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 Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 12:47 pm
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The bus was late again.
Again, the seventh time in the past four weeks. Alois tolerated it no better as the heinous infarctions on his sense of punctuality continued. In Germany, one schedules a business meeting at 7:00 AM. One doesn’t show up at 6:55, or 7:05 - one arrives at 7:00. Why couldn’t Americans establish this in their own timetables? If the bus listing, which he camped religiously now, listed the bus arrival time as 3:08 at this particular stop, what could possibly cause the driver to be 23 minutes late? He huffed, chewing his tongue.
Alois smoked his final cigarette earlier, and now needed this bus more than usual. No convenience store or smoke shop was within walking distance. Too many humans now congragated around the spot (forming a total of four - himself, some other kid, and a teenage couple). How was he to wait out an arrival at this rate, especially when his sense of arrival times was so viciously spat upon?
Hands balled into fists in the depths of his nazgul jacket. Alois cast his attention far beyond the group, to the other end of the street, where a man walking his dog simultaneously ate a hamburger. The dog pulled badly enough to warrant him eating while walking, apparently, and as pieces of the burger rolled down the front of his shirt to strke the pavement, the man made no efforts to stop his dog from eating the human food. Even when a piece of onion hit the ground -
Alois flinched visibly. „Yes, just poison ze dog. Not like you’re doing it any favors. Dumbass…“ He hissed lowly.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 7:52 am
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The bus was late again.
Three times that Jamie had counted, a fortunate disparity from seven. It was only recently he'd gotten out of the house again. Truthfully, he needed it. Both he and Shiloh needed the change.
While there was no denying he'd prefer the bus was on time—heck, even a few minutes late would've been better than 23, no, 24 now—Jamie wasn't the type to complain. With his nose in his DS, he idled the time away playing Harvest Moon. Another new day, his character woke with a yawn, shoving an entire sandwich into his mouth like it was nothing. He picked up his dog and left the house, smiling the smallest of smiles. Looked like the carrots were ready for harvest.
It was by some thread of fate Jamie set his virtual pet down at the same time Alois griped under his breath, close enough that it was audible regardless. The small, pink heart bubble pulsed above the dog's head and then-
"Yes, just poison ze dog."
Jamie's face went immediately red. He looked up, he looked at Alois, he looked away quickly as if he'd be scolded again for looking at all. That's when he saw the man and his dog, watched as another chunk of onion went tumbling with burger and cheese. He'd never owned a real dog in his life, he had no idea onion was toxic.
"What... did he do?" he asked before thinking twice, still pink cheeked, still confused, but newly curious.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 8:23 am
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If Alois passed judgment on the smaller man, he did not show it. Alois hardly spared him a look as he stared on toward the dog in question. „First, he’s being a complete ******** slob wis’ zat burger. Second, he’s letting ze dog eat ze parts zat fall on ze floor. Zere’s a lot of preservatives and bullshit in ze food here zat’s banned in Europe due to heals’ concerns, and if humans can’t eat it, dogs certainly haf’ no business wis’ it. And lastly, he’s letting zat dog eat ze onion, and onion is terribly poisonous to our four-footed friends.“ Fingers dug around in his pockets restlessly, searching for something to do while Alois glared daggers at the man across the street.
Oblivious, he thought. Ludicrous. Can’t animal control be called for unintentional dog poisoning? Maybe someone should come along and hand that man some rat poison to go with his fries.
„I can’t stand people,“ he blurted out at last and forced himself from watching. Attention turned to the bookbag hanging at his size and he rifled the front pockets carelessly. „Zey’re always ******** off about animal safety to begin wis’, or sitting on high horses proclaiming how much more zey know about animal safety zan ze next person. When will zey all realize zat ze only time animals will be safe from our bullshit tampering is when humans are eradicated from ze face of zis planet?“ Pocket booklets shuffled around, pens were disrupted, until he found a small bottle buried at the bottom. Pulling it, he realized it was the flask of Cognac he carried often, and took a quick sip of it. Afterward he continued his search for a second, smaller bottle, which he produced at last.
„Hitler should’f taken his crusade to all non-Germans, and saved us for last.“ The bottle tapped repeatedly against his palm. Discerning eyes would know it as nail polish. „Zen wis’ ze last one dead, he could shoot himself and finally zis planet can stop regretting our conception.“ Finally he drew the brush out, examined his nails, and started to paint.
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:26 am
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What Jamie expected was a brief explanation, the grief of a dog lover who hated to stand by and watch anyone wrong their pet, unknowingly or not. What Jamie got was way more than he could even properly process, anger and distaste not for ignorant pet parents alone, but apparently for everyone else on top of it. Once they reached Hitler-mention status, Jamie was sweating bullets and vaguely regretting his life choices.
Silence was his best answer for a long moment as Alois went on with polishing his nails. Jamie stood in awkward limbo between wanting to pretend he'd never asked his loaded question and knowing if the bus took much longer to show up he'd look unbelievably rude and obvious for ignoring him. Pursing his lips, he finally managed the guts to speak, but there was no doubt he was dancing around to avoid the figurative egg shells at his feet.
"It... c-can really suck when p-people don't even want to learn about the pets they keep." Except, Jamie had been there once. A long time ago when he was five, he'd known absolutely nothing about the goldfish he'd gotten. Now he knew so many ins-and-outs to raising fish that it legitimately bothered him how often people believed in the advertised falsehoods surrounding proper care. "P-People don't usually know a lot about keeping fish, either. T-T-They're not really, um, as simple as they seem." He paled, though. Did he sound high and mighty?
To try and mask his worries, he tacked on at the end, "Y-You, um, do you really like dogs...?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 11:58 am
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For everything Alois said, for all of his frustration, what Jamie latched onto firmly and unrelentingly was this: someone shot my dog. If most of the color had drained from his face before, he was white as a sheet now with knuckles to match as shaking fingers gripped his DS Lite, refusing to loosen. There was something horrific about knowing someone, anyone, could find it in themselves to kill an innocent animal.
For a short, cold moment, Jamie felt enough sickness in his stomach to wonder what it might be like to live that Sylvia Plath line, too.
"I-I..." he fought for words, "Someone... s-shot your dog? W-Why... why would they... d-do that?" It was hard enough losing his fish to old age or illness. It had been devastating losing Glubby, his oldest and sweetest goldfish, to ten long years of life. The hypothetical thought of coming home one day to find his parents had flushed a fish for no good reason... it would've destroyed him.
"I c-couldn't even... imagine," he whispered, slowly closing his DS with hands he'd forced into awkward steadiness. It made more sense now why Alois might be so angry, at least it made sense to Jamie. He chewed his tongue to keep from needlessly apologizing over something he had no hand in.
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