This was done as a request from  TorenZabbic, who asked to have Roxy and her harem at a pet show. Over the course of writing it, it transitioned from a fun piece to a much more somber piece, but I really like how it turned out, and I hope he does too. And I met the deadline I'd set for myself (end of January). Now, if I could just make sure to meet a few other deadlines this year...



Story © J.R.Sinke
Conall belongs to Roaming Shadow
Chaos Croc belongs to Chaos Croc
Ally belongs to Allycat
Tami belongs to thekaotix
Frost belongs to jojo-uk
All other characters belong to Toren Zabbic


[center]Shadows of Canvas[/center



I needed this, Roxy thought with a mental sigh of contentment. We needed this.

Despite the operation in Canvass technically being a success, it still didn’t feel much like one. It seemed so many had come out worse then they had come in. Fe nearly lost her life, nearly costing Brass hers as well. She’d been able to see the whole thing for herself, and it was almost more than she could take. Even after that, Fe had nearly been brought to tears when she’d learned she’d been roboticized. Though it hadn’t been her intent, Roxy was glad that she’d been the one to break the news, so that she could comfort her kitten. And though they had fortuitously found Flora, she was perhaps the most mentally scarred from her captivity. Roxy had tried a few times to get her to talk about it, but each time Flora hadn’t been ready, and she let the matter wait.

But now, their faces were all alight in smiles, and Roxy once again mentally thanked Croc for pushing her to do this, as much as his insistence had been irritating. She’d been pretty stubborn, for perhaps the wrong reasons, and she knew that she had tested even Croc’s patience. She’d been unsure if attending the pet show would be a good idea, especially now since the kittens and herself weren’t even flesh and blood anymore. However, Croc insisted that there would be nothing better for her and the girls, and if anyone had an issue, they’d have to answer to him personally.

No such fuss occurred, and it seemed the attendees were enjoying the show. Fe was in her dancer outfit, performing an improv dance with Kami, who twirled both body and her lightening poi in an almost mesmerizing display. Roxy was certain the girls hadn’t rehearsed it, though they performed with such coordination that even she was beginning to doubt herself. The two moved with such grace and were so in sync that if she had told any of the onlookers that they’d been doing this for years, none would have questioned her. It was just another sign that the two were made for each other.

Roxy winced a bit at her choice of words, the turn of phrase once again bringing to the fore memories she really didn’t want on her mind. Fe had avoided donning her dancer outfit for a while after Canvas, as the distinct feeling of the winder that had been installed, rather than her key, often reminded her of what happened, a memory she recalled clearly enough to virtually relive. Fe always put on a brave face, rarely showing any negative emotions, but Roxy knew her kitten too well to not see the signs.

The two were not alone in the routine, as Brass, whom Fe and Kami moved around quite frequently, provided the music, as much a part of the show as the others. Brass wasn’t as much into instrumentation, and it had taken an effort to convince her to not be dancing with the girls (Roxy wanting to keep things rated at least PG). Still, she was mollified by being in the middle of the dance floor, with eyes on her, and Roxy let her get away with perhaps a little provocative swaying as she used her trident flute occasionally like a pole. Roxy was impressed at the tune she was able to create as well, using both hands and her tail on the stoppers to create unique notes for a tune that was not only original, but catchy with a great beat. Though she transitioned to what Roxy thought was something of a “seductive” tune every now and then, it still flowed with the rhythm, and Roxy could hardly punish her for following her nature, just so long as she didn’t cross the line.

They were all having fun, something that hadn’t come easy of late. Even Flora seemed to be enjoying herself. Though Roxy could empathize, Flora had been through so much, and hurt in so many ways, ways that Roxy knew she couldn’t honestly say she understood. After all, Flora had been pruned of her vines, and how could Roxy possibly know how that felt? In their own way, she knew, all of the Roses now carried scars, either physically or emotionally. But they were all the stronger for it, for not only were they all resilient in spirit, they all knew they had each other.

