Chapter 40 - Bark!

As the bathtub slowly fills with water set to a satisfactory temperature, Lucas finally comes to terms with the fact that he has to actually stop holding the dog. He slowly crouches down, lowering himself to sit on the edge of the large white tub.

"All right buddy, down you go." As Lucas lowers the pup onto the bathroom's white tile floor, the dog's scrappy tail is happily wagging away while he looks up at Lucas.

Once all four of his little paws are firmly on the ground, Lucas finally releases him and leans back a bit. With the clean white tiles serving as his background in the well-lit bathroom, the dog's filthy state is even clearer than ever.

"Sheesh, you're all limbs. You've gotta have more than just a little Greyhound in ya. Eh, good, you and Jon should have fun zooming around together." As Lucas continues speaking to the pup in front of him, the dog tilts his head a bit, still firmly biting onto the toy that is larger than his head.

[Not that you've said anything to be worried about, but do keep in mind that you are planning on bringing him to a supervillain that can speak with him.]

'Mmm, and I can ask Dan to ask him about the bastard that ditched him in an alley. I'll happily go punch the jerk in the face for him.'

[...I'm fairly certain that vigilante justice on behalf of a stray dog would cause a GDV penalty.]

'Yeah, yeah, yeah.'

While Lucas is occupied with talking to 427, the dog has walked over to the edge of the tub next to Lucas. He stands up on his hind legs to get a good look into the tub that is about one-third of the way full of water. With a burst of high-energy tail-wagging, he goes back over to stand directly in front of Lucas. Rearing up on his hind legs again, he headbutts Lucas in the stomach and drops the toy on his lap. After backing up again, he sits down on his butt a small distance in front of Lucas. Between how rapidly his scrawny tail is wagging and the small prancing steps of his front paws, it's pretty clear he's excited for bath time.

As Lucas snaps back to reality from the pup's actions, he can't help grinning at the dog, reaching forward to rub his ears a bit.

"Well, seems I don't have to worry about you not likin' water, eh?" While Lucas is saying this as he stands up, Jonathan has entered the bathroom. He's carrying a stack of towels in his recently washed hands as well as the dog shampoo bottle and an empty large plastic cup.

"Huh? Oh, good. Geeze, he really is filthy." Once Jonathan also gets a good look at the pupper in the bright environment, he does a bit of a double-take. After setting what he's carrying on the vanity counter, Jonathan does his best to step to the side to give Lucas room to move past. He is effectively silently declaring that Lucas should hurry up and get out of the way, he's got work to do.

The mutt looks at Jonathan for a moment, then turns his attention back to Lucas, prancing in place a few more times. Both humans present can't help laughing at the cute display.

Lucas gets the hints from the two others and finally goes to leave the bathroom, with the Black Ash Snow chew toy of questionable legality in hand. After just a few steps past Jonathan, he stops and looks back at the almost-patiently waiting dog.

"Go on buddy, get in. Jon'll take care of ya." While Lucas can't resist talking to the dog, even though he doesn't expect him to understand, it turns out he does. Barely a second after Lucas finishes saying this, the pupper is up and over the edge of the tub, starting to splash around.

Now Lucas and Jonathan are both frozen in place, shocked.

"Um, did he just... Understand what you said?" Jonathan keeps looking alternately between Lucas and the playful dog that is rolling around in the water. Once he has finished asking his question, the pup stops for a moment and barks once, his narrow snoot sticking out over the edge of the tub pointing directly at him.

'!!??'

[Oh... Boss System never bothered working out configurations for getting a reliable read on animals, thanks to such variable standard physical conditions and whatnot. While I'm not aware of any confirmed cases of animals with superpowers, it's theoretically possible. Of course, a normal dog can understand an extent of human language but... That seemed fairly clear. There aren't any intelligence supervillains nearby, so if he's an abandoned experiment or escapee, he has traveled quite far.]

'Oh... My... GOD!!!'

Lucas dashes back over next to the tub, nearly bowling Jonathan over in the process and kneeling down while holding the edge of the tub.

"Hey, hey, how many fingers am I holding up?" With an immense amount of excitement in his voice, Lucas holds 2 fingers up over the edge of the tub. The dog stops his playful splashing and sits down while facing Lucas, his happily wagging tail noisily sloshing the water in the tub back and forth. Looking up at Lucas's hand while tilting his head, the dog barks twice at him.

Jonathan sucks in a sharp gasp, Lucas outright squeals like a schoolgirl.

