Lazy Dog (Force)

[robit]

The day was surprisingly bright ,but had a slight chill to the air. Leaves curled ,and danced in the wind outside as the wind caressed the earth. Trees tossed their leaves down readily to the earth, to set way for the winter months. Clouds swirled in the sky giving it a more grey than blue appearance that stung the eyes ,and repelled all the darkness from the mind. Large groups of birds twirled ,and curled in the air before landing in a set of trees to feed. Once they were done they would all take off at once ,and move to the next. The sound of chirping was carried away with the wind as a sharp gust seemed to blow all of them sideways before everything settled back down again. It was just a normal autumn day. Nothing special to say about it except the occasional gust of wind that would blow anyone off their feet if they were not expecting it. On these days, it was good time to just laze around.

Ace pushed his head against his paws with a deep sigh. His tail slowly curled around him in his sleepy daze. His ears would twitch every once ,and awhile as he dreamed deeply. A dream every dog enjoys. A dream of a land of nothing ,but steak. Juicy... juicy steak. Yum! Drool slowly dripped off his gooey jowls in this hazy state. His sense were overloaded by the smell of meat until something else seemed to creep into his senses. He sneezed ,and shook his head with in discomfort before blinking dazedly. It took a minute for his brown eyes to adjust to the lighting before they searched the room. Nothing... He was completely alone. So where would the smell had come from?

He slowly got up ,and shook himself lazily. The sound of his clicking paws resounded around the hall as he slowly turned towards the staircase ,and he walked up the stairs. His tail moved back ,and forth slowly as he went up the stairs, in tandem to his muscular rump. The crooked tip twitched every couple of seconds before he would look up ,and take another whiff of the scent. He sneezed at the sweetness before continuing his way up. As he got to the top he stopped ,and half cautiously looked around before putting his head down slightly ,and stalking forward.

The scent was getting stronger. He licked his jowls as drool continued to climb its way down to the floor. He came to a closed door ,and sniffed at the crack underneath the door. He let off a soft whine before standing back on both legs ,and pawing at the door with his ears cocked back. This annoyed him greatly. All doors were supposed to be left open for him to get through. He let off a loud bark along with a high pitched whine as he attempted to dig at the door as the scent came faster into his nostrils.

[Deleted]

Phoebe wakes up with a start, sitting up in bed before she's even aware that she's awake. What's that sound? Where is she? But it only takes her a few moments for her memory to catch up with the rest of her thoughts. Oh yeah, she's at Batman's place. She quickly looks around at the ridiculously large room, but she doesn't see anyone so she relaxes a bit. It's going to be awhile before she'll really feel safe here, but it's definitely going to be safer than at Victor's place. Probably.

But what is that noise? She hops out of bed and looks at the door, wondering what in the world all that scuffling is coming from. It isn't until she hears the bark and a whine that she realizes it's a dog. A very big dog by the sheer depth of the bark.

She hesitates for several moments, unsure what to do. Pets are a bit of a foreign thing to her; they were few and far between around the secret government bases she grew up in so she's not exactly sure how to act around them. They did bring her a few animals to see if she could read their minds, but that's usually too confusing to bother with - their heads are so full of senses that are so much sharper than her own that she can hardly make sense of them, and not very much by the way of the concrete thoughts she can find in a person. At best she can only get a vague idea of what they're thinking about, and it's only a little clearer than trying to go off of their body language.

Of course, just because being around a dog is an unusual thing for her doesn't mean that she's exactly scared of them, only that she's unsure of what to do. Especially if it's as big as it sounds. But she gradually moves a bit closer. Is it a friendly dog or a mean one? Based on Batman's temperament, she'd imagine a dog of his could go either way. Then again, Alfred didn't warn her about a dog and he's definitely the type of person who would have warned her about a mean dog.

Then again, better safe than sorry - before she opens the door, she takes the precaution of putting up one of her invisible telekinetic barriers around herself. If the dog wants to investigate the guest room which has now become hers, she doesn't mind at all, but if he tries to touch her he'll find himself abruptly stopped a few inches short of touching her. At least until she can decide how scary he is or not. Once the barrier is in place, she also uses her telekinesis to turn the doorknob to let the dog in, standing well clear of the doorway.

