Andrew left the ziggurat with his mother, Elder Barry's final advice being to try and copy a stronger ability. The two of them got a quick lunch where Andrew filled her in on more of the details on the trip, sticking mostly to funny hunting stories, avoiding anything serious like the events during the Beast Tide and his relationship with Li Jing. It wasn't that Andrew felt he couldn't talk to her about it, but he wanted to figure out his relationship with Li Jing on his own, and he really didn't think his mother could do anything but commiserate over what he was dealing with otherwise. He didn't need commiseration, he needed answers.

After they ate, they took the portal back home, where it was early morning. "Andrew! Welcome home! How was the hunt? Are you super powerful now?" Jack greeted him with a grin, looking up from his breakfast as they walked up from the basement.

"Wasn't I super powerful before?" Andrew retorted with a grin.

"Nah, that was just regular powerful. You don't qualify as super powerful until you're bulletproof." Jack countered.

"Does a twenty-two count?" Andrew replied, at which Jack just snorted. He then took a seat next to him. "What have you been up to?"

"Ah, not much. Just hangin’. Oh, I do have a few friends coming over next week." Jack replied.

Andrew paused. "You have friends?"

Jack rolled his eyes, shoving Andrew lightly. "Yes, I have friends. Not everyone is a self imposed social reject like you."

"Hey! It's only slightly self imposed… there's mutual rejection going on, you know?" Andrew retorted.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure, I'm sure no one has tried to reach out to you at all."

"Well, yes, but… they did it out of pity." Andrew grimaced. "I don't want to be someone's pity project."

Jack shook his head. "At least it's a start, right? Besides, someone might try to be your friend out of pity, but they won't stay your friend out of pity." Andrew grunted noncommittally. It still seemed like a shitty way to get a friend to him. Jack sighed, shaking his head again, before changing the subject. "Hey, you never said how the hunt was."

Andrew grinned, repeating a few of the stories he'd told his mom for the rest of the family, until they finished breakfast and went their separate ways, Andrew immediately heading to his territory. Once he arrived he climbed up his tree, reaching the top branches and stepping out into open air, landing on a platform of solid space. He'd created an entire, invisible tree house in the upper branches of the tree, his own private little space to relax. But he hadn't come out to relax today.

Andrew sat in a meditation pose, delving into his aura, finding his cores. Since he'd acquired it, the Lizard core had slowly managed to merge with the other three, and as it did, he began to stop seeing visions of the four creatures talking. The Lizard was slowly becoming just another part of himself, indistinguishable from the whole. As it did, its influence on him both increased and decreased. The things that fit were stronger than ever, but the things that didn't were subdued. It was like Andrew was slowly molding the core to fit him better, to help him be who he wanted to be. He didn't want to be some asshole who did whatever he wanted without considering anyone else around him, so that part of the Lizard got suppressed, but he did want to be able to let loose every now and then, to be able to enjoy the things he could do, without worrying about things that didn't matter, so that part was reinforced.

As he watched the process happen, Andrew got an idea. What if he could manually focus on one core, bringing it to the fore? Like focusing on his Monkey side when he wanted to be goofy, or his Tiger side when he needed to be serious? He could alter his mood for any occasion! He just hadn't been able to quite figure out how to do that yet. He'd tried bursting apart the cores and focusing on only one train of thought, but that was impossible, because each train of thought just wanted to focus on itself, until they all merged again. Even when he convinced them all to focus on a specific one, it only accelerated the merging process. He'd tried rearranging how the cores fit together, but that apparently didn't matter at all. It just turned the result into a funky mess before slowly turning back to normal.

Andrew studied the cores for a moment, wondering what he should try next. Honestly, besides those first two ideas, he had nothing. What else could he do besides split and rearrange them? Turn them off? Andrew froze. That- that could be a dangerous line of thought. What would turning off a core even mean? Destroying it? He absolutely didn't want that. Was it even possible? Andrew hesitated, before shaking his head. Nope, he wasn't thinking about that! Even if they weren't destroyed, he didn't want that side of him to be completely gone. He didn't want the cores off, but rather, he wanted them to dim. To fade into the background, still having an influence, just… less.

