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 Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:11 pm
It was a fine day for Tomoko to release the 'leviathan' and let the bakekitsunes run around outside. Which had been exactly what her plan was when she opened up her bedroom door and Desades went tearing out, barking and yipping happily, paws wiggling in the air.
Sune and Mononoke had walked about in a more leisurely manner on Tomoko's tails. Sune, like a proper lady, had kept herself well groomed and walked with a sort of artificial prancing to her step. Mononoke didn't even give enough ******** about the whole thing to worry about it all at all or in any shape or form.
It was fortunate for Tomoko that Desades didn't too far ahead of their group, looking back at them on occasion. His head would tilt, ears twitching a bit, before he'd bark and go running ahead of the trio again. When they got to the door of the demon dorms, the bakekitsune keened anxiously and paced in a circle before pawing and scratching at the door.
When the kitsune opened it for him, he went tearing off across the yards to head off in the direction of the Monster-Lake.
Tomoko sighed and followed without a word.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:26 pm
It was, indeed, a fine day, and Elaphe Rivers intended to spend every spare moment of it in his favorite spot on campus. Fair weather as of late had left the monster lake's waters pleasantly temperate and, more importantly, the shore happened to be completely, thankfully unpopulated-- ... at least, by anything short of his own pets.
For once, Nosi seemed content enough to (mostly) prance around in the shallows, kicking her spindly legs up to make great splashes and bleating joyfully at the excitement of it. Water was fun! And wet! And every time she stuck her foot in it, it danced with her! Naturally the kirinni hadn't noticed her tail becoming a great mud trap of sticks and pebbles behind her, and her mane was such a tangled disaster that the mere sight of it had Donner-- obsessively trailing her from side to side on dry land-- jingling with inner turmoil. What if she became so dirty she got sick? Oh, oh, oh the dread!
... Thankfully, though, not everyone of the bunch was a constant dysfunction, with Lapid content to explore the depths on his lone and occasionally preen the Nguruvilu while he floated on his back, the strange blue parody of a dwarf sea otter, eyes closed, listening to the distant squealing of Nosi's displaced joy and--
Oh jackdamn something was approaching the shore
His ears picked up on it long before Elaphe saw or smelt anything, and immediately whatever "relaxing" state he'd achieved was long in favor of hastily diving under, only partially resurfacing up to his chin near the shoreline.
There'd been a point not too long ago he would've been screaming threats to go away at whateveritwas, but now? Silence. He didn't say a damned thing, just watched for it, tense, and probably (though he'd never admit it) ready to disappear without so much as a ripple.
Now, if only Nosi could have been a little less noisy about things and stopped for a second...
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:38 pm
Desades hadn't even hesitated in beginning to tail Nosi and Donnar when he'd run ahead of Tomoko, the bakekitsune happily tailing the deer with a yip. Bark bark bark! Hello! Hello! Hi! Nice to meet you! HIIIII!!! He pranced about happily, pawing at the air on occasion during all of the happy prancing dancing he had going on.
Tomoko, on the flip side of Elaphe, froze up on the bank of the lake when she saw the other pets flittering about, ears drooping as she watched them run about freely. Was there somebody else around? She looked around at the surrounding area about in a paranoid manner.
WAS THERE SOMEBODY WATCHING HER??
"i-Is there somebody else out here...?" she asked out loud, not sure if she wanted someone to answer her or not.
She immediately shrunk.
Sune sat as far away from the murky lake water as she possibly could, seeming to frown at it disapprovingly, while Mononoke sauntered towards it in a casual manner. He turned to leer down the Kirinni in its oblivious joy, as though its death-leer could cause the bigger pet to actually stop prancing.
Ah ha ha ha.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:16 pm
It was her.
