Foundlings are a Dog Tradition.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien hadn't been to the Nexus in quite a long time. Between a job in one universe, and everything in his own, there was no time. There wasn't much time for anything. This place was quiet and he got a coffee and started to walk the plaza to clear his mind. He'd lost track of time quickly and where he was walking though he could still hear the plaza very clearly.

The noise of people was drowned out by a pitiful sound of squeaking, or growling, maybe it was both. The Dogs had cared for the animals in all the abandoned zoos of Hunger City long ago. To this day they all kept animals, many were the descendants of those first animals. Damien knew a lot of animal sounds but this was not familiar but more importantly the sounds reminded him of pain.

He followed the sound to a mottled bird? It looked sort of like a bird but with teeth and the size of a medium dog. He could see it was hurt and squatted down to check on it. The snapping didn't anger him at all.

"Shhh.. little one." Damien whispered and gently pressed the head away while looking over the injury. It looked bad on the downy feathers but underneath looked superficial. Watching the the teeth he dug out a cream he carried that numbed pain and disinfected wounds. The bird was watching now, sniffing at the cream on his hand before he gently dabbed it on the cuts down the side and thigh. It twitched away and Damien frowned because he didn't like seeing pain despite what his jobs had always been.

"There." Damien stepped away while wiping off his hand. He froze when he heard a snorting little sound and looked back to see the bird hobbling up on its feet toward him. Damien watched it limp over and sit heavily against his calf.

"Alright." He sighed at it like a child begging to be carried. This time there was no biting as he picked it up and cradled it in his arms. The bird was surprisingly light and felt skinny under the fluffy downy feathers. Well, he had another foundling. It wouldn't be his first human or animal in the past few years. After a few minutes he was back in the plaza and worried about just how skinny the animal in his arms felt.

The first person he could approach was going to get the question at the forefront of his mind. "Do you know what bird this is?"

Comments

[itmeanscourage]

"Oh, Damien! Good day." Isamu bowed as he saw his brother's coach in the plaza. "Minoru said you were visiting the Nexus for a couple of days."

Given the question, he came over to take a better look.

"Despite the feathers, I do not believe this is actually a bird. It more closely resembles a dromaeosaurine, velociraptorine or perhaps even an unenlagiine." He mused aloud. He was unsure of the exact subfamily, but could specify the family from his time at IRIS and assistance he'd given on a few studies of similar subjects. "It is a dromaeosauridae, a raptor. And quite a young one at that."

He looked back at Damien. "This sort of animal has been extinct on my world for roughly 70 million years. And I would expect the same from your world of origin and from Ziggy's. Wherever did you find it?"

[hungercity_hellhound]

The Dog nodded. "Tom insisted I needed a vacation. I haven't seen you around the tour."

Which Damien just chalked up to work in his homework needing his attention.

The words went right over his head. Though Damien had seen dinosaurs, especially in some of Zack's comics, he wasn't overly familiar with them. Certainly not enough to understand most of the words. Extinction he understood. Things were going extinct in his home quickly, including humans in some ways.

"Outside the Plaza." He moved his hand to show the blood there but the wounds were no longer bleeding nor deep enough to need more medical attention than being kept clean. "I didn't see any others."

[itmeanscourage]

"I admit my knowledge on prehistoric fauna is limited. I do not know whether this sort of animal hunted in packs or in relative isolation. But it did hunt. This is clearly a carnivorous predator."

The size, he recalled, varied. In his world, they were substantially smaller than similar species found in Ian Malcom's world. But the way this one quickly took to Damien suggested it was young. Isamu had good reason to assume this one might still have a lot of growing to do.

"And it did not receive its wounds here."

Not with the anti-violence field to contend with.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien agreed. "Yes, it has big claws." They looked disproportionately large for the body size.

He could only shrug. "Animals can hunt here." But he hadn't seen any others of the species around. It was unlikely something this small would wander far from a parent, unless the parent had been killed fending something off

[itmeanscourage]

"Unless it picked on something far larger and more dangerous than it could reasonably consume - which is still possible, since the young of any species rarely act with an adult's intellect or skill - it was probably being hunted by something larger instead. Which, if you did not encounter, suggests it likely managed to escape into the Nexus by accident."

At least, that was the theory Isamu was proposing for how it got here.

