《dot.》30: Karma

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a/n: me vs the urge to use 700 commas per sentence

"What happened out there?"

When Crita had brought Tiro back to the room, he had still been reeling from the experience. What had just happened? He couldn't believe it was real. He refused to.

"He said..." Tiro began to answer Felix's question, "He said I'm just as inhuman as Dot."

"But that's not right."

"I know it's not. I'm human."

"Right."

He chewed on his thumbnail and sat down on the grassy floor, drawing his knees up to his chin as he did so. "He got a load of students to come in and stare at me, basically. It was humiliating."

Dot glared at him and typed into the card, letting Felix speak for him once again.

"Karma."

Tiro huffed. "Yeah."

"Karma? Where'd you learn a word like that?" Felix quizzed the hybrid.

'nimue sed it'

"Huh. Why'd she say it?"

'the boses girlfrend left him'

"She did?" Tiro rejoined the conversation with a chuckle. "Figures. He's... slimy."

Dot stared at Tiro with an unplaceable expression before going back to the card and typing again. 'you treet me lik that'

"Well, you're not human."

'i think lik a human'

Tiro opened and closed his mouth before turning away in guilt. "I guess you do."

He had never really thought of Dot's intelligence, all these years- it had been easy to forget about, amongst all the blood and hate. The last time he had seen Dot happy and talking, acting just like a human would was when he was very small: and so he had never thought of the hybrid being more intelligent than a three year old. Now, however, he was being proved wrong as the boy continually made his thoughts and opinions known, demonstrating intelligence and understanding far higher than a toddler could. It was becoming harder to justify how Dot was treated here.

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Felix shuffled over to Dot and suggested they play a card game, stretching to grab the deck where it lay a few meters away when he agreed. Tiro wanted to join, but dared not ask. He had no place in their friendship.

The day rolled on lazily, Crita coming in at some point to give them all some food before locking the door and leaving them alone again. The meal was simple and rather plain; just some cold battered fish and vegetables for the humans and a fruit salad for Dot, but was enjoyable nonetheless. Felix especially was overjoyed to eat something that wasn't dry cereal or fruit, tucking in as if eating was a mission.

When the lights were switched off- to signify nightfall- Dot and Felix curled up close to each other ( but not quite touching ) while Tiro had to form his own sad little pile of leaves to sleep on.

It was miserable, and he wished he had a bed: but most of all, he missed Nimue. They had been sharing a bed recently; although nothing had happened between them- Nimue just wanted someone to hug as she slept and Tiro liked the company. He had grown accustomed to being able to hold her close in the night, and the loss of that was, for him, probably the worst thing about having to sleep here.

When daylight rolled around, or, as would be more appropriate to say, was switched on gradually one bulb at a time, Tiro groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes, stretching as he did so.

At the same time, Dot awoke, completely ignoring Tiro in favour of slapping Felix awake. The man started and jolted upwards with shouts of 'Immawek!' and slumped down against the hybrid, who pushed him off towards the floor where he now lay with a groan.

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"It's too early..." He whined, making Tiro check his wrist instinctively for his watch- only to remember Digorn had taken it away before the students came in yesterday. He sighed and looked around for a clock of sorts, knowing he wouldn't find one but wanting to look as if he was doing something.

While Felix continued to moan about being woken up and Tiro stood there awkwardly, Crita came back into the room and laid out three plates: all laden with waffles, blueberries and syrup, the trails of steam the food left in the air a telltale sign that it was freshly heated.

The tall woman left without a word and Felix sprinted over to the plates, grabbing two of them and practically tripping over himself to get back to Dot and start eating.

"Yes! Finally! Hot food!" He kicked his feet and stuffed his face, all qualms about being woken up forgotten in the excitement.

Tiro retrieved his own plate and tore the top waffle apart, making sure the ones on the bottom were drizzled with syrup as well. He ate slowly, making sure to savour the taste and finished the meal off with the blueberries.

By the time both Felix and Tiro had clean plates, Dot had only picked at his- he had eaten the blueberries, but not before wiping the syrup off them first.

"You can eat human food too, you know." Tiro mentioned, remembering how he could take milk as a baby and other things too, like the dinosaur nuggets he used to love when he was a toddler.

Dot made a face and took a hesitant bite of the stack, chewing slowly and then shaking his head. The taste was weird, foreign: he had been eating a diet of almost all fruit his whole life, and the sickly sweet taste of the syrup made him feel a bit ill. It just tasted very... fake, artificial.

He decided he didn't like waffles, and gave the plate to an overjoyed Felix.

Tiro picked the remaining food out of his teeth while keeing his eyes fixed on Dot as he ate some strawberries from a bowl on the wall instead. They had been sitting there for a while, and so couldn't taste good, but he supposed the hybrid must just feel more comfortable with eating fruit as opposed to human food.

He used to like waffles when he was a baby, Tiro thought, but still... a lot has changed since then.

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