The Owners of Livestone
#2 of Livestone
The people who own this place.
Therin looked down out the window at the crowd gathered on the street. The coyote looked turned her head as the door behind her opened. "Henry, I didn't think you would make it," she wagged her tail.
"Wouldn't miss it." The lop eared rabbit stepped in smiling. He glanced around, "What happened to the chairs? And my popcorn machine?"
"I didn't take them," Therin sang.
Henry's look soured, "Party's over, then?"
"Yup."
"Damn it. I don't have time to go fetch them, do I?"
"Nope."
"Damn," the lop eared rabbit stepped up to the window. "What do we have?"
"Male serval versus female thylacine," Therin grinned at the two figures facing each other on the street below.
"Thylacine?"
"You've never seen one?"
"I have, just never here before."
"Not surprising, I suppose, they are rather rare."
A bell struck, and a gun fired.
"And that didn't help matters," Henry commented.
"No, it didn't, ha ha!" Therin bounced. They watched as the judge approached the prone body of the thylacine. "Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead, Yes! Ha-ha! Excellent kill!"
"Yes, excellent," Henry said slowly as he eyed the bouncing coyote.
"Oh, shut up. You know you like it, Mr. Where's-My-Popcorn. Clarence comes back and now I'm stuck with two of you."
He looked down at the body left to lie on the street, "So, exactly how rare are those things?"
"Rare and getting rarer; and that's not a joke on her demise. Thylacines were extinct on earth at the time genetics were being studied. The first batch of the revived species were created as a legitimate proof of concept of the science. Then a bunch of naturalist nutjobs broke into the lab and destroyed the specimen."
Therin sighed, "Then the government, in characteristic siding with whomever is noisiest, put in laws preventing the reanimation of extinct species. This led to the second batch of Thylacines being developed in back room laboratories. But they were found out about and the specimen euthanized.
"The third and final batch was created years later after the Habitatual Museums act was passed," Therin placed her fist against her face.
"Of course, that's the actual animal. The furries were created long after this. Backroom stuff, obviously. They were one of the last groups of furries developed.
"Now, what's interesting about them is that the scientists developed them from the actual thylacine genome. Actually, the tissue used came from the second batch of the actual animals; some had been kept from destruction. But what I mean is that they developed the thylacine furries by modifying the existing animal into a bipedal variation instead of simply modifying the human genome to have animal attributes.
"As such they are true marcupials unlike, say, koala or kangaroo furs, which are really just placental mammals with pouches. But that also gives their young a poor survival rate. And they can't be gene mapped, so they're slowly declining."
Henry cocked his head at her, "Thank you for that wonderful long winded lecture."
Therin scowled, "You could at least try and take an interest."
"Whatever, let's go swimming," he had been mentally undressing Therin throughout her lecture, but getting her to the clothing optional waterpark of her own design would easily net him the real thing.
"I don't know, if Clarence is back..."
"That's never stopped you before."
"I know...," she looked out the window.
"Besides, we don't even know for sure if he's back."
Therin's face soured, "He's back." She pointed.
Henry looked down at the furs carrying off the body of the thylacine. "Damn him."
"Tell me about it. I'm going to tell them to put them it back and drag it like their suppose to," she started heading for the door.
Henry realised she was serious, "Now, now, I'm sure it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Not to mention bad ethics. Hell, if it means so much to him we should just concede the point."
"Concede the point? Concede? Why the fuck would I concede?" Ah, Clarence, how I love you, thought Henry. The creepy cat had somehow garnered the affections of the beautiful coyote to the point that she second guessed showing off her nude body to Henry as she had so readily done in the past. Yet the cat had, through the discord he so charecteristically sought to create, ensured that Henry would be leering at a naked 'yote girl before the end of the hour. "The bastard takes over everything with the duels as is. I mean, we're owners too. We should have our say. If we want to see the damn carcass dragged off then that's what we get. Respect my ass, they're getting themselves shot for our amusement they shouldn't expect respect."
She was so easy to rile. "True, true, we should speak with the med crew about the matter, again."
She glared at him, "You don't sound convincing."
"I just had my heart set on that relaxing dip in the pool. And I hoped you would join me. Can we go swimming now and talk with them later?"
Therin thought, "I guess we have until the next duel."
"Wonderful," he opened the door and held it for Therin.