daybreakacademy | It was gonna happen sometime.

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It was gonna happen sometime.

🐄Hey kids! It's Indrik! King of Beasts (in training), ex-earth spirit, now Rex spirit and generally weird critter!🐄

Indrik is usually quite a sleepy baby, and as long as he's got a full tum-tum, he'll laze away his days either in the stables or in Rex's creepy van. But sometimes, a freakish beast has gotta do what a freakish creature has gotta do. One of those times is when the door to his pen is left open by mistake. As such, the pony-sized, cow-faced, golden-scaled, firey red lion-maned, lizard-tailed, thing with a big chubby belly is going on an adventure! Dare you be a random encounter in Indrik's epic tale?

Hit the Bench
So you're enjoying a nice quiet sit on a bench, eh? Whatever your doing can't be that important because it does not involve Indrik, but fortunately he is here to solve that. With a crash, Indrik's little cow head busts through the wood of the bench's backrest. Hello, his little cow face seems to say, by jutting his tongue out and staring.

Screaming
Some days, you just gotta scream. Don't matter where you are or what the time is. He's already worked out if you smack a door a couple of times it will either fall off its hinges or someone in there will let you in. Indrik finds himself a nice person and just shrieks at them. Head jutting forward, body lowered and mane bristling he unleashes something which is half devastating mooing and half paralysing roar- except miniaturised, so it starts as a meep and becomes a squeak.

I didn't know I could do that!
The original Indrik was known for making the earth shake when he walked and unleashing flames to destroy those with evil hearts foolish enough to cross his path. The current Indrik is just a chunky boy concerning the former, and with the latter, he has yet to demonstrate any flames at all.

Until two minutes ago when he started burping up fireballs because he's been eating from trashcans all day. They're not terribly hot and burst much like dazzling fireworks after a few seconds with a bang, making them more startling than dangerous, but the fact he's running around shooting them off everywhere is probably a little offputting at least.

(( For those not in the know- Indrik is a super weird spirit linked to Rex's soul, who shares Rex's general paranoia that everyone might possibly be an enemy except he's an unstoppable idiot, so watch out for your kneecaps! He can be friendly, but mostly he's angry. His feelings on people are influenced by Rex's own too. Good with kids. Anyone is free to know Indrik is Rex's 'pet', as he often walks him around campus. Rex will probably show up after a bit in each scenario because Indrik is not allowed out unsupervised. ))

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Toki's a bit mesmerized by the rainbow flames. The color doesn't last, and that snaps him back to what he was supposed to be doing. He scribbles down the characteristics of the fire and details about the box. He sets a larger paperweight or desk decoration statue thing (he doesn't know what it is) next to the still smouldering box. He's not sure what it's made out of, some kind of pewter-ish metal or the like.

"Think it will melt, or burn!? Oh! And later, we should see if he can burn things that have the fire protection rune on them! Because it's like magic fire!"

"Pewter can have a melting point of 230 °C so it may be beyond-"

Since the statue is shaped like an animal, Indrik doesn't hesitate this time. He rears up, sucking in air and lets loose not a fireworks ball but a constant stream- it still seems to be mostly sparks, some of which whizz off in random directions, but after about thirty seconds the statue... goes a bit droopy and Indrik has to stop and catch his breath.

"...Good job!" Good job, fat baby! He gets another small piece of coal. After a second, Rex offers Toki a handful of coal bits. "Do you want to feed him?"

No. No, he doesn't. Indrik could melt his fingers off; look at the statue!

"Yes~!"

He takes the offered coal bits and holds one out to Indrik hesitantly. However, he quickly forgets the hazards presented by Indrik's fire that close to his hand. Toki has a thought. If the beast eats coal and makes fire, is it like a stove or a steam engine... is Indrik a machine and not an animal? Did Rex like build him with synthetic scales and fur and just go around telling people Indrik is some weird familiar? Is he remote-controlled somehow, or independent like the golems?

"Is he a robot!?"

Indrik greedily sucks up the coal, his big ol' tongue scooping it right out of Toki's hand. It's kind of warm around his mouth but not searingly so.

