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Pets [Closed] - Printable Version

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RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 01-14-2018

Bree snorted. She couldn't help herself. She held up a single finger. "Really strong thing, singular. And less protected and more like... a grumpy old man who doesn't like a lot of noise outside his house." It could be more literally protected sometimes, but that was a rarity saved mostly for people he was getting some real fun out of, or so she had learned. You could get a lot of mileage in this city by being interesting to Jean, but it was a one way ticket. ...Unless you were Ren, but Bree had no fucking idea how Ren managed that. "Jean is him, and you need to avoid him. I really don't want to see what he'd do with you." In a lot of ways. She'd seen him doing that sort of thing to enough men to last a lifetime.

Even if it was a very appealing mental image.

... A very appealing--ANYWAY!

"Yeah, if you can smell them, that'll be a great first line of defense. I mean... I feel like you should be able to? Most shifters can and hyenas have good schnozzes on top of that." She wondered if she smelled like anything. She didn't ask. Werewolves could normally smell SOMETHING about her, but if he didn't know what that smell was, she wouldn't be telling him.

"Okay, but like, that's when you get a hotel? Or stay with a friend or family? Not like, just hurl yourself across the country to a city filled with vampires, to be homeless? Although, I guess they probably get a lot of people with that cheap-housing bit, huh... Valesport, the city where you have to worry about vampire realtors." She rolled her eyes. "Bullshit fucking town..."

She took another drink from her glass, considering. "I mean... I'm not really on the market," she said, gesturing around at the place. "There are vacancies here, I think, but you probably couldn't afford them. No offense. I sure as fuck can't afford them. I could ask my... mom? I guess? She lives downtown and she's like, seventy percent in the know, which is super high for a human." She took another drink, frowning. This was exactly whys he didn't want to bring him in. Now she felt bad for him. Ugh. "What do you even do for a living, anyway?"

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 01-14-2018

Instead of asking more about this Jean guy, who he could tell that Bree was avoiding saying a lot about (god, anyone could tell that), Axel drained the rest of his drink and placed it carefully on the counter. "Sounds like there's a lot of stuff that I should avoid." He commented instead with a smile. "I think I've been smelling some of these things for a while, but I just never really knew what it meant? Some of it is kinda... tingly. And others are itchy or make me want to sneeze, but not really? Not the werewolves, though. They just smelled like wet dog." Can't help but giggle at that one.

"No family and why would I waste money on a hotel when I can just shift and sleep in an alley?" He asked as if that were a perfectly sensible alternative to sleeping on a bed you had to pay for. "It's usually more comfortable and smells better. Less bed bugs, too." Because that made it even better to become voluntarily homeless. He said all of that with a completely straight face, too, in a sensible tone of voice. It was very apparent that he didn't see anything wrong with just packing up and moving to an alleyway if the mood struck.

"Where's your sense of adventure!" Now here he laughed. Because sleeping an alleys was normal, but apparently renting apartments that happened to be owned by vampires was funny. "Are there a lot of humans living here who know nothing?" That was fascinating! How did they not run into seeing werewolves face down a hyena in broad daylight? Humans were the weirdest things.

"I mostly do tech-related jobs. I'm good at putting together computers and dabbling in some programming, too. Plus I can cobble together some decent graphic designing or web building, I basically take whatever I can find." And even if he took a job he knew jack shit about, there was an awesome thing called Google that would tell him everything he needed to know. He really loved that about humans, too. Discovering technology pretty much jumpstarted him into joining society in the first place. "It can pay pretty well, but it's not, uh, steady." As evident by him deciding to skip town for giggles just because he didn't want to continue paying his rent for a while.

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 01-21-2018

"That could be it, yeah. To me--" She cut herself off. She'd been about to compare smells with him. Yeah! That'd be! A great way to keep your secret, dumbfuck! "It doesn't sound like it could be anything else," she finished. She wanted to yell that YES, WEREWOLVES SMELL EXACTLY LIKE WET DOG, FINALLY, SOMEONE ELSE AGREES WITH ME, but she managed--barely--to keep that inside. Axel didn't smell like wet dog, though, which hopefully implied that neither did she. She worried about it, a lot, because werewolves consistently confused her with... wait, shit, did she smell like something to him?

