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Archive Warning:
Category:
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Character:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of Paradigms Shifting
Collections:
Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
Stats:
Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
388
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
14
Hits:
1,286

The Other

Summary:

Meeeooowww. Data has a new playmate, and Spot is not amused.

Work Text:

Spot was having difficulty accepting the new living arrangement. She was accustomed to lavish attention when the Companion was present, and was uncertain why this Other creature had suddenly appeared and how long it might be staying. It fed her occasionally, petted her, and seemed to be attempting to bond with her in the manner of the Companion for unknown reasons that Spot nonetheless considered to be vaguely suspect.

Spot was unconvinced toward friendship with the Other, whose arrival was marked by the coincidental arrival of a large and inviting new bed that the Other, and not Spot, was permitted to use with the Companion. In fact the large and inviting new bed seemed central to the new bonding that the Other was obviously undertaking with the Companion. At various times the Companion and the Other engaged in some unusual forms of wrestling punctuated by sounds – issuing only from the Other – that were remarkably catlike in nature. At other times the Companion simply sat or lay near the Other, sometimes even engaged in work that formerly involved Spot's judicious supervision. Once a remarkable multitasker, the Companion could not be persuaded by Spot to play, or spare any attention at all, while engaged in holding and/or petting the Other.

Even when not being petted the Other frequently engaged the Companion in all manner of verbal interaction, leading Spot to suspect that eventually she would merely be fed and watered and shooed off the bed, only absently spoken to as the Other gradually overtook Spot's former and rightful place at the center of the known universe. Until Spot could determine the Other's ultimate intentions she felt no inclination to accept friendly overtures from It in any but the most grudging fashion.

Entreaties from the Companion to “Be nice to Leo, Spot, this is her home now,” fell on deaf and pointy ears. Unless and until said ears enjoyed more frequent and sincere scratching from the Companion, Spot would not be “nice”.

In the meantime, Spot savored a distinctively feline solace in the knowledge that the Other’s possessions were quite satisfactory for the purposes of chewing, shedding, and claw-sharpening. While she took no pleasure in the chagrined responses of the Companion, Spot grimly acknowledged the lesson that all crewmembers of the Enterprise knew by heart: desperate times require desperate measures.

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