Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
- MischaTheWolf
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:56 pm
- Location: California/Vermont
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Loving this so far!
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:20 am
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I just hope the next chapter comes soon
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Next chapter may unfortunately take a little longer than ideal because Snownerder's computer broke, but it won't be a full two months this time at least!
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
We all will be looking forward to where the next chapter will take us! It will definitely be worthy of the wait!
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Haha. Apparently I lied. It's been two full months since the last update. Snownerder's computer is still not fixed, unfortunately. I don't know when the next chapter will be... though Chapter 7 is decently far along, interestingly enough.Wrenisprobablyb0red wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 4:39 am Next chapter may unfortunately take a little longer than ideal because Snownerder's computer broke, but it won't be a full two months this time at least!
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Sorry that he is having issues with his computer and holding you up. Just know that we will all be waiting whenever you decide to continue the story!
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Ay, don't blame him, blame his computer. Though he has found a temporary solution and progress is being made again!
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I wasn't blaming him because I do know what it is like to have computer issues affecting you. But I am glad that he found a way to get around that!
- MischaTheWolf
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:56 pm
- Location: California/Vermont
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Feel free to take as much time as the both of you need!
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Well, Snownerder finished the chapter in early May but then I had some bad things happen and didn't get around to editing and posting until now. I'd leave a bit of a longer note, but I think I'll mostly let this chapter speak for itself, because I have a whole lotta homework I need to do in preparation for finals.
-
Chapter Six
The Saluki Saboteur
-
Murmurs flooded the meeting room of the GODC. Even with the chairs sparsely occupied, rumors and speculations bounced around the room.
“I was eating dinner before this…”
“Why the emergency meeting?”
“Where’s Bino? Why does Duchess look so impatient?”
“Maybe he’s just running late?”
“I hope this is over quickly.”
There were only about a dozen dogs that had even bothered to show up for this alleged ‘emergency meeting,’ something that infuriated Duchess. A truly paltry attendance, especially for a meeting as important as this one would be.
Then again, it wasn’t like anybody knew precisely why it would be so important. Bino had called many meetings for decidedly laughable reasons before. It was becoming tiring to her, having to deal with his utter incompetence. Even when he wasn’t here, his presence was felt- to the tune of this poor turnout. Obviously this was of course his fault; he’d fostered all this!
Luckily for Duchess, she wouldn’t have to deal with him for much longer. This had been a long time coming, she figured.
Frankly, he’s fortunate I tolerated him for so long.
Boris quickly approached Duchess, taking a quick glance at their semi-interested audience. “They’re coming.”
“Good. Let them in through the back entrance. Yeltsin knows what to do.”
“Understood.”
Boris lumbered off, and Duchess made her way to the podium. She rested her paws on it, ruminating over what was to come. It was a wonderfully intoxicating feeling to be up there. She was center stage, she was the dog everyone paid attention to. Duchess soaked in the power of the podium. She took a quick sip of water— she’d need it for her speech.
Of course, she’d given a couple of speeches before. Granted, the turnout usually wasn’t even as good as this. But that didn’t matter. There were enough dogs here to spread the word; to let everyone know about the unforgettable night where she rightfully—
The back door creaked open, its rusted hinges serving as another reminder of the club’s nosedive. She could have sworn she had told Bino to get that fixed weeks ago.
Useless.
The sound of a futile struggle, and the slam of said door, signaled that it was time for her speech. Turning to the “crowd”, Duchess cleared her throat.
“Thank you all for coming. Your attendance is appreciated— even if mandatory. I will do my best to keep this brief. You may have noticed that your dense, frankly incapable leader— Bino— is nowhere to be found. Rest assured, he’ll be here very soon- he is being escorted here so that he can be present for the upcoming announcement.”
“Announcement?” One dog piped up.
“Indeed. I have a big announcement to make; a declaration of changes that are to be made. Changes long overdue."
And from her left, Yeltsin emerged, dumping Bino inelegantly onto the stage in front of everyone. As Yeltsin retreated behind the curtains, guarding the back door and blocking Bino’s escape, Bino’s attention was drawn back to Duchess.
Although she maintained her usual calculated frostiness, contempt was visible on Duchess' face. More so than usual, anyways. "I would say that I'm glad you've made it, but that would be a lie. And that would be counterproductive to this assembly."
Assembly was a generous term. Bino noticed that, as usual, there were tons of empty seats. Not that he'd think of correcting Duchess.
"What's going on here!?" Bino asked, rising to his feet. "What's happening, Duchy-poo? I hadn't scheduled a meeting today!"
Duchess didn’t even blink. "Correct. You have not. I've taken the initiative to call one myself."
Bino began to ask what she could possibly be holding a meeting for, but his inquiry was interrupted by the scraping of a chair across the floor. Boris had brought an empty chair onstage.
"Take a seat." Duchess gestured to the chair.
Every fiber in Bino's being wanted to object to this. First she'd announced an unapproved meeting and now she was having him sit in a chair!? It certainly didn't carry the magic of the podium, which Bino realized rather quickly as he awkwardly took his seat.
"Excellent. Truly excellent." Duchess said. Bino found it difficult to discern if that was sarcasm or not. He felt like maybe he detected a little sarcasm in there.
All eyes darted between him and Duchess. Normally, he enjoyed being in the spotlight― that was his rightful role, after all, taking center stage. But this felt different. Duchess stood comparatively tall at the podium, compared to Bino, practically cowering in his seat.
There was no more time to stew over this, however. Duchess' speech was about to begin. The clubhouse was by no means a courthouse, but Bino could feel the judgemental, vitriolic gaze from Duchess as he looked to the audience. He could’ve sworn they were judging, too. And Duchess hadn’t even said anything yet.
-
“Bino’s been dognapped?” Sasha asked in disbelief.
“That’s what he told me! But who would have―” Fox’s own question was cut short by the notification beeps of another couple of texts from Maxwell. It served as a harbinger for his rushed arrival; the texts, of course, informed them he’d be coming.
“He said he’ll be here soon.” Fox assured Sasha, before quickly reading Max’s last text. “Though he thinks that… Duchess… is going to do something really bad?”
Fox recalled seeing Duchess around. He’d never bothered to interact with her because she seemed uppity, almost elitist. That, and because she hung around Bino a lot. He suspected Bino didn’t really like her all that much, and in fact, was only with her to fill in that void that Bino had surely had after Sasha dumped him. He felt momentarily guilty for not caring much at present, but then rationale returned, and he remained steadfast in his belief that Bino had brought that breakup onto himself thanks to his selfishness. His misfortune was largely his own fault; simple cause and effect.
At the utterance of Duchess' name, Sasha’s heart had dropped. She nearly buckled under the wave of dread— the only reason she hadn’t replied yet was because she felt paralyzed. She felt completely disoriented now. Fox was keen to her state of mind— or rather, its sudden nosedive.
“Sasha? Hey, are you alright?”
The words seemed to travel in one ear and out the other.
“Duchess…” Sasha repeated the name, almost blankly, crossing her arms as if she was cold. Trembling, the dog did her best to remain at least somewhat grounded.
“What about Duchess?” Fox asked.
“She’s… she… she isn’t good news.” Sasha sputtered, doing a poor job at truly verbalizing her qualms. At the moment, forming coherent sentences was its own challenge. “She’s always… Bino doesn’t seem very happy with her…and she doesn’t seem very happy with him.”
“Oh. So they’ll break up?” Fox’s tone was unsympathetic, which he hadn’t actually intended. To remedy this, he added, “I mean, if they’re unhappy, that’s the best thing they can do.”
Sasha hesitated to respond. Deep down she hoped that was the case― that Bino wouldn’t be in any actual danger. Though she felt like that wasn’t the answer, or at least not the only one.
A knock at the door briefly elevated Sasha’s heart rate, though moments later she realized it was likely just Maxwell. Indeed, as Fox opened the door, the cat practically bounded inside, though the expression on his face didn’t do wonders for Sasha’s near-overwhelming trepidation.
Forget near-overwhelming. It was too much. Worry, sorrow, perhaps a bit of righteous anger swirled around, an emotional typhoon in Sasha’s mind.
She wanted to stand, but her legs were just a touch too shaky. She remained seated, falling back into a quiet sulk as she’d listen to Fox and Max conjecture about the situation. Deep breaths, she told herself. That usually (sometimes) worked when she tried it during therapy.
Fox glanced back at her briefly, finding her silence disconcerting. The concern was all over Fox’s face, and Max caught his expression.
“Is she alright?” He inquired, glancing at Sasha himself.
“I don’t… I don’t think so.” Fox quietly replied. Not that it was of any use― Sasha had heard them regardless. Max tried her anyways. “Sasha, how’re you holding up?”
“I’m not! I am NOT holding up! It’s not alright! Duchess is bad news!” Sasha bellowed, her uptick in volume frightening every pet in the room, including her. Lowering her volume a little, but still unable to fully even her tone, she spilled her anxieties to the two startled pets in front of her. She rose to her feet, neurotic conviction coursing through her body. The fear was still present, evident in her rather shaky speech, and further underscored by her thunderous, if momentary outburst.
Fox immediately pivoted to diffusion. “What isn’t alright? Duchess and Bino potentially breaking up? It’ll be… an adjustment for both parties, but I think it’ll–”
“It’s not the breakup that’s not alright! I-I mean… it would be, but it isn’t happening, so it’s not!”
Fox took a moment to process the syntactically faulty logic in Sasha’s statement. “Well, what’s going on, then? It’s okay, Sasha, it’ll all be alright- but we’ve got to take a step back and keep calm. We need to figure out what’s going on. We’ve got to stay rational, alright?”
“We?” Max quietly repeated, earning a cross glance from the husky.
“Yes, we. I don’t exactly know what’s going on, either, unless you’d like to explain?” Fox asked Max, to which the cat replied with a simple: “Didn’t we already tell you? What part of ‘Bino’s been dognapped’ is confusing to you?”
“It’s not confusing, but clearly there’s something more to it if Sasha’s this wound up about him! I mean, Bino literally brought her to tears! So forgive me if I’m a little put off by her distress,” Fox defensively retorted, trying and failing to be both justifiably argumentative toward Max and comforting toward Sasha. “I’ll admit it― it’s odd that Sasha, and even you, are panicking like this!”
“Excuse me?” Max leveled a daring glare toward Fox, imploring him to continue. Maybe he would have agreed any other day, but today was a different story. Sasha merely whimpered. She didn’t want them to fight.
“He isn’t exactly nice to you either, at least not from what I’ve seen.” Fox attested, crossing his arms and finding that his blood was beginning to boil. He hadn’t even fully intended to really get involved, but now here he was, dragged into the point of investment. He supposed― no, he knew that Bino was a sore subject for him in and of himself. “Bino’s probably just… got himself caught up in one of his own little schemes, and now he’s paying the price for it like always. Take it from someone who was in his circle― pretty much all of his misfortune is synonymous with ‘he had it coming’.”
“I mean, possibly. Sure. You’re right, okay?” Max admitted. “He was, and still is, kind of a… total jerk. But Duchess is way worse, alright? Believe me when I say that, at least. Sasha’s right― Duchess is bad news.”
Biting back the urge to restate how perfect they seemed for each other, Fox posed the question: “In what way?”
“Well, for starters, she’s horrible to him. She’s horrible to everybody, but she doesn’t even try to be nice to Bino. She just uses him for popularity points, for status, and it’s so obvious to everyone except Bino.” Max vented, his expression darkening as he recalled a few of the many things he hated about Duchess.
“Bino wasn’t great to Sasha, either.” Fox replied.
“But he at least valued their relationship to some extent. Even if he was a bit… iffy… at times.” Max muttered.
“Iffy.” Fox snorted. “Yeah, that’s the word. Iffy. Let’s try neglectful.”
“But he never scratched me across my face!” Sasha interjected, piercing through the increasingly tense debate. Max let go of anger for resignation- Fox was visibly thrown for a loop.
“What…?” Fox slowly asked, certain he’d misheard.
“He never scratched me across my face. Have you seen his face? Have you seen the scratch that’s on it? He’d never do anything like that to me,” Sasha swiftly and morosely responded. Though her goal was to make Fox understand, it wasn’t achieved. Thankfully, Max stepped in.
“You have seen the bandages on his snout, correct?”
“Well, yes. I thought he’d just gotten injured somehow.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Well, it’s a relief you’ve figured that much.”
“You know what I mean. I thought he’d hurt himself accidentally, or something.” Fox snapped back. Now things really began to click, however, with Sasha’s implication. “You mentioned he’d never do anything like that to you, Sasha- which I think I can believe- but does that mean that Duchess…?”
“And the final horse crosses the finish line.” Max snarked.
“Duchess scratched him. And it was bleeding, and he was all flustered and frustrated and mad and…” Sasha paused to take a breath. She’d been speaking at a much higher volume than she’d intended to, or even initially realized. “I dunno, that’s probably, maybe why he was so mean earlier.”
“It definitely was. Didn’t justify him being such a jerk, but there were events at play that messed with his head. And you gotta keep in mind, Duchess is basically the only dog he’s really interacted with for quite some time now. Outside of Sasha, at least.”
Fox shuddered. “Well… jeez, I didn’t realize she was that bad…” Newfound guilt washed over the husky. “I mean, I knew she was a priss, but I– she scratched him? Surely this can’t be an isolated incident, either.”
“That’s what I think, too.” Sasha admitted. She seemed to have relatively calmed down, though anxiety still came through with her tone and body language. She trembled slightly, and even just standing seemed to be taxing. Fox instinctually wanted to hug her, to comfort her, even if his judgment erred on the side of inaction. Still, it was a pretty big punch to the gut to see Sasha like this. He couldn’t recall ever actually seeing her this… genuinely bothered before.
Well, apart from that time Bino set her up to have her heart broken by a bunch of dogs so that she’d come staggering back to him.
And that, of course, reminded Fox of just who they were talking about (and brought him a pang of guilt as he remembered his part in that former scheme.) He agreed that Bino didn’t deserve such blatant abuse at the hands of his supposed lover. But he also couldn’t bring himself to entirely support Bino, either. At least, outside of this whole situation.
Though his mind briefly wandered back to earlier that day. As awful as Bino could be, Fox had to admit that Bino seemingly coming over to make amends wasn’t like anything he’d seen from him before. If what Sasha purported turned out to be true, then that might have changed things.
Might have.
Fox still held on to his grudge against Bino- or was it a lack of one? In all honesty, he hadn’t really given Bino much thought since they parted ways. But at the same time, Fox had a problem with how Bino had treated people in the past, especially Sasha. Even Fido to an extent, though that was a discussion for a different day. Or week. Was it even worth giving Bino another chance to change, to be better, when he’d squandered so many opportunities in the past?
As if reading Fox’s mind, Sasha began to speak again. “I’m trying to be friends with Bino again.” She attempted to smile, but continued to look defeated. “It’s not going so well… He’s telling himself that everyone’s trying to take him away from Duchess, destroy the club, all that. He’s too suspicious now. And Duchess is always… well, whenever I hear her, she’s always being mean. She reminds me a bit… of my old owner. I don’t want Bino to have to deal with all that… stuff. That comes with someone like that.”
Fox frowned. Was Bino really the effort it would take to help him out? Could he ever truly change? With more time Fox might have been able to reach a satisfactory answer and come to an informed decision. But time was of the essence, and Max’s question cut his introspection short.
“Are you gonna help us out in case things get physical again?” Max’s inquiry was met with a nonplussed expression from Fox, so the cat elaborated. “I dunno, maybe you can bring your handcuffs and apprehend Duchess if she tries to hurt him again.”
“The cuffs don’t belong to me. They’re the town’s property and they stay at the station,” Fox answered, though his resolve, for the time being, became apparent. “But I’ll still help. As much as I really, really don’t agree with much of what Bino does… whatever Duchess and her cronies are up to, I agree with less.”
Max nodded, and smiled earnestly. “Thanks.” He quickly checked his phone for any text messages from Bino- nothing, as he’d expected. He silently drew a breath- he couldn’t ignore the dread building up within himself, but he could sure as heck try.
How bad could it be? Max thought. Ignoring the stupidity of that question was undoubtedly the only thing keeping the cat from backing out. His discussion with Bino earlier rendered him more empathetic to Bino’s struggles than Fox, so when it came to Duchess, he felt almost terrified on Bino’s behalf.