[robit]

As Ace pounded his large weight on the door one more time, it was opened ,and he was left to tumble inside clumsily. He landed on his side while making an 'oomph' sound while his ears flopped over his eyes. He laid there dazed for a couple of minutes before shaking his ears out of his eyes. He stood up lazily ,and studied the girl with the an attentive gaze. His tail slowly started to wag back ,and forth at the child in front of him. Thick drool slowly formed large spirals to the ground as he stood there. He sniffed the air before backing away from the girl ,and going to explore the room. He kept his nose to the ground while he sniffed every square inch of the room. His tail moved back ,and forth in a slow wag.

When he was done, he pushed himself back ,and licked his sticky jowls. He let off at a soft whine at the girl ,and sniffed at her. He could sense that something was off around the girl, so going up to try ,and lick her did not seem like a very smart idea at the moment. He blinked slowly with an almost contemplative look on his features. Intelligence was something that he had a lot of, his master demanded it of him. At the young age of three he had the common sense of a much older dog. So naturally he was a little bit loopy when it came to getting closer to the girl.

He let off a snort ,and proceeded to the bed ,and jumped up on it. His tags jingled on the take off ,and he let off a hardy grunt as he did this action. He sniffed where she slept ,and found it still warm. He pawed at the covered ,and seemed to be pushing them down further for some strange reason. He tilted his head to the side ,and in a comedic fashion fell on his side to lay in the warm spot she had left. His ears fell over his eyes again ,and as he let off a loud snort it made one of them flop up in the air.

He then started to roll back ,and forth. The sheets slowly started to surround him ,and before he knew it, he was in the warmth off the bed. He let off the soft whine at the girl as if he was beckoning her to join him. She was warm ,and probably would be something enjoyable to lay on top of.

[Deleted]

When the dog stumbles in, Phoebe can't help but stare at it. Yep, that's a big dog, all right! In spite of the fact that she knows she's being protected by her barrier, she finds herself stepping backward a little, just to give him plenty of space. She watches him closely, but she just doesn't know very much about dogs and therefore has trouble figuring out why he's doing what he's doing. But a wagging tail is supposed to be a good sign, right?

The room probably doesn't smell that unusual. Alfred and Batman came in briefly the night before, but other than that it's only been Phoebe. Of course, she probably still smells very much of Victor's apartment, but she doubts that a dog would really understand any of what that really means other than the fact that she's just new. She watches the dog's inspection, standing there a bit awkwardly because she's unsure of what to do with herself.

Though she has half a mind to object when the dog jumps up on the bed and starts to make himself at home there. Hey, she was just sleeping there! Then again, given how much the large beast drools, she supposes that she's up for the day anyway. She's not sleeping in that! And though she's able to get a vague impression that the dog would like her to come closer between his thoughts of warmth and the whine, she's definitely not liking that idea.

Instead she figures that perhaps she ought to venture out and find Alfred. Likely the man will be able to get the dog out of her bed, change the sheets or something, and get her some breakfast. Or lunch maybe? What time is it anyway? She was up rather late the night before so she could have easily slept in. After a moment she finally spots a clock above the fireplace - about 10:45am. Brunch, then!

Still eying the dog, Phoebe starts for the door, hoping that he won't follow. The last thing she wants is a giant dog complicating the process of attempting to find a person in this ridiculously large and unfamiliar house.

[robit]

As he watched the girl study him, he could sense that she was very uncomfortable with his present. Well, that was going to change right quick. The girl was a good opportunity for a new source of food, warmth ,and even a buddy. As she moved towards the door, he slowly slid off the bed ,and followed after the child. He let off an annoyed "hurrmppfff" sound as he moved. He was not thrilled about the fact that he was moved from the warm bed. His tail was pushed against his rump as he followed her.

He licked his jowls again ,and shook himself which caused the gooey substance to fly all around the room ,and most likely on the child if she still did not have her barrier up. He pushed past the girl ,and moved into the hallway before looking back ,and forth a couple of times before looking back at her. His tail slowly wagged back ,and forth. He could sense she was most likely hungry from the nice, long sleep he had awoken her from, so he thought best to lead her to the kitchen. Ace perked up his ears ,and let off a soft whine as the images of food ,and kitchen evaded his mind.

He went up to the girl ,and attempted to push her with his nose to lead her towards the kitchen. He let off another whine ,and pushed against the barrier even harder. He attempted this until he found an idea for a different tactic. He backed up a bit ,and romped back ,and forth barking at the girl. His tail shook in a whirlwind back ,and forth ,and the crooked tip seemed to give it a strange swirling motion, 'Follow..followw', came from his thoughts in a coherent form.

