[PRP] Good Buddies

[kotaline]

WHO: Yves, Yuri, Lorenzo, Vesna, and Buddy.
WHEN: a mid April morning, a few weeks after the Spring Meta.
WHERE: The Pet Parlor, in central Durem.
WEATHER: A little chilly for April, but sunny.

The furriest member of the Fisch household was getting pretty grody.

It was Vesna who noticed it first, when she found his tongue fallen off in the hallway, and after spending a painstaking hour trying to get him to hold still long enough to sew it back on, she noticed that the rest of him was also a little scruffy. She tackled the issue with the cat brush, but had only caused his tail to come loose. After Lorenzo took a look at it, he admitted that while Buddy was a Good Boy, he had been getting into a lot of mischief lately, and as a result, he was looking more undead than usual. There was some discussion about whether or not Buddy had to look alive, and then some discussion about what cleaning Buddy up would actually entail, and finally the Fisch household decided: they needed to seek some professional help.

They did the best they could in private. Lorenzo sewed Buddy's limbs back on securely as possible, and Vesna sprayed some perfume over him to try to mask the persistent and familiar eau de Buddy. Then they researched pet grooming places, then they researched pet grooming places which were undead friendly, then they packed up Buddy in his travel carrier, which, since Buddy was undead and pet carriers were expensive, was a cardboard box, the same one that, had Lorenzo not been a necromancer, Buddy would probably have been buried in. Vesna carried it under her arm cheerfully, carefully peeling sparkly stickers from a sheet and sticking them to the lid. Buddy did not seem to mind. He loathed cat carriers- he had memories of cat carriers from when he was alive and he did not like a single one of them. Boxes, however, were fine. Buddy laid on the bottom of the box very stiffly and turned his thoughts toward oblivion.

Vesna finished applying sparkly stickers to the lid as Lorenzo pulled open the door of The Pet Parlor. He had tried his best to explain the situation over the phone while making his appointment, but his phone manner was poor at best, especially while bringing up undead issues to living and probably fancy people.

"G-Good morning!" he stammered, as Vesna pulled out another sticker sheet to start on the sides of the box. "We're, uh, here for our appointment? For Fisch. Uh, Lorenzo. Fisch. And Buddy... Fisch."  

[Logue]

"Bienvenue!"

Yves called his regular greeting from the back when he heard the door open. Yuri, broom in hand, echoed the greeting, although much quieter and with much less enthusiasm. Although he had been born able to speak English, he had been growing up with a fluent French speaker and was learning that language, too, albeit a bit awkwardly. He watched the pair that had entered with wide eyes, recognizing the girl as the one he had seen at the picnic. She had given him a charm. She wanted to be friends, he remembered. He relaxed his shoulders and set the broom aside.

"Hi," he called to her, a little more confidently this time. He regarded Lorenzo with a curious look but didn't say anything, instead deciding to let Yves take it from there.

Hustling up to the front counter, Yves was drying his hands off with a white towel when he saw them. He raised his eyes at Vesna and beamed.

"Ah! How wonderful to see you again, Vesna!" He clapped his hands together and looked from her to Lorenzo. "And I don't think we were properly introduced yet? My name is Yves, and this is Yuri. We met your lovely Vesna at the picnic. The, er... bird attack one."

Yuri, who had been about ready to begin sweeping again, had to pause when the smell finally hit him. He wrinkled his nose, thought about it, and then turned his head and looked at the box Vesna was holding. He drifted toward her, staring down at the box with a strange look. It was masked with a heavy perfume, but little got past Yuri's sensitive nose. Whatever was behind that perfume didn't smell... alive. Actually, it smelled pretty darn dead. He tilted his head and gave Vesna a confused look.

"What's in there?" he asked, pointing.  

[kotaline]

Logue

Vesna looked up from where she was sticking a "GOOD JOB!!" sticker onto Buddy's box. "Oh my god!!" she said, pushing past Lorenzo, who was still trying to stammer through the phrase "appointment". "I didn't get your phone numbers or anything, and I was so worried I would never see you again! What's up?? Did you find a ton of fel essences? We found, like, a million."