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Andrew glanced at his cores. The idea was a bit ridiculous, but it couldn't hurt to try, right? He focused on his Lizard core. *Dim!* …nothing happened. Andrew let out a sigh. "Well, that was dumb." He grumbled. Why would he think shouting at his cores would do anything? All he could really do was move them around, and he didn't tell them where to go, he just kind of… well, did it. It was like moving his arms. It wasn't like he shouted move at his arm to get it to do anything. Andrew paused, concentrating on the Lizard core again. Maybe this was like when he learned how to wiggle his pinky toe? The muscles were there, he just had to concentrate on them until they twitched. He continued to concentrate on the core, focusing on it, trying to feel for something until finally, something caught. Andrew's eyes widened as almost like turning a dial, he slowly began to dim the core. No, wait, it wasn't dimming, it was… withdrawing. All the aura the core normally gave off slowly getting drawn back into the core, until it barely affected his aura. As it did, his mind began to feel remarkably less Lizard-like. He could still feel it, know what the Lizard would want him to do, but it felt distant, more like something he was observing, rather than something he personally felt.

Andrew withdrew his Human and Tiger auras next, leaving his Monkey core dominant as a goofy grin spread across his face. "Well I'll be damned. It actually works!" He laughed, jumping to his feet. He swung out of the tree house, flipping down towards the ground, before pausing at a particularly nice branch, catching his legs on it as he hung upside down, sighing contentedly. "I love my tree." He swayed contentedly, humming slightly for a few moments, before letting himself fall, flipping right-side up as he landed. "That was nice." He grinned, before cocking his head. "Hmmm… my Tiger side says this is probably long enough for a test run, so I should return all my cores back to normal… hmmm. Well, I guess." Andrew shrugged, releasing all the auras.

Andrew paused. "Well… I think I may have made my other cores too dim." He coughed awkwardly. His Monkey side had had way too much influence there. He wanted certain cores to just be a little more influential, not completely dominant. Andrew hesitated for a moment, before trying again, this time with his Tiger core left dominant. He slowly dimmed the others as his expression turned serious, until they were about half withdrawn. "Hmmm… this seems acceptable." He muttered. The influence of the other cores had faded, but he couldn't quite ignore them either. Before, it was like watching them through a window, but now they were still in the room, just not right next to him. He could ease drop, and pieces of their conversation occasionally made its way over to him, but he could focus on doing his own thing if he had to.

Andrew released the cores, turning back to normal. "Well… that's something at least. Plus, if I ever do somehow pick up an annoying core, I know how to ignore it! Not that I'm planning on doing so, or even know how I did it in the first place." Andrew frowned, trailing off for a moment, before shaking himself. "Later. For now… is there anything else I should try?" He wondered. Actually, yeah, there was. What would happen if he withdrew all his cores at the same time?

Andrew slowly withdrew his aura, carefully observing himself for any changes. He didn't want to turn into some unfeeling robot and never return his cores to normal because he just didn't care. However, as his aura withdrew… nothing happened. Even when they were almost completely withdrawn, he just felt… normal. "Huh… did that even do anything?" Andrew wondered, scratching his head, before shrugging. He honestly couldn't tell any difference between full aura him and dimmed aura him. Except that his aura was dimmed of course… Maybe he could use this to trick any Beast that might also be able to sense auras? He chuckled, shaking his head. He'd probably be better off just running. If they could manipulate their auras, then who knows how powerful they'd actually be? Too much of a gamble.

Andrew began to walk back to the house, his aura still dimmed, when he suddenly paused. "Huh." Andrew grunted, before taking another step. "That's-" Andrew cut off, his eyes widening. Tentatively, he tried to jump, his first attempt not even making it off the ground, or his second. His third attempt got him an inch or so up, and then finally his fourth looked like a real, proper jump, knees bent, launching him a good foot or two into the air! Andrew landed, stumbling slightly but barely registering it. That last jump had taken all his strength. Normally if he jumped with all his strength, he'd clear trees, and not small ones. Somehow… somehow he'd gotten weaker. A lot weaker. Andrew blinked. He was pretty sure he knew what dimming his aura did now.