Chapter 39 - Super Tuff

Once Lucas and Jonathan have spent a bit more time earning the stray mutt's trust, Lucas tentatively lifts the gangly mid-sized pup up into a sort of half hug, half carry. The dog not only doesn't resist, but he even takes the initiative to climb up a bit and rest his head in the gap between Lucas's neck and left shoulder.

Having been accepted by the animal in his arms, Lucas internally melts a bit before standing back up. Unfortunately, during this process he gets a good strong whiff of eau de wet dog, significantly dampening the heart-warming atmosphere.

'Woo doggy, that's some powerful stuff. Poor thing doesn't seem wild, must have been abandoned...'

[Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that is no longer the situation.]

'Damn right. Off to go burn some more money.'

[...As long as you're happy.]

Once Lucas is fully upright, he and Jonathan have an awkward hand-off as Lucas manages to keep the mutt's rump supported on his lower left arm while reclaiming the bag of clothing. The poor little pooch gets startled a few times and jumps a bit, but mostly behaves.

[As funny as it is to observe this process, allow me to remind you that you're going to need to be able to scan your ID chip in order to go shopping.]

'...You could have said that sooner.'

[I was enjoying the show. Hey, I could have kept quiet.]

'Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll worry about it then. Oh, right, is Jon gonna get his own money now too? I'll just make him pay.'

[I assume 011 is handling it, but I'll go bring it up.]

As the duo plus dog walk over to the nearby pet store, Jonathan continues slowly feeding the dog over Lucas's shoulder with a few handfuls of fries. This, somehow, greatly pleases all three parties involved.

Shortly after entering the painfully generic pet store, a certain display of pet toys catches Lucas's attention. It's a large end-cap display with a slogan of 'Super-Tuff' in big bright letters. The shelves themselves are covered in a wide array of vaguely human-shaped chew toys.

Each toy has multiple defining features to indicate who it is meant to represent, while also managing to be wrong enough to count as being legally distinct. Barely. Each chew-doll has a numerical delineation for which model it is, the manufacturer didn't even bother coming up with knock-off names.

Target in his sights, Lucas makes a B-line over to the faux-villain toys with Jonathan following closely in tow. Once he's in melee range, he can't help cracking up laughing as he grabs a Black Ash Snow wannabe and clumsily offers it up to the pup leaning against his shoulder.

The doll's little dangling light brown braid gets a sniff, then the mutt's scrawny tail begins to wag a bit. Realizing the toy in front of him isn't being removed, the pup slowly bites his teeth around the doll's center mass and takes it from Lucas's hand.

The tail-wagging increases in intensity as the pup is content with simply holding the toy in his mouth as he continues to rest against Lucas's shoulder.

Lucas laughs a bit more, then gently pats the dog's back. Laughing along with him, Jonathan also grabs Josephine and Mind Flare's lookalikes.

[...You're going to show off these chew toys to their relevant inspirations, aren't you?]

'You betcha.'

As they go down the toy aisle, they also grab a short length of thick knotted rope, a large rawhide bone, and a comically large plush duck with a squeaker toy inside of it.

Thanks to the occasional whiff that Lucas catches from his companion, he manages to set a useful priority for once and goes over to get dog shampoo, as well as a bottle of medicated anti-flea bath.

Not content to stop here, they end up wandering through the entire store to continue shopping.

Throughout this bonus round spending spree, Lucas doesn't entirely take 427's earlier suggestion to heart and buys just about everything he can think of needing for the newest member of the family. He does still fully intend on buying the better quality versions from Faunahorde as well, but he writes it off as needing duplicates for the various upcoming apartments anyway.

Lucas stubbornly refuses to change his hold on the dog, using his right arm plus his restricted left hand to carry what he can. This turns into another round of awkwardly handing things back and forth with Jonathan as he manages anything with any real weight to it. The entire time, the pup merrily carries the Black Ash Snow doll in his mouth, never once loosening his hold.

Once they've finally ended up at the checkout kiosk, Lucas simply grins at Jonathan as the service bot scans in their selections.