"There's a lot of things all mixed together, probably," she added quickly. "There's a lot of shit in this city. Both literally and metaphorically," she said distastefully. Downtown did not smell great, but the docks smelled worse, and only in part because of the prevalent wet dog smell.

"Well, I mean, for one, you're a hyena, and hyenas aren't normally found sleeping in alleys in cities in America? Just? Generally, at all? Which is probably why you got mugged by werewolves," she said, straightening and putting her hands on her hips, as if she was lecturing him. She kind of was. She might have been using her librarian voice, a little.

"And no, the vast majority of humans here don't know anything, because idiots who go and do things like running around on public streets as a hyena tend to get taken care of by other things who prefer their secrets remain secret." She leaned back down on the counter, scowling at him. "Humans that do know keep it to themselves or make sure they're useful to someone, so they don't wind up someone's lunch or fun evening."

Geez. This idiot was really lucky she'd been the one to walk downtown and not literally anyone else. That section of dock was not exactly common strolling territory for literally anyone without a death wish or connections.

"Tech-related jobs..." She paused, frowning, and eyeing him considerately. She did have money for that. If she could use it on him, Jean couldn't complain, and she'd be able to help this guy get into a not-vampire-infested apartment. "Okay, two questions. One, can you build computers and computer parts, and two, how desperate for well-paying work are you on a scale of one to ten?"

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 09-01-2018

To her? He tilted his head as if he were actually a puppy instead of a hyena because he'd learned long ago that it'd get him treats. Not that he was expecting treats this time, by any means, just information, but even then expecting would be pushing it when she clearly didn't mean to say that much to begin with. Ah, well. Probably best to avoid talking about personal scents for the time being. He might be a dumbass, but he wasn't unobservant about everything.

"Yeah, kinda makes sense, too. They didn't strike me like the type to actually wash up." Even he had standards when he was living on the streets. Anyone knew how easy it was to get into a Y to shower and wash your clothes in the sink. "Pleeaase tell me I haven't picked up the rotten-fish-sewage-wet-dog reek of the docks. I might have to beg you for a shower before you kick me out if I have." For this, he had no shame about whipping out the puppy eyes that had won him awards when he was little. Granted, that was when he'd been an actual hyena cub, but he'd practice enough as a human that he was pretty sure he was god damn adorable in either shift.

His expression quickly shifted to a wide grin which, while adorable in its own right, was nowhere near as disarming as his carefully aimed puppy eyes. Not in the same way. "Oh, please, people usually just mistake me for a manged shepherd or something, no worries." He waved away the concern before shifting into a slight frown, "Err, human people, at least. I guess I'll have to get used to people who can smell me."

"Man, you're just not gonna let that go." And he was back to smiling again, which wasn't much of a surprise. It seemed to be his natural state of being. "Honestly, I'm just as surprised as you it took me this long to figure out I wasn't the only supernatural thing in the world. It's like everything finally makes sense, you know? I guess I'll be able to take my secret more seriously now that I know it's not just mine to keep."

Her next questions were a bit of a surprise. He didn't know much about this woman other than that she could apparently terrify werewolves into handing over their prey to her and got really bossy when she was trying to get someone to take better care of themselves. Those qualities didn't suggest she wanted to hire someone to build computers for her, but hey, if his good luck streak was going to extend this far, he wasn't going to complain about it!

"I can build computers. For the most part, the parts come pre-constructed and you just put them together, but if you want some specific modifications I can see what I can do. I'm pretty good at taking stuff apart and putting it back together better. Uuuuh, what rating system are we going by? If 1 is 'naw, thanks, I'm secretly loaded' and 10 is 'willing to let a vampire suck it straight from the vein for cash' I'd have to go with a solid 'I'd like to eat something that isn't garbage before I get worms'. So maybe a 6ish 7ish? Heading towards 8ish?" He maybe really missed Cheetos. And salsa. And take-out. Hell, he missed pretty much any junk food that wasn't actual garbage. Most of his money went to renting storage space for the rest of his stuff and it wasn't going to last forever. Maybe he shouldn't be thinking so much about food when he was homeless, but a man had to have his priorities and his had always and forever will be his stomach.

