History Main / MyInstinctsAreShowing

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** Played horrifyingly straight in ''Witches Abroad'' with the Big Bad Wolf. [[spoiler: Lilith]] tried to "enhance" a wolf so that it would think and speak like a person... which left the beast a tortured mess torn between human logic and animal instincts.

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* This is common in ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', as shown in the Curses for changelings of the Beast and Elemental Seemings. Beasts spent so long as wild animals that thinking non-instinctively is hard for them, resulting in a penalty of rolls requiring Intelligence. Elementals, likewise, spent so long as a primal force that interacting socially with other humans is a rough affair.

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* All over the place in ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', the TropeNamer.

* In {{Homestuck}}, after [[spoiler: Jack noir is affected by Becquerel's prototyping]] he is annoyed [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005454 by his new dog instincts]]

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* This is common in ''ChangelingTheLost'', as shown in the Curses for changelings of the Beast and Elemental Seemings. Beasts spent so long as wild animals that thinking non-instinctively is hard for them, resulting in a penalty of rolls requiring Intelligence. Elementals, likewise, spent so long as a primal force that interacting socially with other humans is a rough affair.

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* Werewolves in ''{{Discworld}}'' have some doggy instincts even in human form. They tend to wince at the word B.A.T.H., for instance. Angua is the only one who tries to suppress these instincts.
** Some Vampires have almost as much trouble, particularly with the reversed-names thing.
** Played horrifyingly straight in ''Witches Abroad'' with the Big Bad Wolf. [[spoiler: Lilith]] tried to "enhance" a wolf so that it would think and speak like a person... which left the beast a tortured mess torn between human logic and animal instincts.
* Happens in the ''{{Animorphs}}'' series. Once, while morphing seagulls, they found it hard to maintain a train of thought because they kept greedily eyeing every dumpster with a half-finished bag of chips sticking out as they flew over.

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* All the transgenics from ''DarkAngel'' are subject to this occasionally. Dog-based Joshua growls, snuffles interesting things, and acts like an excited dog around food; cat-based Max and Alec show varying feline behaviors like distrusting dogs, fastidiously bathing, acting predatory around prey animals, picking the people who least want to see them at the moment and sitting right next to them...

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* Nick Bottom in ''AMidsummerNightsDream'' is an especially funny example; he isn't aware that he's got an ass's head, he just knows that he's in the mood for oats, dried peas and a bottle of hay.

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* UpliftedAnimal characters in ''{{GURPS}} {{Uplift}}'' can take the Stress Atavism disadvantage, which is an aspect of this trope. (If you want to just have quirky animal habits, that's a different rule.)

--> '''[[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00612.htm Florence Ambrose]]''', ''{{Freefall}}''

* All over the place in ''{{Freefall}}'', the TropeNamer.

** Now, watch Sam and Florence's instincts [[DeliberateValuesDissonance crash into one another]]; what Florence the social predator sees as deferent behavior from a lower-ranking pack member is considered to be nigh-heroic alpha male behavior by Sam's species (provided you do it to your enemies; Sam got chased off his homeworld when a stunt like this got out of hand and ended up seriously inconveniencing ''his own'' royal family).

** Now, watch Sam and Florence's instincts [[ValuesDissonance crash into one another]]; what Florence the social predator sees as deferent behavior from a lower-ranking pack member is considered to be nigh-heroic alpha male behavior by Sam's species (provided you do it to your enemies; Sam got chased off his homeworld when a stunt like this got out of hand and ended up seriously inconveniencing ''his own'' royal family).

A non-human character tries to live amongst humans. He does a good job, but occasionally his race's normal (and non-human) behavior comes out.

[[TransformationCauses Whatever the reason for a transformation]] may be, this is almost guaranteed to happen during or after {{shapeshifting}}. This may include food preferences unusual for their current form.

[[TransformationCauses Whatever the reason for a transformation]] may be, this is almost guaranteed to happen during or after {{shapeshifting}}.