Unfortunately, such thinking once again led her mind back to darker paths, back to Canvas. She found herself needing to make a conscious effort to avoid reliving the moments of watching Fe’s heart being ripped from her chest, which awakened memories of her own mortal wound at the hands of Frost. They had come so very close to losing each other more than once, and the thought of losing her kitten, or her kitten losing her, was terrifying. She needed to get away from such thoughts, and she needed to do so quickly.

“Flora, would you mind watching the girls for a bit?” she asked, a bit more hurriedly than she’d intended. But she just couldn’t look at the girls at the moment without those dark memories reinforcing themselves and created a vicious cycle.

“Not at all. Why?” Flora’s concerns were obvious, having surely caught the unease in Roxy’s voice.

“I just…need to step away for a bit. I haven’t left since we got here, and there are a few acquaintances I want to see if they made it. And…I need a moment to clear my mind.” The last she had not at first intended to say, but she knew that she was practically telling Flora a lie up to that, and though she didn’t want to worry her, she also knew that lying wasn’t the answer. But she couldn’t say what was on her mind. Flora was in too good a mood to ruin.

“All right,” Flora replied, the subdued tones telling Roxy that Flora had already guessed the root of it, and Roxy felt guilty. “Take care of yourself.”

“Thanks,” she said, putting her heart into it and giving Flora a tender caress to reinforce her thanks, and as a mute apology. She made sure the girls saw her and indicating she’d be back soon before making her way off.

Even with the turmoil that had accompanied Croc’s rise to rulership, the convention seemed as big as ever. Of course, the convention was also for every definition of the word pet, from house pets and exotic to harems, making for one massive show. Even after several years of attendance, it never ceased to impress her sometimes the sorts of applications the word “pet” was used for, especially among the exotics, to which her feet invariably led her to. Thoughts of Canvas were still too close in her mind to the girls, and she needed to create some mental distance before she looked for old acquaintances among the harems. She just needed to lose herself, to let her mind repress the memories so she could pretend to be her old self again, if only for a little while.

As usual, the exotic floor lived up to its title. It never failed to amaze her the things people would call pets. It didn’t escape her notice either that there seemed to be a fair bit more exotics of the mechanical or robotic persuasion than she could remember seeing before. Some people seemingly had grown a fascination with them since Croc took over, and she had to admit, the things some people were capable of with AI these days was almost a little scary. Perhaps even scarier was how lifelike some of them were; if she didn’t know better, she’d wonder if some of them weren’t indeed roboticized from the real thing. She knew Croc monitored such potentials quite closely though, and it wasn’t something simply publicly available.

One of the attendees though had brought quite a collection of amazingly lifelike robotic house pets, and Roxy wondered what it might be like having one around. It wasn’t something that she really seriously considered, but it was an amusing train of thought she followed as she examined a cute little robotic kitten. That particular train of thought however came to a screeching halt, or perhaps went off the rails completely, as she heard a voice over the crowd saying, “She’s really friendly, and she loves petting, see?” It was a voice that was unmistakable, as much as she was sure she must be mistaken.

A few moments later though, sure enough, as she made her way through the crowds, she could see the unmistakable form of none other than Toren Zabbic, standing next to one of the world’s most fearsome predators as though it were little more than a house cat. And, incomprehensible as it seemed, it stood next to him as docile as one. He hadn’t noticed her yet, even after several moments of her staring at him in utter disbelief, even though by now nothing about him should be able to surprise her, and yet he always seemed to manage somehow.

Most people were circling wide around the pair, and Roxy made a calm and steady beeline towards them. She had a lot of questions for him, so many that she didn’t even realize he had inadvertently taken her mind completely off the darkened thoughts of Canvas. It was something she’d likely thank him for once she thought about it. By the time he finally did notice her, and she contemplated how one could be selectively oblivious like he could be at times, her mind had settled enough to calmly say. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” The simple sentence may as well have been her yelling “what in the blazes are you doing here” and Toren’s expression told her that he got that message loud and clear.

“Oh, yeah,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head like he often did. “Things have been a little busy of late, and I guess it slipped my mind. I was going to visit you in a few minutes, but Miss Flufflehoppers was getting a little jittery with the crowds.”

