Chapter Seventeen: Starting Lupus Festivalis! (Wolf Festival in Latin)

"why do you get a festival, little wolf?"
(prods with claw)

"stop poking me, i'm the author, i can give this incarnation of me a festival if i want to."

"narcisist."

(smiles slyly) "just for that, i'mma write in something embarrasing."

"... i'll be good."

(authoritive) "yes you will."

-Oriado.

-emperorwolf.

Ciril and virlan dressed in their school clothing, getting ready for school, but their father paced anxiously back and forth in the loungeroom, distressed over the fact that lily was still missing.
"where? where? dammit where are you lil?!"
his father's footfalls caused a huge thumping for Virlan, but his hearing was safe, as the offspring of a mixed-size couple, his ears were able to withstand noises much louder than this.
"mum's still not showing up on the green?" he asked, concerned.
ciril whimpered "or the blue?"
benson clutched his head and yanked on his vibrant orange fur "no... where the hell... i can't think of anywhere on Virada she could've gone without saying anything... or anywhere she wouldn't want to tell us before leaving to go...!"
Ciril picked up his brother, who clutched his paws to his shoulders "maybe... maybe Vir and I can find mum..."
benson shot his sons a confused look "why would you think that? how could you two find her if I can't?" he was asking honestly, he couldn't comprehend any way for them to do it when he himself couldn't with his supernatural vision.
the twins closed their eyes and concentrated.
"because we're part of you, and part of mum, too..." ciril spoke
"we can find her, because part of her is inside us, just like part of you, dad..." virlan added.
benson smiled "so it's 'by way of love'... good thinking there boys"
ciril frowned "weird... she's moving... moving really fast!"
"through the air!" virlan added.
benson's blue eye lit up, and he ran out and up to the roof of the apartment building, just in time to see an aged husky in a tattered cloak drop off lily from a spiralling psychodelic rift, before the figure and rift vanished in a flash of white light.

lily smiled as her big fox rushed over to her and snatched her up from the ground to caress her against his face, tears trailing down from his eyes "what happened?! where'd you vanish to?!"
she calmly stroked away at his facial fur and purred "calm down Benny, i'm alright, i was abducted to the grey room by some creepy mutant lizard, but that nice guy came and helped me get out."
benson sighed "okay... that's freaky, but i'm glad you're safe... now c'mon," he smiled and stood up "it's parents day at the boys' school."

the students of the school played in the yard instead of their first classes, the smaller ones safely riding in the pockets and paws of their larger classmates, and a large group were gathered around Zenef, who stood on Radin's shoulder, asking the little canine about Rocul, and what Beta had done with the G-Sizer.
a large group of adults of varied sizes and species were also present, chatting with teaching staff and socialising amongst themselves.
at this time, a certain fox was speaking with a certain little brown wolf wearing a black cloak.

"so, you're the guardian for the kid that created the gridnet?" he asked him as he leaned back against the table the wolf stood upon, putting him at waist-height to the fox.
"i am."
"aaand your shrinking device, it's just a portable version?" he asked with a smirk.
the wolf tugged his hood down to further obscure his face "not quite."
"oh? then what is it?" he asked with a knowing grin.
the wolf chuckled "Mr Palmer, i get the feeling you're trying to ask me something."
"maybe i am, 'Mr Fiest' ... maybe i'm trying to ask just who you are."
the wolf laughed louder "if you must know, but then..." he yanked the hood away, revealing his familiar brown-furred face and blazing ruby-red eyes "... you already know me, don't you benson?."
benson scoffed "i knew it... but how'd you survive? i thought the reports said they found your corpse in the rubble?"
"oh, they found nine-ninety-nine's corpse... but, i didn't die only once in that battle, did I?"
benson's eyes widened "you're the DSBIWO, aren't you?"
Beta took a game-show-host persona and pointed at the fox's face "that's the right answer! you're goin' on to round two!"
"so... what's Zenef, then? is he your son?"
"nope," the wolf laughed "minus fifty points! the answer we were looking for was..." he quieted his voice and looked serious "zenef is... my reincarnation."
benson gasped "how?!"
Beta began to explain "well, from what i've been able to learn, 999 chose to be reincarnated instead of going to the otherworld, and that's Zenef. as for myself, my DSBIWO regenerated, but since you guys destroyed the server, my mind was set to the point before my destruction... my existance is all because of a glitch."
benson winced, a little depressed "ugh... sorry i asked..."
"it's okay," Beta sighed "by the way, how come i've got a festival?"
"oh, it's 'cause 'you' saved two entire planets and gave us the means to a rebuilt world over leaving us to writhe on Xlen's charred remains." benson chuckled "super popular here, even get a crudload of people come from earth each year to celebrate it, big deal for canids, too."
"i see... so i'm like a celebrity?" he asked with a distainful tone.
"yep!" benson happily replied, seeming not to have picked up on Beta's annoyance at the fact "big, BIG... albiet little, celebrity here!" he laughed.
Beta suppressed a snarl "celebrities bore me." he took a book from the folds of his cloak "and this autobiography is complete bullshit. i did NOT kiss people to give them gliloutation! they make me out to be some kind of freakish male succubus-like thing! auto-lie-ography is more like it."
"incubus" benson corrected
Beta seemed to blush "wh-what?! tell me you didn't just say 'Incubus'!"
"well, isn't that essentially a male version of a succubus?"
"I am NOT a man-whore!" he growled in a hushed voice "nor am i a demon!"
"no, but... how did you give people that power?"
Beta was still flustered "i- i- i- i- uh..." he then took a deep breath to calm down "sorry. i gave Gliloutation by a simple, harmless, innocent..."
"yes?"
Beta fidgeted "okay, i..." he blushed again "i look them in the eyes... and enter their soul... i find their most powerful emotions and thoughts that they hold dear, and give might to these essences, fusing their body with a creature that rests within their spirits."
"animal spirits, right?"
"yes, their guardian animal... that's why i've only given it to other humans, i'm not sure it works the same for your kind."
"why's that embarrass you?"
"because... on that spiritual level... it's beyond any physical level of intimacy you can imagine..."
"so... it's like... y'know... with souls?" benson asked uncertainly, gaining a bit of a blush himself.
"sorta... aargh, let's change the subject! what do people do at these parent days?" Beta asked hurriedly, quickly pulling his hood back on.
"mostly drink coffee and socialise, then we get 'shown off' by our children to the rest of the school and say a bit about ourselves." benson replied "in fact, it's about that time, c'mon, let's head over."
benson offered his paw, but Beta shook his head "no thanks, i can fly."

