ArchivedLogs:Something Sacred

Something Sacred
Dramatis Personae Desi, Lucien, Matt, Gaetan
In Absentia	2016-05-22 "{Perhaps, if you want her to grow to revile the majority of the household.}"
Location <NYC> Tessier Residence - Greenwich Village
Understated opulence claims this spacious and well-kept townhome, the decor throughout the whole of it of the highest quality and carefully chosen. The front door opens onto the entrance hall, a closet close at hand to receive coats and shoes -- the pale hardwood floors gleam underfoot, unsullied by tracked-in mess from outside. The living room beyond the entrance is all dark woods and pale earth tones, comfortable couches and armchairs and a thick soft rug laid down beneath. Two large and painstakingly aquascaped aquariums flank the entrance to the dining room, with several brightly coloured species of fish within. Most of the rest of the wall space, notably, is taken up with shelves -- shelves crammed with books of every subject and genre. A study branching off of the main hall is cozy, small, done in pale blues and lined with books as well around the large computer desk and smaller futon, though these rarer books are cased behind glass. Another securely locked door leads to the basement, and another to the full bathroom downstairs. The kitchen connects to the living room; in contrast, it is sleek and modern and well-appointed, stocked by someone who takes their cooking seriously. And takes their alcohol equally seriously -- to one side of the kitchen there is a fully-stocked bar. The back door to the kitchen looks out on a small well-kept garden. Outside it is grey and chill and drizzly, a cold damp evening that has followed a cold damp day. Inside the house is bright and warm and, currently, filled with the sounds of paws skittering over the clean wood floors. Or, rather, the formerly clean woods. There's a track of muddy prints laid out on the entryway hall, in the kitchen, in the living room -- a few laid out on the soft living room rug. On the cushions of the sofa. Right now, a skinny young black-and-tan mutt with a Shepherd's pointy muzzle and large paws she's not yet grown into, one ear poking up and the other flopped over, is belly-crawling underneath the dining room table, equal parts excited and overstimulated-nervous in her exploration of New Surroundings. Gaetan is lying across three of the dining chairs, watching her with keen interest. Lucien, leaning against the frame between living and dining room in jeans and soft grey ribbed v-neck shirt, is just looking faintly downwards with a small furrow of brows. He stoops, swiping a knotted length of rope off of where it's been discarded on the floor to move it back to a box of other toys. Dressed in a blue t-shirt with a cartoon figure reading beneath an arch of books bracketed by the words 'Best Time Machine EVER!' and worn black jeans, Matt has a small tub of cleaning wipes and is dilgently--if somewhat randomly--attempting to remove the paw prints in the living room. He stops, sitting back on his heels and peering into the dining room. Then looks up at Lucien with a sheepish but happy smile, green eyes sparkling. "{How is she so excellent?}" Desi has just filled a teapot on the kitchen counter and pads into the dining room. She wears a short green tunic dress with a wavy trifurcated hem that looks like the petals of a flower, and her ruffled black wrap skirt flutter around long green-and-black striped socks as she moves. Sinking down to crouch beside Gaetan, she tucks a tress of soft brown hair behind her ear and makes a sock clucking noise to get the dog's attention. "{Welcome home, little one!}" She stretches out a hand, held low and unthreatening, rubbing index finger and thumb together. "So...is she going to remain 'Rosie'?" "{It's the ears,}" is Gaetan's opinion, from half-under the table. "{Do you see those ears? Or -- there's also the tail.}" "{How is she so muddy.}" Lucien's voice is milder, though there is a very faint tug at one corner of his mouth as his eyes meet Matt's. "{It was mostly sidewalks on the way home, goodness.}" He kneels beside Matt, extending a hand to offer to trade the wipes for a large bone he has retrieved from the Box Of Dog Things. His eyes skate over to the dining room, where the pup is worming out from under the table, hindquarters wriggling as she pushes her nose into Desi's hand -- a little hesitant at first but then with an abundance of enthusiastic licking. "I do hope she is not. {She has far too much personality for a generic name like /Rosie/.}" "{The ears /are/ pretty excellent,}" Matt agrees. "{also, the rest of her.}" He relinquishes the tub of wipes and takes the bone in its stead, then grabs Lucien's hand to pull himself to his feet. "{She doesn't seem like much of a 'Rosie' to me.} How about 'Artemis'?" He goes into the kitchen and offers the bone to Desi. "Or 'Rowan', if we want to stick to plants..." Desi emits a quiet noise of delight when Rosie--at least for now--presses a wet nose into her palm. She closes her eyes, eyebrows furrowing. "Oh...dear... {Poor thing. She's confused and scared.