Eric watched as Dark laid out newspapers along the tub. Such a fine tub — so clean. The cat wilted, ears pressing down as he thought about having to- to- to go to the bathroom. He shuddered at the very thought. Eating, going to the bathroom. Awful, awful, awful. He shook himself again, and he then noticed the start hairs that flew off of him. He was making a mess.
A long, low mewl of disconcertion came from his throat, and Dark looked over with confusion. After a moment of hesitation, they reached over to rub his head. Eric had quickly learned this soothed Dark as much as it felt good for Eric. “It’s just temporary. I doubt that this will last long. No more than a week.” Eric certainly hoped it would be shorter. A week? Unable to make sure everyone was okay? Unable to clean??? The world will fall to disarray! Chaos! Discord! Madness!
Dark was quiet as they rubbed his soft ears, then letting their hand run along his back slowly. Eric crept closer until barely pressed against their side and settled his head on their leg. His ears swiveled at every subtle crack and pop of their body, upset rising in Eric’s throat.
“Come along,” they sighed, standing carefully as more bones crackled against Eric’s ears. “You should be able to sleep through most of it, I would think. We’ll get you settled on the bed.”
Eric’s little pink nose wrinkled at that. He had seen the bed on the way in: crumpled and messy. It would need to be made before anything. He scampered off the ledge of the tub and sprinted ahead of Dark who startled at the the suddenness.
The cat leapt onto the bed and promptly collapsed with a less-than spectacular landing before pushing himself back up onto his paws. He stumbled across the foam mattress, but he had set himself to a task. Using his mouth (awful, terrible, so many germs, he hated this), Eric began his tedious undertaking of making the bed. Dark finished shuffling their way to stand in the doorframe to the en suite, watching with both amusement and bemusement. Each step that the cat took grew more confident by the meticulousness of walking back and forth to straighten the sheets just right.
Eric not moved to trek over to grab the next layer but rather froze, a paw hovering over the ‘pristinely’ placed sheets. He would– He would wrinkle it! Ruin it! The bed will fall to disarray!! Eric shrank back, tail between legs as he bumped the headboard. He couldn’t finish the bed without ruining it. An upset warble (?) sat in his throat, and he circled to hide in the pillows with a whimper.
All of this was terrible! Couldn’t cook, couldn’t clean, couldn’t even make a bed! He whined beneath the pillow, too upset to silence himself. While the cat fell into despair, Dark sighed and shuffled to Eric, dragging themself over by their cane. Their free hand moved with slight movements, and the rest of the covers drifted into the air by Dark’s will and made themselves on the mattress. Eric’s hairs stood on end and led him to peeking his head out as his nerves were now on edge.
The brown of his irises bloomed with dilated pupils as the magic finished making the bed. Clean! Neat! CREASELESS AND WITHOUT WRINKLES!!! He started trembling? and he whipped his head to find the source, stumbling out from behind the pillows as his chest continued rumbling.
A grey hand settled on his head, causing Eric to look up at Dark who rubbed — oh, that feels really nice — his ears. “Glad to have your approval,” they chuckled — also very nice; had he ever heard Dark chuckle before? — which only confused the former android more. How did they know that he liked the made bed?
Eric chirped at them in approval; this seemed to interrupt the strange vibrations for a moment, so he chirped again, only for the rumbled to resume. A little frustrated, he chirped over and over, worry crossing Dark’s face as he continued. “Are you… hiccuping?” Eric shook his head, his purrs overtaking him again when he stopped. “Okay, sleep as much as you can. It’ll help make the time go by faster.”
Facts: Eric was turned off and could not be turned on; a cat had appeared in his late place of being on; Dark took the mentioned cat. Before those facts, no messages had come through about taking a break. No one seemed to have noticed that Eric was gone yet.
What if the cat had no correlation to this? What if Google had pushed past the walls Bing set up? Could they do that? Why go for Eric? Eric was the simplest system of them, wasn’t he – the easiest target. Did Google want them back? Or just the others? Would Blue be left alone just like in the beginning? What if–
“–ue? Bluuuue?” A hand waved in front of Blue’s visual processors, and he blinked.
