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Canine Conclusion
🕑 Added 2022-08-08 17:38:26 +0000 UTCThe Wolfdog placed her meat filled plate on the two seat table before stretching to take off the top half of her grey jumpsuit. Flopping into the chair, she looked over at the collie who sat in the other chair across the table before expressing herself. "I really don't understand the dynamic between them."
The Collie looked up from her tablet to regard her friend, taking her mind and eyes of the numbers and texts displayed across it. One eyebrow raised slightly as she looked at the far larger of the two canines. "I'm sorry, who are you talking about today Milly? The Synth Stoats and their handler that feed me data? Besswarden and.. what's his name, Cyclone? Ceylon? Rosemary and her Kessler specialist assistant? The Grimalkin and pretty much everyo-?"
The dark brown canine shook her head with vigour as she cut off the grey one. "Oh, no! No not them! We've chatted about those before! I mean the big ones, top of the table! Ol' Softscent and Bridgescale what's 'er name! Or, Bridgescale and her Quokka, that I never did get from the start, even with some thinking time."
The collie moved her left paw to a cup sitting before the tablet that remained in her right paw. Distractions to some might be annoyances, but when this much data needed to be sifted through, sometimes reactive and imaginative talk can be a good way to take a break from the strain. Plus Millicent always had an air of energy and enthusiasm that she found almost infectious, as if it simply made her want to help, to be a good dog around the boisterous Milly. "You've been thinking about this your entire shift again, haven't you, working with the reactive wrench the entire shift again? They need to give you enrichment, but anyway yes, please tell."
Milly gave a small wiggle in her seat, half adjusting the chair for comfort, and half to vent her thoughts after a long shift of talking in her own head. "Well! We've finally entered orbit over this planet, wherever we are. The tug ships have all left wherever Bridgescale sent them and nobody on the station and especially off the station has a clue where we're floating. So naturally Softscent starts the work she's been purring about for weeks now, scanning the planet. Don't give me that frown Ossy, I don't have spies! Been working on some of the scanning array the last week, some bits broke when it was powered up. Anyway, someone stopped the scan, as stuff stopped breaking."
Oscette looked down at her cup a moment to give a moments thought on both the evidence and also the method of finding it. So, Milly wasn't just letting thoughts run around in that eager mind of hers all shift. She actually was thinking about her surroundings, and coming to conclusions. She looked back up at her larger friend. "So, Softscent ordered the scan I'm assuming of this planet, Bridgescale overrode it, and you're wondering why?" A reasonable consideration, all told.
Milly grinned at Ossy, her more wolfish traits clear in the larger, more well defined canine teeth and jaws. The grin didn't bother Ossy in the slightest, but she could understand why the Quokka and other herbivores were sometimes a little unnerved by the grin of such a physically active and enthusiastic canine. "You played your paw, Ossy! I didn't say it was Bridgescale, though I was going to guess! You knowwww something!" Milly's tail had started wagging a little by now.
Ossy looked at her cup again and gave it a little sniff. the scent of coffee alone lifted her mind and cleared her head from the numbers and words of analytics she had been sifting through, such a cloud being what caused a slip of the maw. Not that it mattered much, nothing she had said was to be kept hidden, even if it did seem a little... odd that the data she expected from the surface scans were cut off without any proper warning or procedure. "Oh, it's just Bridgescale used her authorisation codes to cancel the scan." she admitted freely before blowing a small breath on the coffee, so close as it was to the perfect temperature.
"Ah!" Milly nodded though Ossy saw the Wolfdog was looking calmer when when she had started, clearly having vented a bit of her pent up energy. "So they are having some sort of tiff then... Two leaders in a pack, eh? Well, they'll work it out eventually... though from what I hear they're both stubborn. Still, I don't get the Quokka and Bridgescale. isn't it usually Kobold and the like that look after Dragons while they're out and about?" Even as the question was said, Milly was looking down at her plate with the juicy and rather rare steak on it. While some omnivores and most herbivores were unsettled by it's appearance, the Dragon technology meat synthesisers that the Bridgescalehad installed were to some species a total blessing for sanity and moral... and for others a possible way to avoid potential predation. While Milly was of neither camp, unlike Ossy's more vegetarian diet she made no hiding her love of such a source of ethical, juicy, tender protein.