Maybe Fox is right. Maybe it’s just a breakup. A breakup that involves… kidnapping. Max attempted for a final time to indulge in comforting denial. But reality sank its teeth into that fantasy rather quickly. Duchess probably would have just dumped Bino over the phone, or something just as cruelly terse, if that were the case, instead of having someone come to drag Bino away…
“My guess is that they’re at the club. I mean, it’s either that, or Duchess' residence. Not like those two seem to spend time together anywhere else,” Max surmised, before asking: “You’re sure you want to help? If you’re uncomfortable, I don’t want to force you, or anything. I just worry―”
“Hey, it’s fine.” Fox reassured him. “You’re just being a good brother.”
Max’s eyebrows raised slightly at the earnest compliment. “Well, gee. Uh… thanks. Again.”
Fox nodded. “So you think they’re at the club then? Well, let’s go.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you…” Sasha replied, her gratefulness abundant. She hugged Fox momentarily- before the husky quickly pulled away. He’d wanted to comfort Sasha, but the hug proved awkward on his part. It dredged up repressed reminders of his infatuation with Sasha. How naive could he have been back then?
Sasha took the breakaway in stride, seemingly ignorant to Fox’s discomfort. She stretched, mentally preparing for what she’d see at the club. Or Duchess' house, if the club didn’t turn out to be the right spot. Sasha then wondered for a second if any of them even knew where that would be.
Though, even with the awkwardness, the unrelenting concern that weighed down on Sasha seemed to have lightened considerably. Maybe that wasn’t the case, but Fox hoped it was. After this was all said and done, Bino would hopefully be fine. They’d all hopefully go home fine. And chiefly, Sasha would hopefully stop being so anxious; or at least feel comforted enough by the night’s resolution to smile again.
Even if they’d never really be an item, Sasha’s smile always brought a peculiar comfort to Fox.
-
It felt like minutes passed in the preliminary pause before Duchess' speech began.
Duchess had chimed in on Bino's speeches before, of course. Bino had always run his speeches through her, asking her what she thought of them. It was a matter of procedure for the dog. Sure, the final speeches he gave were somewhat watered-down, a bit lacking in the original passion he’d put in the drafts, but it was for the better regardless.
Duchess' unannounced meeting― not to mention the kidnapping, which was perhaps even worse― left a pit in Bino’s stomach that served to add to his discomfort. He shifted in his seat, trying and failing to get comfortable. The coarse backrest of the plastic chair didn’t feel quite as harsh as the sense of inferiority to Duchess he felt. It was sort of a back-burner thought, something Bino knew he felt but never really brought to the forefront. It was a given to Bino that Duchess, the pageant dog who came from a background of such prestige and wealth, was automatically above Bino in terms of ranking. Both in a societal and personal sense.
Bino rationalized her… admittedly aloof and somewhat cold attitude thusly. Of course she had to be like that- it was the only way she could keep her head above water in her social circles. Apart from Bino, anyways. It was different between them. She sunk down to his level, bobbed her head beneath water to meet Bino in the middle.
Why did that sound so bad?
The ticking of the clubhouse clock alerted everyone, Bino included, to the fact that minutes had in fact NOT passed, but merely seconds. Duchess was almost prepared to give her speech. Bino just wished all the dogs in the crowd would stop giving him such quizzical stares. How was he meant to know what all this was about!?
Duchess took a small sip of mineral water, then put the cup down. The clink of the glass against the podium served to bring everyone back to attention; not that it was needed.
“Ladies. Gentledogs. Members of the Good Ol’ Dogs Club. As I have mentioned earlier, some changes need to be made. Though I believe,” Duchess paused, giving Bino a piercing side-eye, “I would need your support in order to enact such adjustments.”
Bino bit back the urge to decry his disapproval. Sure, attendance was weak, but he had things under control! He could turn this around- where was her faith in the club?! And most egregiously, why hadn’t she run these “changes” through him?
It seemed Duchess had read his mind. “I am aware it’s not a usual sight to see me at the podium. I’ve much preferred standing aside to avoid as much embarrassment as possible. I’m sure many of you can relate to such feelings. The eye rolls, the murmurs, the exasperated sighs only barely held in through sheer blind obligation to this club. You all feel embarrassment as well. Embarrassment at how this club has been run into the ground. Embarrassment at our faltering loyalty. Embarrassment at our feckless leader.”
Feckless leader!? Was this directed toward HIM? What kind of stunt was she pulling?
Bino stood at once, obviously insulted by such a claim. “Feckless leader? Duchy-poo…” Bino’s nickname came out especially derisive this time around- he hadn’t even entirely meant it to. “What do you mean feckless? I’m practically the lifeblood of this club!”
“Firstly, sit down.” Duchess pointed to the chair, her tone palpably bitter. “And secondly… I can agree that an explanation is in order. ” Duchess' gaze pivoted back on the audience, “And I shall supply both you and your loyal followers…” Her arm swept over the crowd in a mocking gesture. “... Just that.”
Catching a glimpse of Boris backstage, Bino quickly sat back down. He hated it, but the way he saw it, better to sit down of his own accord than be forced to. It was an ultimately meager exercise in spite, but earnest spite nonetheless.
“Let us start with the obvious. Your leadership skills, or whatever you prefer to call them, leave much to be desired. Both in the way of progress and in the way of personability. You say you’re the chairdog of the club, but does anybody actually believe you to be worthy of such a position? I’m aware nepotism is at play― for some reason, your relations to your much less grating brother help to ensure that you remain in charge. Or, at least… they did, up until Fido was relieved of his membership.” Duchess came in hot― the mere mention of his brother was enough to get under Bino’s skin, but outright declaring Fido as “less grating” than him?
Ouch.
“As far as I’ve been able to tell, you also secure your position by giving long-winded, self-aggrandizing speeches, not unlike grinding sixty-grit sandpaper against everybody’s ears.” Duchess pressed on, her gaze trained on the audience. Somehow, her refusal to look at Bino as she said these things was even more infuriating than if she’d looked him in the eyes to say them. Then again, would that really be better?
“You go on and on about how amazing you are, and how important you are to the club. Even now- your unprompted outburst served as a shining example of your delusions of grandeur. You have crafted unearned bravado down to a fine art- and I suppose that would make this club your magnum opus. What have you done for the club, Bino? Enlisted them to break some mutt’s heart? Had them bear witness as you destroyed somebody’s watch? Organized destructive egg hunts? Talked at length about utter drivel while gatekeeping the food? Disgraceful.” Duchess listed off his misdeeds trivially, counting on one paw. Most of those things, she hadn’t even been present for- Bino had told her in confidence, about how those experiences made him feel. How he felt that he was in the right in each scenario. “While messing about with your petty misadventures, and using the club as an echo chamber of your own self-righteousness, everybody else has been forced to pick up your slack.”
Both the audience- and Bino- were speechless.
I don’t leave ANY slack to be picked up, not when I work tirelessly to keep the club afloat… right?
“You honestly haven’t earned an inkling of reverence in terms of personality, either, even if you clearly think you deserve some horde of worshippers. In reality, you are obnoxious, you are annoying, and have proven to be a thorn not only in the side of the club, but of everyone present. That’s most certainly why that old friend of yours decided to leave. What was his name, Frank?” Duchess feigned ignorance of his name― she didn’t much like Fox, either. Truthfully, he was just another great example to use against Bino. Duchess genuinely ignored the irony of her “personality” statement, however; she realized she wasn’t the most liked of dogs there. But she had the benefit of being aloof― or at least, just not as utterly “grating” as Bino could be.
Bino didn’t correct her misnaming of Fox; everybody there knew exactly who she meant anyways. But more than that, he was utterly appalled at how cutting her words were. About these things that she said about him, right to his face.
Duchess always did have a sardonic sense of humor. At least, that’s what Bino told himself. He had to say something regardless; he opened his mouth to defend himself, to deny that this was the case, but Duchess did not halt her speech.
“But as aggravating and vitriolic as you are…” That stung. “I have a much more clear reasoning as to why you should not be leading this club anymore. I’ve already outlined to everyone that you do not have the club’s best interests at heart, but rather your own. And how much clearer could that be than with your substandard budgeting?”
Substandard budgeting!? This was a lie! Maybe it was true that the club wasn’t getting as much funding pulled in as it had in its heyday, but he made sure almost every penny of allowance he received went toward the club in some way. Be it food, very cheap entertainment, even cleaning. Bino was desperate for the club to get back up on its feet.
“Most of the budget we have goes to food or club maintenance.” Bino asserts, somehow managing to keep his tone even while giving her a vicious glare. “And you know that, Duchess.”
“What I know- and what I’ve felt that I had to keep under wraps in order to maintain my membership and our ‘relationship’- was that your selfishness runs deep, Bino.” Duchess responded. No way she was actually playing the victim here! “The funds that supposedly go to our subpar food selection actually ended up being recently rerouted… to Bino himself.”
Eyebrows raised. Incredulous glances shifted to Bino.
“Preposterous!” Bino proclaimed, seething at the prospect of Duchess blaming him for this. While Bino had, admittedly, skirted minor things like cleaning duties in the past, he wouldn’t actively sabotage the club’s already thinning budget! “That accusation is baseless! Not to mention illogical!”
“Illogical? Baseless? Where are the receipts, Bino? Where did the food budget go? There’s a margin of unearned profit that you tend to pocket for yourself. Profit you use to serve your own needs, like buying another one of those… ‘Mega Balls’... or, rather, paying off some random neighborhood dog to do your cleaning job. When you could have saved a bit of money to at least bother with the food this time around.”
Many dogs looked at the empty table next to the rostrum. It only sported small, assorted bottles of water, supplied by Duchess. Bino would have attempted to bring something himself if he’d known about this meeting ahead of time, though, so this was clearly unfair.
“You didn’t want to clean either. You know how messy this place can get!” Bino defended himself― but to no avail.
“What a pitiful excuse. I am not the ringleader of this club, therefore it is not my responsibility to clean. Let’s not pretend that my intended purpose here was not to show me off to your followers in a last-ditch effort to court their respect.” Duchess sighed. “Though perhaps cleaning wasn’t the only thing you misappropriated funds for. That Sasha dog that you’ve been seeing…”
Bino interjected. “I bumped into her by accident and she helped bandage up–”
“That’s the story you’re using?” Duchess was unimpressed. “Right. I’m certain that’s what happened. I’m certain that you haven’t been unfaithful to me, with perhaps the town’s most unfaithful partner.”
But Sasha was faithful to her new partner, wasn’t she? Or at least, Kevin was fine with Sasha… getting around, as it were. Bino used to hate him for dating Sasha after him, but over time (and with Duchess as a distraction) he gradually lost the will to care.
“She… Sasha was just… it goes a little more in depth than―” Bino spat, but was shorted once again by Duchess. He mentally reprimanded himself for allowing Duchess to just steamroll him like this- though he still couldn’t find the fortitude to entirely hate her for what she said. Surely she didn’t mean any of this. There’s a reason she’s doing this, Bino figured.
He was technically correct.
“I doubt that reflects well on a leader that’s touted as a loyal advocate of GODC values- yet can’t even be bothered to uphold such things. Don’t forget, your own brother was ousted for his relationship… I don’t see why we should treat an unfaithful one any differently. Of course, to you, Bino, the most important thing about the club, the biggest asset in your eyes, is you and your satisfaction. And for so long, everyone else has had it ingrained into them that this was the case. But not anymore.” Duchess pressed on, murmurs of agreement beginning to resound from the crowd. But she wasn’t done just yet. Now it was time to deal the biggest haymaker of all.
Or, maybe not a haymaker. If Bino had half a brain, he’d know exactly what was coming.
“Bino. I do believe that all of us have had quite enough of you. We have had our fill of your madness, your utter and unflinching incompetence. And to prove this…”
Duchess, once again, made a sweeping motion of the arm over the audience before her. “Ladies, gentledogs, I have a proposition for you. An offer for me to use my riches and connections in order to thrust this club out of its rut post-haste.” Murmurs began to fill the room, but were swiftly put to rest by Duchess holding up a paw.
With her other paw, she drank yet another sip of water, using the glass again to non-verbally tell the audience― and Bino― to listen up.
“Using both my carefully established connections and a portion of my earnings from the pageants I attend, I can turn this rapidly torpedoing club into one that thrives, one that stands on its own two legs without the poison of Bino’s tyranny. The speeches I’ll make, if any at all, will not be long-winded, underserved self-congratulatory fodder to groom my own ego. If I’m in charge, I will staunchly refuse to misappropriate any of the club funds― they’ll be used for food, maintenance, perhaps even some live entertainment to keep everyone coming― and to breathe new life into this burnt-out, defiled shell of a club. Pool tables― pools of water― the connections both I and my parents have can assist in hoisting this club back into its deserved respectability. I… no, we shall restore the honor of The Good Ol’ Dogs Club, and that starts,” Duchess frostily glared at Bino, “when we wash ourselves clean of the filthy, venomous source of its inevitable, painful downfall. “
Many of the dogs, who’d listened to the speech with bated breath and unexpected interest, began slowly cheering, clapping, showing support for Duchess. It boiled Bino’s blood- but he told himself to remain composed. If nothing else, he could save face by being sporting- then again, that probably wouldn’t help when he was being overthrown! And this talk about “restoring the club’s honor”- Bino had been working at that for so long, and for worse than nothing- now he was being openly berated for his paltry efforts. Not to mention that Duchess’ speech wasn’t even that good in his opinion. Too many long words and too much self-aggrandizing. Not that he’d know anything about that.
The small assembly of dogs immediately silenced themselves when Duchess drank her third sip of water- she didn’t even have to harken her speech with the glass this time.
“Ladies and gentledogs, do I have your support? Will you entrust me, Duchess, as the new chairdog of the Good Ol’ Dogs Club?” Duchess stole another glance at Bino― it was decidedly less charming than ever before. Bino could’ve sworn her aside glances in the past had at least a bit of pride in them. Perhaps such a deduction was unfounded. The realization hit Bino like a semi-truck.
To say that it stung when Duchess did, indeed, have everyone’s support was an understatement. Bino stood, angrily pointing and accusatory finger at the saluki. This could not stand!
“How dare you?! Not only have I done my best to keep this club afloat, but I’ve tried my hardest to help you feel welcome. I trusted you with my speeches, I treated you as a confidant, and this is how you repay me? By turning around and stabbing me in the back?” Bino’s fury was much, much colder than most dogs were used to seeing. It wasn’t some petty grievance; his hard-earned leadership position was being stripped from him. Suffice to say he wasn’t taking it lying down.
“It’s not a backstabbing.” Duchess flippantly replied, gesturing quickly to the audience. “Merely a matter of course. I, and everyone else here, wants this club to stay alive. And how do you stay alive, Bino?”
He didn’t answer. He was dumbfounded.
“You ebb away weakness. You perfect yourself. Leave no room for error. No room for poison.”
Bino lunged for Duchess. Truthfully, he didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish. He certainly wasn’t trying to injure her― furious as he was, he still couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. It was a shame he didn’t have any time to figure it out before his arms were grabbed by Boris and Yeltsin.
Duchess raised her eyebrows, pretending to look shocked. The audience gasped- this was by far their most exciting meeting.
“It seems the club has made a decision.” Hints of a smile tugged at Duchess' muzzle, though she managed to keep her face stone-cold. “And if I were you, I would respect it. The best thing you could have done now, Bino, was to save face and leave graciously. Though it seems you haven’t considered that option. I’m not surprised. You have a penchant for making your issues as painful and prolonged as possible.”
“You are so full of it.” Bino spat.
“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we? But on the topic of decisions― I’ve made one, too. I’m sure everyone else saw this coming― maybe even you, though with how thick you are sometimes, I’d say it’s only around a fifty-fifty chance. But we are through. I am tired of carrying this club uncredited, and you’ve exhausted any pity I, or anyone else here, will have for you. This relationship is not, and has not been working out. If you aren’t being a raging, annoying blowhard, then you’re a bumbling, incompetent fool whose rule over the club has persisted for way too long. It’s time for a change.”
“Go to heck.” Bino muttered, livid, but too humiliated to raise his voice. Or maybe he had raised his voice, but the sounds of cheering and support for this usurper drowned him out. Bino couldn’t tell.
“I wish you luck in your future endeavors.” Duchess' goodwill could not have rung any less true.
