The Park, Monday Afternoon

[justlurkinghere]

Derek had taken his dog for a walk this afternoon. You know, like a normal person would. Nothing weird or creepy about it.

Until he found himself surrounded by miniature sized reindeer.

This goddamn island.

Puppy Joe was attempting to wrestle one to the ground like the fierce warrior he was. Mostly he just succeeded in chewing on its ear. The reindeer just made a plaintive noise before flopping on the dog for snuggling.

[[Open!]]

Comments

[not_mandonna]

So Max? Deliberately walking through the park? Never.

Except today, because it looked like some dogs were fighting and that was maybe something to watch. Then he spotted that it was actually a dog and a tiny reindeer, which was definitely something to watch, but it also happened that this was occuring right next to that guy that Max had, uh, sort of sexually harassed that one time?

Eh. This reindeer thing still looked like quality entertainment, so he was just going to disregard that.

"Yo," he said with a nod of hello. "Which one's yours?"

That was a joke.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek, on the other hand, was going to glare at him for taking advantage of his greyscale stupidity. Dick.

"The one that's winning." How did one win at cuddling, Derek? Inquiring minds want to know.

[not_mandonna]

Max eyed Puppy Joe. Then back to Derek.

Then back to Puppy Joe. "...It's kind of fluffy."

No judgment, though!

Okay, there was some judgment.

[justlurkinghere]

"So?" THAT DIDNT MAKE HIM ANY LESS FIERCE.

[not_mandonna]

Max paused to consider how to delicately word the source of his puzzlement here. "Kind of a weird dog choice, don't you think?"

CONSIDERING THAT DEREK DIDN'T LOOK LIKE A SNUGGLER.

[justlurkinghere]

DEREK SNUGGLED ALL THE TIME. ALL THE TIME.

"It's a dog. They're all about the same." And Puppy Joe was too dumb to be spooked by the big, bad wolf.

[not_mandonna]

Max wasn't so sure about that. "I don't know, there are dogs who can look pretty kickass in a spike collar," he observed. "This dog, put him in a spike collar and he'd look ridiculous."

[justlurkinghere]

"Why would I put a dog in a spiked collar? It could stab itself." Legit concern when you had a dog.

[not_mandonna]

"...Well, I just thought they looked cool." Max wasn't really a big thinker. "Whatever, he's still fluffy."

[justlurkinghere]

"Healthy diet." REALLY, DEREK?

Puppy Joe disentangled himself from the reindeer to investigate the strange new person. Because he was adorable.

[not_mandonna]

"Hey, buddy," Max said to the dog, holding a hand out for Puppy Joe to sniff. "It's true, I'm way cooler than some random reindeer, huh?"

That poor reindeer. HE JUST WANTED LOVE.

[justlurkinghere]

The dog responded by attempting to chew on Max's fingers until a whistle from Derek had Puppy Joe sitting at attention.

See, he was an awesome alpha.

"They're deer. They're just lucky they aren't in his next meal."

[not_mandonna]

"Yeah, man, I can tell he's super fierce," Max said totally sarcastically. DEREK, HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR DOG?

But he did give his lightly gnawed-upon fingers a cursory glance before admitting, "Although clearly he does like to bite things."

[justlurkinghere]

THAT DOG WAS VICIOUS.

"He's a puppy still." That was the answer to both complaints.

[not_mandonna]

Hey, hey, not complaints! More like... observations.

"So would you estimate that he's going to grow up to be some scrappy attack dog?" Max inquired. "I'm just spitballing here."

[justlurkinghere]

"He doesn't need to," Derek replied, glaring down at a reindeer and sending it running to hide behind Max.