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 Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:21 pm
For some, this duty was a boon, but to him it was a curse. Kostya struggled with the boafox in his arms, as his attempts to get the creature into a harness had decisively failed. Most duties passed quietly and without incident, but minipet duty never failed to sour his mood.
There were better things to be doing than caring for the well-being of miniature monsters that wanted nothing but to rub up against his ankles and sit on his lap. Mimsy needed just as much attending to, and the satisfaction and physical contact provided by her were inversely proportionate. That is to say: the happier (perhaps happy is the incorrect word: content, not-hungry, caffeine-laden: all better choices) she was, the less she attempted to touch Kostya. It was an agreement that suited them both perfectly well. It was efficient.
This, he thought with increasing woe, was not. The boafox wailed again in his arms, flinging its extremely long tail back and forth in irritation, much of it pressing up against his face. Sputtering, Kostya continued to struggle with the creature in one hand and the brush in another.
"Hold still," he instructed it, his voice low and petulant. "Many knots, must untangle. Is it shaving you vant? Could be naked, like other mole-rat little monsters here." He glanced sidelong at a troublesome firefox, which had received the aforementioned treatment. They were remarkably small underneath all that fur.
In his distaste, he had not closed the door, and the minipet's irritated yips echoed through the halls.
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:02 am
In spite of a serious desire to run towards every human he spotted in hopes of befriending them, Thackery had been a very good boy. Instead of playing, he'd occupied much of his time exploring the few locations that he was allowed to visit, taking naps in the sunlight, enjoying the sparkly stars that looked so far away. The outside world was almost exhausted with possibilities, however, so he ventured into the one building his helpful friend offered to him: the labs. He was no more than two steps inside when he heard a sound that was both impossible to ignore and unforgettably familiar. His eyes widened with hopeful excitement as he hurried down the hallways, following the sound of the boafox until-- " Nnnooooo!" he cried from the doorway, hands on either side of his face. "What are you doing? You have to be like, way more gentle! She's making sad cries! Can't you tell? And look at her tail! Oh my Jack, even if you brush all of the knots out, all of that unhappiness will make her fur super dull!" All of his own happiness at the sight of one of his favorite types of minipets was temporarily replaced by the necessity for promoting minipet welfare. Clearly they needed it even more than Amityville did.
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:13 am
Kostya squinted at the boy before him. He was young, to be sure, that much was evident from the youth in his face if not the nature of his eagerness. He looked average, slightly taller than himself, darkly tanned or simply olive skin, and a wild mass of brown hair.
Brown hair that was topped with a pair of ears.
Blinking several times in rapid succession, he merely tilted his head t o the side as he rambled on about the little monster's happiness. Obviously, the creature was a weapon class golem, but he had had no idea that their power levels were back up to a suitable level to allow it.
"Creature has knots," he said, as if it were the most obvious fact in the world to him, perhaps second to the fact that the sky is blue and third to the fact that monsters exist. He thrust the squirming figure and brush alike at the excitable stranger, his face blank.
"One of many to take care of." He nodded his head to the side, gesturing to the walls of locked minipet cages, each one containing a fluffy or slimy or scaley monster.
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:45 pm
The human explained that the boafox had knots, as if that somehow explained all of the problems away. Thackery just continued to stare with his hands on his face, panicked, until he finally resolved to go fix this himself. There were so many minipets here, and he couldn't ignore the fact that they all needed him. Because it was absolutely a fact. He hurried over and kneeled next to where the hunter sat, his wide purplish eyes now at the minipet's level. Frowning, he glanced up and began to wag his tail. Time to beg."Pleeeeaaase can I help? I'll brush all of them if you want! I don't want them to be all sad! It's better if they're not sad, I swear!" Without asking, he reached up to pet it gently behind both of its ears. It seemed to do little to soothe it at the moment, but he was still confident that he could fix this. Fix all of them. He was going to be the best, most helpful dog on this island.
