Meet The Baby Sloth!

[doubled_speed]

Who: Tommy Shepherd, OTA
What: Newest and cutest addition to the Sphere approaches. Come meet Speedy
When: September 27-30th
Where: Around the main domes

For the last few days Tommy's been busy. Barely even out and about to get food other than on quick runs. And work? Work's sucked because he wasn't home. But now he'd adjusted, and that means things are great.

Baby sloths are adorable.

This is something made more obvious by the amount of time Tommy spends near trees, where he's stretched out on a branch, grinning as he looks up at a small, reddish animal clawing across a nearby branch, listening it to squeal and move and watching with all the nervous fretting of a parent watching their kid.

"Come on, Speedy. You can do it. Just another half a foot and your leaves will be right there."

Someone has a new pet.

Other than that he's back on the job, running packages with all his usual gusto, chatting friends up, and just all around everywhere and anywhere. With a new satchel always at his side. From which, at times, there is a series of high pitched, squeaky noises. Which Tommy coos at before pulling leaves or pellets from his pocket and shoving them into the bag.


[OOS: Can also happily do custom starters if someone has somewhere they wanna run into Tommy and his sloth. Or feel free to wildcard it. If you have an idea, hit me on discord at Churby#4290, or plurk at churbooseanon

Also, cute video of baby Hoffman's Sloths and the noises they make. Look for the ones with white faces. That's what Tommy's got>

Comments

[becauseyouhaveto]

Carol's out strolling through the recreational dome, looking for the perfect spot to nestle down with a book under a tree. She thinks she's found just the one when she hears a man talking to something named Speedy. Looking up, she peers through the leaves to see the man in question. And nearby, she sees the small creature moving slowly along the limb.

"I'm sorry, but...what is that?" It does look kind of cute, but she's never seen one before.

Tommy this is not how you say hello

[doubled_speed]

Sure, he heard and saw her approaching. Hadn’t really cared. Him and his little bro Speedy has been there first. They had right of establishing purposes of tree. So worrying about bothering her didn’t bother him. Except now Speedy was starting to make distressed little sloth noises over how far his food was.

“I believe in you, little guy,” he assures his sloth before looking down at the lady.

“Apology accepted. The Noble Lord Speedford Rufus Maximoff is to whom you are referring and he is a he, not a that. Unless you mean what is His Lordship doing. And Speedy is on his morning walk.”

THE FULL NAME THO ♥

[becauseyouhaveto]

Those noises were too cute, despite how distressed the animal seemed. It--he--had the man there to take care of him. It didn't seem he was in any real danger. There were no wild birds to swoop down and carry him off.

"I mean, what kind of animal is he?" she asks. "He looks like an alien. A cute one, but definitely not something I ever saw back home."

Yeah, he's doing it to mock people with insane cat names. He claims

[doubled_speed]

Speedy was literally in the best place. Lots of practice on trees outside of the house, plenty of food, no predators. But Tommy does reach up and move ONE of the leaves a bit closer. Motivation.

"He's a two-toed sloth. I think the note said he's a Hoffman's. Or whatever. And if he gets to the rest of the leaves on his own, he gets a treat of a hibiscus blossom."

The little thing had come with VERY serious instructions. Like, practically a car owner's manual of stuff.

"And he's from South America. Look at him, isn't he cute?"

[becauseyouhaveto]

"He is pretty cute. And he looks soft." She's heard of sloths before, of course, but she'd only been to the zoo once with Sophia, and they hadn't gotten to see all the exhibits. But Speedy seems so out of place here.

There's a definite lack of wildlife in the Sphere.

"How did you get him? I think he's the first animal I've seen."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy, strangely, hasn't noticed the lack of wildlife here. All he knows is that he's got the best little guy ever. But now that she mentions it, he's thinking about it.

"Uh, well, I woke up and he was in my pod with me, holding my pillow. It was nice. And my dome suddenly had part of it taken up by a habitat for him. Lots of fake trees and things to help keep humidity to good points for him. And he's the softest."

[becauseyouhaveto]

Carol eyes him suspiciously. "You just woke up with a baby sloth in your pod? You woke up with a baby sloth and a complete habitat for it in a place deep under the ocean, where the only living creatures are...a-are the people the Sphere brings in. It just suddenly appeared there, when there aren't really any animals here at all?"

The lack of wildlife was something she couldn't get over. The silence was unsettling.

[spoiledbugboy]

After getting a little more used to the domes and how they worked, Haga decided that, if he's going to be forced to spend time in this place, he should at least see if he could indulge in his favorite hobby: bug catching.

He is pretty sure no one would bother populating the little vegetation that existed with insects, given how bad of a rep they have, but a boy can dream, right?

Sure he doesn't have a net or a box with him, so it is more like bug spotting than catching, but he's still determined.

His search is interrupted for a moment when he hears a high pitched squeal that sounds very cute, but it's also very distracting. He turns around to find the source of the noise and spots a guy standing not too far away from him.

"... Are you the one making that noise?" He asks, head tilting to the side.

[doubled_speed]

The guy standing there nearby is mostly just looking over a tree, looking for the best point to climb the one he's looking at. But the question is clearly pitched toward him.

And he grins as he turns to look at the kid.

"If I could make that noise on command, I'd have all the ladies. But no, it's my pet."

His hand lightly taps the strap of his satchel.

[spoiledbugboy]

"Oh..." Haga tilts his head to the other side, looking at the satchel with clear curiosity, and he can see it move slightly and another squeal comes out of it. He could make a mean comment about how those are scaring off all the bugs, but he's honestly convinced there aren't any around anyway.

