milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

So while Vyvyan was mooching around upstairs, he found a weird monster thing.

He's now sitting on one of the upstairs corridors, chucking it bits of bacon sandwich to eat.

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Teja is coming down the corridor, a tiny black cat riding on his shoulder. It utters a tiny, high-pitched hunting cry as it sees the Thing.

"Greetings, Vyvyans," Teja says. "How long since you re-spawned?"

Vyvyan sniffs his armpits.

"About eight days?" He ventures.

He holds up a hand to get Teja to pause. "I think this is the thing you're looking for, right?"

"Then you are almost sane," Teja says. "This is the creature Wilford has been shooting at, but I have not yet seen it do anything dangerous."

"Me neither." Vyvyan says.

"If we catch it, will he shoot it in the head?"

"I do not thing we will deliver it to him, until we have cleared its status of sentience," Teja says, almost acerbically. "I would not give up any creature to him, much less a sentient one."

Vyvyan suddenly stands up straight.

"I'm not delivering it to him at all, he's a nutter. It's coming home with me."

He crouches next to the thing. "Fancy making Rick piss himself?"

The thing appears to be bonding...

"If you take it home with you, and thus make sure it will not scare the denizens of this place, or make Wilford shoot more, then I shall be glad to bring you a comfortable basket for it."

"Thanks, I'll stay with it." Vyvyan says, reaching gently forward to see if it will let him touch it.

The thing bobs into his hand affectionately.

"I don't think it eats bacon." he adds, picking the piece of sandwich off the floor and eating it.

"What would it eat with," Teja muses. "It has no mouth."

He walks away, to his room, not downstairs; he soon returns with a wicker basket with a handle and a cover. Inside's a comfortable towel that may have once been black, but is now a vague grey with greenish spots, and very soft.

"Thanks."

Vyvyan has one advantage over Wilford. He's effectively a teleporter, and when he puts his mind to it, he's pretty fast. Not quite so fast as he can be, given he hasn't done a reset in eight days. But fast enough.

The thing looks a bit nervous about the cage, but he gives it a gentle nudge inside and closes the door quickly.

"Come on, Duster, let's get out of here before Wartfascist gets back.

"It truly seems to like you," Teja says. "So I hope that you may enjoy having it for a pet for a long time. And also, scare the living daylights out of your companions."

Vyvyan grins suddenly.

"See, I have my uses." he says. "If anything else gets in, I'm more or less invulnerable and I can teleport."

"I hope you won't have to reset all too soon," Teja says.

"Don't count on it." Vyv says. "My housemates will kill me if they think I'm staying this way too long."

"Why is that?"

"They think I'm dangerous when I'm like this." Vyvyan says.

"That is an odd definition of 'dangerous'," Teja says.

"Because we'd age."

"All of you?"

"We don't know, for certain." Vyvyan says.

"What was the longest you have gone without resetting?" Teja asks, looking at the hamper to see whether the creature might be getting restless in there.

"About fourteen days." Vyvyan says. "But my powers fade off."

"In what way?"

Vyvyan shrugs.

"I'm less... super."

"You are far more human, which I prefer," Teja says.

"Me too. Not worth dying for though."

Vyvyan heads off with the box. "See you. I'll bring the crate back later."

"Keep it, if the creature feels comfortable enough," Teja says. "We have enough of those, should some of the cats do themselves harm or need cell time."

"Oh, cheers." Vyvyan says.

"You arrest your cats?"

"When they are in full panic mode," Teja says, "and shred people's skin, recognising nobody, then putting them into a basket with a blanket or towel until they calm down, sleep, wake up again and groom themselves will often help. It only happens rarely, of course, but might, if they meet a were-wolf and try to mess with it, for example."

"Huh. And people think this thing is dangerous."

Vyvyan gives him a wave and heads back to his world with the box.

And Teja goes about his business, wishing both Vyvyan and the thign well, for once.-

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