was a Genus, and with so many in one area it was hard to feel very rare at all. Not that it was particularly important to Pierce, but he knew of a few people who held their rarity close and took it as a personal offence to be 'one with the crowd'.

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There were quite a few perks to being one of the few avian species around the campus; he was light and fast with quick reflexes, which made getting away from predators a pretty simple task-- even though it was prohibited by school rules the carnivores still liked to have their fun. So yeah, having a bird as an ancestor wasn't the worst thing for Leland. What was the worst thing you might ask? The fact that his ancestor had a particular interest in anything shiny...a particular interest that managed to sneak it's way down the evolutionary scale all the way to Leland himself. A particular interest that often got Leland into more trouble than not. Like now, for instance, as he was being chased through the hallways by some type of feline-- he wasn't stopping to ask. All he knew was that she recognized one of the many trinkets he carried on a keychain on his bag, claimed it was hers, and when Leland refused to return it she yowled at him and the chase began.

A quick left hand turn had him ducking into the computer room, ice blue eyes peering through the door window as the cat continued on down the hall yelling after a bird that was no longer ahead of her. A sigh of relief left him as he dumped his bag to the side of one of the computer desks with a jingling sound and sat down, giving himself a moment to catch his breath.