** Now, watch Sam and Florence's instincts crash into one another; what Florence the social predator sees as deferent behavior from a lower-ranking pack member is considered to be nigh-heroic alpha male behavior by Sam's species (provided you do it to your enemies; Sam got chased off his homeworld when a stunt like this got out of hand and ended up seriously inconveniencing ''his own'' royal family).

* ''EerieCuties'' is on a gleeful rampage with this. Kade's [[http://www.eeriecuties.com/d/20090720.html reaction]] on Ace is an example. Brooke invoked it [[http://www.eeriecuties.com/d/20090930.html quite intentionally]]. Nina as a chocolate-loving vampire has her instincts rather... [[http://www.eeriecuties.com/d/20090805.html haywire]].

* after [[spoiler: Jack noir is affected by Becquerel's prototyping]] he is annoyed [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005454 by his new dog instincts]]

* Brian from ''FamilyGuy'' lives this; his family members even occasionally ''invoke'' the trope to distract and/or humiliate him. For example, he will chase balls, is attracted to the sound of dog food in a bag, and is terrified of the vacuum. He also has a tendency to bark at strangers, especially black strangers (subconscious racism which he himself is ashamed of).

* Happens a few times to Katty in ''The Fantastic Adventures of {{Unico}}'' when she [[HumanityEnsues gets turned into a human girl]].

[[quoteright:300:[[GirlGenius http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krosp-instinct-is-showing_8421.jpg]]]] A non-human character tries to live amongst humans. He does a good job, but occasionally his race's normal (and non-human) behavior comes out.

* All over the place in ''{{Freefall}}'', which is the TropeNamer.

*** She puts a bowl of leftovers in the fridge covered in towels. The genetically-modified wolf realizes after she shuts the fridge that [[TropeNamer her instincts are showing]] -- [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00612.htm she just buried a tupperware bowl]].

*Brian from ''FamilyGuy'' lives this; his family members even occasionally ''invoke'' the trope to distract and/or humiliate him.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krosp-instinct-is-showing_8421.jpg]] A non-human character tries to live amongst humans. He does a good job, but occasionally his race's normal (and non-human) behavior comes out.

* All over the place in {{Freefall}}, which is the TropeNamer
**Florence is the main target.
***She puts a bowl of leftovers in the fridge covered in towels. The genetically-modified wolf realizes after she shuts the fridge that [[TropeNamer her instincts are showing]] -- [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00612.htm she just buried a tupperware bowl]].
***Smacks her nose against the screen when a mouse goes by.
***Is unable to avoid barking at a cat in an early strip.
***Has trouble trusting Sam because she thinks he's acting like a low-ranking pack member.
**Sam is prone to falling back on his scavenger-instincts too, claiming that "Food tastes better when you steal it from a predator", among other things (though often he does this deliberately).
*From GirlGenius comes Krosp III, Emperor of All Cats - basically, a cat with human-level intelligence, speech, thumbs, and the ability to walk erect... he'd like to claim that his 'cat-instincts' have no hold over him, but Agatha rather enjoys proving otherwise. Using a piece of string.

* In the rebooted Furtopia RP of [=~Darwin's Soldiers~=], Captain Kayle Storm (an unspecified lupine soldier) [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]], subverts and plays this trope straight. When his rifle jams, he clubs a terrorist with it and latches his jaws onto the terrorist's face and proceeds to maul him. Subverted in the fact that he spends a few seconds vomiting after he does so.

*Brian from FamilyGuy lives this; his family members even occasionally ''invoke'' the trope to distract and/or humiliate him.

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*All the transgenics from DarkAngel are subject to this occasionally. Dog-based Joshua growls, snuffles interesting things, and acts like an excited dog around food; cat-based Max and Alec show varying feline behaviors like distrusting dogs, fastidiously bathing, acting predatory around prey animals, picking the people who least want to see them at the moment and sitting right next to them...