Panic Mode Engage [Katie!]

[Blue]

He blinked a few times at her. She wasn’t going to have him go…do something? Well, it was kind of an awkward hour of the night, wasn’t it? Of course, with the moon out, it made him a bit more agitated than usual…not like, agitated angry, more like…too much nervous tension? He wanted to go out and run. It was the animal in him, and had he his family-pack like when he was a pup, they’d all be out frolicking in the soft moonlight.
But he hadn’t indulged that impulse in a long, long time. Remaining half-transformed was good enough right now - he wanted to be able to talk, and he wasn’t sure how they would handle him abruptly turning into a wiry framed wild dog!
Well books weren’t of much use to him…he could barely read. Honestly he’d probably forgotten how, it’d been so long…watching tv? When was the last time he’d done THAT?
He was just beginning to ponder her suggestions when she dropped a bombshell of a question, and his stomach puddled into his feet.

He paled visibly, somehow managing not to puke up his two bites of ravioli. Even as the other man spoke, Skylar was struggling to keep his heart from exploding - it was beating so fast it was like a hummingbird’s wings, he couldn’t even keep count of the beats. No, no, just relax…it was a simple question, right? There was…a normal reason to ask that. He’d just collapsed after all…they probably weren’t involved in the ‘visitors’ right?
And well even if they were, he never had any guarantee that the people he ran from were definitely gonna hurt him…he just preferred to err on the side of caution!
Trembling somewhat in his too-big clothes, he swallowed hard once again and forced some words out.
“…P-People…don’t know…who….j-just…just people…I…I never wait to…to see what they want…I just…run…”

[Katie]

That was a worse reaction than she'd expected--although with how he'd been acting, she wondered why she'd thought he wouldn't freak this badly. "Right," Lissa said. "Let's talk 'bout this elsewhere, huh?" She herded Skylar out the door, doing her best not actually the touch the kid, and sat him down on the battered old couch in the living room. She sat down on the equally battered armchair and looked at him.

"Now," she said, "I like you, kid, okay? So here's the deal--you tell me why you thought you needed to run, and if I think that's somethin' we can handle,  then you get to stay so long's you work. If I don't, you leave come mornin'. If I find you've lied to me--and I'm bein' as nice as I can here, but threats are hard that way, and I'm sorry--on account of whoever you ran from catchin' up and provin' your story wrong, I'll kneecap you myself. Cause I like you, see, and even if you're a scammer, I want you to be a scammer with a chance." And headshots were messy things, what with all those brains--but she'd scared the kid enough already, she reckoned.

[Blue]

Still pale and trembling, Skylar was herded most gently out of the room - it was gracious of her not to touch him, for he looked as though he might pop right out of his skin at the next abrupt noise. He shuffled in the direction she corralled him, finally sitting on the couch and quickly pulling his legs up to hug them to his chest.
There might not ever be such a real life example of the term ‘bundle of nerves’ as Skylar was right then.

His large ears were still pressed to his head even though he was in fact listening to her - maybe too intensely in fact, as if every word might somehow spell out his fate.
Which incidentally it did.
Oh by the moons he was doomed!

Perhaps if he wasn’t already so freaked out the threats wouldn’t have made his internal organs liquefy. Or maybe if he wasn’t thinking about the ‘why’ she had asked him, of the visuals of his slaughtered family, her threats wouldn’t have made all those liquefied organs attempt to leave his mouth all at once. Or even if he wasn’t already so worried about what sorts of horrible things these people might have in store for him simply because they were ‘other people’ that he couldn’t trust, her threats would not have caused him to jump out of his skin - literally.

There was an awkward yelping noise, and like a compressed spring released Skylar bolted straight up and over the back of the couch in a tri-colored blur. A muffled thump as he (assumedly) hit the ground behind the couch and the fluttering of what would prove to be the borrowed pants coming back to rest on the cushions preceded the awkward silence that ensued.

Pressed flat to the ground, panting and apparently frozen in fear and embarrassment, was a bony dog with large rounded ears and splotches of white, brown, and black fur. This ‘dog’ also happened to be wearing (or maybe rather swimming in) Ly’s shirt - Skylar had fully transformed in a fit of abject terror.

