School and tests
The feline drinks from his cup of coffee as he had enjoyed his breakfast, with no worries, noise fights or tantrums. The room was rather quiet as the cooking lady was enjoying her time outside. He had almost no worries in his head but one.
Gabriel looks at the other side of the side of the table, noticing the pancakes with honey and milk still untouched, he had called the boy several times and he had refused to go to the table to eat, he has been like that for a couple of days by now. He walk to the boy’s bedroom where he sees a lot papers scattered on the room, books as well as 4 or 5 windows open on the large desk pad, the boy seems to be concentrated on something in his personal tablet.
The fox frowns “Please leave the door closed, it bothers me to have it open” Speaks as he keeps reading.
The black cat tsks “What are you doing? It's quite late for you to be in your pajamas and you have such a mess here! The cleaning lady just cleaned a couple of hours ago”
He ignores the cat “I didn’t let her come in, too busy and you should not disturb my circles” Speaks as he points at some diagrams
Gabriel clenches his fists “You better clean this up before”
Raphiel keeps comparing tests “Setting to fail clause, I am studying for the placing test and you cannot force me to stop studying and I will clean up when I finish, don’t worry. I understand that it is real messy but... I don’t expect you to understand, just leave it like that”
The fox looks at the cat with an expression wise beyond his physical age “I know that I didn’t care too much about this issue at the ship and I apologize but now that you are forcing me to go to an actual school to take it I need to get serious” he sets down his notebook before sighing.
Raphiel have had a lot of time and things to think about since he got that shot, his butt still hurts and feels itchy about the raw beating that he received from the admiral but the man forbad them from hitting him as part of the punishments for a couple of days, the feline had accepted grudgingly and believes that the kit is using this to get on his nerves but it was the total opposite. The child felt quite awful, sore and ill but his mind is working like it used to do a couple of months ago when he was still an adult at least.
The kit rubs his neck “I have to work way harder than you would have to Gabe, I have several degrees and accreditations, I am very qualified but its not easy to remember everything and I have to... Well I am an engineer and they may not even let us use laptops or pads, maybe they will just lend us some calculators, I need to remember all this”. He speaks with the truth, even if he is not the oldest fox in the universe 4 lives are quite a lot when you speak about learnt knowledge.
The cat is about to say something before the fox interrupts “This is my way of organizing things. I am sorry to burst your bubble but I am not a man of order and discipline. I am only a bit smarter than the average, I’d rather change my messy mind with one like yours, I have seen you organize your notes and study THAT is an actual skill” He tries to flatter the cat so that he can leave him damn alone for the time being “Oh god I am hungry, what time is it?” Asks as he realizes how late it is
The cat sighs as he looks at the boy and nods “Ok, but you still have to eat and why did you asked for such a sugary treat?” Asks as he helps the boy to get down on the floor and grabs the boy’s hand.
The fox just shuts his eyes before biting his lip and his tail trashes but he holds the cats hand and follows him “Because I like those, they only had grain, porridge and they use sauces that I don’t like on the eggs” He is sat down on the chair then starts to dig in quite slowly enjoying his meal.
Gabriel grabs his pad “Well it looks like you have one more day to study, your test is tomorrow at 9:00 am”
Raphiel nods “Well it looks like I will have enough sleep at least” He looks at the cat “Speaking of, I am going to go out at 3 to get some things ready”
The feline raises his eyebrow “Aren’t you supposed to be studying?” Asks as he eyes the boy with a demanding look as if waiting for an answer.
The kid nods again as he continues eating and speaks with half mouthful “Oh I need to get an actual calculator, I want to get a keyboard for kids or a short guitar, not an ukulele a guitar” Speaks as he gets a slap on the hand after he gulps and rubs his poor paw.
The boy’s ears splay a bit “Sorry” looks down in place as he takes a couple of breaths and it looks like he mutters something for himself
Gabriel looks at the boy “And why do you want something like that? You are going to be working while you travel?”
The fox snorts a bit “Like if you were going to let me do something like that… With actual warships escorting ours there will be way more downtime at the ship. Its good to learn something new each life, on my first youth I learned everything, on my second youth I learned martial arts and I loved them… On my third one I was forced to try to learn the violin and even if I love its music I loathe the instrument, I am picking before being forced onto one” The youngster groans “Even worse with the academy… I really really don’t want to go there, I hope that I can find a friend who is willing to adopt for a couple of years” Speaks. Maybe if they’d let him pick something that he wants.
The cat sets his hand on his chin, he actually did liked the academy but his first childhood was quite a strict one too “Oh I remember it, I got assigned to swimming 2 years then to scouts like most of the kids and then I got to play basketball”
Raphiel bites his lips “I’d rather play soccer but I see how they drill the kids… Its cool if you want to be competitive but I have heard that even things that are supposed to be fun are turned into an intense training grind” He crosses his arms as he closes his eyes in a pensive stance, the feline finds this odd as this is a position that he sees often on the man but never in the kid “Besides I kind of hate that assigned part” He looks at the cat “We are adults, not kids after all and I’d rather do something cultural over physical and I don’t want to be a scout at all” Speaks as he sets his plate down “Ok. Now I am going to bath and then watch some cartoons”
The cat holds the boy by the shoulder “Cartoons?”
