copper wrote:Nice story. All you need is to fix a few grammatical issues and it's contest material. It was interesting to see King's reaction to being shot.
Thanks. But I'm aware that this story needed more detailing.
I'll see if I can find my beta to help me fixing its grammar.
For having English as a second language, you did a really good job angelusbr. If you'd like I could help you edit it. I'd explain what's wrong and why to the best of my abilities.
"Remember kids, only you can prevent a fiery apocalypse!"
Indagare wrote:For having English as a second language, you did a really good job angelusbr. If you'd like I could help you edit it. I'd explain what's wrong and why to the best of my abilities.
Really? Thanks a ton! Could you send me a PM telling me my mistakes?
Indagare wrote:For having English as a second language, you did a really good job angelusbr. If you'd like I could help you edit it. I'd explain what's wrong and why to the best of my abilities.
Really? Thanks a ton! Could you send me a PM telling me my mistakes?
Sure. I'll send it as soon as I can.
"Remember kids, only you can prevent a fiery apocalypse!"
Ah, finally off of school-stuff! So... Is there still time for me to get a story in here?
Hey guys, I'm one of the RP section mods. Feel free to bug me any time: I'm not strict and I try to be very approachable.
Fanfiction Character: Vallerie Nightengale (female, idiot)
Hey guys, I'm one of the RP section mods. Feel free to bug me any time: I'm not strict and I try to be very approachable.
Fanfiction Character: Vallerie Nightengale (female, idiot)
Sinder wrote:I've been plugging away, and approximately one half of chapter 3 is finished.
Can't wait. If it's anything like the first part, you will leave the rest of us in the dust. Maybe. To tell you the truth I can't really remember the previous entries, so just disregard whatever I have said in this rant.
I want to read your story,Sinder. It will be good.
My characters
Everybody has a story to tell. What's yours?
Liking all of the submissions so far. to make sure i ain't slacking either, i went and reviewed my submission as well. Nothing major was changed story-wise, just the writing was changed a little to make it better to read =)
There were very few, almost nonexistent moments where King felt slightly fortunate to be a dog. Because he was a canine now and was physically incapable of sweating from the brow, it comfort him to think that that somehow may have actually saved him from looking too suspicious for the likes of these dogs. For the meantime, while he appeared calm and collected, to the best of his ability, he could try desperately to think up of a plan. Unfortunately, there was one serious drawback to this new biological feature: He couldn't open his mouth. Not because he physically couldn't, but because he wouldn't. King knew that if he could sweat right now, he'd be sweating up a storm. Opening his mouth would only prove to have the same result, only it'd be gushing out.
Ew.
His head felt like a sickening stew of steaming hot gelatin and cornflakes meshed together with thousands of icy cold needles shooting through his forehead, poking themselves out the end of every strand of fur on the back of his neck. All of this heat felt painfully trapped within his skull; he really would have preferred just sweating normally.
Oh give me a break, he pleaded to himself, it can't be that weird, never sniffing another dog's rear end. I can't be only dog who's never done that, I just can't. Then again, he may very well have been the only one. The expressions on those around him certainly weren't lending themselves to fortifying his presumption; in fact if a third party member had to guess by the reactions of the other dogs, they would have assumed King had just admitted to mass murder. All of them, except the bulky one (the one who loved to tackle,) still sat there gawking at him. The Doberman wasn't facing him but was facing the others with a look of hopeful anticipation, perhaps hoping that one of them would vouch for that absurd suggestion he made just a few seconds ago? Whatever.
He could feel that too much time was passing by. What do I say? What can I say? King cried out inside his head. Well, I think just about anything would be a great right now, his mind retorted.
"Ah sorry, what I meant to say is that I've never sniffed anyone's rear end in...in," in a place no one cares about, "Topeka?" King dibbled out, thankfully with no gush. In retrospect, King would learn that he should not have picked that location solely for it's alluring name.
"Uh." Roll with it, "YEAH, Topeka, I've never sniffed a dog there, because, I mean I couldn't cause... the whole states gotta a law there." STOP "A law that says you can't...do... that." Oh you stupid dog...
"A... laaaaw," Fido said slowly, visibly stirred by this fabrication, "I, wow, I've never heard of such a thing. That sounds horrible..."
"Golly," The mouse on Fido's head, Spo was it? The one who up till now had been lying against his ear in what looked to be a state of petrified boredom, was speaking up, "those poor poor mutts, what ever shall they do." He could not have sounded more apathetic, "Who knows what they'll force them to next?" His raised his tiny hands above his head and shook them halfheartedly at the world, "Shake hands?" he yawned, "Yaaaahhhharr..." *smack* *smack* "The maniacs."
King couldn't tell if it was confidence or nausea he was feeling, but whatever it was, he felt like he had suddenly grasped a bit of control on the situation, "Oh yeah, in fact it was, it was just enacted last year." King said, slowly twisting the gears of this ploy in his head, "I was just there on a trip this summer and boy do they really crack down on that whole sniffing business. Butt sniffing that is, ah hahaerrrrr--aaawfully sad really."
One by one the look on their faces shifted from horrified shock to saddened pity, hopefully as it was, because they were beginning to buy into all this baloney. King felt absolutely elated; almost gushing with joy at the prospect of coming out of all this unscathed. For the first time since his 12th birthday party did he feel like the day had been seized by him, and that something was finally going the way he wan--
"Wait, wait, hold on a second."
King froze in terror, confidence lurching dangerously over the edge of his bottomless subconscious pit.
Fox shook his head, "King I've been to Kansas, last year in fact," He glared at King inquisitively, "I clearly remember there was not a law against sniffing."
For every degree Fox's brow kept arching towards a stare of suspicion King felt a searing hot butter knife impale his fluffy chest. He cracked the most horribly forced smile he could muster, "Bad timing on your part I guess. Or perhaps lucky, however you want to look at it eh heh..." Of all the places I could have chosen... shoulda' picked Detroit
"Hmmm," Fox pondered for a moment, leaving King to twiddle his thumbs in a frantic spasm, "I guess, I'm gonna have to ask Dad to look into that. If that's the case we'll probably want to reconsider our next vacation spot for this Spring to somewhere else."
Oh no, "Don't, I mean, don't worry about it." I was about to say, "I was about to say... that the law's been peeled back, you see? Cause the people of Kansas were run a marathon, I mean, they were angry so they banded together and held a petition to have it the law changed. Yeah, their pets were so shaken up the new restrictions that the owners wouldn't stand for it anymore." He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "Real epic stuff you know? A battle between the big guy and little people. But in the end the little guy won and everything got fixed, and it turns out the Governor just had a total phobia of being smelled. So there you have it, nothing to worry about." He paused for a moment, after that Oscar worthy performance, "I doubt the guy'll get re-elected..."
The collective dead silence in the room was positively deafening. King remained solely fixated on the edge of Fox's lip, seeing it quiver apprehensively. To his relief, he saw the corners of his mouth quirk upward into a convincing smile.
"Hmm hmhm, well lets hope not, ehhhh..." Fox cleared his throat rather loudly, and a made a quick motion towards Fido, "Hey Fido before I forget, can you go get that 'thing' we were talking about earlier?"
"Hmm? What thing?" Fido seemed taken aback by the sudden inquiry, as was the small passenger on his head.
"You know," He nodded his head towards an indiscernible direction, King almost swearing it was towards him, "that thing."
"What..." Fido eye's lit up, "Oh right! Okay, I will go do that now." Fido stood up stiffly, leaning back with his hands pushing against his hips, "Auugh, gotta stop hunching over while I sit, it's killin my back...
"Could it be you're turning into your dad Fidey?" The mouse quipped, "You'll make a fine tabletop player one day, won't he be proud."
"Haha, very funny." Fido shot the mouse a look of evident displeasure, "Here, give me the toothpicks, I'll throw em' out. Guess we won't be doing anymore parlor games for now."
Ralph, Kevin, and King stayed to gather the remaining scattered toothpicks, but Fox got up and quickly began scurrying up the stairs, "I'll be back in a few minutes so King? Don't go running away now alright?" He stuck out his finger and jabbed it at King, "Seriously, just, stay in this house, can you do that?"
Uuuugh, "Yeah sure...." He stuck one of the toothpicks in his mouth bitterly and bit down on it hard, causing one end of it to snap.
"Good."
And with that he continued on up the stairs and out of sight.
Bah, who does he think he is, telling me to sit still and be a good boy like I'm a freakin two year old, but suddenly it dawned on King.
I'm... all alone.
He was entirely alone, by himself, in an enclosed home surrounded by every dog in the local police department with even Fox there to help him fend them off. Quite possibly the worst situation he could have willingly let himself get into. He started to fidget nervously where he sat, the toothpick he had in his mouth tittered slightly before falling to the ground. He craned his neck around and spotted Fido heading off towards the kitchen. Because Fido was the only other dog here that he feared slightly less than the others, after Fox anyway, and could possibly offer him some protection, King made it his objective to go stay with him until Fox returned. He quickly scrambled up and strode off after him, also wanting to assuage his fear of being left alone anywhere near Kevin.
He stopped at the doorway Fido had gone through, but before entering he peered in from the side, and immediately noticed the unsettling number of dogs all huddled around the snack table. His stomach growled powerfully as he watched them gorge down on the beautifully arranged set of burgers and hot dogs before them. Fido was no where in sight and King would be darned if he'd let himself stride in there without knowing where he was; like hopping into pool full of sharks in a feeding frenzy and forgetting to wear chain mail.
The intoxicating aroma wafting in the air from all the food sliced and peeled away chunks of his will power, but he waited patiently anyway; Sooner or later they would stuff themselves senseless and would have to leave eventually. To his dismay though, after hearing the booming barrage of fist colliding with the table and the roaring cries of "Go! Go! Go! Go!" take wind, he soon realized the pointlessness of his patience and decidedly shuffled away in defeat.
Still keeping an eye out for the lumbering Doberman, King weaved in and out of cover behind various furniture pieces, feeling oddly fortunate again for the fact that he was so small due to his breed structure. At least he could hide himself out of sight from people better in this form.
He clung to the walls, sidling beside every shelf and beneath every available table. Eventually, after his less than impressive espionage routine, he found himself standing at the end of an empty hallway. King kept himself vigilant, knowing that despite the lack of individuals within sight, this hallway would be all too perfect for some benign dog to trap him in and hold him down, only wanting to "greet" him properly.
A sudden thunderous cry of laughter erupting from the walls made King nearly jump out of his skin. After a rather strenuous effort to pry his claws out of the wall, he hobbled quietly along the splay of identical beige doors till he found one standing slightly a jar. Inside, he saw a group of dogs that he recognized as being the same one that had left the parlor game earlier before. They were all sitting on bean bags in front of a large big screen television, playing some overt violent, shooter, war game... in space? Something like that. They all had on funny looking headsets and continued to yell into them and at each other with the most nonsensical commands, all while endless amounts of digital blood continued to splatter across the screen.