As if things needed to get worse, a familiar trio of pets suddenly burst through the door. Sasha, Maxwell, and…
Fox!?Bino thought, utterly perplexed. What’s he doing here!? His first thought was that they were here to watch his demotion, but how would they have known? No way Duchess would have told them, especially not Sasha or Max.
Bino could see the visible concern on their faces― they didn’t seem to be here because they wanted to. It seemed they had actually wanted to rescue him from what they’d perceived was a malicious threat. While it was plenty malicious, Bino wasn’t in any physical danger― but the humiliation of being dragged out of his rightful position of chairdog was far from benign.
He almost called out to them, but bit his tongue. It hadn’t seemed like anyone paid them any attention yet― they were too enamored with what was going on in front of them. He attempted to free himself from Boris and Yeltsin. It didn’t work.
They, too, supported Duchess’ decision.
Before anything could be done by the three, Duchess' voice boomed throughout the clubhouse as she declared, with a practiced conviction that only Bino could realize:
“Boris? Yeltsin? Remove him. It’s high time us dogs take our esteemed club back. It’s time for the Good Ol’ Dogs Club’s redemption. It’s time to rid ourselves of this poison.”
-
-
Chapter Six
The Saluki Saboteur
-
Murmurs flooded the meeting room of the GODC. Even with the chairs sparsely occupied, rumors and speculations bounced around the room.
“I was eating dinner before this…”
“Why the emergency meeting?”
“Where’s Bino? Why does Duchess look so impatient?”
“Maybe he’s just running late?”
“I hope this is over quickly.”
There were only about a dozen dogs that had even bothered to show up for this alleged ‘emergency meeting,’ something that infuriated Duchess. A truly paltry attendance, especially for a meeting as important as this one would be.
Then again, it wasn’t like anybody knew precisely why it would be so important. Bino had called many meetings for decidedly laughable reasons before. It was becoming tiring to her, having to deal with his utter incompetence. Even when he wasn’t here, his presence was felt- to the tune of this poor turnout. Obviously this was of course his fault; he’d fostered all this!
Luckily for Duchess, she wouldn’t have to deal with him for much longer. This had been a long time coming, she figured.
Frankly, he’s fortunate I tolerated him for so long.
Boris quickly approached Duchess, taking a quick glance at their semi-interested audience. “They’re coming.”
“Good. Let them in through the back entrance. Yeltsin knows what to do.”
“Understood.”
Boris lumbered off, and Duchess made her way to the podium. She rested her paws on it, ruminating over what was to come. It was a wonderfully intoxicating feeling to be up there. She was center stage, she was the dog everyone paid attention to. Duchess soaked in the power of the podium. She took a quick sip of water— she’d need it for her speech.
Of course, she’d given a couple of speeches before. Granted, the turnout usually wasn’t even as good as this. But that didn’t matter. There were enough dogs here to spread the word; to let everyone know about the unforgettable night where she rightfully—
The back door creaked open, its rusted hinges serving as another reminder of the club’s nosedive. She could have sworn she had told Bino to get that fixed weeks ago.
Useless.
The sound of a futile struggle, and the slam of said door, signaled that it was time for her speech. Turning to the “crowd”, Duchess cleared her throat.
“Thank you all for coming. Your attendance is appreciated— even if mandatory. I will do my best to keep this brief. You may have noticed that your dense, frankly incapable leader— Bino— is nowhere to be found. Rest assured, he’ll be here very soon- he is being escorted here so that he can be present for the upcoming announcement.”
“Announcement?” One dog piped up.
“Indeed. I have a big announcement to make; a declaration of changes that are to be made. Changes long overdue."
And from her left, Yeltsin emerged, dumping Bino inelegantly onto the stage in front of everyone. As Yeltsin retreated behind the curtains, guarding the back door and blocking Bino’s escape, Bino’s attention was drawn back to Duchess.
Although she maintained her usual calculated frostiness, contempt was visible on Duchess' face. More so than usual, anyways. "I would say that I'm glad you've made it, but that would be a lie. And that would be counterproductive to this assembly."
Assembly was a generous term. Bino noticed that, as usual, there were tons of empty seats. Not that he'd think of correcting Duchess.
"What's going on here!?" Bino asked, rising to his feet. "What's happening, Duchy-poo? I hadn't scheduled a meeting today!"
Duchess didn’t even blink. "Correct. You have not. I've taken the initiative to call one myself."
Bino began to ask what she could possibly be holding a meeting for, but his inquiry was interrupted by the scraping of a chair across the floor. Boris had brought an empty chair onstage.
"Take a seat." Duchess gestured to the chair.
Every fiber in Bino's being wanted to object to this. First she'd announced an unapproved meeting and now she was having him sit in a chair!? It certainly didn't carry the magic of the podium, which Bino realized rather quickly as he awkwardly took his seat.
"Excellent. Truly excellent." Duchess said. Bino found it difficult to discern if that was sarcasm or not. He felt like maybe he detected a little sarcasm in there.
All eyes darted between him and Duchess. Normally, he enjoyed being in the spotlight― that was his rightful role, after all, taking center stage. But this felt different. Duchess stood comparatively tall at the podium, compared to Bino, practically cowering in his seat.
There was no more time to stew over this, however. Duchess' speech was about to begin. The clubhouse was by no means a courthouse, but Bino could feel the judgemental, vitriolic gaze from Duchess as he looked to the audience. He could’ve sworn they were judging, too. And Duchess hadn’t even said anything yet.
-
“Bino’s been dognapped?” Sasha asked in disbelief.
“That’s what he told me! But who would have―” Fox’s own question was cut short by the notification beeps of another couple of texts from Maxwell. It served as a harbinger for his rushed arrival; the texts, of course, informed them he’d be coming.
“He said he’ll be here soon.” Fox assured Sasha, before quickly reading Max’s last text. “Though he thinks that… Duchess… is going to do something really bad?”
Fox recalled seeing Duchess around. He’d never bothered to interact with her because she seemed uppity, almost elitist. That, and because she hung around Bino a lot. He suspected Bino didn’t really like her all that much, and in fact, was only with her to fill in that void that Bino had surely had after Sasha dumped him. He felt momentarily guilty for not caring much at present, but then rationale returned, and he remained steadfast in his belief that Bino had brought that breakup onto himself thanks to his selfishness. His misfortune was largely his own fault; simple cause and effect.
At the utterance of Duchess' name, Sasha’s heart had dropped. She nearly buckled under the wave of dread— the only reason she hadn’t replied yet was because she felt paralyzed. She felt completely disoriented now. Fox was keen to her state of mind— or rather, its sudden nosedive.
“Sasha? Hey, are you alright?”
The words seemed to travel in one ear and out the other.
“Duchess…” Sasha repeated the name, almost blankly, crossing her arms as if she was cold. Trembling, the dog did her best to remain at least somewhat grounded.
“What about Duchess?” Fox asked.
“She’s… she… she isn’t good news.” Sasha sputtered, doing a poor job at truly verbalizing her qualms. At the moment, forming coherent sentences was its own challenge. “She’s always… Bino doesn’t seem very happy with her…and she doesn’t seem very happy with him.”
“Oh. So they’ll break up?” Fox’s tone was unsympathetic, which he hadn’t actually intended. To remedy this, he added, “I mean, if they’re unhappy, that’s the best thing they can do.”
Sasha hesitated to respond. Deep down she hoped that was the case― that Bino wouldn’t be in any actual danger. Though she felt like that wasn’t the answer, or at least not the only one.
A knock at the door briefly elevated Sasha’s heart rate, though moments later she realized it was likely just Maxwell. Indeed, as Fox opened the door, the cat practically bounded inside, though the expression on his face didn’t do wonders for Sasha’s near-overwhelming trepidation.
Forget near-overwhelming. It was too much. Worry, sorrow, perhaps a bit of righteous anger swirled around, an emotional typhoon in Sasha’s mind.
She wanted to stand, but her legs were just a touch too shaky. She remained seated, falling back into a quiet sulk as she’d listen to Fox and Max conjecture about the situation. Deep breaths, she told herself. That usually (sometimes) worked when she tried it during therapy.
Fox glanced back at her briefly, finding her silence disconcerting. The concern was all over Fox’s face, and Max caught his expression.
“Is she alright?” He inquired, glancing at Sasha himself.
“I don’t… I don’t think so.” Fox quietly replied. Not that it was of any use― Sasha had heard them regardless. Max tried her anyways. “Sasha, how’re you holding up?”
“I’m not! I am NOT holding up! It’s not alright! Duchess is bad news!” Sasha bellowed, her uptick in volume frightening every pet in the room, including her. Lowering her volume a little, but still unable to fully even her tone, she spilled her anxieties to the two startled pets in front of her. She rose to her feet, neurotic conviction coursing through her body. The fear was still present, evident in her rather shaky speech, and further underscored by her thunderous, if momentary outburst.
Fox immediately pivoted to diffusion. “What isn’t alright? Duchess and Bino potentially breaking up? It’ll be… an adjustment for both parties, but I think it’ll–”
“It’s not the breakup that’s not alright! I-I mean… it would be, but it isn’t happening, so it’s not!”
Fox took a moment to process the syntactically faulty logic in Sasha’s statement. “Well, what’s going on, then? It’s okay, Sasha, it’ll all be alright- but we’ve got to take a step back and keep calm. We need to figure out what’s going on. We’ve got to stay rational, alright?”
“We?” Max quietly repeated, earning a cross glance from the husky.
“Yes, we. I don’t exactly know what’s going on, either, unless you’d like to explain?” Fox asked Max, to which the cat replied with a simple: “Didn’t we already tell you? What part of ‘Bino’s been dognapped’ is confusing to you?”
“It’s not confusing, but clearly there’s something more to it if Sasha’s this wound up about him! I mean, Bino literally brought her to tears! So forgive me if I’m a little put off by her distress,” Fox defensively retorted, trying and failing to be both justifiably argumentative toward Max and comforting toward Sasha. “I’ll admit it― it’s odd that Sasha, and even you, are panicking like this!”
“Excuse me?” Max leveled a daring glare toward Fox, imploring him to continue. Maybe he would have agreed any other day, but today was a different story. Sasha merely whimpered. She didn’t want them to fight.
“He isn’t exactly nice to you either, at least not from what I’ve seen.” Fox attested, crossing his arms and finding that his blood was beginning to boil. He hadn’t even fully intended to really get involved, but now here he was, dragged into the point of investment. He supposed― no, he knew that Bino was a sore subject for him in and of himself. “Bino’s probably just… got himself caught up in one of his own little schemes, and now he’s paying the price for it like always. Take it from someone who was in his circle― pretty much all of his misfortune is synonymous with ‘he had it coming’.”
“I mean, possibly. Sure. You’re right, okay?” Max admitted. “He was, and still is, kind of a… total jerk. But Duchess is way worse, alright? Believe me when I say that, at least. Sasha’s right― Duchess is bad news.”
Biting back the urge to restate how perfect they seemed for each other, Fox posed the question: “In what way?”
“Well, for starters, she’s horrible to him. She’s horrible to everybody, but she doesn’t even try to be nice to Bino. She just uses him for popularity points, for status, and it’s so obvious to everyone except Bino.” Max vented, his expression darkening as he recalled a few of the many things he hated about Duchess.
“Bino wasn’t great to Sasha, either.” Fox replied.
“But he at least valued their relationship to some extent. Even if he was a bit… iffy… at times.” Max muttered.
“Iffy.” Fox snorted. “Yeah, that’s the word. Iffy. Let’s try neglectful.”
“But he never scratched me across my face!” Sasha interjected, piercing through the increasingly tense debate. Max let go of anger for resignation- Fox was visibly thrown for a loop.
“What…?” Fox slowly asked, certain he’d misheard.
“He never scratched me across my face. Have you seen his face? Have you seen the scratch that’s on it? He’d never do anything like that to me,” Sasha swiftly and morosely responded. Though her goal was to make Fox understand, it wasn’t achieved. Thankfully, Max stepped in.
“You have seen the bandages on his snout, correct?”
“Well, yes. I thought he’d just gotten injured somehow.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Well, it’s a relief you’ve figured that much.”
“You know what I mean. I thought he’d hurt himself accidentally, or something.” Fox snapped back. Now things really began to click, however, with Sasha’s implication. “You mentioned he’d never do anything like that to you, Sasha- which I think I can believe- but does that mean that Duchess…?”
“And the final horse crosses the finish line.” Max snarked.
“Duchess scratched him. And it was bleeding, and he was all flustered and frustrated and mad and…” Sasha paused to take a breath. She’d been speaking at a much higher volume than she’d intended to, or even initially realized. “I dunno, that’s probably, maybe why he was so mean earlier.”
“It definitely was. Didn’t justify him being such a jerk, but there were events at play that messed with his head. And you gotta keep in mind, Duchess is basically the only dog he’s really interacted with for quite some time now. Outside of Sasha, at least.”
Fox shuddered. “Well… jeez, I didn’t realize she was that bad…” Newfound guilt washed over the husky. “I mean, I knew she was a priss, but I– she scratched him? Surely this can’t be an isolated incident, either.”
“That’s what I think, too.” Sasha admitted. She seemed to have relatively calmed down, though anxiety still came through with her tone and body language. She trembled slightly, and even just standing seemed to be taxing. Fox instinctually wanted to hug her, to comfort her, even if his judgment erred on the side of inaction. Still, it was a pretty big punch to the gut to see Sasha like this. He couldn’t recall ever actually seeing her this… genuinely bothered before.
Well, apart from that time Bino set her up to have her heart broken by a bunch of dogs so that she’d come staggering back to him.
And that, of course, reminded Fox of just who they were talking about (and brought him a pang of guilt as he remembered his part in that former scheme.) He agreed that Bino didn’t deserve such blatant abuse at the hands of his supposed lover. But he also couldn’t bring himself to entirely support Bino, either. At least, outside of this whole situation.
Though his mind briefly wandered back to earlier that day. As awful as Bino could be, Fox had to admit that Bino seemingly coming over to make amends wasn’t like anything he’d seen from him before. If what Sasha purported turned out to be true, then that might have changed things.
Might have.
Fox still held on to his grudge against Bino- or was it a lack of one? In all honesty, he hadn’t really given Bino much thought since they parted ways. But at the same time, Fox had a problem with how Bino had treated people in the past, especially Sasha. Even Fido to an extent, though that was a discussion for a different day. Or week. Was it even worth giving Bino another chance to change, to be better, when he’d squandered so many opportunities in the past?
As if reading Fox’s mind, Sasha began to speak again. “I’m trying to be friends with Bino again.” She attempted to smile, but continued to look defeated. “It’s not going so well… He’s telling himself that everyone’s trying to take him away from Duchess, destroy the club, all that. He’s too suspicious now. And Duchess is always… well, whenever I hear her, she’s always being mean. She reminds me a bit… of my old owner. I don’t want Bino to have to deal with all that… stuff. That comes with someone like that.”
Fox frowned. Was Bino really the effort it would take to help him out? Could he ever truly change? With more time Fox might have been able to reach a satisfactory answer and come to an informed decision. But time was of the essence, and Max’s question cut his introspection short.
“Are you gonna help us out in case things get physical again?” Max’s inquiry was met with a nonplussed expression from Fox, so the cat elaborated. “I dunno, maybe you can bring your handcuffs and apprehend Duchess if she tries to hurt him again.”
“The cuffs don’t belong to me. They’re the town’s property and they stay at the station,” Fox answered, though his resolve, for the time being, became apparent. “But I’ll still help. As much as I really, really don’t agree with much of what Bino does… whatever Duchess and her cronies are up to, I agree with less.”
Max nodded, and smiled earnestly. “Thanks.” He quickly checked his phone for any text messages from Bino- nothing, as he’d expected. He silently drew a breath- he couldn’t ignore the dread building up within himself, but he could sure as heck try.
How bad could it be? Max thought. Ignoring the stupidity of that question was undoubtedly the only thing keeping the cat from backing out. His discussion with Bino earlier rendered him more empathetic to Bino’s struggles than Fox, so when it came to Duchess, he felt almost terrified on Bino’s behalf.
