Clothing the Beast

[Existentially Odd]

From \'Feeding the Beast\'

Kerr parked the car close to one of the main entrances - one he was familiar with, at any rate.  He bought his clothes from one of the more elite tailors that deigned to sell their wares here, but he doubted very much that Tag would be in need of a three piece Armani number when they fronted up to the Oligarchy later on.

He\'d probably only urinate on it and roll in it, even if I did go to the trouble of getting him fitted.  This whole venture\'s probably a waste of time.  But hey, let\'s see how many depressed teenagers and harried mothers we can assault with our particular brand of stench au natural.  Why not make a splash?  The mortals are sure to gape anyway.  Oh, my interior... my leather... what have I done?

Squashing his bitter thoughts, he gestured for Tag to get out of the car and did the same, purposely not looking back at the passenger seat to assess the damage (despite having to help the wolf boy with the opening of the door).  There was only going to be more on the next trip.  He pressed the key and locked the vehicle, glancing at his destination while Tag snuffled his way around to him.  He knew there was a store considered fashionable by young people - with lots of jeans and \'cool\' shirts - not too far in.  He hoped they wouldn\'t be too obvious shopping there.  "Stay close," Kerr ordered his charge when he finally ambled up, watching him take a flanking position before he began to walk towards the shopping centre; without a backward glance.

[Trillian]

Tag stayed close.  Not only because of the order (though a lot had to do with it) but also because of the intense feeling of being out of place.  Once inside the mall he felt the temperature change do to the constant air conditioning and combined with the strange hollow echoes of many voices, he was sure not to stray, uncomfortable in this place.  His discomfort overruled his fascination for things, and as Kerr moved directly for the shop, so did he, keeping his head down and looking very much like a grungy feral teenager rather than the animalistic creature he was.  The only sign to Kerr that he didn\'t like this place was a brief whimper when a young child screeched with joy nearby.  The sound had accosted his ears.

[Existentially Odd]

Walking in to the store he\'d considered would carry appropriate apparel, even Kerr cringed at the loud, thumping music blaring from the speakers overhead.  Still, he turned to his charge and tried to extricate some preferences for clothing - mostly by pointing.  "You like?  This?  Those?"  Long legged shorts, denim pants, cords, polo shirts, button shirts... Kerr knew what he liked but he needed some more indication from Tag what would be best.

[Trillian]

Tag was certainly out of his element, but he seemed to enjoy the thumping bass quite a bit more than Kerr.  Looking around at the things Kerr pointed at, he gave the vampire a wide-eyed look and nodding for everything, not really having any preferences but wanting to please Kerr.  He\'d fed him after all, this had to be good as well.
 
He heard a sound of disgust from a couple of young girls that walked in behind them and turned his head to look at them.  After one of them covered their nose and mouth, her friend put an arm around her and they both turned around and walked straight back out.
 
This attracted a sales assistant to approach them, and Tag decided now would be a good time to hold onto Kerr\'s wrist.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr resisted the urge to shudder and bit down on his tongue stud, arm stiffening as he was grasped.  He didn\'t shake Tag off, though - that would be seen as approving of the mortal girls\' behaviour and he couldn\'t condone such blatant disregard for someone he\'d taken on as a project.  He knew that the sales assistant approaching them would very quickly want them out of the store, however, so the vampire attempted to head it off at the pass - so to speak.

"Good evening," he bade, smiling charmingly.  "I need... say... four outfits for my friend here.  Everything from shoes and socks upwards.  He had a terrible accident and was involved in a... crash.  At a... dump.  You may wish to just estimate sizes and keep your distance; I trust you have the experience to do such things," he intoned, the smile becoming somewhat stiffer as he lied through his teeth.  "Anything you think co-ordinates well and would look good on him, don\'t worry about the cost.  And one of those backpacks, to carry it all in, please."

He indicated the strong-looking bag he meant with his free hand, moving himself so that the assistant could get a good look at Tag, to better judge his sizes.  Naturally, the intense scrutiny made the boy wish to hide more, but Kerr was fairly certain that the girl - whose look of sympathy melted when she got her first good whiff of his charge - saw enough to guess.  Either that or she was so intent on getting away, she would grab the first things that came to hand but... Kerr watched her and didn\'t believe that to be the case.  She didn\'t choose randomly and she checked the tags for sizing, glancing thoughtfully back at her \'mannequin\' as she moved about the store, selecting a range of things.

