Open

[muckspout]

WHO: Edgard and YOU
WHAT: I'm doing the catch-all thing too
WHEN: Now-ish, post-Murderhaus and Satinalia
WHERE: Various places
NOTES: Open to all unless otherwise specified. Post-murderhaus stuff might have murdery discussions

All prompts in comments! Feel three to throw wildcards in here if you so desire. I love you.

Comments

[muckspout]

Edgard looks at Mado, then at the dogs in cages, and then at Mado again.

"What? What do you look like?"

[lumelume]

Mado has opened his mouth to answer, but there's a slam from one of the outbuildings near the warehouse.

"Who's in there?" comes a demanding voice, angry footsteps venturing nearer, and one gets the impression that time to explain has been cut rather short.
With nothing left to lose, exactly, and in one fluid motion with a quick "sorry!", Mado is suddenly a little brown and white dog-- the little dog Edgard has come to see around, and it gets a remarkable amount of height when it leaps out a partially-shuttered window.

The rest of the dogs, of course, lose their minds.

[muckspout]

Edgard, stunned at this revelation, stands paralyzed as a cacophony of barking surrounds him. The door opens and a man strides in.

Edgard takes one look at this man and is snapped into motion. Pure rage courses through him as he walks over and punches him hard in the face. The man hits the ground with a thump.

[lumelume]

The man goes down like a sack of bricks, and all the dogs go even crazier, cages rattling with their excitement.

Mado is nowhere to be seen, for the moment.

[muckspout]

Edgard stares at the man, stunned for the moment at his success, and then takes the opportunity to spit in his face. Fuck this guy.

His hands are then on latches, opening one after another and he's surrounded by fur and barks. He laughs as several leap up to lick his face. He leads the herd of dogs towards the door, peering carefully at some of them in case they turn into a human.

If someone sees the door open, it will appear to burst at the sheer amount of dog and Edgard triumphant at it's center.

[lumelume]

A triumph indeed: dogs come bounding out, barking joyously, wrassling with one another (and in a few cases actually fighting, but well, when you've been bred to fight other dogs,) unleashing havoc upon the quiet street.
They race off in all different directions, pausing to jump and lick at Edgard's face and hands, until he's the only one left in front of the warehouse.

And then, finally, Mado reappears from an alleyway, looking sheepish enough that one can almost imagine the floppy ears pinned against his rust-colored hair.

"Thanks, Edgard."

[muckspout]

"You!" Edgard shouts. "You're a dog! Why did you leave?"

It is unclear whether Edgard is angry or impressed. Maybe both. His eyes suddenly widen.

"Chicken!"

[lumelume]

With a gasp, Mado lifts his hands as if in surrender. Then, when Edgard calls him out-- or just yells the word 'chicken', it's not entirely clear-- he nods timidly.

"You see," he says quickly, "dogs, which is to say, other dogs-- they-- they don't like me much."
An ingratiating smile flashes onto his face, his brow knitting apologetically. "If I'd stuck around, things would have gone far worse for both of us. I swear it."

[muckspout]

"No, no, no. The chicken." A tremendous gasp. "I almost killed..you?"

This is a lot to take in. Edgard puts a hand to his forehead. He then quickly tries to come back to the matter at hand.

"The dogs don't like you, so that's why you left. The dogs can tell?"

Finally, shaking his head: "Why did you tell me? The chicken!"

[lumelume]

"The chicken!" Mado echoes, and gasps again. "Oh-- yes. Well."
He scratches the back of his head again, sheepishly. "...that happens sometimes. It's all right! Don't be upset."

He claps both of his hands on Edgard's shoulders, smiling sincerely.

"And yes. The dogs can tell. I've never gotten along with dogs, not for lack of trying."

[muckspout]

"Does anyone else know? Is this a secret? Have you always been a dog? Are you only a dog?"

These are only a few of the many questions rocketing around the mind of a man who just learned a man could be a dog.

[man dog dog man dog man dog man man]

[lumelume]

"Please don't tell anyone," Mado pleads gently, "Athessa knows, and so does the Scouting Master. It's... well it's one of the ways I've learned to be of some worth to the organization."

He smiles with uncertainty.

"If it got out to the wrong people, I'd be useless again."

[muckspout]

Edgard's eyes widen and he holds out his hands in reassurance.

"I won't tell! You can trust me."

He grins.

"I bet it has come in useful a lot."

[lumelume]

"It has," Mado admits with an air of relief and a grin, "it's often the only way I'd eat, on the road and back in Rialto. People like dogs."

He taps his fingertips together. "...and it's easier to find places to sleep, when you're smaller."

[muckspout]

Edgard is still mulling all this over.

"So, do you think like a human when you're a dog?"

[lumelume]

Mado nods, but then pauses, and has to think about it.

"...I mean, I think like me," he says, with the air of someone whose mind is expanding with possibilities, "but I'm not sure. Maybe I think like a dog when I'm a human."

[muckspout]

Hrm. Edgard is very quiet for a moment.

He leans down and picks up a stick off the ground. He then throws it as far away as he can.

It's an experiment.

[lumelume]

Though at first blithely unaware of what point Edgard is trying to prove, Mado watches him raise the stick-- and then lurches after it slightly when it's thrown, though he quickly catches himself with a self-conscious grin.

So there's that.

[muckspout]

Edgard laughs uproariously.

"You do think like a dog when you're a human! Fascinating. You are a very interesting person and I like you."

He turns looking at the dogs milling around.

"Do you think we should do anything about these dogs?"

[lumelume]

Though he looks like he's about to argue, Mado just smiles instead, pleased by the compliment.

"Oh, they'll sort it out," he replies with a flutter of his hand, "and besides, as soon as they catch on that I'm here, I'll have to run again. So you'll have to do it without me."

He scratches the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry."

[muckspout]

"Maybe you should try to be more intimidating as a dog." He suggests, but he's kidding.

"They'll probably be fine, at least if no one catches them again. I only punched that man."

He shrugs. Maybe he should've done worse?

[lumelume]

"Intimidation has never been my strong suit," Mado says a little sadly, looking down at himself in his too-large yellow coat and tattered clothes.

"I think I need a wash," he observes, "did you know that you can just do that here, with Riftwatch? Just take a bath whenever you want?"

Luxuries beyond imagining!

[muckspout]

Edgard glowers.

"Why would you want to take a bath?" He states flatly.

[lumelume]

What an alarming question. What an alarming way to ask it.

"They feel nice!" Mado enthuses, "the water's hot and everything smells good, especially you, when you get out of it! And then people don't avoid you on the streets."

That last bit is more or less the sticking point, at least for a busker.

"I used to have to wash with cold water in public cisterns, and people would get angry about it. I'm very lucky now, don't you see?"

[muckspout]

"If you say so." He grumps. "I think it feels weird and makes everything smell bad."

He has a thought.

"But, dogs aren't particularly clean." He points his finger like he's making a point, but he's not sure what point he's making.