Maybe Fox is right. Maybe it’s just a breakup. A breakup that involves… kidnapping. Max attempted for a final time to indulge in comforting denial. But reality sank its teeth into that fantasy rather quickly. Duchess probably would have just dumped Bino over the phone, or something just as cruelly terse, if that were the case, instead of having someone come to drag Bino away…
“My guess is that they’re at the club. I mean, it’s either that, or Duchess' residence. Not like those two seem to spend time together anywhere else,” Max surmised, before asking: “You’re sure you want to help? If you’re uncomfortable, I don’t want to force you, or anything. I just worry―”
“Hey, it’s fine.” Fox reassured him. “You’re just being a good brother.”
Max’s eyebrows raised slightly at the earnest compliment. “Well, gee. Uh… thanks. Again.”
Fox nodded. “So you think they’re at the club then? Well, let’s go.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you…” Sasha replied, her gratefulness abundant. She hugged Fox momentarily- before the husky quickly pulled away. He’d wanted to comfort Sasha, but the hug proved awkward on his part. It dredged up repressed reminders of his infatuation with Sasha. How naive could he have been back then?
Sasha took the breakaway in stride, seemingly ignorant to Fox’s discomfort. She stretched, mentally preparing for what she’d see at the club. Or Duchess' house, if the club didn’t turn out to be the right spot. Sasha then wondered for a second if any of them even knew where that would be.
Though, even with the awkwardness, the unrelenting concern that weighed down on Sasha seemed to have lightened considerably. Maybe that wasn’t the case, but Fox hoped it was. After this was all said and done, Bino would hopefully be fine. They’d all hopefully go home fine. And chiefly, Sasha would hopefully stop being so anxious; or at least feel comforted enough by the night’s resolution to smile again.
Even if they’d never really be an item, Sasha’s smile always brought a peculiar comfort to Fox.
-
It felt like minutes passed in the preliminary pause before Duchess' speech began.
Duchess had chimed in on Bino's speeches before, of course. Bino had always run his speeches through her, asking her what she thought of them. It was a matter of procedure for the dog. Sure, the final speeches he gave were somewhat watered-down, a bit lacking in the original passion he’d put in the drafts, but it was for the better regardless.
Duchess' unannounced meeting― not to mention the kidnapping, which was perhaps even worse― left a pit in Bino’s stomach that served to add to his discomfort. He shifted in his seat, trying and failing to get comfortable. The coarse backrest of the plastic chair didn’t feel quite as harsh as the sense of inferiority to Duchess he felt. It was sort of a back-burner thought, something Bino knew he felt but never really brought to the forefront. It was a given to Bino that Duchess, the pageant dog who came from a background of such prestige and wealth, was automatically above Bino in terms of ranking. Both in a societal and personal sense.
Bino rationalized her… admittedly aloof and somewhat cold attitude thusly. Of course she had to be like that- it was the only way she could keep her head above water in her social circles. Apart from Bino, anyways. It was different between them. She sunk down to his level, bobbed her head beneath water to meet Bino in the middle.
Why did that sound so bad?
The ticking of the clubhouse clock alerted everyone, Bino included, to the fact that minutes had in fact NOT passed, but merely seconds. Duchess was almost prepared to give her speech. Bino just wished all the dogs in the crowd would stop giving him such quizzical stares. How was he meant to know what all this was about!?
Duchess took a small sip of mineral water, then put the cup down. The clink of the glass against the podium served to bring everyone back to attention; not that it was needed.
“Ladies. Gentledogs. Members of the Good Ol’ Dogs Club. As I have mentioned earlier, some changes need to be made. Though I believe,” Duchess paused, giving Bino a piercing side-eye, “I would need your support in order to enact such adjustments.”
Bino bit back the urge to decry his disapproval. Sure, attendance was weak, but he had things under control! He could turn this around- where was her faith in the club?! And most egregiously, why hadn’t she run these “changes” through him?
It seemed Duchess had read his mind. “I am aware it’s not a usual sight to see me at the podium. I’ve much preferred standing aside to avoid as much embarrassment as possible. I’m sure many of you can relate to such feelings. The eye rolls, the murmurs, the exasperated sighs only barely held in through sheer blind obligation to this club. You all feel embarrassment as well. Embarrassment at how this club has been run into the ground. Embarrassment at our faltering loyalty. Embarrassment at our feckless leader.”
Feckless leader!? Was this directed toward HIM? What kind of stunt was she pulling?
Bino stood at once, obviously insulted by such a claim. “Feckless leader? Duchy-poo…” Bino’s nickname came out especially derisive this time around- he hadn’t even entirely meant it to. “What do you mean feckless? I’m practically the lifeblood of this club!”
“Firstly, sit down.” Duchess pointed to the chair, her tone palpably bitter. “And secondly… I can agree that an explanation is in order. ” Duchess' gaze pivoted back on the audience, “And I shall supply both you and your loyal followers…” Her arm swept over the crowd in a mocking gesture. “... Just that.”
Catching a glimpse of Boris backstage, Bino quickly sat back down. He hated it, but the way he saw it, better to sit down of his own accord than be forced to. It was an ultimately meager exercise in spite, but earnest spite nonetheless.
“Let us start with the obvious. Your leadership skills, or whatever you prefer to call them, leave much to be desired. Both in the way of progress and in the way of personability. You say you’re the chairdog of the club, but does anybody actually believe you to be worthy of such a position? I’m aware nepotism is at play― for some reason, your relations to your much less grating brother help to ensure that you remain in charge. Or, at least… they did, up until Fido was relieved of his membership.” Duchess came in hot― the mere mention of his brother was enough to get under Bino’s skin, but outright declaring Fido as “less grating” than him?
Ouch.
“As far as I’ve been able to tell, you also secure your position by giving long-winded, self-aggrandizing speeches, not unlike grinding sixty-grit sandpaper against everybody’s ears.” Duchess pressed on, her gaze trained on the audience. Somehow, her refusal to look at Bino as she said these things was even more infuriating than if she’d looked him in the eyes to say them. Then again, would that really be better?
“You go on and on about how amazing you are, and how important you are to the club. Even now- your unprompted outburst served as a shining example of your delusions of grandeur. You have crafted unearned bravado down to a fine art- and I suppose that would make this club your magnum opus. What have you done for the club, Bino? Enlisted them to break some mutt’s heart? Had them bear witness as you destroyed somebody’s watch? Organized destructive egg hunts? Talked at length about utter drivel while gatekeeping the food? Disgraceful.” Duchess listed off his misdeeds trivially, counting on one paw. Most of those things, she hadn’t even been present for- Bino had told her in confidence, about how those experiences made him feel. How he felt that he was in the right in each scenario. “While messing about with your petty misadventures, and using the club as an echo chamber of your own self-righteousness, everybody else has been forced to pick up your slack.”
Both the audience- and Bino- were speechless.
I don’t leave ANY slack to be picked up, not when I work tirelessly to keep the club afloat… right?
“You honestly haven’t earned an inkling of reverence in terms of personality, either, even if you clearly think you deserve some horde of worshippers. In reality, you are obnoxious, you are annoying, and have proven to be a thorn not only in the side of the club, but of everyone present. That’s most certainly why that old friend of yours decided to leave. What was his name, Frank?” Duchess feigned ignorance of his name― she didn’t much like Fox, either. Truthfully, he was just another great example to use against Bino. Duchess genuinely ignored the irony of her “personality” statement, however; she realized she wasn’t the most liked of dogs there. But she had the benefit of being aloof― or at least, just not as utterly “grating” as Bino could be.
Bino didn’t correct her misnaming of Fox; everybody there knew exactly who she meant anyways. But more than that, he was utterly appalled at how cutting her words were. About these things that she said about him, right to his face.
Duchess always did have a sardonic sense of humor. At least, that’s what Bino told himself. He had to say something regardless; he opened his mouth to defend himself, to deny that this was the case, but Duchess did not halt her speech.
“But as aggravating and vitriolic as you are…” That stung. “I have a much more clear reasoning as to why you should not be leading this club anymore. I’ve already outlined to everyone that you do not have the club’s best interests at heart, but rather your own. And how much clearer could that be than with your substandard budgeting?”
Substandard budgeting!? This was a lie! Maybe it was true that the club wasn’t getting as much funding pulled in as it had in its heyday, but he made sure almost every penny of allowance he received went toward the club in some way. Be it food, very cheap entertainment, even cleaning. Bino was desperate for the club to get back up on its feet.
“Most of the budget we have goes to food or club maintenance.” Bino asserts, somehow managing to keep his tone even while giving her a vicious glare. “And you know that, Duchess.”
“What I know- and what I’ve felt that I had to keep under wraps in order to maintain my membership and our ‘relationship’- was that your selfishness runs deep, Bino.” Duchess responded. No way she was actually playing the victim here! “The funds that supposedly go to our subpar food selection actually ended up being recently rerouted… to Bino himself.”
Eyebrows raised. Incredulous glances shifted to Bino.
“Preposterous!” Bino proclaimed, seething at the prospect of Duchess blaming him for this. While Bino had, admittedly, skirted minor things like cleaning duties in the past, he wouldn’t actively sabotage the club’s already thinning budget! “That accusation is baseless! Not to mention illogical!”
“Illogical? Baseless? Where are the receipts, Bino? Where did the food budget go? There’s a margin of unearned profit that you tend to pocket for yourself. Profit you use to serve your own needs, like buying another one of those… ‘Mega Balls’... or, rather, paying off some random neighborhood dog to do your cleaning job. When you could have saved a bit of money to at least bother with the food this time around.”
Many dogs looked at the empty table next to the rostrum. It only sported small, assorted bottles of water, supplied by Duchess. Bino would have attempted to bring something himself if he’d known about this meeting ahead of time, though, so this was clearly unfair.
“You didn’t want to clean either. You know how messy this place can get!” Bino defended himself― but to no avail.
“What a pitiful excuse. I am not the ringleader of this club, therefore it is not my responsibility to clean. Let’s not pretend that my intended purpose here was not to show me off to your followers in a last-ditch effort to court their respect.” Duchess sighed. “Though perhaps cleaning wasn’t the only thing you misappropriated funds for. That Sasha dog that you’ve been seeing…”
Bino interjected. “I bumped into her by accident and she helped bandage up–”
“That’s the story you’re using?” Duchess was unimpressed. “Right. I’m certain that’s what happened. I’m certain that you haven’t been unfaithful to me, with perhaps the town’s most unfaithful partner.”
But Sasha was faithful to her new partner, wasn’t she? Or at least, Kevin was fine with Sasha… getting around, as it were. Bino used to hate him for dating Sasha after him, but over time (and with Duchess as a distraction) he gradually lost the will to care.
“She… Sasha was just… it goes a little more in depth than―” Bino spat, but was shorted once again by Duchess. He mentally reprimanded himself for allowing Duchess to just steamroll him like this- though he still couldn’t find the fortitude to entirely hate her for what she said. Surely she didn’t mean any of this. There’s a reason she’s doing this, Bino figured.
He was technically correct.
“I doubt that reflects well on a leader that’s touted as a loyal advocate of GODC values- yet can’t even be bothered to uphold such things. Don’t forget, your own brother was ousted for his relationship… I don’t see why we should treat an unfaithful one any differently. Of course, to you, Bino, the most important thing about the club, the biggest asset in your eyes, is you and your satisfaction. And for so long, everyone else has had it ingrained into them that this was the case. But not anymore.” Duchess pressed on, murmurs of agreement beginning to resound from the crowd. But she wasn’t done just yet. Now it was time to deal the biggest haymaker of all.
Or, maybe not a haymaker. If Bino had half a brain, he’d know exactly what was coming.
“Bino. I do believe that all of us have had quite enough of you. We have had our fill of your madness, your utter and unflinching incompetence. And to prove this…”
Duchess, once again, made a sweeping motion of the arm over the audience before her. “Ladies, gentledogs, I have a proposition for you. An offer for me to use my riches and connections in order to thrust this club out of its rut post-haste.” Murmurs began to fill the room, but were swiftly put to rest by Duchess holding up a paw.
With her other paw, she drank yet another sip of water, using the glass again to non-verbally tell the audience― and Bino― to listen up.
“Using both my carefully established connections and a portion of my earnings from the pageants I attend, I can turn this rapidly torpedoing club into one that thrives, one that stands on its own two legs without the poison of Bino’s tyranny. The speeches I’ll make, if any at all, will not be long-winded, underserved self-congratulatory fodder to groom my own ego. If I’m in charge, I will staunchly refuse to misappropriate any of the club funds― they’ll be used for food, maintenance, perhaps even some live entertainment to keep everyone coming― and to breathe new life into this burnt-out, defiled shell of a club. Pool tables― pools of water― the connections both I and my parents have can assist in hoisting this club back into its deserved respectability. I… no, we shall restore the honor of The Good Ol’ Dogs Club, and that starts,” Duchess frostily glared at Bino, “when we wash ourselves clean of the filthy, venomous source of its inevitable, painful downfall. “
Many of the dogs, who’d listened to the speech with bated breath and unexpected interest, began slowly cheering, clapping, showing support for Duchess. It boiled Bino’s blood- but he told himself to remain composed. If nothing else, he could save face by being sporting- then again, that probably wouldn’t help when he was being overthrown! And this talk about “restoring the club’s honor”- Bino had been working at that for so long, and for worse than nothing- now he was being openly berated for his paltry efforts. Not to mention that Duchess’ speech wasn’t even that good in his opinion. Too many long words and too much self-aggrandizing. Not that he’d know anything about that.
The small assembly of dogs immediately silenced themselves when Duchess drank her third sip of water- she didn’t even have to harken her speech with the glass this time.
“Ladies and gentledogs, do I have your support? Will you entrust me, Duchess, as the new chairdog of the Good Ol’ Dogs Club?” Duchess stole another glance at Bino― it was decidedly less charming than ever before. Bino could’ve sworn her aside glances in the past had at least a bit of pride in them. Perhaps such a deduction was unfounded. The realization hit Bino like a semi-truck.
To say that it stung when Duchess did, indeed, have everyone’s support was an understatement. Bino stood, angrily pointing and accusatory finger at the saluki. This could not stand!
“How dare you?! Not only have I done my best to keep this club afloat, but I’ve tried my hardest to help you feel welcome. I trusted you with my speeches, I treated you as a confidant, and this is how you repay me? By turning around and stabbing me in the back?” Bino’s fury was much, much colder than most dogs were used to seeing. It wasn’t some petty grievance; his hard-earned leadership position was being stripped from him. Suffice to say he wasn’t taking it lying down.
“It’s not a backstabbing.” Duchess flippantly replied, gesturing quickly to the audience. “Merely a matter of course. I, and everyone else here, wants this club to stay alive. And how do you stay alive, Bino?”
He didn’t answer. He was dumbfounded.
“You ebb away weakness. You perfect yourself. Leave no room for error. No room for poison.”
Bino lunged for Duchess. Truthfully, he didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish. He certainly wasn’t trying to injure her― furious as he was, he still couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. It was a shame he didn’t have any time to figure it out before his arms were grabbed by Boris and Yeltsin.
Duchess raised her eyebrows, pretending to look shocked. The audience gasped- this was by far their most exciting meeting.
“It seems the club has made a decision.” Hints of a smile tugged at Duchess' muzzle, though she managed to keep her face stone-cold. “And if I were you, I would respect it. The best thing you could have done now, Bino, was to save face and leave graciously. Though it seems you haven’t considered that option. I’m not surprised. You have a penchant for making your issues as painful and prolonged as possible.”
“You are so full of it.” Bino spat.
“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we? But on the topic of decisions― I’ve made one, too. I’m sure everyone else saw this coming― maybe even you, though with how thick you are sometimes, I’d say it’s only around a fifty-fifty chance. But we are through. I am tired of carrying this club uncredited, and you’ve exhausted any pity I, or anyone else here, will have for you. This relationship is not, and has not been working out. If you aren’t being a raging, annoying blowhard, then you’re a bumbling, incompetent fool whose rule over the club has persisted for way too long. It’s time for a change.”
“Go to heck.” Bino muttered, livid, but too humiliated to raise his voice. Or maybe he had raised his voice, but the sounds of cheering and support for this usurper drowned him out. Bino couldn’t tell.
“I wish you luck in your future endeavors.” Duchess' goodwill could not have rung any less true.
As if things needed to get worse, a familiar trio of pets suddenly burst through the door. Sasha, Maxwell, and…
Fox!?Bino thought, utterly perplexed. What’s he doing here!? His first thought was that they were here to watch his demotion, but how would they have known? No way Duchess would have told them, especially not Sasha or Max.
