"Scott, can you restock the snapdragon seeds in the front for me? I'd get it, but the manager really needs me to take inventory on everything right now,"
"Sure, don't worry about it El,"
Eloise sighed in relief, leaving a "You're the best!" before dashing off to do her job. At this time, Scott had just gotten out of school and had been working at the flower shop for a little over 6 months, being very intuitive when it came to the care and love for plant life due to his condition, which the shop also specialized in medication for. Most people called it a "flower connection," it's scientific name was "Cutis Floritis," and Scott called it a physical curse. Ever since he was around 12, flowers would randomly grow out of his skin, be it because his emotions were strong, he focused too hard on something, or, rarely, if he actually wanted them to appear. Most of the time it was okay, but every now and again there would be days where he had to stay in bed because a bad flower grew, or too many were growing for no good reason. Today was okay, thankfully, though at the mention of the snapdragons, he could feel one pushing against his elbow sleeve. He had half a mind to pluck it out, but his elbows were an especially sensitive spot to pluck flowers from, so he just tucked it down best he could against his forearm and hoped it didn't make him look that stupid before it went away.
As he came back from the back of the store, carrying a row of the seeds and putting the packets where they belonged on the shelf, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Umm... excuse me," they said nervously. Scott turned around to see a blonde male with a yellow feather behind his right ear looking back at him with deep brown eyes. His bandana fell to the right of his neck, covering the collar of his blue overcoat and white shirt underneath. His blue jeans were ripped and slightly muddy, a big contrast to his perfectly black and white sneakers. "I heard this shop has some medications for flower connections, do you know where I can get those?"
"Oh, of course, they're just at the front if you'll follow me," Scott said, leading him to said area, "do you have a prescription on you? Or if you're picking up for a friend I can get someone to check the database,"
"No, it's for me," the blonde said, "but I've only had it for a couple months and it hasn't gotten bad until last week, so I never actually got... prescribed anything yet,"
As he spoke, he fidgeted with his hands and sleeves, petals from growing flowers falling out and causing him to pick them up in a scurry. Scott immediately recognized the petals as from grey roses, symbols of anxiety.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Scott said, "I'll see when our next opening for an appointment is and in the meantime we can set you up with some temporary meds if you'd like,"
The blonde sighed in relief. "Oh my goodness, thank you so much,"
"I don't suppose you know anyone else with it?" Scott asked, searching the shelves for the medicine he'd mentioned earlier. "I find learning about it helps a bit"
"No, no one I know of," he said. "Do you?"
"Yeah, I know myself pretty well," Scott said, grabbing a piece of paper out of his pocket notebook and a pen as he let a poppy grow on the back of his wrist, showing it to th blonde as a demonstration, "I'll need your first and last name for the appointment, and I can give you my number if you'd like to ask me anything,"
"Oh, uhm... sure! SolidarityGaming," he said his face going red, "most people call me Jimmy though."
"Alrighty then Jimmy," Scott said, writing his number on the paper and handing it to the blonde, "I'll let you know when we have an opening,"
With that, the two parted ways.
"Ooo, Smajor's got a boyfriend!" A girl giggled from behind Scott, staying silent for a few seconds before as Jimmy walked out. Now it was Scott's turn for his face to go red.
"Shut up Bek, I do not!" He said, immediately being met by a black dahlia creeping it's way onto his neck. A symbol of dishonesty, which Bek knew.
"Come on, you just gave a cute boy your number!" She said. "If that doesn't spell romance for you, I dunno what does,"
"Fine then, if I've got a boyfriend, you've got a girlfriend. Oh Eloise!" Scott called, sending Bek into a fluster.
"Nononono shut up!" Bek said, trying to cover his mouth at the mention of her crush. "I take it all back, just shut up!"
Scott laughed.
This wasn't the last time he and Jimmy would meet, not in the slightest. It started out as being genuinely professional, with Jimmy asking Scott every now and again about whatever he knew on having a flower connection, but as the weeks went by, they started talking more frequently and about more personal matters. Then the small flirting started and grew more frequent as well. That lasted for less than a week before Jimmy asked if they could go on a date. He didn't quite call it a date, but they were both very aware that that's what it was. After all, you don't ask someone to a very fancy restaurant in the late afternoon and spend the night at their house because they're just a friend of yours.
