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Post by Kadin on Sept 30, 2020 18:05:36 GMT -6
Kadin wasn't so sure about this latest quest on the board. He shifted his puppy in his arms, frowning at it. Apparently it was for cultural appreciation month, whenever the fuck that was. Most of the options he sure as shit wasn't going to do. Only the second one seems tolerable, but even so... "Really? You want to basically stalk me for a day?" The quest giver shrugged and wandered off, acting as if it was perfectly normal to just. Show a bunch of strangers what a day in his life typically was like. With a sigh, Kadin's shoulders slumped. Apparently he was doing this. On any other typical morning, Kadin woke up in a nest of old clothes, rags, musty blankets, and probably some pillows in there. Somewhere. Were those gardening gloves? He yawned, sat up, and stretched. He was still tired, not having gotten a particularly restful night's sleep. 1
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:30:21 GMT -6
He rarely remembered his nightmares, but they regularly woke him up. He'd learned, over time, not to wake up screaming, but sometimes it was a close call. Today wasn't as bad as usual, but having a certain amount of sleep debt would add up on a person over time. Trying not to think about it, Kadin would scoop up the latest puppy he was raising. He was thinking of calling her Cookie, for her cookies and cream colors. It reminding him of cookies and sweets and good things. Oh. Shit. Like needed to go to the coffee shop.
With a groan, Kadin rose from his pile of bedding and made his way to an industrial sized sink that the kennels sported. He kept his tooth brush and other personal hygiene supplies in a sealed, pet proof, locking storage box near by. He'd learned the hard way after losing one too many tooth brushes.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:33:02 GMT -6
For some reason? The pets in his care? Had an unhealthy obsession with stealing, hiding, storing, and chewing on tooth brushes. He tried not to think too much about potential vet bills if any of them actually swallowed the fucking plastic. Pointedly not thinking about it, Kadin brushes his teeth and washes his face. He also brushes his puppy's teeth to get it used to being handled that way. It was never too early to get them started on good oral health!
After he finished the rest of his own personal morning routine, he sees to several of the pets that he's slowly learned need special care. Then, he's off to go to the coffee shop. It's a long walk from the kennels to the street the shop is on, made even longer by all the farms he has to walk past to get there. Still, he doesn't mind it. The fresh air feels good after waking up tired.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:35:30 GMT -6
Plus, his houluh always delight on any walk, literally anywhere. Since Cookie is still so young, she does get tired and Kadin has to stop and carry her at some point. That, he also doesn't mind, because it's not like even Rochelle would yell at him when he showed up with a sleeping puppy bundled in his arms.
Eventually, he makes it to the Cat Scratch Cafe. As predicted, Rochelle will his and grumble at him for being late (as if he didn't buy the god damn property and it could open whenever he fucking got there), but she'd still watch Cookie for him while he went into the back to get started on the baking. Not that she LIKED watching the houluh. She always did so at a great distance, only jumping down onto the floor to grab a toy the puppy had been playing with so she could tease her with it.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:38:26 GMT -6
Rochelle was, if nothing else, and Enileaf, after all. She got her kicks out of holding up toys or treats on the counter that the houluh was too short to reach. There was never any shortage of day old supplies that hadn't sold that she could tease Cookie with.
If the whining got too loud, Kadin would have to intervene, but Rochelle had turned it into an art, almost, how she teased the puppies just enough to have them crying, but not too loudly that they'd alert the human.
All of this mental torture while Kadin was baking crap for her to sell in the shop she insisted she owned. Typically.
Once he was done in the back and various food stuffs were cooling on the racks, Kadin would go back to the front to hang out in one of the plush chairs scattered all around. Now it was his turn to play with the puppy.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:41:23 GMT -6
All this while Rochelle was supposed to "man" the counter. If any customers showed up, she'd be the one to handle them. They'd worked out a system where she could even get them the pre baked goods without touching them so that any human customers wouldn't feel awkward about accepting food from an Enileaf. But the system wasn't absolutely perfect just yet. If anyone ordered something that had to be assembled, say, a sandwich? That was when Kadin would have to give up his spot, go into the back, and get it ready for them. It was hard to keep paws clean, after all, especially when you didn't have thumbs to handle soap and help you wash them. So Rochelle gleefully bossed Kadin around while he served HER customers. She loved treating him as her employee. Which, honestly? He didn't mind. Not as long as the shop was making some money.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:43:53 GMT -6
He certainly didn't want to be the one manning the front!
Eventually, they'd have a lunch break. Kadin would probably do some training then or catch a quick nap, depending on how he felt or how well he'd slept the previous night. After a long day of work, around evening time Rochelle would finally trill at him to get rid of that damn dog and his own sorry ass out of here. That was when Kadin left the shop to hit the streets, houluh in tow. Now was when he could actually get some work down. Most of his training get done after a day at the shop. Or sometimes he went to the mines or even the mansion. Regardless, evenings were spent out and about, exploring some new area of these strange place he'd found himself in. He was still mostly convinced he'd never learn the true expansive of the place.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:46:12 GMT -6
And maybe that was a good thing. It kept him distracted and not thinking about the other things. Like the gaps in his memory that he itched to fill, but was also terrified of. Or the shadows the dogged him like hound nipping his heels, appearing out of the corner of his eyes when he didn't expect them. Or, even worse, passing in front of him. Acting as if they were walking, breathing things, interacting with the world instead of him. Not one else reacted to them. Not Cookie, not Rochelle. He knew they weren't there. He knew the implications of them. But he didn't want to admit to them, he didn't want to seem crazy, he didn't want to think about how they might be tied to the gaps in his memory. So he did what he did best and ignored the problem, hoping that they would go away. Hoping.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:48:46 GMT -6
But they weren't going away. They seemed to be getting worse. Even now, when he passed by the fighting pit with Cookie by his side. Shadows swarmed the entrance, swept over the windows, flew up to the pet entrances and tried to get inside. But they couldn't. Because he didn't. They were forced to tear themselves away and followed him, sulking. His spine was cold. He could feel something staring at the back of his skull. His arms tightened around Cookie, holding her more security, but nothing said anything or touched them. Nothing approached them. They were just there until they were not, fading away as if they had never been there in the first place. Kadin let out a sigh he didn't know his lungs were holding onto as he finally made his way into the kennels and shut the door. It was a relief, to have this, at least.
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Post by Kadin on Oct 4, 2020 18:51:03 GMT -6
A place where he could close a door and shut out the rest of the world. After a day full of work, training, stress, and more things that he didn't want to think about than he could count, it was more than easy to fall into the evening routine of giving some attention to the pets in his kennel. Feeding some here, petting others there, searching the kennel for stragglers that he kept getting glimpses of, but could never seem to pin down and identify. He was convinced there was a nest of fairies in the rafters somewhere, hiding from him. There were creatures like that in the labs, he knew about them, but for some reason the ones here never came down to meet him. Putting it out of his mind, he prepared for bed. Tomorrow would be another day to try and learn a little bit more about the situation he'd found himself in.
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