“Bing,” he acknowledged.
“Do you know you’ve been standing here for like five minutes or something?”
“Yes.”
Bing faltered… He twisted the ends of the scratchy, costume scarf around his neck, lightly pulling at it to stretch his arms anxiously while his head swayed with insecurity. Why did it have to be so difficult to talk to Blue?
“Uh- well, if you wanna talk about it or something, let me know. You were acting weird earlier. N- Not weird! Just, uhm, different? I don’t know; you seemed off earlier.”
“When you were piercing your ears.”
“Yeah. Oh, did you want one?”
Blue paused, eyes fading through blues and blue greens. “Perhaps at another time.”
Eric the cat tentatively touched the plastic ball with a bell in it, his ears swiveling with interest that he most adamantly did not want to have. The noise was — he wanted to smack it.
He felt ridiculous.
The cat looked over at the head of the manor who was still idly going through the newspaper. It was interesting, thought Eric, how Dark seemed unbothered by the anons. Did they not see the things? Or did they know something Eric didn’t? Or did they simply not care what happened in their house??? That last one did not seem correct at all.
And those crackles that Eric kept hearing, he knew that those were coming from Dark. The noises had to be. Their bones? Something else?? How had he not noticed before? He was a sophisticated android! Meant to care and nurture! AND HE HADN’T NOTICED?
Maybe he was missing something as a synthetic being.
He sure as heck knew that his stomach area didn’t normally feel like this. Do organics feel this all the time? This weird– weird, uhm– scraping (???) sensation in their abdomen? Like an internal scraping? It reminded him of the one time he stayed on for a deep clean from Ivan. Uncomfortable. Invasive. With a need of- of something. He didn’t know what but definitely something.
Sleep through it — How could Dark be so calm? Eric had become organic. Gross and fleshy and germy. And he didn’t know how cats worked!
Eric yipped softly. Upon receiving no attention, he yapped, and Dark looked up with a creased brow.
“Yes?”
Paralysis took over his little, furry form as he was stumped on how to communicate.
Dark hummed, causing Eric’s ears to twitch. They pushed out of the rocking chair — more crackles and pops — and moved over to double closet door and pulled it open. Eric fluffed up at the series of soft snaps when Dark spread their arms, a long and low mewl leaving him in worry. Ignoring Eric’s concerns, Dark kneeled with a grunt to go through a box. The cat finally creased the perfect blankets to stumble off of the bed, manage a clumsy landing, and pad over to their side in time for them to place down —
The fluffy tail flicked in agitation as he stared at Dark with indignation.
They only raised in eyebrow. “Do you have a better idea?”
Eric wilted. No. No, he didn’t. He placed his paw on the ‘no’ of the ouija board.
“Here: the last thing we need is for me to accidentally step on you,” Dark said while bending down to pick Eric up. The cat’s ears swiveled forward at the amount of cracks that emitted from them, and he gave a low noise of concern as he was placed on the counter. The grey being sighed, eyes closing.
“Please, I know you don’t like it when people sit on the counter —” Not what he was upset about, but now he was. “— but I need you to stay up here.”
Eric gave an awkward nod as he sat down as politely as possible, his tail curling up tightly against his side. The perspective was disorienting. He was high up from the floor, yet it was lower than usual for him. He couldn’t open any drawers or cabinets without difficulty. He wanted to get in the sink– He wanted to what?
He stared at the sink, perplexed by his own thoughts. Well… Dark had found salmon and was cutting it; they would not need the sink yet. Fueled with curiosity and impulse, the cat slipped into the sink and pressed his back to two of the walls. His head peeped just above the ledge to watch Dark who sent him a look of confusion. “Are you… enjoying yourself?”