For whatever reason, the sight of Tomoko froze Elaphe's track of thought immediately, nearly choking when the sensation of dread and free fall hit him like a thrown brick. It was all he could do not to panic out of reflex, only sobered by the comfort of the water as he sucked in a deep lungful of it, shut his eyes, and--
"... Why are you here?" Once upon a time, he would've snarled it, but now, raising his thin ferret neck above the surface, he just grumbled passive questions. It was almost hard to hear above the joyful splish-splashing that was Nosi-- of whom didn't even seem to realize she was being glared at. Mud? Water? Those were the things she liked! The water liked her very much indeed!
Though Donner certainly took heed of the new tension in the atmosphere, the reigndeer trembling so violently that every bell on his body jingled. He shrank over a little closer to where Nosi was prancing in the shallows, even going so far as to get his front hooves at her and bleat some plea to STOP AND HIDE.
Which she gleefully failed to notice.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:06 pm
Desades was gleeful enough in his romping along, unnoticed, under hoof of the two larger pets. Tomoko was already stressing over that , tempted to just run over and scoop his dirty waterlogged self up and go 'BAD BAD BAD, DON'T DO THAT!!!', but she had to trust he wouldn't be utterly smashed.
She looked out into the water where she heard the voice of another student speaking up, her ears perking.
Did she know who it was who was speaking? It was possible! She just..couldn't place that voice. It made her make a very sad noise.
"I'm taking my bakekitsunes out on a walk...?" she answered the inquiry unsurely, frowning. Never not frowning.
Hrrrnngghhh..
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 5:05 pm
But of course Tomoko couldn't find the source of the voice; she was probably looking for a student, and Elaphe... well, he looked more like a wet ferret than a student at that point, still just tenuously above the surface and blending in against bluish waters. Had there been more fire in his heart, the notion of getting overlooked would've no doubt had him bristling-- but he just turned back his ears, sighed, and took a few more strides forward, finally exposing himself in the ankle-high shallows.
In the background, Nosi still continued to prance-- though the kirinni seemed just aware enough to keep from smashing Desades beneath her hooves. Either that, or she just kept missing him by complete stupid chance, flinging up mud-colored water in both their faces and, when that wasn't enough, actually rolling over to squirm on her back, legs all kicking, hair floating in the water like a tangle of bright cyan kelp.
It was almost too much for Donner, who had by that point simply stopped in his tracks to shake uncontrollably.
"This... this isn't a place to walk pets," Elaphe seemed to strain in raising his voice, orange eyes pinned on Tomoko and frowning pensively. Never mind that his own brood happened to be there. "It's my swimming spot. Lakes are for swimming."
It was a flawed, weak sort of logic, but it was what he had.
Clearly, this was a dog without his fangs.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:18 pm
Mononoke bristled at the SUDDENLY ELAPHE, but didn't growl, just staring down the nearly-his-size creature with a sort of disapproving look on his face. If a bakekitsune could look disapproving, that was. For the most part he just seemed to be vexed.
Or something like it.
Desades seemed delighted in romping with Nosi, rolling in the mud as well, before rolling back over onto his stomach and barking at Sune. The white bakekitsune seemed utterly appalled by having to stay anywhere near all of the water and muck. Her ears drooped when the younger bakekitsune barked at her, nose crinkling before she looked away from him.
HARRUMPH!
"Water is for swimming, ground is for walking on. So this is a walking spot too..." Tomoko countered with her own logic, a light frown on her face as she hugged her ball of stars to her chest.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:49 pm
When Mononoke bristled, Elaphe bristled right back at him, ears flatterning as he arched his back, sail raised, muzzle twitching on the verge of a hiss. He probably should've, but... no, in the end, he stopped there, and his hackles slicked back down, and he forced his attention back to Tomoko's face as if the bakekitsune had never been there in the first place. He was a student! He didn't need to be flustered by some stupid fox thing!
"W-well this ground is mine!" It was the sharpest he'd sounded yet, but the ferocity almost instantly turned to fizzle as he lost whatever rage in favor of glancing to the side, posture sinking the slightest bit. "... You shouldn't be here, so... go somewhere else if you're just walking your... pet things."