He finally stopped ,and tilted his head to the side ,and waited for the child to respond to him. It should have been easy to see that he wanted to lead her towards food, well, maybe to a dog person ,but he could sense something different about this girl. She had a different scent than most ,and she had a different feel about her. No matter. She was still a guest ,and if she was hungry then he would lead her towards food.

[Deleted]

When she hears the dog leaving the bed, Phoebe immediately stops walking. Great, not only did he drool on her bed, he's following her around now? Looking back at him, she's just in time to see a bit of slobber flying in her direction. It hits her barrier and just kind of hangs in the air there. Ewww! Ew, ew, ew, EW, Ew, ew! Perhaps the dog would be offended that she found it so disgusting if he knew that it was only a few months ago that she was living in the filthy streets of east Gotham and learned to not have a problem with that, but that had been good old-fashioned dirt for the most part and not something falling out of a dog's mouth. And even then she'd kept herself out of direct contact from it as much as possible.

Shifting her barrier to allow the absolutely disgusting substance fall to the floor - ew! - she watches him head ahead of her. His attempts to push her are entirely ineffective - her barrier is even more solid and immovable than a concrete wall. Which is fortunate, since she suspects that the dog is at least double her weight and she's not that strong. Of course, given her telekinesis, she doesn't really have to be. And she's not really sure what to make of his attempts in the first place - is he trying to knock her over or something?

Though when the dog sees the futility of that and tries to actually communicate she can finally get some sense of what he wants. He wants her to follow him? Exactly why is a bit harder for her to understand, though she eventually guesses that he wants to be fed. Well, he's not her dog, so she's not going to do that!

"Um... nice dog?" she says, trying to sound friendly but not fully succeeding since she's still not completely sure that he is. And instead of going toward him, she instead turns and starts heading the other way, figuring that as far as she knows Alfred could be in any direction so any way is as good as any other. And if it turns out to be the way the dog wants her to go, she's guessing that in a building this size there will be an alternate way of getting there.

[robit]

Okay, this girl was not taking the hint. He bounded a couple of steps in front of her ,and barked at her loudly. He took a wide stance to his build ,and his tail slowly raised with a slight wag. Drool slowly started to pool around his jowls again. He licked them which made his whole face crinkle. She was going the wrong way. She would be searching around the place for hours if she went this way. His ears perked forward, 'Wrong way.. wrong way.. kitchen other way', the words ,and images were slowly connected together as he stared at the girl.

He was desperate so he did something that he rarely ever did. He fell over ,and slowly rolled on his back which made all the wrinkles on her face gravitate towards the ground. He looked like a large mass of whimpering wrinkles at this point. His tail slowly wagged back ,and forth as he pushed his paws in the air ,and let off a deep ruff. This successfully made all of the wrinkles vibrate in tandem.

He let off another soft whimper before looking at her through narrowed eyes. Her slowly rolled back on his stomach ,and he laid down with his head on the floor. His head between his paws ,and his eyes looking up at her in a pleading way. Her let off a snort which made his jowls jiggle ,and jump a bit. His tail gently thumped against the floor. Please understand.

He was a very desperate dog at this point. Her let off another high pitched whine, 'PLEASEEEE', he screamed mentally.

[Deleted]

When the dog moves ahead of her as if to block her path, Phoebe frowns stubbornly. "Find someone else to feed you!" she tells it, annoyed now. She's not trying to find the kitchen, she's trying to find Alfred. Sure, she's hungry, but she's not going to go rummage through someone else's kitchen without permission. Especially not with this dog following her around. No, she needs to find the good butler - he can help her get something to eat. And, perhaps more importantly, get this dog to stop bothering her.

Of course, the dog can hardly know of her past and all the reasons she so reflexively resists being told what to do. Especially from some large animal she just met. She sets her jaw and eyes him as he turns into a whimpering mass on the floor. Well, if her simply not going the way he wants is enough to make him do that, maybe her response to it will be enough to send him running with his tail between his legs. Or at least she can hope.