King grimaced. These were not dogs he could ever see himself voluntarily hanging out with. He proceeded to stride pass the door as quickly as possible, keeping his footsteps below a level of detection.
"Whoa, look at this, they have a Sega Genesis!"
He halted, and then backtracked to the room. No way.
He was over swept, unexpectedly, with such cherished memories from the Summer days of his youth. All the countless, thrilling, 16-bit, blast processing hours of game play he could recall between he and his pets. How they would play endlessly on into the night down in the basement; the number of times they rolled on the floor laughing or swore Bloody Mary at each other over a string of cheap moves; or best of all, the borderline ridiculous excuses they'd make together when ever mom or dad find them up at three in the morning.
He shook his head, reluctantly withdrawing himself out of his nostalgic trace. He was smiling to himself, and almost felt compelled to step in and join these dogs. If it meant getting to re-live some of his old childhood experiences it might be worth it.
A black Labrador pulled his headset off and placed his controller aside, pausing the bloodbath happening on screen, "Sega what? What are you talking about?"
The English Spaniel with a proper accent began rummaging around inside a box beside a large shelf of games, "It's like one of those old bit machine from the Macintosh era I think. Heh, check out the insanely retro games they have in here." He held up one of the cartridges, "Vectormaaan. Pffft, that just sounds so 90's."
The Corgi felt a soft blow to his childhood; that had been one of his favorite games growing up. He retracted from the room a bit, suddenly it didn't feel like it was going to be the big ol' fun trip to the past that he thought it would it be.
"Oh wait here's a good one," He scrounged up another cartridge, "Mortal Kombat anyone?"
"Hehehe, gotta love the old school mindless violence. We should play that one next."
"Mmmm, what about Sonic?" Another dog, one with possibly better taste, chimed in, "That was one of the best games for the system." Maybe there's hope...
"Feh, Sonic sucks."
"No he doesn't!"
"Yeah heeee kinda does. The games he's in these days are terrible."
"I'm telling you he doesn't! Have you even played any of the old Sonic games?!"
King had enough. He wandered off again as the dogs began quarreling viciously with each other, left to feel soggy and hurt on the inside. Savages
The whole thing was starting to feel unsalvageable to King. Was it so much to ask for even a smidgen of reciprocation? A feeling of acceptance? It's not fair. Whatever life he was supposed to be living right now did nothing more than relentlessly toy with him of the fact that he did not belong. Here he was trying pitifully to socialize with the local natives, and he has never even sniffed a butt.
It was bad enough that he almost got himself exposed over a simple lapse of stupidity, but what freaked him out more was what would he do if he did it again? Who knew what small unforgivable act of betrayal he might accidentally commit against his own kind next, and this time he wouldn't have some clever ruse - if you can call it clever- or even Fox there to back him up; He'd be a sitting duck, with no veil to cover up the truth. They would all know.
King must have lost track of what it was was doing, because the next thing he knew he had barged directly into someone and was flat on the ground dazed and confused.
"King! I've been looking for you." Fido seemed awfully happy to see him there lying on the floor, "Listen, we're all going to try to play another game, this time it's one that will surely expose you for the fraud that you are. Wanna join us?"
He didn't actually say that but it didn't matter; whatever it was he was talking about sounded so unbelievably doggish that he might as well have.
"Ooooh gee, I'd love to but, by god I feel horribly... full right now." He motioned both of his hands over his lower pelvis, and then clenched them into tight fists. He picked himself up and brushed off his knees, "If you'll excuse me I think I'm just going to go relief myself on some middle-class civilian's front lawn."
He darted away towards the front door, past Fido and the other dogs, anxious to avoid setting himself up for another catastrophe. He had his hand on the knob, this was good. He was turning it, but before he managed to open the door to sweet salvation, he felt the gripping hand of malevolence drag him back. He turned around, and felt the prickling sensation of every strand of hair on his head stand up straight. Fox stood before him, looking both amused and very irritated, "Hold on there King I told you not to run off while I was gone, and we've got a bathroom right here! You don't need to go out there."
Aww ********** me, the one thing I thought I wouldn't need to explain myself out of.
"I CAN'T, I, I just can't..." King had grown weary of constantly having to make up these excuses, "I'm very small," Fox's brow furrowed, "and, I have an irrational fear of being flushed down the toilet." Words could not describe the look on Fox's face when he said that. "Yeah, I need to go outside." He jerked his shoulder out of Fox's grasp and opened the door.
"Wait, King..." There was an underlying tone of utter sadness to his voice, enough to make King cringe with guilt.
All eyes were on him.
"Look I'm sorry but... just leave me alone." With that lovely departing statement, he yanked the door shut behind him.
No one spoke.
"You know," Spo said slowly, breaking the awkward silence, "I never told anyone this but... I too have an unshakable fear of being sucked down the thunder box..."
King crumbled to a heap on the front steps, as he has so often now that he thought about it, holding his face in shame and regret. At least I didn't blow my cover, he thought, that must count for something. He let his hands fall beside him, and outstretched his short stubby legs before him. Still feel like crap though...
He leaned forward to get up, but soon pulled back in shock. At the edge of the front steps, a pool of water had collected together, which had now been frozen over, to create a sleek mirror like surface. King caught his breath and leaned forward again, cautiously eying the affronting reflection, simultaneously appalled and intrigued by what he saw.
King hated mirrors. Since the day he could smell fear, he has gone out of his way to make sure he avoided them at every possible turn. The problem had nothing to do with him worrying about looking grotesque or anything; he looked just like any other dog he'd ever seen in his life. In fact, if he wasn't actively trying to maintain some shred of dignity, he might have gone so far as to say he looked... cute. He felt a chilling shiver run up his spine.
No, the reason he couldn't stand to look at himself was simply because he just couldn't mentally connect himself to the form he saw staring back at him. It was far too jarring; he never saw himself, he only saw the dog. This time though, he forced himself to look.
He stared coldly at the Corgi.
"...What's up doc."
All things considering, that may have actually been one of the better things he's said all day.
"You, are a dog." He stated clearly, pointing at the reflection, watching it say the same thing.
Why am I stating the obvious.
He wiggled his nose. The reflection wiggled it's snout. He flicked his ears back and forth. Back and forth. So too did the reflection.
Being a dog was nothing like being a human, but of course this went without saying. The way he moved, how he smelled, heard and felt the world... was all so drastically different.
He opened his mouth, "A, e, i, o, uuuuu." The way his jaw moved amazed him, "How do dogs do this?" He asked the reflection, "How am I doing this?" He asked himself. "How do I do it so...naturally."
Indeed, when Pete had first transformed him into a dog he hadn't even noticed, not until after he realized how drafty the court room was. He was a dog right from the start; there was no fumbling over his paws or re-learning how to speak with the added three or four inches of muzzle protruding from his face, just dog. He couldn't begin to imagine what that might say about him, but it couldn't be good.
Whelp, I think I've had enough of making a mockery of myself for today. He got up slowly, calculating in his mind how much faster he might be able to get home if he walked on all fours, when all of a sudden he heard a knock on the door behind him, "King? King are you out there? I'm going to open the door now so if you're by the door don't be by the door while I'm opening it. Cause you'll be in the way."
Fox opened the door, and fortunately King was not in the way. He stood slightly shaken in the doorway, donning his familiar brown boiled leather bomber jacket.
As he walked by King on the steps, he tossed something on to his face, "You forgot this." King fumbled for the piece of cloth, pulling it off to discover it was his scarf.
"Oh, thanks..."
Fox continued to saunter on up the walkway, leaving a trail of padded footprints behind him, but before reaching the end he turned around to face King.
He waved his hand to beckon him. "C'mon, let's go for a walk, just you and me. I have some things I want to talk to you about."
Part 3
~
It was the first Christmas that Joel could remember, and what little he could remember from it was one of his few sources of comfort. All that winter there had been talk around the town about a cold front heading in from the north, and the good chance there would be of snow come December. Where he used to live as a child, it had always been too warm during the winters for any snow, but that time it would happen and he would finally get to see it for the first time. He'd come back home from school and sit excitedly by the window with his pets every day, all of them waiting with bated breath to witness the miracle of nature first hand. King chuckled to himself, recalling how he nearly went into comatose that Christmas Eve, after he had spotted the first several flakes fluttering down from the sky. He shoved his small feet into his little boots, threw on his jacket, stuffed his hat on and mittens and stood out there for hours just watching it all come down.
It turned out to be nothing more than a light flurry, and afterwards he ended up coming down with a serious fever and had to stay home from schools for a few weeks but he didn't care. It was all great stuff. Kid stuff.
Eventually his family moved further up north and then it snowed every year. At first it seemed like dream come true for little Joel, and for a time it was, but every year, the snow only became less and less exciting. By the time he was in High school, all it meant to him was that he would be the one to trudge out there to shovel it all off his driveway. How quickly he learned to hate it.
Life's funny like that. The more responsibilities you have, the less enjoyable everything becomes. I guess the same can be said for being transformed into a dog.
King lifted one paw up after the other, trying fiercely not slip and break his face on the thick frozen sheet of death serving as the underbelly of this monstrous waist high terrain of snow. It's been like, four or five minutes now? and Fox had not uttered a single word. This in part, both annoyed King and made him feel uneasy, leaving him to do nothing but wander aimlessly beside him and reminisce about his Christmas experiences. He really hoped that Fox had some legitimate but also not disconcerting reason for wanting to drag him out here in the first place.
He gazed up at the husky's solemn face, studying the rather offsetting and expressionless stupor he seemed to be in. "Hey," He lifted his hand and waved it in front of Fox's face, "you in there? Want to tell why we're out here in all this stupid?"
All of his waving must have snapped Fox back to his senses. He blinked repeatedly, and looked down at King, "I'm sorry?"
"Why," King spread his arms out to all of their surroundings, "did you bring me out here?"
"Oh that, hold on a sec," Fox sniffled a bit, and pulled a small handkerchief from his collar, wiping and blowing his nose in a begrumpled fashion, "I just wanted to make sure we were far enough."
"Far enough?" King said with a look of confusion.
"Yeah, away from my house." He pointed to his ear, "You'd be amazed by how well some of them can hear from far away, even through walls and stuff; but they're trained for that sort of thing so, yeah. Ah, we should be more than far enough now though."
"Hmm," Whatever it was Fox was planning to tell him out here in this destitute area he really didn't want any of the K-9 dogs to know. That worried King.
"Yeah," Fox tucked the damp handkerchief back into his collar. "by the way, I want you to know that was a really lousy story you made up back there."
"What, about the toilet? I kinda figured you wouldn't believe that."
