Wild Ones

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau sighed as he stared at the ferret that had been his torment for the past few days. He'd volunteered to take care of the critter, feeling like he owed it to the owner, but ever since he'd done so, said critter had been nothing but trouble. It had already eaten a set of guitar strings that Beau had carelessly left out on a dresser, thinking no creature in its right mind would nibble at it. A set of chewed through strings later, and Beau had learned that this was most certainly not true. The critter had also torn apart a shirt, attacked Beau's roommates (twice), gotten away and ran toward the girls' dorm (three times), and hidden underneath Beau's bed with its head in a sock for the better part of two hours. That wasn't even considering the pooping, oh the pooping.

So why did he have it out in the Lounge? Because Beau sure didn't trust the critter to be left alone back in his dormitory, that was for certain. And he'd arranged to meet with one of his friends in the Lounge to play on one of the consoles that had been hooked up to the impressive screen (amazing how the various toys that they could play on had gotten better recently). An X-box loading screen showed on there now, though Beau's attention was mostly on the ferret. He kept waiting for the critter to move, to do something, but it seemed to want to be perfectly still instead.

Beau heard the footsteps and turned, waving to Alex as the young man approached. "Hey there, got everythin' set up," he said, nodding toward the screen, "an' sorry about the critter, he ain't--" he looked back, and wasn't surprised to see that the ferret had taken the time to run off. Beau sighed, rubbing at his face. "The ferret that was sittin' there is more trouble than he's worth. I'm tellin' ya: don't volunteer to petsit for someone without meetin' the critter first..."

[Alexander Wallander]

Another day, another 16 hours of sleep. It probably would've been twenty if his alarm hadn't gone off. He groaned and looked at the clock. Fuck! He was supposed to meet Beau in the Lounge five minutes ago. He jumped out of bed, pulling on yesterday's..... yeah yesterday's clothes. Apparently what he wore yesterday was a pair of red skinny jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He tugged on a pair of socks, one orange, one green. Xander ran for the door, tripping very slightly, but catching himself.

Record time, he made it down to the lounge in about 3 minutes. He stopped to catch his breath outside the door. Xander stepped in and scanned the area for Beau, spotted! Xander approached and waved back. Confusion drew to his face when he apparently apologized for an invisible creature. The confusion faded when he explained that he was pet-sitting a very mischievous ferret had ran off. Beau had been his friend for a year, maybe more, he couldn't quite remember. Beau was probably the only male friend he had that he didn't have the urge to sleep with. Beau was a good friend, always trying to set him up with the girls, and Xander didn't have the heart to tell him girls generally don't appeal to him."Want help finding the little bugger?" he asked, flicking his tongue, scenting the air for ferret pheromones.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau could feel himself picking up a few of those snakey traits, though he had enough experience around Xander to not go full reptile. He smiled at the offer, nodding and pushing himself fully upright. The game could wait: who knew what kinda trouble the darn critter would get up to if they didn't rustle him up quick enough? Beau looked about for a bit, just barely catching Xander's tongue slithering for a bit.

"You pickin' up somethin' like that?" he asked, smiling, "or are you jus' doin' that to try an' look cool," Beau's grin said that he definitely wouldn't have minded either explanation. He'd been tempted by some of the neater looking powers himself. He'd have likely done something like that already if he wasn't afraid of looking like an idiot. Something about the snake's tongue just didn't seem to work well in Beau's mouth.

Instead he started moving about, trying to trace the ferret. "The critter likes to stay in sight," he said, looking over at Xander. "It taunts me 'bout it, matter of fact," Beau let out a breath, rolling his eyes for a moment while looking around. "I think the damn thing's some kinda sadist," wouldn't surprise him. He'd have already suspected it was a shifter if, well, he hadn't not turned into a ferret.

[Alexander Wallander]

Xander chuckled at Beau's response to his tongue. "Contrary to popular belief, my powersssss are for more than jussssst looking cool." he shrugged as he looked around, flicking his tongue every few seconds. He moved around the lounge, following the ferret pheromones he was sensing. They led straight to a girl, and since he had been hunched over his head bumped her breasts. He sat up straight and looked innocent. She looked rather pissed. "I'm sorry, I'm looking for a ferret and," he paused and squinted at her, she had to be a ferret shifter, "and you're not a full shifter so I'll just be moving on." he winced a bit as he snuck past her.

He flicked his tongue some more, following a different trail. A trail that led him to under the couch. "Beau, help me lift this couch." he waved his friend over. He latched his fingers under one side of the couch and started to lift his end. He dropped it seconds later once he spotted the ferret scuttling out from under the couch. Xander sighed deeply. "Why did you ever agree to this?" Xander groaned, scenting for the ferret again. "Why did I agree to this?" Xander joked.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Yeah, I kinda know that," said Beau, opening his mouth for a bit, demonstrating that he, too, had grown a little teeth. He soon chuckled, closing his mouth and instead opting to move about, looking. When Xander moved though, Beau followed, counting on the other guy to be able to sniff something out. He hazarded trying to shift his own tongue, wincing as he felt it changing and working at him. Felt weird, and maybe a bit painful, but soon he had his own forked tongue licking, tasting and scenting the air, and that felt weird on its own.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, nodding to the girl as he came up behind Xander, "lookin' for a pet ferret an' all, friend here's jus' sniffin' an' I guess you gave him a bit of a false trail,' Beau smiled and winked at the girl, using that good ole Southern charm of his to help smooth things over. That meant letting Xander get out of range, and soon Beau was getting ferrety instincts instead of the snake ones. He almost immediately felt his tongue shift, losing the scent at the exact time.