Ossy regarded her coffee a moment before looking back up at Milly. "Well, from what I gather it's not just the Quokka on this station, and it's not just any Dragon they're loyal to. Something Bridgescale did to the Quokka seems to have them trust her more then anything in the galaxy in their own delightful way. The Capys seem to have a similar feeling, but more relaxed as I'm sure you'd understand." Ossy remembered that this diner use to be one of the more carnivore/herbivore mixed eating locations along the old ring when everyone was woken up from the journey, highly popular with many of the Capy and Quokka crew, though things had leaned further and further towards mostly carnivore customers as the days went by. She wondered if she should visit one of the more herbivore populated restaurants some time to see if the vegetables tasted different, though the instinct to nudge the lines to the checkout into perfect order was hard to resist with herbivores filling said lines.
Ossy sipped her coffee with delicate care as Milly ducked her head down to pick up the slab of meat in her jaws directly, giving no real consideration to cutlery or manners. Tail wagging, Milly looked at Ossy as she drank her coffee, nibbling the steak as it hung from her jaws. After a moment, she talked over the meat. "You really should try this some time, it's delicious!"
As Milly chowed down on the steak with an enjoyment that made her seem less dog and more wolf she began tossing the steak back with each bite as she literally wolfed it down. During this Ossy sipped more coffee, before placing the half empty cup back down. "I.. well I just can't see it as anything other then an animal. That Dragon technology really does impressive work turning organic stock into actual meat."
Milly paused in her feasting at the mention of it's sauce, before shrugging and finishing the steak with a few more bites, her teeth audibly clicking with each little snap. "It's good stuff!" she agreed.
Ossy paused to check her tablet again, in case of any urgent data checking needing work, before carefully drinking the rest of her coffee. During this Milly sat still in her own chair, though her tail wagged despite her making sure to let Ossy enjoy her break in her own pace. Somehow the Wolfdog managed to not spill any of the meats juice on her vest, a testament to her clean feeding despite how the chomps may have looked. It would have been awkward to have a meaty stain a vest when working around herbivores, assuming Milly didn't just lap off the juice there and then. Or someone else lapped at the front of Milly's vest. Ossy paused at that thought. "Any ideas of what we'll be doing next, from your detective work on mechanical malfunctions?" She asked to distract her thoughts.
Milly shook her head. "Not a clue! Though I figure we'll be here a while yet before anything important happens. We still have.. what, two thirds I think? Yeah, around that amount of station crew still on ice, waiting to be woken up for their work. Nobody's asked me to run any checks on those tubes, so they'll be sleeping a while yet. Whatever happens next, I think we'll be chasing our tails out of boredom for a while yet. Well, aside Rosemary and her xeno-life studies on the zoo full of beasties down in the ringtown. I swear some of those beasts have escaped and are causing malfunctions across the region."
Ossy looked down at her tablet. "If that's the case, then I think my data crunching from the Synth Stoats might die down soon without even a single slide worth to make readable. Might end up going back on ice as well until something happens to avoid boredom."
Milly looked about the diner, pondering over the words and architecture. So blocky were the Quokka and Capi made surroundings, safe, secure and inviting. Certainly different from the functional surroundings of the few places she worked in when she lived in more Canine space. "Yeah... if you do, I might do the same though. Not really the same without a good friend to chat to, eh? Barely get to know anyone when working the maintenance shits, though the Equipment Kit folk are always nice. Just not the same as another dog friend, you know?"
Ossy sighed with a half smile. "I think I understand Milly, though I get the feeling you'll get to know more people. We're going to be having quite the long time without anything happening, I think."
The tablet in Ossys paws bleeped with another simple set of data to be made accessible and forwarded to those that needed it, analysis of an unexpected ship in orbit.
Comments
Ztpia
yay, glad to see this continuation of the confrontatnom plot
