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The trio meet up outside the animal shelter, presumably. Lux and Jack likely bused/walked, since taking a dog home on a motorcycle sounds... problematic. Lux is in a cropped hoodie that shows a sliver of stomach, and bright neon print leggings with sneakers. They're bouncing on their heels excitedly.
The sound of much borking can be heard inside the shelter.
The Mirrorskin appears, from wherever Teagans appear from when they're not doing things. They just sort of turn a corner and are there, hands tucked into their heavy leather trenchcoat. "Eyyy, Lux, Jack," Teagan greets, their lopsided smile sending subtle ripples across their mirror-dark face.
Jack's got his arm draped casually around Lux's waist, in his black leather jacket and a pair of dark wash jeans. Skinny, tight, you know. The usual. A floral tshirt with hints of neon pink complete the ensemble - maybe he dressed to match Lux on purpose, or maybe not, but the color coordination is definitely there.
Teagan gets an upnod and a grin, and the charcoal lines sketched around Jack's face shift lazily as he gets closer. "How're you now?"
"Heeeey." They wiggle fingers in greeting towards Teagan, following Jack over to them. "Been a while."
"Good, and you?" replies, the Mirrorskin's response reflexive. They tip their chin up toward both Lux and Jack in turn, broken-mirror eyes glittering. "Too long, Lux. Too long. Looking hot, as per the usual."
"Not so bad," Jack's grin widens, and he turns to eye Lux appreciatively, before giving his fiance a kiss on the cheek. "Don't they?"
"Thanks," Lux replies, preening after the kiss. "You too." They smile at Jack. "Shall we go find your perfect pupper?"
"Hell yeah," agrees Teagan, both to Lux's hotness and dog-getting. Their smile is lazy, hands staying tucked into their pockets. "I'm hella proud of you for getting here, Jack."
"Abso-fucking-lutely," he nudges Lux with his hip, and dips his head slightly at Teagan's compliment, scribbles drifting across his cheeks. "Yeah, well. Had a lotta help."
"Don't discredit yourself either, babe." They kiss Jack on the cheek. "You should be proud of yourself." Then off inside they go, letting Jack deal with all the sign-in stuff. Soon enough they're being led into the kennel area, with dogs behind bars on either side.
"Still, you had to be the one to do it." Teagan seems somehow more real, more solid. More present in the moment. Regaining an Icon and a kid will do that to a person. "What they said." They meander along behind the pair, letting the eager barking wash over them.
Jack takes as little time as he can with the paperwork, because. You know. Dogs.
"So I know we can't take them all home..." He mutters, crouching down in front of the cage of some sort of beagle adjacent mutt. "But...fuck it's gonna be hard to choose..."
There's a pretty prominent... smell of this place. Wet dog, excrement that hasn't been cleaned up yet--about what you expect from an animal shelter. But they catch something that doesn't quite match up--the sweet smell of sap and flower petals, coming from the very back kennels, tucked away almost as an after thought at the very end of the row.
"...You smell that?" Jack mutters to the other two, frowning thoughtfully. He gives the lazy doggo in the kennel a scritch behind the ears before he stands and takes a few steps toward the back of the row.
The Mirrorskin's forehead wrinkles up, and they tip their head to one side. "... yeah, yeah, I do." They've sort of stayed a step back -- not wanting to interfere with Jack's selection method -- but when that scent hits their nose, they wander down the kennels, looking for its source.
Jack takes Lux's hand as he follows, giving the dogs on either side of them an eye as he does. Even with Wyrdweirdness going on, he's still gotta look at them, too.
Lux was mostly doing the same, lingering back to avoid falling in love with a dog Jack didn't want. But they follow along, holding Jack's hand.
The smell comes from a kennel that at first glance looks like it might be empty--save for a strange... mossy growth sprouting up out of the concrete in the corner. But after a few seconds the mossy, grassy pile moves, and two dark eyes open up to peer towards them out of the foliage.
"Oh...fuck," Jack whispers, his silhouette flickering slightly. He glances at Teagan, then at Lux - are they seeing what he's seeing?