And that was it for a while. For 4 years to be exact. 4 years that now felt like a blur to Scott ever since they'd broken up. It was clear to him that Jimmy moved on a long time ago, finding solace in his soulbound, Tango. But Scott never quite found that solace. Sure, he had Cleo, and he was more than grateful for her being there for him, but, as he liked to put it, the surgeon showed up too late to the surgery, and his shattered heart was too far gone to be put back together by that time. It didn't help that, in trying to find his real soulbound, discovered that Pearl, despite knowing fully that she was soulbound, kept putting her life, and therefore his life as well, on the line for however many years she'd ran away from her home.
And he babbled on half-drunkenly about this to Cleo, as his drinks finally settled in his stomach and latched into his brain. Thank god they were near home and far away from the others before his babbling turned into near nonsensical sobbing.
He wanted his little flower back. That was all he ever wanted. But love was a cruel mistress, and she dropped Scott's heart into the pits of the nether until the burning sensation was no longer pleasant.
—
Ren fidgeted with the dog tags around his neck for a bit, having had them for so long that they held a sense of comforting familiarity. His paws clicked against the floor, as they'd do with any solid floor. The enticing aroma of sweet breads and other treats fresh out the oven filled the air of the brightly lit bakery, already making the dog hybrid's tail wag out of the promise of food. The light pink walls and checkered floor made the place have a sort of retro feeling, like it belonged to the 1950s more than it belonged to now.
Ren stopped by this particular bakery regularly, with it being one of the few places near his home that openly welcomed non-human beings. He could spot a group of parrot hybrids who always seemed to be there at one booth, a red creeper hybrid and a blue slime conversing at another, and the list could go on. Sure, humans stopped by as well, Ren could point out one in a blue jacket talking to a steampunk dressed zombie right now as a matter of fact, but humans could go to just about any place without so much as a glance. It was here that people like Ren were greeted just like everyone else would be.
Well, unless it was a good friend of yours behind the cash register.
"Ren! How's my favorite dog student?" The coarse German voice said with a smile that would've reached ear to ear had the left side of his face not been that of a cyborg's.
"I'm your only dog student Doc!" Ren said, chuckling.
"Oh, of course!" Doc said. "How's my least favorite dog student doing?"
"Doc!" Ren put his hands on his hips. Doc let out a chuckle.
"Ah, I'm just pulling your tail," the goat said. "What'll it be for today? The special has chocolate in it,"
"Dude, I can have chocolate! Just not a lot," Ren reasoned.
"Riiight, and you'll make sure not to eat all of it that you can this time?" Doc teased.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault you gave me all that chocolate when I was a pup, that's like peak dog instinct time my dude, I was always gonna eat all of it!" Ren said, smiling at the fond memories.
As much as he didn't like to admit it now, Ren grew up in Mindcrack, a training facility for anyone who wanted their kids to grow up skilled in combat. With his wild side running more rampant than his human side, though, he had trouble making friends despite how social he was. For this, Doc became his personal trainer, showing him both the ways of combat and, as Doc had first hand experience being part goat himself, controlling the animalistic urges in him. While Ren still prefers to let his wild side run loose, his training would not be in vain and, as indicated by the dog tags he kept on him at all times, he was known as an official member of the army. Despite how very much older Doc was compared to Ren (an age gap of a little more than 10 years), they remained best friends throughout the years and kept in touch even after Ren grew out of the training facility and Doc had retired from the job.
Suddenly, Ren's hand began to sting. The sting quickly escalated into a burn, like his palm was being seared by a hot grill. He drew his hand into his other arm, believing it to be himself somehow for a second before realizing the impossibility. At the same time, he heard the loud clanking of something metal coming from the kitchen in the back, but he thought it to be a coincidence at the time.
"Are you okay Ren?" Doc asked, mildly concerned for the dog. Ren nodded, still fighting back the urge to scream in pain.
" 's all good man," Ren said through gritted teeth. "Soulbound things, y'know,"
"Ah, okay," Doc said. Someone ran out of the door of the kitchen, taking no time to catch his breath before he started talking in a southern accent. The name tag on the right of his chest read "JoeHills."
"Doc, need your phone!" He said, seeming as if he would've asked politely had he not been in a rush.
"Why?" Doc asked, taking his phone out of the front pocket and handing it to the man.
"Main kitchen phone's not working. Someone put the little cloth handles we had in the oven for 6 hours more than they should've been in there a couple days ago and they caught fire so we got rid of them and I thought Lauren would've filled BigB about that after he came back, but she didn't so he just burned his whole hand on the cookie tray!"