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 09-02-2018

Er, how to describe smell like a person who could only smell a normal amount. Well, would he even know? He'd probably have no base of reference for how well humans could smell, the same way she didn't. "Nah, you just smell like a guy." She leaned forward for a better whiff, and wrinkled her nose. Was that the dog, or was that BO? "A guy who's maybe been working on a construction site or something. There's a gym on campus, by the way, and they're supposed to card but they literally never do. You can probably steal showers there." She'd recommended the same thing to her other homeless friend--why did she know so many homeless people--but it had turned out she bathed pretty exclusively in Jean's fancy downstairs tub. No one gives up that for gym showers.

She leaned back and scoffed, disbelieving. Not disbelieving him, per se, but disbelieving humanity as a whole. "People mistake a goddamned hyena for a shepherd? You're not even actually a dog. The shoulders and ears are all wrong, and the build. God, this is like that time everyone thought the fox shifter was just someone's pet cat. She was clearly a fox."

She sat back on the edge of a stool, eyeing him considerably. He was hardly in the position to be judgey about the quality of work he took. If he was actually any good, he might be useful. But it was straight-up a weird thing to ask for. She pulled her lower lip into her mouth, worrying at it as she considered him.

"I might have a job. But it's a weird one," she said finally. "Well-paying enough for you to get an apartment that doesn't come with a vampire landlord, though, probably for a few months. Long enough to find a real job." She stood with a sigh, and walked over towards an entry-way closet, gesturing with a finger over her shoulder that he should follow her. Out of it, she pulled what was, in retrospect, probably a computer case. It was, however, very clearly made of wood. She also grabbed a box, and set them both down on the coffee table in the living room section of her apartment.

She rapped one knuckle on the case. It was wood, but there were a lot of holes for venting and fans, and one of the sides was clear, thin glass. "I paid a carpenter to make this custom, while his daughter he hadn't seen in nine months was playing happily with a puppy in the same room. I need someone to make the parts for it, as much as it's possible to make parts by hand, and then install them all while..." She paused. There was no way to make this not sound like a weird sex trafficking ring. "While otherwise engaged in a pleasant manner," she finished, deciding to cover the exact details if he wasn't immediately put off.

"It's for a friend of mine," she explained, because this was easier now that he knew Valesport was full of supernaturals. "Who can feel the residual emotional energy off of objects. Think like... kind of psychic, but for feelings. Computers and technology are all sweat shop and misery. So I'm getting one custom built for him." She gestured down towards the box, which was full of wires, chips, buttons that had most likely come off of typewriters, and an elegant brass back. "I've been trying to build the keyboard myself, but I'm not very good at it and I can only work on it when I'm... happy." When she's thinking romantic and loving thoughts about Jean, actually. "Which is not often." That much was true. "So it's slow going."

"What do you think? Is this the sort of thing you can do? All told I need the computer, the wiring, the keyboard, mouse... I have someone working on the shell for the monitor but I'll need the tech and screen installed. However much you can do, that's how much you'd get paid." She ran a hand through her hair, clearly a bit frazzled. "More goes into a computer than I'd really realized when I started."

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 11-18-2018

“Ah, cool, thanks.” Axel flashed her another grin, happy to have a destination in mind for after she kicked him out since he doubted she’d let him overstay so much to actually use her shower. He’d probably have to find another alley to hold up in tonight as a hyena, but at least he’d know where to go to get clean afterwards now. Her disbelief was appreciated, though, with a few snickers and the old line, “People see what they want to see, you know how it is.” And maybe she actually did. “Man, they thought a fox was a cat? I’d’ve at least figured a weird pomeranian.”

Now all he could do was watch her watch him. She didn’t seem super enthusiastic about bringing him in on this job, if the way she was chewing on her lip was any indication, but she was the one who brought it up in the first place! Ah, well, it being weird kinda made him feel better. That was better than her not trusting his word on his own skills or something.