Rex gives Toki such a fucking look for his question though. It lasts so long and is so baffled that Indrik notices, looking up at Rex as he swallows his coal and then turns to give Toki the exact same look, or as close as his cow face can get..

"Toki. If I was going to build a robot, would I make it anything like Indrik?"

No one builds a robot to be a fat useless idiot son of a bitch rat bastard.

Toki laughs nervously as they both stare at him for what feels like forever. Was is that weird of a question? It made perfect sense to him. That reaction is starting to make him think he's right, and Rex is covering it up. Indrik is a robot.

"I think... yes. If you don't want anyone to know he's a robot, you wouldn't make him look like the conventional ideas of robots, right!? People would never suspect a fat cow lizard thing!"

"But then he would still be as useless as he actually is, but I would have gone through a great deal of trouble making him."

Come on Toki. Rex, despite all evidence, doesn't think Toki is dumb. He just doesn't think things through all the way. It's Rex's duty to prod him in the right direction.

"If I were to make a mechanical beast I would make it vastly more impressive."

...Well, there's an idea...

He thought that through completely, Rex.

"He's not useless! He's a companion~! You made a robot friend~! They don't all have to be impressive and destructive! You can just talk to companion robots and they'll never tell you you're wrong or interrupt you~!"

Well Rex might be starting to think Toki is dumb.

"...I'm not sure what about me gave you the impression I'd ever build something that had no practical use."

Indeed, Rex did just fine for twelve years choosing weapons over companionship and it didn't scar him mentally or anything.

"Or at a minimum, was not a burden to me."

Indrik hears the word 'detriment' and seems to think it's a name of his, turning full and butting against one of Rex's hands, which instantly strokes the mane.

Toki knows how Indrik feels about those types of words used more often than your name. Which is his point.

"You're friends with me and I'm definitely in the 'burdensome companion' category, right!? No practical use whatsoever, so it stands to reason you'd have the same standards for robot friends~!"

Quite possibly for the first time since they'd met, Rex has some genuine anger in his eyes. It's a quiet smouldering, but very much there.

"Who said that about you?"

The tone he says it with has a very 'so I know who to beat up' angle to it, because as little as Rex thinks of himself the reaction to Toki talking badly of himself is that someone has been making him feel bad about himself. That loud grave voice inside of Rex says it's just a way to keep up that false pretence of the promise to protect him but...

At first, Toki thinks he's said something wrong, because Rex's expression is... not good. Before he can apologize, Rex asks the question. He's overreacting to this, like it's an insult and not a fact.

"Uhh. A lot of people? I mean, not exactly that all the time, but some people are definitely more direct about it and then there's the more subtle like euphemisms or the way they look, you know! I guess it wrong to say Indrik was at like that level of uselessness, but you kind of said he was! I'm sorry?"

This conversation has gone to a confusing place.

"Hmmph."

Rex snorts, arms crossing. Toki is a good boy. Those people are mean.

"Well, regardless of those uninformed opinions I have always found you a reliable ally and a capable assistant." Which is shockingly true- Toki might go off on weird tangents (which Rex doesn't mind and all the questions are actually useful to his own thought processes... most of the time) but he's been good at following Rex's instructions and always eager to help. "However, if you wish to prove them wrong and there is any skill you want to develop, please do not hesitate to ask for my help."

He spends a moment holding that pose before he tries one of those jokes that will probably fly over Toki's head.

"Besides, no human alive is as useless as Indrik."

Indrik meeps, almost like he agrees. He's actually just meeping, but his comic timing is impeccable.

"Really!?"

Rex think he's reliable and capable? It's so weird. It's wrong. He briefly wonders if he's stepped into an alternate universe somehow and this Rex is mistaking him for someone else entirely. Then he just wants to cry, because maybe real Rex does actually like him and that's too much.

"Skills... uhh... I don't know what I'd..."

You broke his brain, Rex. He trails off because he can't think straight. He sort of gets the joke, but doesn't think it's funny. Poor Indrik is being insulted there.

