Aureus Canis - The Best of Intentions

[x-roulette.livejournal.com]

Jennie, in one of her first official duties as an X-Man, goes to talk to a potential new student. It...doesn't go very well.




Jennie smothered a yawn outside Mariah's apartment door, and brushed her jeans off. She literally had no idea how she was going to do this, and rather wished she had someone with her. But oh well, how hard could it be? "Hi, you're a mutant! Check out my brochures!"

Yeah. It would probably be best to ease her into it.

She knocked on the door, not too loudly as the building was old and sound carried, especially that early. Jennie could hear the frantic barking of dogs in the background.

"Oh! Oh no! Shhhh. Shhhhh!" Mariah waved her hands at the bark, "Please don't! I...oh. Just a minute!" Slamming the door shut on the bedroom, she ran for the door. "Coming!" she called out, side stepping a spilled bag of dog treats and kicking a shoe out of the way. Splaying her hands against the door, she leaned in to press her eye to the Judas hole and gasped.

What was she going to do? She'd already said she was here and...what if she was here about the girls? Mariah didn't think they were friends but that didn't mean... Stop it. Calm down, she ordered herself. You can do this. Her hands were shaking as she twisted the locks open and pulled the door to her, peeking her head around the edge. The bright smile on her face was the dancer's smile. It would last through dancing pointe on broken toes if it had to. "Um, sorry about that. Hi! Can I help you?"

Jennie steeled herself, jamming her hands into her pockets so as not to fidget. "Mariah? Right?" she shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. "Okay, so, we have class together and I know we never talk or anything and oh god this is going to sound really really weird but..." Jennie paused and shook her head. "Look, can I come in? I've got a confession to make. And maybe it's something that you need to hear." The taller girl looked a little abashed.

Mariah nodded first and then her eyes went huge and dark behind her glasses, realizing what she'd done. Her small hands went white knuckled on the door as she shook her head. "I, oh, I...now's really not a good time, um, Jennie? Maybe we can talk before class?" The barking was getting louder. Why wouldn't they be quiet?

"Just, in front of class might not be a good time either," Jennie looked around herself. The hallway was deserted, so whatever she said might not be overheard. Or whoever would hear it wouldn't matter very much. It wasn't that she was ashamed of being a mutant, she just wasn't very open about it either. She had the scars to show for why it was a bad idea. She scratched her head and then sighed. "Or we could do it out here. Look, okay, so, I'm a mutant, all right? And... I have it on a good authority that that might um, mean something to you?"

How did she know? Mariah took a few startled steps backward, the door coming with her. "What are you? I don't know what you mean." Letting go of the door, she buried her hands in her hair, clutching it, "This is crazy. I'm not, I mean, I don't...get inside already!"

"Okaaaay," Jennie said slowly. She slipped into the apartment, shutting the door behind her. It was very small and cluttered, as rent in New York was phenomenally stupid, but was apparent that Mariah had done her best to make it home. "The uh, Christmas lights are a nice touch?" Jennie gestured to the kitchenette. Then she shook her head.

"Right, so, first. Um, calm? I'm not here to like, send you away or anything. I'm here because I'm a mutant, and not like a bad one either. I'm sort of, lucky?" Jennie gestured with her hands. "Okay you know what? I really suck at the gentle lead up. I'm here because I'm a mutant and the guy who is in charge of the school for mutants I went to said that you might need a little help. So here I am."

"I don't need any help!" Mariah protested quickly, too quickly really. "There's nothing wrong with me." Except that the way her heart was pounding she might have a heart attack right here and now. That would ruin everything. "So, um, you can just tell your guy that thanks for the concern but I'm good."

"Huh." said Jennie. "Right, and the screaming panic is a big flashing 'I'm okay!' sign."

It probably wasn't possible for Mariah to look anymore freaked out, her eyes were already threatening to take over half her face so wide were they. A crash from the bedroom made her jump and shriek, "Okay, fine, so I'm a freak. But I can't talk about it right now and you should go."

"Really now," Jennie said. There was something in the bedroom, something that Mariah didn't want her to see. So obviously, Jennie had to see it. "Well, I guess if you're sure," she shrugged and turned to go, and then with the grace and speed of a trained dancer spun on her heel and ducked around Mariah, going to the bedroom door and yanking it open. What she saw made her pause, and blink.

"You have dogs? Very messy dogs."

