Prompt
: A viral video: a security camera aimed at a door in a back alleyway. A dark-clothed figure looks like they are trying to break in. It’s almost comical in how desperately they are yanking on the door, and then, in a fit of rage, they take a step back and their hood falls off. The face is obscure and impossible to make out, and suddenly it looks like a lizard person. They attack the door once more and then scramble off with an over-exaggerated run. Is this it, real proof of an actual lizard person?? Is it a youma? The internet says it’s a hoax, and it’s hard to take it seriously anyway, even if there is something strange about it. It’s become something of a local joke; people have made memes about it and are dressing up as lizards and posing in similar alleys. And yet, there have been a string of attempted break-ins, with strange claw marks around the door handles.
((Using the Holiday Prompt, but Posted too Late to use it in the event, so going into the main channel))
((Using the Holiday Prompt, but Posted too Late to use it in the event, so going into the main channel))
Kapoodles —
Fettelite was having ‘bonding time’ with Shoal out in the park this evening. And by bonding time, he meant sitting with Shoal half laying across his lap, feeding him a few pieces of random bananas while he browsed videos on his phone.
One particular video caught his eyes, a suddenly super popular video about a lizard man trying to break into houses.
… For some weird reason, it looked oddly familiar… This was in Destiny city, wasn’t it? And why was that Lizard just as blue as his Shoal was.
“Hey, Shoal, what have you been up to?” He sat the youma up a bit in his lap, and showed him the video. “Have you been prowlin’ about and trying to get into people’s houses?”
Tolin —
"Houses?" Shoal echoed, frowning and considering. "Maaybe now and then. Doors are hard, though. They should swing when I push them, or fall apart. That'd be much better." He nodded. Buildings were so inconvenient. Made it harder to bite the people inside.
Kapoodles —
“So you’re saying this isn’t you? You’re not the spooky creature in this video?” He tapped the play button again, showing off the lizard man scurrying away. “Somehow I’m not convinced. He didn’t exactly get into the door after all.”
His eyes quintet in mild suspicion at his little youma, and he shifted him around, picking him up under his forearms and off his lap to face him straight in the eyes. “I don’t believe you, you’ve been doing naughty things, haven’t you? Bad youma don’t get bananas!”
Tolin —
Shoal eyed the video with one eye, then the other. Was that him? He maybe did stuff like that now and then...but that hood thing. "Nahh, not me. I'm ~naked~," he concluded, and swayed himself around, letting his back plates flop around a little. The glowing spots around his head flared up a little, too. "Dunno how to put something like that on."
Kapoodles —
“Shuuush, you’re not supposed to out right admit that outloud! What if someone comes by and they hear you say you’re naked?” It seemed Fettelite outright ignored the fact that whomever would protest the nakedness would probably be more concerned about the fact that there was a youma here, and that it was a giant talking lizard.
“Maybe we should get you some clothes then? Hmm? I bet you’d look super cute in a silly little dog costume.”
Tolin —
Shoal looked a bit mystified by the suggestion of him needing clothes, although his eyes narrowed at the dog costume suggestion. "Maybe you should wear the dog costume," he replied, not considering exactly what a dog costume was, or how that would even work.
Kapoodles —
"Oh yeah? Is that how you're going to put it, huh?" Fettelite gave Shoa another suspicious squint. "Only guilty parties would suggest the other person wear the dog costume. But alright, how about this! If you and I wrestle... The loser has to wear the dog outfit!"
Tolin —
The scale plates on his back rose slightly at the suggestion that he was somehow lying about this...but the bristling quickly gave way to a bit of excitement as he shifted pose slightly, as if ready to leap. "You're on!" he replied and gave an open-mouthed toothy grin.
Kapoodles —
Fettelite could only grin himself at the challenge now. If there was any one person he felt comfortable sparing with, it was Shoal!
... "Person."
Close enough!
As bonded as they were, it only meant he was improving if he could get the leg up on his youma friend! But for now, he wanted to take a leg out, and swung his hammer right at the lizard's feet with a big grin. "Let's goo!"
Tolin —
As low to the ground as Shoal was, he couldn't really do much about a leg sweep...so he did the only natural thing, which was to hop to the side a bit and let himself get hit by the hammer...which he then rode into the air for a split second.
He landed on his side some distance away--with any luck further than Fettelite had expected--and rolled back onto his feet. He scraped the ground a bit to turn before leaping back at his Captain, mouth open and foreclaws raised!
Kapoodles —
It was clear that Fettelite had underestimated his own power. Yes, Shoal wasn't exactly the biggest youma out there, but to have half yeeted him into the air surprised even him! The instinct to immediately check and see if he was okay was knocked down by the fact that Shoal landed without much issue quite some ways away.
And in a moment, that scrappy little lizard was at him again!
He used the handle of his hammer to block the oncoming teeth and claws, using it much like a bridle against Shoal's awaiting mouth, and while he had him wrangled, he aimed a knee right at his soft underbelly.
Tolin —
Shoal gnawed on the hammer shaft for a moment, as if hoping to chew right through it. That clearly wasn't gonna work, especially with the knee suddenly coming up and thumping the youma in the gut. He let go with an "urk!" and the momentum knocked him back and away, where he took a moment to recover and look for the next opening, turned a bit defensively for the moment.
Kapoodles —
Fettelite had to push down that new urge now to comment on how cute his Shoal was, gnawing on the hammer like that. This was a fight, not play time! No matter how adorable his youma was!
Once he was let go though, he cheated, teleporting again to pop up behind Shoal and bop him on the head lightly with his hammer. "Bang!"
Tolin —
Shoal only had a moment to blink at the sudden absence of captains in the area before he was bonked on the head.
At which point, the Youma looked up, and then very dramatically died.
"Oh, I am stabbed!" he declared in his little youma voice, and rolled the wrong way (considering the direction Fettelite bonked him from) onto his side, and lifted both his now upper legs into the air. "Wah." His blue tongue lolled out of his mouth agape mouth, and his eyes rolled around in an exaggerated fashion.
Kapoodles —
At this point, Fettelite couldn't hold back his laughter, outright snorting at the dramatic little show that Shoal had decided was the appropriate reaction do his complete and utter defeat!
"Hey, You don't stab with a hammer!" Dismissing his weapon off and out of the way, he casually went over to Shoal, giving him a gentle nudge with his shoe. "Oh no, I guess if you're dead, you don't get to eat tasty things anymore. Guess I gotta go eat all those bagel bites in the freezer at home all by myself."
Tolin —
Shoal bounced back onto his feet in a hurry. "Oh! Not so dead after all," he concluded. He didn't need to eat those things, of course, but he did have taste buds...somehow. And flavors were always nice. "Guess you can't eat all of 'em after all!"
Kapoodles —
"Awww dang, and here I thought I could get away with it all!" Bringing food in from the city into the Negaverse helped to make his little office more like home. Especially once he snuck in a mini fridge and a microwave and hide it behind his desk.
And in a way, sharing them with Shoal gave him a little bit more hope.. that maybe he could remember being human more... And that maybe these little things would make life easier once he could find a way to change them back.
But there was no real point in dwelling on that now. Instead, he scooped Shoal up into his arms, pressing his forehead against his youma's and giving him a little nuzzle. "Fine, fine, I'll share, but only because you're so cute... That being said, you still lost, so I'm going to find the dorkiest costume on the internet and put you in it later."
Tolin —
Shoal's head rocked back in a distinctly 'petulant (but probably amused) child' sort of way. "Ugh you did win." He turned his head back to point a single eye at Fettelite. "This time," he added as dramatically as he could manage.
Which is to say, not very dramatically at all.