"Nooo-well yeah that too but, I mean before that. You know, about the governor who had a fear of being smelled." King's ears sunk immediately at the mention of that, "You're lucky no one else decided to pursue that farther."
"....So you knew."
"No offense, but I have been told better lies."
"...I'm sorry, that I lied to you Fox."
"I'll live."
An awkward silence ensued between them for a few minutes...
"Is it really that bizarre?" King asked, "Never sniffing anyone I mean? Does that make me, unnatural? For a dog?"
For a second, there flashed a hint of doubt and fear in Fox's eyes, but after a moment or so they returned back to their quiet lavender blue softness, "It does, in the traditional sense."
"I see." King didn't have high hopes for may come next.
"I understand the fact that you're shy and probably hadn't been around many other dogs, but I never imagined it was that bad."
"Hmm, so is that it than?" King's head drooped so low he could feel a crick in his neck, "Am I to be cast as a freak of nature now?"
Fox squatted down a bit to King's level, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He shook it lightly, and then smiled what had to be the most sincere smile King could
ever hope to see, "Hey look, you may be a somewhat of a recluse, but you're not a freak of nature. Not even close."
King smirked, "Well if it's coming from you I guess that has to mean something."
"Of course," He shrugged, "after all, who do you think really runs this whole doggage campaign? This canine empire of the humble culdesac? Why none other than I, and I can always put in a good word for you."
Ahh huhhh... "I never took you for being the joking kind."
"Hey, if I must gleek I will. It's not healthy to let it pent up."
"Yeah but see that's the thing, you're far more educated than most of those other dogs. How can I ever hope to convince this simpletons to accept me with my worldly other attributes."
"You could try talking to them, not all of us dogs are that completely brain dead. They're smarter than you think."
"Really? So you mean to say that a dog like that," He pointed to where he spotted a small white rump sticking out a small hole at the bottom of the large brown fence on the other side of the street, "is just part of the minority?"
Fox shifted his gaze towards the rearing backside in question, "Don't count those chickens just yet, it could be some cat stuck in that fence."
"Perhaps one that's... catty wampus?"
"..."
"...I am so sorry."
"No, no I'm... just surprised, is all."
Fox glanced both ways down the street for any cars, kinda pointless really, and then proceeded to walk across quickly while King hopped close behind. They slowly approached the figure within the fence, trying to get a good look at it before making contact. Upon closer inspection, King noticed that the figure had a short brown tail, wagging randomly without any coordination, and two small brown paws that poked out at the bottom.
He had a fairly good idea of who this was, but Fox beat him to it, "Ah, Sasha?"
There came a sudden scramble on the other end, followed by an audible *thunk* as the back of Sasha's head came in contact with the top of the fence hole, then a hissing sound as she removed herself clumsily, rubbing her head gingerly.
"Owww..." At least she wasn't stuck. She checked her paw for any unsettling leakage, then looked up at the two of them.
She gave you the impression of being a slow and dimwitted girl to look at her, and she had a way of sitting foolishly as though she had just downed a snickers bar and had collapsed inside herself and was going out for the umpteenth time and her eyes would blink like a gerbil's in a cage. Then all of a sudden she would make a move.
She pounced, arms out like a hawk ready to grab it's prey, sinking her smile into King's bosom. It startled King to an awful degree, sending him through a disorientating mix of emotions before arriving at a state of active alertness.
"Kingy!" It was difficult to hear her properly when she kept rubbing her face all over King like that, "It's so nice to seeeee you again!"
"Again?" Fox eyed the odd display of affection before him, "Have you two... met before?"
"Once. Just once," That night... oh that night, he could never forget it, even if he wanted to. In short, there has never been a time in his life where he experienced a quiet moment as fragile and yet powerful, as that one night. In reality, sitting bare in the freezing cold temperature with nothing but a few newspapers over them didn't seem at all like a very rational idea. What had he been thinking? He couldn't even remember how he had fallen asleep; he had spent most of the night trying to keep Sasha covered up, listening to her whimper when the wind picked up. He had kinda hoped that she had forgotten about him; apparently she had not.
"I ran into her after the uh..." He placed his hands together, curling his fingers tightly, and then burst them open while pulling them apart, trying simulate the act of an explosion, "you know..."
Fox nodded his head, as if to say he understood and would not pursue the topic further.
"Soooo, Sasha," Fox sounded like he was being cautious with his words, "what were you doing in that fence anyway? We thought you were stuck."
"Oh that," She began, "I've been told recently that no two snow flakes are ever the same, and I had a really hard time believing that. I spent the whole day looking at snowflakes and right there," she pointed at the hole in the fence, "I'm pretty sure I saw two that looked exactly the same so I wanted to make sure I got them." She hung her head slightly, "I thought I was going to be famous or something..."
That is mighty silly. King could hear Fox sighing heavily as well, "I think you shold get back to your home Sasha, it's too cold out here for silly things like that and you're going to get sick."
Sasha shook her head, "I don't want to. Daddy isn't home right now and I don't want to be there by myself..."
She lied sulkily against King, as he did what he could not make her more upset by simply scratching her on top of her head,
"That's ridiculous, you're going to stay here in the cold only becau-" Fox stopped when he noticed the look of disapproval on King's face. King motioned a hand across his neck, indicating to Fox that he needed to stop.
"Fox," He said, almost in a lecturing tone, "why not let Sasha stay with you at your home for today?"
He could tell by the gritting teeth that Fox had to give the idea some serious thought, as if this was something he didn't really want to do. Eventually though, he gave in, "Yeah, Sasha, why don't you head over to my place and stay there for the mean time instead? It's warm there, and there's plenty of food too."
"Gee, that's awfully kind of you Fox," She was twirling one of her fingers absentmindedly in King's ear, "but I'm just not really in to you like that."
Fox blushed, and then with irritation spat, "That wasn't a forward invitation." He dragged his hand down the side of his face, "We just want to make sure you're not stranded out here." He looked away, "I'm having a party there, with Fido and the rest of the K-9 squad so--"
"Party? K-9 squad? Fiddddooo!," Her eyes lit up with glee at the mention of Fido, "Oooooh, I am in to him though... which way to your house did you say?"
Fox pointed back behind him reluctantly, "Two blocks that way, then take a left on Patterson street. It's literally right around the corner, Drive 16. There are even several cars parked out front, you can't possibly miss it." He stared questioningly at Sasha, "Please try not to miss it..."
With an air of delight Sasha hopped to her feet and began trotting along down the straight forward path. She whirled her head around, flashing a smile that twinkled against the pale white snow surroundings, "Bye Foxxy! Bye Kingy!" She waved charismatically back at them.
The two of them stood there waving too, less energetically so, but they still made the effort. It was evident by the look on their faces that both of them knew how to react to what just happened.
"Well that was, unexpected."
"Yeaaah..." King turned hesitantly towards Fox, "What was that all about? Why the cold demeanor? Couldn't you see that she needed help?"
Fox frowned, "I wasn't being cold to her," He fiddled with his fingers, "I just get a little uneasy around her. I wouldn't know how to explain this to you because you haven't known her that long, but I think she knows more than she lets on."
"Really now." The sarcasm was almost tangible in his words.
"Yes. I know it sounds silly, and it is, but there's something about the way she acts; it's like every now and then, I catch these little glimpses behind her facade, like theres something more cunning behind her than just her cuteness. No one else but me seems to think this, not even Bino."
King scratched at the tuft of fur under his chin, "I can't imagine why. Seems like someone's a little paranoid."
Fox smirked at him, "That's rich coming from you buddy."
King folded his arms and lidded his eyes at him, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Face it King, you're about as subtle as a train wreck when it comes to not freaking out around anyone other than me."
"That is a complete and utter lie and I will not..." King's face suddenly grew pale as the blood drained from his head at that second.
Without a moments notice or explanation King grabbed Fox and shoved him through the hole in the fence, "King what are you daaahhh!" He crawled in just behind him. He propped Fox up against the wall, pressing a finger against his lips, motioning to Fox not to make a single sound.
They waited. Soon the sound of footsteps came clicking in the distance, drawing closer until each step rang painfully within King's ears. King could feel his heartbeat increasing to unnatural levels, beating in unrythmic patterns within his cheast, as he stood there still as a brick wall.
Suddenly, the footsteps ceased.
"...King."
He felt his heart jump striaght up into his throat.
"When you and your little friend there are done playing around, I want you to come back home in twenty minutes. Do you understand?"
A lingering moment passed among all three of them.
"Do you?"
King gulped with difficulty, "Y-yes sir."
The footsteps continued again as they had down the path, growing fainter and fainter and then faded away.
King sloped down to the ground backside first, cluching his head with his hands. Why does he always do this to me? He couldn't even lift his head to face Fox, knowing how pathetic he must look. He sat there, curled up in his little ball, hoping Fox would just go and leave him there to die in peace.
Whether he had been sitting there for a few minuted or a few hours he couldn't tell, but by the time he felt the urge to lift up his head, he was surprised to find that Fox was still sitting there, looking concerned for the small Corgi.
Great, I'm now the the biggest most pitiful charity case to have ever sullied this World...
The husky asked accordingly, "Was that your owner?"
"...Yeah."
Fox paused for a brief moment, "Why did you hide from him?"
"It's a game we play..." King couldn't stand his lies anymore, but he just didn't care now.
Apparently, Fox had had enough with them too. "King, enough, just tell me the truth."
"You want the truth? Fine, I'll tell you. The truth is, I'm... "
I'm not who you think I am. I'm not a dog, I was a human before I met you, a really troubled human at that. On top of that, I'm the same human that helped kidnap you and nearly got you killed too. I met a magical Griffin who transformed me into a dog and now I live a life of lies where everything I once knew and tolerated from my old life is gone forever.
"...troubled."
"Troubled."
"****** Fox, I want to tell you. I really do. I'd like nothing more than to spill my guts all over everything, but I can't stress this enough: I can't tell you, not now..."
"Than tell me when you're ready," He said calmly, "I can wait."
"What?" King lifted his head, completely taken aback, "Really?"
"Really. Come on, lets go."
The rest of their awkward trip back to Fox's house remained in total silence. The only sound that could be heard was the soft pitter patter of clumped snow falling from the rooftops and the clipping sounds of trees hitting against one another
Upon reaching the front entrance of Fox's home, they paused for a moment beside each other.
King turned to Fox, "I wish all this," he waved to no one but the air, "had gone better."
Fox shrugged his shoulders, "Hey don't sweat it, there will be other days."
"Sure." King hunched over, placing his hands on his knees and sighing loudly as he did. He felt tempted to hurl, "Well, guess I'll see you later."
As king turned around to start making his way home he heard a small chuckle behind him, "Hold on there King, don't you even want to see the gift I have for you before you go?"
King did a one-eighty, "gift?"
"Knew that'd get your attention." Fox reached deep into his collar and rummaged around in there until he pulled out a small little box wrapped in gold sheeted paper. King gazed, awe-struck at the small item resting in his palm, hesitate to actually extend his hand out and grasp this tiny object.