Lorenzo took a moment to catch up, but once he realized that the pair of them must somehow be connected to Lab, he relaxed a little. Surely a man who would adopt a raevan had to be at least a little prepared to deal with the occult. He collected himself and pressed forward, sticking out a hand and putting on a professional voice. "It's nice to meet you, Yves, Yuri." he greeted. "I'm Lorenzo, Vesna's my client." He laughed nervously. "It's nice to properly meet you. The bird attack picnic was certainly... an experience. I hope neither of you were hurt."

Vesna frowned at the term 'client', but she was distracted by Yuri. "Dad's cat," she said simply. "His name is Buddy. He's getting kind of gross, so we thought that it might be time to get him looked at by a professional. Which, uh, I guess would be your dad? That's super cool," she said enviously. "I want to hang out with a bunch of living animals all day, too."

"Why don't you let Buddy out?" suggested Lorenzo. Vesna opened the box obligingly, and Buddy oozed out from it, opening his mouth to yawn. Since he didn't breathe, this was a little bizarre to watch, but undead animals were creatures of habit, even when the habits no longer really made sense.

"His stitches were just restitched this morning, so he should hold together pretty well," Vesna remarked. "Dad did it, I'm not really good at it yet. We just don't really know how to make him, you know," She gestured helplessly, "Cute."

Buddy seemed unperturbed by the value judgement. He stretched, sniffed at Yuri's ribbon, then batted at it lazily. Vesna bent down to pick him up, sticking a sticker that said "TRY YOUR BEST!" onto his forehead. "Be good," she scolded.  

[Logue]

"Client?" Yves quietly echoed, tilting his head curiously at Lorenzo. He then decided not to dwell on it - every guardian's situation was different - and took Lorenzo's hand in a brisk shake. "It was quite a stir, to be certain! But we came out alright. Yuri is very... tough. Unlike me."

He glanced at Yuri, who was now fully pre-occupied with Vesna, and chuckled to himself. Yuri was trying to answer her questions, but quickly became overwhelmed and just waved his hands helplessly at her. "We found two," he managed, face falling. "Um, one of them was poop."

Yuri swelled a bit in pride when Vesna complimented his guardian, but he didn't say anything, instead focusing on the box and trying to figure out what was in it. Yves was leaning forward now, too, peering at the box with raised eyebrows. When Vesna opened the box and Buddy came out, he couldn't help but withdraw in surprise.

"Cat?" Yuri confirmed, his face incredulous. He tilted his head this way and that and tried to figure out if Vesna was telling the truth. True, he looked like a cat, but he also looked like his old stuffed animals after he'd ripped them up and Yves had tried to fix them. He floated down closer to Buddy and peered right into his face, fascination slowly taking over.

Yves had taken the call and he had spoken to Lorenzo about his cat. An undead creature wasn't a huge surprise, but he couldn't recall a time where he had actually had the privilege of working with one. As advertised, Yves was open to groom just about anything, however - and it would be a great learning experience. Before he could move forward to inspect Buddy's condition, Yuri had already picked the cat up and was holding him gingerly in his arms.

"Cat," he said again, and cradled the cat into his chest. Bubs at home was much fluffier and less dead, but Yuri liked cats so he liked Buddy. And something about the undead aspect just made Buddy that much more cool. Reminded him of himself, in a small way. He half-turned and looked at Yves.

"We can make him cute."

"I know," Yves responded, crossing his arms with a determined nod. "I mean, not that Buddy isn't already cute, but..."

Yuri cracked a smile. "Yeah." He guessed his dad was cool. Looking at Vesna, he added, "Um, also... you can come and play with the animals anytime."
 