Xander's call for help jerked Beau back to attention though. He nodded and jogged over, bending down to help lift almost immediately, hooking his fingers. No sooner had he gotten squatted and ready then the ferret skittered out. It literally climbed the top of the couch, stared at Beau, and then scurried off, heading in another direction.

"Help a friend,' replied Beau, sighing and turning, "an' I think it went that way,' he moved to follow, determined to at least snag the bugger.

[Alexander Wallander]

Xander nodded at his friend and flicked his tongue in the direction Beau pointed out. He picked up the trail again, but made sure it didn't lead to the girl again first. He trailed to under a piece of furniture. He pulled the piece away from the wall just for it to dart again. He pounced, using his 'snake-like' reflexes to catch it. He wrapped his hands firmly around the squirmy bugger, before he even tried to get up. His knees and elbows stung but, it wasn't nothing he couldn't handle. Xander turned back to Beau and held it up in victory. He used his australian accent in favor for a joke, "Cricky, mate! It was a big one!" He laughed and handed the ferret over.

He pushed the furniture piece against the wall where it belonged and plopped down on the couch. "You better put that somewhere safe," he nodded matter-of-factly, eyes fading back to a human blue. He began to inspect the rug-burn on his elbows. He picked a bit at the skin coming off of it and then dropped his arms. He licked his lips with a now human tongue then looked to Beau. "So we gonna play a what?" he asked. Alex didn't care much for video games, but playing with Beau wasn't bad.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau dove for the ferret at nearly the same time as Xander, narrowly avoiding running into the other guy. They managed to corner the ferret between them, which was, of course, the goal and all. Soon Xander had the ferret and Beau was giving the critter an evil look of his own. He didn't trust the thing, but he also didn't know what to do with it. He took it as Xander handed it over, trying to tighten his grip on the critter. He still didn't want to take it back into his room or anything. Eventually he walked over to where there were several plastic totes, sighing as he plunked the ferret inside "I'd tell you to stay, but we both know that ain't gonna work," he mumbled, looking over at it.

He turned to look at Xander as the other guy got ready on the couch, cuing up the game. "can't trust the rascal back in my room, but I doubt he's gonna sit still here. Makes me wish I had somethin' to give him to play with or somethin'," Beau sighed and looked back at the critter. He supposed he could always get the cage if need be, but that felt rather extreme, all things considered. He nudged the tote, which had the ferret staring up at him. It didn't do anything though, so Beau backed up back toward the game, eventually settling next to Xander.

"Yeah, sure, got it all set up," he said, nodding and picking up a controller. He cued up the game, staring at the startup screen. "Figurin' that critter's gonna squirm out any time though,' he said, trying to sound as though he wasn't dreading that very thing.

[Alexander Wallander]

Xander watched Beau put the thing in a plastic container that would clearly only hold it for a few minutes. He shook his head at the notion of the ferret running off again. It was inevitable, and being himself, he'd help catch it again. At least he'd only do it for a few hours before he made the 'I have to study' excuse. It's not like he'd be lying. He did have to study, and he always studied at the same time every day. 

He picked up his controller and leaned back into the couch, propping his feet up on the table. "You ready to get your ass kicked?" he chuckled, watching as the screen started loading the game. Xander glanced to check if the ferret was still sitting there, and surprisingly it was. For now. 

He dropped his feet to the floor and leaned forward on his knees once the load screen was done and the game was up. Xander was never good at these shooting games, and he knew Beau was gonna beat him, but he liked talking a big game. His character moved, the tv emitted fake armor sounds as he moved.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau chuckled as Xander promised to defeat him. Beau wasn't sure if that would be true or not; he did have at least some experience with these games. He did the whole hunting and shooting thing more often in real life, but that didn't always transfer over onto the screen as well. The loading screen had already come up. Beau hazarded a glance over at the tub, and could hear the ferret moving around inside. Maybe it would actually settle down and behave itself? Somehow Beau doubted it; dang thing probably just waited for the perfect opportunity to escape again.

The screen snapped into attention, and Beau focused back on things. His hands gripped the controller and he immediately began working his on-screen self into position, grabbing some of his favorite weapons and preparing things. "Kinda nice, doin' stuff like this," he commented, shrugging. "You know, killin' you over the x-box instead of sluggin' it out," not that Beau could recall he and Xander ever going toe to toe or anything. They probably could; it would've been almost humorous to watch, as it would've been the two of them attempting to hug one another to death.

But yeah, nice to be doing something "normal" like attempting to mow one another down on a video game. Beau got Xander's char in his sights and unloaded, relying on a weapon that fired with great speed, though he probably could've aimed if he had something that would've worked better that way.