They clear their throat and start to say something, but then Jack curses, and Teagan crouches down. "... do you want me to call Oso?" they ask, looking up at the ceiling, as if checking for cameras or other ways that people might, you know, see if their dog appears out of nowhere.
There doesn't appear to be any cameras immediately around them.
"Would he help, d'you think? I don't..." Jack looks at the mossy creature and crouches down too, offering a hand to sniff through the bars if it's friendly enough to come close.
"I mean, I think he's the friendliest and sweetest soul this side of June, but... " Teagan's voice trails off, and they keep their hands firmly tucked in their pockets.
The hedgebeast is... not friendly. At least not immediately. It growls a bit as Jack sticks his fingers through the bars, but after a moment it quiets and shifts, pushing up to it's feet so that it looks more dog-like. It's head is squarish shaped, with floppy ears that have thick prickly tufts of spiny leaves sticking out to either side. It lowers it's head a bit, sniffing in their direction attentively, but something is clearly off with the hedgebeast.
On the kennel door is some basic information--pit bull/lab mix, brought in as a stray over a week ago, listing the "dog" as not good with kids or other animals.
A whistle -- low, high, low, with a warble on the low -- and then there's Oso, wide-eyed and excited, full of swinging tail and low-key wiggles. He doesn't bark, but speaks in Spanish. 'What is it, Mama?'
Teagan tips their chin up toward the other Hedgebeast, the one in the cage. "Don't go close, but tell me if you can see what's wrong with them." Defaulting to gender-neutral, like a Teagan do.
"Hey, buddy," Jack murmurs, keeping his hand still while the hedgebeast sniffs. "What're you doing in a place like this?" The way he's talking, he doesn't really expect the thing to respond.
Jack spares a glance to Teagan, when Oso appears, nodding slightly. And then to Lux, giving them his best puppy-dog eyes. "We gotta - don't we? Wonder if Lionheart'd count as another animal..."
Lux frowns worriedly at the hedgebeast, brows knit. "Certainly can't leave it here..."
Oso may be a ball of floofy love, but the other doggobeast looks alarmed by his suddenly appearance, cowering back into the corner, at first. Oso lays down in front of the door, jutting his nose up against the bar to sniff-sniff-sniff. "Puppy hungry," Oso says with sympathetic sadness in Spanish. "Been away from thorns too long."
"...Lost..." comes a soft, rumbly voice from the cowering hedgebeast.
"He's starving," Teagan translates, not expecting the others to necessarily understand Spanish -- no one else in their motley does, after all. "Feed 'im some glamour." They crouch next to Oso, petting his ears, praising him in low, rumbling Spanish.
"Jesus -" Jack starts in surprise as the hedgebeast speaks, but calms down quickly enough. "Oh you poor thing..." Jack lets out a breath - and Glamour, too, still holding his hand and arm still for the mossy doggobeast to inspect once they're a little less starving.
The offer of glamour makes the hedgebeast perk up, all of the leaves in and around it's ears standing on end briefly. It creeps closer to the bars so Jack can pass the glamour over, it's mouth opening--opening wide. In it's mask it would likely look like the wide, strong jaws of a pit bull, but in it's true form... it's head practically splits open horizontally, opening wide like a venus fly trap, mouth lined with spikey teeth and dripping sweet-smelling sap-like drool. It's mouth snaps shut after the glamour settles into them, whole body ruffling with relief.(edited)
Afterwards it starts sniffle-snorfling at Jack's fingers, smearing them with sticky sap-drool.
"What the shit," Teagan offers, blinking rapidly at the hedgebeast and scooting a little back, even though they're crouched down. "Well, that's... really something." Oso's ears briefly flatten back against his head, and he inserts himself between Teagan and the bars. Like he's more dangerous than Teagan is, or something.
Jack's eyes go wide, and he jerks his hand back as the beasts mouth opens, and opens...but when it's clear that the hedgebeast is content, he returns the hand to get slobbered on. Carefully. A little tentatively.
But he does eventually offer some chin scritches. "You got a name?"
The hedgebeast's wide tongue licks Jack's palm thoroughly, it's tail starting to slowly, hesitantly wag. It looks up at Jack with large dark green eyes. "Name?"