}" She slowly extends her other hand to caress the dog's one droopy ear. "I like 'Artemis.'" Though she doesn't sound very committed, reaching back to take the bone from Matt and place it on the floor nearby--well within the pup's reach, but far enough away that she'd have to come all the way out from under the table to get it. "How about 'Arrow'?" Rosie leaves off her licking, tail thumping against the chair legs as she snuffles closer to investigate the bone. Inches out from under the table, eventually jawing at it -- though her shyness seems to wear off once he /has/ it securely in her teeth. She bounds around the table, pausing by Gaetan to half-offer the bone towards him before continuing on in a rather zoomy loop. Loop. Loop. When she pauses now she drops the bone with a thud in front of Matt. "'Artemis'?" Lucien has taken up the cleaning, now, more methodical in his diligent efforts to return the floors to their previous gleam. His eyebrows hike up, though, at this suggestion. "{Perhaps, if you want her to grow to revile the majority of the household.}" There's a very small smile that crosses his face as his head tips back down, a very faint huff of breath, amused. "Arrow. That --" He shakes his head. "Flèche." This time, a faint emphasis on the name. "{She may love us better, then.}" Matt stoops down when the dog drops the bone in front of him. "{Oh, for me? Thank you!"}" He picks up the bone and offers it back with great enthusiasm. "{Oh, come now. Naming her in honor of Artemis does not make her Artemis. But 'Arrow' accomplishes the same, I suppose. What do you think?}" This question seems to be aimed at the dog herself. Desi stands up and watches Rosie-Artemis-Arrow-Flèche prance around. "{Look at all that bounce, it's like she has springs for legs.}" She smiles, hugging herself and tilting her head fondly. "{She seems to like Matt just fine, anyway.}" A moment later. "Flèche, hm?" She looks at her younger brother with a thoughtful hum. "What do you think, Gae?" "{Doesn't /make/ her Artemis. If you think Artemis would be honored by /our/ dog named after her?}" Gaetan has flipped over onto his back with a snort, head hanging backwards off the edge of a chair so that he can watch the dog's antics upside-down. "You're the experts." The pup snatches the bone quickly back from Matt, darting back under the table with it to flop down and start gnawing. "{Yes, and liking Matt is such a difficult bar to tiptoe over. I am shocked.}" Lucien crumples his cleaning wipes into a fist, vanishing into the kitchen to throw them away and returning with the teapot on a tray together with four teacups, that he starts to fill. "She is very sleek." "Pointy," Gaetan adds, reaching under the table to boop the dog gently on the nose. "{Dogs are sacred to Artemis,}" says Matt, straightening up again. "{And so is archery. She is,}" he agrees, "{somewhat arrow-like.}" He makes eager grabbing motions for the tea, impatient. "{Steve said she's able to stay in the crate during the day, but I'd hate for her to have to be alone so long, so soon after relocating. I can take her to work...}" "{I'll be home, remember?}" Desi also moves aside to keep the dog in sight, though her eyes dart now and again to the tea. "{I'll be home for the summer.}" This is quieter. "{You're outnumbered,}" Gaetan answers, promptly. "And she's going to live way longer than the summer. {What, when you go back to college are we going to adopt another...}" He breaks off here, though, lips compressing. He tumbles himself off the chairs abruptly, smiling instead as he moves to nuzzle his face into the dog's side. She leaves off her gnawing for a moment to sniff at his hair, though soon returns to chewing, one paw protectively on her bone even as her tail wags. "{Dogs are sacred,}" Lucien agrees softly -- something soft in his expression as well as he watches Gaetan with the dog. His eyes focus steadily on the teacups, fingers tight around the handle of the teapot as he pours. Hand a cup to Matt. One to Desi. His hands drop to his knees, where he kneels beside the coffeetable. "{As is archery.}" Matt takes his tea and holds it beneat his face with both hands. "{Thank you,}" he murmurs softly. "{I didn't forget--I just didn't want to make you dogsit your first week off. Figured you might wish to go off somewhere with friends. With the twins...}" He shakes his head. "{Anyway, it's another thing altogether if you actually want to stay with her.}" "I wasn't saying--" Desi accepts the teacup and is quiet for a moment. "{I didn't mean that I would /always/ stay home with her, just--because she's new and scared and...hanging with me is /probably/ less stressful than going to a highschool full of teenage mutants freaking out over exams, you know?}" "{You are undoubtedly correct.}" Lucien's eyes lift, first to Desi and then to the dog. "Certainly, your touch might help with a gentle transition. {At least until we have acclimatized her to her --}" His lips compress slightly. "{New bed and housing and -- cookie jars.}"