"Don't go in there!" Mariah shouted too late and seized the taller girl's arm, dragging her back from the door. One of the girls...dogs...them darted past both mutants and ran howling through the small apartment. Mariah screamed involuntarily. "No! Damn it!"

Suddenly Jennie became aware of a pressure, around in her head. Her skin felt weird, hot and prickly, and the room began to spin. It was too hot, much too hot. She reached out and gripped the doorframe, nearly losing her balance.

"Wha..." she looked up and saw Mariah, as if from very far away. Another waved of dizziness rolled through her, and she fell to her knees. And then the floor rushed up to greet her.




And then it gets worse.




"No no no no." Mariah fell to her knees, seizing the scruff of Jennie's neck. Fur bunched under her hands and she whimpered. "Why did you do that? I told you to go! I'm sorry, I...damn it. You should have listened to me! I didn't mean to!" The large black dog looked at her with enormous blue eyes that just made Mariah feel more guilty. "I'm SORRY!"

The dog tilted it's head and narrowed it's eyes, as if it were telling Mariah to explain, please, just what in the hell was going on.

Mariah sat down heavily, hands falling into her lap, expression dismayed. "I did try to warn you. Now what am I going to do? I'm not allowed to even have a cat let alone three dogs! What am I going to do?" Her lower lip trembled dangerously, like she was seconds from tears. "I wish you weren't a dog. You probably know how to undo this stuff."

Jennie rolled her eyes.

if you had bothered to tell me what was going on in the first place.

The first two dogs were watching them warily, their eyes were too intellegent for them to be mere dogs. Jennie reached out and tugged on Mariah's sleeve and whuffed, pointing with her head towards the dogs in the corner. Looking back on this later, Jennie would marvel how well she taking it.

Mariah sighed, "Whitney and Madison. It was an accident." The first tear spilled over as she sniffled, face going red and blotchy with the effort to hold it in. "And now I don't know what to DO! I was trying to fix it when you came over and now you're one too!"

Jennie put her head between her paws and snorted something that sounded like laughter. That explained where they had gone. Both dogs were glaring at her, and Jennie tried to regain her composure.

Right. She was an X-Man. X-Men knew how to think on their feet. And Jennie had four of them so it should be easier. She stood and began to pace, trying to think. She could try and make Mariah call the mansion, but the girl was in no state to be coherent. God, this was annoying.

Mariah wept while Jennie paced, her mind racing in small, frantic circles. She had to undo this but she didn't know how. Jennie could have helped but now Jennie was a dog. And what was it that she'd said? She was from a school? They could help...or maybe they'd just be mad that she had changed the other girls in the first place and hadn't done anything. She couldn't go to them. She had to get out of here before someone came LOOKING.

Jennie sneezed and then shook, feeling more than a little odd. She looked over at Madison and Whitney cowering in the corner, and smugly noticed that she was much bigger than the two of them. She looked back at Mariah. There was a million questions she wanted to ask, the foremost being:

Can you undo this?

Mariah scrambled back to her feet and hurried toward her room. It was a mess thanks to the dogs and her once tidy laundry was all over the floor and chewed on. But that didn't matter. She had to pack and get out of here before something even worse happened. She'd tried everything she could to help and it hadn't worked.

Jennie poked her head in the doorway of Mariah's room. She was packing? Why was she packing? Jennie barked to get her attention, an then stopped, looking baffled. Barking was weird too.

The girl whirled, clutching a pair of jeans. "I know but...what am I going to do? I can't fix you. I don't even know how I did it in the first place!" She looked pleading, "You have to understand."

The dog snorted. Like hell they were leaving. There were people who were perfectly capable of sorting out this mess. If only Jennie could figure out how to talk to them. She went back into the other room and nosed through her jacket. Maybe if she clicked her panic button she would get some help. Or, no, wait, that would freak Mariah out even more. Damn it. She looked up at the two girls still staring at her from the corner, and she growled at them.

I blame you both for this, somehow.

Mariah hurried out of her room, a bag on her shoulder. "Don't fight! Look, I don't know what else to do okay? It's just getting worse! And you just said that someone sent you here so that means they're going to be looking for you and we can't be here!"

Jennie looked up at her. Uh, no, I'm not going anywhere. She turned and padded over to the door, and sat down pointedly in front of it.

"Please don't. Don't look like that. I'm going to change you back. I just need some time is all! It'll just take a little bit of time." She was crying again, distressed and exhausted from days of worrying about this. "I never meant to hurt anyone but no one is going to believe that. Please, you have to help me! That's why you came here, right? To help? Please?"