Bino could see the visible concern on their faces― they didn’t seem to be here because they wanted to. It seemed they had actually wanted to rescue him from what they’d perceived was a malicious threat. While it was plenty malicious, Bino wasn’t in any physical danger― but the humiliation of being dragged out of his rightful position of chairdog was far from benign.
He almost called out to them, but bit his tongue. It hadn’t seemed like anyone paid them any attention yet― they were too enamored with what was going on in front of them. He attempted to free himself from Boris and Yeltsin. It didn’t work.
They, too, supported Duchess’ decision.
Before anything could be done by the three, Duchess' voice boomed throughout the clubhouse as she declared, with a practiced conviction that only Bino could realize:
“Boris? Yeltsin? Remove him. It’s high time us dogs take our esteemed club back. It’s time for the Good Ol’ Dogs Club’s redemption. It’s time to rid ourselves of this poison.”
-
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:20 am
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
It's finally out, you really don't know how much I expected you to publish the next chapter!
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Glad that Fox managed to get onboard to help Max and Sasha out with Bino. I just have to say to Duchess though, if Bino is poison then that makes you acid. Glad that people are seeing how she is destroying Bino.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Happy to see this continuing
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Is it wrong for me to want Sasha to SLUG that pretentious backstabbing dillhole in the face for what she did to Bino and continues to do?
- CunningFox
- Posts: 1224
- Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:26 pm
- Location: Scotland
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Great work, Wren.
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Counting down the days to Duchess gets hers.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
... and Boris and Yeltsin have returned. Lookin' round the audience now for Rex, Daisy, and Dallas.
- Zesortinge
- Posts: 213
- Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:47 pm
- Location: Arkansas
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I kind of wonder what Bino is going to do now that he isn't involved in the GODC.
I have ideas and I occasionally put them down.
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I am gonna take a (probably wrong) guess here and say that this is where his redemption starts.
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:20 am
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
because I have a feeling now that someone is going to get hurt
- trekkie
- Posts: 5423
- Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:35 am
- Location: Lost in The Delta Quadrant/ New Jersey
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I agree with Dayzee that I want to see Duchess get what’s coming to her, maybe a haymaker from Sasha, though a humiliating defeat and expulsion from the GOD club would probably hurt the Saluki more. I do really like the interaction between Max, Fox, and Sasha. Good job, guys, and good luck on finals, Wren and Snownerder.
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.” - Thomas Sowell
“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.” Phyllis Diller
“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.” Phyllis Diller
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Good question. Work on his stamp collection, mebbee?Zesortinge wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 7:03 pm I kind of wonder what Bino is going to do now that he isn't involved in the GODC.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Oh no! You predicted what would happen!!!NHWestoN wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 6:41 amGood question. Work on his stamp collection, mebbee?Zesortinge wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 7:03 pm I kind of wonder what Bino is going to do now that he isn't involved in the GODC.![]()
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:20 am
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Thanks for the spoiler. I won't have to think what was going to happen next.Wrenisprobablyb0red wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 2:44 pmOh no! You predicted what would happen!!!NHWestoN wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 6:41 amGood question. Work on his stamp collection, mebbee?Zesortinge wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 7:03 pm I kind of wonder what Bino is going to do now that he isn't involved in the GODC.![]()
![]()
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I long thought that Fox and Sasha had recurring possibilities for relationship humor and development which you touched on here quite deftly. Given where Housepets is now, nothing would be served by retracing my dissappointments in the alternatives taken. But well and delicately done, Wren.trekkie wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 6:54 pm I agree with Dayzee that I want to see Duchess get what’s coming to her, maybe a haymaker from Sasha, though a humiliating defeat and expulsion from the GOD club would probably hurt the Saluki more. I do really like the interaction between Max, Fox, and Sasha. Good job, guys, and good luck on finals, Wren and Snownerder.
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I was one of the many who is now one of the few that wanted Fox and Sasha together. Now that I see how much Kevin ACTUALLY cares about his relationship with her and takes care of her I can't in good conscious hope for them to split up after everything.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
... and I appreciate your well-stated perspective, Amazz. Besides, the only thing more tiresome than an old rant is a repetitive old rant (me!). So we'll agree to disagree and move joyfully on.Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 8:26 pm I was one of the many who is now one of the few that wanted Fox and Sasha together. Now that I see how much Kevin ACTUALLY cares about his relationship with her and takes care of her I can't in good conscious hope for them to split up after everything.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Besides I don't think we will see Sasha or Kevin again when the comic comes back. If anyway, they might be cut. The only K-9s we might see are Fox, Mungo and Fido and occasionally Ralph. Kevin or Sasha weren't really that popular.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Okay, Wren, I apologize for sidetracking what is after all your theatrical, but Amazee prompted me to ask - wasn't there a poll taken a few years back to determine the popularity of major HP characters and rank them? I may be slightly confusing a roster which ranked the characters on the number of their appearances which used to be on the Wiki (maybe still is).Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 12:31 pm Besides I don't think we will see Sasha or Kevin again when the comic comes back. If anyway, they might be cut. The only K-9s we might see are Fox, Mungo and Fido and occasionally Ralph. Kevin or Sasha weren't really that popular.
Given that the cast has ballooned to nearly 200 critters (and a few bipeds), I would not be surpized that over half will not be seen again except for crowd scenes and walk-ons. But I'm not a prophet or a prophet's son and Rick has yet to pull back the curtain.
Again, Wren, my apologies.
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Pretty sure you were confusing that with the list on the Wiki of character and how many appearances that they have because I cannot remember a poll or topic like that. Though their amount of appearances might end up showing which characters Rick might keep around. Just by looking at the list I can see Rick keeping Grape, Peanut, King, Tarot, Max, Fox, Keene, Sabrina, Bailey, Marion, Bino, Craig, Fido, Kits, Lois, Steward, Mungo, Draig, Breel, Jessica, Ralph, Rock, Enby, Olive, Kix, Todd, Falstaff, Truck, Rook, Ace, Duchess, Lana, Trinket, Duke and Pit with the others getting the chop.
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Well, it technically wasn't 3 months! It was 3 months minus one day. So uh... Well, my apologies. That's entirely the fault of your ol' pal procrastinatin' Wren. Anyway, enjoy 6,000 more words. Hopefully it won't be another long wait but I've decided to give up on making promises like that for now. I'm sure y'all can understand why.
-
Chapter Seven
The Hardened Heart (chapter title subject to change, as I'm currently undergoing a bit of a health crisis and haven't slept in a long time and can't think of anything better yet. funfun happyhappy!)
-
Bino was quite literally thrown onto the ground outside of the club gate, grunting as he collided with the gravel driveway on the other side. “W-oof!”
He heard heavy footsteps recede back into the club, and then significantly lighter footsteps scurrying towards him.
“Bino!?”
Sasha was calling out for him, her voice perhaps more shaky than he’d ever heard it before. He groaned and pulled himself up off the ground, even though lying down and feeling miserable and maybe dying right there was probably the more appealing option. He looked up to see Fox, Max, and Sasha run up to him, all of them looking fairly confused.
“The heck just happened?” Fox asked. He had the longest legs, and thus ended up being the first to reach Bino, reaching out a paw to help lift him up.
Bino considered for a moment. He’s just trying to take advantage of me when I’m at my lowest. Despite deciding this, and knowing it was true, he couldn’t bring himself to reject Fox’s offer. He reached out and made contact, for the first time in years.
He looked away as he stood up and the others arrived, breathing heavily. Oh my dog, Bino thought to himself, they’re all staring at me. They just want to watch me…
For not the first time in these past few days, he felt tears start to stream out of his eyes. He whined like a puppy, letting go of Fox’s paw and burying his head in his hands. He could barely keep himself from outright sobbing.
“Bino, do you think you’re going to be okay?” asked Max. “Is there… anything we can do for you right now?”
Bino breathed in, feeling as though he didn’t have enough air, but he felt his breath get caught, quickly exhaling before he could even get any oxygen. He breathed in again, and again, and again, faster and faster, but nothing was helping. Tears were absolutely pouring down his cheeks and snout, and he for some reason had the mental image of two mice inside of his head, taking turns beating the inside of his skull with blunt objects. It hurt a lot.
Then, his exhaling started to turn into wailing, his inhaling to gasping, and he felt like he couldn’t even stand on his own two paws. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees.
Bino had not cried like this since he was a puppy, when he and his brothers were separated from their parents to be adopted into different households. Great. There’s another bad memory for him to obsess over right now.
Worst of all, everyone’s just standing there, watching me, Bino thought to himself, shutting his eyes tightly. There would be nothing stopping all of his allies-turned-hostiles from recording his breakdown, texting it to all their friends, laughing, claiming Bino was finally getting his comeuppance for—
This train of thought was abruptly interrupted when he felt a paw on his shoulder. Much to his surprise, Fox was getting down on his knees beside Bino, just sitting there and not saying anything. On his other side, Max sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder.
“This really sucks,” said Max. There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm, or vitriol, or anything like that, and Bino was really searching. The cat was being genuine. “You don’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Bino heard an exasperated huff from in front of him, and opened his eyes to see Sasha crossing her arms at him.
“You had me worried sick!” she exclaimed. “I was so worried you wouldn’t be okay, or you’d do something stupid, or you’d… Gah, I’m so glad you’re alright.”
“I’m…” Bino heaved. Fox patted his shoulder, which Bino found slightly comforting, even if the whole experience was still pretty overwhelming. “I’m not alright.”
She sighed. “I know, I just… After last time, I was worried that Duchess would injure you again. And I thought that you had ran away and… It’s like, I want to be your friend again, and I— I feel happy knowing that you’re safe, even if you’re not doing so well.”
Bino sniffled. “Thanks, Sasha… I don’t even know. Do I deserve this? What if Duchess was right? I mean, she embellished the truth a bunch, but maybe…”
Fox growled. “She was just trying to usurp the club.”
Bino felt his throat catch again. He turned to look at Fox.
“You’re actually here,” Bino said.
Fox tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “Hi.”
Bino felt his eyelids go damp yet again. He wanted to yell at Fox, argue with him, prove he was right all along somehow. Fox had betrayed him. He’d been his closest friend and eventually he just stopped liking Bino or caring about him or…
But despite all that, despite Fox’s holier-than-thou attitude which had seemed to persist ever since he became a police dog, despite Bino’s lingering resentment for the way Fox broke things off without even telling Bino why, he couldn’t bring himself to yell.
He leaned over into Fox and assaulted him with a hug. A very wet, teary hug. This had the adverse effect of spooking Max, who was leaning against Bino’s other shoulder, but the cat could tell that Bino and Fox needed a moment.
“I missed you so much, why did you leave me?” Bino wailed. He wanted to hold on so tight to the husky that he could never run away again, never leave Bino alone with Duchess again. “I just want to be your friend again, I just want to go around playing silly games and fighting with water balloons and messing with Peanut Butter and… I want the club back, I want Fido back! What did I do? Why does everyone hate me now? Why am I so terrible?” He gripped on tighter to Fox.
“We— I just— you’re not in a place where we can have this conversation right now. I don’t want to hurt you any further,” said Fox.
Bino sniffled. “Oh. Of course. I’m too emotional right now. I can’t handle my feelings or my emotions or anything! I can’t do anything right!”
Fox sighed. “I never said that.” He hugged Bino a bit tighter, and despite how much Bino wanted to scream and protest, he just quietly continued to cry into Fox’s chest.
“Everything’s going to be alright, Bino. We’re here for you. We’ve got you. It’s all going to be okay,” Max assured.
“Let’s go back to one of our houses,” suggested Sasha. “We should go somewhere a bit more comfortable, and get away from this clubhouse.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good plan. I don’t think the sound of a bunch of dogs celebrating Bino’s ousting is good for him right now.”
“I can speak for myself,” Bino muttered between labored breaths. “And I say…” he paused. “Let’s ditch this joint.”
“We can go to our place,” says Max. “It’s not too far, and all of Bino’s stuff is there, in case he wants one of his chew toys or whatever it is you canines like.”
Bino felt Fox nodding above him, and assumed Sasha was doing so too.
“So. We ready to go?” asked Max.
“Not yet,” whimpered Bino. “I need a little longer—”
Bino wanted to leave. He truly did. He didn’t want to ever end up anywhere near this place again. He didn’t want to feel the gravel from the ground beneath him clinging to his fur after his tumble. But he couldn’t bring himself to let go of Fox, not yet. It had been so long. Years.
He felt the tears welling up yet again. Dog, hopefully this wasn’t about to become a routine. Something like, ‘hey everyone, it’s been another two minutes, Bino’s gonna cry again!’ Even if, begrudgingly, Bino almost felt it would be accurate.
He wondered if the others were only being nice to him because he was literally breaking down in front of them. Wouldn’t be the first time someone only cared about him when he wouldn’t bite back. Nobody actually liked Bino for Bino; this was basically a fact of life.
Bino sat hugging Fox for several more minutes, just trying to get a handle on his breathing.
What was he even supposed to do now? He was just kicked out of the club he spent most of his time organizing. He didn’t have any real friends. Did he even have any reason to leave his house anymore? Other than to avoid Max, of course, he’d probably continue doing that for the rest of his life.
He just wanted to stop thinking. Heck, he wanted to stop existing. Vanishing into the ethers sounded a lot less painful than his life right now.
He groaned. “Okay. Let’s go, I guess. I don’t know what we’re going to do there, though.”
“Well, whatever we’re gonna do, it’ll be better to do it there rather than here,” Max said.
“Whatever,” Bino sighed. He unwrapped his arms from around Fox, to which the husky looked down at his bandana.
“Great. It’s completely soaked with tears.”
“I’m really good at crying,” Bino claimed, chuckling a little bit. “The best cryer around.”
“You trying to lighten the mood?” Max asked.
“I’m miserable. I don’t want to be miserable.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you’re not going to wallow in your misery for months on end again.”
“Oh, we’ll see,” said Bino. “I’m great at wallowing too.”
Sasha sighed. “I don’t like that. It’s not funny. You— it’s not fair that you have to be in the position you’re in.”
“At least let me laugh at myself. Everyone else does,” said Bino.
“That’s the problem,” Sasha argued.
“Let’s not do this right now,” Max interrupted. “We should get back home. I’ll make everyone pet-safe hot chocolate.”
Bino smiled a little bit. “You are pretty good at making hot cocoa.”
Max grinned back. “Thanks! I pride myself on it!”
“—for a cat, anyways.”
Max groaned.
-
The march back to Max and Bino’s home was awkward but uneventful. Fox didn’t say a single word, choosing to walk a fair bit ahead of the rest. Sasha also stayed very quiet, nervously trailing behind, catching up, and falling back once more. Max walked side-by-side with Bino and attempted to lead him down some winding conversational path, but Bino wasn’t exactly feeling it.
He just felt numb. He couldn’t cry anymore— though perhaps he would and could if he chose to explore his emotions a bit more— but he felt far more comfortable staring at his paws as he trudged to his home, catching and holding onto the occasional word Max said.
They reached the front door of their home, which had been left open by Max when he was rushing off. Of course, it wouldn’t be Maxwell if he didn’t embellish the story a little bit; he was currently trying to spin this embarrassment into some sort of sign that he’d done a noble deed.
Bino didn’t care. Usually, when Max joked around, playing up his own ego, Bino found it extremely obnoxious. Now he didn’t.
He pushed past Max and through the door, vaguely aware of the others trying to get his attention, but he just sighed and collapsed on his couch. He had been growing very fond of this couch lately. Seemed to be the only thing around that would consistently support him. Even if his back and tail did hurt after lying on it too long.
He was left alone for a minute or two, vaguely aware of some quiet conversation between the others, before Max and Sasha entered the room.
“You wanna talk?” asked Max. His joking tone was gone. Bino wondered if he’d just realized that Bino was more upset than he thought, or if maybe joking around was the cat’s amateurish attempt at lightening the mood and making him feel better. Heh. Nah, Max was always like that. He wouldn’t do that just to cheer Bino up.
“What do you want me to say?” Bino finally said.
“I don’t know. That’s up to you,” said Max.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“That’s… okay. You can have some alone time if you want.” Max stood up to walk away, but he was immediately shocked into stillness by the feeling of someone grabbing his paw.
Bino desperately wanted Max to go away, heck, he even Sasha to go away, but for some reason he felt like he couldn’t let them. Despite himself, he had grabbed onto Max’s paw.
