Sunday January 18th 2009
Who: Mal and June What: Finding a stray pup in his house Where: Mal's house When: Afternoon Rating: PG
Mal walked into his house, oddly tired from a long day of chasing his tail and not in the good way. It seemed that several of his Language students had forgotten everything they'd learned over the holiday break. Others in his sex ed class were being nothing but antagonistic. There were dangers to fucking around, even if AIDS didn't top the list. So it was a slightly frustrated, and thoroughly hungry hound that walked into his den.
And who paused right in the middle of his entryway. There was someone in his home and it wasn't the expected Rorie, Garret or Max. Still, it was a hound he recognized. June. Grumbling under his breath and casting a longing glance towards the kitchen, the elder stalked off to find the young one. It didn't take long for him to sniff her out in his fireplace. Mal waited in the doorway for an explanation.
After talking with Finn, June had needed to think. What if the Master knew of her whereabouts, and he was furious with her? What if he already knew of her failure, and he was waiting for her to come back with her tail between her legs, begging him for mercy that he would not give and she didn't deserve? She had needed to get away from the school, and she needed to think. There had to be a new plan for her. If Hades had not killed her yet, perhaps he was giving her a second chance. She couldn't fail this time.
So she had gone to Malcoda's home, because she didn't know where else to go and she knew she could shift there and not be discovered. Finn had been right- too many people knew of her. If it wouldn't have been suspicious, she'd have started killing people off. But that was no good. So, after shifting and curling up in Mal's fireplace, June had closed her eyes and thought of a new plan, a brilliant plan. Something genius.
After a long while she smelled Malcoda come home, and he wasn't in a good mood. But she didn't get up, not yet. Not until he stared at her, awaiting a reply. "I shouldn't be in your space," she said after a moment, opening her eyes and getting to her feet, the fire that had been burning all around her suddenly vanishing. "I will go."
--- Mal shook his head. "You may stay. I'm just curious as to why you decided to curl up in the fireplace in my bedroom when there's others to choose from." He liked that particular one because it was large enough to house him shifted. Maybe June felt the same, though she was a bit smaller. Pushing off the door frame, Mal stripped off his shirt and tossed it in the hamper, not caring for human clothes at the moment.
--- This was his bedroom? June's brow furrowed. Yes, it made sense. She did recall he had gone here before, when he had first brought her back to this place. "It smelled the most like home," she told him honestly, now unsure if she was supposed to stay or leave. So she sat at the edge of the fireplace, watching Mal's movements. "I needed to think. The skinny one's brother made me think."
--- "Skinny one's brother," Mal murmured, figuring it out. Rorie's brother most likely. "What did Finn say?" It was interesting to him that June would admit a human would say something puzzling enough to make her hide away in private thought.
--- Finn. June remembered Finn's name. There was something about him that just... stuck. "He said that the Master is watching here," she admitted. "Or that he could be, and... if I was too obvious about myself he wouldn't be pleased. And if he is watching us, then he has seen me fail. He must already know that I'm not worthy of his trust, that I can't live up to his expectations. So I needed to consider what I am going to do now. If I kill you, will it matter? Is this a test for me? I am not sure."
--- Mal nodded, turning back around shirtless and knowing that June wouldn't care. She probably didn't think much of the human form anyways. "You and I both know he doesn't give second chances. At this point, you've failed in his eyes which means you're dead to him." Mal knew all too well that feeling. Of knowing you're not longer useful to the one being that mattered. "So kill me or not, it will make no difference to him."
--- Malcoda's human form was a bit dsgusting, but June didn't say anything. All humans were a little vile to look at, strange and full of limbs and no fur. What was the point? Even apes, a similar species, had fur. But his body did not disturb her as much as his words. He was right. Hades knew surely of her failure, and he wouldn't be pleased. And nothing she could do would make him forgive her, or accept her. She had missed her only chance at redemption.
"I see," she said softly, her heart sinking low in her chest. He was right, though. Hades did not forgive. She couldn't go home now. She was like Mal, like the runaway. An outcast. Shameful. She was better off dead. Even her death would not be honorable. A part of her wished that Malcoda had killed her that day, when she lay helpless beneath his claws. To die like that would have been better than to die like this.