Running away was not going to solve this. Jennie needed to get them all help. And to do that, Jennie needed Mariah to calm down. Jennie barked, trying to get Mariah to back away from the door.

Mariah threw up her hands. "Fine. You stay here alone then. I'm taking Whitney and Madison though. They don't deserve this even if they are...them." She stomped away and picked up the other two smaller dogs, both of a size that she could easily carry. Unlike Jennie. If she could get them down into the car and then come back for Jennie, things would be okay. They were just dogs now, after all. How hard could it be?

Jennie whined as the door slammed shut behind Mariah. She squeezed her eyes shut. So much for 'official X-Men" business. There was totally no way she was getting out of this before it escalated. She was never going to here the end of this. If she could just get Mariah to calm down.

Mariah hurried back up to her apartment at a dead run, not just because she was double parked either. Everything was going so wrong. It wasn't fair. She's never asked for any of this. Why did she have to suffer? More practically, how was she going to get the huge dog that Jennie was now down into her tiny car? She didn't even have a leash or anything.

Think, Stavros, think. She couldn't call, couldn't click the panic button on the phone because she lacked FINGERS, Mariah was lost to reason. And if she got put in that car, then there would be no way out of this. There was a slight chance that she could make a break for it and try to find the boys at ESU, as it wasn't too far from Mariah's apartment, but she didn't know where their classes were. Well, she could try and find their car and wait by it. Or something. Anyway.

The door opened and Jennie tensed, waiting for Mariah to make a move.

The clicking of the locks open gave her ample warning. Mariah looked just as anxious as she had since she'd first opened the door to Jennie's knock. "Jennie?" she called out as she pushed the door open, looking around.

Jennie waited. Her coordination was off, her sense of gravity was out of whack and she was on ALL FOURS. But she was still bigger than the tiny girl in the doorway. She had to get out of here and get help, because if Mariah stuck her in the car, the situation would only just get worse.

Swallowing hard, Mariah crept across the distance between them, her hand held out palm up like Jennie was truly a dog and not her classmate. "Come on," she urged in what would have been a more convincing tone if it hadn't been shaking like a butterfly in a stiff breeze, "It'll be okay." Her hand found the rumple of fur behind Jennie's neck and gripped, hard but not too. She didn't want to hurt her.

Okay, now that was just insulting. With one hard shove, Jennie pushed against Mariah's legs, hoping that it was low enough that the trained dancer would be knocked off-balance. When Mariah stumbled, Jennie made a break for the door and out into the hallway, praying that the door to the stairs was still propped open.

Mariah caught herself against the wall but was far too late to catch Jennie as she vanished down the stairs. Too exhausted even to cry, she consoled herself with the fact that it was unlikely the other girl could actually tell on her and anyway, she wasn't going to be here much longer anyway. Locking up her apartment again, Mariah made her way down to her car and pointed it south. Anywhere but here sounded perfect.





Jennie goes to get help in the only place she can think of. Unfortunately, Jennie is Jennie and two animal control officers don't take kindly to an untagged stray. Marius and Forge try to help. Guess how that goes.




New York was a place for weirdness. It attracted it. It encouraged it. It thrived on the oddball and the not quite right. So if some of the passer-bys found it odd that there was a large black dog waiting for the crosswalk, it didn't get any mention. Even if someone noticed the dog trying to read the street signs.

Jennie was having trouble coordinating her new form. Her center of gravity was off and she'd tripped over her own paws twice, plus the smells were overpowering, especially considering it was the city proper, and on top of that, her eyesight sucked so reading the signs was a pain in the ass. Still, she knew she was in the area of Empire State University, so hopefully the boys would still be there. The light changed, and Jennie made her way across the street.

Unfortunately, Jennie's life being what it was, there were two on-duty animal control officers on the other side of the street. They had been called to ESU because feral cats had gotten into the science building. And an untagged stray was heading right towards them.

"Mike, get the control-stick," one of them said, setting the carrying case containing one very angry cat down. The other man nodded and advanced towards Jennie.

Oh shit.

"You've never seen him about?" Marius asked as he made minute adjustments in his neck to keep the text satisfactorily situated squarely on his head, part of his eternal quest to make the walk to the dining hall a little more interesting. "Tall bloke, hair of one fond of stickin' things into light sockets, always wears cowboy boots an' the same purple shirt? Not exactly a subtle one."