[kotaline]

Logue

"Well, her soul was my client." Lorenzo explained. "Apart from serving as her guardian, I'm also helping her transition to life on Gaia." He grinned. "But she's pretty tough, too. So far she hasn't needed much help picking up on things." He glanced over at the raevans, busy fussing over Buddy, and spied Yuri's bony wings.

"Is Yuri undead as well?" he asked, hopeful that Vesna might have found an undead friend. So far she had shown herself to be averse to spending too much time with his clients, and he worried that she might lose touch with the undead community.

Vesna laughed. "Poop? I think Eden texted me about that one. We found a weird one, too, it was, like, this upside down onion?? Can you imagine, like, if your essence made everybody cry when they smelled you?" She wrinkled her nose a little. "I thought my fel essence was a bummer."

As Yuri recoiled from Buddy, Vesna puffed out her chest and prepared to defend him. After all, she might think he was gross, but he was her cat, or at least a single degree of separation away from being her cat, and it wasn't his fault that he was slightly rotting. But she needn't have worried, as Yuri seemed to be one of the very few people on Gaia who Buddy was able to quickly charm. She relaxed and informed him: "He's a good boy."

"I've never taken an undead animal to a pet groomer before," Lorenzo admitted. "I'm interested in the process, though. Many of my clients would probably be interested in an undead-friendly grooming service, since right now I mostly do pet resurrections. It's pretty standard for beginning necromancers."

"I've never petted a living animal!" Vesna gushed as Yuri offered for her to come back. "I can't believe you lived so close to us all along, I could have been petting living animals this whole time." She remembered herself and added, "And hanging out with you, duh! You can come over to my house whenever you want, too, but it's kind of gross like Buddy. Like, not terrible, but a lot of people think it's kind of weird, so, um, yeah."  

[Logue]

Yves fanned his fingers out in front of himself, his eyebrows lifting. "Yuri isn't undead, I don't... I don't think?" He tilted his head, looking at Lorenzo as if he could go ahead and be the final authority on that. "Um, his fel essence was a living bone, so I suppose he is? In a way? God, that's a good question, isn't it?" He looked at Yuri again, this time scrutinizing him with his cheek in his hand.

Yuri wrinkled his nose at Vesna, trying to decide if petting living animals really was as much of a privilege as she made it sound. He saw them everywhere, all the time, even outside of the salon, but maybe Vesna didn't live anywhere near other animals. Or maybe all the animals around her house were undead. In the end, he concluded that it was, in fact, pretty cool, because Peanut and Bubs were different from Buddy. But Buddy was really, really cool, too. He was conflicted, but he kept it to himself, just making a confused face instead.

At her invitation he smiled a little and mumbled an agreement, secretly feeling very pleased. Making friends had seemed like such a daunting task, but he was already doing pretty well.

"You know, I have never done this before," Yves admitted, casting another glance toward Buddy. "Groomed an undead creature, I mean. But I welcome the experience, and I don't think it will be that hard. Just a little of this, and that..."

He busied himself with a few products on the counter, lining them up as he spoke. "I was honestly surprised they had perfume for pets." He laughed. "I guess it's good for some pets, huh?"

"I have an idea," Yuri suddenly said, his ears sticking straight up, as they tended to do when he was excited. He cradled Buddy in his arms and gave him a gentle rock back and forth. He had decided he loved that cat a lot.

"Buddy really is a good cat," he told Vesna, his expression deeply serious. "And bones are really good, too. My idea is that we should shave him. All of him."

Yves blinked, slowly. "Ah -- what?" He gave Yuri his most patient look, but was clearly not following him quite yet.

"Shave his skin off," Yuri elaborated, matter-of-factly. "To make him a skeleton. No more stink, no messy fur, no stitching together. Just bones. Um, and if you're worried about him falling apart, I can... I could probably help. I think. I can try."  

[kotaline]

Lorenzo laughed. "Vesna is similarly confusing," he reassured. "She's undead, but she... isn't undead? It makes it difficult for me to know how best to care for her, although I'm sure she's relieved that she doesn't have to deal with skin rot."

