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Keeping ravagers as pets was no easy job. Especially keeping them all contained under his mountain, far enough away from the wardens so none of them would get in a fight. On top of that, Tango had to worry about the little ravager calves he was raising. Way worse in all levels of mischief, however luckily a lot smaller and easier to maneuver than the grown-up beasts. Well, sometimes luckily. Right now, their smaller sizes were proving to be a problem. There was a hole in his barricades and one of the calves was missing. Surely she couldn't have gone that far?
He searched his whole mountain before setting off to expand the search area, keeping the hitbox detection on the whole flight. Surely she wouldn't have tried to swim anywhere, so at least the directions weren't endless.
A boisterously loud, familiar yell got Tango on the right track. Bingo. He did a sharp turn in the air, boosting off towards his beloved husband's base. Not too far from his own, yet way too far for any Decked Out 3 business to wander.
The scene he arrived to must've been straight out of a comedy sketch. Skizz, clinging desperately to the crown of a random tree, while Tango's little escapee put her front hooves up against the bark to see what he was doing. She looked utterly confused, too.
"Ah, sorry, I think that's mine," Tango called out as he landed, a smug little grin on his face. He giggled at his grown man in the tree, hiding from a little baby ravager like she'd eat him up if he didn't. As soon as the small creature heard Tango's voice, she perked up and barreled towards the vampire with all the might her body would allow. Not trying to be knocked over, Tango took a small step to the side, instead brushing his hand along her back to make her circle into a little cuddle.
"I was wondering where she went! You sneaky bugger," Tango giggled, pressing his palm into the baby ravager's head tufts and ruffling through it. The small creature made a little noise of joy, shoving its tusks and snoot against Tango's legs.
"You're amazing, you know that?"
"Hm?"
"You've got— Top, you've got a little baby ravager snuggling up to you like you're it's mom. That's amazing," Skizz stated matter-of-factly, from his safety tree — it caused Tango to laugh more. Somehow he expected more yelling and complaining.
"It's a baby! They don't get all their bloodlust until they're teens," he explained, still wholly amused how the werewolf a whole head taller than him had been yelling out in fear just a moment ago. A bit of pride welled in his chest.
"She's fine, Skizz, you can come down."
Though still a little wary, Skizz trusted Tango to have the situation more under control than he did. With a loud thump, an 'oompf' and a few creaking joints, Skizz made it back down safely.
"So you… breed your ravagers? I thought you got them from a raid farm?"
"50/50, the tamed ones can get a little too affectionate though, which is why they're used in different parts of the system. Some hermits figured out how to cheese my beasts in Decked Out 2, so I've learned to keep a colorful mix," and by 'some', Tango obviously only had one guy in mind. He quickly shook that off though, giving his partner a cheeky smile. Hopping to Skizz's side in only a few steps, he bumped into him with a loving purr — like a cat rubbing up against someone's leg. Fully on autopilot, Skizz settled his hand on Tango's back to bring him in close. The small ravager wasn't far behind, shoving herself against Tango's side again so she'd continue being pet.
"Oh," Skizz watched her, thoroughly tame and almost aggressively affectionate. His tail began wagging slightly.
"You know, it's hard to tell if they're charging at you because they want to eat you, or because they want to snuggle."
Tango snorted a laugh, his tail bounced in wags accompanying Skizz's own.
"That's kind of the point, yeah."
"Can I—" Skizz reached out his hand towards the tiny beast, but hesitated about mid-way. His fingers twitched, giving a glance to Tango.
"Pet her? Oh yeah. She's a real cuddlebug. Probably why she decided to go run off and find more people to be pet by, huh girl?" Tango knelt down and giggled as he ruffled through the ravager's fluffy cheeks, awfully close to those deadly tusks. As if they weren’t a threat at all. The ravager made a low noise, leaning her head into the scritches as she sat herself down. Her scruffy little tail went wild.
"Got a good bellow on her too, she'll be perfect for the behind the scenes of the ravager distribution system."
Skizz watched them, very carefully beginning to scratch along her back to not spook her too massively. She didn't seem to mind him at all, way too busy with her chomping mouth aimed at the vampire.
"I don't… need to know what any of those words mean."
"Nope, you don't."