[O] A Newcomer's Ambush

"You say meat could be better with meat in it," Liq snorted, tugging at the woman's blue hair playfully as he sat down beside her.

Ti returned to his seat, keeping his eyes on Rai. He was good at not letting them stray to the Necromancer as he, too, ran his spoon through the soup, just stirring it before he began eating.

"Daji's nice," Ti piped up. "He helped me make dinner for everyone tonight."

Liq lifted the first spoon of soup, but paused just before it reached his mouth. "Fed the dogs yet?" When Ti shook his head, Liq set his bowl down on the bedside table and stood. "I'll just go do that then. They wont stop whining if they watch us eat."

"I actually hate dogs, but I am a beacon of tolerance and patience," they said sarcastically, almost as if they were mocking themself.

They did agree that meals were usually better with meat. Everyone in the room was probably a carnivore by nature.

"Kind compliment, Ti my dear, but who said I was a 'he'?"

Daji's eyes were trained on Liq's spoon as he lifted it to his mouth, before almost letting out an audible sigh of frustration when he put it back down. However, they resisted complaining; that would only cause suspicion.

"It's like you've never had steak wrapped in bacon. Meat IS better with more meat."

That was just a fact.

Raisa looked up at Liq went to feed the pups, spooning a scoop of soup into her mouth.

"Can you bring up a new bag of treats, just finished the old one."

Big dogs went through a lot of food so she had made sure to stock the kitchen with an immense amount of dog food and treats.

"The proper pronouns are so hard to get right these days."

Raisa replied with a shrug, she was a very inclusive person but everyone made mistakes on the odd occasion, she had seen the same thing happen to Ti when they weren't out.

"How can you hate dogs?" Liq asked with a disgusted sort of confusion. Dogs were the best things alive. How could anyone not like them? He didn't feel right about people that didn't like dogs.

"Or a faster way to clog your arteries. How have you not had a heart attack with the amount of fatty shit you eat?" He clipped Rai over the back of the head playfully as he passed her on the wya to get to the door.

"More treats? They're going to get fat." But he left before Rai could make any comments in return.

Ti froze in the process of scooping up another spoonful of soup. After a moments shock, sadness began to fill his features. "I'm sorry," he muttered softly, clearly upset with himself for misgendering his friend. "I-I just assumed-" Not a good things to do. "What do you want me to call you by?"

"Ever heard of fox-hunting? You wouldn't quite like giant sharp-toothed creatures after they've chased you for fun. Then again, the humans letting them are a bit worse."

Of course, Daji didn't exactly hate all dogs; they had befriended Ti, after all.

The fox was still staring at Liq's soup, eventually wrenching their eyes away from it to look over at their friend. Why did he look so sad? "It was just a simple mistake, don't worry. In Chinese there are no gendered pronouns, so I was never given any. But I believe 'they' is the neutral term here?"

The fox could shapeshift into whatever body they chose, but they were quite comfortable with a more androgynous appearance.

Rai simply poked her tongue out at Liq as he left, like most Lycan it was hard for her to gain weight even though she ate a lot.

"Our dogs aren't the hunting type, they're big but they're softies, wouldn't hurt a fly."

Big dogs were usually the most gentle and affectionate. They had big hearts after all.

"Raisa," was all Liq called in response to Daji's comment about 'sharp-toothed creatures chasing him for fun.'

Ti was upset because he knew what it was like to suffer through people getting pronouns wrong. He hated the feeling of people calling him a girl and he usually tried to hard to get pronouns right.

To know that he'd gotten someone's pronouns wrong had upset him. He'd gone and done something he'd promised that he wouldn't to.

"They," he repeated softly, committing it to memory. He wouldn't make the mistake again.

"Yes yes, everyone keeps telling me they're perfectly safe. It's like swimming in a pool full of sharks and being told they're just dolphins!"

A slight exaggeration probably. Daji was going to have to get over this fear if they wanted to live in this room.

The fox squinted at Ti, finally focused on something other than Liq's soup (thankfully, they probably would have given them away otherwise). They took their bowl of soup and sat next to him, crossing their legs. "Hey, cheer up," they cooed, poking him in the side playfully.

Raisa flipped the bird in Liq's direction.
"Don't make me hunt you down and bite you!"

She called out to him before returning to her food with a soft purr.

"Well you'll just have to get use to them because the dogs are staying and they're only even locked in the bathroom when we're asleep."

Otherwise they had free rule of the room, if they didn't lock them in there at night you woke up with dog butt in your face and drool on your pillow.

"Ti, don't beat yourself up, you can never be sure of people's pronouns, so one slip up is hardly the end of the world."

"Zeus is getting good at trying to get over the gate now though. He's getting big."

He was almost at the size where he could jump over the gate. He was really starting to get big. They'd have to invest in a better way to keep them in the bathroom.

The boy nodded when he was told not to worry about it, squirming and giggling when his side was poked.