"You're not just a good boy, you're a smart boy too!!!" Lucas is positively beside himself with sheer joy at this discovery. He excitedly smacks the edge of the tub a few times, quickly making a few alarming spiderweb cracks on its surface before realizing he should calm down.

He loudly clears his throat as he tries to compose himself, and he is even somewhat successful.

"Would you like to stay with us for a little while? I think you've been doing one bark for yes so far?" Lucas tentatively continues questioning the pup, Jonathan is just standing a few steps back and quietly watching, too stunned to give much of a reaction.

The mutt gives a single bark, waits a few moments, and then gives another single bark to indicate two separate answers.

Lucas makes an excited high-pitched noise in his throat, resisting the urge to smack the edge of the tub some more.

Jonathan's curiosity has completely surpassed his other emotions so he has come over, closed the lid on the toilet, and sat down on it while also facing the dog in the tub.

"Do you, um, do you know who Black Ash Snow is?" As Jonathan falteringly asks his own question, he points at the chew toy that is still being held by Lucas. Getting a single bark in reply, he continues. "Have, have you met him before?"

This time, he gets two barks in response. Strangely enough, this makes Lucas and Jonathan even more excited.

"Would you like to? Then we could talk for a bit?" When Lucas asks this, the pup stands up, his high-speed tail-wagging spraying water around as he gives the loudest bark yet.

"Alright, great, we totally can! Me and Jon have a few things we need to do first, but we can go visit him tomorrow... Like lunchtime? Oh, we should think about what to talk about, we can't expect him to just translate everything for us. We're probably pushing it by just asking him to do it in the first place… Heheh." While Lucas has a huge grin while planning out the adjusted itinerary, the dog spins in a small circle, hops, and then paws at the still-running water spout.

In their excitement, the tub is now a bit more filled up than they probably should have gone for.

"Oh shit, sorry." Lucas reaches over and turns off the spout, then hesitates a bit. "All right, you probably want to actually get that bath, huh? Eh, it still makes more sense for Jon to do it instead of me… Bah, I'll go start that laundry. We'll have plenty of time to talk later, yeah?" As Lucas regretfully makes the logical choice, he gets up to leave again.

The dog barks up at him, once he has Lucas's attention he sticks his nose in the water briefly and then lifts his head, licking the air.

"Oh, something to drink? Yeah, I wouldn't want to drink what you're standing in either. Gimme a minute, I'll get you some." Now that Lucas has a dog-related mission, he stops dragging his feet so much as he finally leaves the bathroom.

Jonathan watches Lucas's retreating back and sighs softly, shaking his head. Chuckling a bit, he brings out Mr. Quacks to keep them company through bathtime.

Once he's all ready to go, he grabs the dog shampoo bottle and cup he had prepared and gets to work.

"And here I thought he was spoiling me too much…" Jonathan mutters to himself as he starts lathering up some shampoo, the dog quietly barks at him in response, twice.

Greatly amused, Jonathan's smile grows even brighter as begins providing a deep-cleaning service for the cooperative doggo before him.

Before very long, Lucas has come back with a chilled water bottle, a room temperature water bottle, and a wide, shallow bowl. He sets the two bottles on the edge of the tub, pointing at them in order.

"This one was in the fridge, this one is just room temperature, which would you like?" As Lucas asks, the dog sits quietly for a few moments, clearly debating its preference. When he finally comes to a decision, he pokes the chilled bottle with his nose.

Lucas chuckles a bit as he opens it up and pours some in a bowl, holding it so that the mutt can drink his fill without getting any soap or bath water in it.

"Oh yeah, you want anything to drink Jon?" When Lucas absentmindedly asks this, Jonathan bursts out laughing.

"I'll, heh, I'll just take the other bottle, thanks. Could you um, could you put it on the counter, for now though?" As Jonathan responds, Lucas simply nods, still watching to see if the doggo is satisfied yet.

Once the pupper has had his fill of water, Lucas begrudgingly goes about being a responsible adult, constantly checking in on them to see if the dog needs anything, oh, or Jonathan.

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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: 5.75 (+.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: 1.55 (+.01 net change)

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, managing to get shampoo bubbles all over himself even though the pup was 100% cooperative: Eheh, oops.

Lucas, after putting one (1) single de-tagged shirt into the washer: Hey, you guys good?

Soapy pupper, happy as can be: Bark!

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

Author, quietly, so Lucas can't actually hear: You know, the dog is actually smarter than you are Lucas...

Mr. Quacks, happy to have screen time again: Quack!