Forge snapped his fingers and nodded. "Oh, him! Fabulous Greg! Nope, I mean, I had my suspicions, and he's always been cool about HeliX, but he's just not interested." Calmly, he reached over and added an apple to the book atop his friend's curly hair. "Although if being that metro isn't a mutation, I think we need to rethink the entire concept. Whoa, dude, big dog headed our way," he blurted, suddenly stopping in his tracks.

The dog skidded to a stop, almost tripping over it's paws. It barked frantically, and then looked over it's shoulder at the approaching animal control men, one of them carrying a long metal pole with a loop at the end.

Boys! Ah, dammit. There's no way to tell them and I have no time. FUCK.

It barked again, and then took off. The animal control officers in hot pursuit.

"Scuse us gentlemen," one of them huffed as he passed Marius and Forge.

Marius turned after the man, deftly catching the book as it slid from the top of his head. "No worries," he remarked automatically. He started to turn back, then almost broke his neck with a double-take. "Eh . . . Forge?"

"Hm?" Forge turned to follow Marius's gaze. "What am I missing?"

"Is there a scientific reason, do you think, for that dog to be wearin' Jen's DNA?"

Forge narrowed his eyes. "You're saying that... your funky prey-dar sense is picking up traces of Jennie on that dog?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Man, that's... wait. Hypothesis -parasitic organism takes a canine host, absorbs mutant DNA? Or perhaps it's something from Dr. Campbell's labs! Either way -we've got to catch it before Animal Control does! Go!"

Jennie ran this way and that, trying to lose her pursuers, cursing her luck about not being able to get the boys' attention. Her lungs were burning and her muscles were aching. The tranformation had eaten a lot of her reserves and she was losing enegry fast. She ducked in-between two buildings, and skidded to a halt. There was a high chain link fence blocking her exit. And the two animal control men were right behind her, blocking off the other side of the alley. She was trapped.

She turned a frantic circle and whined.

"Easy now," the man with the control stick said soothingly. "That's a good girl."

Jennie backed up until her behind hit the fence, and began weighing the option of whether or not biting the man would make things worse.

"Oi, 'scuse me!"

The two boys came jogging up, significantly fresher than either of the animal control officers. Marius assessed the situation, weighed their options, and promptly assumed Blokey Foreigner Mode.

"So happens you appear to have located our errant dog," the Australian declared, indicating the whining animal. He rolled his eyes and nodded in the direction of Forge. "I blame this one. The technology of the gate-latch has long been beyond him. We've been quite distraught."

Forge refrained from rolling his eyes and shrugged to the two officers, then knelt down and made a clucking noise at the large black dog. "C'mere, puppy," he singsonged. "Who's a good dog? Is it you? Is it?"

The dog lowered it's head and narrowed it's eyes at Forge.

You have got to be kidding me.

Jennie looked back up at the Animal Control men, and then back at Forge. Hesitantly, she wagged her tail. Which was an extremely weird sensation. She took a few steps forward and gave a happy sounding bark, panting for effect and wagging her tail harder.

"Ah, good girl," Marius said encouragingly. He stooped down beside Forge and squinted. "Er . . . my, are those familiar eyes --that is," he corrected, mindful of the men in extremely close earshot, "I have never before realized how completely they resemble those of a certain ex, which I assure all present is an amusingly appropriate irony." As the situation was becoming progressively more bizarre, Marius decided the best thing he could do at this point was just go with it. He spread his arms and declared, "At any rate, come on girl! Come to daddies! Come to the one you love the best!"

The dog rolled it's eyes, which was an extremely human and familiar gesture.

For crying out loud.

"Um," the Animal Control officer with the stick said. "Are you certain this is your dog?"

In response, Jennie approached Marius and nosed at his hand, wagging her tail. She looked back at the two men, trying to seem like the picture of Happy Doggie.

Please be buying this, please please please...

Marius patted the dog on the head and turned to Forge. "Sorry, mate. No hard feelings, eh?"

"Oh, none at all," Forge said experimentally. "She was always your bitch, anyway."

In response, Jennie growled loudly.

"Ah, she's love-growling," Marius said loudly, with an extremely meaningful look at the dog. He leaned forward and said cheerfully, "Because Lucky here's got not one hostile bone in her body, which is fortunate because all the claims of ownership in the world would do not a thing to deterr Animal Control upon witnessing a graphic mauling."