"Don't! I'm ticklish."

Daji looked apprehensive. "He can get over the gate...?"

They sighed. They would have to live with it, even though the smell and the noise and the hugeness of the animals frankly intimidated them. It was better than living with ogres, they supposed.

The fox stared at Ti's reaction, and then grinned, putting down their soup. "Now why on earth did you tell me that? You have revealed your weakness!" They continued poking and tickling him on his sides and neck.

"Yeah, he can. Here Zeus."

She called, the great dane hopping over the fence with ease, leaving his sister trapped behind it as he padded over to her happy, sitting on her feet and he begged for food.

"Lay down."

She told him, with a whine he lay down, looking up at her pathetically as he waited for a taste.

Ti yelped loudly when Daji poked at his sides.

He dropped his bowl on the bedside table, thankfully without spilling any soup and dived off the bed, crawling around Rai to use her as a human shield.

"Help," he whimpered to his sister.

Going to Rai for help was probably a bad choice.

He'd suffered quite a few tickle-attack sessions from Rai, too.

Daji cackled mischievously, crawling on the bed after Ti. When he escaped their clutches they hopped off of the bed.

In their mission they hadn't realised that the huge dog had come over the gate. They shrieked in surprise and leapt back onto the bed like the floor was lava.

"Curses," they hissed, shaking their fist in defeat.

Daji's shriek caused Raisa to burst into laughter, Zeus was the least threatening dog in the world, if anything the fox should have been shrieking at her.

"There you go, rescued and I didn't even need to do anything."

Apparently owning a big dog was enough.

Ti stuck his tongue out tauntingly at Daji, resting his chin on Rai's shoulder as his arms wrapped around the woman.

"Thank you, Zeus!"He blew a kiss at the big dog.

The boy made himself comfortable sat besides Rai, keeping an eye on Daji to make sure the spirit wouldnt attack him.

Daji drew their knees up to their chest, squinting at Ti with fake venom.

"Honestly, what was Giacinto thinking, putting me in this room with a load of mutts?" they grumbled. Perhaps it was meant to be a journey-of-acceptance type deal.

"Being as patient and tolerant as I am, it's no big deal to me. As long as I can put some air fresheners in here to get rid of that dog smell."

Raisa almost snorted a laugh at the comment about the air fresheners.

"Yeah good luck with that."

With two dogs, a shifter and a lycan, the dog smell was just kind of a given.

Though the fox spirit was over exaggerating about the smell, their pups were bathed often enough that they didn't really smell, and they weren't exactly filthy either.

"Depends what air fresheners," Ti hummed.

"If they're the pine ones, us stupid dogs might get confused and think we're in a forest. We might end up pissing on your bed accidentally."

The boy stuck his tongue out cheekily.

There was no way that would happen, but making a joke out of it was fun.

Daji looked taken aback by Ti's warning, as if they actually expected their bed to peed on. When they realised it was a joke, they chuckled.

"I was convinced then! It wouldn't even surprise me!"

The fox perched on the edge of the bed, staring at Zeus and hoping the intenseness of the stare would scare him off.

Ti gave a mock-insulted huff.

"You really think I'd pee on your bed?" He pouted and squeezed Rai in his hug. "Weird things and fetishes are more her thing."

Knowing his sister all too well, Ti shifted away from the woman before she could lash out and slap him.

He gave her a sheepish (somewhat apologetic) grin as he sat down on the floor and wrapped his arms around Zeus. She wouldn't whack him if he was hugging her baby, right?

He hoped that rung true.

Rai gave a growl and moved to hit Ti but grasping a half full bowl of soup made it difficult to move without spilling it on her bed.

It came down to what she wanted more, food or violence.

In the end food won out and she just gave the boy another growl for that comment but continued to eat.

"Liq is taking freaking ages."

Safe!

Deciding not to take his chances, Ti stayed on the floor, wrapped around Zeus.

Something sailed through the airs and whacked Rai on the side of the head. Zeus was up, half on the bed, half on the floor with Ti dangling from his neck as soon as he realised that what had been thrown was a dog treat.

"Liq got caught up talking to Aeker. He and Aodh wanna go out next week. We've got Mac and Darragh for the evening."

"Well you know, Ti, pee is also a fetish. Is that yours?" Another teasing grin was directed at their friend.

The fox was startled by the treat-throwing, although glad that the huge dog didn't pounce in their direction. All of the names that were listed were unfamiliar to them, but they didn't question.

"Liq's soup's gonna get cold," they commented, trying to sound casual but instead sounding comically suspicious.

Rai's eyes glared over at the doorway after the excited nearly balled her over trying to get the treat.

"You ass."

She commented toward Liq as she rubbed her head, only he would be ballsy enough to ditch a dog treat at her.

"Oh well that's easy enough, Darragh pretty much entertains himself with all the dogs around."