“Please just… sit with me. Please,” said Bino, not looking at Max.
Maxwell himself didn’t entirely know how to respond. Bino was always so prone to outbursts, to pushing everyone away. Cautiously, he plopped himself down onto the couch next to Bino, sitting on the edge as if afraid of taking up much space.
“I can’t be alone right now,” said Bino, rubbing tears out of his eyes. “Duchess wants me to be alone right now! So she can test my resolve and I can come back a better leader than ever!” He added, trying to look enthused.
“She doesn’t care anymore, Bino. I don’t think she ever did care, not that much, really,” said Sasha.
Bino felt like a patient seeing their X-Ray results. There it was, all laid out. The images had been printed from every angle, and they showed irreparable damage.
“M-maybe she does. She told me she loved me! Not just once, but twice!”
“Only twice? How long were you two together?”
“Years,” said Bino, burying his face in his paws. “Even you said it more than that, Sasha.”
“Yeah, and unlike Duchess, I sometimes meant it,” agreed Sasha, causing Bino’s distraught frown to shift into more of a scowl.
“You only meant it some—”
“—Let’s not unpack all that just yet,” Max butted in. Bino sighed, but didn’t push it any further. “We all have lots of things to admit to, and come forward with, and apologize for. The bright side about all these tragic events is that now we can really open up and make amends. As Grape would say, communication is the key to a healthy relationship! Though usually she’s referring to romance, which is not what I’m referring to, just for the record.”
“Shut up,” growled Bino.
“I’m just trying to help out!” Max argued. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Stop preaching about communication and apologies or whatever. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t bug me right now… You can leave now, actually,” Bino huffed.
Max shut his mouth and stood up, carefully exiting the living room, shooting Bino a concerned look as he left. Bino pretended not to see this.
Sasha sat down in place of Max.
“I enjoyed talking to you the other day,” Sasha tried.
“I thought I did, but it’s just… so much now. So many bad memories.”
“I wish it wasn’t like that, Bino. And I swear we’re not trying to betray you like Duchess did.”
“If I couldn’t believe my own girlfriend, why would I believe my ex?”
“Then… well…” Sasha paused for a second, trying to think of what to say. “Um, dog, I dunno. I guess… we were together, so you know me. I’m not a ma… mal… oh forget it, I know the word, it’ll come to me. My point is I’m not a bad dog. Oh! The word was malicious! I’m not a malicious dog.” Sasha stopped sulking for a bit to smile. Bino still thought she was pretty cute when she smiled, but he struggled to find any joy in seeing her do so.
Bino turned away from her, looking yet again at his paws. “I don’t know that. When we were together, you always just wanted to be with Fido. And you always slept around with all the other dogs. And kissed them and stuff. And I know you’re going to say that’s what you need out of a relationship, that sort of openness, but I— You didn’t ask me. I told you not to and you kept rubbing it in my face. You didn’t even try to keep it a secret, or try to preserve my dignity. You didn’t care about me back then. And… and maybe you do now, but I don’t have any good reason to believe that.” Bino looked back up, and perhaps he had been expecting to see that same resigned face he always saw from Max these days when Bino lashed out, but Sasha’s expression was anything but resigned.
It started out shocked, mouth open a smidge and brow furrowed as far as Bino had ever seen it go. She seemed to be genuinely struggling to process this. Then, her eyes narrowed on Bino and she huffed, before averting her eyes from Bino without moving her head.
“You can’t have honestly expected me to put you before me in our relationship,” Sasha argued. Bino scoffed.
“Yes! I could! That’s how love works! I did so much for Duchess when we were together!”
“What you had with Duchess wasn’t healthy, though,” Sasha said. “She was just using you. And I wasn’t going to let you use me like that when we were together. I’m not weak.”
“Are you implying that I am!?” Bino gritted his teeth together, grabbing onto his floppy ears as if he wanted to pull them off.
“I mean, yeah. You only wanted to be with me to gain popularity within the club anyways. You were just afraid of looking single.”
“Since when are you a psychoanalyst?”
“I don’t know what that is. I stopped reading the dictionary before I got to S.”
“It starts with a P!”
Sasha looked dumbfounded for a moment. Then she rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re messing with me. You think this is funny.”
“No it actually starts with a— that’s not the POINT. The point is, since when do you think YOU of all dogs get to analyze other dogs’ social lives?”
“I’ll have you know I’m actually pretty good at that. You don’t get to be the most popular dog in the neighborhood without knowing a thing or two about how to interact!”
“Ugh. You’re not popular for your brain, Sasha, you’re popular because you’re pretty and you sleep with all the guys,” Bino flippantly claimed. Sasha gasped in offense. “And besides,” Bino added. “You’re completely wrong. I actually did like you quite a bit! I wanted to be with you because you were pretty, and chatty, and you seemed so nice! But you’re not really mean or nice or ANYTHING. You’re too stupid and superficial to be either!”
Sasha went silent. The only sound to be heard was that of Fox and Max quietly discussing something in the hallway by the front door.
She stood up and glowered at Bino. “You do not get to call me stupid. Nobody is allowed to call me stupid anymore. And if you think so little of me, then I have no reason to force myself to be around you. So how about I do us both a solid and get out of your life?”
Bino was stunned into silence. Sasha remained for a second, looking as if she was expecting a response, before lowering her shoulders. Bino could make out a few tears starting to well up beneath her eyes, but before he could apologize, or yell, or do anything, even assess the situation enough to think of things he could do, Sasha turned heel and stormed out of the room. He heard Max and Fox both make some surprised-sounding noises (and possibly words, but he wasn’t really tuning in) and then the sound of the door opening and slamming shut.
He continued to just sit there for a moment. His eyes hurt from all the crying and rubbing. That was the only concrete detail he was able to process right now.
-
“Fox, I think you need to talk to him,” Max said, looking intensely at the husky. Bino had just kicked him out of the room, and though Sasha was talking with Bino, Max knew deep inside that Sasha wasn’t going to be able to reach through to him.
“What’s the use, Max, honestly?” Fox, however, could be pretty stubborn. “Do you think he just needs to use me as a teddy bear for another eternity and then he’ll just be fine?”
Max sighed. “He’s my brother, Fox. And I can tell he’s hurting. And he thinks everyone’s out to get him. He…”
“He had it coming, honestly,” Fox said. “I mean, he was similarly awful to King.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”
“Yeah! Like when he stole King’s watch and almost broke it for basically no reason.” Fox crossed his arms. “Plus, he’s kind of always been a jerk. I don’t know why I used to put up with it. You shoulda seen some of the stuff w― he said to Tiger.”
“Look, all that stuff is objectively bad, yes. But Duchess literally strung him along for years, isolated him from all of his friends, and then turned everyone else against him.”
“And yet here you are, defending him, so clearly Duchess didn’t do a particularly good job, did she? The only one isolating Bino is Bino. I mean, he literally just sent you out of the room. Because you were trying to communicate with him.”
“Fox, I can’t be the first one to apologize to Bino. I’ve spent almost his whole life teasing him and pranking him and not taking him seriously. No matter how hard I try to apologize to Bino, or to appease him, he’s going to keep bringing other stuff up and he’s not going to believe I’m really sorry.”
“And that’s his own fault!”
“If I so readily dismissed this as all being on him, then I wouldn’t grow as a person. Cat. Whatever. I’ve only really heard that phrase in regards to humans, you know?”
“I know. But I don’t think you should let Bino anywhere near your self-worth.”
“Maybe, but― Fox, the way I see it right now, Bino is so afraid of abandonment that he actively sabotages any relationships he might be forming so that he won’t have to feel like someone he cares about is abandoning him.”
“Gah, and you’re gonna tell me next that me leaving him in the dust is the root cause of all his issues.”
“No. I’m not going to pretend to know why Bino is the way he is. But I think he’s been this way the entire time I’ve known him. When we were very little, he was a really sweet pup. Then I started leaving the house all the time, and doing catnip all the time, and not really talking to him much. Back then, our owner was… or, wasn’t… Ugh, you get the idea. And I think he felt like I left him. And… because of that, he sort of developed this resentment towards me. And cats as a whole, really.”
“I don’t think that paints him in a positive light, Max,” argued Fox. “Bino still did all the stuff he did. If anything, it just paints you in a negative light.”
“Hey! This was all before we got kidnapped. I was a different cat back then. I’ve tried to be a lot better.”
“And you see, Bino hasn’t,” Fox said, rubbing his temples. “And that’s why it’s fundamentally different to all the other dogs I’ve made amends with. That’s why I’m willing to be here for you, but not for Bino.”
“I don’t know if he’s ever had the chance to make amends,” said Max. “But supposedly, that’s what he was trying to do with you this morning when he headed to your house.”
“And he couldn’t even do that without hurting you and Sasha…”
Max groaned. “Look, I don’t know why you’re so determined to see Bino as evil, but Sasha and I have already forgiven him for tha―”
Of course, because the universe works in mysterious ways, this was exactly the moment that Sasha stormed out of the room Bino was in.
“I’m done,” she growled, brushing past the two, and straight on out the door.
Neither of them were even able to respond before the door slammed shut and Sasha was gone.
Max buried his head in his paws. “Oh no.”
Fox scowled, turning towards the room where Bino was.
“Oh-hoh-hoh, now he’s done it,” Fox growled, pushing past Max and heading straight to Bino.
-
“And just why do you think it’s acceptable to be so nasty to Sasha all the time?”
Bino didn’t say anything for a good few seconds, until finally, he spoke up, in a quiet, shaky voice.
“You can beat me up. I deserve it.”
Fox froze for a second, but just grew further enraged.
“Gah, now you’re just trying to appear all sympathetic so that I’ll feel bad for you and go easy on you!”
“Sure,” said Bino, not looking up.
This was actually making Fox consider pulling all his fur out. He was actually going mad. This was ACTUAL madness.
“Okay, okay, cut it with all the self-pitying nonsense. What did you say to Sasha this time?”
“I called her stupid.”
Fox growled. On the one paw, he knew for a fact that this was an extremely sore spot for Sasha. On the other paw, he knew that Bino probably had no idea this was the case. On the other other paw, it was generally not a good idea to call someone stupid when you’re trying to have a heart-to-heart.
“Well why did you do that!?” Fox exclaimed.
“She was trying to psychoanalyze me to my face,” Bino muttered. Already, he was slipping back into anger. “She was asserting that she knew everything about me because she was all popular and so she knew a thing or two about interacting and I told her straight up that the other dogs like her for her looks.”
“Why would you say that!?”
“I don’t know! It just felt right at the time. She was just acting like she was so much better than me.”
“I don’t believe you, Bino. That just sounds like what you do. All the time.”
“Do you want me to just explain what happened from the beginning? Are you going to accuse me of lying if you don’t like it?”
“Yes, and… yes.”
“Ugh.” Bino rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
Bino stayed silent for a sec. Fox, who was not doing the best job of masking his anxiety and impatience, almost immediately barked, “well, get on it.”
“Alright! Alright. So she was saying that you all weren’t going to betray me. But then I told her that I can’t trust her. Cause she always… she cheated on me,” Bino spat. “She never cared about me or what I needed. And she told me it didn’t matter, and that I should understand, cause Duchess was using me, so I should get why she didn’t let me use her. The same way. She compared me to Duchess! All because I wished she was faithful. I didn’t even have the guts to call her out on it when we were still together! How can she claim I was trying to use her?”
“You were only with her for the prestige, though.”
Bino growled. “Why do you think that? If anything, she was only with me because I was high up in the club. You saw how the instant anyone more popular appeared, she immediately stopped thinking about me. She did it with my own brother. So many times!”
“So are you claiming that you were seriously with her because you liked her?”
“Kind of!” Bino insisted. “Like, okay, yeah, I did care about the prestige stuff, but she seemed nice and talkative and like she would always be there. I thought she wouldn’t hurt me like everyone else did. I thought she looked good and even had interesting things to say sometimes.”
Fox sat down next to Bino. He sighed, looking contemplatory.
“I know what you mean. I had a thing for Sasha for a long time. And I don’t think she’s malicious, far from it. But yes, your relationship with her was really ugly. In so many ways. And I always kind of blamed you for it, but maybe I was looking at it from the lens of someone who idealized Sasha myself. Because, well, she just kind of assumes that everyone’s on the same page as her. When she kissed me, I thought it was because she was interested in me, but she’s just very open. And she finally found that dog who was on the same page as her in Kevin. And, Bino, there’s a lot you don’t know with Sasha. She endured a lot escaping her old owner. And she’s not stupid.”
“I know she’s not stupid,” Bino said. “I know all of that.”
“Then why did you say she was stupid?”
“Because it felt like she was insulting my intelligence. Belittling my decisions.”
“You have made some pretty stupid decisions.”
“I know, I don’t need anyone to rub it in. I understand! I get it! I don’t do anything right and nobody likes me.”
“Yeah, pretty much. But… Bino, I think you can fix that. You’re not a lost cause.”
Fox wasn’t sure why he was saying this. Perhaps it really was just pity. He definitely felt like Bino was a lost cause himself.
Maybe Bino was manipulating him. Hitting him right in the spot where his own heart ached when it came to Sasha.
“Yes I am,” Bino said.
“Okay, maybe,” said Fox. “I’m not trained for helping with mental health crises. I feel like I’m too personally involved. But I think that if you get the right help, and stop sabotaging yourself, you can make it out of this. I think there’s a lot of pets who will never forgive you, and I might be included among those ranks. But Max was right. You don’t deserve what you’re going through right now. He was wrong about one thing, though. I think he wanted all of us to make it better, all of us to forgive you. I think he wanted me to get through to you. But, Bino, only you can make this better.”
“I don’t want to. I just want to like, run away and never have to deal with anything ever again,” Bino murmured.
“Well, I would rather you not do that,” Fox opined.
“Duly noted.”
“We still need to talk, Bino. I understand if you’re sick of it at this point, but you have a lot to answer for.”
“Shoot away,” Bino muttered.
“Why were you so awful to King?”
“Ah. King. It’s always about King with you, isn’t it?”
“No. I’ve barely spent any time with King for like, a year now. Need to remember to set up some sorta hang out. But that’s besides the point. Even from an outsider’s viewpoint, the way you acted toward King was never justifiable.”
“I was just… scared.”
“Really, now?” Fox asked, sounding unimpressed. He was trying pretty darn hard not to sound judgemental, but he was not particularly good at it.
“I thought he was going to take you away from me. And I was right.”
Oh.
Oh.
“Bino, did you perhaps… like me in a certain sort of way?” Fox shot him a bit of a snide expression.
“N― no, nothing like that!” Bino said, not even considering letting THAT idea go any further. “You just immediately started hanging out and being friends and I felt shut out immediately. That one Christmas where you brought him to the club, you barely talked to me at all, and he was rude to me, and I just… I didn’t want him there. It was awful.”
“So you played a really cruel prank on him and then acted awful towards him every time you saw him for years to come?”
“Well when you say it like that it sounds vindictive and stupid!”
“It was vindictive and stupid, Bino.”
“I― GAH, I know. I know! I know I know I know. Laugh all you want. I’m an idiot. I tried to shun and mess up someone’s friendship just because I was a little bit jealous. I’m sorry! Is that what you want?”
“It doesn’t mean anything if you apologize to me, Bino. But at least you’re aware it was wrong. Next up… Peanut. Why were you mean to him?”
“I mean, mostly I was just messing with him. And you were part of all that. Plus, he was totally about to turn into a cat lover.”
“Okay, but I’ve apologized to him. And why does it even matter if he’s a cat lover?”
“I don’t know, it just does,” Bino insisted. “If you want me to apologize to Peanut, I guess I can, but I’m not sorry about teasing him.”
“Ugh, whatever. What about Fido?”
Bino gulped. “He was in a secret relationship. With a cat.”
“Oh no,” said Fox. “And you totally reacted proportionally.”
“I didn’t even like, kick him out of the club all on my own. It was voted on.”
“Fido told me you haven’t talked to him since then.”
“Well that’s true! But he wouldn’t want to talk to me anyways. He never did! He was always so much better than me, so much more popular and handsome and smart and accomplished and I was just Bino. My own girlfriend liked him more than me. And finally, when he showed his one flaw, when it was revealed that he wasn’t totally perfect, suddenly this became something that reflected on me. Not like I was the one with a cat girlfriend!”
“Bino, you betrayed him.”
“He betrayed me!”