Axel nodded along and followed her to the closet, whistling low and somewhat impressed when she revealed the chassis of what one could assume would be a computer, eventually. He knelt down next to the coffee table, running his hand over the case to get a feel for it and poking his nose into the box just because he was damn curious now that it was in front of him. He half listened and half poked until her last few words processed and he had to giggle a little at the case, glancing at her with a smile and finally processing what she’d actually been saying and not just focusing on the potential new toys in front of him.

“Spoken like every single person who’s ever used a computer but never looked inside of one.” He hummed and tried to measure out the wood with his eyes, trying to get an idea of how big the parts would have to be to fit into the space provided. Leaving enough room for airflow, wiring, proper ventilation… “How strong is the emotional residue?” And here was the start of the questions. He asked them casually while making some mental notes in his head of parts they still needed. “If we bought partly assembled parts and I took them apart and put them back together, would they still have the original underlying misery? A lot of the important bits, like the motherboard, graphics card, processor, would be really fucking hard to put together by hand. They’re super delicate. How happy do you have to be feeling in order for it to rub off enough? I’m guessing the low-level puzzle-solving buzz I’d be running off of wouldn’t be enough.”

“Do you want the parts to follow a similar aesthetic to the case? What visual feel are we going for here, or does that not matter as much as emotional? You have the glass display and a lot of cool set-ups will incorporate LEDs in certain color themes. Damn, there’s no way I’d be able to build lights myself, but those are probably mostly machine made? Does he get weird vibes off machine made stuff? If not, we could research what parts are machine made and which aren’t and it’d be so much easier to just assemble the human made stuff…”

Here, he (finally) trailed off, his eyes widening, “Oh shit, I’m doing it. Sorry. I ask a lot of questions pretty much always.” He flashed her another grin, “You’d have to get used to that when you hire me for this. I can research what parts can be human-assembled and which will need to be pre-constructed and we can start from there. Would I get paid for the research, too?”

Annnnd he was doing it again.

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 11-24-2018

"I would pay really good money to just see a pomeranian with fox legs," Bree mused absentmindedly. She didn't even like dogs, but that was just goddamn hilarious.

"I've looked inside one!" Bree protested. "Or, well, I did after I decided to do this. I just didn't realize how many little bits there were on each thing. A hard drive is made up of so many parts," she added with a clear hint of existential despair to her voice. But the rest of the questions, she could at least answer... sort of. She'd been making a case study of Jean for a while, because he wouldn't tell her jackshit.

"So it depends on how intense the emotion is," she explains, squatting down next to him to gesture towards some of the part. "My prevailing theory is that we can overpower any weird aftertaste of factory-worker misery just by pumping enough interesting emotional residue into the construction. If you know anywhere I can get ethically sourced computer bits, that would help me immensely, because I'm going for a general feel of joy-love-and-orgasms so I don't want an aftertaste of misery souring the whole thing." She had considered leaning HARD into the despair concept but she was not Jean, not particularly good at breaking hearts, and also that didn't seem very ethical.

She tapped idly on the case with the back of her knuckle, thinking. "I'm actually not sure about the machine thing. I think it's just that the absence of any residue winds up feeling uncanny...? But machine made parts we have really intense feelings about would probably work better than parts made by humans who were just kind of vaguely suffering the whole time. We don't need to worry about lights or LEDs or anything fancy; he'd just be put-off by it. I'm going for a really victorian sort of feel," she added, gesturing to the half-finished keyboard. "Quiet running would be a plus, just... knowing him."

She laughed when he mentioned money, though she couldn't blame him. She was exactly like that too, but she had secured an unreasonable amount of money for this. Jean clearly had no concept of how much a computer cost. She held up one finger, then wandered off to her room.

She came back and took great pleasure in dropping a bundle of hundreds directly onto the computer part he was curiously exploring. It landed with a satisfying thud. "That's five thousand dollars," she explained with a smug smile, leaning back on her counter and crossing one leg over another. "That should give me a lot of research, shouldn't it?"

And hopefully she could judge by his reaction how gently she needed to ease into the 'orgasm' section of this plan.

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 11-09-2019

"Oh man, there are so many little parts!" Axel threw his arms up, gesturing wildly in the air with a great big grin on his face. He was really getting going now. "The CPU alone is covered in hundreds of tiny pins and if even one is out of place the whole damn thing won't work! We're going to have to seriously hope that the more complicated bits are made by soulless machinery and just put a lot of effort into pumping positive emotions into this during install. Soldering and stuff is easy, I can do that, so I'll be able to assemble some of the parts as long as we have the base components, but I won't be able to make it entirely from scratch... I'll have to do some digging on companies and fact-check where they say they build their parts versus where they actually build their parts, maybe see if anyone sells deconstructed components?

"Hmm, when you say "Victorian", I assume you don't mean Steampunk." He said with a snicker, shaking his head to clear out all the possibilities that this project clearly wasn't going to be, "So we'll want something more basic, then. I guess I'll just focus on avoiding a bunch of clashing neon lights. Most companies really go hard on making their stuff aesthetically appealing- hey! Actually, modifying components to fit the aesthetic we're going for could help wipe over any trace emotions or-lack-there-of, yeah?

"What's he going to use this computer for? How hard the components work is going to determine how much noise it makes. I'm guessing he's not going to be gaming or editing videos on this thing?" He was getting really into this now. Axel's fingers twitched for a pen to write down this thoughts to take notes. Something, anything, to keep track of his flyaway ideas before they escaped. The questions and comments and planning would have kept going if Bree hadn't chosen to make a grand departure at the mention of money.

Axel watched her go, cut from his planning briefly by her laugh and that look. That's right. She'd said that this job would be enough for him to get an apartment, but the reality of it was that he was only going to be building a fancy computer. How much could she possibly be willing to pay for that?

The stack of hundreds on the table spoke for themselves.

"Oh." He blinked, poked at some of the money, then blinked up at her, shock warring with a cautious grin, "Uh. Y-yeah, this'll get me started." Shit. She was actually serious about this. That money was for him? To build a computer? This was shaping up to be his biggest job ever and he couldn't wait to get started with assembling the damn thing! This wasn't just slapping together some top-of-the-line components for some spoiled brat, this would be a passion project if he'd ever seen one. He couldn't wait to get started on it, but first. Wi-fi. A proper bed. Getting his stuff from storage! He could do that now!

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 11-09-2019

Oh, this was good. This was very good. He was so excited that she could practically taste it. Why hadn't she thought of this? Excitable craftsmen proud about their work and excited for a passion project. He would actually be thrilled about the parts themselves. She was certain that was a necessary step to really make the flavor last, judging by the sorts of things Jean kept around.

His excitement was infectious, too. As he explained each individual thing, she couldn't help getting excited about how it would turn out. This really was a one of a kind project. And the look on Jean's face when she pulled it off! Well. Actually that would probably be really underwhelming, because he'd never understand how much work it was, but still. It'd be worth it for the told-you-so alone. Not to mention the personal satisfaction at having reverse-engineered his bullshit so well when he refused to just explain it to her.

"These are all great ideas!" Bree agreed enthusiastically. "Honestly, this is for a house where the most technologically advanced thing in the whole building is the bidet, so I really do want the aesthetic to match. I want it to look like, no more high tech than an old radio. No clear sides to show off all the blinky insides. If we can do some kind of internal cooling system to minimize the use of any noise-making fans and the need for it to be open to the air, even better."

"As for what he's going to be using it for... honestly? Probably remarkably little. Games, maybe, but probably nothing super high end. I want it to be high end anyway, though, so it'll last a long time before I have to repeat this goddamn process with new parts. Money isn't really a big issue, as you saw, so the best bullshit we can buy and make. I want him to be playing Bejeweled 2050 on this fucking thing in thirty years if he wants."