She ended up presenting Kerr with five pairs of pants and eight shirts - apparently it was the cool thing to do to \'layer\' - three pairs of shoes, ten socks and bits of underwear, a cap, bandanna, wrist bands of leather and towelling (he had no idea why but didn\'t care to argue), four belts, the bag and - oddly - sets of chains.  For the pants.  Kerr did his best to mask his baffled expression; he did a lot of smiling, nodding and gratefully handed over a credit card to pay for it all.  He held the backpack out to Tag - there were still two other plastic bags holding things which didn\'t fit, that he held - wondering whether he would know how to shoulder it... and what he thought of it all.

[Trillian]

Due to his time with Rancid, he knew about carrying things, and so hefted his rewards with easy strength, not minding the way the plastic bag handles bit into his fingers, shouldering the pack like any youth who knew what a backpack was all about.
 
Tag was intrigued by the smell of new clothes combined with the different materials and colours he had to deal with. One of the plastic bags was open and his face was inserted into it, whiffing and snuffling at the layers within, picking up the smell of treated leather and manufactured cotton.
 
He grunted a few times at Kerr, softly, before heading out of the shop and eyeing the fountain in the middle of the closed in courtyard with renewed interest, not going to it because the mall still intimidated him greatly, wanting Kerr by his side before he ventured beyond the open doorway.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr - surprised to have been relieved of all burdens - was pleased that he didn\'t have to wrestle bags while he returned his card to his wallet and pocketed it. He deliberately ignored the sniffing of new belongings, concentrating excessively on the task he\'d assigned himself instead. Once that was done, however, he thanked the sales assistant sincerely and hastened after his charge. Despite lacking food for an indeterminate amount of time, it seemed that Tag had boundless energy and he didn\'t trust him not to escape and wreak havoc in this sprawling establishment.
 
"Well, now we just need some heavy-duty cleaning supplies and we\'re all set," Kerr announced as he stopped beside the smelly boy, pleased to find him still at the clothing store\'s entrance. The vampire was feeling a great deal better about his decisions already. He looked around also - not because he spied Tag looking at the fountain, but because he was searching for a regular supermarket that would sell them some liquid soap, a bar of soap and a few different deodorants. The more the merrier. "We\'ll have you smelling sweet in no time," he murmured, flashing an ignorant grin his young companion\'s way as he set off in the direction one of the overhead signs declared Woolworth\'s to lay. It didn\'t occur to him that scent was everything to a creature reliant on surviving in the wild; he felt his endeavour to be the noblest of causes. "Come," he added in a firm voice that carried distinctly over his shoulder, to ensure that he was followed.

[Trillian]

It was easy to think of and treat Tag like a dog when he behaved in such a canine manner.  The deft order for him to \'come\' was followed with the obedience of a curious but loyal pup.  Open-mouthed he looked around at all the colours and smelt the odours of many perfumes and people as they passed by him.  He sneezed after sniffing at a rebellious teen smoking a cigarette near a \'no smoking\' sign.
 
"Fuck off!" the teen spat just as Tag sneezed over him, washing the other youth with spittle before scurrying off as the smoker stood up and made a threatening move toward him - though Tag sneered and growled, ready enough for a fight if one eventuated, except he didn\'t want to lose Kerr in this scary loud place.
 
Moving into the Woolworth\'s store, Tag had a great deal more to look at.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr kept a closer watch on Tag once he saw the willingness to engage in a public fight.  Of course, he\'d been a few paces away - never too far to intervene - so the boy had caught up, rather than pursuing the stoush, but the vampire realised he was probably underestimating his companion.  To a degree.  Just because he was timid when it came to civilisation, didn\'t make him backward in protecting himself.  There was a lot of fight in the dog, despite his lack of social etiquette.  It probaby made him more dangerous, in fact.

