Continuing my new project to write a short story (3-10 sentences) for each prompt in the pinned post on my blog, here’s a short little thing for 40. pet + Li from @speakergame!
Disclaimer: since Speaker is a new project, I can’t say I’ve had the opportunity to get to know the characters all that well yet, so it’s possible that my characterization for Li may be proven wrong in the coming months, but I’m doing my best because I love them and this game.
It isn’t like familiars are all that uncommon, so it still surprises Li every time someone sees Angus and coos over her like she’s a particularly well-trained housecat. In fact, it’s through this that Li has developed a weirdly powerful empathy for people with service animals; lucky that Angus doesn’t necessarily have a job to do that concerns life, death, medical stuff, and all that.
She’s still more than a pet, though. It’s always been so hard to explain to people without familiars, exactly what that bond feels like, and Li is never sure that they actually get it when they say stuff like, “Oh, yeah, I know what you mean!”
Maybe, Li thinks, looking at the Speaker’s gently strange demon dog, that’s why it feels like fate had a hand in bringing them back together. That’s hardly the only sign, but Li feels pretty good about it.