They slowly pet their hand over Oso's head, praising the hedgepup in a low, rumbling Spanish. And then Oso creeps forward slowly toward the kennel door, warbling wordlessly in support and understanding. "I think you get to name this one, Jack," Teagan offers, tipping their head up to look at Lux for their reaction, too.
"Ah like...what to call you, when someone talks to you. You look like...a Moss, to me." Jack scritches the beastie behind the ears too, and turns to Lux. "Firefly," he's the epitome of hearteyes, his smile wide. "What d'you think? About a name but also...taking 'em home?"
"Moss," it echoes back, then it's mouth splits open again--this time not to snap, but into a too-wide smile that both looks... kinda creepy and doofily cute.
Lux stares at the hedgebeast for a moment, then eyes Jack... then snorts softly. "As if I could possibly say no to you. Of course we're taking 'em home."
Moss' head tilts, then her mouth opens more, letting out a sound somewhere between a howl and a belch that also sounds vaguely like "HOOOME!!!"
Lux grimaces. "Maybe try to keep them quiet until we're out of here, though..."
"Moss is a great name," agrees Teagan, but what are they going to say? They have two dogs with the same name. Even if they didn't like it, they couldn't possibly judge.
The Mirrorskin actually throws back their head and laughs aloud at the howl that the animal lets out, and the way that Oso takes it up, warbling wordlessly in agreement howls. "OooOoooo!" Kinda like a dog singing along with the Star Trek theme. Woo woooooo!
Jack kisses Lux on the cheek, and winces at the howl. "Home with a soft bed and plenty of food, but you gotta be quiet 'till we're out of here, yeah? I'm gonna go find the girl at the front," he finishes at a half yell, trying to be heard over the noise of borking and howling doggos. "Y'wanna come home with us Moss?" Jack starts to get to his feet with a groan.
"Hoome! MOSS HOOOME!" The hedgebeast continues yoddling, and starts running in excited circles around the small kennel.
Lux grins, then shakes their head in amusement, then works on quieting the animal with some pets through the bars.
Getting the attention of an attendant is easy enough, but when Jack points out the "dog" he wants, the girl gives him a hesitant look. "Um... Are you sure? We've had a lot of trouble with that one." But ultimately paperwork is handed over for Jack to fill out.
"If you hadn't named him Moss already," Teagan offers somewhat drily at the girl's response, "I'd say you should call him Stitch."
A moment later, they explain, "June likes Disney movies."
Jack shows some surprising backbone, in convincing the attendant that yes, this is the dog he wants. Paperwork is filled out and handed over, along with a check, and Jack snorts at Teagan. "Not the right color, anyway."
The attendant looks surprised to see Moss looking so friendly and excited as she unlocks the kennel and helps get a collar and leash on--turning the excited hedgebeast over to him. Moss practically drags him towards the door.
"Hey - hey," Jack says to Moss with a laugh, stumbling after her. "Y'think Oso can teach her something about...calming down and not running away?" He looks to Teagan. Presumably, Oso has since vanished.
"Oh, I imagine so, as long as she speaks Spanish, but in any case, I can try to translate if not... " Teagan offers thoughtfully, laughing underneath their breath at the antics of hedgebeast and humanoid companion. Their broken-mirror eyes glitter delightedly, and they follow after, watching everything as though this is some sort of fantastic show to which they are being treated.
Once outside, Moss dives straight for the first patch of grass that can be found, and starts rolling around in it gleefully, snorfling and panting while grinning dopily.
Lux lets Jack handle dog-wrangling, lingering back a step or two while watching with amusement.
"Oh she's perfect," Jack grins and watches her enjoy the outdoors, his charcoal silhouette dancing. As he steps to the side and goes to squat and give Moss some tummy rubs, he leaves behind some faint flowers sketched on the sidewalk. They look like they're done in charcoal, and they fade so quickly that it could easily just be a trick of the eye...but of course it isn't.
"We might have to figure out how to get some greenery into that rectangle of concrete that passes as our backyard..." Jack looks up at Lux thoughtfully. "And maybe a Hollow that's not where you keep all your art supplies..."
"I'm sure we can figure something out... If need be, we can always put soil over top of the ground. Probably be enough to grow some grass or moss, or something..." Lux muses.
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