That much money would definitely get him set up in a new place, but she was cautious about sending him out with it, because he was clearly an idiot and would get mugged. "Here, let me get you my tablet and you can get started with ideas and notes, if you want," she said, kneeling down to reach under her window seat, which was hollow underneath and just covered with a curtain. It was nicer than hanging out under her bed at night. The whole thing under there was luxe as hell.

She handed him the tablet. "Let me make a few calls. I don't think there's any openings at my mom's place, but she might have some ideas for vampire-free residencies."

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 11-09-2019

"I can definitely work with that!" He enthused back, still very much caught up in the high of planning. "If you have any pictures of his place it'd help, but I think I've got a good enough idea of what you're going for that I can wing it. I can totally outfit it with a liquid cooling system so the only fan will be from the power supply! Actually, I wonder if it's possible to modify a power supply to have liquid cooling itself? I can look into it! Even if I can't there are plenty of quiet options for power supplies. You won't even be able to tell this thing is on by the time I'm done with it!"

"Shit, yeah, I can definitely work with that." A top-of-the-line PC, outfitted with all the bells and whistles, for a guy who probably wouldn't use it much. This thing was going to last decades. He'd make it so goddamn powerful the only thing they might have to replace would be the BIOS battery, if that. If he played his cards right, he'd be able to eat actual food that wasn't dug out of a dumpster for weeks!

Oh, jeez, she was going to try to find him an apartment now? He'd been feeling that itchy-scratchy feel that he'd been overstaying his welcome for a while now. It was pushed aside in his enthusiasm, but now it was roaring on back. He fiddled with the tablet a bit, writing down a few notes, while chewing on his lip and wondering how to express just how much she really didn't need to go more out of her way for him...

"You don't have to go through the trouble! Honestly. I could just find an alley behind a 24-hour Dunkin' to bum off their wi-fi while I work on this." He didn't mention that he might be considering living behind a 24-hour Dunkin' Donuts until he could find an apartment to set up his stuff in. Anyone in their right mind would know that this wasn't a good idea. Especially when the offer was from a guy who was used to being the scariest thing that went bump in the night in human cities. But, well, living your entire life knowing you had jaws that could break steel gave you some self confidence, you know? As long as he didn't run into some magical bullshit he should be perfectly find just muscling through his problems. In theory, at least.

Honestly though? It was kinda nice to have someone who was looking out for him. It hadn't happened much back where he was from.

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 11-09-2019

"No, I don't--oh, wait, yeah, actually," she said, already in the process of pulling out her phone. She opened the photo roll and hit favorites, pulling up a picture before flipping her phone to show him.

The photograph was ostensibly of a man, since he was front and center, but it was taken at a wide enough angle that the room was also on clear display. The man was sitting behind a huge desk of polished mahogany, clearly ancient and clearly well cared for, with an inkwell built directly into it. He was lounging in a similarly large leather chair, a book open in one long-fingered, pale hand. The photograph had caught him just glancing up from the book, eyebrows just beginning to raise in an unspoken question on slightly parted lips. Behind him was similarly wooden shelves from floor to ceiling, covered in esoteric looking tomes of various ages, as well as little potted plants and framed photographs and statues and oddities. Light streamed in from the side of the photograph, suggesting late afternoon and a window.

"It probably won't wind up in that exact room, but that gives you an idea for his tastes," Bree explained. "Also, he's the most dangerous thing in the whole city, again, so if you see him, do us both a favor and avoid him. I don't want to have to get a new computer guy." She flipped her phone back around after she was satisfied he'd gotten a good look at the picture.

"An alley behind a Dunkin' Donuts, where you would probably sleep as a dog with a backpack with my five thousand dollars in it?" she asked, seeing clear through him. It was not hard. "Pass. I'm pretty sure if I set you lose right now, you're going to get yourself killed by werewolves or vampires within the day." She hit the call button and put the phone to her ear.

