For victormakesart

[greyedwhite]

Since an encounter with stuffed toys under a tree, there've been a number of animals wandering around the Nexus. One of them is a very large white dog with only one blue eye. The other is scarred and missing. It's hard to say what kind of dog it is, something mixed with alsatian and maybe even a little wolf, with long grey claws. This could be a

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[victormakesart]

Victor was not usually the type to go near animals. Even under the anti-violence field, there was always a niggling worry that something big and with claws and teeth would eat her face right off.

However, it was the holiday season, and Victor was a compassionate individual. She took one look at the dog and decided it needed a sandwich. She scooted forward tentatively, all the while sending don't-eat-my-face-off brainwaves out into the multiverse.

And out from the depths of her purse rose a chicken sandwich! It did not, of course, rise on its own. It had help from Victor's hand.

[greyedwhite]

He's never tried his wordless telepathy with her, but Silens can probably sense don't-eat-my-face-off brainwaves.
When the dog sees her it lifts it's head. The ears go up, the tail thumps a couple times, and it gives her one lone white puppy-dog eye. The dog is very happy to see her, almost as if it recognizes her. When she offers the sandwich he gets up quickly (standing, his head is on a level with hers if she crouches down) and trots over happily.
Hopefully she won't be too intimidated by all this.

[victormakesart]

She did crouch, leaning carefully, keeping herself braced. She even tried for a wobbly smile. To be fair, the smile she tried for was not wobbly, though it did end up that way.

She set the sandwich on the ground in front of the dog.

And then to diminish her nervousness, she tried to talk to the dog. After all: Nexus. She explained so many of her actions with 'After all: Nexus' nowadays. "Hi. I'm Victor."

((And now I sleep! I'll be around at intervals once I unsleep!))

[greyedwhite]

It seems like a lot of the other animals walking around right now can still talk just fine, but this one doesn't. Instead he pauses in front of the sandwich and does a quizzical head tilt, then scratches the floor with his grey claws a couple of times. He's really missing the opposable thumbs. The ear go down again, and he sits in front of her and the sandwich and makes a whispery sigh. Not even a woof or a whine. He gives her a slow sort of nodding bow, trying to somehow indicate he's smarter than the average dog even if he can't talk. Then he tries approaching the sandwich once or twice and ends up picking the thing up whole and trying to bite off some. It's not a very doglike way of eating.

((Have good dreams! I should go sleep myself.))

[victormakesart]

She didn't like barking, so it worked well. Loud noises from predators frightened her, because she was very aware of being tiny and fleshy.

The way he approached eating wasn't dogish at all, and it gave Victor the idea that maybe the dog wasn't a dog at all. In fact... the one eye, the white coat, and the lack of barking all pointed to him being one person. Still, she wasn't sure. "I know you, yeah?"

[greyedwhite]

The dog swallows what he's eating and does a very definite, head-bobbing nod. His tail wags a little and he gives her a doggy kind of smile with his tongue showing a little. His lower canine teeth are as long or longer than the top ones, but not especially sharp. It's funny but he's almost more expressive in this form.

[victormakesart]

Victor smiled, decided right then and there to revise her opinion of dogs. Dogs that were also her friends were a-okay, and definitely not about to eat her face off.

She rummaged in her bag for a plastic bowl and a bottle of water. She generally used it for painting but it was clean, if somewhat flimsy. "Can I get you anything, Silens?"

[greyedwhite]

His tail wags harder as she says his name, making it clear she knows exactly who he is. He'd bark but even in this form he's got no vocal chords. He tilts his head again as he watches her get out the water and bowl. He gives a huff of a sigh and scratches the floor again, but there's no way he could write without hands. The inability to communicate is a major problem. What he really wants to ask is how to get back to himself, but he just wriggles and gives her a sad look and scoots forward to rest his head on her knee with a mournful look.
This is his first LOL.

[victormakesart]

She poured the water for him, with a very careful and steady hand.

Now, any other dog Victor would scoot away from. Instead she gave him a very gentle scratch between his ears. "It'll pass. I turned into a magpie once, made a nest on top of the sign. It might take some time, but it'll pass."

[greyedwhite]

He closes his eye briefly at the touch and seems to enjoy it. Her words are exactly what he wants to hear, that this is only temporary. He sighs again and nuzzles her hand with his cold, damp nose, then drinks. He has no way to know it's an 'until Christmas' LOL and it stings that it was caused by a pair of bad guys.
When he's done he lays down and rests his head on her leg and looks up at her with the one blue eye. He actually thinks he's less intimidating this way.

[victormakesart]

For Victor, she liked being able to communicate, and the things that she couldn't interact with on any level scare her. That's why she had a hard time with animals, she knew their brains were wired differently. At least with people she could go with body-language, writing, gesturing. She could understand Silens even as a dog, and that put her mind at ease.

Since he seemed to like the scratching, she kept it up, very gentle and very careful. "See? It's all okay."

[greyedwhite]

He nods a little and his tail begins to thump, slowly. His people use a lot of their own sign language, but that's not good without hands either. Since he's met someone else here who understood it, he tries very delicately to send her a wordless telepathic message, the hope that he'll be back to himself soon. He's unsure if she'll be able to understand it, or hear it at all.

[victormakesart]

She got the gist of the message but she wasn't sure if it was him or whether it was just what she imagined he'd say. The plague of an overactive imagination.

Tailwagging was good, or so she remembered from the dogs of her youth. She shifted from scratching to petting, sticking to the between-the-ears-on-top-of-the-head area because that was familiar.

[greyedwhite]

The tail pauses just briefly, as her mind is nudged with a sense of mild disappointment that she can't speak this way. Maybe it's not her imagination after all? He's still content being petted though.

[victormakesart]

The disappointment definitely gleamed through. "I'm sorry," she whispered, though there was an irony there that she didn't notice. If she was sorry about failing to hear him, then she didn't actually fail. She kept petting him all the while.

[greyedwhite]

Well that's definitely got him confused. He raises his head and tilts it at her (It's funny how that gesture is the same one he uses all the time in his own shape), and the tail pauses again. This time he's sending her a sense of surprise that she can understand because this is how he speaks to his brothers.