crystal

[rathercommon]

FORM: Crystallll
SENDER: Kitty Jones
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS EVERYBODYYYY DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Everywhere
NOTES: Everyone seems sad so: dogs

[ Kitty sounds faintly aggrieved. The reason: ]

So, there's this dog that started following me about. I guess it's mine now or - something. Anyway. Has anyone got ideas for a name?

Comments

[rathercommon]

[ HEY. ]

Not when it's transparently propaganda.

[shri]

Pardon?

[rathercommon]

They never tell that sort of story about normal people. It's always told about important people. To humanize them. You know, Gladstone was a moderate and sober man who wore the same starched shirt every day, except on Sundays, when his mother washed it for him. Complete rubbish.

[shri]

[ Devi, is that you? She asks, mentally, for the millionith time. ]

They do. [ pause. ] Gladstone? [ But it was arrogant to say they do about me. ] I could tell you one, of a woman that was 'normal' as you put it.

[rathercommon]

Yeah? Let's hear it. [ And - ] Yeah, the Founder. Gladstone.

[shri]

Jhalkari. [ She wets her lips, recalls on the memory carefully, that way one must around brittle things. Sure of the sharp edges, finding just the way to hold it. ] Her father was just a farmer. Her mother the same. She was herding goats, by the river - it was a dry summer, dry summers often mean the bigger predators, tigers, lions, will come to take meals they might not otherwise at the edge of small villages.

So she went to water her goats, and nearby, there were children as they are want to cool themselves in the worst days. She had only her stick for herding the animals. It was quiet. Then one of the children screamed, so it goes. A tiger, half-starved, snatched one of the children. Dragging him into the long grasses.

Jhalkari had only her stick. It did not stop her. She lept up and began to beat her stick against the tiger, and even when it let go of the boy to lunge at her, she kept beating it with her stick. Until it snapped and used her bare fists. She fought it until it ran off.

[rathercommon]

[ A little sniff. Kitty's somewhat impressed, in spite of herself. ]

Well, good for her.

[shri]

Perhaps that can be your new friend's name. Kari.

[rathercommon]

Yeah, maybe. I wouldn't mind a dog following me around if it were the sort of dog that'd rescue babies.

[shri]

Animals are as well as you train them. [ That same tone she takes over horses, apparently. ] But it might be a good starting point.

... You are... set up to train her, aren't you?

[rathercommon]

Set up?

[shri]

You said she was full grown. Do you know her commands, her preferences with them? Some hounds have no love of leads, others must be kept on them. Some respond to words, others to hand gestures.

Some are for hunting, others for companionship, and it changes how to treat them. How to keep them.

[rathercommon]

Oh. Well, honestly...She sort of just seems to understand what I say. Like, to a really weird extent. Like, the other day, I told her to wait on the street until I came back out and she had no trouble with that at all.

[shri]

[ Don't fight the dog, Lakshmi. It's probably not secretly something dreadful given how everyone else talked about them. She's fine, it's friendly, it listens to Kitty, that -

Her skin is utterly crawling with the thought. ]

Well, if she is that smart, you had best set up somewhere well. Bed, food, that sort of thing.

[rathercommon]

[ A grouchy noise - ]

She seems to have taken a liking to mine. Both bed and food.

[shri]

She is doing it because you don't know how to tell her no yet.

[ That, at least, makes her laugh. ]

Go to the kennels, find out what they feed them, how they keep them. See how they are kept. What we eat is seldom very good for animals, even when they want it so terribly.

[rathercommon]

Well - all right. I'm not going to make her sleep outside, though. That seems dreadful.

[shri]

[ NOW WHOSE A SUCKER FOR A CUTE FACE, KITTY. ]

That is only usually done with a guard or war dog when you must be careful about bringing them into your house. Or their purpose is to be outside at night. But you can give her the dog her own bed.

... I could... make something if you like.

[rathercommon]

What - make a bed?

[shri]

Mmhm.

[rathercommon]

I mean - all right. That'd be nice.

[shri]

Come by tomorrow afternoon, I'll have it done.

[rathercommon]

Seriously? That quickly?

[shri]

Unless you want me to sew it with gold and fine patterns. Perhaps if you do pick Rao, I could little crowns around the edges -

[ It's teasing, she's quite sure she knows what Kitty's face will be. ]

[rathercommon]

[ Ugh. ]

Yeah, what a brilliant idea, make it scratchier and less comfortable in the name of fanciness.