H-He might have overreacted juuust a bit…

[Katie]

Lissa jerked back and one hand went straight to her flick knife before she stopped herself. "The hells?" She'd expected him to freak out a little, cause when you threatened somebody as jumpy as he was it was kinda unavoidable, but she hadn't expected him to...whatever it was he'd just gone and done. She got up, nice and slow, and looked over the back of the couch. There was a dog there, swamped in Ly's shirt.

Kid was actually so high-strung she'd scared him into a full shift. Well.

Lissa walked around the back--still nice and slow, or he'd bolt like a skittish horse--and crouched. "Hey," she said quietly. "Didn't mean to scare you that bad, okay? It's just somethin' we need to know, and not everybody's trustworthy out here. But it's coming' up on one am now and I'd rather like to get myself some sleep, and I'm thinkin' you might need some more rest too, so how 'bout we finish this tomorrow?" It would've been better to know tonight, but the kid looked fit to jitter himself out of his skin and if he went and himself a heart attack it'd be inconvenient for everybody.

And besides. She did kinda like him.

[Blue]

Skylar was quickly moving out of ‘terrified’ and into ‘embarrassed’ - the careful way in which Lissa continued to approach him further cemented the fact he’d overreacted. Sure, his complete fear and distrust of people had kept him alive this long, but at the same time these people had not shown him any ill will so far.
So far.
There was always that voice in the back of his head, reminding him it could happen at any moment…

Still quivering inside Ly’s shirt, the skinny Painted Dog whined low in response to the statement. He couldn’t speak in this form - dogs did not have the ability to use words, after all. But he understood her well enough, and honestly a bit more sleep was probably for the best. He wasn’t sure he’d actually be able to pass out, wound up as he was…but then once the adrenaline wore off he might simply collapse from exhaustion. Here’s hoping for that second option.

Unsure how else to show that he understood, and still too highly strung to transform back just yet, Skylar gave a half hearted wag of his bony tail.

[Katie]

So he got it. Good. "Alright," Lissa said, "If you're not gonna change back just yet, lemme help you outta that shirt. Can't be comfortable. And then I'll go fix up a room for you." It was a big old house. They'd downsized the ranch a whole lot when they bought it. It'd get bigger when they made enough money to hire another hand or three.

"You want somethin' closer to us, or off by yourself? House used to have a real big family in it." Maybe small talk'd calm him down some more. And food, in the morning. She could count his ribs from here. But sleep first. Ly was already conked out on their bed, and it was making her even more tired than she already was (a real achievement, that).

[Blue]

He was somewhat surprised at how easily the woman was adapting to his complete non-human self. She understood that he understood, and seemed unperturbed to be speaking quite plainly to a dog. At the mention of the shirt, his ears pricked up. Oh, right…he should probably not wear it as a dog. Sure she mentioned his comfort, but really who wanted to lend clothes to a random mutt?
Standing on spindly legs, Skylar easily wiggled his way free of the already too-big shirt, head and satellite ears popping free with relatively little shaking necessary.

Unsure what else to do, he sat tenderly on his haunches, still trembling a bit with sheer nervous energy. He was finding the combo of fear and the moons outside to make him more jittery than that one time he’d tried coffee. At the question, he opened his mouth and yipped…and then realized it was, in fact, a yip. How exactly…er…
Crap.
He couldn’t exactly answer her…and now he was naked, so transforming back would be even more awkward…
Finally he simply dipped his head and whined again, tail making jerky, timid little wags against the floor. Nothing to be done for it now…he’d just have to leave it up to his host to figure out where to let a dog sleep.

[Katie]

"Right, that'll be the bedroom across from mine, then," Lissa said, and then had to keep herself from swearing. She'd meant ours. But the line was getting too skinny for comfort. If she didn't get to bed soon they'd fuse. And she'd like to keep a cap on that til Skylar wasn't convinced he'd be knifed in his sleep.

Yeah. It'd be a while.