The explanation spilled out of Joe's mouth so fast that Ren almost didn't catch it. In the following weeks, he visited the place every morning, waiting for his suspected soulbound to recover from his injury. Though it stopped hurting within the first few days, it took a few weeks for BigB to return and subsequently meet Ren. One soulbound test later (just for good measure, said Doc who then proceeded to make Ren think he broke his shoulder for a minute), and it was confirmed: they were soulbound.
Now it was present day. Doc had left the bakery long ago to pursue his dream of being a researcher at the labs, while Ren and BigB had plans outside of the island. Hopefully, it would be a life where they didn't have to worry about every little fault of their own affecting the other. A guiltless and slightly less painful life that they could spend together.
Neither of them could help catching up with the old goat that brought them together all that time ago.
—
"Tango, are you sure about this?" Impulse asked as Zedaph gave the nether creature a pair of fingerless gloves. The boys were around 14, their oldest, Impulse, being 15 at this time, and of course this was one of their peak lowests in their common sense. Their school's outdoors area had a set of monkey bars just next to a giant oak tree. A kid at the school, who Tango could never properly remember, gave him promises of a whole 10 dollars if the blonde could jump off of said tree and catch himself on the bars with his tail. Tango used his tail for near most everything, whether that was picking up items he couldn't bother to bend over for, or hanging upside down on anything he could wrap it around. It was pitch black and very thin, the end tip of it being triangular, but rounded and not very sharp anymore. It used to be sharper when he was younger, but he figured it must've been just another quirk in his unreadable genetics. Nevertheless, his tail was very useful to a boy like him. Especially now, where 10 dollars were in the line of sight of the middle school student.
"I'll be fine, what's the worst that could happen?" Tango asked, smirking with his razor sharp teeth. Neither of his friends were off put by what they called his "shark teeth."
"Good luck dude, don't die!" Zedaph said, giving Tango one last thumbs up before the creature got to scampering up the tree, his sharp fingernails helping his grip immensely. He made it up to one of the higher branches, at first using all of his limbs to grasp it, but soon slowly rising to his two feet. In all honesty, he wasn't that high up, maybe a good 10 feet from the ground and therefore 4 feet away from the bar he was aiming for, but no one specified a height to him, so he felt justified in cheesing it a little.
He could see his friends walk to the front of the small crowd that had gathered to see Tango's stunt, the kid who promised him the money being up and centre of it all. Tango smiled confidently, a breath of fresh air leaving his nose.
He ran up the branch until it felt too loose under his feet, at which point he jumped and aimed straight for the bars. As mentioned earlier, he was only a good 4 feet away, so it came as a shock to no one that he pulled it off, spreading his arms in a sort of "ta-da!" way as he swung himself forward, unwrapped his tail from the bar, and landed on his feet.
Next thing you know, he was dared to do it again. This time, from double the height, the tip top of the tree to be his starting point. Stupidity was mistaken for bravery, and there he was, up on that very spot.
He looked down at the small crowd that had formed once again. Some of the other kids also came about to see the second attempt, which was a change Tango welcomed with open arms. The more the merrier, as his dad would often say, though in the context of this, Tango was sure his dad would instead be calling him down out of concern for his safety. For that thought, the flame creature rolled his eyes.
He prepared himself once again. The rush of gravity took his emotions to a new limit, both fear and excitement working in harmony to create whatever it was Tango was feeling as he fell.
He wasn't quite scared though, not until he went to wrap his tail around the bar, and felt a small pull at his tailbone as he landed face first onto the gravelly ground beneath the section of the yard. He thought he just missed the bar, getting up onto his knees before noticing the horrified expressions of Zedaph and Impulse, as well as the expressions of the rest of the crowd, the betting kid included. However, while his friends were looking at him, everyone else was looking up at the bar.
Tango turned his attention to his tail. He swore he could still feel it laying behind him, as it always did, but he was instead met with the whole thing gone from his back and instead lying loosely wrapped around the bar. There was no blood, as if some lizard made its way into Tango's genetics and this detachment was a perfectly normal thing he could do, but despite that, he still began to feel lightheaded and passed out shortly after, hands that he knew were Zedaph's catching him before his head hit the ground, and a voice he knew was Impulse's calling for someone to help.
His tail never grew back. There was no sliver of it left safe for the circle shaped scar still on his tailbone. To say that this situation did anything to him would be an overstatement, as his recklessness still never ceased despite it until he met his soulbound, Jimmy. In fact, he laughed about the event often. Though he did miss the convenience his tail gave him, and it took him a while of physical therapy to help him find his balance again without the appendage, he didn't necessarily mind the change.
The stone sent to harm him didn't kill him, and so he was stronger, and he had one more cool story to tell.