fandomhighdorms | Fourth Floor Hallway, Tuesday night [3/11]

There wasn't any complaints, really, just a head poking out of the door of room 402 and looking around a bit until it spotted Hoshi, the puppy, and the ball.

"Okay, good," A.J. said. "I knew I probably wasn't going completely crazy in there and hearing things."

"Hi A.J. Nope, nothing weird going on in here," said Hoshi. "Just weird stuff going on outside. I couldn't sleep and Porthos was going stir crazy."

"Weird stuff?" A.J. asked, but then, almost as soon as he asked it, he looked very much like he'd rather he hadn't. He hadn't, in truth, been out much, and he was thinking that the last thing he wanted to deal with was weird things any more than he had to.

So he changed the subject. "So, uh, Porthos, huh? When'd you get him? Or have you had him a while and I just suck at paying attention?"

Hoshi didn't want to dwell on any weird stuff either. "I just got Porthos over spring break," she explained. "He belongs to someone back home who couldn't take a dog with him when he shipped out."

Porthos, meanwhile, was ignoring his ball and running over to check out A.J.

"Aww," A.J. said, frowning a little at the story. "But at least he still had a good home to go to instead, right?" As Porthos approached, A.J. stepped further into the hallway out of his door, crouching down to meet the dog and let him sniff his hands a little before reaching to pet him behind his ears.

Pothos wagged his tail, having decided that anyone who would stop to pet him was a friend.

"It's been really nice having a puppy," said Hoshi, smiling. "Besides, Porthos followed me around for most of the week that I was in San Francisco, so I didn't want to give him up."

"Awwwww." That one was an entirely different kind of awww, as evidenced by A.J. light grin as he continued petting the cute puppy. He had a soft spot for cute puppies, considering he tended to be one himself, on occasion. "He's a cutie, too. Aren't you, boy?" The last was said, of course, in a sort of puppy speak as A.J. made faces at him and rubbed between his ears with increased, playful vigor.

Hoshi giggled. "He's loving this place. Everyone has to stop and play with him," she said.

Porthos just wagged his tail. He really liked A.J. Anyone was better than those Vulcan diplomats back home who simply raised their eyebrows and kept their distance.

"Good," A.J. grinned a little more. "That's good. Although, really, he seems a good dog so far, so I can't really imagine it being the other way around, y'know? If, y'know, he'd bit me instead of letting me pet him, then I could see that, but he didn't. It's all good..."

There was a slight pause.

"Has he bitten anyone yet?"

"Not that I've seen. He's very well-behaved," said Hoshi. "Commander Archer would take Porthos with him pretty much everywhere he went and Porthos got along with everyone."

Porthos would nod in agreement if he could. He liked almost everyone, even the Vulcan diplomats who seemed a bit cold.

"A commander, huh?" A.J. asked. "I guess that would explain it."

In A.J.'s head it did, anyway. Well enough. Most of his attention was on the dog, though, since it was just nice to lavish some attention on something cute for bit to make himself feel better.

Hoshi blushed just a little bit, as she usually did when she thought about Commander Archer. "I suppose anyone would behave for the commander," she said without really thinking about it.

The 'the' caught A.J.'s attention a little with a quirk of an eyebrow, and he grinned up at Hoshi slightly. "Well, I was thinking of commanders in a more general sense."

"Well, you haven't met my comm... I mean, this particular one. He really inspires people," said Hoshi, catching herself this time. "So, um, I heard on the radio about Beauty leaving. I'm sorry to see her go."

A.J. winced. Ouch. As far as subject changes went, Hoshi sure had to go pick a whopper, didn't she? He did a poor job of hiding the drop of the smirk from his face, clearing his throat as he shifted slightly and his petting ceased a little. "Uh, yeah," he said. "It was...well, she kind of had to, so..."

Hoshi realized she'd picked a bad subject. "I'm sorry. You must really miss her."

After a moment of just sort of forlornly looking at Prothos without even seeing him, A.J. eventually answered, "I'll be okay," which he figured was a good answer to give, as it neither confirmed or denied anything about missing her.

Porthos felt that the attention of the two humans was drifting away from him, and he didn't like that. He barked once, then gave A.J. the saddest puppy eyes that he could muster.