“Miss…Flufflehoppers?” Roxy was too dumbfounded to find anything else to say. For a brief moment she was worried that Toren just might have caused a malfunction somewhere in her software due to it’s inability to comprehend him.

“Are…you okay Roxy?” Toren said, and she still had enough of her senses to hear that he was a little worried.

Regaining her composure she simply said, “Toren, explain.”

“It’s a funny story actually,” he began, which also gave Roxy fair warning of what was coming. “You see, on the way to Canvas, I started coughing up blood and ended up drinking some dragon’s bane, which I thought was medicine before I drank it. Tami, who was then made of candy, left saying she’d get help, leaving me with a talking cockatrice, when a space bunny showed up. It was love at first sight. When Tami came back she gave me something to eat, though her candy arm looked better, and after that the space bunny became a Yari. She’s been my pet since.”

Any other machine would have likely blue screened by the halfway point of that explanation due to failure to compute. Fortunately, she was no mere machine, even if bodily she was robotic. Also fortuitously, that wasn’t the craziest thing she’d ever heard him say. It was up there, to be sure, but not the craziest. She made a mental note to talk to Tami and get a hopefully more comprehensible order of events. Thinking it over a moment, she did recall hearing that Toren had been coughing up blood before they’d come together again, which led to him becoming a soul tech again, but that particular misadventure had never come up.

“Okay,” she hedged, trying to figure out what to say to that before she continued without really thinking, “but where in the world have you been keeping her this whole time?” As a ninja, she was a master of staying hidden, and to a degree keeping other things hidden. How one hides a large predatory animal was something she was still trying to figure out.

“Oh, that’s easy. I just gave her my room in the slacker house. Since we moved into the tea house, it’s not like we really use it that much anyway, even if I still have the key. She’s even housebroken.” Toren petted the Yari’s shoulder, and Roxy swore the thing purred.

Wisely, she chose not to ask how he managed to housebreak her, instead asking, “And…you never thought to mention it? After all this time?”

“Well, there’s only so much panel time you know,” he stated in a bluntly “matter of fact way” that, coming from Toren, came off as correcting rather than condescending. “Besides, the only way the readers know we’re here at the moment and that this is even happening is because an author’s doing it, not the Artist. He’s busy keeping the story going.”

Roxy had to admit that he had a point, and that would likely explain why she’d noticed Conall earlier watching the girls. She’d been surprised to see him, as she would never have pegged him the type for such a show. It had been one of the few times that the wolf wore what she could honestly call a smile, rather than a smirk with delusions of grandeur. She still didn’t know too much about him, which worried her a bit, but Fe saw him as a friend, and Roxy thought her little kitten enjoyed putting a smile on that dark wolf’s face. And if the quiet wolf had earned her kitten’s trust, than he had hers.

As her thoughts returned to her pets, she found them unclouded by the shadows of Canvas. They were happy, and knew they’d be happy to be with Toren, away from Croc and the tension that seemed to be between the two. “Well then, do you want to see the girls now? They were putting on a dance show for the crowds when I left, and…Miss Flufflehoppers seems to be pretty calm at the moment.”

“Sure, just give me a moment.” Without further warning, he hopped up onto the Yari like doing such was normal. “What? I want Fe to meet Miss Flufflehoppers to.”

The yari didn’t seem to mind, and she wasn’t really in the mood to try to dissuade Toren, so she casually led on as asked. Besides, Toren was sure to mention his pet, and the girls, she knew, would want to see her if only to see it with their own eyes. It was amusing watching people make wide detours around them, and nobody really put up a fuss. While she knew walking around the exotics was something discouraged for various perfectly legitimate reasons, it wasn’t outright prohibited.