She scooped up the clothes and led him to the right bedroom. Didn't have a window, but that was alright. Sheets were in the closet, and smelled half like must and half like lavender. (They hadn't time for all the laundry this place could generate.) "Door locks from the inside," Lissa told him when she'd finished making up the bed, "Don't think you gotta get up when we do. Got all that?"

[Blue]

He had to admit, he was grateful to her for being so nonchalant about all this. Rather than become frustrated about his lack of speech, she simply went along with it, making things up as they went. He was oblivious to her slip-up of course, not yet having even the slightest inkling of the true nature of his hosts.

Following Lissa on spindly legs, he scootched into a corner of the room to give her space as she made the bed, large ears flicked forward attentively. At least he didn’t have to go back to sleep in the bed he woke in, all full of dirt and grit as it was…
The lack of a window was an added bonus - he wouldn’t have to stare listlessly at the moons this way.

A bark of understanding was given before he gracefully leapt onto the bed, walking in circles before settling down. He’d have to lock the door once he turned back…no real way to do that as a dog after all! Once she left, he sighed through his nose and attempted to wind down. Well, things hadn’t gone so bad right? He could easily think of hundreds of ways in which it could have gone WORSE at least, so he should probably count his blessings.
Now hopefully he wouldn’t get knifed in his sleep.

Morning found him sprawled out on his bed naked as the day he was born - not surprising since he fell asleep as a clothes-less dog. The lack of a window meant no sunlight was alerting him to the morning rays, though it was likely he would hear the others in the house as soon as they began to move about.

[Katie]

Morning came too damn early. They barely dragged themselves out of bed, but the cows needed milking (thank god for the auto) and you couldn't just leave something like that. It took near twice as long to get the auto hooked up to all the cows as it should have, given only half the cattle were female and only half of those were cleared for breeding, because it felt like somebody had gone and felted over the world.

But when the twins went back into the house, breakfast was cooking. Lack was sitting at the kitchen table, looking kinda surprised and more than a little tired. "I made breakfast and now I want a nap," he said. "There's bacon."

"Good man," said Lissa.

"That's what happens when you go and catch a fever," said Ly, ruffling his hair. "The werepuppy up yet?"

[Blue]

“…Th-that’s me, I guess…?”
A quiet, subdued voice from the doorway, belonging to none other than the ‘werepuppy’. Although he lacked any of the animal traits of the night before - he was in full ‘human’ mode.
As expected, he’d woken as soon as he’d heard movement. There was usually no sounds in his little homes, and he was hyper sensitive to them. Another wave of panic had overwhelmed him just as soon as his eyes had popped open - after a few minutes he’d managed to remind himself of just where he was, and what was going on.
Or, at least, as much as he understood about those two topics.

Rather than make a run for it, certain as he was that he could have found his seeds and slipped out in the time it took the twins to finish their chores, he’d instead bit back his fear. Dressed again in Ly’s oversized clothes, it was ultimately food that had proved the greater calling.
Granted he made a living off his tiny farms, but by his pathetic body weight it was clear he was missing a great many things from his diet.

Meat was a big one. And he was already staring holes into the bacon like a dog that hadn’t eaten in days - yet had been trained hard not to even think about going for a piece.
So he stood still, at the doorjamb, toes curling beneath the baggy pantlegs.

[Katie]

"Yeah, that's you," said Lissa, pulling a chair and dropping down into it (a move copied by Ly a few seconds after the fact; not moving in synch was hard when they were this tired). Don't look like he's calmed down any, Ly sent. She nodded absentmindedly, and then realized what she'd done and coulda kicked herself. Lack was used to them doing that even if he didn't know why; he'd been here near as long as they had. But Skylar had no idea.

Well, he had to find out some time, if he was fixing to stay.

"Go on, have a seat," Ly told him. "And some food, you're skinny enough to play music on your own ribs." It hadn't escaped them that he'd eaten next to nothing last night. Or the way he was staring at the food like he was near starving away. Didn't matter whether he was leaving or not, kid needed to get something in his stomach.