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:53 pm
Kostya stared in abject horror as the golem crept closer, using its widened eyes and pleading tone with him. It was entirely ineffective, and merely made the hunter inch away in discomfort. The boy was awfully warm, and it was dreadful already.
Nonetheless...
He was offering to take care of his least favourite parts of the duty-- caring for them all. God only knew that he needed the time to clean the cages, mark down their vitals, and refill their food.
"Fine," he said, and thrust the miniature creature into the strange golem's hands, setting the brush down beside him. "So foolish. Animals cannot possess sadness." Kostya sounded well and truly baffled by the claim. "Discomfort, da, but. Lacking intelligence. Nothing in head but fluff."
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:03 pm
When the hunter relented and offered the minipet to him, Thackery squealed with delight, cuddling it close. There were lots of knots, but it was fixable. Still, the brush was temporarily ignored while he tried to improve its mood.
"Who's a pretty girl? It's gonna be okay! Tack will take care of you and make sure you're the happiest!" As he cooed at her, he rubbed his nose against the boafox's, giggling cheerfully. It reminded him a lot of home. He missed Princess Cinders.
The homesickness almost made him miss the comment about intelligence - as soon as he caught it, he covered the boafox's ears until the human stopped talking.
"What? Nooo, that's not true," he insisted, still talking in the cutesy babying tone. "I'm a dog and I'm smart with stuff! Okay, I mean, I'm a Cerberus, but those are dogs! And this little cutie is smart enough to feel other things. You don't have to be smart to feel stuff. Feeling happens separate from smarts!"
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Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:15 pm
"Ach," Kostya replied, covering his ears with both hands until he was certain the squealing wouldn't happen again. "No need for so excitable."
This golem seemed to have a pretty strong sense of self, but perhaps they always recalled what they were. He was unsure.
"Tack," he murmured, and thought only of a horse decorated for use. "Am Konstantin," he offered, not that he thought the canine styled golem would pay him any mind. He seemed awfully fond of the little creature in his arms.
"Of course it is true," Kostya scoffed. "Bits of element composing living creature, that melts in bad conditions. No space for brains. No space for emotions. Hungry, sleeping, needing to dispose of waste. Creatures have urges. Not emotions. Much difference."
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Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:04 am
The way that the human - Kostya, he called himself - was reacting to him made Thackery feel kind of sad. His ears drooped, in spite of the boafox that he was still cuddling in his arms, and he stared up at him to pout. "How come? It's exciting! I haven't seen minipets in a long time, not since I had to come here, and I get to make a new friend!" The pout was gone, but the way he smiled at him seemed to indicate that the new friend was him. "It's really nice to meet you! If you don't wanna call me Tack, you can call me Thackery or King Thackery or...okay, pretty much whatever." As the boafox settled down a bit, he carefully put it in his lap and reached for the brush, gently running the bristles through its fur. Each time he met a knot, he held the lengthy fur near the base and untangled it as painlessly as he could, a look of concentration set in his face. He was quiet as he did this for a while, lost in the focus of his task, occasionally pausing the grooming to pet it behind its ears again. When he finally spoke, he was still hard at work, trying to prove his diligence. "I dunno what you mean about the melting, but there's plenty of space for brains and stuff. Sometimes they even have their brains showin'! They just come that way! And don't you guys know we're made up of emotion? We've gotta have emotion if that's what makes us happen!" Infallible dog logic. "Anyway, I can't talk to minipets or anything, but like I said - I'm a dog, and I have urges and stuff, but I've got emotions too. Like right now, I'm happy, but also kinda sad. I miss my friends and I wanna go home, but I know I will soon! So it's mostly happy."
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Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:44 pm
The more the golem talked, the more he suspected that he was a creature instead of a weapon. Not that weapons weren't all creatures-- Syntax brightly reminded him of his nature with a series of low quality, pixelated images-- but...
He'd never really held civil discourse with a student. He pitied students, and worried for them, but he had no idea why this one was in his home.
"Hm. Ve are friends?" He sounded truly confounded that this creature, simple and full of smiles, wanted to be his friend. Konstantin had many acquaintances, but few friends. He supposed, now, that the count was two.
How long been away?" Konstantin asked, curious, taking a seat far enough away that he was not within immediate...touching distance. He had been away from his native country for a year and some, but did not miss it. Longer, really, considering he was dormant in a pod for at least a year. His timelines were fuzzy.
He was left speechless at Thackery's explanation, and chose to let...that topic go dormant.
"You," Kostya started, selecting his words carefully, "are being a student, da?" He didn't think the boy would try to beguile him, and wasn't even aware of he was capable of it, given the earnest honesty written on his face-- but no sense in taking...unnecessary precautions.
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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:28 am
"Well, yeah!" The look Thackery gave him implied that he thought he was being very silly right now, head tilted to the side, ears pointed in different directions, smile wide as ever. "I mean, I guess, um, if you don't want to be friends, that's okay! I'll still do the minipet stuff, like I said." He was already halfway through the knots in the boafox's tail. "Umm...five...two..." It almost looked like he was ashamed as his eyes returned to his work, managing to untangle two more knots before he glanced up again, eyes threatening tears. "I don't know. Is that okay, that I don't know? I don't want to get anyone in trouble here, I mean. I don't want anyone to get hurt." The last time he'd allowed that to happen, it had been his fault. Directly. His ears drooped at the thought of Reine, and he wondered if she'd gotten the message that he left. If she had gotten it, had it been enough? "Oh, huh?" He blinked at him after realizing that Kostya had asked something else. "Oh! Yeah! I go to Amityville Academy. I'm a third year there! I dunno if you know what that means, but it means I can graduate real soon. They brought me back here for, um. Well, I'm not entirely sure. But I got this-" He held up his arm to show the cuff. "So I could hang out with you guys while the power wasn't working and stuff." The boafox, mostly devoid of knots, was now snuggled against his chest.
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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 10:17 pm
"Can be friends," Kostya said, his voice taking on a thoughtful, cautious tone. Friends with mutually assured destructions, but friends nonetheless. Could the fox and the hound be friends? Could the phoenix be friends with its own ashes?
He was snapped from his reverie by the Thackery's suddenly mournful words. "Is fine," he said, awkwardly staring at him. He was unsure how to comfort such a creature. "As long as do duties, vill be no trouble. No vorries for me, da?"
His lips quirked ever so slightly. A third year-- that would have been merely elementary school in Tyumen. Third year of University, perhaps? "Vhat cuff do?"
There were just so many questions, and each answer lead to more.
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 5:38 am
The over-excited smile returned to Thackery's face as soon as he got confirmation of friendship, and his tail began to wag so hard that it made very audible thumps against the floor. "Yay! Great! I'm glad! I'll be a really good friend, you'll see!" Mid-sentence, he'd lifted up the boafox to rub his cheek against its tiny, fluffy cheek, as if to further prove his merits as a friend. "Being a good friend means I make sure you don't get in trouble or have any worries, so...what do I do next?" His gaze danced across the room at all of the possibilities, and he remained distracted as he answered. "Umm, well. I'm not too sure again! She - er, Mark said, maybe - that it was to keep me from attacking anyone. I wouldn't ever, ever do that or anything, but I know it's 'cause you've gotta be safe. So now it's double safe!" The uncertainty was also undoubtedly very reassuring in itself.
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Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 8:45 pm
He stared as the student cuddled the minipet, and was infinitely glad in infinite universes that he was, in fact, not a minipet.
"Ah, as long as not attacking, am sure vill be fine. As you say, is good to be being safe." It was strange that he was such a pacifist: were they not two sides locked into rivalry? Into a war, a sometimes quiet one, that persisted through the years?
Strange. Perhaps they were not all the same.
"Vhat are all rules of 'good friend'?" Kostya asked, distracting himself from thoughts of factions. His own rules were simple (1. Do not touch and 2. Do not bother being the most important), and he was curious to compare notes.
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