"Mom. Yeah, it's me. What? No, it hasn't. Look, that's not important. Do you know if there are any vacancies in your complex? What? No, it's not for-- No, we're fine, Mom. Mom. I didn't. It's for a friend, Mom, seriously. Is there a vacancy?" She sighed. "Well, let me know if something opens up, yeah? He's new in town and I don't want him to get eaten. What? For fuck's sake, Mom, I just said friend." She glanced briefly at Axel. "Yeah, but don't get any ideas, he's half your age. Don't be gross, Mom. Besides, you and Eric are still good, right? Good. Keep it that way, huh? I gotta make some more calls, but--Yeah, no promises. You have my number too, y'know. Yeah. Bye, Mom."

She hung up with a tap of her screen, sighing deeply. She could try calling Jean, but she'd really rather not. And her other closest friend here was literally homeless. "Damnit," she swore. "I don't think there are any vacancies here, either."

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 11-10-2019

Axel studied the picture curiously, eyes skating over the man to wander around the room. It certainly painted a picture. The wooden case he'd been studying and the old-time radio vibes she described made a lot more since now that he had a glimpse into the home the computer would be resting it. It was the polar opposite of literally every set-up he'd never done before. He didn't even notice the grin that spread over his face at the prospect of the challenge, but hey. Who could blame him? He was always grinning anyway.

"Yeah, that's doable." He leaned back with a hum, tapping away a few notes on the tablet so that he wouldn't forget the details that stood out to him. Shorthand was helpful for that, but he hoped she didn't try to look at his notes and get confused. His eyes shot up at the mention of danger, again. This Jean guy was starting to sound like the boogyman! How she got roped into this project for him, anyway, when he was so goddamn dangerous she kept warning him off a guy he hadn't even met? Probably a bad idea to ask. He smiled instead.

"You keep assuming I'm going to get eaten." That one was even worth a giggle, "I don't think anyone has ever been this worried about me before! I know I'm not used to other shifters and stuff, but I'm not weak, you know? Plus I'm pretty good at taking a hit!" He'd been taking them since he was born. Years of living as an actual honest-to-god hyena would do that to a person. If he showed dominance? He'd get beat up. If he showed weakness? He'd get beat up. There was a fine art to keeping your hide in-tact and if you weren't useful as a member of the clan you'd sure be useful as food. Then again, that all pretty much happened in his formative years. Life among humans was different. Stranger. Less outright fighting, more subtle fighting. Knowing how to take a hit still helped.

"What about a hotel? Or I could look up Air BnB's. I've got enough saved for a downpayment on an apartment, but with this money I should be able to afford a place to stay for a couple nights while we look for an apartment." One night, probably, maybe two. He didn't like the idea of throwing so much money into a hotel when he was perfectly capable of sleeping rough... Plus, who knows how expensive hotels in a safe neighborhood were around here?? Then again, she was the person who lived here. She kept talking about how dangerous it was. He should probably listen to her, but at the same time, he shouldn't shake the thrill of finding out for himself! Maybe he just wanted to meet more creatures.

He politely ignored the one-sided conversation with her mother, going back to tapping away at the tablet, only looking back up when she hung up and was talking to him again. Then, he offered a shrug and a lopsided smile, "I don't mind staying here and getting a head start on this while you decide what you want me to do. It's your money, you're the boss."

And it was easy on his instincts to slip back into the skin of letting a women who seemed to know what she was talking about take charge.

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 11-11-2019

"If only the weak died in this town, I wouldn't be worried," she said with a roll of her eyes. She wouldn't have even bothered saving him from the werewolves. Strong people died everyday. Sometimes, she was even the cause of it. There was a reason she could stroll around the docks, and she knew it even if she didn't know how the werewolves could smell it on her.

"A hotel might work," she mused. "There's plenty around, and most of them are safe. It's bad for business to eat too many tourists." That would give him a place off the streets to hole up while they--or even he, god forbid, not that she trusted his abilities in the area--figured out an apartment.

It was then that her alarm went off.

She froze, paling. Oh no, she'd dithered for far too long.

"No point in you staying here," she decided quickly. She glanced down at her phone. She'd missed the ten minute alarm on call with her mom. She had five minutes, give or take sixty seconds. "Go, find a hotel. Don't just sleep in an alley. If you get mugged, you've still got to do the work." It was all she could do not to shove him out of the door, panic beginning to take over.

