Chapter Text
Samuello dropped the last boxes into his new brownstone row house as the steam-powered truck drove away. The home was in a well-to-do district called 'Silver Cream Avenue,' The high society jewel within the city of Kettlehatten .
The tall dog looked around the empty space with his hands on his hips and a sigh.
Along with his opposing size and athletic prowess, Sam was assigned to help clean up the shadowy corners of the affluent neighborhood.
The people within the district of Silver Cream Avenue never had to worry about their steam or electricity turning off, cold water, or long waits for road and flying transport.
It was unusual for a homeowner in the area not to have an animatronic servant go with them to the local market or the department store to carry their purchases. Every young person had at least one steam-powered vehicle when they entered higher learning that whizzed by on the road or hovered over the tops of buildings.
The breadwinner of Silver Cream was always able to afford the seasonal new fad within fashion, technology, or popularity every few months.
Samuello took his suitcase upstairs and then entered his small bedroom. The dog man unbuckled the case and then dropped it on his humble, unspread, metal frame bed. He flipped it open and then retrieved a vest suit to wear.
After a quick hot shower, Samuello put on the grey suit in front of his tall standing mirror except for his blue and gray striped necktie and gray suit jacket.
The tall brown dog opened a medium leather briefcase, dumping the items on the bed. The contents were a leather shoulder gun holster, two large revolvers, and a belt with four bullet pouches.
Sam overlaid the holster over his vest, then buckled the bullet-pouch belt over his slacks. He pushed the two large revolvers into the holsters and looked at himself in the mirror with rolled-in lips as he put on his suit jacket. Sam then fitted his tie around his shirt collar, tucking the necktie into the vest.
Samuello nodded lightly as he adjusted the knot of his tie, then raised his chest with an outward sigh.
The tall brown dog stepped out of his home within a few moments, locked the door, and then turned to a busy yet quiet neighborhood.
Sam hailed one of the various passing steam-powered and electric cabs. An android-controlled cab with twelve giant pushing and pulling pistons stopped for the formally dressed dog man.
Moments later,
Sam was greeted warmly at the police station with handshakes, and head nods, and tips of hats from various constables and police officers as he was led to his desk by the assistant commissioner.
The assistant showed Samuello his shared desk and handed him his initial assignment papers. The deputy commissioner told Samuello he was to be assigned with a short white lagomorph named Maxim Coinínstrike .
The office space went quiet as the assistant dropped the assignment papers onto Sams's desk and walked away.
The dog man's eyes scanned the room as he raised the documents to his face. The law people within the room then started chuckling and talking amongst themselves. Most of them looked at Sam with either curiosity or pity.
Samuello shook his head lightly with a soft sigh as he read the papers.
He was to meet his new partner at the city park near his new home.
It was a beautiful area and a center of hubris for the community of Silver Cream that incorporated nature and innovative technology. Nonetheless, the park was unfortunately plagued with heavy pickpocketing and mugging at different times of the day and night from outsiders that slithered into the higher crust area.
Samuello nodded as he tapped his brown-pelted fingers on half of the large officer's desk. His eyes raised above the papers as the dog man glanced at the messy, disorganized, stained other half of the desk that his partner occupied.
After Sam arranged his part of the desk with personal and professional items, the tall brown dog made his way out of the building with a handful of officers who wished him 'good luck' with his new partner.
Sam hopped into a carriage and admired the downtown Kettlehatten metropolis as the electric carriage rode through the bustling, loud streets to his destination.
Before he knew it, the carriage was at his destination with a sudden stop. The human carriage driver then knocked on the roof.
Sam held on to the top of the cab's frame as he looked into the city park.
It seemed like a quiet, pleasant trail-laden space with perfumed flowering trees and a small blossoming lilypad pond.
The pathways lit up with a translucent light of varying colors as people sauntered along.
Dotting the paths were high-floating orbs that would light up at night.
Hovering meter-long, oval water fountains were stationary a few inches from the ground as animatronic workers raced all over the park, maintaining it.
Sam stepped off the carriage, patted the vehicle heavily, and then walked forward a few feet with a large smile as he admired the scenery before him.
"Now, wherever would my new partner be?" Sam said to himself in a low voice.
As Sam walked the paths looking for his new partner, he introduced himself to passersby. However, most nodded with snooty glares as they continued their business.
The officer eventually found himself in the heart of the city park near the small pond. It was encircled by benches with a few food and novelty carts surrounding the benches.
As Samuello looked at the goings-on within the park, he suddenly saw a short white rabbit dressed in a well-tailored dress surrounded by rough-looking thugs.
The people within the area hurried away with a few stragglers and the frightened cart owners looking on at the encounter.
Sam quickly put his police whistle to his lips, but before he could blow and approach the situation, the small rabbit incapacitated the criminals at a blinding speed, making the villains fall in an almost unison fashion.
The whistle dropped from the brown dog's loose mouth as he looked on at the lagomorph.
The white rabbit licked their fingers with lowered eyelids as it gazed down at the men it defeated. The lagomorph then sat down on a nearby bench.
Sam caught his breath and then shook his head quickly with a few blinks. He then remembered that his new partner was also a short lagomorph.
