Boat Trolls planning thread! (full of spoilers, non-players enter at your own risk)

woofs

 

bel, your new fuckbuddy is cute, but he's not going to let you forget he's also completely obnoxious.

 

you know what would be interesting is if bel just comes across to humans as more 'wolf', even at a dog park, even while he's trying to wag his tail, because he's stiffer with expressions and can't fucking lie. meanwhile erskin is kind of naturally more winsome and charming and is also a very casual liar— in situations where he's had time to learn, like the Navy AU, he can put on a great act. so erskin would know exactly how to code-switch in front of humans and be read as some bouncy waggy, happy fun-times akita-shepherd mutt, to the point no one even blinks at their kids coming up and bapping him on the nose. meanwhile bel is sitting there very stiffly, trying to look meek, and people are uneasily reaching for their phones because, uh, is that a wolf or a bear, can wolves and bears have monster babies, is that what's happened here.

erskin: stick out your paw
bel: what
erskin: stick out your fucking paw before someone calls the bloody cops on us
bel: uhhhh
human: *takes paw*
human: aww! good boy!
bel: ....thanks?
erskin: you're welcome.
bel: how do you get her to stop holding my paw this is awful
erskin: *wanders off to lick someone's baby*

 

btw i was looking at pics and charts last night, red wolves and german shepherds are, actually, about the same mass and height. but the show-look of a german shepherd is to look like a fucking triangle going down from the big ears to the low, crippled back legs, poor dudes. working shepherds obviously have a more normal hind end but they're definitely still distinctly rounded-off in the back. i suspect erskin would have studied this, and, in a park where there's a shepherd breed around to be compared to, he'd be holding his butt kind of funny to 'fit in'.

i kind of like the idea that he'd be nudging bel to carry his tail up and curled-over, which would probably feel really weird and unnatural, if bel could even manage to figure out how. but it'd be a very good Ha Ha I'm A Dog signal.

okay also i really like the idea that this is a thing for bel now. erskin would definitely tease him.

 

surprise boners are the funniest boners to play through. erskin's definitely an opportunistic pansexual but i don't think he has any awkward hangups besides 'large ladies of any species can do whatever they want to me'


idle plot suggestion: at some point bel and erskin come across a lost dog and help it find its house again.

 

ok considering this is eagle(eyed)dad, how likely is he to text back 'son, your foster agency sent you a critically endangered wolf subspecies instead of a service dog'

 

that seems reasonable! erskin definitely works the 'no one knows what a red wolf is' angle for all it's worth. his life would be so much more difficult if he were a timber wolf.

 

ok i spontaneously decided that some magic stuff is real, but it's kind of like dark matter: not even the experts know what the fuck, though plenty of them are prepared to lie about what the fuck.

also, for funsies, let's say werewolves and ravens find one another mutually intelligible, and lainey and arguus are canadian ravens who are gonna be real pleased to see erskin around again. i like the idea of bel finding out that ravens a) are friendly dorks and b) probably magic.

then again anyone who watches ravens probably already knows this.

 

it's funny to think that a lot of the stuff that would make a dog sick, like, french peasants would not have access to. caffeine? chocolate? sugarfree gum? nnnnope. and i suppose sitting a werewolf down for a nice meal of onions and raisins is a little more slow-acting than SHOOT IT IN THE HEAD.

 

"We didn't kill the werewolf, but it did shit all over the garden and cry, so, uh, good enough."

 

I think you'd probably have to force an entire container of cocoa powder down a werewolf to actually KILL it but i bet a chocolate malt would still cause a 'wow, yuck' reaction that erskin wouldn't be fond of. especially after eating a perfectly nice meal and wanting to hang on to it. i don't remember if there's any legends about getting werewolves blind drunk before hunting them, but that'd be kind of interesting. bel forgetting himself after a few beers one evening and then going to all fours and promptly tipping over could be cute.