An Affectionate Stowaway $5 Patreon Exclusive - WIP - 1/29/23 (Patreon)

The day had become dark and dreary, the town shielded from the sun by the dark clouds that loomed above. It looked like it could rain any moment. Gar almost wished he had brought his umbrella, but he didn’t have the energy to worry about it as he dragged his feet back home, Carrying his backpack over his shoulder with one arm. Being a third-year game design major at his art school, his brutal studies had practically sucked him dry. With not even the luxury to socialize, he would remain confined to his computer designing, rigging, and programming his work for hours on end.

Gar usually would slump back home from his campus to continue his toiling, but he needed to pick up a wooden pose doll from the art store in order to complete his next assignment. Entering the store, he found that it was rather inactive as usual, with the number of customers being few and far in between as he began to browse. In the aisle he was looking for, there were wooden pose dolls of all different sizes with varying amounts of joints, allowing some to be more poseable than others. Gar's tired eyes scanned the many different shelves, unsure of which one to pick as each and every one was the same to him.

It’s not like he had the energy to browse for very long, all he needed was to pick the one he needed and leave. But then, one particular little doll caught his attention, even waking him out of his exhaustion state for a brief moment. Sitting among the top row of wooden dolls, was a bright orange anthropomorphic tiger plushie. The sight caught him off guard, stopping in his tracks as he took a further gander. It didn’t just look at the place, it looked like it belonged in a different store entirely, like it was a mascot anime or cartoon. That being said, the details on the plush were incredibly detailed, from the beautiful smile, wide gleaming eyes, cute smile silky fluffy hair, stripes, and even the mane on it’s chest.

The doll was so incredibly well-made, it looked like an expensive anime figurine, with of course the fluffy appeal of a charming plushie. Adding to his curiosity, unlike the other dolls it didn’t seem to have a price tag, and didn’t even fit in the row as it simply sat on the very edge of the shelf in front of the wooden dolls. It was like someone had just left the doll there. Gar couldn’t help but imagine how nice it would look placed on his desk, just to have something cute to glance at every so often as he worked. Just as he was about to consider taking it to the cashier to check if it was actually for sale, he took notice of a medium-sized semi-posable wood doll on the opposite shelf.

Being exactly what he needed, he took his eyes off the plushie and turned around to grab the pose doll. It wasn't too expensive, giving him hope that he could afford the tiger plush if a price was indeed the case for it. But just as he turned around to take the plush, it was gone. Confused, he thought for a moment that it had fallen off the shelf, but it wasn’t even on the floor. Looking up and down the aisle, he could find no trace of it, as if it had just vanished. With a deep sigh, Gar figured that he had just imagined it, walking out of the aisle he took the wooden doll to the cash register.

Little did he know, that his backpack had been wide-open, as a tiny orange paw reached out from inside, quietly tugging the zipper closed. As soon as the young man got home, he dragged himself to his bedroom and makeshift office, reaching into his bag to take out his laptop and pose doll. But something was odd, he felt something soft and fluffy among his items, something that definitely wasn’t there before. Taking it out of the bag, his eyes shot wide open in shock, baffled to find tiger plush that disappeared from the art self in the palm of his hand.