With that-- and an absolutely pathetic attempt at leering-- the Nguruvilu pulled an abrupt heel-turn and retreated deeper into the water again, obviously desperate to get back in his element. The top of his head still bobbed above the surface like some tiny stunted crocodile, but the rest of him had already disappeared completely under.
Really, why couldn't he just be sociable-- like Nosi? She seemed to be having a grand old time flopping about with her new companion Desades. She had a smell friend! They smelled the same now, so that's what it made them! As the bakekitsune barked, she rolled back onto her belly, giving him the most peculiar head-tilted look before, rather inexplicably, proceeding to let forth a gleeful bleat and nibble at his side in a loving groom.
(Donner definitely had a near heart attack at the sight of it, even if he only voiced his descent with a whimper. She'd ingest unclean things like that! It was bad! BAD!)
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:35 pm
Tomoko's ears drooped at the assertion, a little frown forming on her face before she crinkled her nose judgementally (early school year Tomoko would have been shocked) at the small water-squirrel. Hey now.....
"Nuh uh! This ground is everybody's ground, and you should share! Because being a greedy little grubby grouch will just make people want to eat you!" Not that TOMOKO would try to eat him, he was far too small for her, but she knew there were students out there who would have gone
OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!!
Even she wasn't completely safe!!
Desades barked again, licking the top of the Kirinni's head that was attempting to groom him, pressing his little paws against the larger head while licking at random without a care in the world. Tomoko pondered going over to nudge him with a foot and tell him to stop licking mud.
Then again, he was dumb enough that he probably wouldn't have noticed.
At all.
So Tomoko just looked at the padding about water creature, folding her arms as though her stare of disapproval would mean something.
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:20 pm
Oh, for the love of-- ... would it really have been so hard for the girl to walk her hairballs elsewhere?! Elaphe didn't want to deal with her! He just wanted her to go away! The lake was his (or so he told himself between maulings over the issue) and whatever he said about it was the truth, so... THERE!
Worse still was the fact that she had almost-sort-of-threatened him with getting eaten, and there was no way he'd let that slide.
"I-I'm NOT going to be EATEN!" Now that, if anything, was a true flare of anger, and for the first time the little Nguruvilu put on a display that might have actually been threatening, his eyes aglow and teeth bared as every hair stood up along his spine. Clearly, Tomoko had just struck a very particular nerve, regardless of whether or not she meant to. "This is my place, my element, and you're the intruder in it, s-so just... go get lost somewhere that isn't here already! Haven't you got all those stupid friends you can go find to bother instead?!"
Wait, what did h-- ... oh, well, he could've been referring to all those people form the island she seemed to get along with as well as she did, if anything-- but why'd he have to be so... defensive and angry in the first place? Hell, it was so apparent by then that even Nosi seemed to notice, and Donner finally just vanished into nothing but a shaky red nose, poofed out of thin air.
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 1:14 pm
Tomoko frowned, hands clasping tightly around her ball of stars, its surface glittering underneath her hand.
"You are small and bite sized. Something will try to eat you because of karma." she said, though she'd flinched a bit at the snappish tone of the smaller creature. "Because you are a very bad man and bad people get what they deserve in the end."
The kitsune was far from being threatening, that much was clear. But there was a chance that her Karma was very much true to its word. Well, something like that. Her tails flicked. "Besides, how do you know there isn't a big monster out here somewhere who will squish you? Nobody would be any wiser because you keep being mean to people."
DISAPPROVAL EVERYWHERE.
"Oh. And you're mistaken in thinking that your element makes any difference to me." She huffed, obviously more angered by his greed than anything else, the edges of the water beginning to recede away from the kitsune on the shore, the water appearing to be drying up.
<8(
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:30 am
... Bite sized. He was small and bite sized.