Fox shook the box a little, "Well go on, take it."
He reached out and took the small box, continuing to stare at it in his hands,
Fox rolled his eyes, "Open it."
King pinched the thin gold tinted cover, and pulled it off slowly. Underneath the paper was the box, just an ordinary brown box. He lifted the corners opened and shook the contents out into hands, and out fell out...
"D-dog treats?" The green and blue plastic bag glistened in his paw, covered in grapevine decor and little stars. On the front there was a picture of blazing red wolf with large golden wings (a tad absurd) soaring underneath the emboldened words Royal Feral's Delight.
"Do you like it? It cost a pretty penny but we all chipped in, Me, Fido and the rest of his gang, in order to get it for you, to make up for what happened at the last gift exchange. I was going to give it to you at the end of the party but since you left, I figured I would--"
"I love it." The small package trembled in King's hands. He could almost cry he was so happy, but he wouldn't dare let himself, "This is the best gift I've ever gotten..."
Fox beamed at him. "I'm glad you like it."
King raised his teary face up to Fox, about to say something but before he could the front door to Fox's home flew open, "SOMEBODY HELP MEEEEE!"
Fox came bolting out the house, Sasha practically dangling from his neck while he led a procession of whistling and hooting dogs.
"Whooo hooo, give him a big smooch for me!"
"C'mon Fidey don't leave the lady hanging!"
"I saw the mistletoe clearly above your head Fidey!"
King could hardly watch the insanely unfolding on the front lawn without cracking a grin. He looked over, seeing Fox peering at the ensuing chaos, evidently not as pleased with the events as he was.
King lifted his arm up with his fist towards him "I'll... catch you later Fox."
Fox smiled a little and lifted up his arm as well, bumping his fist against King's.
"Yeah, see ya."
Last edited by Two_Twig on Sat Dec 25, 2010 6:20 pm, edited 40 times in total.
Hold still ~I'M PAINTING THE WORLD
----
My Devious account... SIP. When is the next update coming? When you least expect it
You know, Two-Twig. i actually love your presentation so far. The style of story-telling i think is alot more easier to get along with. It feels like it left off perfectly fine from where Rick left us at and i had no trouble reading it.
The only thing i could see wrong is the reference to the world's law or the continuity regarding the law in your story so far, but Rick would have to be the judge of that.
You mean the sniffing law? That was never a real law. King made all that up completely. And unless the world Grape and Peanut live in doesn't have a United States, with people placed into positions of power over those states, i.e. governors, I'm not sure I see how referencing them puts the story in jeopardy of becoming non canon.
Oh and thanks, I really appreciate the compliment. After all that re-editing, you have no idea how nice it is to hear a positive comment on this... whole thing.
Hold still ~I'M PAINTING THE WORLD
----
My Devious account... SIP. When is the next update coming? When you least expect it
Actually, you're right again. silly me. I was overlooking the fact that Fox didn't know that King was lying XD
The only other thing i could possibly nitpick then is the small font. I don't know if the main page if Rick posts your comic there will be able to use small font. <.<
PS: I still remain confident nonetheless that i'm a winner, but i would like to be proven otherwise =P
Last edited by GameCobra on Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Heh, they're not the only ones turning in their stories today! The difference is, mine is complete. Enjoy!
All the King’s Men, Part 2:
Fido crossed his arms indignantly. He wasn’t sure of what to say. Had King just admitted to not doing something that any normal dog did on a daily basis? Lost in thought, Fido didn’t have a chance to say “No” to Kevin. The Doberman missile shot across the living room of Bill and Fox’s house, King in tow, until they landed on the other side of the room, with King pinned underneath.
“AAH AH AH AH AH! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!” shrieked King as he wildly flailed his arms and legs in a futile attempt to push the 100 pound Doberman off of himself. Instead, it only served to make Kevin put more of his weight onto King, thinking it was a game.
Fox immediately jumped up off of the floor. He was already sitting next to where King was before the Corgi had become part of a canine missile. The Husky waited to go any further until enough time had elapsed that he could tell that Kevin had no intentions of leaving King alone. Fox pushed on the heavyweight’s sides, trying to force him off of King. He wouldn’t budge. At least, not until Sergeant Ralph stepped in. “Kevin, get off of that poor dog,” ordered Ralph, calmly scolding the Doberman. Kevin obeyed, but not without a fuss. “Aww…but I was just-“
“I don’t want to hear it,” replied Ralph, holding up one paw as he lent out the other to help King up. King looked at Sergeant Ralph in disbelief before he accepted Ralph’s paw. Back on his feet, King was a little less paranoid. It was back to just a lingering paranoia. He was still a bit shaken up, and Sgt. Ralph picked up on this. The German Shepherd chuckled.
“Relax, kid,” Sergeant Ralph said, a smirk covering the right side of his face. He stared at Kevin coldly. “I’m sure that won’t happen again, right, Kevin?” The Doberman froze. “Uh…sure, chief.”
Ralph shot a glare in Fido’s direction. “You’re next. Follow me.” He walked into another bedroom that wasn’t being used by any other dogs. Fido set Spo down on a pillow. He stuck his finger in the mouse’s face. “Behave,” Fido warned before he followed Ralph into the bedroom. Fido shut the door behind him.
King wanted to change the subject away from the game in general…he had almost exposed himself right there! “So, um…Spo…why do you ride on Fido’s head everywhere?” King asked the mouse, hoping to break the ice and change the subject to something that wouldn’t eventually lead to him being found out.
“Cuz it beats bein’ stuck at home all day.” The mouse answered, in a very snotty tone. “It’s either go with Fido or be stuck listenin’ to an exciting game of Dungeons and Dragons.”
Yeah, real boring…I used to play that, you know, thought King. “Oh, I-I see. That does sound boring.” King looked down. Okay, that didn’t work…I’ll have to try something else… he thought. Just as King opened his mouth to ask another question, Fido and Ralph returned. It was a quiet meeting…did anything at all happen in there?
“So…what do we do now?” asked Fox. “Do we just finish the game, or does somebody have another game in mind?”
King didn’t really want to finish the game. He felt that it would give him yet another chance to humiliate himself…and he didn’t want that. But King would do whatever the police dogs wanted…if for no other reason than to avoid suspicion. These were the same dogs that caught him as a human not long ago; there was the possibility that they could still recognize his scent. That would end in disaster… and maybe with him behind a few hundred iron bars. King shuddered to think about being in jail for the second time in only a few months. He hated the jail that he had been stuck in. It was rotten, moldy, cold, smelled like urine, the food tasted like there was something other than food in it, and his cellmate was one of those types that enjoyed screaming “LET ME OUT OF HERE I DIDN’T DO IT IT WAS THE OTHER GUY!” 24/7. He couldn’t wait to get to his hearing, just to get away from that nutcase.
“How about we play another game? Let’s play tackle Frisbee!” Kevin suggested. The two other police dogs shook their heads; Fox facepalmed; King, however, expressed his disinterest in a different way. “NO!” the Corgi yelled, as loud as his little lungs would allow. “I’D RATHER GLUE MY HEAD TO A WALL!”
He realized that what he had just said wasn’t what he intended; it was intended to be just a thought, but King had let it escape. He put his paws to his mouth, wishing that he could take it back… “King. A word. Outside,” ordered Fox, who had been strangely quiet until King had decided to open his mouth and say something he had regretted. King hung his head in shame. Great job, you moron, now even your best friend is disappointed in you, thought the Corgi.
As Fox was putting on his bomber jacket, he tossed King’s black scarf to him. “Take this; you’re going to need it.” The Husky warned; this confused the Corgi. Is he mad or what? I don’t understand…he thought. King wrapped his scarf around his neck, pulling it a little tighter than usual as he followed Fox out through the front door.
As they exited, King could hear Kevin chuckling. “Hehe, glue his head to the wall.” He also heard what sounded like a slap, but was too far outside of the house to be able to tell for sure; the ambient sound of the videogames being played in the background helped to drown out the slap.
----------------------------
Part Three:
King shivered as he came into contact with the frigid air and snow. The snow crept up between his toes, tickling him a bit, and the winter air caused his nose to turn cold and start to run. He hugged his scarf a little tighter, cursing Pete in his mind for not making him a breed with thicker fur.
King couldn’t take his best and only friend being angry at him. He sheepishly kicked at a small mound of snow. “Fox, I-“
“King, what you did…I can’t even put into words how ridiculous that was! I know that you’ve had some problems with police dogs in the past, but these guys are different; they actually care…I’ve never seen them lay a finger on someone that didn’t deserve it.” Fox looked up toward the sky; King looked straight down….under the mound of snow that he had kicked was Fox’s bone. “What you said to those other dogs was highly disrespectful and I’m disappointed in you for that.” Fox’s breaths grew more rapid. “But that’s not what gets me the most. What gets me the most is that you, of all dogs, lied to me. The last time I was lied to like that, some guy from the PETA dognapped me and stuck me inside a van, promising to ‘free me from my enslavement’ and let me ‘live as nature intended’. I swore that the next time that happened, I would strangle my captor.” Fox angrily sighed, his fists clenched.
The mention of the PETA and those lines…they sounded so familiar. King realized that what Fox had repeated was exactly what his cohort had assured Fox. The corgi put his paws around his throat as his mind filled with images of Fox holding him up by the throat, both of Fox’s paws wrapped tightly around it, caught in a stranglehold until his airway could no longer supply his lungs any air.
“What did this PETA guy look like?” King asked, hoping to get as many details as possible, trying to find something that would remove the possibility of Fox’s dognapper being Joel. He remembered that when Fox was in the back of the van he had used, Fox had said “Not again!” Maybe, just maybe, he was talking about another time, maybe another time prior to Joel and Fox’s first meeting.
“He had brown hair, a green shirt, a tie, and brown pants. Why?” Fox asked. “You look a little nervous…is there something wrong?”
In fact, King was more nervous than he looked. On the inside, he wanted to just run. Just take off running, as fast as he could for as long as his stumpy Corgi legs could carry him. On the outside, he showed a weak smile. “Oh, uh, no reason…I just thought that maybe I might recognize the guy who had kidnapped you…I’ve had a few run-ins with those PETA jerks in the past, too. Ah ha ha hah…” King ran his paw through the fur on the backside of his head and neck nervously.
“You’re hiding something. There’s more to your story than you’re telling me. How am I supposed to help you if you won’t tell me the truth?”
“Fox, I…I can’t tell you. I couldn’t tell you all of it and what I could tell you, you wouldn’t believe anyway.” King looked down. He sincerely wished he could tell Fox everything, even if it meant being thrown to the police dogs by Fox himself…just to get it all off of his chest. The Corgi knew that Fox would never betray him like that, but it was a question of belief…and King’s story was stranger than most.
Fox crossed his arms. His bomber jacket was almost completely blanketed in a thin layer of snow that was taller in some areas (such as his shoulders) than others. “What do you mean ‘you can’t tell me’?” King had hoped he wouldn’t ask that…he had no choice but to further the lie. The Corgi shook his head. He tried to appear as solemn as possible, but he was awash in a flood of emotions that seemed to have complete control over his facial features.
“I really can’t tell you. I have some sort of…mind block that blocks out pieces of my memory. Small pieces, details…anything from my past before last year, I just can’t remember…and what I do remember isn’t always complete.” The Corgi knocked on the top of his own head, as if he believed that a good, solid whack to the head would allow his memory to return.
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be able to remember getting bullied by police dogs as a pup. So which is the lie…you getting bullied or your terrible memory?”
King knew the lies had to stop there if he wanted to keep Fox as a friend…his only friend. He sighed. “…Both.” His eyes began to fill with tears. “I just…I’ve done some terrible things in the past, and...I’ve seen those police dogs before…but the last time was under less-than-friendly circumstances. I-I’m glad that they don’t recognize me. I can see that they’re not so bad now…but I’m just so afraid that they’ll remember who I used to be and…” King stopped there. If he finished his sentence, Fox would definitely get even more suspicious of him. He couldn’t say that he had been in jail! Fox could definitely put two and two together and figure out that he was Joel, the very same Joel that had dognapped Fox and attempted to run from the law, the same Joel that, if it weren’t for Pete’s intervention, would be rotting in jail right now!
The Corgi so badly wanted to be able to tell Fox everything. The simple fact that he couldn’t do so dominated his thoughts. The tears in King’s eyes collected and filled their basins, streaming down his face and dripping one at a time. There seemed to be no end to the streaks of tears that drenched his face, and eventually he gave in to his tears, fell to his knees, and sobbed. This threw Fox for a loop; he had never seen King tear up, let alone cry before! The Husky was dumbstruck, and all he could think to do was ask, “King, are you alright?”
King sniffled. “Yeah…” he replied, noticeably upset, but he wasn’t lying; King really was beginning to feel better…sometimes things just take a good cry. The Corgi wiped his eyes and stood back up, brushing the snow off of his lower legs.
“Look, King…If it makes you feel any better, we can go somewhere else and do something by ourselves. I won’t make you play with the police dogs if you don’t want to,” Fox said, genuinely concerned for King.
King shook his head. “No…we need to finish that game, right? I have most of the points right now, and I’m not about to let you all win by default,” he joked, heading back inside the house. Fox, following behind King, tripped on the recently-unearthed bone. He picked it up; scratched on it was a short message: “ K + F, BEST FRIENDS”. It looked rough, as if someone had been doing it with the claws on their feet. “King…” Fox whispered softly. He smiled, picked up the bone, and entered the house.
Inside the house sat Sergeant Ralph, Fido, and Kevin, who were, from the looks of it, having a pretty civil conversation. Kevin was sitting calmly on the floor. Fido was in the middle of explaining…something, but immediately quit when he heard the door open and shut. “Welcome back,” he said, grinning. From out of Fido’s hair popped Spo. “What took ya so long?!” he irritably asked Fox and King.
“Spo, give it a rest,” countered Fido, annoyed by the mouse. “What?” The mouse asked, obviously not amused, “It’s not like I was asking why those two were outside for so long or why the gray one is holding something behind his back.” Spo rolled his eyes. Fox quickly slipped the bone into one of the pockets in his bomber jacket.
“Spo, stop being nosy. It’s none of our business,” said Fido. “Fine, whatever,” the mouse replied. “Not like I wanted to know anyway.” The awkwardness of the situation forced King to change the topic…and all he could think of was the game of “I Have Never” from before.
“So anyway, who’s still in the game?” asked King. He raised his paw. “I am.” Said Fido, raising his paw; he was followed by Sergeant Ralph, Kevin, and Fox, who also raised theirs. King clapped. “Okay, so let’s get back to it, then…wait, whose turn is it?” An awkward silence pervaded the room.
“Since nobody seems to remember whose turn it was, King, would you like to do the honors?” asked Fido, ready for the game of “I Have Never” to resume. “Sure,” the Corgi replied. He sat down on the floor, “…I have…” He closed his eyes. Maybe I can put my life as a human to use here… “…never had a girlfriend.” Fido and Fox tossed a toothpick his way. “Oh?” King asked, “I’d love to hear about these ‘girlfriends’,” he joked.
“…Maybe some other time,” answered Fox, blushing. “Ditto,” Fido replied, also blushing.
The game of “I Have never” continued on for hours. For the majority of the questions asked, only one or two dogs had ever done what was stated. The first one to get out was Kevin, followed by Sergeant Ralph an hour later, then Fox a half hour after that. Fox, Ralph, and Kevin all stayed behind to watch the game, instead of joining the other police dogs in the back room, curious to see who would come out on top. The game was nearing its close, and the only two left in it were King and Fido. Both dogs were determined not to lose. The score was tied…each dog had a share of twelve toothpicks. King glared at Fido, and Fido glared back, both dogs’ eyes burning with determination.
King’s turn. “I have never licked anyone else.” Fido shook his head. “Neither have I,” he replied coolly. No toothpicks exchanged holders. The anticipation built up in King. He was so close to winning, and now he could fall…it all depended on Fido’s answer. The corgi chewed his claws, without even noticing it.
Fido chuckled. “I have never…watched a game of Dungeons and Dragons.” King felt relieved. He hadn’t either! From his first day in college until he graduated, he had always participated, never watched. The Corgi grinned. “Me neither.” Fido grumbled.
Back to King. “I have never…” He paused for dramatic effect. Time seemed to slow down, almost halt for Fido as the next words left King’s mouth, “I have never slept indoors since I moved here.”
Fido threw down the tie-breaking toothpick and began to clap, slowly at first, then as Fox, Ralph, and Kevin joined in, he began to clap faster. All of the dogs in the room stood up, including King. Fido smiled. “Congratulations, King, you won!” Fox high-fived King (or ‘low-fived’ for Fox because of height differences). King smiled as the realization hit him…he had won! He had really won! He laughed. “Ah hah ha hah, I did! I won! Yes!” The corgi shouted, loud enough for the police dogs that had gone into the other room to play video games emerged from the room.
One of the K-9s, a Cocker Spaniel with white fur and black patches, asked, “Hey, what’s with the commotion? Who won?”
Fox answered for King. “He did,” he said, pointing at the exuberant Corgi. “Well, congrats then,” replied the Cocker Spaniel.
King, caught up in the moment, yelled, “Hey, who wants to play another game?”
Fido piped up, “Sorry, King. Some of us have shifts tomorrow, or we’d gladly play another game. We should do this again sometime, maybe next year?”
King nodded. “Definitely!” he responded. Fox agreed, as well as Sergeant Ralph and the other K-9s.
“It’s settled, then,” announced Fido, “Looks like we’re having our Christmas party here again next year!” All of the animals cheered. “Alright! I get to grill more meat, then!” yelled Officer Bill, excitedly.
“Can we just order pizzas next time?” King whispered into Fox’s ear.
“Done and done,” Fox whispered back.
“It’s getting late; I need to head home,” said one of the K-9s. The two other dogs King didn’t know, as well as Kevin and Ralph, agreed. They all took a few pieces of food and started off for their respective homes. Fido, before leaving, stopped in front of King. “I hope you had a lot of fun, King. I told Kevin to tone it down for you…if he didn’t, I promised him we’d have to cut his salary a bit.”
“Thanks. I guess that explains why Kevin didn’t tackle me again as soon as Fox and I got in the room.” King laughed. “You police dogs aren’t too bad. I’m glad I met you all.” The Corgi held out his paw. Fido shook it. “Same here,” he replied, “Well, I’ve got to get home now…take care, you two!”
“Yeah, see ya!” shouted King. “Bye, Fido!” said Fox. With the last of the K-9s gone, King’s nervousness subsided.
“King, I’m glad that you’ve changed your perspective on the police dogs. It’s always great to have more friends.” Fox smiled.
“Yeah,” King said, smiling, “…More friends.” Are they really my friends? Or just not my enemies? he thought.
Fox walked to the buffet table and brought back a Pay-Day Bar. He gave it to King. “That’s to replace the one you dropped earlier,” he offered. “Now c’mon, let’s watch some TV…unless you want to go back home.”
“No way! Let’s watch some TV!” The Corgi replied, happy to do something he hadn’t done in a long time. The remainder of the night was spent in front of the TV, watching whatever the two came upon flipping channels. Eventually, Fox and King fell asleep, each wrapped in their own blanket. Once the two dogs fell asleep, Officer Bill quietly shut off the TV and turned in for the night himself.
Well... After looking at things, I'm not gonna have enough time to finish my submission, as much as I'd like to enter. I'd really rather focus on guest strips than spend time on something which isn't even likely to go on the front page, so... I'll post something, but you should probably count me out of the official running, because I won't devote myself to it unless Rick really likes it...
Oh well...
Hey guys, I'm one of the RP section mods. Feel free to bug me any time: I'm not strict and I try to be very approachable.
Fanfiction Character: Vallerie Nightengale (female, idiot)
“That sir was a disaster of epic proportions,” King said from inside the basket of dirty clothes. He’d charged in it seconds after Kevin had started begging to play Tackle I Have Never. It was so odd, being small enough to fit inside a laundry basket. This whole dog thing still wasn’t right to him, and now he felt like it never would be. No, he knew it never would be.
“King, get out of there. You’ll start smelling like Bill’s dirty socks,” Fox said through chuckles. He was laughing too hard to try and force King out the laundry; instead he slumped against the wall, holding his sides and choking on laughter.
“Stop laughing!” King shouted indignantly, though his voice was muffled through the clothes. It was probably a good thing though, since his voice sounded incredibly high-pitched due to embarrassment. Is it possible to shoot yourself with a sock?
Fox’s laughter died down to a soft chuckle. “Okay, I’m done. Sorry, but that was just hilarious! Did you see the look on Kevin’s face?” he erupted into laughter again.
King groaned loudly, burying himself deeper in the clothes. Kevin’s face had been the worst, a look of shock, confusion, and the obvious urge to tackle, mixed with a giant gaping mouth. “I did see it, and that’s the exact reason why I’m never coming out of this basket ever again!” The embarrassment of saying his I Have Never out loud and being the source of Fox’s laughter was enough to push him over the edge.
Fox stopped laughing, and managed to stop chuckling as well. “Aw, c’mon King, I’m just kidding. Seriously, I bet they don’t even think its funny,” he assured his friend. This coaxed part of King’s face out from the laundry.