the show-and-tell of the parents went as benson had said, and when it came to Beta and Zenef's turn, the wolf was asked to remove his hood, but he refused
"i'd rather not... i don't do well with crowds, i'm sorry." he protested, as a giant staff member continued to attempt taking the hood from his head so they could see his face "come on, please stop that."
the crowd practically began chanting "take the hood off" after that.
(can't let them see, can't let them see, what would they think to see me not dead?!) he worried inwardly (they might think i cowardly escaped and left them all to die... dammit!)
the claw of the large jaguar hooked his hood, and he panicked "NO! Stop! Stop it right now!! I'm not okay with this!!"
the crowd simply ignored his protests, and cheered as his hood was lifted clear of his face.
(Fuck.)

the cheering stopped, the parents and staff stared blankly at the brown furred lupine's revealed face, failing to understand what they were seeing.
one of the staff stammered "y-you a lookalike for the legendary wolf or something...?"
"he was floatin' in the air on the news, an' i din' see no thruster-pack..." another commented
Beta sighed in annoyance "My name is Beta Fiest, i'm Zenef's legal guardian, and i come from earth. i am presently unemployed, and... i have something of a 'relation' to the wolf you're referring to..."
"what relation?" someone asked.
"... blood." Beta replied nervously.
"you his brother?"
"no," the wolf said as he clutched his chest "not quite... i'm closer than that..."
"what is it?" another called out excitedly.
"i suppose..." the wolf closed his eyes and tried to calm down before continuing "... i'm kind of like his Clone... but it's more complex than that..."
the crowd stayed silent for a few minutes, processing the information, before a black bear in a pair of spectacles and a trenchcoat spoke up "'scuse me, but i'm the history teacher... supposedly, the wolf had another body he piloted from earth, seperate to his real body... is that... you?"
"yes," Beta whimpered "i am the Dysonian Surrogate Biotech Interface Warrior Organism of bioweapon project 'legion' test subject number #999... but don't get your hopes up... I... he... is dead."
he began to explain the glitch that had allowed his body to regenerate after his real body had died, but left out the graphic information to his deceased body's state he'd found it in.
"so, in a sense, i am not truly 999, and i've taken another name because of it... i'm a slightly different person, so... don't praise me, praise 999, he gave his life twice for you, i was just one of those lives. treat me no differently than you would each other, because i'm no demigod. i'm just a regular person... within reason."
the crowd clapped and smiled at him, he'd gotten his point across.

later, a news crew came to interview him, asking him to appear on talk shows and the like in honour of the lupus festivalis week, and he agreed, but on the condition that he was not to be treated like some kind of god, to which, the crews begrudgingly accepted.