Pausing a moment in concentration, she carefully uses her telekinesis on herself. It's a tricky thing because she's pretty much picking herself up and that's somewhat disorienting, but she's a lot better at it than she used to be. Fortunately, the ceilings in this place are ridiculously high, so she doesn't have to worry about bumping her head as she lifts herself high enough to be out of the dog's reach. Then she pushes herself forward so that she can lift herself past him without giving him a chance to get in her way again.

[robit]

Now this made the hound very interested in what this girl or at least who she was. Her jumped up, and let off a very excited bark with his tail wagging. Her jumped up in the air, and tried to paw her ,but she was to far up for him to reach. Only by a couple of inches the girl was out of his reach. Ace knew he could easily jump a good eight feet ,but the top of the hall was a lot high than her could ever imagine to climb. His tail whipped back, and forth while he was in the air ,and the gooey jowls, and moosh that flopped off of them. The wrinkle roles lifted, as he opened his mouth to make him almost seem like a Sharpay in appearance before gravity took hold once again.

He fell from the air, and landed on his back legs first with a click before his front came down in a big bang. The wrinkles caught up to the dog, and jiggled all over the animal before her pushed his rump down, and got ready to bound after the girl. Her burst off, and chased after her barking every couple of seconds as he looked up at her in an excited way. His tags jingled back, and forth as he went, in tandem with his crooked tail.

He went faster, and faster as he chased after her. He was basically right below her as she tried to evade the large pooch. Ohhh.. this was a fun 'game.'

[Deleted]

Though she's not concerned at all when the dog jumps, the sudden level of excitement the dog shows is greatly concerning to Phoebe. Especially when he starts chasing her and staying right beneath her. She's always been a very shaky flyer, so having him right beneath her is a huge concern. In fact, it scares her more than she'd be willing to admit. Why won't this stupid dog just leave her alone?!

Then again, she's not a kid that tends to remain scared for very long - at least not about physical things. She is, after all, incredibly capable with her telekinesis in spite of her young years - being raised by a government who wants you ready to fight for them as quickly as possible does that to a kid. So she only has a very brief moment of panic before she figures out how to get herself out of this tricky situation.

Stopping herself in midair, she first shifts the invisible shield around herself into a flat, invisible barrier directly beneath her - protection in case the dog tries to jump again and goes higher than expected. Flat barriers are a lot easier than pretty much anything else, as she's far more limited in her abilities by what she can hold in her head than she is by exactly what she's doing with her power. Once that's in place she makes another one, vertical this time, ahead of the dog in the hallway - being sure that it's big enough to cut off the entire hallway except where it meets up with her first barrier. That neatly allows her to move forward while preventing the dog from following her as she moves ahead herself. Will he bump into the invisible wall she's made? Not knowing how well he sensed her barrier before, she has no idea. And frankly she doesn't care anymore at this point.

And the first thing she does once she's passed the dog is land on the other side of the wall, feeling very relieved the moment her feet are back on the floor. That was scary, entirely unfun, and she hopes that she never has to do that again!

[robit]

Ace did not have time to skid to a stop as the shield was put up in front of him causing to slam face first into the unforgiving barrier. He fell back on her paws, and quivered with a distant look in his eye before his back legs gave out, and he fell to the floor with a loud thud. All of the wrinkles, and fat jiggled as his body settled back into a state of rest. His tail did not move, and his mouth was open in an almost horrific fashion. His eyes slowly became dead. It was almost scary to watch how such a creature could be stunned in such a way.

He came back to life slowly. His paws twitched, then his legs, his tail wiggled slightly before his eyes slowly started to refocus themselves. Ace let off a moaning, and pained noise as his mind slowly seemed to come back from darkness. He slowly attempted to get up, but found that one of his back legs were messed up. Her let off a high pitched whine, and fell back down. The run in with the wall messed up the dog's overall bone structure. Large dogs had common problems with such things, but a hard smack to the skeletal structure could possibly knock a limb out of its socket, namely his back leg.

He twitched the leg, and it flopped painfully. The dog attempted to get back up again, but he fell again. Before long he did figure out how to get up, but his one leg hung there in a useless fashion while he attempted to stumble along with the others. It was not affective. Every couple of seconds he let of a determined whimper to find help, and stay away from the girl.

[Deleted]

Mostly concerned with her own nerves, it isn't until Phoebe hears a pained moan that she thinks to check on the dog. And she frowns deeply when she sees it laying on the floor and apparently having trouble getting up. She may be very powerful, but she's always very careful not to hurt anyone on accident and not to hurt them too badly even when she's hurting them on purpose.

