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The trip to that weird island might have culminated in megasuck, but overall, West had more exciting remembrances of it than bad ones. First off, there had been the boats. Never having been on one before for more than five minutes at a time, West could never have predicted the sheer amount of fun he would have on R.A.G.E. The tentacle hickey part hadn't been that great, but the majority of them had faded by now, leaving memories of shooting harpoons and hacking through bloody squid legs in their wake. Why weren't non-reapers allowed weapons on campus again?

The island itself had been another story altogether, but not necessarily a bad one. Sure, there had been days of walking without rest, food or water, odd attack-reapers, friends falling down holes, hallucinations and teachers, but there had also been, well, there hadn't actually been as much fighting as he would have liked. All right, maybe the island had sucked after all.

Still, the wrath demon currently found himself in a chipper mood he hadn't been able to shake for at least thirty-four and two-thirds hours now. That had been the moment West had been set free. He hadn't slept since then, and he was perilously close to looking for someone to kick out of boredom when he saw it. Some random fox was wandering around nearby. No one would care if he kicked a fox, at least not anyone who mat... well, Holly might. Holly mattered. Wait. Was that fox Holly? It kind of looked fairly ghostish now that he thought about it. Ghostish and slightly constipated. Yeah, it was probably her.

"Holly," West said in a voice that was louder than average but far from shouting, "Issat you?" He jogged over to the creature, grinning down at her as he came to a stop. "It's gotta be, c'mon. Gettup'ere so I can tellya 'bout..." No, he supposed he wasn't going to tell her about repaying his mark because that would require revealing he had one in the first place. "...so we can... I dunno."

Good. West caught the bobbing of the fox's head, an acknowledgement that this was indeed the ghost he had thought it was. But why wasn't she changing into a form that could talk? Was this some sort of weird game ghosts with animal forms liked to partake in? "Quit playin', Holly, I dun'ave time..." Hrm. No. West supposed he had all the time in the world. What was she looking at? The boil peered off in the direction Holly seemed to be scampering, catching a glimpse of wide eyes and a menacing grin. Minipet. West had never met Tali before, but there was no reason why his hatred of all of the tiny animals that resided on campus couldn't extend to the bakeneko.

"Did that thing take somethin'of y... peh." Even if Holly could answer, it didn't seem like she was inclined to at the moment. West supposed that didn't matter. "We goin'? Lead th'way." He held back for a second, remembering the hellhunter debacle. Minipets were kind of skittish and he didn't want to frighten the thing into running away until it was cornered.

"Yeah, right." He could easily deduce what a snarl coupled with an impatient jerk of her head meant and began to trail after Holly without further comment, keeping up his "ambushing small animals" gait while he did so. He still wasn't entirely sure why she was choosing to remain foxy, but he had come to the conclusion that she was unable to become person-shaped at the moment, which was at least a start. She seemed a bit too miffed to be remaining mute by choice. He wondered if she could talk to other foxes? Something to ask when she could form sentences without scratching them in the dirt.

It didn't take him much longer after that to have a sort of natural-form-related epiphany. He recalled the unusual number of animals running around Christmas Town and something about malfunctioning pins and... oh. It had something of hers. Right. "'t's got yer pin," he muttered under his breath, lightly touching his own which was currently clipped to his belt. He didn't technically need to wear the thing when it wasn't required since he stayed the same with or without it, he just happened to think his was pretty cool.

What was with minipets and stealing? Maybe when this little adventure was over he would propose a "Down with the Pet Menace" club to the student council.

West caught a glimpse of the bakeneko as he rounded the first corner, but she was soon scampering on, Holly close behind. He hurried forward again and was surprised to see Tali just sitting there smiling when he reached the other side of the building.

"Whatthe..." he said under his breath, looking down at the fox ghoul as she began to scratch out something in the dirt. West watched as she outlined the plan, glancing between Tali and Holly as they were gestured to. He smirked. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would ever be taking direction from a fox. He tried to school his expression into a more serious one, but it only half worked. At least he understood what she was trying to tell him.

"I'll jusstand'ere fer a few minutes while you run 'round back," he confirmed. "Then..." He smacked his fist lightly into the palm of his opposite hand. Beatings, perhaps?

As Holly took off around the side of the building, West turned away slightly, appearing to look off into the trees while keeping his peripheral vision on Tali. Nonchalant. Unconcerned. Perhaps the animal didn't need to be treated to this level of deception, but maybe it was smarter than it looked. It didn't take long for the ghost ghoul to return, and when she did, the demon turned to face the creature once more. If Holly spooked it, maybe he could catch it? Or should he be the one doing the frightening? West shrugged slightly at the ghoul in a silent 'what's next,' trying not to alert Tali to her presence.

Well, crap. West took a couple of quick steps toward Tali as she took off and even managed to swipe at her, but the combination of the animal's lack of solidness and the boil's lack of quickness resulted in a big handful of nothing. He growled a frustrated growl and continued forward, always a few steps behind Holly and her pet, until... the tree.

He was not climbing a tree.

"No."

West looked at Holly. He looked at Tali. He glared at the tree. A muffled growl rose in his throat and he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He would have almost preferred to be locked in that strange tunnel they had found, chasing that stupid whip-stealing hellhunter than out here about to climb a tree.

"Tha'snot gonna do anythin'," he muttered, looking up at Tali again. "It's just gonna..." He sighed. Well now he looked like some sort of whining pansy. But really, if they couldn't catch the thing on the ground, what hope did he have of doing so in a tree? Clearly his reluctance had nothing to do with his sub-par climbing skills.

"Fine." He continued muttering nonsensical things about spastic fox paws and minipet-skin hats as he approached the trunk, then gingerly grabbed the stupid thing, propped a foot against it and pushed off of the ground with the other. It appeared to be going well for a short while as the boil moved a hand, then another hand, then a foot higher up the trunk, but today's choice of footwear was far from appropriate for climbing trees, plus there was the fact that he happened to suck at it. Just when it began to look like this climb would be incident-free, West's foot slipped and he slammed his knee awkwardly into the bark in front of him. He tried to fling both arms and, for some reason, his tail around the trunk, but it was too late. Taking one final swipe at Tali, West fell to the ground, shouting a delightfully obscene string of insults at the animal as he landed.