---

"tonight, on Xlenari through the lens, we, in honour of the festival, are proud to bring you an interview with Beta Fiest, the successor-of-sorts to the wolf the festival's all about!" a middle aged male dingo announced, gesturing to the brown wolf who sat in the opposite chair on the talk show.
"Beta, i'm reggie vax," he held out his paw and Beta shook it "it's great to meet you!"
the wolf chuckled "thanks, i've never been on a talk show before."
"so, the question on everyone's minds, how did you... well, happen?"
the wolf rolled his ruby-red eyes "because of a glitch."
"can you explain that for us, please?"
"sure, i'll try. well, DSBIWO were synthetic bodies piloted wirelessly from the headquarters of project legion on earth, and the pilot's mind was transported into the body as they lay in stasis, see, there was this 'server' that managed them all, saving their memories into the appropriate bodies and everything,"
yeah," reggie nodded in understanding "the glitch was with the server?"
"sort of. see, when a pilot returns to their body, the DSBIWO transmits all the new information back to the server, and the thing is, when your heroes attacked project legion, they deactivated the server, so when 999 sacrificed himself the first time, a failsafe brought him back to his real body safely, but his DSBIWO had the data of his essence right before it's destruction, and since it could regenerate, and the server wasn't there to tell it to deactivate because the pilot was dead..."
"amazing!" reggie laughed "so you're like, a living robot?"
"that, I kind of am. any other things you wanna talk about?"
"plenty!" reggie looked over at the cameras "and we'll be right back with Beta after this ad break!"

the dingo laughed "this is incredible! i'm a big fan of yours!"
"oh? you mean of 999's?"
"there's not that big a difference 'tween you and him, is there?"
Beta made a wry smile "not very, but there's still a difference, okay?"
reggie continued laughing "fair enough, it's just, you're awesome, you saved two whole planets, and gave us a new one since our old one was ruined!"

"we're back in five" the cameraman informed them, and they straightened up.

the theme music played, and reggie started talking to the camera "and we're back with our interview with Beta Fiest!"
the audience cheered
"now Beta, we know you're from earth, but where on earth?"
the wolf smiled "well, this might surprise you, but i'm from Australia," he chuckled a bit "where what animal calls home?"
the host laughed joyously "Dingoes!"
the audience whooped
"yes, among others, of course."
"of course," reggie smiled "but ya don't sound Aussie, mate!" he added, trying something of an australian accent for the audience.
"please don't, that's a little insulting, not many of us sound like the way we're portrayed in movies, i don't even know a single person that does."
the dingo raised his paws in defense "oh, sorry about that! i didn't mean to insult you!"
"i'll let it slide," Beta chuckled "but most stereotypes are wrong, and australian ones are no exception."
"so... australia day, you don't just booze up and barbeque?"
the wolf rubbed his eyes "unfortunately, that's actually accurate for most people, it's supposed to be a day for pride in the country, but most people use it as an excuse to get drunk, yes... not me though."
the dingo gave him a sly smirk "you don't drink?"
"you won't catch me dead or alive drinking alcohol." he insisted "seriously."
"oh, i was hoping you'd come get a beer with me after this." the dingo said jokingly
Beta snorted with laughter "only if you're the one drinking it, not me!"
the audience laughed
"so, what's it like? in australia, i mean. Xlenians still aren't allowed to go to earth."
"it's pretty much like any other place here, just hotter, with a little bit more bushland, and admittedly with rather terrible WiFi." he joked, setting the audience to laugh again "and by the way," he held up a picture of a kangaroo going past the sydney opera house with a buissinessman in it's pouch, the camera zoomed in to show the picture "to be clear, this does NOT happen!" he laughed.

reggie asked about a few other things, one being his hobbies.
"i enjoy reading, philosophy, meditation, practicing martial arts, swimming, drawing, watching anime, playing video games, and having fun with my friends."
reggie laughed "sounded pretty mature, then it sounded different!" he joked
"what do you expect? i'm still a regular person."
"that you are, but we're out of time for this segment, thanks a lot for coming in!"
"i'm glad i did."

a few minutes later, Beta was down at a clothing store, looking at a pair of black jeans and a black jacket, mulling over purchasing them.
he'd gotten a bit of cash for doing the interview, and decided it was time to look like a normal person; a black cloak covering nobleman's frilled clothing stood out too much.
"price... let's see... the jeans are 29.99, and the jacket's 30," he muttered under his breath "it's about 60 all up... why's this stuff so expensive?"
a feline clerk walked over, a russian blue, and smiled at him "we're having a sale, 2 uppers and 1 lower with any footwear all for just 45.00"
"that so? hmm... guess i'll take these... this," he grabbed a short sleeved grey top "and... do you have any black boots?"
"we do, sir, right this way."

after he'd paid for everything, he thought he looked rather cool, he wasn't into colourful everyday wear, and while he wasn't a 'dark' person, he liked black clothing.

"wonder what else is in this place?" he wondered, looking around.
he spotted a gaming store, and smiled "perfect, hope they've got earth titles."

(Next Chapter: stick 'em up!)