He watched with interest as Yves began to dig around for products. "I had no idea pet care was so involved. I resurrect pets for a living, but after the deed is done, I mostly just check up on their physical and mental condition. How they look is a concern to my clients, but the best I can do is help sew stray limbs back on and try to slow the rotting process. It's good to know I can recommend perfume, too."

Buddy yawned as Yuri rocked him, a strange process considering that Buddy didn't breathe. Buddy did a lot of things out of force of habit, but even though his lungs no longer worked, his insides still smelled Terrible. Vesna wrinkled her nose as she was hit with the odor. "He's... Doing his best," she replied to Yuri's compliment. She dutifully peeled off another sticker and stuck it on Buddy, this one proclaiming "YOU'RE A CHAMP!!"

As Yuri followed up his value judgement on Buddy, Lorenzo and Vesna fell silent. Vesna's eyes slowly trailed over to Buddy, who was idly trying to scratch the new sticker off his cheek.

"It's an interesting thought," Lorenzo began, "But I don't think necromantic magic like what keeps Buddy alive is powerful enough to hold him together when his skin and muscles are gone. Right now the spell on him is designed to keep his body going through force of habit. Animals are more instinctive than humans, so a lot of the spells that resurrect pets depend on that."

"Plus, it'd be sad to watch him try to lick himself clean with no fur or tongue or anything," added Vesna. "It's already sad enough to watch him try to eat all the mice he catches. Sad and gross."

"What do you mean, you can help?" Lorenzo asked curiously. "Are your powers necromantic, by any chance?"  

[Logue]

Although disappointment was plainly evident on his face, Yuri accepted their verdict gracefully with a stoic nod. He held Buddy up to better admire the stickers Vesna had dutifully placed on him, silently wishing he could have a sticker, too.

"Oh." He drew his gaze away from Buddy and gave Lorenzo a hesitant glance. "Um, well, it's more like... I can make bones go back together. If they, um, break or even if they're just two different bones. Dad said I could probably heal a living thing's broken bones."

Yves leaned his hip against the counter and nodded, sagely. "We still don't know the full extent of his powers, but he has shown many times now that he can fuse bones together quite easily. And I don't mean just make them stick together." He gestured toward Yuri with a wave of his hand.

"I mean, they are functional, they make sense when he does it. Am I making any sense? They don't just stick together, it is as if he is creating new joints and everything."

Yuri's ears flicked back as he floated there, unsure of what to do when he was being talked about. He couldn't explain it any better than Yves could, so he simply remained quiet and began to make Buddy 'dance' in the air.

Yves turned away and began rummaging through his bag, pulling out his phone and going through it. "I have a photo, ah... You know of taxidermy, of course. Take a look at this."

He held the phone up to Lorenzo. On the screen was a skeletal creature - some kind of mammal with crude, skeletal wings protruding from its back. It could have been an opossum, or raccoon, but the look on Yves' face suggested that it had not had wings before Yuri had gotten his paws on it.

"He makes these," Yves confirmed. Yuri suddenly became embarrassed and floated back a few paces, pretending to focus on Buddy while watching Vesna and Lorenzo out of the corner of his eye. Their reactions were important to him, but he didn't want them to know that.

Yves waved a hand. "They are very cool, are they not? But I think this was what he meant... right, Yuri?"

Yuri jumped slightly and looked at them with a rather deer-in-headlights expression on his face. After some thought, he propped Buddy up onto his shoulder and nodded.

"If he fell apart, I was thinking I could have fixed him..." He mumbled, stroking Buddy's fur. "It, um, it was a dumb idea. Sorry..."

kotaline

 

[kotaline]

Lorenzo examined the picture on Yves's phone, Vesna float up behind him as nonchalantly as possible to sneak a look. Before her guardian could open her mouth to speak, Vesna gasped, clapping her hands together. "What?! That's such a cool power!" She floated back over to Yuri and Buddy, babbling, "Like, you can actually make art and stuff with it! All the stuff I can do is dumb."