SMALL AND BITE SIZED?!
Regardless of her chastising, of the water receding sluggishly from the shore, of all the other things, it was her first sentence that stuck in Elaphe's brain like a white-hot iron rod, translucent pupils dilating to unseen pinpricks. His whole body trembled. Even his claws, so small and scuffed as they were, dug into the muddy river stones.
He was absolutely beside himself at the girl's audacity. She... she just wouldn't... Why couldn't she just leave him ALONE?!
"I... y-you just...... Sh... S-SHUT UP! JUST. SHUT. UP!"
He was so flustered it was the only thing that came to mind, shrieked at the top of his lungs, shaking, lunging forward on nothing but impulse to do the only thing he felt like he could...
And he clamped down right on her ankle, hard. It took a split second to even realize he'd done it, and when he did, immediately the boy recoiled back just as frantically, nearly tripping over his own short legs as he leapt back towards the shallows in a hasty retreat, only stopping when he could feel the water sloshing up to his neck. "Y-you don't have to give me a jackdamn lecture, alright?! Just..." Just? Just what? Where' d all the bravado gone? He was probably still in a stupor from his own actions than anything, frowning, sort of looking up at her, but sort of... looking to the side. "... Go away, a-and leave me alone... why is that so hard for you to get?!"
Really, now? So he was just trying to be alone, was he?
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:54 pm
Tomoko immediately shrieked when the small creature bit her, pulling her leg away with a pained yelp. Mononoke snarled and puffed up, putting himself between the offended leg and the small water squirrel, his hackles raised in a snarl.
Mononoke was not easy to rile, so this alone was a task.
The kitsune flared, her hands gripping her ball of stars tightly. The water seemingly receeded further, before suddenly flashing back to where it had been by her feet and something else happening.
A loud SNAP followed by a bright flicker of light, a brief blinding flash, and Tomoko stormed up past it, aiming a kick at the small squirrel esque creature, screaming in a foreign tongue. It was probably something about a rat.
"YOU ARE A SMALL MISERABLE CREATURE." she said, it probably the most threatening she could get..but mostly she made a very sad face, on the verge of tears.
"IT'S JUST A STUPID BODY OF WATER. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO MEAN ABOUT IT." she stomped once before turning on one heel to storm off.
Desades looked at his Kirinni friend, then at the retreating 'momma'. He squawked and ran off after the fleeing kitsune. Mononoke barked at the smaller creature once, before turning to follow as well.
The kitsune parade had left.
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:27 pm
Sure, Elaphe had been screaming and huffing at the top of his lungs, and sure, he seemed ready to pop at any second from anger overload-- but that didn't mean he expected Tomoko to come screaming right back at him, let alone blind him with some sudden light and deliver a kick that sent the Nguruvilu flying. For someone so diminutive, she had a lot of power in those dainty feet, and next thing he knew, he was spluttering back to the surface not remembering how he'd wound up underwater, head spinning, stars in his eyes, and oooh, Jack, what was that godawful noise? Was it... Really?...
It was the sound of her shrieking at him in some language he couldn't understand, but the words were definitely angry, and they only got angrier when she switched back to english-- so much so, in fact, that he winced visibly.
In the end, he didn't even holler back at her that it wasn't a "stupid" body of water; in fact, he didn't holler or say a damn thing. For a long time, all he did was float there, frowning and unpleasantly depressed. Why did he feel so miserable, in her wake? Tomoko had left. He'd won. There should've been feelings of elation and victoriousness...
But there was nothing like that left.
He vanished from sight and spent the remainder of the afternoon deep below, and when he went home after dark, no words were spoken. He kept dead silent on his perch atop Nosi's back while the Kirinni blissfully pranced on, and Donner followed nervously in her wake, and Lapid... well, Lapid trailed behind, but he was always there, probably contemplating.
Sleep would bring no solace from the lingering pangs of guilt that night.
((fin~))
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