A5.4-2 Conflicted Feelings (Patreon)

I got a bug up my butt and thought I'd try something different. Here's a new scene that would take place after Daskatoma scares Tori, after Tori tells the captain that the commissioner's planning to purge the ship.

This is an experiment, so I really want to know your opinions. I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not. If I do, I'll need to write up a bunch of Sutzir/Daskatoma conversations.

Special thanks to @Candlejack for suggesting that a krakun could be friends with his cleaning crew.

———

Sutzir groaned when his communicator beeped. He was in the barracks with his team, relaxing before supper, and he really didn’t want to tell everyone to suit back up because their owner had spilled his tea.

Sighing, he grabbed the device off the floor and tapped at its face. “Yeah, boss,” he said with friendly ears, “what can I do ya for?”

“Hey Sutzir,” said Daskatoma, “do you have time to talk?”

“You bet, boss,” said the ringel. “Fire away.”

The krakun opened his mouth to say more but then paused. He moved his face closer to the screen, squinting and raising his upper lip in disgust. “Are you…?” he whispered. “While we’re talking?”

“It’s cool. I can multitask,” said Sutzir. “Go right ahead.” Then down at Lypa, he added, “Can you lift your tail up just a tad? Perfect. Thanks.”

Daskatoma sighed and ran a claw down over his face. “I meant in private. Can we talk in private?”

Sutzir frowned. “Kinda busy at the moment.” When the krakun didn’t respond, the ringel groaned. “Look, you know I’m your buddy. I wanna help out in any way I can, but we just finished cleaning your place. This is our time, y’know?”

The krakun’s image frowned. “It would mean a lot to me, Sutzir,” he said. “How about this… Come and talk with me, and you can take the whole day off tomorrow. Just sleep in.”

The ringel rolled his eyes. “Krakun.”

“What?”

“I appreciate the offer, but that’s really not as appealing as you think it is,” he explained. “If everyone has to work but me, then everyone’s gonna resent me. Honestly, I’d rather work than get the team mad at me.”

“Okay, fine!” grumped his owner. “Look, stop what you’re doing, come talk with me, and…”—Daskatoma bit his lip while he thought—“and you guys can just clean the kitchen tomorrow.”

“Really?” asked Sutzir with surprise in his voice. Over his shoulders, a few other black-and-white striped faces peeked in, their ears high and at attention.

“Yeah, really. Look, I’ve just got some take out for dinner,” explained the krakun, “I’ll eat it over the sink and try not to make a mess. You guys do a quickie on the kitchen in the morning and then the whole team can take the rest of the day off. How’s that sound?”

Lypa yanked the communicator out of his paw. “Sir? Um, Sutzir’s headed right out. He’s just putting on his environment suit now, sir.” Then, without even hanging up, he watched as two other crew members shoved Sutzir back into his work suit, erection and all.

# # #

As Sutzir climbed the last few rungs to the kitchen counter, his owner pulled out a krakun-sized dish towel and with a few practiced folds, transformed the terry cloth into a ringel-sized lounge. “Sorry about dragging you away from the fun,” he said.

“It’s fine. It’s fine,” said Sutzir as he made himself comfortable atop the towel. “I appreciate your generous offer, and it’ll be nice sleeping in tomorrow. So, are you looking forward to taking a vacation next week? I bet it’ll be nice having your uncle get up off his tail and do his own damn job for a change.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Daskatoma, “it’s just…”

“What?” asked the ringel. “You’re not worried, are you? You know he’s going to be impressed. You’ve done an amazing job with his fleet!”

“Thanks. No, it’s not that…”

“So, what’s bothering you? Sutzir asked as he stretched out, putting his gloved paws behind his helmet.

“Well,” the krakun sighed, “I guess it’s this gal I met today—”

“Gah! Hold it right there!” shouted the ringel as he scrambled to his knees and tried to pull his communicator from a pocket. “I’ll get the crew out here. We’ll train you in shifts. How much time do we have?”

The krakun stared at him for a moment. “Time for what?”

“Before your date, of course!” Sutzir gasped in frustration.

Daskatoma lowered his face, bringing it closer to the suited ringel. “Okay, first of all, I don’t need any mammalian advice on dating—no offense.”