Also kinda hard to be mad at those cutesy sounds, even for someone like him.

"I... never heard a pet make that type of sound before." Certainly doesn't sound like a dog or cat.

[doubled_speed]

"Clearly you've never seen really cool pets before," Tommy answers, and with that he's undoing the clasps of the bag and flopping the flap over to bare the top. And within moments there's a long, spindly arm with two long claws sticking up and out. Not too long after that comes another. And then a little head so it can open its mouth and make the noise again.

Tommy grins as he reaches down and boops the little thing on the snoot. Yes, he gets to use those words for his sloth. And his other hands reaches into his pocket to pull out a slightly battered looking flower to hold out.

Speedy's noises are quickly replaced with him nomming on the flower as Tommy holds it.

"Baby sloth. Noisy little bugger."

[spoiledbugboy]

Haga watches closely as the long arm sprouts from the bag, followed by another.

And then the little head pops out.

It takes Haga all his willpower not to squeal at it because gosh, that thing is too adorable, but he has a reputation (?) to mantain, so he can't be seen gushing over any random cute animal he sees, right?

He tries to keep it cool as he watches the lil' animal lazily chew on the flower.

"Yeah, but at least it sounds pretty ado- I mean, it's not annoying it's what I mean." ... Good save? "But, how did you get something like that? I haven't seen many animals around." He doesn't even remember seeing dogs or cats around, but then again he arrived a couple days ago, so he could have missed those.

[doubled_speed]

Dude, Tommy has a reputation too, but he gushes over this too. Speedy is the best pet that there could possibly be.

"Admit it. He's adorable. Trust me, I can see it too. And I woke up with him a few days ago. So far as I'm told, he might be the only animal in all the spheres."

But Tommy will happily let people hang out with other people too.

[minus1twin]

"Speed?" Wanda asked, over hearing Tommy talking to the small sloth.

This was the first time she'd seen an animal here. It surprised her that it was a sloth and that it was with Tommy. "Is he yours?" She decided that it was probably best to ask her son one question at a time.

"Will he be in the haunted house?" Maybe two questions.

[doubled_speed]

Not just a sloth. A little sloth. A baby sloth. The best sort of sloth. Well, even better, it's his. Tommy sits up, his leg swinging loose over the limb and he grins down at her.

"One, yes. Two, no? I mean, what if it scares him? As his dad I have to protect him, right?"

[minus1twin]

"Does that make me a grandmother already?" Wanda spoke as if the words made her feel old but she had a smile on her lips. It was cute to see Tommy with the little sloth and oddly fitting.

"He's cute."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy just grins down at her, trying not to laugh. It's VERY clear he's trying not to laugh. That he's biting his lip to keep from doing it.

"I mean, if you wanna be called Gramma Wanda, then by all means. But he isn't going t learn to talk for a long while. And Speedy is the cutest. Look at him, he's red. The chillest red-colored Maximoff there is."

[minus1twin]

Wanda reached up and lightly ran her fingers along the sloth's head. It was so cute. "I can see the family resemblance." She laughed softly.

"I think Wanda is fine. No Gramma yet." She paused and then asked. "Have you told Ultron he's a great grandfather?"

[doubled_speed]

Cute, and surprisingly soft for the thick, wiry fur. But he grins. Of course she does. The reddish fur of the body, the white fur around the face. Clearly he's a good little Maximoff. Even has Billy's caramel brown eyes.

"Not really. Been spending the last few days getting the little one adjusted. And I'm worried he won't like it much."

[itsnothingpersonal]

Until this very moment, Loki had been certain he and Charis were in possession of the only creature in the Sphere that wasn't brought in from outside, and all those were also connected to the network, and were not...whatever manner of beast Tommy was currently encouraging with seemingly little to show for it, at the top of a tree.

Crossing his arms, he tilts his head to the side, frowning. "What in Heaven's name is that?"

[doubled_speed]

Oh, Loki! Tommy grins down at his friend and waves before looking back up at his little boy. Has to protect him. What if he lets go? Bad thing. But you gotta let the babies go and make their own mistakes.

"Look, Speedy, it's Uncle Loki. Say hi to Uncle Loki."

As if responding to the prompt, the little creature makes a loud noise for something it's size. But cute.

"Loki, this is Speedy. That's his nickname. He's my new pet. He's a sloth."

[itsnothingpersonal]

Loki hasn't taken his eyes off the creature, though the frown at being called 'Uncle' anything is no less apparent due to the lack of focus. He's never heard of or seen a sloth before but there is something...oddly endearing about it.

"Where did you find it?"

[doubled_speed]

"At my place. Woke up one morning, he was cuddling the other pillow in my bed," Tommy smiles, reaching up to slowly unhook the creature from the branch. He holds it near his thigh and sure enough the little guy wraps around it happily.

"Have a habitat for him and everything. But he needs some time to learn real trees. He helps me at work too. Rides in my bag while I do deliveries."

[itsnothingpersonal]

"You just...found a sloth in your dome?" Who exactly does that work? He's never heard of a sloth before, of course, but Tommy seems attached to it. It's curious, really. He and Charis found the egg of a dragon, still living, and now this. What did it mean?

"And you don't find that questionable?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, it was just like that. And honestly? One day some teens came to bust me out of my little cell, and then I'm suddenly one of them. And one of them is my soul-twin. SO yeah, weird shit happens to me."

He's got a list. It's growing even now.