Raphiel shakes the cat away “Yes, I don’t want to over burn myself, 1 hour of toons, then back to the books, then meal time and then time to go out, get my supplies and have some fun before going back to study and get at least 8 hours of sleep and lastly to try to cram whatever possible before the tests not rushing too much and not stressing too much”
“You little p”
The kit raises his finger “there is nothing that you can do about it. I will do things like that because my brain works like that better, It let me go thru college twice and half half. I used to try to kill myself studying but I learnt that its not useful. Not everyone is like you and I wish I was more like that but no” He goes to the bathroom and locks himself.
The cat doesn’t knows if to be angry or content about this new attitude that the fox is displaying. Of course he seemed less manageable than before but more controllable, maybe that beating knocked some sense into him perhaps?.
The young boy comes out wearing some jeans and a plain red shirt, he contemplates his tattoo on his hand and rubs his ear to feel the area where his other mark is supposed to be, he closes his eyes before sighing “There are way worse than the academy too” sighs before cleaning his face “They shouldn’t have told me… Little me may speak about it” Rubs his face again before going out.
The boy plops on the large couch and stretches “Ahhh these are comfy and feel huge when you are weightless!” Proclaims as he lays on it and turns on the tv before browsing a little bit before plugging his account in the tv
The cat goes to sit next to the fox as he watch the tv “Oh… so cartoons?” Asks as he sees how the fox is tuning a show
He nods “Hey you should give it a chance even if its a toon” Speaks as he keeps watching the screen “Less stressing that sitcoms and such” Shrugs as he wiggles a bit “What do you watch sports and NEWS?” He nods no with his head “That is not for me, the universe has more bad things in the news than positive ones. I only see them as a duty as an adult but right now I don’t have to worry about that”
The cat and the fox engage in some idle chat as they watch the tv show, something plain and simple about a league of warriors from different eras in the same setting, once hes alarm beeps he stands up.
The fox gets irritated as the feline follows him around “Maybe you can run some errands for me. I want certain really cool calculator from a store. It will be hard to find but I bet that It will give you something to do”.
Raphiel yelps as he feels his ear being yanked “You! Don’t be a smartpants!” Scolds be boy before setting him down “I just want to remind you that your 72 hours of levity are about to end!”
The kit gulps as he hears that and covers his hindquarters before nodding “yes-sir” Speaks hearing that more like a threat than anything else “Sorry sir but I do want the calculator, I doubt that they will provide us with a complex one there”
The cat stares at the boy and releases him before letting it scurry to the bedroom and checks the time.
The fox keeps studying for quite a long time. it was pretty late by the time he is rubbing his eyes as he hears a light knock on the door. He starts to pick everything up, it doesn’t matter if he tries to pick everything in the morning he won’t be able to study any relevant topics “Yes?” Asks as he opens the door, his eyes are red for being focused for such a long time, he woke up rather early in the morning too!.
The cat hands a paper to the boy “You have this” Speaks as he hands the paper of a rushed delivery for a beginner keyboard and a spacemaster calculator device “If you are lucky you can get it early and fiddle a bit with it”
The boy blushes “Oh you didn’t have to get one for me… Let me get my account” He stops as a paw is placed in front of him.
Gabriel clears his throat “Don’t worry about it foxy boy, just enjoy and lets rest… Now you were very rude to me in the morning young man” Speaks in a serious tone
The boy looks at the cat and wiggles “Thank you sir… I appreciate it a lot you don’t have and idea and I want to say… wait what?” Asks at the sudden change of tone
The cat sits down “I don’t like your attitude. You will get some love taps and then you are going to go to sleep no tasty treats like you are used to get”
The fox whines and grumbles, surprisingly he lays across the cat’s lap and looks down “Can I keep my pants on?”
The cat pulls down the boy’s pants and undies before rubbing mostly to see the boy’s reaction. The young fox yelps as the cat examines “he did a number on you” Speaks before spanking hard, the young boy howls a bit and fidgets but mostly stay still”
Raphiel yelps and gasps as he is spanking crying and sobbing a bit at the start trying to keep his composture “Owwwww please! I promise that I won’t be OWWWW please! Not so hard” Complains as he feels his butt hurting bad again, he’d prefer if it was completely numb.
The interaction lasts almost no time as he was only hit 10 times and was sent to his room once more after a light dinner with a warning to sleep or he will be in very big trouble if he is not asleep in 30 minutes.
The next morning the boy feels a bit groggy and numb as he rubs his head and cleans his mouth “Huh?” Asks to himself as he looks down to see a saliva spot on the pillow “I must have been way too tired” Speaks as he rubs his bottom and gets a bath.
The boy goes to the large school in awe as he sees many kids young adults walking in there, he follows asks for some directions as the large husky follows the youngster seeing some other kids soon gathering to a room. Many of the kids are followed by an adult and some are completely alone, they all range from the ages of the unlucky 5 years old to the lucky 14 years old teens. The fox says his farewells to the lady before walking in a room where they have some music and goes to sit at a corner next to the window alone. These kids seem to come from all over the planet to take the test and even then they were only a handful.