"It is cool," Lorenzo agreed. "But is it necromancy? Are these sculptures alive?"

"If they aren't, I bet you could make them be alive," Vesna volunteered for him.

"I don't think I could." Lorenzo mused. "At least, not without some experimenting. Although if they aren't alive, it might be nice to buy one for the office."

"You never give me money for my drawings," Vesna pointed out.

"I assumed that all the drawings you offered me were gifts," Lorenzo retorted. "Anyway, the idea itself is a very interesting one, Yuri. I know how to fix Buddy the way he is now, so I'd like to keep him that way, but I'd be interested in learning more about your powers. Are you interested in necromancy? I could maybe offer you some lessons in return."

"It's not as cool as it sounds," Vesna warned Yuri. "There's waaay more reading and paperwork than you'd think there'd be."

Lorenzo cleared his throat. "Anyway, if Yves is all right with the offer, please consider it. As for Buddy, what do you generally start with for grooming a pet as, ah, ungroomed as he is?"

Buddy did a big stretch in Yuri's arms. A sticker proclaiming "GOOD JOB" detached itself from his matted flank and gently to the floor.

Logue

 

[Logue]

While Vesna and Lorenzo went back and forth, Yuri found himself glancing from Raevan to guardian a couple times, silently. He didn't know when to speak up or what to even say, but he did find himself turning a soft shade of red at their compliments. Coming from such cool people -- who owned someone as cool as Buddy, no less -- it was really a good compliment and it made him feel... well, awesome.

When the attention was drawn back to him, Yuri gently hugged Buddy to himself and cleared his throat.

"Um. What?" He blinked at Lorenzo, his ears perking up. "I... really? I would... um, I would like that a lot."

In a hushed voice he added, more to Buddy than Lorenzo, "Is it really okay?" He looked at Buddy as if he might give his permission.

Aside from the occasional horror movie or medical text, Yuri had hardly learned anything about himself. Yves always took him to the library and he would look and look, but he didn't know which occult books applied to him or what they even meant. The chance to get to know himself better -- and his powers -- made him feel almost sick. Happy. Sickhappy. He pet Buddy's ears and head a few times, the corner of his lip twitching to form a crooked little smile down at the cat.

Yves did a quick and enthusiastic quiet clap, grinning wide. "That is very kind of you!" he gushed, causing Yuri to turn an even brighter shade of red. Yuri then tried to retreat by floating backward, but Yves reached out and carefully pried Buddy out of his arms.

"Lorenzo, if you are willing to help my boy out like this, then... this grooming is for free! Actually," he looked down at Buddy and wrinkled his nose. For an undead creature, he really was cute. Especially with the stickers. "Actually, what if I gave you free grooming all the time? It is the least I could do for such a generous offer. And before you say anything, it is not a bother. Or I could just pay you."

He flitted behind the counter, Buddy in tow. "Whatever you prefer! Just let me know, okay?" After a few moments he came back with Buddy and a small basket of some grooming supplies.

"Ahm, hm. I should be careful with this one," Yves mumbled to himself. Setting Buddy on the counter, he then knelt down a bit to look at him eye-to-eye. Buddy seemed like a pretty laid back cat, so he allowed him to sit there unrestrained. He hoped he wouldn't regret that.

Casting a side glance to Lorenzo, Yves rubbed his chin and squinted. "I must confess, Mr. Lorenzo, I have never groomed an undead creature before. But I think I should approach it as I would a very delicate and sensitive pet, non? Hypoallergenic shampoo, a very, very careful brush... What do you think?"

He straightened and dusted his hands off on his apron, shaking some cat hair off in the process. "If you are worried about the scent, since the shampoo I have does not contain any, I have some sprays you could have. They smell very nice and should not irritate him."