Of course, she doesn't really know very much about dogs - a person wouldn't have gotten more than a bump running into her barrier, or else she wouldn't have put it up in the first place. And she certainly didn't mean to hurt the dog - yes she was quite upset and even a bit scared, but she knows better than to harm something for that reason.

Then again, she's still a little girl and reacts to this accident the same way any little girl would. "Don't look at me like that, it's not my fault!" she tells it, backing away a little with a mixture of anger and shame. She doesn't know what to do to help its injury - she wasn't trained in human first aid, let alone in how to help a dog. So all she can really do is stare at it helplessly and try to figure out what she should do now. But she has no idea where Alfred or anyone else is in this big house.

And what if they get mad at her for hurting their dog? She can't imagine that they'd keep such a troublesome beast around if they weren't fond of it. They'd better not get mad at her - it was an accident, after all. It's not her fault that their stupid dog thought it was a good idea to chase her while she was flying. She sniffles and wipes a tear from her cheek, not knowing what else to do but sulk for the moment. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone, you stupid dog?!" she mutters, crossing her arms against herself and trying to decide whether she ought to try to go find someone or if it's better if she stays here and hopes that someone finds them.

[robit]

Noticing the tears made the mastiff turn on his rump, and stare. He turned around, and limped back over to the barrier, and stared at her more before he finally let his front end go down before his rump following to lay down on his side without putting any pressure on his leg. Her let off a snort, and just stared at her. He would not leave a crying girl. He somewhat wished she would get over herself, and help him, but he doubted she would.

The girl seemed to be caught up in the fact that it was not her fault. Even though it was he just sat there calmly, and licked his nose. His large eyes stared up at her with a calm expression on his features. He was trying to comfort her the best way her could at this distance. He had done nothing to hurt the child yet he comes back in attempt to comfort. His tail lay flat against the floor as he slowly blinked as he put his head in his paws.

He licked his jowls before putting his head to the side, and sighing in a very human way. It was almost a scolding sigh that he gave her as his leg twitched in pain every couple of seconds ,but he ignored it for now.

[Deleted]

If the dog assumes that Phoebe can be any help at all with his problem just because she's a human, then he's sadly mistaken. Perhaps people have a godlike ability to solve problems from the perspective of a dog, but this one in particular happens to be a young one. One that has no idea what to do, and a child's natural instinct in this sort of situation is to find an adult to help them. It's not so much selfishness as it is that she assumes that she's helpless to do anything to fix the problem without someone to help her, and as there doesn't appear to be anyone around to help the problem is obviously unsolvable and there's nothing she can do about it but cry.

And it's also only natural for anyone with her past to be very quick to blame anybody else for this having happened. Because if she didn't, then she'd have to blame herself and she already blames herself for causing too many people too much pain. What a thing to happen first thing in the morning! And she's feeling miserable enough about it that when she sees through her tears the look that the dog is giving her, she frowns and mumbles, "Don't look at me like that, either!" Knowing that a hurt dog pities her only makes the situation seem that much worse.

Fortunately, she's not as alone as she feeling at the moment, as shortly thereafter there's the sound of quick footsteps coming down the hallway behind Ace. The girl doesn't hear them immediately, but when they come close she looks up and is relieved to see Alfred. "Oh dear, it appears that we're having a bad morning, Miss Force?" he asks, even though that's blatantly obvious.

[robit]

As soon as he heard Alfred he slowly lifted his head, and sniffed the air. He lowered his head again to just stare for a couple of moments before he hoisted himself into a standing position with his leg still stuck out strangely. His head did a tilt, and he licked his jowls before letting off a low whine at the man. His tail slowly wagged as he took a couple of staggering steps forward to push his head into Alfred's leg.

His tail tucked slightly, and he continued his wagging tail as he slobbered on the man's pant leg. He looked up at the man with oily eyes, and he blinked with large eyes. Ace tilted his head once again before he slowly slid back down on his side. Her puffed out air making all of his wrinkles shake in unison before he settled back.

He wanted his leg fix so badly. It felt somewhat numb at the moment, and it may hurt going back in, but she wished that it would just get cracked back into place so the annoyance would be fixed. He let off a sigh, and waited for his friend to help him with his little problem.