Be Friendly with the team as you keep watch
Time passed for a while and you watched over the others as they slept. Your eyes were stuck on their gently heaving chests as their breath slowly expanded and contracted their chests. Everyone still slept in full gear and you were the only one still half-clothed. Your chest was completely revealed, and most of your clothes were still torn and tattered from the transformation. Quickly, you took note of how much of a problem this would become in the future.
“Funny how this game was about outfits… And I’m here, the only one without one.” You laughed to yourself as you watched the crackling fire dance before you. Still, you knew that the only way to progress your story successfully was to work on the relationships you shared with the others. “So Duke.” You started. “What got you into this field of work?” You asked him. The dog didn’t seem to react to your questions immediately. Watching the warm glow of the fire reflecting against his dark fur, you saw him slowly turn in your direction to respond.
“It’s in my blood.” He said. “I’ve wanted to do this my entire life. It was as if I was born for this role.” he continued before his attention drifted once again to the fire. At this point, one of the felines had already injected himself into this conversation as he started thinking about his own response to the question.
“My father was in the military.” You were impressed- you didn’t even have to ask him anything.
“That sounds nice.” You said, replying to them both simultaneously. “So…” It took you a moment to remember the feline’s name. The both of them looked almost exactly alike other than some vague differences in the way the fur coloration had streaked across the twin cats’ faces.
“It’s Beck!” he smiled at you warmly. “Nice to meet you! Sorry for not getting fully acquainted earlier.” You nodded back at him.
“So Beck... You wanted to follow in his pawsteps?” You prodded him further, slowly trying to weasel your way into their friend group.
“Beck was always one of those legacy fools.” Duke interjected. The cat didn’t seem to mind.
“Yeah. We’ve come from a long line of military family.” Jameson nodded in agreement before picking up where his brother left off.
“My brother and I wanted to just continue that legacy.” He looked over to the dog. “Don’t think that’s something Duke could understand.” The German Shepherd scoffed and looked away. “Still, it’s not a profession we dislike.” The other twin concluded.
“It works out better for us because we’re identical twins.”
“There actually were a few more of us, but they’re off doing other things with their lives.” Beck picked up where his brother left off. “See it’s good though, that we’re twins because we’ve always had an innate sense of teamwork.” He looked over to Jameson. “Isn’t that right?”
“Oh hell yeah!” his brother responded. “We work very well together. That's why we’re always picked for these higher-level missions. Duke seemed particularly frustrated by the siblings bragging about their family, almost like they were prodding at a soft spot within the old canine.
“Whatever.” He interjected. “A good soldier should be able to have that with anyone. You both were just blessed by coming from the same womb.”
“Bah! That’s just Duke. Don’t worry about him.” Beck reassured you. “It’s like, there’s always some reason for him to be mad.” he teased.
“Oh. Why’s that?” you asked the twin cats, somewhat disregarding the rude canine’s moody huffy in the meantime.
“Fucking felines.” he scoffed to himself. You were at least able to pick that part up. For the rest of the night, you and the other cats continued chatting until the sun started coming up again. By that time, you started feeling a bit exhausted, but for some reason you could tell that the transformative energy made this far easier for you to bear.
You felt comfortable with the amount of information you received from the other three keeping watch with you. From the conversation alone, you learned a lot about each of them as an individual. Despite being twins, the two of them actually had vastly different skill sets.
“Maybe that’s why they work so well in a team” you thought to yourself. “These twins are so complementary to each other. Of course, they’d even be able to accomodate for each other’s weaknesses in a tactical situation.” you looked over at Duke. He was quiet for most of the time, so at this point, you didn’t seem to learn much more about him other than what you could already tell; he was a bit of an asshole. “Maybe that one just takes some time to open up.” You wondered.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 24 December 2021