003 || {Video or Action}

[contempsi]

[Hope's life has certainly been thrown into turmoil over the past few weeks, and there's certainly more to come. Now that Lightning's returned, and seems to have gathered her strength... he admittedly can't take his mind off his own problems at hand. He saw her brand—but what's to become of his?

His days, too, are numbered.

After a slumber fraught with nightmares, the boy awakens to find a more urgent, pressing problem at hand.]



[Somehow, by the grace of whatever deity is over this place, he finally manages to open the journal by his bed and paw his way into a video broadcast.

The screen is filled with a fluffy white puppy face.]

RUFF!

Um... w-what's going on!? Am I dreaming!?? Someone help! Lightning? Aerith?!

[Later on that day, he can be found sulking outdoors in the grass by the pathway that separates Community House #4 from the other residential homes, head on his curly fluffy paws.

He can, in fact, be understood if anyone attempts to converse with him. Translations are in italics.]

Comments

Are italics translated?

[gardenerofgaia.livejournal.com]

Aww! [ She seems to... not... immediately notice the distress here. 8|a ]

Woops, forgot to mention that! They are.

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

Aerith... help me!

[He gives off a whine and paws pathetically at the screen, which does nothing except give a great close-up of the little pads underneath.]

\o/

[gardenerofgaia.livejournal.com]

[...Oh, okay, whoever this is isn't happy. Aerith... skips over the question of who they are (because seriously, dog, how can she tell) puzzling it out in her mind as she focuses more on helping.]

Don't panic, okay? Everything will be all right.

Re: \o/

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

No it won't!

[Okay, so that might be a little melodramatic. But he's a DOG. And he has no OPPOSABLE THUMBS. And there's white fur all over his bed!]

Why did this have to happen to me?

[He turns his head then, and a scratching can be heard at his door... followed by an excited bark. Yup, Baldr can smell his buddy through the door, and he's absolutely thrilled that they can now play on the same level.

Hope, however, is not.]

[gardenerofgaia.livejournal.com]

[Wait, that sounds like Baldr. Which leaves two options of who he'd be so close to.] Oh, Hope! I thought it sounded like you. [What does that even mean Aerith.] ... Looks like there's an experiment, and you weren't so lucky.

[Action]

[lost-pig-boy.livejournal.com]

[Action]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[Feeling a rustle in the grass before him, Hope lifts his head—and jerks backwards in surprise when he notices the odd little creature standing there staring at him.

He'd never seen a pig before, so he wasn't sure what to make of this. Suddenly seized by an urge to sniff at it to determine what it is, the youth does exactly that, leaning forward and poking his nose against the small black... thing.]

[Action]

[lost-pig-boy.livejournal.com]

[Action]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[He's never seen a pig before coming here, and definitely not one that looks like... that. Hope takes a step closer—it hasn't registered in his mind yet that it could be an actual person.]

Hey, come back! ...what are you, anyway?

[kissdiet.livejournal.com]

[Oh, this is one of those things Lightning had the other day-! A puppy. Cam makes note of it outside of hir building (C4) and... huh. What is it doing? This doesn't seem to be Baldr.]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[The person who pauses in front of him attracts Hope's attention for the moment. He blinks large, sad eyes upwards.

It's silly, but that odd adolescent sense of having something weird about him being noticed by, well, everyone around him creeps in. He's not used to the fact that he more than likely just looks like a regular dog to anyone who passes back. Wet black nose twitching as he huffs out a breath, Hope lays his head down woefully on his paws again.]

... what.

[kissdiet.livejournal.com]

[...Oh right, animals talk. Cameron blinks before crouching and holding out hir hand for it to... smell? They smelled, right? Baldr seemed to]

Sorry, I just haven't seen you around before.

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[Hope stares first at the offered hand, then back at the being in front of him. Then he hesitantly lifts a paw, as if to shake it.]

...hi.

[His "arms" feel stiff. He can't raise it very high. How awkward. He gives up trying to shake hands with hir and lets his foreleg fall again.]

I'm not normally like this. That's why.

[action]

[fideliter.livejournal.com]

[ Ange is just outside (still unchanged, thankfully), taking a walk when ... she spots puppy!Hope. She stares for a moment, before letting out a small shriek and then promptly covering her mouth, while taking back a step. She was caught off guard by this and ... just so happens to be afraid of dogs.

