02-08-2020, 02:23 PM
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His stiff posture seemed to tense even more as the one-eyed lion sauntered in, as though the sight of Aurum alone warped the boy into a cornered beast, apparition bunched up like a spring to act on instinct. He didn't expect anybody to show up, much less Aurum. (He would realize how much of a fool he was for that assumption moments later.) Why, oh why did he seem to be everywhere at once? Did he even sleep? Admittedly, the consistency would be nice if the proxy happened to be anybody else. Sure would've been helpful back in the early days of the swamp.
A sharp huff left his undersized chest. Okay. It'd be okay. He didn't exactly have a choice in his audience. Improvise, damn it! Pearly claws curled into the earth, flexing warily. Gulping, he stammered, "O-Okay. Um... gimme a sec." Biting down onto his scabbed lip once more, Beck forced himself to think through the mental static berating his awkward response.
The dark-furred feline thumped his stub of a tail against the earth in failing thought, opening his disfigured snout just as a lean wolfhound approached. Oh, thank God for Leroy. But something seemed off. A scrutinizing glance over couldn't identify what was different about the new commander -- er, general, yet the missing detail hesitated on the tip of his clammy tongue. Beck tilted his head to the side for further examination before ultimately surrendering to his faulty memory. "Okay, okay." Double his expected audience now, double the jokes to administer. Forced a wry smile onto his face, the poltergeist rasped, "What's it called when ghosts rob a bank?" He allowed a moment of pause for the standard guess or prompt to continue, then his smile split into a wider one, displaying razor-sharp teeth. "A polter-heist!" Worriedly, he giggled, glancing from face to face as though expecting a reprimand.
His smile momentarily faltered, but he quickly stretched one out again, crooked and grimacing. "Wait, wait, wait -- I've got another! Why should you never drink with ghosts?" Pause again for the punchline... "'Cause they can never handle their boos! Get it? Like booze, but boo!" A hysteric laugh escaped him in a rattling tone and he quickly slapped a paw over his mouth to silence it. Selby had better consider this embarrassment as a task well done.
A sharp huff left his undersized chest. Okay. It'd be okay. He didn't exactly have a choice in his audience. Improvise, damn it! Pearly claws curled into the earth, flexing warily. Gulping, he stammered, "O-Okay. Um... gimme a sec." Biting down onto his scabbed lip once more, Beck forced himself to think through the mental static berating his awkward response.
The dark-furred feline thumped his stub of a tail against the earth in failing thought, opening his disfigured snout just as a lean wolfhound approached. Oh, thank God for Leroy. But something seemed off. A scrutinizing glance over couldn't identify what was different about the new commander -- er, general, yet the missing detail hesitated on the tip of his clammy tongue. Beck tilted his head to the side for further examination before ultimately surrendering to his faulty memory. "Okay, okay." Double his expected audience now, double the jokes to administer. Forced a wry smile onto his face, the poltergeist rasped, "What's it called when ghosts rob a bank?" He allowed a moment of pause for the standard guess or prompt to continue, then his smile split into a wider one, displaying razor-sharp teeth. "A polter-heist!" Worriedly, he giggled, glancing from face to face as though expecting a reprimand.
His smile momentarily faltered, but he quickly stretched one out again, crooked and grimacing. "Wait, wait, wait -- I've got another! Why should you never drink with ghosts?" Pause again for the punchline... "'Cause they can never handle their boos! Get it? Like booze, but boo!" A hysteric laugh escaped him in a rattling tone and he quickly slapped a paw over his mouth to silence it. Selby had better consider this embarrassment as a task well done.