“Not really. In his one moment where he needed you, where you could have vouched for him or been there for him, where you could have reached out and tried to understand him, you took it as an opportunity to gloat your superiority over him.”
Fox was admittedly biased in Fido’s favor. After so long in the police force, Fox had spent a bunch of time talking with Fido and had at this point come to terms with how useless his own bias against Fido had been.
“No, I didn’t, Fox. It hurts me every day that he betrayed my trust and had relations with a cat. I miss him. But he did that to himself.”
Fox sighed. “Bino, I know a dog who was so afraid to reveal something about himself that he ended up keeping it suppressed and hid it from everyone for a very long time. His own w― girlfriend, even. And it almost blew up in his face. But he owned up to his end of the equation, and we all tried to build bridges and work things out. And to this day, he’s a close friend of mine. And once he could be more open, our friendship felt more earnest. He didn’t have to live like he was hiding from all of the people he cared about, and we didn’t have to feel like he was keeping himself distant from us. These things exist in life to make us stronger and more understanding, not to drive us apart. If you had been there for Fido after Sabrina’s wedding went south, you could have repaired your bond as brothers. You could have talked things over. Learned to let go of your hatred.”
“Fox, you wish I was a completely different dog.”
“Yeah, maybe. But I think you also wish for that. And it shouldn’t have to be like that.”
“Yeah, it should. I just ruin everyone else’s lives.”
“That’s not the takeaway here, Bino. I think the real takeaway is that… you need to take steps to improve yourself now. Because, at the end of the day, you’ve pretty much seen this version of Bino all the way through. If you wake up tomorrow and decide not to change, you won’t have anything left.”
Bino whined. “I don’t want to have anything anymore. Everything I have gets broken or lost…”
It was at this moment that Fox had a pretty mundane thought. Ugh, what would Mungo do in this situation?
But that was enough to spark something.
“Bino, when Sasha escaped her old home, she needed to reach out to new folks. She went to therapy to get help and guidance so she could keep moving on with her life. And you’ve just escaped your own horror story, really. So I guess… what I’m telling you is that you need therapy.”
“I need therapy? Me?”
Max, who had silently entered the room perhaps a minute prior, simply nodded his head. Then he froze. “Oh, wait, hold on, I totally left the hot chocolate on the counter. Uh… Anyone still thirsty? Might be a bit cold now...”
-
-
Chapter Seven
The Hardened Heart (chapter title subject to change, as I'm currently undergoing a bit of a health crisis and haven't slept in a long time and can't think of anything better yet. funfun happyhappy!)
-
Bino was quite literally thrown onto the ground outside of the club gate, grunting as he collided with the gravel driveway on the other side. “W-oof!”
He heard heavy footsteps recede back into the club, and then significantly lighter footsteps scurrying towards him.
“Bino!?”
Sasha was calling out for him, her voice perhaps more shaky than he’d ever heard it before. He groaned and pulled himself up off the ground, even though lying down and feeling miserable and maybe dying right there was probably the more appealing option. He looked up to see Fox, Max, and Sasha run up to him, all of them looking fairly confused.
“The heck just happened?” Fox asked. He had the longest legs, and thus ended up being the first to reach Bino, reaching out a paw to help lift him up.
Bino considered for a moment. He’s just trying to take advantage of me when I’m at my lowest. Despite deciding this, and knowing it was true, he couldn’t bring himself to reject Fox’s offer. He reached out and made contact, for the first time in years.
He looked away as he stood up and the others arrived, breathing heavily. Oh my dog, Bino thought to himself, they’re all staring at me. They just want to watch me…
For not the first time in these past few days, he felt tears start to stream out of his eyes. He whined like a puppy, letting go of Fox’s paw and burying his head in his hands. He could barely keep himself from outright sobbing.
“Bino, do you think you’re going to be okay?” asked Max. “Is there… anything we can do for you right now?”
Bino breathed in, feeling as though he didn’t have enough air, but he felt his breath get caught, quickly exhaling before he could even get any oxygen. He breathed in again, and again, and again, faster and faster, but nothing was helping. Tears were absolutely pouring down his cheeks and snout, and he for some reason had the mental image of two mice inside of his head, taking turns beating the inside of his skull with blunt objects. It hurt a lot.
Then, his exhaling started to turn into wailing, his inhaling to gasping, and he felt like he couldn’t even stand on his own two paws. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees.
Bino had not cried like this since he was a puppy, when he and his brothers were separated from their parents to be adopted into different households. Great. There’s another bad memory for him to obsess over right now.
Worst of all, everyone’s just standing there, watching me, Bino thought to himself, shutting his eyes tightly. There would be nothing stopping all of his allies-turned-hostiles from recording his breakdown, texting it to all their friends, laughing, claiming Bino was finally getting his comeuppance for—
This train of thought was abruptly interrupted when he felt a paw on his shoulder. Much to his surprise, Fox was getting down on his knees beside Bino, just sitting there and not saying anything. On his other side, Max sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder.
“This really sucks,” said Max. There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm, or vitriol, or anything like that, and Bino was really searching. The cat was being genuine. “You don’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Bino heard an exasperated huff from in front of him, and opened his eyes to see Sasha crossing her arms at him.
“You had me worried sick!” she exclaimed. “I was so worried you wouldn’t be okay, or you’d do something stupid, or you’d… Gah, I’m so glad you’re alright.”
“I’m…” Bino heaved. Fox patted his shoulder, which Bino found slightly comforting, even if the whole experience was still pretty overwhelming. “I’m not alright.”
She sighed. “I know, I just… After last time, I was worried that Duchess would injure you again. And I thought that you had ran away and… It’s like, I want to be your friend again, and I— I feel happy knowing that you’re safe, even if you’re not doing so well.”
Bino sniffled. “Thanks, Sasha… I don’t even know. Do I deserve this? What if Duchess was right? I mean, she embellished the truth a bunch, but maybe…”
Fox growled. “She was just trying to usurp the club.”
Bino felt his throat catch again. He turned to look at Fox.
“You’re actually here,” Bino said.
Fox tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “Hi.”
Bino felt his eyelids go damp yet again. He wanted to yell at Fox, argue with him, prove he was right all along somehow. Fox had betrayed him. He’d been his closest friend and eventually he just stopped liking Bino or caring about him or…
But despite all that, despite Fox’s holier-than-thou attitude which had seemed to persist ever since he became a police dog, despite Bino’s lingering resentment for the way Fox broke things off without even telling Bino why, he couldn’t bring himself to yell.
He leaned over into Fox and assaulted him with a hug. A very wet, teary hug. This had the adverse effect of spooking Max, who was leaning against Bino’s other shoulder, but the cat could tell that Bino and Fox needed a moment.
“I missed you so much, why did you leave me?” Bino wailed. He wanted to hold on so tight to the husky that he could never run away again, never leave Bino alone with Duchess again. “I just want to be your friend again, I just want to go around playing silly games and fighting with water balloons and messing with Peanut Butter and… I want the club back, I want Fido back! What did I do? Why does everyone hate me now? Why am I so terrible?” He gripped on tighter to Fox.
“We— I just— you’re not in a place where we can have this conversation right now. I don’t want to hurt you any further,” said Fox.
Bino sniffled. “Oh. Of course. I’m too emotional right now. I can’t handle my feelings or my emotions or anything! I can’t do anything right!”
Fox sighed. “I never said that.” He hugged Bino a bit tighter, and despite how much Bino wanted to scream and protest, he just quietly continued to cry into Fox’s chest.
“Everything’s going to be alright, Bino. We’re here for you. We’ve got you. It’s all going to be okay,” Max assured.
“Let’s go back to one of our houses,” suggested Sasha. “We should go somewhere a bit more comfortable, and get away from this clubhouse.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good plan. I don’t think the sound of a bunch of dogs celebrating Bino’s ousting is good for him right now.”
“I can speak for myself,” Bino muttered between labored breaths. “And I say…” he paused. “Let’s ditch this joint.”
“We can go to our place,” says Max. “It’s not too far, and all of Bino’s stuff is there, in case he wants one of his chew toys or whatever it is you canines like.”
Bino felt Fox nodding above him, and assumed Sasha was doing so too.
“So. We ready to go?” asked Max.
“Not yet,” whimpered Bino. “I need a little longer—”
Bino wanted to leave. He truly did. He didn’t want to ever end up anywhere near this place again. He didn’t want to feel the gravel from the ground beneath him clinging to his fur after his tumble. But he couldn’t bring himself to let go of Fox, not yet. It had been so long. Years.
He felt the tears welling up yet again. Dog, hopefully this wasn’t about to become a routine. Something like, ‘hey everyone, it’s been another two minutes, Bino’s gonna cry again!’ Even if, begrudgingly, Bino almost felt it would be accurate.
He wondered if the others were only being nice to him because he was literally breaking down in front of them. Wouldn’t be the first time someone only cared about him when he wouldn’t bite back. Nobody actually liked Bino for Bino; this was basically a fact of life.
Bino sat hugging Fox for several more minutes, just trying to get a handle on his breathing.
What was he even supposed to do now? He was just kicked out of the club he spent most of his time organizing. He didn’t have any real friends. Did he even have any reason to leave his house anymore? Other than to avoid Max, of course, he’d probably continue doing that for the rest of his life.
He just wanted to stop thinking. Heck, he wanted to stop existing. Vanishing into the ethers sounded a lot less painful than his life right now.
He groaned. “Okay. Let’s go, I guess. I don’t know what we’re going to do there, though.”
“Well, whatever we’re gonna do, it’ll be better to do it there rather than here,” Max said.
“Whatever,” Bino sighed. He unwrapped his arms from around Fox, to which the husky looked down at his bandana.
“Great. It’s completely soaked with tears.”
“I’m really good at crying,” Bino claimed, chuckling a little bit. “The best cryer around.”
“You trying to lighten the mood?” Max asked.
“I’m miserable. I don’t want to be miserable.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you’re not going to wallow in your misery for months on end again.”
“Oh, we’ll see,” said Bino. “I’m great at wallowing too.”
Sasha sighed. “I don’t like that. It’s not funny. You— it’s not fair that you have to be in the position you’re in.”
“At least let me laugh at myself. Everyone else does,” said Bino.
“That’s the problem,” Sasha argued.
“Let’s not do this right now,” Max interrupted. “We should get back home. I’ll make everyone pet-safe hot chocolate.”
Bino smiled a little bit. “You are pretty good at making hot cocoa.”
Max grinned back. “Thanks! I pride myself on it!”
“—for a cat, anyways.”
Max groaned.
-
The march back to Max and Bino’s home was awkward but uneventful. Fox didn’t say a single word, choosing to walk a fair bit ahead of the rest. Sasha also stayed very quiet, nervously trailing behind, catching up, and falling back once more. Max walked side-by-side with Bino and attempted to lead him down some winding conversational path, but Bino wasn’t exactly feeling it.
He just felt numb. He couldn’t cry anymore— though perhaps he would and could if he chose to explore his emotions a bit more— but he felt far more comfortable staring at his paws as he trudged to his home, catching and holding onto the occasional word Max said.
They reached the front door of their home, which had been left open by Max when he was rushing off. Of course, it wouldn’t be Maxwell if he didn’t embellish the story a little bit; he was currently trying to spin this embarrassment into some sort of sign that he’d done a noble deed.
Bino didn’t care. Usually, when Max joked around, playing up his own ego, Bino found it extremely obnoxious. Now he didn’t.
He pushed past Max and through the door, vaguely aware of the others trying to get his attention, but he just sighed and collapsed on his couch. He had been growing very fond of this couch lately. Seemed to be the only thing around that would consistently support him. Even if his back and tail did hurt after lying on it too long.
He was left alone for a minute or two, vaguely aware of some quiet conversation between the others, before Max and Sasha entered the room.
“You wanna talk?” asked Max. His joking tone was gone. Bino wondered if he’d just realized that Bino was more upset than he thought, or if maybe joking around was the cat’s amateurish attempt at lightening the mood and making him feel better. Heh. Nah, Max was always like that. He wouldn’t do that just to cheer Bino up.
“What do you want me to say?” Bino finally said.
“I don’t know. That’s up to you,” said Max.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“That’s… okay. You can have some alone time if you want.” Max stood up to walk away, but he was immediately shocked into stillness by the feeling of someone grabbing his paw.
Bino desperately wanted Max to go away, heck, he even Sasha to go away, but for some reason he felt like he couldn’t let them. Despite himself, he had grabbed onto Max’s paw.
“Please just… sit with me. Please,” said Bino, not looking at Max.
Maxwell himself didn’t entirely know how to respond. Bino was always so prone to outbursts, to pushing everyone away. Cautiously, he plopped himself down onto the couch next to Bino, sitting on the edge as if afraid of taking up much space.
“I can’t be alone right now,” said Bino, rubbing tears out of his eyes. “Duchess wants me to be alone right now! So she can test my resolve and I can come back a better leader than ever!” He added, trying to look enthused.
“She doesn’t care anymore, Bino. I don’t think she ever did care, not that much, really,” said Sasha.
Bino felt like a patient seeing their X-Ray results. There it was, all laid out. The images had been printed from every angle, and they showed irreparable damage.
“M-maybe she does. She told me she loved me! Not just once, but twice!”
“Only twice? How long were you two together?”
“Years,” said Bino, burying his face in his paws. “Even you said it more than that, Sasha.”
“Yeah, and unlike Duchess, I sometimes meant it,” agreed Sasha, causing Bino’s distraught frown to shift into more of a scowl.
“You only meant it some—”
“—Let’s not unpack all that just yet,” Max butted in. Bino sighed, but didn’t push it any further. “We all have lots of things to admit to, and come forward with, and apologize for. The bright side about all these tragic events is that now we can really open up and make amends. As Grape would say, communication is the key to a healthy relationship! Though usually she’s referring to romance, which is not what I’m referring to, just for the record.”
“Shut up,” growled Bino.
“I’m just trying to help out!” Max argued. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Stop preaching about communication and apologies or whatever. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t bug me right now… You can leave now, actually,” Bino huffed.
Max shut his mouth and stood up, carefully exiting the living room, shooting Bino a concerned look as he left. Bino pretended not to see this.
Sasha sat down in place of Max.
“I enjoyed talking to you the other day,” Sasha tried.
“I thought I did, but it’s just… so much now. So many bad memories.”
“I wish it wasn’t like that, Bino. And I swear we’re not trying to betray you like Duchess did.”
“If I couldn’t believe my own girlfriend, why would I believe my ex?”
“Then… well…” Sasha paused for a second, trying to think of what to say. “Um, dog, I dunno. I guess… we were together, so you know me. I’m not a ma… mal… oh forget it, I know the word, it’ll come to me. My point is I’m not a bad dog. Oh! The word was malicious! I’m not a malicious dog.” Sasha stopped sulking for a bit to smile. Bino still thought she was pretty cute when she smiled, but he struggled to find any joy in seeing her do so.
Bino turned away from her, looking yet again at his paws. “I don’t know that. When we were together, you always just wanted to be with Fido. And you always slept around with all the other dogs. And kissed them and stuff. And I know you’re going to say that’s what you need out of a relationship, that sort of openness, but I— You didn’t ask me. I told you not to and you kept rubbing it in my face. You didn’t even try to keep it a secret, or try to preserve my dignity. You didn’t care about me back then. And… and maybe you do now, but I don’t have any good reason to believe that.” Bino looked back up, and perhaps he had been expecting to see that same resigned face he always saw from Max these days when Bino lashed out, but Sasha’s expression was anything but resigned.
It started out shocked, mouth open a smidge and brow furrowed as far as Bino had ever seen it go. She seemed to be genuinely struggling to process this. Then, her eyes narrowed on Bino and she huffed, before averting her eyes from Bino without moving her head.
“You can’t have honestly expected me to put you before me in our relationship,” Sasha argued. Bino scoffed.
“Yes! I could! That’s how love works! I did so much for Duchess when we were together!”
“What you had with Duchess wasn’t healthy, though,” Sasha said. “She was just using you. And I wasn’t going to let you use me like that when we were together. I’m not weak.”
“Are you implying that I am!?” Bino gritted his teeth together, grabbing onto his floppy ears as if he wanted to pull them off.
“I mean, yeah. You only wanted to be with me to gain popularity within the club anyways. You were just afraid of looking single.”
“Since when are you a psychoanalyst?”
“I don’t know what that is. I stopped reading the dictionary before I got to S.”