He can smell her fear, can't he?! ]

[action]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[The girl's little scream surprises him, and Hope jerks his head up. Fear...? Why is she—

Instantly his own worries come rushing back, because he hadn't seen anyone react to his presence with fear since arriving to this place—but back on Cocoon, with the others who had been cursed...

Did she know? How could she know?]

Wait! I'm not...

[He glances at his wrist... which is covered by fluffy, downy puppyfur and sporting a chubby little paw at the end. Oh. Right.

She must be afraid of dogs. But he didn't think he looked all that menacing...

Hope stands up, tail wagging (for some inexplicable reason, the urge to do so just comes to him unbidden!), ready to say something reassuring.]

[action]

[fideliter.livejournal.com]

[ -- Oh my god, did she just understand what he said? What's going on?! He's a dog, and --

Oh. Oh no, don't stand up. That causes her to take a step back.

But she can't show how afraid she is, and she can't show him she's panicking. So she tries her best to look calm, and she looks him in the eyes. ]

S-Sit back down, please.

[action]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

Um... okay.

[He does as directed—sort of. He really only lets his butt fall against the grass again, tail still thumping away, both of his legs straight and standing at the front.]

How's this?

[thestormishere]

[ Lightning is usually pretty on top of things when it comes to making sure both she and and Hope are up in the morning in time for breakfast and a relatively decent start on the day, but with everything going on lately, it's safe to say she's been pretty stressed...

... And apparently thrown off just enough that last night she crashed on the couch instead of making it to bed. Like that, she doesn't get the chance to hear the teen's journal message-- but what she does hear, however, is what sounds an awful lot like a bark from elsewhere in the apartment.

She jerks awake. Normally, that wouldn't be so odd, but... she looks- Baldr is at her feet, still dead-asleep. Alarms go off immediately; it could have just been her imagination, but something seems off and she's definitely one to always follow her instincts. She slides to her feet and goes to investigate, calling out just as she makes it to his bedroom door: ]

Hope?

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[Lightning will be greeted with a whine which may not exactly be out of the ordinary and the soft thump of paws pushing against an unrelenting door, blunt claws clicking against the wood.

The first thing he'd tried to do before even opening the journal was to get his bedroom door open. A rather impossible feat when you don't have any opposable thumbs.]

Light! Help!

[In an animalistic act of desperation, he leaps up on his hind legs, weight thrown against the door... and gnaws pathetically on the doorknob, trying to twist it open. It only jiggles pathetically.

More whines.]

[thestormishere]

What...?

[ Come again, Hope? Did your neck scarf get stuck in a zipper again or something? Okay yeah, at that, Lightning's heart skips a beat- there is no time for thought, no hesitation at all in moving to yank the door open--

Except... there's... no Hope here?! She just barely registers the presence of the white puppy, far more concerned with the fact that Hope isn't in here where is he?! ]

Hope?!

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

I'm... down here. [With a low whine, he sits down in front of her, staring up at the woman with big despairing eyes.

It's the dog, Light. It's the dog.]

I woke up like this. I don't know what's happening.

[Really, what else is this place going to throw at him? At them? Woefully, the boy lays his head down on his paws, still gazing up at his comrade pathetically.]

action

[risingwinds.livejournal.com]

[Ven still feels a bit... odd, to say the least, but he's finally stepped out of the house to get some fresh air.

And, naturally, seeing a cute little puppy piques his curiosity, so he'll scurry on over to see what's up.]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[A familiar face! Hope eagerly rises to his feet, tail wagging excitedly.]

Ven!

[He bounds over, crossing the short distance between them.]

[risingwinds.livejournal.com]

[Talking dog? Well, that's nothing new, but the dog knows him, and that fur color...]

Hope, is that you?

[He'll crouch down, so he's closer to his level. Dang, this has to be an experiment...]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[Yes, yes! Someone who actually recognizes him! If he could nod, he could, but instead Hope speaks through excited pants. (Man, how can animals stand having all this fur? He's kind of roasting, even if the weather itself isn't hot at all!)]

Yes, it's me! I... I don't know what happened or why I'm like this! [A whine follows. Hope's first experiment. He is now truly a man, or something.]