Mrrp! Oh, he could make that noise. Interesting.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” they sighed before they took a minute to finish their cutting and placing it carefully on a plate. Dark moved over to him, and they gestured at Eric who tilted his head. “You need to move; I need to wash my hands.” But he was comfortable… Reluctantly, Eric rose from the sink, stepping back onto the counter. His head tilted again as the water began to run. Did it feel different now? Would it? The concept of wetness was just that: a concept to humans. Wet couldn’t be felt. Could he feel wetness?
A white paw batted the stream of water.
Why did he do that??
Dark watched as Eric sniffed his paw before licking it tentatively. The owner of the house chuckled with a tired smile before they picked up Eric who let out a soft mrrp of surprise. Upon being placed on the table, he froze, eyes on Dark.
“Oh, come now. I know you don’t like anyone on the table, but this way we can have something together,” scoffed Dark who moved the plate of salmon in front of Eric. Together? As they spoke, Eric could see the freezer open on its own, and an unlabeled tub of ice cream drifted out along the air to the counter. The cat’s tail puffed as he continued watching the tub open, perfectly scooped balls coming out and settling into a bowl without assistance and followed by a spoon.
The dish floated over to the table while Dark’s hands moved slowly, similarly to a conductor’s but in smaller gestures. The grey person swayed a hand to make a chair pull out before they moved to sit with a wince, and the bowl of plain ice cream sat itself before them. “Itadakimasu.”
DOES HE WANT HIS ANXIETY TREATED OR NOT? Actually imma look for the green Google and give the catnip to them.
Green–
Eric scrambled to his paws, his little heart beating wildly beneath all of the fluff. He couldn’t let them see him like this. His- his brothers. He was meant to protect them! Keep them safe! He can’t– They can’t see him like this!
A tentative paw step was taken as he began to figure out how to walk. It was using legs; how hard could it be??
It was awkward, moving one of four legs at a time. But once he had an idea, he grew more fluid in walking. Two at a time. Trotting along, padding along.
His eyes were down, watching himself walk to keep track of himself. This resulted into bumping into something, and he flopped over in surprise. Stupid– lack of auto-balance. The tuxedo cat glanced up and froze.
Dark stared in surprise at the cat, the two holding eye contact without moving. Slowly, Eric moved to stand up again, never breaking gazes before offering a weak mewl of apology. The head of the manor’s eyes softened, and Eric began to notice some things.
Dark leaned heavily on their cane, keeping all of their weight on their left arm instead of their leg. “Hi, dear,” they whispered and began lowering themself carefully. Eric’s ears straightened attentively at the subtle cracks of bones. Hurt? They hurt? A wince crossed their features as they finally made it to the floor. Eric yowled with worry and began to circle them nervously before moving closer while lowering himself to be smaller.
“It’s okay, it’s alright,” they murmured, reaching slowly for him. Eric folded his ears back but did not move away. There was a slight tug on his neck as Dark felt the collar and sighed. “Ivan, why…”
That’s a very fair assumption, thought Eric.
Dark then paused, and their eyes moved back to the tuxedo’s. “Eric?” The cat yipped. “Well… Alright, then. Let’s get you set up to wait this out.”
Eric! D: you poor thing, here let me help :c (grabs paper towels to clean up the mess) there, that's at least better, but I'm sure you'll probably come back with bleach when you're all better. (Sits down cross-legged against the wall to keep him company while he waits)
-Iowa
AAH, ANOTHER – one?
Eric tilts his head as the anon cleaned up the mess. Already, he starts to fluff up when they finish — but they just sit down? They don’t reach? They don’t grab?
He keeps a radius of about two feet, drifting back and forth to study the anon. It takes a moment, but he approaches, keeping space between himself and then as he awkwardly attempts to sit.
As always, the anon disappears. A weak squeak leaves him, and he curls up into a ball.
(HES SO CUTE) Careful- okay, hold... [Waits until he stops moving to gently put a peice of salmon in his mouth.] There you go.
He is sitting so politely now and takes the salmon bit gingerly to eat. He is learning so goooood.
Speaking of learning…
…
Blue is searching the house. He has learned that a cat appeared where Eric’s body had been before warping elsewhere and that Dark picked up the aforementioned cat.