“You haven’t been on a date during my entire lifetime, champ! This is a major crisis!” shouted his friend. “Okay, here’s the plan: We spend every moment before the big date drilling with you. Ooh! Maybe flashcards? Then, you bring her back here and give it your best shot. We’ll have planted a bunch of cameras around the bedroom at strategic angles. After she leaves, you call her up and apologize—”

“Apologize?” gasped Daskatoma. “What are you talking about, Sutzir?”

The ringel groaned in frustration. “Apologize for being such a lousy lay, obviously! You apologize and beg for a second chance. If for some reason, she actually gives you another shot, we’ll be prepared! Now, we’ll have video, and we’ll be able to go over it frame by frame to show you where you were going wrong—”

“Okay, just stop it,” grumbled Daskatoma. “First of all, I’m not going on a date. I’m not a lousy lay, and even if I was, that’s really none of your business.”

“Touchy,” sniffed the ringel as he shoved his communicator back into the pocket of his environment suit and reclaimed his seat.

“And second of all, she isn’t even a krakun. She’s a geroo,” explained Daskatoma.

The ringel shrugged. “Definitely some scale difference there, so not without a challenge, but if the two of you are committed to giving this a try, there’s certainly ways to cope. I’m sure my crew would be happy to help out if she needs an assist—”

“Just stop,” said the krakun, setting his claws flat on either side of the dish towel, “this is not what I want to discuss.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sutzir. He reached over and patted a gloved paw down on one of Daskatoma’s talons. “We just worry about you, buddy. I just know the whole crew and I would rest a lot easier if you went to the doc and got that sluggish libido of yours checked out. You can’t go fifty years between lays and call that normal.”

Daskatoma ground his teeth a moment before reopening his eyes and trying again. “The thing I want to discuss is how I feel about this gal.”

“You like her, and you feel conflicted because you’re into big females,” offered the ringel. When his owner glared at him, he asked, “What?”

“I feel conflicted,” said the krakun, laying his chin on the counter, “because I don’t want to lie to her.”

Sutzir shrugged. “Okay, so don’t lie to her.”

Daskatoma sighed, closing his eyes. “You don’t understand.”

“No,” agreed the slave, “but you are really great at explaining things. If you just explain it, I will.”

Daskatoma stared at the tiny, suited figure for a moment before nodding. “Okay… It’s like … you know how it feels when you’re struggling with someone you hate?”

A pause before Sutzir shook his head. “Not really,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone—not like you krakun do. We’re your cleaning crew, buddy, we’re only gonna go to war with dirt, y’know? I mean, I wish a couple of the guys used a little more soap and toothpaste, but I couldn’t hate them.”

“Really? You’ve never hated anyone?” asked Daskatoma, some surprise in his voice. “Well, could you imagine what it would be like to hate someone?”

“Anyone in particular?”

“Doesn’t have to be,” he said. “Just close your eyes and imagine there’s a guy you really hate, and you’re struggling against him.”

“Struggling?” asked Sutzir. “Physically?”

“Could be if you like. Or just trying to get a job that he’s also going for. Doesn’t have to be violent.”

“Got it.”

“Okay, you hate this guy and you’re struggling against him,” repeated Daskatoma, “and so you’re gonna use any dirty trick you can to get one over on him. And you’re not gonna feel the least bit bad about it because you hate him. You don’t care if you hurt him or scare him or anything because good, let him be hurt and scared.”

Inside his helmet, Sutzir’s ears flattened against his head, but still he nodded. “Okay, I’ll use dirty tricks.”

“Okay, now imagine that you’re struggling against a friend.”

The ringel looked up. “Why would I do that?”

“Well, um,” said his owner, “ringel play competitive games, right?”

Sutzir chuckled. “We definitely do, but I get the impression that krakun wouldn’t find our games all that amusing.”

Daskatoma rolled his eyes. “I believe you. But if you were struggling against a friend—even if you really wanted to win the game—you probably wouldn’t pull out all the stops, right? You wouldn’t want to hurt or scare your friend just to win a game, right?”

“Sure, that makes sense,” said Sutzir, climbing up on his knees. “So, what’s all this gotta do with yer geroo gal?”

“Well,” the krakun sighed, “I guess I’m finding myself in a struggle with her that I don’t want to lose … but I do like her, so I’m conflicted about just how hard I’m willing to play.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fMzsSIrdsJA4tp54TObphouCYKNb4aMqHvGL2uQuboA/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?