The basket of grooming supplies was set upon the counter next to Buddy to inspect if he wished. He probably didn't realize Yves was going to send him home with them, but Yves wasn't going to mention that, either. He rolled up his sleeves

"Sorry, I talk a lot. Shall we begin, mon chat?"

kotaline

 

[kotaline]

Buddy did not seem to care what Yuri did so long as he did not stop paying attention to him, but Lorenzo intervened on behalf of his cat.

"It's really okay," he reassured. "I can't think of a safer place to test out your powers than a necromancer's office- I can teach you some necromantic theory as well. If your powers turn out to be actually necromantic, we can discuss practical lessons from there." He gestured to Vesna, adding, "We haven't fully explored the extent of Vesna's abilities yet either. It might be more fun for her to do it with a friend."

"Yeah!" Vesna enthused. "Maybe I'll learn to do something cool, too. Although I don't really know if I can stay awake for the necromantic theory stuff." It was hard to care too much about her body when Vesna didn't even really know properly what it looked like- on the off chance she really was a rotting corpse, she preferred to stay blissfully ignorant.

"R-really?" Lorenzo stammered as Yves offered to clean the Fisch family cat not just regularly, but for free. "I mean, ah, grooming Buddy seems like more than a fair trade to me, especially since I'm interested in Yuri's powers as well. I mean, ah, let's wait and see whether he's a hassle to groom, but yes, that would be really , truly generous of you."

"And I can bring him over and pet the living animals!" Vesna intuited. Buddy would be earning an extra sticker for the service he had performed for her today.

Buddy narrowed his eyes at Yves as he stared at him, but blinked before Yves did and looked away haughtily. He was displeased that he was not being held anymore, and he had a bad feeling about being examined so carefully. The only other time anybody paid this much attention to him was when Lorenzo was about to give him a check-up.

"He's not that delicate," Lorenzo reassured Yves. "He's mostly in bad shape because he leads an active lifestyle. If any of his, er, bits, fall off, I brought some surgical thread to fix him with." He examined the shampoo brands at the same time that Buddy did, although, unlike Buddy, he did not deign to sniff the basket.

"Is it all right if I write these brands down?" he asked Yves. "For my clients. Ah, do you have a business card, actually? That would be even better."

Having sniffed the shampoo thoroughly, Buddy stiffened as Yves approached him. He began to sidle away, but Vesna caught him and looked down at him not unsympathetically.

"You'll thank him later," she coaxed, pushing Buddy gently back towards Yves.

Logue

 

[Logue]

Yuri held back a grin, keeping his joy contained to a shy smile. He wanted nothing more than to learn more about the undead parts of his life, even if they were limited to just a weird bone that had become his fel essence. Someone like Lorenzo, who was experienced in just that kind of thing, would be the perfect person to help with that. And to get to know Vesna, his newest friend, better? If he had a tail, it would definitely have wagged.

"Peanut likes attention a lot," Yuri pointed out, helpfully. He beamed at Vesna. "He'd like it if you came over to pet him sometime. I can never seem to pet him enough to make him happy." Peanut was the kind of dog to bark when one stopped petting him, something Yuri had learned quickly. His petting arm got tired all the time around that dog.

"Oh, those are yours," Yves replied, nodding toward the grooming supplies. "Sometimes it's best to have some on hand, so I was just going to send you home with those. Is that okay?"

He nudged the shampoos and scented sprays across the counter, toward Lorenzo. "Business card?" he echoed. "Oh! Of course I do." Plucking a few out of their plastic holder on the counter, he presented the stylish cards to Lorenzo with a sheepish smile.

"D-do you think there are a lot of undead pets in town? I really wouldn't mind the extra traffic," he admitted, scratching his cheek. For a groomer, business was heavily dependent on word-of-mouth; the happier the clients, the more pets he saw on the daily.

Almost surprisingly, it appeared that Buddy was not as unflappable as he seemed. Yves had begun to believe that undead animals weren't as affected by the thought of baths as their living counterparts, but when Buddy recoiled, he knew. He rolled up his sleeves further and tried to prepare himself for what could very well end in undead scratch marks.

