fandomtownies | Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [07/29].

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [07/29].

There were many things about being a nearly ten-foot-tall giant shark person that made life on a very small island a little difficult, but it also had quite a few benefits, too. For one thing, Sidon could not be easily lost in a crowd, and if anyone needed to reach anything on a high shelf, he was more than happy to oblige. But it also made it exceptionally easy to work on rearranging all the various platforms and ledges scattered on the walls of the shelter for the cats to enjoy and climb up on.

Sidon was spending a little extra time today adding a few new ledges and little hanging cubbies for the cats, many of who rather seemed to enjoy climbing from the ledges, onto him, which meant that his broad shoulders and even the top of his head were also providing platforms for these cats as he moved about with his 'remodeling.'

Eventually, though, he had to let them all down, because the little nibbles and confused, tentative licks that still felt that Sidon was food made it difficult to work. They didn't hurt, of course, but sometimes, it did kind of tickle, which seemed dangerous when one was wielding a hammer and nails.

Furnado is open!

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Yeah, Steph was in need of a cute fuzzy distraction and since Saffron didn't like her enough to be that on days when she wasn't mad that her humans were being weird at each other and therefore depriving her of all the attention that was her due, off to the shelter to look at the cats it was.

It had nothing to do with being away from the store just so Vi wouldn't feel weird about her being there when she showed up for game night, shut up.

"Hello?"

Well, if there was one thing Furnado had in spades, it was cute fuzzy distraction!

And also large, overly-enthusiastic sharkmen, but sometimes, that just couldn't be helped.

Sidon had just finished managing to get a cat off the top of his head and onto one of the newly arranged platforms on the wall when he heard the call out for a greeting, and, in turning his head and having the tail of his head fin go flying behind him, managed to catch the attention of three more cats who would leaping off their purchases and dutifully following the fish-shaped movement in hopes to potentially, on day, eat it.

The amount of danger the employees of this animal shelter were under on a daily basis was astonishing, really.

"Hello!" Sidon greeted back with a bright, tooth smile and an inviting, albeit somewhat looming, opening of his arms. "Welcome to Furnado Animal Shelter! How may I be of service?"

Hey, the large, overly enthusiastic sharkmen weren't a problem as far as Steph was concerned. Though she might be a little concerned about whether Sidon was safe from the cats now.

She shrugged, looking around with a genuine if very faint smile. (She was too much of a cat person to not be at least a little cheered up by them, especially when they were being this cute with the antics.)

"I really just came to hang out with the animals a little bit," she admitted. "If that's okay."

They hadn't managed to take him down yet! And, if the small bite-shaped chuck taken out that headtail was any indication, things far worse than a few hungry cats had certain tried and failed before!

"Oh," Sidon said, "but of course! We love it when people come around to hanging out with the animals for a little bit! They do ever so much appreciate the company, and I've noticed," just like he noticed the faintness of Steph's smile there, and his own softened a little bit, "that the people who offer that company rather seem to enjoy it as well! You are most certainly welcome to come, entertain, and be entertained to your very heart's content!"

"Cool," Steph replied. "Saffron's a great store cat, but she's not super social, at least with me. It'd be nice to hang out with cats who might actually want to be around me for a change."

Just cats. This statement had nothing at all to do with people.

"These cats," Sidon assured her with a faint chuckle, "are incredibly friendly."

Granted, his perspective on that was a little bit skewed, because he was constantly being followed by a whole trail of them, even though their intentions were not nearly as friendly as he seemed to believe they were.

Case in point, a few of them were circling around his feet just now, as they spoke, one of them even reaching up with one paw while using Sidon's leg for support. "Ah, yes!" he beamed down at the cat before scooping it up in his arms and then cradling it like a baby before it shifted, going for his shoulder and then climbing up onto it, sniffing him all the while. "You see? Very social, very personable! Or well, at least a good number of them. We certainly have all types!

"Perhaps," he suggested, "we might be able to find something that might inspire your cat to be a bit more outgoing when you're around? There's certainly no lack of things to keep a cat happy and entertained here!"

It was weirdly like hearing the Mandibles theme played backwards, was what it was.

"That would be nice. She's... a little short on entertainment lately," Steph said, absently tugging at the hem of her tank top -- she was assuming Vi had snuck it into her clean clothes at some point, since she'd never seen it before, and the scale armor pattern was cool even though it seemed like Vi had missed a spot while making it. "I don't mind if she doesn't want a whole lot of attention from me, but that just means I need more shit to keep her occupied."

She kind of remembered getting an earful from Saffron while she was a cat, something about how she was supposed to be the Food Human but then she had the nerve to stop being a human and usurp even more of Snuggle Human's time and attention than she already did.

Sidon's hand went to his chin thoughtfully, as he considered Steph for a moment, and what she was telling him, then he tilted his head. "Is she a younger cat?" he wondered. "Or an older one? Or perhaps something in between?"

And maybe it was the adjustment that Steph had made, or perhaps it was merely that Sidon was, in general, not very used to noticing clothes on people since he didn't have much use for them himself, but it was in that thoughtful consideration that he had now noticed it and, once he did, he couldn't help a smile blossoming on his face anew.