“Do…do you really think so?” King asked timidly. When Fox nodded, his whole head popped out. “Let’s pretend I believe you. Even if don’t think it’s funny—which it’s not—they’ll still think I’m some kind of freaky dog that has no idea how to be canine,” he sighed and slumped into the clothes again. “And they’d be completely spot-on.”
Confused, Fox sat down next to the laundry basket. “What are you talking about King?”
This was it. This could be his chance to tell the truth about Pete, about being human. About the kidnapping, and the arrest and the real reason he was so uncomfortable around the K-9 squad. He could clear things up good…but probably lose his only friend in the process.
King fidgeted and did his best to not look Fox in the eye. “I mean…well, Fox there’s something you should know-”
Fox held up a paw, cutting King off. "You don't need to explain. I already know."
There was a THUMP of King's jaw hitting the ground. Oh God, he knows too. "W-w-wha...?" he stammered, completely unable to form words.
If Fox already knew, that meant Pete had gotten to him. If Pete had gotten to him, well that could mean a lot of different things, more then half of them being bad. King's cover of trying to act like a troubled, bullied corgi would be blown sky high.
"King! Are you alright? You went really pale and I think you swallowed a sock," Fox said, concerned. King's contracted pupils focused on Fox's face, and he gulped.
"I-I'm fine. Wh-what do you m-mean, you a-alread know-w?" King stuttered, trying to put his face in a normal shape. After this failed, he covered himself in clothes.
"Well, you did say you were bullied as a pup, but you never told me why; probably because it was too hard to think about. Just then, you said "They'll think I'm a freaky dog that has no idea how to be canine"-- and something tells me that's why you got bullied."
"...what?"
"In a nutshell, what you were saying is that you were...awkward or something as a pup and that's why they bullied you," Fox explained. The look on his face made it obvious that he believed everything he was saying, and even if King did try to argue, he'd still believe it.
I owe you one, Universe. King exhaled in relief, though he kept the clothes on his face. "Sorry I didn't tell you. It's kind of painful to remember," King lied, trying to sound believable.
Fox nodded understandingly. "I don't blame you. I wouldn't have told me either-,"
He was cut off by a rather large and towering figure suddenly charging into the laundry room. “KING! FOX! HE TOLD ME TO COME GET YOU!” Kevin shouted.
“Who told you-OW!” Fox was cut off by Kevin grabbing them both by the collar and dragging them out the door.
"Kevin what are you doing?" Fox grunted as Kevin carelessly dragged them out of the laundry room. As soon as the Doberman has gotten hold of his collar, King had stiffened like a board. A board that was convinced he was being dragged to his final judgement.
I guess this is it. This is the part where they think up some horrible punishment for me, blaming my lack of canineness, and Fox gets dragged into this for befriending me. King stiffened even more and whipped his head around wildly, looking for an exit.
They’ve thought this through; there aren’t any exits!
Kevin deposited them at the feet of a rather beat up dog. He had a cast on his left leg, his right arm was in a sling, and he was most likely forced into a puffy neck brace. King saw all of this, but he was paying attention. The only thing on his mind was the best way to approach a sorry end: so sad that you drove yourself insane, or fighting? With another look at the police dogs, he decided fighting would be the dumbest thing he could do. King stared at the cast for a while, not understanding why an executioner had on a cast.
They hired a mummy?
“Look!” Kevin shouted unnecessarily. He was excited to the point of drooling, which left the top of King’s head very unappealing to look at. The two dogs dragged outside couldn’t even hear Kevin. Their own thoughts were pounding loudly in their ears as they gaped at the dog in front of them.
As King noted before, the dog was pretty beat up, and had a scowl plastered across his face. A familiar scowl…
“Oh…shoot...Hey, Bino,” Fox greeted him, picking himself up off the floor. His voice was confident; despite the fact the Bino was glaring at him murderously.
“Hey, friend.”
Ignoring Bino, Fox offered a paw to King, who took it and pulled himself up as well. Trying to sound as confident as his friend, King thought of a million different things to say. I have a present for you too!; You realize you’re not that much taller then me?; That neck brace looks great on you!
King felt the pressure of everyone staring at him, waiting for him to make a move, which in turn, made him want to curl up in a ball until everything magically turned back to normal. Which was weird; from this entire experience, had he not learned that magic did nothing but ruin his life? Sure, being a human wasn't all that, but it was so much better then this. Then, at least he had author
It felt as if time was slowing itself down, giving King a good opportunity to think of something-- anything to say.
The corgi stepped up to Bino defiantly, not letting himself think about what he was doing in fear of chickening out.
“Get out of my face. Er, I mean, stop trying to get in my face,” Bino spat as he glared down at King. King’s confidence swelled, fueled by his anger and the urge to sock Bino in the nose.
“Did you hear me? Step back, shorty.” Bino raised his voice, and suddenly he looked so much bigger.
King shook off the rush of fear and squared his shoulders. Bino raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. The smirk on his face made it obvious that he couldn't wait to hear what King had to say-- so he could shoot it down.
“Two things,” King started. He spoke slowly, as if talking to a two year old.
“Fido, could I please tackle Bino?” King heard Kevin plead from behind him. The Doberman was shushed, and the whole room was silent as they awaited King’s next words.
“First of all, that neck brace really doesn’t compliment your scowl.”
Bino continued glaring at King, though he absentmindedly pulled at the neck brace.
“And second of all, Napoleon Complex has nothing to do with it.”
Last edited by The Game on Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I tried to make it funny as possible, but I don't usually write contemporary fantasy nor comedy; I usually write high fantasy and the like. It's a long story (around 7550 words), but a sit-down should finish it up. Tell me of any errors, of course.
Oh, and the horizontal lines are supposed to represent sections. HTML conventions aren't too clear on how I can start new sections of a chapter.
Sinder wrote:So then Max can't snort catnip off Grape's chest? :(
I tried to make it funny as possible, but I don't usually write contemporary fantasy nor comedy; I usually write high fantasy and the like. It's a long story (around 7550 words), but a sit-down should finish it up. Tell me of any errors, of course.
Oh, and the horizontal lines are supposed to represent sections. HTML conventions aren't too clear on how I can start new sections of a chapter.
There's only one problem....stories have to be between 3000 and 7000 words.
I tried to make it funny as possible, but I don't usually write contemporary fantasy nor comedy; I usually write high fantasy and the like. It's a long story (around 7550 words), but a sit-down should finish it up. Tell me of any errors, of course.
Oh, and the horizontal lines are supposed to represent sections. HTML conventions aren't too clear on how I can start new sections of a chapter.
liked it a lot. Sweet, funny (the waterballoon fight, heh) and so moving at the last paragraphs...
I tried to make it funny as possible, but I don't usually write contemporary fantasy nor comedy; I usually write high fantasy and the like. It's a long story (around 7550 words), but a sit-down should finish it up. Tell me of any errors, of course.
Oh, and the horizontal lines are supposed to represent sections. HTML conventions aren't too clear on how I can start new sections of a chapter.
There's only one problem....stories have to be between 3000 and 7000 words.
I read somewhere that Rick recommended that. I tried to enforce it (you can tell by the way the ending is somewhat rushed), but it was a little difficult.
Sinder wrote:So then Max can't snort catnip off Grape's chest? :(
actually, if it helps, Rick doesn't mind it being longer.
rickgriffin wrote:Dude, 3000-7000 was a rough estimate of what I was hoping for it to come out as. If you think that it would be better longer, go for it because I might end up agreeing with you.
Thought cutting out unnecessary parts is sort of desired in the editing phase
well, here's my submission. I really should have asked if the two parts would need to be relatively close in size...but I didn't expect for it to be so much longer! Eh, still had fun writing it(except for the frustrating parts)
Part 2.
To say that King was nervous was an understatement. His ears were lower than Fox had ever seen on a dog, and his eyes darted from dog to dog with a manic desperation. Fox wanted to help him; to say something that could diffuse the situation and put everyone back in a good mood. Unfortunately, he was so thrown by King’s confession that he couldn’t think of anything helpful to say. He tried to open his mouth once or twice, but with nothing to say, he could only shut his mouth and watch as King’s nervous habits started to get the best of him.
“Erm, I mean…” King was already wringing his hands and averting his eyes. Fox knew what would come next, and he watched with a pain in his chest as King’s face broke out into that horrible smile. “Ehe, haha! I…gotcha guys? That was funny, right? Don’t you think? Huh? Heehehe”
King’s attempt to escape the situation was to no avail. If anything, the creepy laugh only made the K-9s more uneasy. They listened wordlessly as King’s voice became increasingly panicked, their stupefied expressions making him even more nervous. “I-I mean, of course I’ve done it, right? I mean, who hasn’t? We’re all dogs here, right? I’m totally a-”
“King!” Fox, deciding to throw caution out the window and just dive into action, cut off King’s crazy ranting. “Just…just breathe, all right?” He got up and walked over to the Corgi, hoping to calm him down. King’s fake smile dropped and his head hung low as Fox wrapped an arm around his shoulder, leading him through the doorway and leaving the other dogs in an awkward silence.
Fox lead King into the nearest empty bedroom, hoping to be able to keep his head together well enough to calm him down. Looking at him though, Fox could tell that he wouldn’t be easy to cheer up. He had abandoned the forced smile and replaced it with a brooding glare. Fox had hoped that it would be easier to talk when they weren’t in the same room as all the others, but now that he’d gotten King out of there, he realized he still hadn’t managed to wrap his head around what King had said.
King wasn’t making it any easier on him. He refused to look at anything except the floor, and had begun to shed silent ears. Fox could tell that King was feeling very anxious, but he couldn’t be sure what he could do to put him at ease. Deciding that it was once again best to just bite the bullet, Fox took a deep breath and got ready to give King some comfort.
“Listen, King, if you don’t want to…er-”
“Thanks, Fox.” King muttered, stopping him before he could really get on a roll. “But I think I’m going to head home now.” He still wouldn’t look Fox in the face, and his body language screamed leave me alone, but Fox wasn’t the kind of dog that would let him leave on such a sour note.
“Hey, hold on! You can‘t just leave!” He said as he put his paw on King’s shoulder.
“Don’t give me that! everyone in that room was looking at me like I’d just told them I could grow a second head!” King shouted, shrugging off King’s paw. Sure, he was talking now, but having him angry wasn’t any better than having him laughing to cover up his own fear. “It was all going fine until I went and messed it up, and don’t pretend that’s not what happened! I knew staying around was a bad idea, and I was right. Thanks for trying Fox, but I can’t be in the same house as them right now.”
Fox wanted to argue, but these were strong points. He didn’t want his friend feeling like an outcast, but there was no doubt that the other dogs would have a hard time seeing him as ‘one of them’. Regardless, Fox was determined to bring King out of his shell.