Head low, she slinked past Mal, toward the door. Perhaps she would just lay in the snow outside and let the elements take her.
--- Mal watched June skitter past and rolled his eyes, once again hating that he was in human skin and not his own. It would be much easier to scruff her and make her sit down. "Stay," he said softly. He had no place to order, but the demand was still there. "You no longer have purpose for him, but you can find a purpose here if you choose."
--- June did stop when Malcoda said to, because regardless of whether or not he was a respected elder, he was still an elder. But he was a shamed one, and as June looked at him, the thought was obvious in her mind. "You mean like you?" she asked him dubiously. "Parading in my human skin, kowtowing to humans and other inferior races?" She scoffed, shaking her head. "You have become so tame, Malcoda. Domesticated. Are you really happy in this?"
--- Mal tucked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans, bracing his weight evenly on the balls of his feet. "After so long, I'm comfortable in both skins. I don't kowtow, but I don't need to force my way through either" He shrugged and started forward, brushing past her on his way through the door. "I have the one thing that you don't. What you probably won't for awhile."
--- What could he possibly have? This life, this human life? How awful. Was this what happened to all the hounds when they were cast out? Did they aubject themselves to this, to a life of complacency? How pathetic.
"Everything you have, I don't want. I don't want to be some human's pet."
--- Mal shrugged. "I never said it had anything to do with humans, did I?" His stomach was rumbling so the hound made his way to the kitchen, pulling out a couple large steaks from the fridge. "You'll be an unhappy hound until you figure out what it is you're missing."
--- Following Mal, June cocked her head slightly, debating. She was missing home. She was missing on her life, on her future, what she could have been. She was missing the master's love for her. It felt so fleeting, like she had felt his comfort only briefly, and now it was gone from her. It ached. "Where do they go?" she asked him after a moment, standing on her back legs and putting her two front paws on the counter. "The outcasts, when they're banished. Where do they go?"
--- Mal raised a brow at June, silently offering one of the steaks and wondering if she wanted it seared, charred or raw. He knew he wanted his own seared tonight, so Mal pulled out the stovetop grillpan. "It depends on the hound. Some kill themselves, unable to bear the shame. Some walk back to Hades to offer their heads at his feet." He paused and glanced at June pointedly. She knew exactly how well, or poorly, that turned out. "And some," he continued, eyes back on dinner. "Some find a purpose for themselves and continue on. Watching their backs for someone intending to make a name for themselves."
--- The steak went ignored, as June tried to make sense of Malcoda's words. It was pointless to try and offer oneself to the master, because the death he delivered was not as kind as the one a hound would give themselves. It would be slow, and deliberate, and you would know well your crimes. But even death seemed so... pointless. June almost felt as though she did not deserve death, because it would be a relief from her failure and she deserved to suffer it. But there seemed little point in remaining alive, either. Not in a place like this. She wanted a master, someone to obey, someone to be pleased with her. Malcoda seemed to thrive without obedience, and she couldn't understand why. "Why would anyone want another purpose?" she asked seriously, her voice soft. Serving Hades was the greatest honor a hound could have. What could there be aside from that?
--- Mal's shoulders dropped at the question and it took him a moment. When he did, his voice was soft. "It's not that we want another purpose. It's that we need one." Ignoring the steaks for the time being, he turned to face June, leaning against the counter. "You know as well as I do that we were created to serve. We falter without a purpose, a reason. Either you find someone topside willing to let you serve, or you find your own reasons. Mine has become the school." He waited to see if she was understanding. "My purpose was one of my choosing because I needed one. There are very few demons topside who want a slave."
--- Letting her head rest on her paws, June sighed, softly, looking up in Mal's eyes. She understood. It was why she was so lost. How was one supposed to go on when they had seen the perfect light of a purpose, and then it was clicked off so carelessly? All she wanted was to serve, to be something that a master could be pleased with. But Malcoda was right. None of the demons here wanted servants. Most of them scoffed at the idea, and a few like Nox even dared to try and tell June that she was an equal. None of them made sense.
And suddenly, her ears perked up. Not all the demons here were so strange. Not all of them told her to think for herself, not all of them tried to make her an equal. Tail wagging with renewed home, June hopped down from the counter and raced out the front door, moving swiftly through the snow, back to the school.