"Come now, Buddy," Yves coaxed in what he hoped was a convincing tone. He gave Vesna a grateful smile and gently placed a hand on Buddy's back to anchor him in that spot.

Yuri leaned over and tried to give Buddy a reassuring stare. Did cats like being stared at? He couldn't tell with their cat at home, either. "It won't hurt," he promised, and reached out to give Buddy a soft pet on the head.

"That was nice of you, Yuri," Yves mused, holding up a brush for Buddy to inspect. "We will start with the brushing... easy, right?" He was definitely going to have to approach the brushing part with extra care. The thought of brushing too hard and pulling more than just loose hair out was... well, more than mildly horrifying.

Yves cast a tentative glance toward Lorenzo, as if looking for reassurance (he was), before carefully running the soft-bristled brush over Buddy's fur. He made certain not to brush with any sort of force, taking note of the lack of mats or tangles in the feline's coat. It took some time, but when he pulled the brush away and looked at it, he showed Vesna and Lorenzo the black hairs clinging to the bristles.

"Not too bad!" he remarked. "Buddy is lucky not to have mats in his fur. See, Buddy? Not bad at all. The bath, however... well, just promise to work with me here."

kotaline

 

[kotaline]

"I can pet Peanut enough to make him happy," Vesna decided. "I practiced a lot on Buddy." Buddy was soft still, despite everything, but he was not at all warm- it was sort of like petting a rag doll, if rag dolls had bones. Vesna had seen some of the undead dogs in Lorenzo's care, too, and briefly they had visited a dog park during their hunt for fel essences. She had never actually gotten to spend time with a dog, though. She had a lot of dog-petting to catch up on.

Lorenzo seemed taken aback at Yves's gift. "It's quite generous, if you're sure," he said, and set the grooming supplies aside. "I'm sure Vesna will enjoy testing them out on Buddy later." He took the business cards more readily, and tucked them into his wallet for reference later.

"There are more undead pets than you'd think," he mused. "Most pet owners come to me for a full resurrection if they can get there in time, but full resurrections are often tricky even when the circumstances are ideal- and in that case, the pet may come back undead, or may not come back at all. Other pet owners just don't think of or can't book a necromancer in time, so they choose to bring their pet back undead rather than leave them as is. Usually the kind of client who wants to hire a necromancer tends to be wealthier, so, as you can imagine, many of them want to pamper their pets in any way they can. Not to mention, pet hygiene weighs heavily on one's mind after a couple of weeks living with an undead animal." He gestured at Buddy, who seemed quite oblivious to his own filth. "I usually leave clients to make their own arrangements in that regard, but I'm glad I have a friendly business to pass them along to now."

Buddy stared back at Yuri. His eyes were definitely the eyes of something very dead, but they glowed dully with an eerie magical light. He closed them as Yuri petted him, and made a purring noise- due to the magic that animated him, this did not come from his throat, but seemed rather to come from an echo-y other place, impossible to physically pinpoint.

Lorenzo nodded to Yves, and if Buddy liked being petted, he liked being brushed even more, rubbing up against the bristles in a way that made Lorenzo fret about the durability of some of his stitches. Nothing went amiss, though, and when it was over, Buddy blinked at Yves trustingly.

"You did a great job!" Vesna encouraged, as if he might understand. She looked up at Yves. "What do you bathe cats in? A sink? A tub?"

Logue

 

[Logue]

Yves was not-so-secretly pleased to have his gift received without trouble. He loved giving things to people, but he knew all too well that there would always be that person who refused a gift at every turn. Anyone who spent at least half an hour with Yves would soon realize that he liked to push coffee, snacks, etc on people. It was the best way he knew to show his appreciation. Maybe it came from his poor childhood. Maybe he just wanted to make up for not being able to do it at all as a young adult. Maybe he was just really annoying.

He tutted at Lorenzo. "You just offered to mentor my child! That isn't a chance Yuri would get every day. Granted, I don't know you very well--"

He looked at Yuri, who was suddenly appalled and staring at Yves like he'd just thrown Buddy out the window.