Much to the girls’ credit, they didn’t miss a beat, or even flinch at their approach, though Fe did manage the impressive feat of not taking her eyes off of them the whole time as she continued to dance. Her expression was more of being pleasantly surprised, and timing it perfectly, the trio of girls brought their routine to a finale just as they arrived. Greetings were delayed a moment while the small crowd showed their appreciation, even if they were now standing a few yards further away then they had been a few moments ago.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be here Toren?” Fe asked with a slight trace of annoyance, though perhaps it was just exasperation. She wasn’t with Toren nearly as much as she’d like to be, and knowing that Toren was at the show without them knowing had the kitten slightly perturbed, though not truly angry.

“I’d meant to, it’s just that things have been really busy lately and I never really had a good time to bring it up. Made for a pleasant surprise though didn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Fe replied, sounding cheerful again.

Brass was already at the Yari’s side, petting her like the Yari was one of the cutest things she’d ever seen. “And who would this cutie be?” she asked, the Yari accepting the caress with humble dignity.

“Miss Flufflehoppers, you see a little while back…”

Roxy listened with half an ear as Toren repeated his story, with minimal differences from the first time, though with a little more “elaboration” as Fe and Brass asked questions. The two girls behaved as if such an occurrence was normal, which was understandable: given what they’d been through, by comparison this wasn’t all that strange at all. Kami was keeping a respectful distance from the predator, though not really showing much fear, and Flora looked as though she hadn’t even noticed, though Roxy knew she had. But it wasn’t just that; she seemed distracted. It was a look Roxy had come to learn, as it was one she’d seen on numerous faces, including her own as she looked into the mirror sometimes.

She went over to her fellow dom, sitting down beside her once again. “You’re thinking out it again, aren’t you?”

Flora sighed. “I try not to, but it’s not that easy, not when so many things remind me. Even just looking at myself is a constant reminder.”

“I know,” Roxy said gently. “So does Fe, Brass, and Echo. A lot happened that day, a black day for all of us I’d say. But it’s not the first, and, as much as I don’t like saying it, it’s not likely to be the last. But we survived, each in our own way. We’ll always be together, even if we’re separated by distance…and occasionally death.” For a moment her mind wandered to Ally, and her relationship with Zaz. It wasn’t something she liked thinking about, but it was something she found her mind on every now and then, and she didn’t really know how she felt about it.

“I…suppose you’re right,” Flora said, a little more heart in her voice. “We’re still the Slackerz at heart, until the end.”

“Right, you can’t keep a true Slacker down, even if we’re also the Wild Roses.” As if on queue, the girls started playing music again. It seemed Kami might be doing a solo act this time, as Roxy could make out the notes of both Fe’s and Brass’ instruments, though there was something about the tune that was different. It didn’t really have a dance beat to it, which was odd. It was more…classical maybe? For some reason the term narrative came to mind.

“Or impromptu actors,” Flora said with a grin, the darkness that had so recently been in her voice replaced by a light amusement.

“Huh?” Roxy turned her head to see what Flora was smiling about. In what little time she’d taken her eyes off of them, it seemed they’d concocted an idea and set it in motion. Fe and Brass set the tone for a scene that looked straight out of some crazy opera. Kami played the part of damsel in distress to the approaching Yari, for which she wondered how they convinced her of that. Toren stood off to the side, visible but out of the scene.

What was most amusing was that the whole thing was being done in pantomime. Not even the Yari made so much as a growl, and she found herself again wondering just how Toren had trained it. Indeed, the Yari proceeded to pick Kami up in her jaws as gently as if it was picking up a newborn, though Roxy could see that Kami was still nervous by the slight electrical discharges running along her tail and cheeks. The whole thing continued to unfold in such a cheesy fashion that it was utterly endearing, comically recreating the classic story of “monster abducts princes and knight comes to her rescue”. But of course, with Toren being the mastermind, it wasn’t that simple.

The show just didn’t seem to stop, and it was impossible to watch and not wear a smile. The crowd loved it, the event staff loved it, several of the judges seem to love it, even if it was quite the unconventional display, and she loved it. For the rest of the afternoon, thoughts of Canvas were banished from their minds, and for a while they were simply close friends, and lovers, sharing time with each other without a care in the world. It was one of the best palooza’s she’d ever attended, and helped to heal some of the still open wounds of Canvas.