"And, I daresay," he remarked, "that shirt looks terribly familiar! Pardon me for straying from the point, but it almost looks like..."

With that, he trailed off slightly, leaning down a little as if to have a better look...which was definitely an interesting experience for the cat on his shoulder, which meowed in protest of the sudden moment.

And then meow again and clung on for dear life when Sidon straightened back up with a triumphant sounding laugh. "Why, yes, I'm almost sure of it! That looks like one of the shirts we made for my class the other week! I almost didn't notice at first! Spectacular!"

"Well, I think she's like four or five, not sure what that is in people years," Steph began before what Sidon was saying about the shirt sank in and yeah, that made a couple of things click in her brain.

She glanced down at the scale patterned tank top, then let herself be distracted by kitty antics for a moment or two before huffing a laugh. "You make some pretty rad things in your class, kind of wish I'd signed up for it," she said. In between the shirt and the bracelet -- bracelets, if she counted the one from Vi's shirt pocket -- she'd gotten some nice stuff out of it. "I'm guessing this was a surprise gift for me."

Not that she could ask for confirmation, probably.

"They do make for excellent gifts," Sidon noted, the smile lingering on his face rather wistful and pleased, "and you're quite welcome to drop in any time you'd like. We always have plenty of supplies, and I'm sure the moose won't mind terribly a sudden influx in the numbers! A surprise gift, you say, though? Why, those are some of my absolute favorite kinds of gifts!"

He was quite good at them, too, if he did say so himself, although he didn't really have anyone to spring unsuspected surprise gifts on these days, except maybe the animals here at the shelter...

Steph attempted a smile, then faltered. "Thanks, but maybe not next week."

She looked down at the shirt again as she tried to beckon one or two of the cats over to her. "It wouldn't be the first gift I've gotten that was made in your class."

Try convincing her that it wasn't likely to be the last, though.

Also there was nothing saying he couldn't give the cats surprise gifts! Cats being cats, though, they might not be good at showing gratitude.

"Next week," said Sidon cheerfully, "the week after, or even the week after that! Any week would be as good a week as any!"

There was another thoughtful, considering moment, as Steph looked down at the shirt again. "If that was a surprise gift," he realized with a chuckle, "then you probably didn't get to hear the story behind the Zora Armor, did you?"

"We'll see when I can work it in," Steph said as noncommittally as possible, because Sidon was A) very enthusiastic in a way she totally understood and B) very large, and she actually would have felt bad flat out saying no. Plus she didn't want to explain why she suspected it would be a no-go.

Her eyes widened, though. "There's a story behind it? Oh god, there's lore?"

"Of course there's lore!" said Sidon, proudly, as if all of his summer time projects did. They didn't, but he could also easily find a way to tie most of them to something excited. "As a matter of fact, the story tied in with the Zora Armor is one of my favorite stories of all! The Legend of the White Scale! A truly magnificent tale of love and valor that has resonated with my people for centuries and has inspired a most incredible tradition among my people!"

Here, he paused, very dramatically, beaming down at Steph with that toothy grin. The pause was easily long enough to make anyone think that perhaps that was it, that was all Sidon was going to say, and then:

"For you see," he continued with a dramatic gesture, before leaning in to what he assumed was his captive, captivated audience, "for many, many, many centuries, Zora princesses have taken to weaving a white scale into the armor they make for their chosen beloved, to the ones they wish to wed, inspired by one of the greatest Zora queens of our long and thrilling history, who, desperate for a way to protect her beloved king from the viscous battle he must face against a ruthless horde of invading lizalfos, took the very white scale from her body....a scale, it should be noted, that only female Zora possess...to add to his armor as a prayer. And it turned out, at a crucial moment in that glorious fight, the storm clouds overhead broke enough to let the light shine down on the Zora king, catching on the white scale and blinding his enemies, thus allowing him to rally the troops together and turn the tide of battle to Zora Victory!!"

With all the gestures emphasizing all they could throughout that story, the cat on Sidon's shoulder quickly bailed ship in realizing that this was hardly going to be a peacefully obtained meal and just was not worth it.

"Of course," he added with a chuckle after a proud, fond moment for the rich history of his people, "the white scale on our shirts for class was quite optional, but it's a fantastic story, wouldn't you agree?"

Hey, as a longtime GM Steph had to respect the dramatic flair. Actually, she felt like she could take a few tips from Sidon here to improve her own narrative skills.

"That's --" she said finally, blinking a few times, "an amazing story. Seriously, it's just like... epic, and beautiful."

She looked like she was trying to search for more words and failing, which would be true because her brain was full of... the best way to describe it was a jumble of interrobangs, to tell the truth.

"You told the class that story before they started working on these?" Because there was no way this particular shirt could mean all of that. Right?

"Certainly!" Sidon confirmed, with a particularly proud sparkle to his smile. "As one of my favorite tales of all Hylian history, I tell the Legend of the White Scale every chance I get!"

Each time just as enthusiastically as the last!

"Oh." Steph stared down at the white scale-shaped part of her shirt and she could swear that she could feel sweat trickling down the back of her neck. "Wow. Okay."

She was just... going to quietly freak the fuck out over here.

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [07/29].

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