◆Pox◆
Pox woke up to his whole body being squeezed. He wasn’t claustrophobic. In fact, he rather liked enclosed spaces, but this was admittedly a bit suffocating. It took him a second to understand where he was. Kada had him trapped. She had her arms wrapped around him, squeezing him into her chest as she slept. It took a good bit of effort, but Pox eventually managed to wriggle himself free from her death grip.
Then, he reached his next ordeal. He could enter and leave every room through the pet doors, but Kada’s room was an exception. When the door was opened, the water would stop so someone could enter. However, if they were inside, a button needed to be pressed to stop it and open the door. That button was far too high for Pox to be able to press. It was also in the middle of a wall of water so he couldn’t climb up to it either.
Unless he could come up with a bit of ingenuity, he’d be trapped there until Kada woke up. Pox looked around the room, trying to find anything of use. There was a ruler Kada had for sketching, so Pox tried to push the button with it, but it wasn’t heavy enough. Then, he grabbed a bunch of random art supplies, and started throwing them at the button. There were many failed attempts throwing paint brushes and scissors. Eventually, a pencil case did the trick.
Pox dashed out the door the moment the water receded, and then headed downstairs. He was starving, so he headed into the kitchen. Unlike normal pets, there was no bowl of food waiting for him. Instead, he headed over to the corner. There was a pet bed there for Pox, along with a minifridge of tiny water bottles. Most importantly, there was the trash compactor. All trash cans were hooked up to it, pulling trash from all over the compound. Pox only had one official job here, and that was trash disposal.
He looked at the options on the machine, deciding which button to press. He was feeling fancy today, and pressed the button with a picture of a steak over it. The machine whirred, and a few seconds later a molded trash bundle in the shape of a steak on a disposable plate popped out of the machine. He grabbed a used set of plastic utensils, wrapped a napkin around his neck as a bib, and enjoyed his meal like he was eating at a high-end restaurant.
When the meal was over, Pox ate all of his utensils, and the plate as well for dessert. Then, he heard Mallea stamping around and went to check on her. “Ugh, where is it?” Mallea was hastily searching for something. “I just had the list in my hand a moment ago… or was it ten minutes ago. I can’t ask Drim to write another shopping list, that’d be much too unprofessional. I have to find it.”
It took Pox all of 20 seconds to find the list, since it was just laying out openly on a coffee table. He followed her around, doing his best to try and give it to her, but she was far too focused and he couldn’t grab her attention. Eventually, he gave up trying to be nice about it, and guessed he’d have to trick her into taking it. He went back to his pet bed and sat down to wait. Mallea came in a few seconds later to search the kitchen, and Pox pretended he was trying to eat the list.
“No, Nox! That’s not a snack!” Mallea grabbed the list from him before he could chomp down on it, not that he actually would. “Jeez, and I thought we were a team… Ugh, don’t give me that look. Fine, if I give you a treat, will you promise not to eat the things I lose?” Pox felt a little bit bad about deceiving her, but he was going to get a treat out of it so he couldn’t hide his happiness. His body started bouncing a bit, unable to control his excitement.
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There was a leadlined lockbox in the kitchen filled with cut-up bits of uranium. Originally, it was just a normal lead box but when Drim had sent in the new shipment of uranium, Pox had gotten greedy and ate an entire rock of the stuff in one sitting. Mallea scanned her finger on the lockbox to get it to open, then put on a special glove laying on top. She grabbed the tongs, and plucked out a piece of uranium. Pox was practically drooling when he handed it to her. He thought about saving it for later, but couldn’t resist when he got it in his hands and immediately stuffed it into his mouth.
“Well don’t you look satisfied,” Mallea sighed but smiled at him. She then headed off to go shopping. Pox spent the rest of the morning lounging around the mansion. He had to see if some of his favorite comfortable spots were still comfortable, and see if he could find any new ones. He took short naps behind the tv downstairs, on one of Phon’s pillows, on top of Xard’s police scanner, and a few other places. When he did this he’d also look to see if anyone was in need, but no one was around today.
After lunch, it was time to go on patrol. It wasn’t anything as grand as the patrols that Xard did, but Pox liked to walk around and check on everything. It was his home after all, and he had to make sure to protect it. He put on his cloak, then decided to start in the underground tunnels. He walked around, inspecting a few places, then went into a storage room.
Hidden behind a few boxes was a vent. In that vent was Pox’s secret stash. There he kept some of his favorite trash as snacks as well as a big pile of his poop balls. He’d discovered that it was best to ration how many he gave out to the two cooking obsessed ladies. If he waited long enough, they’d bribe him with treats to get some. Pox placed a new piece of trash he’d found earlier into his stash, and ate another that had been there for some time before heading back out into the tunnels.
He walked a while longer and then was suddenly swept up into the air. Pox was now imprisoned in a net, undoubtedly a trap planted by Ahvra. It wasn’t long before he heard the pitter-patter of little feet heading his way, and knew he needed to escape. The net was made out of a strong material, and there’s no way he could get out with his menial strength. However, there was nothing he couldn’t eat his way out of.
“Huh, where’d he go?!” he heard Ahvra cry as Pox hid behind a corner. While she had tried to trap him, he’d find some way to repay her later for the snack. This also meant he didn’t need to go to the lab to check on her since she was pretty bad at taking care of herself. He didn’t really need to check on Nathym, but might swing by his lab later and poke in his head for a quick glance.
Once Pox made it back to ground level, he walked the perimeter of the outer wall. Nothing of interest happened during his check of the inner perimeter, but it was rare something would. His walks around the outside were usually a bit more eventful. Today for example, he found a kitten from the town stuck in a tree. Pox climbed up, stuffed the kitten’s bottom half into his pouch, then very ungracefully dropped down to the ground. He then escorted the kitten back to town, and made sure it could find its mother.
Feeling the weight of his good deed, Pox was exhausted and decided to head back. It took him a long time to travel such a distance on his stubby legs, but at least he was getting exercise. As he walked, Pox’s head suddenly started hurting, like it was going to split apart. He clutched at it as his whole body went wobbly, but he managed to stay on his feet. This happened about once a week, and when it did, flashes of the past week would rush through his mind. Soon, the pain subsided, and he continued on his way.
As he finished up his dinner, he heard a familiar voice return home. Pox quickly dashed towards the boy, jumped into his hood, and clutched the back of his head. He’d stay here the rest of the day if possible, and was slowly drifting off to sleep from the comforting pheromones. This spot is my favorite.