Samuello knew in his heart if this rabbit wasn't his new partner, he still wished to know this person.
The tall brown dog hurriedly went to a cart selling flowers and bought a wrapped bouquet of red roses.
As the white rabbit rested their hands on top of one another and then slowly raised their head toward the pond, Sam walked up behind the lagomorph-occupied bench.
The dog man adjusted his necktie, swallowed it, and then dropped the bouquet next to the dress-clad rabbit.
The little white lagomorph looked slightly to the side, then turned its head forward. The rabbit breathed in, raised their chest with a deep breath, and sighed through their tiny pink nose with a few blinks.
"You mus' not be accustomed to social interaction, benighted sir... One does not unostentatiously release ah' bouquet in an initiatory audience." The rabbit sighed.
"You are most correct. Forgive my benightedness." Samuello yielded. The dog man bowed with a hand over his heart and eyes lightly closed, then said. "My name is-"
"Samuello McErieHound... Yess', I know..." The white rabbit finished.
Sam popped open his eyes in his lowered state. The brown dog then breathed out, "Oh... So you-" Sam started as he stood straight.
"Maxim Coinínstrike... Your designated associate."
"It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance Coinínstrike-" Sam said with a smirk and slight bow.
"Max... Call me Max or Maxim. If we are to be mutual, we should drop formalities." Max said as they stood to their feet, looking down as they brushed off their dress.
Maxim then looked forward at the pond, holding their elbow in their palm with slanted hips.
"Your opportunity to be pro forma have' passed, Sir Sam." Maxim retorted.
Samuello bowed a bit more, then rushed to the front of his new partner. The tall brown dog bowed again with his hand on his chest and lightly closed his eyes.
Max looked at their new partner up and down with a slightly agape mouth as they chewed at their tongue within the side of their white cheek.
Sam ripped his head with a somewhat nervous look toward the bench. He then leaned over to the seat and then hurriedly snatched the roses.
Samuello bowed again, with his head lowered and eyes closed.
The dog man cleared his throat and then presented the wrapped rose bouquet to the white rabbit with one hand as the other sizeable brown hand rested on the tall officer's chest.
Maxim rolled their eyes, dropping their sights away from the bent-over dog man. The rabbit gently put its nose into the bouquet, inhaling the scent.
Max broke off a flower head from the bunch, smelled the rose head, and then scanned the bowing brown dog with squinted eyes.
"Well, at the least, we are polite..." Maxim said as they kept their eyes on Samuello.
Samuello then stood straight, looking down at the white rabbit. The brown dog held the wrapped flowers close to his chest as he towered over his short three-foot partner with his six-foot height.
Max's eyes rose to the top of Samuello, which caused them to unconsciously smirk, then slightly blush as they lightly tapped the red rose on their rabbity pink nose.
"And tall..." Maxim said softly as they kept their eyes on the endomorphic dog man.
Sam blinked slowly with a soft smile as he looked down at Maxim. "Rose-red is a superlative color on you, Maxim," Sam remarked as he adjusted the knot of his necktie.
"I'm not wearin' red. You must mean tha' flower?" The white rabbit asked as it lowered the rose head to their shoulder.
"I fear you are mistaken, my exceptional correlative. Your cheeks are a tincture of the flower's hue." Samuello smirked.
Maxim was taken aback, causing them to blush heavier. The white rabbit then turned away, crossing their arms with a hard swallow.
Sam held the bouquet behind him with both hands, then rocked slowly back and forth on his heels as he looked down at his short partner with lowered eyelids and a soft, closed-lipped smile.
Max then put the red flower to the bottom of their ear with a hairpin they used for lockpicking.
Maxim cleared their throat, then said, "In any case, since you are fresh to that area, I shall show you 'round the hotspots for crime."
"Fine by me, partner." Samuello nodded with a blink.
Max hurriedly marched ahead of Sam until the tall brown dog jogged up next to the fast-walking rabbit, keeping pace with his short associate.
Later on, after a short carriage ride past the outskirts of the Silver Cream Avenue district, Samuello and Maxim arrived at one of the most crime-ridden parts of the city, the corner of the Crooked and Bent region.
Soon as the officers stepped from the carriage, the vehicle rode out of the area at its highest speed.
Sam stuck his hands in his pockets and took in the scenery as he walked with his partner.
The area looked almost forgotten and abandoned.
A house of cards standing in a windstorm looked more sturdy and livable than the dilapidated buildings along the way.
Various vermin carpeted the alleys and parts of the sidewalks, with schools of the critters bunched together, crossing back and forth across the road.
Thick smells of oil, half-rotten food mixed with mold and dust, as heaps of bagged trash in various heights lined the streets.
It nearly caused Samuello to gag and cover his nose as the dog man reached into his upper vest pocket, retrieving a handkerchief.
Max stopped walking, took Sam's wide wrist, and pushed it to the tall Dogman's side before Samuello could cover his nose with his cloth.
"Breathe it in... Know this place..." The white rabbit ordered.
Sam looked down at his short partner with tears forming in his burning eyes. The dog man's mouth was slightly agape, with nausea crawling upward in the back of his throat.