Jennie sighed. Marius was right, so Forge was going to have to die a horrible death later. But for now, she tugged on Forge's sleeve with her teeth.

Scratch my head, you imbecile. There was no way in hell she was licking him. For one thing, that might lead to creative punishment from the boy's current girlfriend. For another, EW.

The two officers exchanged looks. They seemed like they were slightly lost in this whole strange situation.

Nodding, Forge tried to tamp down the sudden feeling of mixed amusement and terror as realization set in that this dog didn't just have Jennie's DNA - that this animal somehow was Jennie, there simply couldn't be any other explanation for the strange feeling of familiarity.

Cautiously, he patted the dog's head and put on a smile. "Sorry, officers," he tried to explain. "We normally keep her in the, um, frat house yard. Stupid pledges must not have been paying attention."

The one without the stick sighed and checked his watch. They still had a feral cat they needed to deal with. His partner looked at him and shrugged.

"She needs a tag, you realize this? We could fine you."

"Still waitin' for the engraver," Marius replied promptly. "No worries. She's already got that chip in her back. You know, the sort they threaten to put in small children."

The one with the stick shrugged at his companion again. His partner returned it.

"What the hell. Okay, you take better care of her all right? Make sure you get her tags, and I don't want to see her without a leash."

Both men gave the boys 'I'm really important and serious" looks. Jennie wagged her tail and tried to look innocent.

"Oh, we'll take care of our darling Je... Lucky," Forge caught himself, giving the dog a quick glance. "We promise she won't even think of getting out of the... yard... until we get this resolved."

Both men nodded to the boys and then headed out of the alleyway. When Jennie was sure they were gone, she sat heavily on the ground.

That was way too close.

As soon as the Animal Control officers were out of sight, Forge looked around, then crouched in front of the large black dog. "Holy shit, Jennie?" he asked. "Um... bark once for yes, twice for no? Unless you can talk. Oh man, did someone turn you into a talking dog? This is worse than the whole gender-bender thing." He stopped, looked at his hands, then glanced at Marius. "It's not contagious, is it? We're not going to turn into dogs?"

Marius gave Forge an odd look. "Mate, you are aware whatever odd assessment skill I possess isn't adjustable, right? Just keep an eye out for fur." He turned his attention back to Jennie. It was definitely her. If the sense he got from her hadn't been enough, the physical contact had confirmed it. Well, that and the dirty look at Forge. It was hard to duplicate.

"If this is some sort of villainous strategy," he said, "credit for imagination."

Jennie shook her head. She stood, pacing in front of the boys. How in the world was she going to explain this? She couldn't speak, and it was beyond yes or no questions. She sighed. Then she noticed Forge's laptop bag. She padded over and tugged on the strap with her teeth and barked, wagging her tail.

Forge's eyebrows raised. "You want the laptop, huh?" he said, in the singsong voice one would usually use to talk to a pet before he caught himself. "Sorry. Um... okay, laptop,right." He slid his computer out of the case and hit the power button, watching the animated Xavier's school logo spin on the screen before breaking up into the hundreds of icons that cluttered the screen. He glanced down at Jennie's paws, then shrugged. "Well, if you've got an idea, it's all you. My speech-to-text synthesizer doesn't have a Labrador dictionary."

Marius nodded. "Speakin' from experience, it may be more expedient to let the big brains at Xavier's eliminate the middleman. The thumb? A digit you will quickly wish you had shown more appreciation for." He scratched his head, brow furrowed. "Er, though do you perhaps happen to know if this is permanent?"

Jennie cocked her head at the computer, considering. Then she nosed the mouse to the word processor and tapped the button awkwardly to open it. Very carefully, and agonzingly slowly, she began to type.

procf sent me to talk to new muta ntr. girl in classz. shed tudrns people infto dogs. accidednt. zshe ran. hope not permandenrt.

"It's official," Forge said in amazement, "Queen Medusa no longer has the lamest power on the planet. Okay, we need to get some bigger resources on this. Find this mutant, get this reversed, and get her some help. And that means the Professor."

"Yes. I feel confident in this plan. Particularly the part where the problem passes into hands more capable and also not ours." Marius glanced down at his now-quadrupedal friend. "Congratulations, Jen. I do believe you're now eligible for 'oddest powers experience.' You may even nudge out the bloke who made Haroun break out in song."

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