"I would call that lucky."

Which, if true, would make a damn good name for the creature too.

[hungercity_hellhound]

"It was in the weeds." So, Damien surmised maybe it was hiding.

"I'm lucky it didn't bite me." It had tried once and then seemed ok with his presence. It would make a good name if it stayed. Didn't birds imprint on people?

"I should go somewhere and feed it." That was an open invitation for Isamu to join him for whatever meal it was time for. Truth was he'd lost track of the time of the day hours ago.

[itmeanscourage]

"It certainly seems to have taken a liking to you." Isamu observed.

He was no paleontologist or biologist. But biochemically speaking, the critical period for filial imprinting typically only lasted thirty two hours. Had this creature just hatched? He doubted it, but he could be wrong.

"I suppose any kind of meat would do. Even eggs or carrion." he added as he gestured toward one of the burger joints nearby.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien finally crack a small smile. It was one of the first in a long time. "I raise the young back in Hunger City."

He didn't just mean the kids either, but also the foals and puppies. Maybe he had a knack for this or just young things liked him. Who knew? Damien wondered if it was bred into him because his destiny for the breeding program in the Ministry. That wasn't for now though.

"Steaks?" Damien was fond of the steakhouse here. It also seemed like the place where asking for a slab of raw meat might not be overly strange.

[itmeanscourage]

"That should do nicely, yes." He was fairly certain that the restaurants around the plaza had served so many different species over the years that they would hardly bat an eye to such a request.

"Speaking of the young, how are Jack and the kids doing these days?" He asked, making pleasant conversation as they went.

He walked beside Damien, but not within what he perceived to be snapping distance.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien started toward the restaurant while they spoke.

"They are doing well." Damien slowed and then stopped. "We liberated someone... you might want to meet."

Maybe Isamu could talk to Fox and snap him out of what was going on in his head. Maybe it would make it worse but it was worth a try.

[itmeanscourage]

"That I might want to meet?" That caught Isamu's attention, enough that he felt it needed repeating. "In what capacity, may I ask?"

Damien, after all, provided him with data on the Ministry's breeding program once, as it related to his own DNA. Was this someone else to run analysis on? Were there specific Anthean traits being isolated?

Heaven forbid this be another version of someone they already knew. Minoru told him recently about accidentally pulling one of the new Kuro band members into the Nexux right as Kuro tribesmen from an alternate universe were being rushed into the hospital. So the topic of alternate versions and research surrounding the phenomenon were on his mind lately.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien stepped in and asked for a table for three that had extra space around it. "I found another person from my breeding program on a raid."

Damien took a deep breath and followed the waitress to a table. "He's not adjusting well." Which meant he was adjusting more poorly that Damien had at first, and that wasn't an easy transition.

[itmeanscourage]

Thar caused Isamu to raise an eyebrow. "And you believe, out of all the resources available to you, I could be of the most assistance in this matter?"

Him? The one who nearly single-handedly got an entire species to break off ties with human scientists? The one who Ziggy blatantly accused of being as dangerous as the Ministry scientists themselves?

[hungercity_hellhound]

"I don't know." Damien admitted. Despite a lot of the other things Damien, at least, trusted Isamu to be honest and look at wider pictures without as much emotion. He might say things he shouldn't but he wouldn't hide them and sometimes that was a better angle.

"He went through worse than I did." Damien thought that way, maybe because Dominic had endured the Ministry longer. "He wasn't an enforcer like me. I think he was more like you before they scrambled his brain trying to rewrite him."

[itmeanscourage]

"By that, you mean he may have been one of their scientists?" Isamu questioned further.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien could only shrug. "He was bred in the program and remembers working in the labs and... the Ministry forcing him into other tasks but he hasn't said much."

There was a lot Damien didn't know and it would take time. At the same time, the constant fear and stress was not doing Dominic any favors.

[itmeanscourage]

Isamu knew of those, like Damien, who were bred with Anthean traits to be, as he put it, Enforcers. He also knew the fate of the actual Antheans held in their labs. But he was not aware of those bred for laboratory work specifically, who might actually feel more comfortable there than anywhere else.

"I see." Isamu mused aloud. "I suppose what I should be asking is, are you simply looking for someone who can relate to him or are you turning to me to research a more practical answer to neurological deprogramming?"