"Oh, you want everyone focused on you, huh?" said Hoshi, giggling at Porthos.

Which was fine with A.J., really. He'd much rather the focus was on the dog instead of him, so he smiled a little at the bark and returned to the more vigorous petting again. "Yeah, poor guy. I bet you just don't ever get any attention or love at all."

"He's a complete ham," said Hoshi, while Porthos just wagged his tail. "But he's good to have around."

"He is cute, I'll give him that," A.J. agreed with a light smile, scratching one hand under Porthos' chin now. "Granted, not as cute as me when I was a puppy, but that would be kind of hard."

"Maybe I should get a pet," he mused.

"I don't remember seeing you as a puppy, unless I didn't realize the puppy was you," said Hoshi. "Actually, the first time I brought Porthos to work with me, one of the patrons thought that Porthos might be a real person. I walked into the lobby to find this guy asking Porthos for a sign. Only in Fandom," she added, snickering.

"If he is a person," A.J. offered, grin growing a little more, "I'd be kind of annoyed if I were him. Porthos is a good name for a dog, not so much a kid. Parental issues up the wazoo there. Unless, like, he's some god or something. In which case, that's be pretty cool, if you had a dog who's a god...unless he started getting all godly and demanding stuff from you. Then it might suck."

"He's got three brothers named Athos, Aramis and D'artagnan, so it's all in the family for him," said Hoshi. "He can be pretty demanding, too, if you have any cheese."

When he heard the magic word "cheese," Porthos perked up and headed back over to Hoshi, wagging his tail.

A.J. chuckled a bit at Porthos' enthusiasm. "Cheese?" he asked, although carefully, as not to give the dog any false ideas. "Really?"

"According to the commander, Porthos isn't allowed to have you-know-what, but he goes absolutely nuts for it," said Hoshi as Porthos sat up and begged. "But geez, how can you say no when he's all cute like that?"

Giving Porthos another good look, A.J. had to definitely agree with that. He gave the puppy a smile and rubbed his hand down his neck a little and said, "You'd probably be best not keeping any around. Cheese has got to do all sorts of bad on his digestive system or something."

"Definitely. I stocked up on doggie biscuits just to be on the safe side," said Hoshi. "I had no idea there were so many choices as far as dog food."

"Why do you think that is, anyway?" A.J. mused aloud. "Do you think there's really that much of a taste difference? And, if there is, how do they know? It's not like they can just ask the dogs, and the dogs can tell them, 'Hey, y'know, it's a little meaty. I like it.'"

"It's probably because we're all suckers for buying it," said Hoshi. "I mean, the dogs don't go in there and pick out what they want. Then again, you probably have more first-hand experience with what a dog wants," she chuckled.

"That's true..." A.J. said, his eyes drifting off a bit as he tried to remember exactly what he had been eating at that time. He couldn't remember much.

"I remember a lot of shoes. And painting, but that has nothing to do with eating."

"Not even eating any shoes?" asked Hoshi. "Porthos tried chewing on mine, but they started fighting back."

"Oh! Was that on that day last week where the shoes were all alive and crap? Ooof, bad timing, Porthos."

"Oh, did he learn his lesson," said Hoshi. "When I got back from class, the shoes had him cornered. He liked the dust bunnies a lot better."

Chuckling a little, A.J. scritched again behind Porthos' ears. "Yeah, I bet. Did he have any thoughts on the singing?"

"Not that I could tell, but he seemed a little confused when I started singing to him," said Hoshi.

Porthos yawned, which made Hoshi giggle. "Aww, I think someone's getting sleepy."

"Can't blame him," A.J. grinned. "I'm sure, with the hard, trying life he leads...Too much playing ball."

He gave the puppy's head another good scritch before standing up slowly. "So, maybe I should leave you to it, then? Get the poor boy to bed?"

"Sounds like a good idea," said Hoshi, scooping up Porthos. "Have a good night, A.J. And stop by any time. I'm sure Porthos will by happy to see you."

"Maybe I will," A.J. nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets for a moment as he figured that, from his perspective right now, he probably wouldn't, but you never knew. "Night, Hoshi. Night, Porthos."

Fourth Floor Hallway, Tuesday night [3/11]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject