[PRP] Special Surprise! [Cue/Forgotten]

[Ruriska]

[imgleft]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgleft]

“In there,” Evolve sighed, pointing with her nose.

As requested, she had led her mother to where the hill had partially collapsed against a towering tree, creating a dark cavern. Once Forgotten was waiting inside.

There were other places she would rather have been right now but her father had been desperate for her help in the big reveal and someone needed to lead Cue in the right direction.

MotherFather knew you couldn’t trust System Shock to keep a secret or be even slightly reliable.

[Jun]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ry_jun.png[/imgleft]
"Thank you," Cue also sighed.

Just like her daughter, there were other places she would rather have been right now. In her case, it was largely because she was honestly afraid of what kind of harebrained scheme might have cooked up this diversion.

And Cue wasn't afraid of much.

But she was afraid of harebrained schemes.

They were so harebrained.

Still, Evolve wouldn't have spent her time leading her here if it weren't important in some way.

So she stepped into the cavern.

[Ruriska]

Evolve rolled her shoulders into a shrug and wandered off. Very charitably (for her,), she hoped her father got the reaction he had been hoping for after his disappointment at her own lukewarm response.

But really, once you had one parent as a Legendary, what difference did another one make?

Meanwhile inside the cavern, Once Forgotten was squeezed into the furthest crack of dirt and roots and wishing his new headlights had an ON/OFF option. It was very hard to surprise anyone when they were constantly glowing.

They did make for a very nice rainbow effect however.

His ears perked up as he heard them outside and that meant the show was ready to begin. Soon she would walk inside and... would she like him like this? What if she hated it? What if she thought she was stealing her thing?

Not that he’d ever bless the same way but now they were a power couple and not just a power mare with her adoring mate.

His heart rate spiked and all of his joy turned into sudden anxiety.

Cue Queue stepped in and Once Forgotten was forced to face his fears and step out of his hidey hole to greet her with a loud,

“WOOF!”



He hadn’t even noticed the shift but now he was looking up at her with big glowing rainbow eyes, his tail swishing back and forth with the eagerness to please that only a dog could provide.

[Jun]

Cue had been getting suspicious about the weird rainbow glow, but she was definitely not prepared for a dog to step out with the weird rainbow glow.

It was honestly a very handsome dog, with striking glowy markings and a halo of rainbow orbs.

Probably anyone else would've gone, "Awwww!"

And maybe, "Who's a good boy?!"

But Cue was part owlcat.

"MROWWW!"



She, too, hadn't even noticed the shift, but all of a sudden she was a little owlcat, swiping at the hound with a clawed paw, then scrabbling across to glower at him from the cavern's shadows, fiercely glowing eyes perhaps just bright enough to illuminate her fully puffed tail.

"HISSSSSS"

@Ruriska (poor Forgotten u_u)

[Ruriska]

Once Forgotten was devastated.

“AROW-ROW!” He cried in despair, flinching back from the strike and dropping his belly to the floor in submission.

He was a good boy and she didn’t want him anymore. He was an outcast. Packless.

He popped his head between his paws and stared at her solemnly, letting out a constant low whine.

If he had been at all used to being a eaglehound, it might have occurred to him to simply shift back but he was too overcome the immediate rejection for that thought to surface.

@Jun

[Jun]

"HISSSSSSSSSS"

...Wait.

There was something intensely familiar about those hang-dog eyes, even with the unfamiliar rainbowy glow.

And.

Well.

Also the familiar glowy white markings on familiar black pelt.

Her tail still puffed in warning, the little owlcat crept over warily, and bopped the eaglehound on the snoot with a careful paw.

This time, it was only a little clawed.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

His feathery tail fluffed out and wagged hopefully at her approach. Once Forgotten accepted his punishment with only the slightest of flinches, nose wrinkling where her claw had scratched it very slightly.

Maybe... maybe she would forgive him?

“Cue,” he began to say, except it didn’t come out that way because he was still a dog. Instead it emerged as a squeaky sort of bark and it was then that he realized that he had the ability to change forms and he wasn’t stuck this way forever.

And then there he was, a Kiokote once more, very different from how she’d last seen him. He was still on the ground, in the same position of supplication he had taken as an Eaglehound but now he was wearing a wry and apologetic smile as he said,

“... Surprise?”



@Jun

[Jun]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... y_jun3.png[/imgleft]



"ONCE FORGOTTEN, HOW DARE YOU GO AWAY FOR SO LONG AND COME BACK AN EAGLEHOUND!"

The owlcat erupted into a fury of a mare instantly - then just as quickly sighed and paced aside:

"What am I saying - of course you'd come back an eaglehound. That's just like you."

She was, perhaps, pacing to avoid looking into his glowy rainbow eyes, now that he was all Kiokote again.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

Even the floating rainbow halo seemed to droop at her outburst.

But Once Forgotten didn’t stay despondent for long. He hadn’t been Cue Queue’s companion for this long by being faint of heart.

He sat up on his haunches and watched as she paced.

“Should I have picked the owlcat instead?” He pondered aloud. It had been one of his considerations but the Eaglehound had seemed much more suitable for his temperament. That Cue would find it displeasing hadn’t occurred to him.

@Jun

[Jun]

"NO, no," she dismissed the thought instantly as she paced, "that wouldn't work at all - you're all wrong for an owlcat."

As anathemic as it felt for a feline, she had to look over, nose wrinkled, and concede:

"Eaglehound suits you."

Don't you dare suggest there might have been the barest tinge of admiration in that - DON'T YOU DARE.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

“It does?” Once Forgotten questioned further, tail giving a little wag. Any sort of compliment from Cue was precious and he wasn’t ashamed to try fishing for more. “I thought so too. It felt very...” he thought back to the moment, “... steady. Loyal.”

With a soft ‘oomph’ he finally rose to his hooves, middle-aged dad bones creaking as he did so.

“Well,” he said, as he finally stood before her as a newly-made legendary, his face covered in a rainbow glow and his eyes full of gentle love as he looked at her, “do you like it?”

@Jun

[Jun]

Oh no. He was standing up and looking at her. She would have to stop pacing. It would look ridiculous if she didn't.

She stopped pacing.

She looked at him.

She looked away immediately.

"You look," she said, "good."

What she had really almost said was 'You look stupid good,' but she'd skipped the adjective, not because she was afraid he might have thought it was an insult, but because she wasn't about to admit he looked stupid good.

Because he looked stupid good.

But she wasn't about to admit that.

"Very," she said, "glowy."

"What's with the," stupid good rainbow glow in your eyes, "weird rainbow balls around your head?"

[Ruriska]

Some of the tension he had been holding in his shoulders released. Her simple approval making everything he had gone through worth it, just to be standing here, someone that she could look at at and say, ‘you look stupid good’.

He was still looking at her, absolutely besotted as usual, as he answered. “Oh yeah, they were a bit of a surprise.” There hadn’t been much time between waking up and coming here for him to sort out half of what was going on with his new body but he had some sort of idea how to use them.

Not that he would tell her yet.

That would be an extra special surprise.

“It feels like they represent family.”

Each one of his siblings long gone into the swamp to live their lives, a father he never got to meet, his children, his lifemate. There was a colour for all of them there. They would always be with him. No matter how far apart they were.

@Jun

[Jun]

It caught up with her in a rush, the memories. It was not that she'd forgotten, it was just that it had been so long ago, the knowledge had become just some little corner of old scenery in the life they'd made since.

The night they'd met.

The journey they'd had.

His scattered siblings, and the father he'd never found, in the end.

The Motherfather knew all things, she was intimately aware, and this, too, She must have known, and given them back to him in the form of these weird rainbow balls.

(Ed. note: she absolutely did not bother to count the number of balls to realise he meant, like, their kids and her too.)

Cue was not a sentimental doe - the least emotional doe in the Swamp (ed. note: harhar) - but their journey had been long, and had brought them to this moment.

"I knew you'd make it," she said.

And then she said no more, because she was not a sentimental doe.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

She was not a sentimental doe.

Which made her words, as simple as they were, all the more special. It was enough - no, not just enough, perfect. Those words were exactly what he had needed to hear.

“Of course,” he replied with a fond little grin. “I wasn’t going to be left behind.”

She’d always been the smarter one with a killing edge who could race on ahead without fear but he was steady and determined. He hadn’t even realized that was what he had been chasing but he’d caught up eventually.

“Sooo, you really think I look good?” He asked, just to see if he could get anymore compliments out of her while she was in a good mood.

@Jun