“It starts with a P!”
Sasha looked dumbfounded for a moment. Then she rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re messing with me. You think this is funny.”
“No it actually starts with a— that’s not the POINT. The point is, since when do you think YOU of all dogs get to analyze other dogs’ social lives?”
“I’ll have you know I’m actually pretty good at that. You don’t get to be the most popular dog in the neighborhood without knowing a thing or two about how to interact!”
“Ugh. You’re not popular for your brain, Sasha, you’re popular because you’re pretty and you sleep with all the guys,” Bino flippantly claimed. Sasha gasped in offense. “And besides,” Bino added. “You’re completely wrong. I actually did like you quite a bit! I wanted to be with you because you were pretty, and chatty, and you seemed so nice! But you’re not really mean or nice or ANYTHING. You’re too stupid and superficial to be either!”
Sasha went silent. The only sound to be heard was that of Fox and Max quietly discussing something in the hallway by the front door.
She stood up and glowered at Bino. “You do not get to call me stupid. Nobody is allowed to call me stupid anymore. And if you think so little of me, then I have no reason to force myself to be around you. So how about I do us both a solid and get out of your life?”
Bino was stunned into silence. Sasha remained for a second, looking as if she was expecting a response, before lowering her shoulders. Bino could make out a few tears starting to well up beneath her eyes, but before he could apologize, or yell, or do anything, even assess the situation enough to think of things he could do, Sasha turned heel and stormed out of the room. He heard Max and Fox both make some surprised-sounding noises (and possibly words, but he wasn’t really tuning in) and then the sound of the door opening and slamming shut.
He continued to just sit there for a moment. His eyes hurt from all the crying and rubbing. That was the only concrete detail he was able to process right now.
-
“Fox, I think you need to talk to him,” Max said, looking intensely at the husky. Bino had just kicked him out of the room, and though Sasha was talking with Bino, Max knew deep inside that Sasha wasn’t going to be able to reach through to him.
“What’s the use, Max, honestly?” Fox, however, could be pretty stubborn. “Do you think he just needs to use me as a teddy bear for another eternity and then he’ll just be fine?”
Max sighed. “He’s my brother, Fox. And I can tell he’s hurting. And he thinks everyone’s out to get him. He…”
“He had it coming, honestly,” Fox said. “I mean, he was similarly awful to King.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”
“Yeah! Like when he stole King’s watch and almost broke it for basically no reason.” Fox crossed his arms. “Plus, he’s kind of always been a jerk. I don’t know why I used to put up with it. You shoulda seen some of the stuff w― he said to Tiger.”
“Look, all that stuff is objectively bad, yes. But Duchess literally strung him along for years, isolated him from all of his friends, and then turned everyone else against him.”
“And yet here you are, defending him, so clearly Duchess didn’t do a particularly good job, did she? The only one isolating Bino is Bino. I mean, he literally just sent you out of the room. Because you were trying to communicate with him.”
“Fox, I can’t be the first one to apologize to Bino. I’ve spent almost his whole life teasing him and pranking him and not taking him seriously. No matter how hard I try to apologize to Bino, or to appease him, he’s going to keep bringing other stuff up and he’s not going to believe I’m really sorry.”
“And that’s his own fault!”
“If I so readily dismissed this as all being on him, then I wouldn’t grow as a person. Cat. Whatever. I’ve only really heard that phrase in regards to humans, you know?”
“I know. But I don’t think you should let Bino anywhere near your self-worth.”
“Maybe, but― Fox, the way I see it right now, Bino is so afraid of abandonment that he actively sabotages any relationships he might be forming so that he won’t have to feel like someone he cares about is abandoning him.”
“Gah, and you’re gonna tell me next that me leaving him in the dust is the root cause of all his issues.”
“No. I’m not going to pretend to know why Bino is the way he is. But I think he’s been this way the entire time I’ve known him. When we were very little, he was a really sweet pup. Then I started leaving the house all the time, and doing catnip all the time, and not really talking to him much. Back then, our owner was… or, wasn’t… Ugh, you get the idea. And I think he felt like I left him. And… because of that, he sort of developed this resentment towards me. And cats as a whole, really.”
“I don’t think that paints him in a positive light, Max,” argued Fox. “Bino still did all the stuff he did. If anything, it just paints you in a negative light.”
“Hey! This was all before we got kidnapped. I was a different cat back then. I’ve tried to be a lot better.”
“And you see, Bino hasn’t,” Fox said, rubbing his temples. “And that’s why it’s fundamentally different to all the other dogs I’ve made amends with. That’s why I’m willing to be here for you, but not for Bino.”
“I don’t know if he’s ever had the chance to make amends,” said Max. “But supposedly, that’s what he was trying to do with you this morning when he headed to your house.”
“And he couldn’t even do that without hurting you and Sasha…”
Max groaned. “Look, I don’t know why you’re so determined to see Bino as evil, but Sasha and I have already forgiven him for tha―”
Of course, because the universe works in mysterious ways, this was exactly the moment that Sasha stormed out of the room Bino was in.
“I’m done,” she growled, brushing past the two, and straight on out the door.
Neither of them were even able to respond before the door slammed shut and Sasha was gone.
Max buried his head in his paws. “Oh no.”
Fox scowled, turning towards the room where Bino was.
“Oh-hoh-hoh, now he’s done it,” Fox growled, pushing past Max and heading straight to Bino.
-
“And just why do you think it’s acceptable to be so nasty to Sasha all the time?”
Bino didn’t say anything for a good few seconds, until finally, he spoke up, in a quiet, shaky voice.
“You can beat me up. I deserve it.”
Fox froze for a second, but just grew further enraged.
“Gah, now you’re just trying to appear all sympathetic so that I’ll feel bad for you and go easy on you!”
“Sure,” said Bino, not looking up.
This was actually making Fox consider pulling all his fur out. He was actually going mad. This was ACTUAL madness.
“Okay, okay, cut it with all the self-pitying nonsense. What did you say to Sasha this time?”
“I called her stupid.”
Fox growled. On the one paw, he knew for a fact that this was an extremely sore spot for Sasha. On the other paw, he knew that Bino probably had no idea this was the case. On the other other paw, it was generally not a good idea to call someone stupid when you’re trying to have a heart-to-heart.
“Well why did you do that!?” Fox exclaimed.
“She was trying to psychoanalyze me to my face,” Bino muttered. Already, he was slipping back into anger. “She was asserting that she knew everything about me because she was all popular and so she knew a thing or two about interacting and I told her straight up that the other dogs like her for her looks.”
“Why would you say that!?”
“I don’t know! It just felt right at the time. She was just acting like she was so much better than me.”
“I don’t believe you, Bino. That just sounds like what you do. All the time.”
“Do you want me to just explain what happened from the beginning? Are you going to accuse me of lying if you don’t like it?”
“Yes, and… yes.”
“Ugh.” Bino rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
Bino stayed silent for a sec. Fox, who was not doing the best job of masking his anxiety and impatience, almost immediately barked, “well, get on it.”
“Alright! Alright. So she was saying that you all weren’t going to betray me. But then I told her that I can’t trust her. Cause she always… she cheated on me,” Bino spat. “She never cared about me or what I needed. And she told me it didn’t matter, and that I should understand, cause Duchess was using me, so I should get why she didn’t let me use her. The same way. She compared me to Duchess! All because I wished she was faithful. I didn’t even have the guts to call her out on it when we were still together! How can she claim I was trying to use her?”
“You were only with her for the prestige, though.”
Bino growled. “Why do you think that? If anything, she was only with me because I was high up in the club. You saw how the instant anyone more popular appeared, she immediately stopped thinking about me. She did it with my own brother. So many times!”
“So are you claiming that you were seriously with her because you liked her?”
“Kind of!” Bino insisted. “Like, okay, yeah, I did care about the prestige stuff, but she seemed nice and talkative and like she would always be there. I thought she wouldn’t hurt me like everyone else did. I thought she looked good and even had interesting things to say sometimes.”
Fox sat down next to Bino. He sighed, looking contemplatory.
“I know what you mean. I had a thing for Sasha for a long time. And I don’t think she’s malicious, far from it. But yes, your relationship with her was really ugly. In so many ways. And I always kind of blamed you for it, but maybe I was looking at it from the lens of someone who idealized Sasha myself. Because, well, she just kind of assumes that everyone’s on the same page as her. When she kissed me, I thought it was because she was interested in me, but she’s just very open. And she finally found that dog who was on the same page as her in Kevin. And, Bino, there’s a lot you don’t know with Sasha. She endured a lot escaping her old owner. And she’s not stupid.”
“I know she’s not stupid,” Bino said. “I know all of that.”
“Then why did you say she was stupid?”
“Because it felt like she was insulting my intelligence. Belittling my decisions.”
“You have made some pretty stupid decisions.”
“I know, I don’t need anyone to rub it in. I understand! I get it! I don’t do anything right and nobody likes me.”
“Yeah, pretty much. But… Bino, I think you can fix that. You’re not a lost cause.”
Fox wasn’t sure why he was saying this. Perhaps it really was just pity. He definitely felt like Bino was a lost cause himself.
Maybe Bino was manipulating him. Hitting him right in the spot where his own heart ached when it came to Sasha.
“Yes I am,” Bino said.
“Okay, maybe,” said Fox. “I’m not trained for helping with mental health crises. I feel like I’m too personally involved. But I think that if you get the right help, and stop sabotaging yourself, you can make it out of this. I think there’s a lot of pets who will never forgive you, and I might be included among those ranks. But Max was right. You don’t deserve what you’re going through right now. He was wrong about one thing, though. I think he wanted all of us to make it better, all of us to forgive you. I think he wanted me to get through to you. But, Bino, only you can make this better.”
“I don’t want to. I just want to like, run away and never have to deal with anything ever again,” Bino murmured.
“Well, I would rather you not do that,” Fox opined.
“Duly noted.”
“We still need to talk, Bino. I understand if you’re sick of it at this point, but you have a lot to answer for.”
“Shoot away,” Bino muttered.
“Why were you so awful to King?”
“Ah. King. It’s always about King with you, isn’t it?”
“No. I’ve barely spent any time with King for like, a year now. Need to remember to set up some sorta hang out. But that’s besides the point. Even from an outsider’s viewpoint, the way you acted toward King was never justifiable.”
“I was just… scared.”
“Really, now?” Fox asked, sounding unimpressed. He was trying pretty darn hard not to sound judgemental, but he was not particularly good at it.
“I thought he was going to take you away from me. And I was right.”
Oh.
Oh.
“Bino, did you perhaps… like me in a certain sort of way?” Fox shot him a bit of a snide expression.
“N― no, nothing like that!” Bino said, not even considering letting THAT idea go any further. “You just immediately started hanging out and being friends and I felt shut out immediately. That one Christmas where you brought him to the club, you barely talked to me at all, and he was rude to me, and I just… I didn’t want him there. It was awful.”
“So you played a really cruel prank on him and then acted awful towards him every time you saw him for years to come?”
“Well when you say it like that it sounds vindictive and stupid!”
“It was vindictive and stupid, Bino.”
“I― GAH, I know. I know! I know I know I know. Laugh all you want. I’m an idiot. I tried to shun and mess up someone’s friendship just because I was a little bit jealous. I’m sorry! Is that what you want?”
“It doesn’t mean anything if you apologize to me, Bino. But at least you’re aware it was wrong. Next up… Peanut. Why were you mean to him?”
“I mean, mostly I was just messing with him. And you were part of all that. Plus, he was totally about to turn into a cat lover.”
“Okay, but I’ve apologized to him. And why does it even matter if he’s a cat lover?”
“I don’t know, it just does,” Bino insisted. “If you want me to apologize to Peanut, I guess I can, but I’m not sorry about teasing him.”
“Ugh, whatever. What about Fido?”
Bino gulped. “He was in a secret relationship. With a cat.”
“Oh no,” said Fox. “And you totally reacted proportionally.”
“I didn’t even like, kick him out of the club all on my own. It was voted on.”
“Fido told me you haven’t talked to him since then.”
“Well that’s true! But he wouldn’t want to talk to me anyways. He never did! He was always so much better than me, so much more popular and handsome and smart and accomplished and I was just Bino. My own girlfriend liked him more than me. And finally, when he showed his one flaw, when it was revealed that he wasn’t totally perfect, suddenly this became something that reflected on me. Not like I was the one with a cat girlfriend!”
“Bino, you betrayed him.”
“He betrayed me!”
“Not really. In his one moment where he needed you, where you could have vouched for him or been there for him, where you could have reached out and tried to understand him, you took it as an opportunity to gloat your superiority over him.”
Fox was admittedly biased in Fido’s favor. After so long in the police force, Fox had spent a bunch of time talking with Fido and had at this point come to terms with how useless his own bias against Fido had been.
“No, I didn’t, Fox. It hurts me every day that he betrayed my trust and had relations with a cat. I miss him. But he did that to himself.”
Fox sighed. “Bino, I know a dog who was so afraid to reveal something about himself that he ended up keeping it suppressed and hid it from everyone for a very long time. His own w― girlfriend, even. And it almost blew up in his face. But he owned up to his end of the equation, and we all tried to build bridges and work things out. And to this day, he’s a close friend of mine. And once he could be more open, our friendship felt more earnest. He didn’t have to live like he was hiding from all of the people he cared about, and we didn’t have to feel like he was keeping himself distant from us. These things exist in life to make us stronger and more understanding, not to drive us apart. If you had been there for Fido after Sabrina’s wedding went south, you could have repaired your bond as brothers. You could have talked things over. Learned to let go of your hatred.”
“Fox, you wish I was a completely different dog.”
“Yeah, maybe. But I think you also wish for that. And it shouldn’t have to be like that.”
“Yeah, it should. I just ruin everyone else’s lives.”
“That’s not the takeaway here, Bino. I think the real takeaway is that… you need to take steps to improve yourself now. Because, at the end of the day, you’ve pretty much seen this version of Bino all the way through. If you wake up tomorrow and decide not to change, you won’t have anything left.”
Bino whined. “I don’t want to have anything anymore. Everything I have gets broken or lost…”
It was at this moment that Fox had a pretty mundane thought. Ugh, what would Mungo do in this situation?
But that was enough to spark something.
“Bino, when Sasha escaped her old home, she needed to reach out to new folks. She went to therapy to get help and guidance so she could keep moving on with her life. And you’ve just escaped your own horror story, really. So I guess… what I’m telling you is that you need therapy.”
“I need therapy? Me?”
Max, who had silently entered the room perhaps a minute prior, simply nodded his head. Then he froze. “Oh, wait, hold on, I totally left the hot chocolate on the counter. Uh… Anyone still thirsty? Might be a bit cold now...”
-
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
- Wrenisprobablyb0red
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2022 8:34 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
[if you saw a version of this chapter posted with seriously atrocious formatting issues― no you didn't! I totally didn't forget how formatting on this accursed forum works or anything...]
I came here looking for (noun), but this is so much better!
- Harry Johnathan
- Posts: 2067
- Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:10 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
To be honest, Bino was kinda in the right here. The way Sasha treated him when they were together was awful, lol.
Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But [The LORD] said, “Yes, you did laugh.” - Genesis 18:15 (NIV).
- CunningFox
- Posts: 1224
- Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:26 pm
- Location: Scotland
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Excellent chapter, Wren.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
I've been reading on Archive of out Own and I'm really liking what I'm reading. Great job Wren and Snownerder! I hope Mungo can help Bino let out some stress.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/a5APF.jpg)
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Was able to catch up on this chapter while I was laid up in bed sick with a cold (which I am still battling a little bit) but I did love the way you wrote this! I really hope we can get to Bino getting the much needed therapy he needs!
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Fox is right about Bino needing therapy
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
The next challenge however will be getting him to ADMIT he needs it. At least when he finally goes we get to see Mungo as a therapy dog when it is needed unlike when they were in Heaven and he was badgering the heck out of Fox.
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
Somehow I can't see Bino seeking out therapy from Mungo, especially if he's observed the big guy's obsessive approach towards his former compadre.
- Amazee Dayzee
- Posts: 25882
- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:24 pm
Re: Redemption of the Good Ol' Dog
That obsessiveness to help might be exactly what Bino needs as I can see him backsliding if they go with a therapist who isn't as strong. In the end Bino might appreciate it and just change so he doesn't have to do with Mungo a whole lot. ![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)