Alley Cat

5: Research 💻

As soon he is back to his apartment he searches for some clothes and things that will keep the hybrid warm as the fall turns to winter soon. He grabs two warm pairs of socks, a thick sweater, two long sleeves, and a waterproof jacket he has two of them so it's fine giving him the other and a pair of old shoes he doesn't wear much anymore. 'hopefully they fit his feet' The next day he delivers the items, but once again the hybrid is nowhere to be seen. He leaves them under the pile of rags hidden so they don't get stolen and continues on his way. While he wants to help more than he realistically can, Hoseok also realizes that he shouldn't be obsessive about it. He just needs to do what any decent human would do and not worry too much about someone he doesn't even know. If he gives him the things he needs and helps, then he will have a clear conscience.

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Hoseok returns the flashlight that evening and goes home without checking on the hybrid. He's determined to not appear like a creepy stalker. Curiosity gets the better of him and he decides that he needs to do more research on hybrids. Knowing that he lacks knowledge of them. Pulling out his laptop, he does some research. He figures he'll start at the beginning and types in 'Hybrid creation' into the search bar. The results come back with a picture of a sleazy-looking biologist. He's heard about this guy before in some of his understudy courses. The guy was considered a genius, but he was also unethical. He moved to a remote location in an unknown place and experimented on genetic engineering with stolen embryos. He was able to activate long hidden traits, such as longer ape-like tails, which had only been done on animals to date. Once he got bored of simply changing the human component, he decided to add animal DNA to the mix. While Hoseok finds the concept interesting, the fact is that this guy was growing human hybrids without any concerns for the ethics behind a project like that, which makes him a little angry.

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When the authorities finally found the guy and raided his lab, they found thousands of failed human hybrid experiments. Hoseok shudders to think what those experiments looked like. After the news was released it became a huge firestorm between those who thought the guy was brilliant, while others believed he should be ended for his blatant disregard for human life. Various countries picked up where the guy left off. After his research was leaked to the public during the early days of the internet. Now, many years later, it's possible to buy custom hybrids as weird pets or as "pleasure" pets. The practice never interested Hoseok. 'Why would you want to spend your life with someone that you bought? The concept with animals is at least mildly different, but hybrids can be just as intelligent as any other human.

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Imagine paying money and your new "pet" that doesn't even like you or has the same interests. At least with dogs or cats, you can generally get along with them if you give them the basics to live, some affection, and playtime. Hoseok continues his research looking for the nearest hybrid shelter. He gets off the site after looking at dozens of sad pictures containing rejected hybrids.
He can tell why most of these hybrids won't be adopted or were rejected and dumped by their original owners. They're not up to the beauty standards that the purchasers wanted or they just got bored of their 'pet'. Considering there are now competitive hybrid competitions for the most well-bred and prettiest of each different animal. He can surmise that looks mean everything. Then again, if they paid even the minimum it costs to grow one, he would expect them to be what he ordered, like any other product.
   
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He thinks about the hybrid in the alley and realizes that he appeared to be well grown. He has fully formed feline ears, pretty colored cat-like eyes and he's the perfect height for a cat hybrid. Hoseok hadn't gotten a look around the back of him, but he was willing to bet that he had a tail. If it was fully formed and worked like a real cat's tail then the hybrid was likely worth a lot of money. Of course, his chosen animal also leads Hoseok to believe that he was likely not bred to be a simple pet, but bred for nefarious purposes by someone with a specific cat hybrid fetish. He doesn't dare dive into that realm of the internet. Already knowing about the endless pages of hybrid porn. As he had in fact been a teen boy once and curiosity had gotten the better of him back then. If he thought sometimes regular porn was cringy, then the hybrid ones were downright unwatchable. The relentless moaning about heat from the hybrid and the human talking about slick hadn't really done anything for him.

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He had eventually found some more loving and caring videos that he liked, but he rarely had time to indulge with his childhood and teen life so harshly. He had run away not too long after he discovered the darker side of the internet and he had to work. No time for anything else. Hoseok spends a few more hours researching what it requires to take care of hybrids, specifically looking into cats. Eventually putting the laptop away, Hoseok feels heaviness in his heart. Someone with too much money and not enough humanity custom ordered the hybrid, then either raised him or had him raised by a 'breeder', but later either rejected him or more likely the hybrid ran away after enduring whatever his owner did to him.

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A perfectly grown hybrid like him could have been easily sold once again. Which is why Hoseok would bet his whole future career on the hybrid escaping and running away from his 'owner '. Hoseok had trouble sleeping that night, tossing and turning with thoughts of the hybrid running away from a perverted millionaire. The scenarios getting crazier and more elaborate each time. If even an ounce of what he was thinking was true then it was no wonder the hybrid didn't want to be near people. As he laid there with the light of the morning sun rising, Hosoek thought that maybe he could bring a bit of relief to the hybrid, to ease his suffering if just a little.