[Blue]

He swallowed hard, and realized that his heart was pounding. Even if his attention was almost wholly absorbed by the bacon and it’s incredible aroma, just being in a room with other people was enough to make him spring loaded with fear. They’d only helped him so far, but that instinct could not be so easily squelched…
But then, he’d lost everyone, so…
He let out a shaky breath and forced his hands to release the hem of his borrowed shirt.

He’d just throw up if he tried to put food in such a nervous stomach.

“Th-Thank you…”
He absently rubbed his side at the mention of his ribs. He could feel every single one. It had been like that for so long but…seeing these three humans was a bit of a shock back into reality. Sure, Painted Dogs had always been a spindly bunch, but there was a fine line between that and starved.
He’d crossed it a while ago now.

Shuffling quickly up to the bacon, he just grabbed a handful, and then shuffled to the other side of the kitchen. Those sky blue eyes eyeballed the only free chair rather dubiously for a long moment. He’d have to sit next to two people…and there was that other man from before. It wasn’t so much that he was really, truly worried about them doing bad things now. He just…had such innate nervousness that he was more concerned with being able to eat while surrounded by strangers.
Well, if nothing else, it’d keep him from inhaling his food? Besides, they really seemed to find his behavior odd…it might be in his best interest to at least try.
Thus he ended up in the last chair, knees drawn up to his chest.
“…H-Hi, I’m Skylar…” He muttered at Lack, before quickly nibbling on a piece of bacon.

[Katie]

"No problem, kid," Lissa said. "You're a guest," finished Ly. They both thought (or thought alone, it was really blurry right now), shit. They really needed sleep. Eight hours at least, and they weren't gonna get it, cause Lack was nowhere near fit. They'd get through it--they'd gotten through worse in their time--but oh, it was not gonna be pretty. Maybe they could get the kid to help out. When he calmed down. Lots.

On second thought, it'd be faster to just power through. And aw, hell, they still had to find out what he was running from, didn't they?

"So they told me," said Lack, "Pleased t'meet you." He didn't offer his hand to shake--he'd seen the kid for about five minutes together, but that was more than enough to know touching him'd be a bad idea, to put it lightly. He was wound up so tight he was like to pop at the slightest shock.

"Alright," said Ly. "It ain't the best time, we know."

"But whatever it is that sent you running' to the edge of our land," Lissa went on.

"We'd like to know if it's the kinda problem you can solve by shootin' it, basic'ly, on account of it's our problem too now. Just that."

"Nothing else."

"And don't mind us. This happens--"

"--when we're tired. It'll be better when we've got some sleep."

[Blue]

He gave a mild nod at Lack in response, still nibbling with intent on the bacon. One piece was already gone, unsurprisingly. The lovely mix of fat, meat, and grease…it had been way too long since he’d eaten something not plant based.
It was practically heavenly.

His eating trailed off somewhat though, as his blue eyes flicked between his two hosts as they essentially spoke the same sentence in turns. He’d never seen anything like it, and if he’d had his large dog ears, they’d have been flipped forward curiously.
“O-oh…that’s…that’s ok…”
After all, if anyone here was showing weird behavior, it was him. He didn’t really…have any right to judge at this point.
He shifted a little as that question came up again, but it was mainly because he wasn’t confident his answer was what they were looking for. He stared at his bacon as he spoke.
“I…don’t know who. It was two people…on horseback. I don’t ever wait to see what they want…I just grab my emergency seeds and leave. My tiny farm is always as far from people as I can get…visitors are a very bad thing…”
He shifted again.
“I…I assume they would die if you shot them…um…I think they would have caught up by now if…if they had followed me all the way here…”

[Katie]

Well, that was a relief. Kid might be wrong, since he hadn't stopped to get a good look at 'em, but there probably wasn't gonna be a huge pack of bandits jumping on them. It'd do.

"That good enough for you?" Lissa asked, mainly for show. Ly nodded. "Lack?"

"Your call, boss," he said, "But I don't mind him stickin' around."

"Then it's settled," Lissa said.

"Like we said last night--"

"--you earn your keep, you can stay here."

"You want to go, we'll give you some water and send you on."

Soft, that. But he was kinda adorable, in a lost-puppy sorta way. They could see themselves getting attached, if he stayed long enough. Not as attached as they were to Lack (and wasn't that a clusterfuck right there) but near enough.