His grant hadn't ended yet, so he still had access to everything at IRIS. While Minoru was on tour, Isamu had split his time between trying to wrap up about a half-dozen papers and preparing an adequate resume.

had to

[cookedup]

The noises of the little animal have also caught the attention of someone much larger. Indominus has been hanging back, cloaking herself as twin instincts fight it out within her head. Half of them say 'injured, easy prey' and the other half say 'baby??'. Meanwhile, her rational mind, such as it is, was pointing out that the little thing is too small to be worth eating anyway, but before any of these warring aspects won out, Damien came along and took care of the problem.

Or, started to, at least. She takes a moment to sniff around the area while he takes the hatchling back to the plaza, looking for eggshells or the remains of other infants. She can catch the blood-scent, and the stink of something that may have tried to harm the creature in the first place, but nothing more enlightening than that.

Thus armed with no knowledge at all, she makes her way back toward the human (?) and his friend, dropping her camouflage as she gets closer. She stays out of striking distance, although the sheer massive size of her is intimidating enough to watch walking toward you.

"Hatchling." She tells him, the collar on her throat flickering as it translates her low vocalizations into words. "Not mine, very small. I didn't see any nest or parent. Maybe it wandered through a door alone?"

Either way, it's clearly imprinted on him already.

I would expect no less!

[hungercity_hellhound]

While Damien is startled by the appearance, large animals don't unnerve him in general. Thankfully, the Dogs work with lots of animals even if these are foreign to him. She can probably smell that on him, and maybe even that he isn't entirely human. The speech is more startling but he looks down at the animal in his arms and nods.

"The down." Even if this wasn't a true bird, down was something he associated with babies. "I didn't see any either."

The claws said predator and it was helpless, or on the helpless side of things. Typically, a parent would be near, cries would attract them, but that hadn't happened. Maybe it had wandered in from somewhere else?

[cookedup]

"Very young," she says, and she really doesn't have much of a frame of reference for its development, only herself, and she's not a natural creature, but she makes a guess anyway. "Two weeks? Maybe? Not sure."

At least it has teeth, that means it can eat for itself. "Hungry. I can bring you meat to feed it."

[hungercity_hellhound]

He nodded in agreement. He didn't know anything about this species but they did raise chickens and pigeons back home for food. The look was not that different. There weren't any hints of adult feathers.

"we can hunt together." Damien wasn't one to let someone go it alone, even if it was a giant, intelligent reptile. And now, this was his responsibility since he took it out of the wild.

[cookedup]

She gives him a long look, which could be interpreted as skeptical, though her reptillian face is hard to read. Truthfully, she is a little uncertain about hunting with him--it's a rare humanoid biped that can keep up with her gait--but pack hunting is about compromise and working with one another's strengths and weakness. So...sure, why not?

"You trust me?" That's a mild surprise too, thought not a bad one. "Keep out of biting range when I strike. I have trouble pulling my blows. I don't want to harm you or the hatchling."

She's come a long way. There was a time she would have wanted to hurt them out of spite, a time when she wouldn't have cared. Now, she wants to pick and choose who gets the brunt of her rage.

[hungercity_hellhound]

"Can I trust you not to eat my horse?" The question came back with genuine curiosity but he did shrug. "When the city I live in was abandoned by humans, they left the animals behind in the zoos. My people fight and hunt side by side with their descendants all the time."

Damien thought better of calling her an animal though that was what was in his thoughts. "I'm more comfortable with someone like you than another human."

Not that Damien was 100% human but close enough. Truth was, she and Damien shared that in common. There was a time right after he was released where he was jumpy, aggressive, and uncontrolled.

[grouchy_trashmonster]

Oscar poked his head out of his can to throw away an old banana skin that he didn't want anymore because he already had too many. What was another old banana skin anyway? There was always more trash to collect.

"Huh? A bird? No idea, pal. Is that even a bird? Maybe a lizard or something?"

The green monster had no clue but it was the weirdest bird he'd ever seen and Oscar had birds perching on his garbage can lid all the time.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien isn't ready for monsters in a trashcan, though, given the size of rats in Hunger City he's more prepared for it than most humans maybe.

"I don't know." Damien looked down at the animal in his arms. "It does have teeth."

Which birds didn't have.