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I don't. Do you have a favorite?

[ But he'll take anything, because dog. ]

[A full few seconds pass as Connor considers this ludicrous question.]

I... don’t believe so. I like all dogs.

[The truest of all statements.]

I’ll pick one at random, then.

[Connor doesn’t believe that Arenvald needs a warning at his point; he’s seen the process before. And so, no preamble before Connor’s body is enveloped in a bright blue light, and with a glimmer and a burst, it disperses.

Leaving a small puppy with a wagging tail on Arenvald’s bed, with a little LED on the side of his head.

Connor looks up at his friend, and gives the tiniest bark.]

[ Oh no. Oh no. There were so many possibilities to choose from that he hadn’t even considered a puppy. That little bark is adorable, too. ]

I hope you know you brought this on yourself.

[ Because, even knowing it’s Connor, there is no way he can have a puppy in front of him and not pick it up. Big as he is, Connor’s new form seems comically tiny as he scoops him up, holding him aloft a moment. Cuuuuuute... ]

[As always, Connor still possesses his own cognition. He is still himself, his thoughts his own, even if he has taken a smaller form on four legs. However, there is still something… different about being a dog, other than the obvious physical change. An eagerness, a willingness to please, a want for attention, a bubbling kind of energy that’s impossible to quantify — and being a puppy, all of this seems magnified almost tenfold.

So, logically, maybe it’s a little strange being picked up by his friend like this. But Arenvald seems so big and happy to be in the presence of an android puppy, it’s hard not to wiggle his body a little in eagerness, tail still wagging. Connor reaches out towards Arenvald with a slightly oversized Doberman puppy paw.]

[ SO CUTE. He laughs as Connor’s paw bops the end of his nose. ]

If I didn’t know you were Connor, I’d swear you were an actual puppy.

[ He plays the part well, but he does wonder how much of that is acting and how much is the influence of the form he wears. The only other time he saw Connor turn into a dog, he did act very dog-like.

So, he might just… cradle puppy Connor in in his arms a bit. He can’t help it. ]

[…Oh, he’s being held properly now.

Stranger still the size difference. Being cradled like this, it should be embarrassing, but this is Connor and it’s Connor currently in dog form. There is no immediate issue he’s going to have with this, and for a moment Connor is just content to be held, inelegant forelegs kind of flopped over Arenvald’s arms.

His little LED is spinning blue, happily enough. And he can't help it -- he lifts his head up and licks Arenvald across the cheek.

(That, maybe, he might apologize for later. But right now? It only feels like the natural thing to do.)]

[ He has to blink down at his friend at that, but any surprise is quickly overtaken by amusement, and a grin spreads over his face. It seems Connor is very much a victim of the whims of this form, because Arenvald can’t imagine him doing that by choice. ]

Trying to analyze me, are you? Find anything interesting?

[ He’s teasing, obviously, especially since he knows that Connor can’t even do that here, never mind what he can and can’t do as a dog. ]

[When Arenvald puts it like that, it becomes glaringly obvious what he’s done, though there’s hardly anything reprimanding about it. Even so, Connor tilts his head, gives a tiny little whine, and wiggles more, trying to slip out of Arenvald’s arms and back onto the bed.

(Tail still wagging, though, so he obviously isn’t upset. Potentially only wanting space to change back, if he so chooses.)]

Sorry, I was only teasing.

[ Gently, since he interprets that whine to mean he’s hurt Connor’s feelings (that he totally doesn’t have) somehow. He lets him go when he attempts to wiggle free of his arms, and seems to find some measure of relief when he sees Connor’s tail is still wagging. Mayhap he didn’t hurt his feelings after all. ]

[Connor pads along on the mattress once he’s free, turning around and sitting. He barks up at Arenvald one last time, before a blight blue light envelops his small form again, heralding another change.

When that dissipates, Connor is… Connor again, sitting on the bed a little inelegantly, but amicable-looking all the same.]

No, I'm sorry. I feel as if it’s easy to get… carried away, sometimes, as a dog.

I noticed.

[ He smiles a bit as he says it, now that he knows his earlier worry was unfounded. ]

No harm done, though. I thought it was kind of endearing.

You only say that because I can get away with more as a canine than I can as something more human-shaped.

[But Connor shuffles a little, straightening.]

Keep in mind that I'm still very much myself even when I change.

I think that’s part of the fun of your particular power, though. There’s a certain degree of freedom that must come with being a dog. You can run around, enjoy the sunshine, do whatever you like, really. May as well enjoy it, right?

[ At least, that’s how he sees it. It certainly looks like fun, the couple of times he’s seen Connor do it. ]

Should I apologize for picking you up, then?

No. I didn't mind it.

[Is that strange? Connor dismisses the notion, because Arenvald doesn't seem to treat it as awkward at all.]

It's odd, though. You were so big; the perspective of a smaller animal is jarringly different.

Yeah?

[ He chuckles a bit. Standing next to someone like Alphinaud most certainly makes him feel tall, he can only imagine what he looked like to a puppy. ] Believe it or not, compared to other Ala Mhigan hyur, I’m kind of on the short side.

Really?

[That's surprising. Not that Connor is short, or anything -- they're the same height! -- but that he should consider Arenvald short in the context of his world is unexpected.

Just going to add this little tidbit in his database.]

Can you explain to me "hyur"?

Aye. Not by much, but I’m not like to get much taller than I am now.

[ Oh. This is another one of those name things, isn’t it? ]

Hyur are… well, a race of people. It’s what I am, and Minfilia as well. I’d say most the people in the Circle look to be hyur.

Alphinaud and Alisaie are elezen. They’ve the pointed ears and can get quite tall. There are a few other races that live in Eorzea. [ He ticks them off on his fingers as he names them. ] Miqo’te, roegadyn, and lalafell as well. And there’s the au ra, who came over the sea when the Empire invaded their homeland.

[Plenty of races that he can’t hope to recognize, names that would sound odd on his own tongue, he’s sure. But they’re committed to memory, as well, though he does have to clarify something once Arenvald is done.]

So if most in the Circle are similar to hyur, I would assume that humans are the closest adjacent in terms of comparison?

[ He tilts his head a little to mull that over. ]

For me, that term is rather broad, covering anyone who isn’t of the beast tribes, regardless of race. But if all you have in your world are hyur, then I suppose hyur would equate to human.

Humanity is the only sentient race on Earth, yes. My version of Earth, at least.

[He considers something else Arenvald had said.]

The elezen, whom you describe as tall with pointed ears… They exist in fantasy literature, however, under a different name.

[ Of all the things, he hadn’t expected elezen to exist in the stories of another world. Granted, he hadn’t expected anything of his own world to exist in the stories of another, so it may as well be something so seemingly random. ]

Do they? What are they called?

Elves.

[Phoentically close, which is interesting.]

Not too far off the mark, actually.

Huh. That is kind of close.

[ That's super weird actually, to think that his best friend is a fantasy story. ]

None of the others ring a bell, though?

Not at all. But maybe if you describe them to me, I may recognize a parallel?

[That's the interesting part about these other worlds and alternate universes -- the similarities shared between them were almost as baffling as the differences.]

i didn't even notice that

well then. Shhh. There was no embarrassing typo. Also 1/2

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