RE: Pets [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 11-13-2019

Well, that was probably fair enough.

Axel shrugged and asked, "Alright, do you know any cheap hotels in the area or-?" Axel stopped at the sound of an alarm, glancing at it, first, then back at Bree. Ok. Like it wasn't a good alarm, if that face was any indication at all. "Are you..."

He didn't get a chance to finish his thought. Without much warning, Bree was all but shoving him out the door. Axel still had the tablet and the wad of cash in his hand, but now he was being shooed out of the apartment to an increasingly panicked-smelling Bree and this wasn't right. What was wrong? "Wait a minute! You didn't want me to leave in case I got myself killed and now you're shoving me out the door? What am I supposed to do with a giant wad of cash in a city that sounds like it wants me dead? Bree, what's wrong?"

He didn't get many answers, if any. Once he was at the threshold she was closing the door and he was standing there, like an asshole, confused and more than a little thrown. Well. He had enough money to justify spending on a hotel now. Frowning down at the tablet, Axel opened up a new tab and googled places in the area. Since they were so close to the college she'd been talking about earlier, there were plenty of decent places for an affordable price. He could easily book one and pay with cash. He fiddled around with choosing a place to reserve online while he walked towards the elevators, hitting the button and almost getting inside before he smacked himself with a couple thousand dollars.

His backpack, phone, wallet, and the rest of his crap was still in Bree's apartment!

Axel stuffed the money into his pocket (finally, jesus, why the hell had she even let him out of her sight with it?) and turned around to make the trek back to Bree's apartment. He dithered at the door for a little while, feeling extremely uncomfortable at the thought of bothering her after she'd so decisively kicked him out, but he eventually sighed and knocked on the door.

"Hey, Bree? It's Axel. My backpack and stuff is still inside, can I just grab them? Then I'll be out of your hair." And so he waited. And waited. He kept waiting a little longer, but there was no answer, which was... strange. He eventually got sick of waiting and finally tried to door, surprised to see that it was unlocked. "Bree?" He poked his head in, looking around, "It's just me! I'm just here to get my stuff!" Still no answer.

Frowning, Axel slipped inside and closed the door behind him. He couldn't hear Bree anywhere in the apartment and when he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose, he could smell her, but not, at the same time? The place felt... emptier. Than it had been. But there was something that he hadn't noticed before?

"Does she have a cat?" He muttered to himself as he went to the living room and then the kitchen, letting out a happy "Hmm!" when he found his stuff. "Hey Bree, are you hiding somewhere? Do you have a cat? I didn't notice one earlier, but..." He took in another deep breath and opened up his ears a little. Maybe a small dog? Wandering back to the living room, he eyed the couch speculatively. "I can definitely hear something." He crouched down to look under the couch, offering the tiny creature friendly sort of grin, "Hey there cutie~ Where did your momma go?"

RE: Pets [Closed] - SolitareLee - 11-17-2019

It was far too hard to get Axel out of her apartment, and she wasn't even slightly subtle about it, basically manhandling him out the front door. She barely had enough time to throw off her clothes. Normally she made a lot more preparations before sunset. But no, now she was just in her living room, five pounds of pissed-off dog, staring down another night.

Then she heard someone at the door. It was Axel, fuck. He'd left his things in here. Shit. There was no way she could get them to the door in this state. She was too small, and besides, the door was--

She had not locked the door.

She darted under the couch, mentally swearing up a storm. Who the fuck walked into a woman's apartment without being invited in?! This motherfucker! She'd done nothing but pull his ass out of the fire, and here he was just waltzing right into her apartment like he owned the place. Well, whatever, if he just grabbed his shit and left like a sane person would, then...

No. Of course not. He had to explore.

He found her under the couch, and she growled furiously. It wasn't really an ominous sound, from someone so small, but it had heart. When he didn't take the hint and reached out a hand towards her, she upped the ante and attacked, biting at his fingers as hard as she could, growling and probably sounding for all the world like a deflating squeaky toy being vigorously shaken.