He made eye contact wth Tag once he was close again, but it was brief, the younger deferring automatically to his \'alpha\'.  "Stay with me, please," he said quietly, frowning at the smoker and anyone close by, before turning on his heel and leading them into the store.  This supermarket had a far greater range than the little one they\'d already visited

Things are cheaper here, too.  Oh, I feel so mortal.  What in God\'s name have I done to deserve this?

so it was a far greater challenge to keep track of Tag, but he found it worked if he moved about four paces ahead, stopped, turned and gave a commanding look.  They progressed quite smoothly to the toiletries aisle in this manner, though it disturbed him the amount of foul looks and exaggerated reactions the wild boy garnered in the process.

I have fucking supernatural olfactory senses and I can stomach his stench!  These people are righteous morons!  They don\'t deserve the blood that keeps them going, half of the-- especially that guy over there!  Needs a mirror and some advice of his own, he does.  Damnit, what aisle was it?

The urge to protect his charge was growing, as he sullenly observed the masses milling about.  Sawyl\'s assessment that they were all so stupid they were lucky to have found their way out of the birth canal seemed depressingly accurate.  He chose the items he thought would be best as quickly as possible and began anew the four step process to encourage Tag towards the bank of checkouts.

[Trillian]

Tag made some soft grunts of disappointment when he remembered he used to have money.  What happened to it?  He\'d got some back when there was steak.
 
His stomach rumbled, telling him that he wouldn\'t mind eating again, it\'d been a while since last time, after all.
 
Money - Kerr had mentioned the word to him and he\'d listened.  Had he dropped it?  He was distracted by both his vague memory of holding quantities of it as well as the continuing rumble in his stomach and the strange smell of this aisle.
 
When Kerr looked his way he hurried his pace and came closer, trying to make an effort to stay close, which worked for about a minute before he got distracted, but at least they were at the register again.
 
His nostrils flared and he growled Kerr\'s name.
 
"Kerrrrr," it rumbled out of his throat before he began sniffing excitedly at the multi-coloured foil wrapped objects on the end of the register, smelling sweet and interesting.  He took a handful of candybars, about to rip one open so he could lick at it.

[Existentially Odd]

"Wait!" Kerr cried, but he didn\'t give Tag a chance to - he reached out and snatched the objects away with all the speed he could muster.  The move was not particularly smooth - because two of the bars dropped with an obvious clatter - but he\'d saved any of them from being opened.  "Are you hungry again?  Do you want some meat?" he asked sternly, thinking that before they paid was certainly the time to ascertain this fact.  They were in the express lane for under ten items and it was their turn to move up - the checkout boy had called them, he knew this - but he ignored everything while he waited patiently for Tag to answer.

[Trillian]

Tag bared his teeth at Kerr, growling at the loss of the interesting sweet taste.  Even the suggestion of meat was not enough to stop the growl from rumbling up his throat.  His lip pulled back viciously, reminding Kerr more so that the youth was wild, untamed.
 
He was challenging Kerr\'s \'alpha\' placement, questioning his decision to remove food from Tag - especially interesting food that he\'d been looking forward to tearing into, almost before the wrapper had been dealt with.

[Existentially Odd]

Blinking with consternation, he glanced around, realising they were getting all sorts of new attention.  Not good attention.  "We can get these too," he assured the boy, curling the bars in his hand in with the other toiletries he held, to prove he meant what he said, "but do you want some more meat?"

He certainly hoped playing it calm would work; he could just imagine the Oligarchy\'s reaction if Tag chose to fight him in this public forum.

[Trillian]

Reasoning with Tag while he was testing his boundaries confused him.  He tipped his head with curiosity, then sneered and growled again before whimpering an apology.  After that he looked away, staring at the chocolate bars and then reaching out for them.  "Meat," he said, knowing it wasn\'t meat he was going for but uncaring.  He just wanted to prove he could have food whenever he wanted it - or that Kerr would dominate him and ensure that he wasn\'t to test his boundaries again.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr was definitely feeling the pressure of too many eyes upon them now.  The checkout boy had called, "Sir?" in that drawling, nervous tone that meant if nothing comforting happened within the next five seconds, he would start calling managers or store security or someone else the vampire had no desire to interact with.  He was out of time.

He slapped the hand going for more sweets and grasped Tag by the upper arm, turning him and marching out of the checkout line towards the freezers at the back of the store.  "Fine.  We\'ll get you fucking meat, then!" he hissed angrily, staring straight ahead like him dealing with a grown man in this superior manner was commonplace and unworthy of stares.