"W-well... Sure?"
“You know that was a joke, right? Heh, I can be funny just like everyone else~! Don’t worry, I would never use anyone of value as an experiment. And you’re the most wonderful and valuable person I know!”
"Well... I was wondering what test subjects you could use."
“Can’t you be my test subject?”
Can I buy one of yer' rats?
What for?
And no, they aren’t for sale. They've already bonded with me. If you can give me a good reason, I might let you have one of the babies from Elena’s litter, though. She’s just about due to give birth.
"What about your rats? I certainly hope you wouldn't attempt to use them for.. experimentation."
X looked at C, mortified. “Chase! Why would you even say that?? They are family, not lab rats..!”
“You don’t genuinely think I would do something that would put them at risk, do you..??”
C smiled. "You're brilliant, I think this could be a step in the right direction for you. I would support if its what you want to do~"
“Ah! Thank you!!”
“To be completely honest, I change my mind constantly. But maybe there’s a way I could combine both of them to be the life path for me~!”
"Oh~? Have you been considering any plans for the future?"
“I have, actually..! Virology. But I promise I’m not the kind of person who plans to release a deadly virus!! I just want to study them.. How cool would it be to stop an epidemic before that term is even needed??” He pouts for a moment. “But at the same time, I still kinda wanna be a detective.. Just not L, obviously. Heh, what if I were his competition or somethin’?”
xenial-x reblogged
Stray Dogs
&&— @xenial-x
Sometimes it was actually painful to be at the top of the food chain in the school… okay, that was a lie. Tanner had never really regretted his decisions.If anything, he only regretted getting caught and having to face the consequences of his actions.
However, he was currently vexed. The end of term was approaching and while he was half-assing most important projects, he didn’t plan to do that with this particular class. Problem was, he couldn’t ask for help from either his room mate or friend. Not unless he wanted to join the ranks of being a total faggot like the rest of them. Art was only for gay losers who had no other talent, obviously.
Lucky enough - though unlucky he guessed, for the other party- Tanner knew of a few people he could force into helping him.
He found the runt wandering the halls, like usual (he didn’t know his schedule from literally watching him, no).
Grabbing the back of X’s shirt and hauling him two steps backward, Tanner pushed the other teenage against the nearby wall.
“Right, listen close, brat. I gotta do a fuckin’ project for class. An’ you’re gonna help me do it, or I’ll beat yer face in.”
X wasn’t really known for his luck. Though, X wasn’t really known for anything, not to most people. If there was one tidbit that people picked up on, it was his relationship with C, which usually meant that Felix was left alone by most students.
He kept to himself, and didn’t mind it being that way. Currently, he was roaming around rather aimlessly, bored. It wasn’t as if he cared to do his homework, not right now, anyway. Finals were looming, but Felix wasn’t even keeping up enough with his classes to have a rank, so he was fairly sure that the teachers weren’t expecting much from him.
Hardly hearing the footsteps behind him, X walked on, practically in a dissociated state. Blank stare, bags under his eyes, nothing on his mind. Of course, he was snapped back to reality rather rudely- a sharp, half cry, half cough escaping his lips as he was dragged back by his shirt collar.
Oh, lovely.
“T..! He-hey.. Do you mind um- letting go?” He didn’t make eye contact with the taller teen, and struggled to keep his words from sounding more like fearful squeaks. “You don’t have to do anything that would get you in trouble, okay?? I’ll help, but, uh, um- please don’t be so scary about it..”
C huffs. "I would do better putting poison in their soup but I wouldn't want you to get sick too~ So no mass murder in my future plans. Not with bees especially."
“Good choice, there. Though if you ever change your mind, I’ve been reading up on deadly viruses.”
"They think I'm like planning to take out my peers with bees or maybe they're just trying to make an example of me I'm not sure"
“Most likely the example thing...” X pats C’s head. “At least there’s one good thing! If you want to take out all the students, you’re probably going to have to be really creative, and that’s always fun, ja?”
“Apparently they think my letting bees in is like a big fuckin’ threat around here.”
--
X tries to hold back a giggle. “Seems a bit of an overreaction. And look, liefje, they made a new rule! You have left a legacy for the house. You should be proud!”
"Yeah, Roger made a big deal about it too. I'm hoping he will just kind of not send me to be evaluated or whatever. Ugh. It wasn't that big a deal."
X looks a bit surprised. "Evaluated? I'd agree.. it wasn't a big enough deal for that."
"Oh-" Umbral didn't expect X to have a rat on his person. He was pretty surprised, but upon closer inspection, the rat doesn't seem particularly scary or anything like that. "So would you say they're less skittish than, hm, a guinea pig, or a rabbit? This one- Anki?- seems pretty nice." He reaches a finger out just far enough for the rat to sniff, but not bite if it doesn't like him.
“I wouldn’t even call most of them skittish at all, actually! They’re very friendly, and if you treat them well enough, they make life long bonds with their owners.” X looks sad for a moment. “Rats don’t live very long though. So you have to treasure each one, and make sure they have everything they need for a happy life.”
Anki lifts her head to sniff Umbral’s finger, and X grins. “They are also very empathic! They can sense distress in humans, and other rats, and they seem to know what kind of distress it is, too.. When I’m sad, my rats stop playing and just keep me company. They cuddle, just as well as a dog or cat could.”
"I figured you were safe. I didn't think you were allergic but they were merely bumblebees"
“Still..! Someone could’ve gotten hurt.. At least bumblebees aren’t very aggressive..”
"Heyyyyyyyy, ratboy. You're the ratboy, right?" Umbral crosses his arms and grins. "I'm doing a report, can you tell me about the behavior of a rat in the presence of a human it's used to?"
“Uh.. ja, that’s me, I guess.” X reaches a hand into his shirt sleeve and smiles, producing a small white rat. “It depends on the rat’s personality. Anki, for example, is full of affection! She isn’t the smartest, though.. All of my rats know to sleep when I take them out and about, but she sometimes crawls up my arm and pokes her head out of my shirt collar..”
He lovingly pets Anki and holds her out to Umbral. “With strangers, most rats don’t seem very interested until their owners show that they are friendly. When I take Anki out of her cage, she recognizes me.. So she likes to play! If I ignore her for too long, she’ll nibble my toes or my fingers, or she’ll bring me her ball to play fetch.”
X looks up at U. “Does that help?”
"You know, you are the third person who's said that. Are you allergic, Babe?"
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been stung by a bee. And I intend to stay away from them.”
"Yeah, Ive been trying to talk my way out of getting anything for the whole Bee-incident."
“..And how is that working for you?”
“What if someone allergic had gotten attacked, you know??”