“I am not letting you shut down because of this. I know it seems bad, but I’m sure if you just explained, we’d understand. C’mon, King, you’re a good guy, and you could get along with everyone if you would just open up more.” Fox had finally overcome the brain-lock that hearing King’s confession had sent him into. They were in the heart of the matter now, and Fox wanted to make sure that King understood that everyone wantedto be his friend.
“Open up more? I just did, and look where that got me! At least I was just a stranger before, now I’m a grade-A weirdo! If I’d just kept to myself, we all would have been better off.” With tears running freely down his face, he looked up at Fox with eyes full of anger and pain.
“No, King, we wouldn’t have! You would have been miserable and alone at your dad’s place, and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself at all if you hadn’t come to the party!”
“But you’re enjoying this?” King asked. “You enjoy having to pull me out of the room just so the others can play a parlor game without me having a nervous break-down? Or do you just enjoy convincing me that it’s a good idea to drag it all out?”
“Just because things got a little awkward isn’t a good reason to give up on us!” Fox could see by King’s expression that the corgi wouldn’t be willing to listen for very much longer. “Just because we were a little surprised doesn’t mean we aren’t willing to-” Before Fox could finish, King made his point by reminding him about why they were in the situation to start with.
“I’VE NEVER SNIFFED ANYONE’S BUTT!!”
Fox had cringed , unable to stop his reaction to the bizarre statement. He knew full well that it was the reaction that King had expected, and it was a cheap trick.
“You see? Even you can’t look past how freakythat is! How is anybody is else supposed to deal with me? For the last time, Fox, I’m going home.”
Fox didn’t want to let him go, but he knew that if he continued to pester him, he’d only make things worse. At least, that was what he told himself. All he could hope for was that King would think about what he’d said when he got home. That, and that the others had steered clear of the bedroom, giving King a chance for a quiet getaway.
Turning his back on Fox, King opened the door and stepped out..
“Hi! I’m Daisy!”
…into a hallway full of dogs that had been watching the bedroom door with a fixed fascination.
PART 3
King hated the snow. It was cold, wet, and stupid. The snow made everything more difficult, and everyone had to re-adjust to the colder weather and slippery streets. It ruined everyone’s good time, and as far as King was concerned, the world would be a better place if it never snowed again.
He was focusing on the snow because he didn’t want to go over what had happened back at Fox’s home.
When King opened the door, he’d come face to face with a black lab in yellow collar. All around her was the neighborhood assortment of house pets.
A few quickly broke away from the group and scurried off to other parts of the house. Those that were left either tried to avoid making eye contact with him or stared openly.
Once again, King found himself the object of several dog’s attention, many of them unfamiliar. For a second, he could only stare at the crowd with a stunned look. He felt like he was back upstairs, being stared at by a pack of animals as if he was the single strangest thing on earth. One of the dogs-a brown one with a red collar-took the chance to try and explain.
“We heard shouting…but Fido said to leave you guys alone…”
Their guilty expressions spelled out the rest. The pets just couldn’t resist listening in on his little drama. With a fresh spurt of fury, his frightened expression was replaced with his usual angry glare. The dogs all made way for him as he marched his way through the house and out through the front door. Not a single dog tried to stop him and before long, he was trudging his way through the snow, heading anywhere and nowhere.
He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Pete, so he decided to spend his time wandering through the snow-covered streets of the neighborhood, trying to forget about everything that had just happened. Unfortunately for him, dumping all of his problems on the snow wasn’t really working.
The longer he walked through the streets, the more he forgot about forgetting about his problems, and the more he dwelled on how it had all been destined to go wrong from the start.
Really, what had he thought would happen if he tried being honest with them all? The sensible thing to do would have been to think up a good truth that no one would have noticed, like ‘I’ve never bitten a mailman’. But nooo, he just had to pick the one thing that all dogs, everywhere, did all the time!
And even then, things might not have gotten so bad if the dogs hadn’t frozen up on him like that. What was he supposed to do while they all looked at him like that? Would it have killed them to at least try and say something? Or was it too much to expect an animal to be able to deal with the kind of oddities that only a human could bring into their world?
Once he started, it was impossible for him to stop his train of thought. He kept coming back to the conclusion that it would be impossible for the animals of Babylon Gardens to accept him. Sure, Fox had been a good friend, but that was a relationship that could only exist for as long as King was able to keep up his lies.
As King began to lose himself in his thoughts, he also began to lose track of time. He wandered through the streets without any sense of urgency, which helped him let go of his anxiety. It wasn’t until he’d gone from ‘unapproachable’ to ‘kinda gloomy’ that he decided it was time to start heading home. He still didn’t want to get too close to any of the dogs, but he was at least calm enough to put up with Pete.
Taking a quick look around, King started to get his bearings. He stared down the street as he juggled thoughts of how long it would take him to get back home and wondering how long it would take him to be able to look Fox in the face. He was still looking down the street when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, King! What are you doing here?” King turned to see a smiling brown dog with a spot over his eye. He wore a green collar that was marked with a ‘J’ for Joey. Although King wasn’t about to start screaming, he still didn’t particularly feel like dealing with anymore pets for today.
“Nothing, just headed home.” He gave a brief answer as he started to slink away, not wishing to encourage Joey to start up a conversation.
“Oh, really? Weren’t you gonna head back to the K-9s party?” Joey didn’t seem to get the message. Instead of backing off and going his own way, he started following after King.
“No, I’m going home!” King shot back with a little more anger than he’d expected. Joey gave him a surprised look, and King felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at him, but hoped that it would get him to leave him alone.
Unfortunately, Joey persisted on following him. King hadn’t taken three steps before Joey was already catching up with him.
“Would you stop following me!?” King shouted as he turned on the spot, looking up commandingly at Joey. Joey was about to say something, but before he could get the words out, but another realization struck King. “Did Fox send you to look for me?” He asked with a slightly more resigned tone. As much as he’d come to appreciate Fox’s caring nature, it really could get annoying sometimes.
“No! I haven’t even seen Fox today.” Joey answered truthfully. “It’s just…well, I live right there.” He explained as he pointed at the house that was one block down from them.
“Oh,” King mumbled. So, Joey wasn’t following him. Just unfortunate enough to be heading home on the same path that King was on. “Right, sorry then.” King turned hastily to hide his reddening face and started walking at a brisker pace.
“So, what happened at the party?” Joey asked timidly. Apparently, Joey didn’t quite understand that King didn’t want to talk about it.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” King explained plainly. It wasn’t an angry response, just an explanation. Joey probably didn’t deserve to be put on the receiving end of any more of King’s outbursts.
“Oh, well that’s okay, then…” Joey said. That seemed to be the end of it. He wasn’t asking anymore questions, and in a few minutes he would make his stop and leave King on his way. The rest of his trip promised to give him a chance for some silence. Which made King really, really confused when he actually asked Joey a question. “So, why aren’t youat the party?”
“It’s not really my scene.” Was Joey’s response. King probably should have figured as much. From the few times he’d interacted with Joey, he hadn’t made King think of Mr. popularity. Guys like Joey were usually the ones who stayed home on party night.
But Joey seemed to take his status in stride. While King would probably shut up after explaining the wasn’t the party-guy, Joey didn’t seem to be bothered by it. “Actually, I might have stopped by for a few seconds earlier to say hi to Fido, but I was at the theater until a few seconds ago. I just don’t like staying at big dog-parties for too long….”
And he kept talking. King told himself he would have preferred if he’d left him alone altogether, but he was more than happy that Joey wasn’t pestering with personal questions. Instead, he talked about himself and how he got along with his brothers, and some of the other pets around the area. It was a relief not having to worry about what to say next around Joey.
King was surprised to find himself walking with Joey all the way up to his door, and even more surprised when he realized he was wearing a smile. His face wasn’t breaking into a toothy grin, but he was definitely feeling happier than he had been since leaving Fox’s house. Unfortunately, he realized as Joey opened up his doggy door, the time had now come for him to get back on his way home. It had been a happy couple of moments, but all good things must come to an…
“Hey, are you leaving already?” Joey asked from his doorway. King was almost off Joey’s porch when he was called back.
“I was kind of planning on just going home…” King didn’t know if Joey was doing it on purpose or not, but he was definitely wearing big puppy-dog-eyes. “I mean..wouldn’t your parents mind?”
“Nah, mom and dad won’t mind as long as we don’t make a mess. Besides, they won’t be home until it gets late. And they left me some pizza money!”
At the mention of pizza, King’s stomach began to growl loudly. Loud enough that when King looked up from his stomach, he saw that Joey was looking at him with a slightly startled expression. His ears fell as he remembered the same looks on the dogs at the party during ‘I have never’.
“Well, then, that’s a yes?” Joey’s face broke into a huge smile almost instantly.
“Well..yeah, sure! Why not?” King answered enthusiastically. Maybe it was the way Joey could get so excited about him sharing a pizza, or maybe it was how he didn’t ask him so many personal questions, but something about Joey made King feel completely at ease. He wouldn’t mind chatting with Joey for a little while longer.
The pizza arrived twenty minutes later, and they’d spent the time talking about the pets in the neighborhood. After Joey paid for the pizzas, he asked King to grab some soda’s out of the fridge.
“All right, now just follow me.”
King did as he was told, although he wondered why Joey was leading him into the backyard.
“Oh yeah, I hope you don’t’ mind, but I’ve gotten really used to eating out here.” Joey explained as he stepped into his doghouse. “It’s kinda cool, y’know?”
King took a quick look around as he took a seat on the floor. He could see the appeal. It wasn’t exactly fine dining, but the doghouse reminded him of the clubhouse he’d always wanted to build for himself when he was younger. There was a small table that they sat the food on, and a small pile of books were set on top of a box, and…
“Is that a T.V?”
“Yep,” Joey answered as he pressed a button on the remote. The screen came to life and filled the doghouse with sound. “hey, you don’t mind anime, do you?” He asked as the opening credits to a Japanese cartoon show filled the screen.
“No, not really.” King answered truthfully as he opened up the box and took out a big slice of pizza. As long as he was getting to re-live the pizza experience, he wouldn’t have cared if Joey had chosen to watch Teletubies.
“That’s great!” Joey exclaimed, confusing King’s reaction to the smell of pizza for excitement over the T.V show. “I’ve been waiting all week to watch this episode, see…”
Joey began filling King in on everything that had happened up until now on Tora the Fire Girl. Again, King didn’t really mind so long as he didn’t have to stop eating. In fact, as the show wore on, he found himself slightly impressed with a couple scenes, although he had to keep asking Joey to explain certain things.
“So, what’s with the bats? Can no one see them?”
“No, the bats aren’t really there. They’re just manifestations of Tora’s insecurities.”
“Then how come they were able to attack Kai at the theme-park?”
“Because Kai’s body was infused with Ket at the beginning of the season.”
“That big tiger thing she keeps seeing?”
“Yeah. He was the manifestation of her hope, until he got tricked into giving up his piece of the mirror to Kai. So now Kai can interact with the rest of her creations.”
