Ms. Quinn, don't make me angry... (Kealey)

Kealey's question actually got Miles thinking, freezing his smile in place, as he kept on petting the dog on the head, the animal just standing there, unaffected and unmoving. Ever since he brought them back to life, the dogs had stopped behaving like ordinary dogs and that constant wiggling about that dogs did, that lolling of their tongue, licking of hands or tail wagging had simply evaporated from their daily routine. They no longer did any of that. They just obeyed.

"I don't really know" he confessed, a bit of sadness in his voice as he looked at Tinaker and remembered him in his more lively days. "He really loved it before, when he was young and... less black, but now... I pet them out of habit. I keep telling myself they like it and they just can't express it anymore, but honestly? I have no clue if they like it".

'Beautiful' was not a word he had heard anyone use to describe his dogs, though Tinaker still kept some level of normalcy to him if you looked past the eyes. His fur covered his muscles a bit and he had been smallish to begin with so when the growth spurt hit after Miles turned him, the dog became medium sized. Astor was a beast though and to call him 'beautiful' would have been insulting, but the fact Kealey used that word instead of anything else was proof that she had seen lots of mutations before, had learnt to accept them and even found beauty on some of them.

Back to chit chat, though. He didn't like dwelling in his problems with others, so if he had any chance to derail the conversation into less serious stuff, he'd grab it and run with it. He knew that eventually they'd have to reach the crux of his problem but it would be much better if by the end she perceived him as just a young man with issues and some fun memories to tell instead of a potential necromancer, too dangerous to keep around unsuspecting students.

"My mother is of spanish descent and she's not really into pets" he began, as he leaned forward a bit, elbows on the knees of his crossed legs. "When dad brought me my first dog, it was a pure breed boxer puppy, a gift from a client to him, after he had mentioned how crazy happy I'd be if I ever got a dog. I was only five years old and sure enough, I was ecstatic with my new best friend, but mom was not. Dad won her over by telling her he'd named the dog 'Astor', after the town in Florida where they had met and fallen in love" he added with an impish smile. "Dad can be smooth like that sometimes".

"Fast forward six years later, I am now eleven and I'm visiting an animal shelter with my old man. I had heard stories, never knew if they were true or not, where some of the dogs there were put away if they couldn't find them a home, so when I find this little fella here..." he said, nodding towards Tinaker and tugging his ear "he was a small, underfed, mixed breed, dirty, sad, pathetic looking stray and it crushed my heart to think he could be put away. He licked my hand, wagged his tail, looked at me with those puppy eyes only dogs can pull off and won me over in an instant."

Miles sighed as he leaned back on the chair and removed his hand from the animal. Sometimes he wondered if leaving the dog would have been more merciful than the card fate had dealt him now, as an undead thrall.

"I begged, whined and pleaded to my dad until I convinced him to take the dog with us, though he was sure he'd be returning it tomorrow the second my mother laid eyes on the poor thing. He told me I was on my own. I would have to convince her and his money was on mom. When we got home, sure enough, mom gets angry at me and I begged, whined and pleaded but she was much harder to convince than dad. I used the 'Astor will have company' card, the 'my sister needs her own dog' card, even if I was fully intent on making him love me more, I even used the 'I'll clean up my room every day and pick up after him' card and filled the spaces in between with 'pleeeeeeeeze' like an obnoxious pro. When I finally got her to at least think it over, I moved in for the kill".

Miles had a rather prideful expression on his face, since the outcome was already known. "I used the 'smooth dad' card and I told her if she let me keep the dog, I would give her the honor, nay, the PRIVILEGE! of naming our newest family member."

The boy was downright beaming now as his long tale reached its final stretch. "She looked at me in a special way and I knew I had her. I actually cringed and crossed my fingers, hoping she wouldn't pick something girly like 'Pinkytoes' but all of a sudden she comes and spouts 'Tinaker'"

"YES!!!" Miles yelled, raising his hands like someone had scored a touchdown "Tinaker it is! I loved it! It sounded so cool and high tech, like... 'Transformer' or 'Terminator' No backsies now, mom! Long live Tinaker!"

The boy brought a hand to his mouth as he realized he had just screamed in a library, then continued with a whisper. "A couple of years later, we're talking about this very thing, my dog has already memorized his name and I go and ask mom why she had picked 'tinaker' for the dog's name. She smiles at me knowingly and comes clean. Turns out there's a country in central america where she had stayed a few years, where large, public garbage cans are called 'tinacos', and the filthy, stray dogs who knock them over and rummage through the trash for something to eat are called 'tinaqueros.'"

Miles smiled again, but it was an embarrassed smile. "Tinaker is an 'englishification', a literal translation of the word 'tinaquero' and it pretty much means stray, garbage can dwelling dog. It was the first thing she could think of when she laid eyes on my choice for a second pet. So much for mom thinking up cool, high tech sounding names."