A large black rabbit lady and a male elk walk in the room explaining the process step by step and start to distribute the ships for the computers. They display a list of valid tools that they can use and prohibited use as well as some campus owned sites that they can visit for references, books, articles and such. No speaking is encouraged and they cannot use external help or communication devices.
The fox nods a couple of times and once they are let to pre set everything he inserts his chip checking that it is his file, everything seems to be in order. Chrono’s age correct, his degrees, his credits. He only needs to pass a couple of basic tests and either write a ‘short’ draft or credit or disprove some statements and texts of his major, nothing unfair as they are already ratified or disproven, even if he ratifies or disproves incorrectly if he gives a good reasoning about his opinion he can keep everything or he may need a refresher.
Everything is quite boring to be honest. The kids are let to go and breath, play or study a bit more for one hour after 3 long hours have passed, the essays don’t have to be professional or a big breakthru as they have very little time and all of this is just to see that the regression didn’t took away anything important as its known to happen.
The boy goes back to the testing room and all the room starts to turn into a complain and groaning fest as they keep writing. Some of them start to get very frustrated the youngest ones even more. The fox himself was just trying to rush more and more as possible knowing that he won’t lose his major but doesn’t want to have to repeat too many courses as everyone gets sent back a couple or several credits more for the lack of use of the learnt material more than thanks to the regression, he knows that if he had taken this when he was an adult he would be on a very similar situation.
3 more hours and the boy is dragging himself out of the room and looks at his watch, he is so hungry that he could eat a full cow and its more the stress than actual hunger as he got something at the lunch break.
He sits down to wait before laying down and stares at the sky, he looks really really frustrated, wanting to yell as loud as he can to vent his frustration, not like he was the only one. He sighs as he gets a message on his pad. 86% of accuracy on the multiple option tests and he needs his drafts to be read by the staff. He places his hand on his forehead. 86 is a rather high grade as the average tends to be 75.
Gabriel arrives for the boy 20 minutes after the test has finished only to find a frustrated boy laying on a bench “Hey how was it?” Asks as the boy sits down
The kit looks at the feline “Well enough” Speaks as he rubs his head “I wanna go home.... I won’t ever do the classroom exam again… I’d rather do it virtually and gets a harsher grading method”
Gabriel nods as he offers a chocolate bar king size to the kid “Well then we can go home”
The kit nods almost wobbling a bit cancelling the call from the school department once more, he had been asked to be a kid teacher for his expertise area, as the admiral had told him, they were trying to keep him in one place as there are more qualified people to teach.
He only needs to bear with the requests for 5 more days and then they will be soaring again.
The boy’s behavior has been devolving more and more as the hours and days pass he becoming more and more irrational and childlike, maybe more than before.
After 2 days he hears the feline walking towards him. He sighs as he unlocks the door with watery eyes, he has been losing himself slowly. Usually all of this happens in an instant and no one notices what are they losing but it feels like dying day by day “What?” Asks as he looks at the cat.
The cat shows him the belt “I am not your father but I am your tutor right now!” Speaks as he closes the door “Tell me what is all this about being rude to the academic staff and cheating?”
The fox opens his eyes in shock and shakes his head no “No!” He nods no with his head “No! You cannot do this to me right now!” Yells as he starts to ventilate while the feline closes the door and locks it
“Now speak?!” He demands angrily as he looks at the boy “Do you have an idea of how grave is the situation? What? For a simple number in your paper? Not even a 100%?”
The fox nods no a couple of times as his psyche is at the verge of breaking “Please just NO!” Yells not knowing how to combat at all, the cat looks at the boy who is pulling his hairs and almost bawling
Gabriel hesitates as this is not normal but sits down and pulls the boy over his lap “Tell me what happens?” Asks as he rubs the boy’s back “You are not like this” Speaks in a more gentle tone
The fox bites his lower lip “NO!” Bawls again and starts to kick “Just do it! You don’t care about MEEEEEEEEEEE!” Bawls again -God calm down, please what are you doing?- he kicks the floor
Gabriel hits the boy’s buttocks “I do care! I cannot read minds! Please tell me!?” He swings the belt again as the hit echoes on the room. “Please say something!”
The boy bawls again “NO!” Answers like a two years old in a tantrum -Please save me!- he cries as he is spanked again
The cat spanks the boy again and again “If I cannot reason with you I cannot help you! What is happening!” He spanks the boy over and over again as he is getting to his nerves as the boy has been devolving more and more as the last couple of days have passed.
The kid cries loudly as he is hit more and more “NOOOOOOO” -Help!-
Gabriel doesn’t knows what to do he just grabs the boy and hugs tightly after offering a quite good lashing “tell me, you are not like this”
“Please” Manages to answer before throwing up and passing away, the boy only hears distorted voices as the cat calls the emergency number, before their response the military medical personnel grabs the boy taking him to the medical ward.
Raphiel only hears some distorted voices time to time, all of them changing, all of them different, only the cat’s voice is a constant, the cat’s voice is warm, its soft, its nice, like someone who cares about him.
“It was a hell of a trip right? Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it son”