'He get paid yet?'

[...Yes.]

"This one's on you, kiddo." As Lucas says this, Jonathan looks a bit startled for a moment, then his face takes on a vacant expression for a few seconds. He then looks startled yet again before breaking out in a huge grin.

"Oh, uh, sure. Yeah, I got this." Jonathan's typical awkward speech still somehow manages to convey how happy he is with his newfound financial discovery.

After everything else has been scanned and bagged, Lucas turns his back to the service bot so it can scan the toy that is still firmly secured in the dog's mouth. Given how smooth the motion is, this is probably not the first time the bot has done such a thing.

When it's time to scan for payment, Jonathan doesn't even bother looking at the total price. He has an extremely self-satisfied smile plastered on his face as he brings his right elbow up to the surface of the scanner. This smile somehow manages to spread even further when the tone for a successful payment chimes out.

Lucas slowly loops all of the numerous bags over his left wrist, managing to carry everything except for the larger-than-necessary plush dog bed. Since he wants to try and keep his right hand free, Lucas just dumps the upside-down bed on top of Jonathan's head, giving him a fashion-forward trendy new hat.

With this pricey detour complete, they finally get to continue the rest of their trek home uninterrupted. For the entire journey, Lucas never changes the dog's position, and the pup never adjusts his bite on the chew toy. Apparently, they are equally stubborn in odd ways.

Thanks to the sheer quantity of bags he has hanging from his left arm, Lucas has difficulty getting close enough to unlock the door. After a few failed attempts at reasonable positioning, he just sighs and hands the keys over to Jonathan.

In typical Jonathan fashion, he's initially startled by the keys being presented to him. Once he has accepted the solemn duty of opening the door, it isn't long before Lucas realizes he needs to actually give instructions.

"Oh, so that big silver one, yeah that one. It's for the top lock. All right, next is the black one…" As Lucas narrates the process of unlocking the door, Jonathan slowly accomplishes his task.

Once they're inside, Lucas still doesn't seem to be planning on letting the dog down just yet. He kicks his shoes off and carefully manages to unload all of the bags he is carrying onto the floor in the general vicinity of the coffee table.

"Once you finish locking back up, I got one last job for you tonight." While saying this, Lucas is down on his right knee, digging around in the pet store bags with his right hand. The little braid on the dog's chew toy occasionally tickles the back of his neck from the swaying motions of him rummaging through the bags.

Jonathan starts walking over to him, after taking off his shoes, of course. As he approaches, Lucas finds his objective and throws it at Jonathan. Jonathan fumbles a bit but does end up managing to get a hold of the dog shampoo bottle he was attacked with.

"You give him a bath, I'll get started on laundry. I'm pretty sure everything we brought home from MF's is full of concrete dust." Even as he gives this instruction, Lucas still doesn't look like he has any actual intention of letting go of the dog just yet. "Besides, he might not like water, you're gonna be better at catching him if he bolts."

Jonathan quietly shifts his gaze between the bottle in his hands, the dog looking at him over Lucas's shoulder, and then back down at his own concrete-dust-soiled clothing.

"Yeah, yeah, you can take the first shower once yer done. I'll leave the washer ready to go, just dump your clothes in and close it when you wash up. The water for the shower'll be fine even while it's runnin." As he's saying this, Lucas is walking over to the bathroom, intent on starting up the water for the pup's bath himself. He wouldn't want it to be too hot or too cold after all.

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Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 6

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 5.73 (+.01 +.01 = +.02 net change)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 4

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.54 (+.01 net change)

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, a bit confused: Um, if you're going over to the bathtub anyway, why give me the bottle?

Lucas is busy humming to himself as he fine-tunes the temperature of the water slowly filling up the tub, all while still holding the dog of course.

The pup, in a perpetual snuggle, and still gently holding the toy in his mouth: *Muffled happy bark*

427 continues to be rendered silent by Lucas's behavior.

Author, trying not to laugh: You're going to have to let go eventually, Lucas...

Mr. Quacks, asserting himself as the alpha-duck: Quack!