"--but, I know the lab has a very rigorous approval process, and you and Vesna both come off as very nice people. So I'm not worried. Well, I'm always worried, about everything ever, but I'm trying not to be." Yves let out a small laugh. "Besides, Yuri is so ripped, I would feel bad for whoever tried to take him on."

Yuri turned red as a tomato and wondered if one of his raevan powers was just dissipating into thin air. It turned out it wasn't, but he did his best houseplant impression, nonetheless.

The way Lorenzo described it, there was a very real possibility of an increase in business -- undead business. He'd definitely need to brush up on his skills in order to prepare for such a day, if it ever came; the undead came in every shape and size, and not all of them had the luxury of attached fur or even skin. Would he need to bleach a skeleton one of these days? He added it to his mental pile of required reading.

Now that Yves's horribleness was out of the way, Yuri stared at Vesna in awe. If anyone could manage to satisfy Peanut's endless need for petting, they would have to either be a straight up thug or a dog expert. He wasn't sure if he should have been impressed or afraid of her, but something told him that she was definitely a friend and that he had nothing to fear. Maybe. Hopefully. He twiddled his thumbs and hoped for the best.

Buddy passed the brushing with flying colors. Yuri clapped for him politely, while Yves gave the undead cat's head a gentle pet.

"Fun cat fact," he said, pausing to give both Lorenzo and Vesna a dramatic look, for effect. "Cats are exceptionally good sports." While he had no idea if that was an actual, certified Cat Fact, he did know that cats tolerated a lot more than they were given credit for. He scratched behind Buddy's undead ear and scooped him up.

"I have a bath tub specially made for animals! And by specially made for animals, I mean, specially made for Buddy," Yves said with a wink. Yuri rolled his eyes. That was definitely a lie, but then again, it wasn't like he could prove it.

Buddy may have liked and/or trusted Yves up to the brushing, but this would be the Ultimate Test. Yves carefully set Buddy down in the nearest bath tub, which was conveniently view-able from the front counter, and rolled up his sleeves.

Before beginning, he half-turned and eyed Lorenzo. "Um, have you ever... bathed him before? How... how is he with..."

He gestured to Buddy's entire self. Sheepishly, he added, "Erm, what I mean is.... will his skin... stay... on."

kotaline

 

[kotaline]

Lorenzo turned slightly pale at the thought of having to physically fight Yuri, even in jest. It was true that he had begun to promote Healthful Necromancer Exercise Routines, but he was still the type of man who ran the risk of being blown away in a strong gale.

Putting on his bright, professional smile, he waved away Yves's concerns. "Of course, your caution is commendable," he said. "I can email you my resume and website, as well as the contact information of necromancers I've organized educational events and materials for, if that puts your mind at ease."

"Don't worry, Yves!" Vesna piped up cheerfully. "Dad worries about me getting ripped all the time, too, but we can just sew him up like we do with Buddy."

"That's not-" Lorenzo began, but then cleared his throat and moved on as Vesna joined in clapping for Buddy.

"Is that true??" Vesna asked Yves. "Buddy's a good boy, but I haven't met very many cats. My best friend, Eden, has this cat that's, like, half octopus! But I've just seen pictures of her." Her eyes widened when she saw the little pet tub, and she took out her phone to snap a picture, presumably to text to Eden.

Buddy liked the tub so far. He looked out at Vesna taking pictures, but he was used to his celebrity by now- Vesna was always taking pictures of him, even if, by her verdict, he was less cute than other, living cats.

Lorenzo glanced at Buddy thoughtfully as Yves enquired after his health. "It should stay on," he mused, "But I would be careful about his extremities- they shouldn't be pulled or rubbed too hard. Part of what keeps undead animals together is their innate will to live, and part is a spell- even if their bodies are still deteriorating, they should still, ah, stay in shape. For the most part."

Logue