“Is that why he can swing around that huge sword?”
“No, that‘s just because it‘s an anime.”
Their conversation lasted the whole episode, and by the time the end credits started scrolling, King had almost forgotten why he was here in the first place. When Joey asked, King replied that he had enjoyed it, although he wasn’t sure if Pete would let him watch it at home.
“Really?” Joey said with a bit of a pout, “That’s too bad. It’d be nice having someone to talk to about it. All Lester ever does is complain about how the dub‘s called Tora the Fire Girl instead of Fire Girl Tora…”
They talked for a little longer about the show, and Joey offered to have him over more often to watch some others. Eventually though, even Joey began to notice that it was starting to get late.
“Hey, won’t your dad mind you being over so late?” Joey asked with concern in his eyes.
King thought about his answer. The sun was already setting on the horizon. Even if Pete did get upset that he’d been out so late, but what could he do? Make him play dress-up again? “I should be fine. I can stay for a little longer.”
“That’s great! Lemme just go call mom and dad so they’ll know you’re here. I can get some more snacks while I’m at it!”
Joey happily picked up the empty pizza boxes and promised to be right back. King sat in the empty doghouse, reflecting on how his day had gone. He would still have to make amends with Fox tomorrow, and he didn’t know how he’d feel around the K-9s now. In fact, he didn’t know how he’d feel around ANY of the pets. Had any of them actually heard his argument with Fox? Would they all treat him the same as they had at the party? Just as his spirits were starting to fall, Joey came back in with a box full of popcorn chicken.
“So, it turns out that mom and dad are being tied up at work right now. They’re just glad that there’s someone to keep me company while they’re away.” He explained as he handed King some food.
They spent the next twenty minutes talking about what Joey’s parents did for a living, and how it affected his allowance. “..and they were kind of disappointed when they found out how much I’d spent in one go when I got into Dungeons and Dragons.” Joey said, pointing at the stack of books King had noticed earlier.
“I do remember my pals mentioning how much it cost.” King added as he popped another piece of chicken in his mouth. He looked at some of the other DnD paraphernalia that decorated Joey’s doghouse. He continued to look at it thoughtfully before he asked , “So…you wanna play for a little?” When he turned back, he was surprised to find that Joey already had a game board and several sheets of paper out.
“Okay, so we’ll have to start with your race and class. If you want, I could show you some of the other PC’s that we’ve made in the past for newer members, but I always think that you have the most fun with a character that you make completely by yourself…”
King was happy to find that Joey was keeping the game-talk at level he could still easily understand. His last encounter with Joey and DnD had left him lost and confused before he’d even seen the game-board, but Joey seemed to be willing to slow it down this time. After a little more explanation, King had designed a playable character, and was ready for Joey to lead him through the rest.
“Okay, so usually, we’re pretty strict on the rules,” he explained as he set some handbooks and folders next to King. “But since this is kind of informal and we’re just letting you get used to the basics, we can forget about the more complex stuff for now. I’ll explain the important stuff as we go on.”
At first, King had a bit of a hard time really getting into the game, but with Joey leading him through the story, he was eventually able to slip into the spirit. The game didn’t flow as smoothly as it would have if he’d already been fluent with the rules, and he regretted that more and more as they had to stop at all the best parts so that Joey could show him what parts of the handbook he had to look through. Overall though, King was having a blast. Which made it really suck when Joey stopped him right before he entered the treasure room.
“You just wanted me to get excited so you could deny me.” King pouted as he helped Joey put up the pieces.
“No, I didn’t! Well, okay, maybe a little. But you really do need to be getting home. I’d hate for you to end up fighting with your dad over this.” King had to admit that Joey had a point. Between watching cartoons and playing, they seemed to have taken up the last bit of daylight and gone well into night. It was already dark outside, and King had been aware of the night’s cooler temperature for a while now.
“Besides, we can always pick up on the game later. And maybe I could record some Fire Girl so we can watch it next time you come over. Oh, and mom said she’d let me buy Ninja Princess when it came out, so you might like seeing that!”
King smiled slightly at how psyched Joey was about him visiting again. Putting away what was left of the trash, King stretched and left the doghouse, only to be stopped by Joey once again. “Just wait for a couple seconds, okay?” King waited at the entrance to the doghouse patiently, wondering what Joey was planning. He came out with his arms full of the books that they’d been using during the game, along with a few extras. “I figured you’d like to go through these on your own before we played again.” He said as he walked up to King’s side.
He reached for the books, but Joey wouldn’t let him take them so quickly. “It’s all right! I don’t mind carrying them to your house. Besides, it’s a good night to go for a walk.”
King didn’t really know what to say as he lead the way out of the house. He wanted to thank Joey, but their quiet walk was too perfect for him to disrupt. The silence of the back-alley seemed almost magical to him, and as he glanced up at the starry night, he felt a warm glow in his heart.
Unfortunately for him, being so caught up in the silence practically made him and Joey jump out of their fur when a loud clattering noise shattered his peaceful night into a thousand tiny pieces.
“What was THAT?” King asked turning in a full circle to figure out where the noise had come from.
“It sounded like-”
“Nobody move! We’re just here for the trash!” The gruff voice had come from the large metal dumpster that was just ahead of them. They watched quietly as a scruffy raccoon slowly rose out of the opening and gave them each a threatening glance.
He carefully climbed down, keeping his eyes on them the whole time. As he did, another raccoon followed suit, although he waited until his partner was on the ground to toss him a bag of trash before coming down himself.
“Okay, we don’t want anyone to get hurt, so just walk away and we can all go home without any problems.” Joey’s nervous look and posture told King that he actually thought these guys were dangerous. King’s expression didn’t betray anything besides a slight annoyance.
King’s initial shock had worn away rather quickly, and although he wasn’t exactly the type to fight over nothing, he didn’t like being bossed around by a couple of dumpster-divers. Still, he didn’t see any reason to jump into a fight. Instead, he kept a straight face and said, “Uhm..actually, we were going down that way. I mean…I don’t really care what you got out of the dumpster, so if you’d just get out of our way, I’m sure I coul-OUCH!!!” In the middle of his speech, the second raccoon had reached into the dumpster and whipped out a broom, swinging it down with a hard THWAK on King’s head.
“What are you doing?!” Joey and the raccoon’s accomplice shouted at the same time. King was too busy rubbing his aching head.
“Where did you get that?” The raccoon’s partner asked, sounding as if he’d just watched his friend burn down a building. “Are you seriously gonna start waving those things around? You'll turn into one of them! Just put the broom down, and we can go back home.”
“It’s too late for that now!” The broom-wielder shouted back, his voice full of crazy-people panic. “They’ve always had their brooms ready! If we don’t start fighting fire with fire, we’ll always be on the run!” To emphasize his point, he brought another swing down on Joey’s shins.
“OUCH!!” Joey’s eyes shut in pain and his books dropped when he reached for his aching leg. Through watery eyes, King made a half-hearted attempt to take the broom from the feral, only to have it thwacked away. “OUCH!”
King and Joey couldn’t do much except turn and make a run from the power-crazed feral, who hunted after them with a vengeful fervor. Just as King’s patience was about to run out, he heard rapid footsteps and the raccoon screaming. Turning on the spot, he saw the raccoon screaming in the face of a scary-looking Doberman. King instantly recognized Kevin, and actually smiled at the scene in front of him. The big police dog holding down a tiny raccoon, who was screaming his lungs out at the terror of being held down by such a dangerous looking beast.
“Heh. It’s actually kind of funny on the other side of things.” King mused.
Looking around, he saw the silhouettes of Fido and Fox in the distance. They seemed to have been following the sounds of the screaming. “King! What happened?” Fox asked as he finally reached him. “I thought you said you’d gone home? We’ve been looking for you all day! What’s Kevin doing to that raccoon?”
“I saw him chasing after these two with a weapon!” Kevin answered while still holding the feral down. “And proceeded to take appropriate action.”
“You warned him to freeze, then waited for him to stop?” Fido asked suspiciously.
“Details!” Kevin spat. “Come on Fido, I’ll take this guy to-wait a minute. Did he have any accomplices?” He asked King.
“Yeah, there were two of them rummaging through a dumpster a few blocks from Joey’s house.”
“Sweet! Fido, YOU take him to sergeant Ralph, I’ll go find his accomplice.”
“No, Kevin, don’t-“
Before Fido could argue, Kevin was off on the chase. The raccoon tried to make a getaway, but Fido quickly held him back down. With a weary expression he looked back at Fox, Joey, and King.
“All right, I guess I’ll go ahead and play along with Kevin. Are you guys all right here?”
Joey, Fox and King looked at each other before answering him with a collective and chirpy ‘Yep!’
“All right then. Fox, make sure King gets home all right. Joey, were you looking after King?”
Joey gave King a curious look. King just shrugged. “Uhm … I guess you could say that.” Joey said with some doubt.
“Great! It’s nice to see you helping him out when he needed it. Keep up the good work!” And with an encouraging smile, he turned and lead the raccoon down the street, where King liked to think he’d get thrown roughly into the back of a cop car before being driven down to the station to do some time.
“So, guys, what happened?” Fox asked again.
“Oh, right.” King answered. “Yeah, I’ll tell ya, but follow us, will you?” King lead Joey and Fox through the snow and back to the alley where they had been jumped by the crazy ‘coon. The DnD books that he and Joey were carrying were still laying in the snow. The dogs picked the books up and carried them as they all started making way to Pete’s house, with King in the lead recounting the day’s adventure.
When they arrived on the porch, King and Joey dropped their books on top of King’s stack, and he let the pile rest on a rocking chair that Pete kept out there.
Fox looked pretty happy about the situation, considering he’d spent the day worrying while King had been rolling dice. “As long as your feeling better. I was really worried you’d let what happened today get to you.”
“So what DID happen?” Joey asked with a curious look. “I mean…it sounds like it caused a lot of trouble…”
Fox gave King a look that said ‘You haven't told him??'
King just shrugged it off and told Joey, "Joey can tell you. If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to hit the hay." His two friends nodded happily and wished him a good night before turning to leave. They hadn’t gone two steps off his porch when white flakes started floating down from the sky.
“Oh, cool!” They both shouted. “It’s snowing!”
They turned back and looked at King with elated expressions before turning back on their way. King watched them for a little while before they were out of eyesight, then picked up Joey's books and headed inside. The snow had made the pages a little damp, and it had made walking around everywhere more than a little uncomfortable. But, if his two friends could still get that excited about it, maybe he could learn to love the snowfall as well.
soo, that's what I came up with
biggest accomplishment: King & Joey bonding time!
biggest regret: spent a LOT of time trying to decide weather or not everyone was acting in character.
Last edited by A-coro on Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Remember kids, only you can prevent a fiery apocalypse!"
I'll send it as soon as I can.
