PMD: Crux of the Self

The Anacapa Chart

From his perch at the window, Von contemplated how to get back down. He scaled the few feet up without thinking, and now his tail hung off of the tiny sill he sat on. What practice he learned from clambering over driftwood found use in scaling a wall. The tips of his claws found purchase in the tiniest of cracks in the masonry around him.

Looking down, he wondered how much a fall would hurt, his perception colored by his shrunken size. What would have been a casual hop was now a fall of thrice his height. Hesitantly, he sunk his grip back into the wall, and attempted a descent. It came easily despite his disorientation.

"Salandit?" Rockruff's familiar bark echoed up the stairway.

"Over here!"

By the time Night Vision found Von, he clung tightly to the wall eight strides off the ground. His claws sunk into the grooves between stone brickwork and his tail drooped with the pull of gravity.

"What are you doing up there?" Rockruff asked from the base of the stairs. She sat and waited for Ren to catch up to her.

"Making do." He peered down at the pair at an awkward angle. "I found out the fastest way to climb human-sized stairs is by ignoring them." With three claws dug in deep, he waved at them with the fourth. "I figured if a three-hundred pound monitor lizard can climb a wall, why couldn't a ten-pound me?"

"I've never met any Monitor. Did you have those in the Shoals too?" Ren asked Rockruff.

She shook her head. "Probably a human thing. Salandit, how were things with Braixen?"

Von's tail lashed against the wall. "Fine." He resumed his descent, each movement made with purpose. Slow and deliberate, he reached ground level without incident. "Not sure if it's frustrating or reassuring that no one else really knows how we got here."

Ren perked up. "All the more reason to join our Research team!"

Von carefully dismounted from the wall and dropped onto all fours. The hopeful look on Ren's muzzle gave him pause. "I was considering it-"

"Great! We just got reinstated, and we've got an open spot all set aside for you!" Ren proudly placed a paw on the badge on the bag Rockruff wore; A Mobius strip sporting two black stripes.

"-but I think I'll pass."

Ren flattened his ears. "What? Why?"

"Your dungeon delving group? You find impossible geometries and willingly wander in? I don't think I'm cut out for that."

"Least he's honest," Rockruff grinned.

Ren looked crestfallen. "But you're a human! We need your kind's ingenuity!"

"My ingenuity? Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not exactly a prime example of my species."

Ren furrowed his brow. "No-one is when they first start out."

"Start out? Dude, I've been a human longer than you've been alive. I think." He assumed both members of Night Vision to be about the same age. "In all that time on Earth, I accomplished nothing but making people angry."

"I knew I sensed some kinship in you," the Zorua hummed, only to falter at Von's look of incredulity. "All in good fun, of course!"

Rockruff spoke up. "Not counting the accidents, or the failed missions, or that one time Ren tried to eat-"

"Hey, heyhey! All in good! Fun!" Ren strained through a forced smile.

Rockruff shook her head. "So if you're not joining us, what are you going to do instead?"