It's okay to insult Indrik, he doesn't speak. Rex watches Toki stammer and break off, sharply reminding him of their first meeting. It takes some serious mental gymnastics for Rex to conclude that the main reason he keeps interacting with Toki and offering to assist him is to keep up appearances to third parties... especially considering he has no idea if anyone actually knows the pair of them regularly interact.

After a moment of watching, Rex speaks up himself- though this time in Japanese. His accent is pretty bizarre, but hey, if Toki is a big sumo fan, he may have heard a famous Bulgarian sumo wrestler speak on TV before.

"Take a breath, and we can carry on."

He kind of hopes the sudden language shift, which he has learnt almost entirely to speak with Toki, will illustrate that yeah- he values him.

He likes Rex's accent, and he's very surprised to hear him speak in Japanese. It at least gets Toki to focus more, though he doesn't recognize it as something Rex may be learning because of him. There were several Japanese students after all. Though now, subconsciously Toki's moved Bulgarian up on his list of languages to learn. It's now after English, with Spanish bumped down to #3. Sorry, Hector.

"Yes! Back to the experiment!"

He grabs something at random, just to keep moving on. It's a dagger or a letter opener, something sharp and shiny. He sets it next to the melted statue.

Wow, Rex just smacking Héctor around all over the place.

He hasn't yet completely mastered the language, but he's pretty good conversationally. Toki's method of talking advantage- cramming lots of words to practice into a short time. Disadvantage- cramming lots of words he might not know into a short time. Rex, on the other hand, speaks even slower than usual.

"If I get something wrong, please correct me. I'm learning to talk to you, after all."

Just to make it clear, now he's aware of how low Toki placed himself in Rex's regard.

Indrik isn't as dumb as he likes to act or Rex thinks and especially now treats are involved has worked out that when something is put in the pit, it's time to spit!

The knife, however, weighs so little it's blasted away by the small burst of pressure more than singed. Still counts! Gets a treat!

Oh. That's awkward.

"Haha, you don't have to learn Japanese for me~! That's why I'm learning French and I'm not that bad at it!"

Maybe he was terrible and it was so bad he was a lost cause, Rex resorting to learning Japanese because his French was barely comprehensible. That would make sense; he does confuse people easily.

Toki watches the knife go flying to clatter against the wall. Heavier things only, from now on. He makes a note on that.

"And you don't have to be..." He stops, thinks hard for a moment and then fucks up spectacularly by using a word for 'nice' in Japanese which is often used ironically, especially meaning embarrassing, but he does say it like a question. You know what, he just asks- in French, in which he is fluent.

"How do I say 'nice?' As in a kind person?"

With a flick of his finger, he brings the knife back. No sense letting it make a mess. Unfortunately, Indrik has not entirely grasped that if it's not in the pit it might not be a target anymore and before Rex can get an answer to his question, he gets a faceful of fireworks, flips over a bench and drops out of sight.

Rex is probably more accurate than he thinks with that mistake, and it's not taken at all like an insult. Applying any sort of adjective in the realm of 'kind, decent, nice' is in error. He tries, but he generally falls short of those things or does something to change that perception fairly quickly. He's lucked out with Rex so far.

Rex has a lot of wizard things going on, but Toki isn't expecting the knife to come flying back before he can answer. Indrik's somehow forgotten the firepit and gone for the knife. He doesn't try to stop the beast, but he does peer over the bench in the aftermath.

"Are you okay!? It's uh, shinsetsu..."

Rex spends a long while on his back, staring upwards, arms crossed and legs straight- or mostly straight. Kind of propped up on the desk.

"I'm fine," he replies utterly deadpan, just before the knife comes down from the ceiling and lands between his legs with a clang and a long-running wobbling noise. "And thank you."

Rex doesn't seem mad as such, but he is taking a moment to centre himself.

"This might be a good time to let Indrik rest his throat, don't you think?"

"Oh no! I made him work too hard! Sorry, Indrik~! You can burn more things later~!"

It was for the best, before the creature did some actual damage.

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It was gonna happen sometime.

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