considering how to make this work.

[purebred]

It's awfully kind of you to want to send me someplace to play...

But what will happen to the baby while I'm away?

Comments

[orestes]

[Yeah let's just ignore the talking dog question for the moment.]

Is there no one else who can look after your child?

[purebred]

I suppose Aunt Sarah will look after him. But I do hate the thought of him all alone.

[orestes]

Well, you're fortunate in that if your Aunt is there for him, he won't be alone.

[purebred]

[She looks so sad with those big puppy eyes. Enjolras, Aunt Sarah put her in a muzzle! A muzzle!]

Yes, that's true, I suppose. But I'm meant to protect him while Jim Dear and Darling are away.

[orestes]

[Okay the dog thing is getting really hard to ignore.]

... I suppose it's logical that they would expect a-- I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle, but my eyes are not playing tricks on me, are they?

[ofavalor]

A baby?

[purebred]

[Blinking delicately.]

No. That is, I don't think that they are. Is something the matter? Have I done something... wrong?

[purebred]

Yes. He's very small and he needs me to protect him.

[ofavalor]

You're his mother? And you mun wants to separate you??? That's awful!

[purebred]

Oh, no! I'm not his mother. Darling is his mother. But Darling has gone away...

[And who knows when she'll be back. A few days seems like such a long time.]

[orestes]

It is just--

You're a dog, you realize. [Wait that's rude. Is it possible to be rude to a dog? It's probably possible to be rude to a talking dog.] Of course, you realize. I've simply never spoken to a dog before. [He pauses again.] Or rather, never one that spoke back to me.

[bellabellabella]

[Wait so in this place animals are... sentient too.....?


welp.

Now the question is whether or not she'll be scared of him. Most animals are, but most animals are smarter than a good many humans in that regard.]

The baby?

[ofavalor]

Oh, so a friend of yours...

Still, we can't let you mun take you away from the baby.

[purebred]

Of course I'm a dog. [She wrinkles her nose momentarily before remembering her manners.] I don't think I've ever met a human that could understand me before.

[orestes]

Then this shall be a new experience for us both. And a new experience for me if I've simply gone mad. I'm afraid I've yet to be convinced that this isn't just an extremely vivid hallucination.

[purebred]

[How curious. This fellow doesn't smell like the other humans in her life. But he doesn't smell like a rat, so he is probably not going to attack her. Or the baby.]

Yes, that's right. I'm awfully worried for him.

[purebred]

But what can we do? Aunt Sarah put me in a muzzle, and I don't even know where Tramp has gone!

[purebred]

A vivid what? [She's a housepet, Enjolras. Her experience with such things is limited.] Pardon me if I'm intruding, but do you think perhaps you could look after the baby for me? It would only be for a few days, until Jim Dear and Darling return.

[orestes]

[That's it. He's insane. He was taken from certain death, sent to a new world and has now completely lost it from the stress. Or maybe the new world wasn't a new world at all. Maybe that was just a giant hallucination. That thought is oddly comforting even if the rest of this is starting to be very much not. He blinks slowly, trying to focus on her words and not the ridiculousness of the situation. Words he can always deal with. Words generally make sense, in and of themselves.]

You would trust a complete stranger with such a task?

[ofavalor]

A muzzle!? How awful!

Oh...there has to be something we can do... [Thinking, thinking!]

[bellabellabella]

[Not like a rat, no. His scent is very cold.]

It's yours?

[Her thoughts don't seem to indicate as much, but admittedly he's never tried to read the mind of a dog thinking about her puppy. He's not sure if this distance would be normal.]

[purebred]

Not exactly. You see, he is Darling's baby. And Jim Dear's.

[And hers, too. Sort of. They all belong to her.]

[purebred]

Perhaps I could bring the baby with me.

Oh, but the place my mun is looking at would be an awful place for him!

[bellabellabella]

[This dog can't have much of a sense of self-preservation. It reminds him of Bella - and that thought makes him smile, a beautiful little crooked smile.]

I see.

And he was left to your care?

[purebred]

Well, no. [She looks slightly scolded.] I'm afraid you haven't even introduced yourself yet.