"If you wish to help the uppa' clogs of Silver Cream, then you's' have ta' get to the oily, rusted roots. This area tis' the very least thee trunk of the tree." Max said as they looked forward. "Besides, once you have spent enough time around this place, you shall see that the people 'ere are decent an' more acceptin' than yer' plump and shiny engraved clock faces."
Max then walked forward, leaving Samuello standing, looking down and away, considering the short lagomorph words.
The dog man tucked his handkerchief back into his vest breast pocket and then caught up to Maxim.
Samuello soon found himself sitting in a dimly lit, Marine-themed eatery called 'Stinky's' a short time later across from Maxim.
The restaurant's interior almost possessed as many insects and unknown crawling creatures as the streets outside.
Tables were wiped as clean as possible, with cracks and numerous stains remaining.
The floor of the establishment had various fractures matching the walls and ceiling.
Decorations within the small eatery that lined the walls were grotesque forms of diverse marine life and statues from different parts of the world, mixed with elements and objects from a sea fairing ship.
Samuello swallowed heavily, with his head lowered and hands tucked into his lap. The dog man soon started to miss the outside aromas.
A green-haired waitress then dropped questionable-looking plates of food in front of Sam and Max, then tore away from the table without as much as a look at the two patrons, nonetheless a greeting.
Maxim immediately and sloppily dug into the food as Samuello's eyes examined the plate before him.
The dog tried to figure out if it was a pasta dish or meat that grew veins and growths of an unknown smoothed bacteria-like mold.
"Don' let it linger, Samuello! It is most agree-able while it tis' in ah' reheated state." The rabbit said as he messily ate from its plate. "Mmm, you must try this; tis' one of my favor-rites...!"
"Ahh..." Sam started.
"What? Your tall, well-groomed cream clog dunna' like my food?!" The old white beard owner of the restaurant growled loudly as he folded his arms.
The waitress folded her arms and leaned against the counter as the large roach chef rested against the kitchen doorway frame.
The three looked on at the dog and rabbit, quietly waiting for Samuello to sample the dish.
" Heh, heh , no, no, he simply hasn't been 'ere before...!" Max said as they looked at the staring three eatery workers.
The white rabbit snapped its head to the reluctant and frozen Dogman.
" Samuellllllooo ... Do not keep the good people here within suspenseeee ...!" Max chuckled nervously. The lagomorph leaned forward slightly toward its partner, caught in a cold sweat.
"You're embarrassin' yer'-self and failing trust. Food is one of tha' most signifi-cant' branches of any culture! This is alright, slop! Promptly swallow whateva' film of vomit you have an' push it down with the literal grub you got befor' yourself!" Maxim whispered.
Samuello shook his head, blinked a few times, then swallowed heavily. The brown dog turned his head to the restaurant workers with a forced smile, washed within dizzying numbness and cold sweat.
Sam then shakenly took a fork into his hand, stabbed the dish with the eating tool, and then lifted the piece to his mouth.
As the dog chewed with his eyes closed, he discovered apart from the slight toxic acid-like burning on the roof of his mouth and pallet, the food was digestible with some unique flavor.
Sam nodded at his partner and then gave a thumbs-up to the staff.
The faces of the three staff members loosened and turned to smiles and light smirks.
The chef went back into the kitchen, the waitress collected plates from the counter, and the old man nodded his head, dropping his arms to his side.
"Well, that's moor' like it!" The bearded man said.
"Yea, Grandfather cooked those plates himself. He rarely does that!" The green-haired waitress remarked.
"Oh... Well, I can tell! Thank you, good sir... My apologies... What is your name?" Samuello asked.
"Juss' call me Stinky, lad. Yer' friend over there has helped me outta' more scrapes than a hospital sees ina' month!" Old man Stinky replied.
"If it was not for people such as these that live in this neighborhood, Silver Cream would not comprehend what to do wit' themselves, Samuello..." Maxim said with a mouth full of food. "Mmm-ah-Most half these citizens work in the lofty towers and well-steamed powered homes of yer' avenue that we patrol."
"I agree..." Samuello smirked as he took a piece of Maxim's food with his fork, then devoured it.
"'Eh!" Max complained. The rabbit then took some food from Samuello's plate with a devilish smile.
The two went back and forth, stealing and eating each other's food until Samuello took both plates and turned away from Maxim. Maxim then climbed over the table and dropped into Sam's lap, causing the dog man to laugh loudly as Samuello raised the plates from Max's stretched-out arms and white hands.
"Well, I never thought I would see it..." Old Man Stinky said to himself as he crossed his arms and chuckled quietly while looking at the dog and rabbit.
Sam then wrapped an arm around Max, holding the kicking and biting rabbit close to the side of his large frame. The dog poured Maxim's food onto his and then raised the plate to his muzzle.
Stinky's granddaughter paused, crossed her arms, and leaned on the counter as she looked at the partners with a turned-up scowl.
"Look at that immature, disgusting display!" The young woman grumbled.
"I know... It tis' a great thing." Grandfather Stinky said with a nod and closed mouth smile.