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“What is this?”
Valentino knew he wasn’t always on the ball with the random tech Vox pulled out from his department, but at the very least when that happened it usually didn’t wiggle around. He didn’t usually stop by and find Vox with an armful of wiggling… whatever it was.
“Remember I was working on a shark like the ones I’ve got from Envy, but better?”
Val could tell immediately he wouldn’t get a good answer from Vox, because he was talking too fast already. The thing in his arms had set off his manic excitement. Usually Val could direct that into sex, but with Vox carrying this thing like a baby, he wasn’t too sure about that.
It wiggled again and snapped into the air.
“I thought you said the last batch of those failed.”
“That’s what Baxter said! But they didn’t. Just look at him!”
Val narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t too worried about it actually biting him, but he still didn’t want to deal with it if it did. Still, when those red eyes locked onto his, Val almost thought the pet was smiling. Sure, it was because it was a shark with its mouth made to be wide and teeth on display like that, but that didn’t stop the impression of a smile.
Taking a drag, Val blew his smoke over the shark’s head and into Vox’s face. Vox had been yammering and the smoke barely gave him a pause.
“See?”
Vox let go of the shark and Val’s instinct was to grab it before it fell.
“Ha! Don’t worry, Val. He’ll be fine!”
Val’s cheeks burnt. The pet didn’t bite him, despite him having four hands on it. One of Vox’s cords picked Val’s cigarette off the ground.
“You know you weren’t dropping him into water, right?” Val said. He didn’t care about this thing. Vox always got crazy about sharks and while it was cute sometimes, it was annoying the rest. He set it on the ground before he let it go. To Val’s astonishment, it floated back up to Vox’s eye level.
“See?”
He did indeed see. Val swallowed. This was about to be more trouble than anything else Vox’s little scientist had made.
“His name’s Shok.wav!” Vox stared in adoration as the shark hovered before he wrapped an arm around Val’s waist. “And this is Val! You’ll protect him, you got it?”
Before Val could remind Vox he was an Overlord too, that he didn’t need protection, the creature named Shok.wav bobbed in the air and made some growling noises as if he agreed.
A pet shouldn’t be charming. Vox’s other sharks could make Vox cute, but Val didn’t think too much of them.
He did have the impression, because of how Shok.wav looked, that he was a complete accident. Vox’s scientist didn’t like this sort of tech mixed with biological.
“You’d better take care of me,” Val cooed, kissing Shok.wav on the nose.
Vox squeezed him tighter.