[Blue]

He couldn’t help wondering how the heck they were able to do that whole…finishing a sentence for each other and all, without pause even. It wasn’t like one was guessing…they were practically speaking for each other. It was neat…curious, strange, but still neat. He really didn’t have the ability to comprehend what the truth really was, likely even if it was explained to him.
“A-Ah…oh…w-well…”
Normally he’d want to dart. Well, ok, he DID still want to do that. But they’d helped him, right? It didn’t seem particularly likely that they were going to try and do something to him now. They’d had plenty of chances already, so…yeah…they weren’t gonna do something mean. Probably. Hopefully.
Uh…

“I um…I-I’ll help out. To…well…like as uh…repayment? Er, I mean, you helped me so…I should do the same.”
He sniffed and looked around for a moment.
“…right?”
It had been awhile since he’d tried doing things around other people, ok?? He couldn’t help not being entirely sure if he remembered how things were supposed to work anymore!

[Katie]

"Right, sounds good--"

"--to us. I'll take you to check out the food fabs," Ly said. They didn't buy food for the cows, they bought fuel for the fab and paid for repairs. Big beast of a machine had been there when they bought the place, and it'd needed a bit of fixing up, but it could convert near-anything into something the cattle'd eat, which was real handy in this season, when the grass was too patchy to be proper food. Their understanding of how it worked was real elementary--they knew what made it go, and that was about it. Lack was better with it.

"Hey, I can do that," the man himself said. "I can still press buttons."

"Sure you can," Lissa said, "But after that--"

"--he's gotta see the fence, reckon he's alright t'look for breaks." He wouldn't be herding the cattle. They'd pick the jumpy right off him, it's be no use. He could check the grazing areas, though, if he was still here when the rains rolled around and brought the grass back. Definitely not culling selection, nor weaning--damn, breeding season'd be soon, they might need a temp hand or three for that.

Well, cross that bridge when they got there.

"So the point is, you're stayin' in here and looking over the books, because my math ain't reliable late at night," Ly said.

Lack held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Yessir."

Ly cracked a yawn (Lissa barely kept from doing so as well, they'd slipped up enough this morning for a week) and said, "Alright, kid, let's find you some shoes and get started."

[Blue]

Skylar perked up as they started talking jobs, and if he’d had his dog ears they’d be standing straight at attention. Granted, he was a bit confused as to what a ‘food fab’ was - he’d never heard of that before. It had the word ‘food’ involved though, so it couldn’t be all that bad.
He had no idea that they had a herd, or that they wouldn’t be letting him tend it. He was only off the scales jittery when around other ‘people’ - animals were a different story. His family once had quite a few, back when there was a family. After all, he was a carnivore…er…these days not so much, but once upon a time.
Of course, all those had been stolen back when everyone was slaughtered. He’d not had any other animal since, save for his horse. Most of his meat these days came from catching the occasional rodent or rabbit - slim pickings, but at least he hadn’t starved.

“I know how to mend a fence, I’ve done that plenty before!” He realized he’d sounded a bit over eager - he couldn’t help it, this task was a piece of familiarity. Shifting, he crinkled his nose and tried to remember what ‘normal’ behavior was. Man, he was bad at this…
“I don’t need shoes, it’s alright. Eh, uh…”
Fidget. Fidget.
“A quick…question though…um. About my…my horse…and my pack…?”
He was a little afraid at what the answer might be, but he was hoping both were unharmed and being held somewhere.

[Katie]

That there was just adorable. Werepuppy might find its way to sticking as a nickname, he kept this up.

"'s good, we don't have t'spend time teaching you," Lissa said. She sighed and stood up. Using one set of leg muscles. She and Ly were still separate, it was gonna stay that way, so fuckin' help 'em. They were so focused on that that Lack had to reach over and nudge Ly gently. Both bodies--both twins--started in tandem. Then Ly said,

"Both in the small barn. I ain't a doctor, but I reckon your horse'll be fine with some rest." He didn't mention they'd searched the pack. No need for that.

"You sure you don't need shoes?" Lissa added.