man's best friend

🎐- Does your muse like to collect/hoard anything?

Dogs?

🛋- Does your muse like to have company over?

No.

📱- Is your muse the “oversharing” type?

Not at all.

🐰- Does your muse prefer soft, plush textures or smooth and glossy textures?

Soft puppy fur.

📇- Is your muse a gossiper?

He never knows what’s going on.

🕹- What does your muse do to occupy themselves when bored?

Reads, plays piano, goes for coffee, gets a new dog.

🌋- Has your muse done something stupid and not regret it?

He has seven dogs and you have to ask this?

🛣- Is your muse considered a wanderer?

Not really, anymore.

🐺- Would your muse consider themselves a lone wolf or a social butterfly?

Lone Siberian husky.

🤝- Does your muse forgive others easily?

Forgives, but doesn’t forget.

🎖- Does your muse enjoy praise?

Only in the form of wagging tails.

🎟- Do they like “so bad it’s good” movies?

Who doesn’t?

🎠- Does your muse like amusement parks/carnivals/festivals?

Sure, if he’s on a date or with friends. He doesn’t mind crowds.

🏝- Could your muse survive on an uninhabited island all by themselves?

🛌- Does your muse prefer to sleep under many layers of blankets or only under a few?

TMI but the boy does not sleep in clothes, so he needs a bunch of blankets if it’s cold, but not much if it’s hot.

🛣- Is your muse considered a wanderer?

Meet the Irvines

Backstory: The story of the Irvines is not a happy one. William Irvine (or Bill, as he was called at the local pub) did not marry Genevieve Larsson for love. She had money, which he spent on booze. He hit her, constantly, and when their son Christian was born, he hit him too. Whenever Christian tried to protect his mother, he’d get it twice as bad, but he did anyway. When he was 15, his mother confided in him that she was pregnant. She was so afraid, he knew it couldn’t be his father’s. He swore never to tell, and he never did. But somehow, when baby Adelaide was about to turn three, Bill must have found out. He drowned the little girl in the bathtub, and held a gun to Genevieve’s head. Christian knocked the gun out of Bill’s hand, and he and his mother ran away. Christian settled down in Texas, but Genevieve never stopped running.

Father (Mark Ruffalo)

Abusive asshole. Presumably lives somewhere in Colorado, still. Who cares.

Mother (Famke Janssen)

Christian hasn’t seen her in years. They left Bill when he was 18, and she didn’t want to stay in one place for too long. He doesn’t even know if she’s still alive.

Christian

Guarded, cynical, scared, quiet... painfully aware of why.

Adelaide

Aidan had a habit of crushing hard, and Christian was no exception. In his experience, it was a lot easier to fall for someone than it was to make a relationship work. Perhaps one of the main reasons he was yet to have something long-term. Nonetheless, for once in his life, Aidan was in a good place and felt more like himself than he ever had. He had the stress of college behind him, found a job on the set of a major film, and he was happy. And that mattered the most to him, even if this date or something ended up going sideways.

True, they had picked the most unfortunate day for it. Although he didn’t know Hallie or Yael personally, it had him worried, but it had gotten to the point where he didn’t know what else to do to help the situation. Aidan felt he could have very little impact on it at the moment. In that case, would it be so wrong? He figured not, but he still couldn’t help feeling guilty for it.

Aidan grinned at the dogs and at Christian when all six of them sat down in unison. “How long did that one take for them to learn?” he asked before Christian began listing all the dogs’ names from Gambit to Zeus. He had a feeling his mouth would be sore from smiling by the end of this walk. Aidan kneeled down to rub Harmony’s head, letting the dog sniff his face. “I think this means I might have to pick Harmony for my team,” Aidan started to answer, standing up, “and definitely Tiger…and I’ll take Zeus.” He held out his hands to grab leashes, glad he picked out the most comfortable shoes to wear. 

“An annoyingly long time,” he laughed. “Tiger’s the only one with any actual training, the rest are rescues. But they’ve got it. Just tug once and they stop. Very convenient at stop lights, or when a squirrel runs by.” He couldn’t help smiling at Aidan. This wasn’t a happy day, they shouldn’t both be beaming, but here they were. Christian took solace in the knowledge that in all likelihood, no one would be looking to them for help.

“Excellent choices,” he said, handing the leashes over. “They’ll be very happy to hang out with someone other than me,” he laughed. “I thought we could go down by the beach. See the pier. Let the dogs run around a bit. Maybe grab a coffee. What do you think?”

Breathing was difficult. Fighting the urge to cry even harder. Yael was usually a very put together woman, not a strand of hair out of place but as she stood alone in an empty hallway, away from prying eyes and people she didn’t want to be around. Being with anyone was almost unbearable- even Hallie who was going through the exact same thing she was. Whatever makeup had been left on her face from the night before smudged under her eyes. Her stomach felt like it was going to eat itself, her throat burning from all the crying she had already been doing. 

How could she have failed as a mother this hard? How could she have let the most important thing? She brought the crumpled paper out of her back pocket once more, eyes scanning over it for the millionth time for anything that could help but there was nothing. No real sign of anything just a bunch of bullshit about curses and emptying their banks. This was the kind of thing that only happened to other people. To strangers that didn’t exist in her world. Not to her. Not to her family. “No problem disposing of our problems- fucking bullshit” as she read the words her voice cracked, not acknowledging the presence that joined her in her lonely hallway “Isn’t there something you could be doing right now?”  

In trying to avoid the madness of the day, Christian had unintentionally run toward it. Of course, she’d be here, hiding, too. It broke his heart to see her, or anyone, cry, but especially because he’d... well he’d heard through a grapevine what had happened. These things get around to even the quietest crew members eventually. 

He wanted to say he understood, but of course, he didn’t. No matter how much he felt like a parent to his baby sister sometimes, it wasn’t the same. And the circumstances weren’t the same. But he felt the pain all the same. But he said nothing of that.

“Yeah, actually. I think a lotof people probably could use my, uh... services about now,” he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. “Great time for the set therapist to take off, huh?”

It was a stupid joke, a bad attempt by an awkward man to lighten a pitch dark situation. “I know you don’t want to hang out with me, you don’t even know me, but I’m the dog handler, and if you want to hang out with them, let me know. They’re good listeners, and good cuddlers, and they’ll lick all those tears off your face, it’s really gross,” he said, trying.

@christianirvine

Aidan was no stranger to walking dogs. Growing up in a big family in rural Wisconsin meant having an assortment of pets that came with all his family members. To name a few, there was the golden retriever, the pitbull, a dachshund, two cats, a gerbil, a cockatoo, and an aquarium of fish. And that wasn’t including the farm animals. He liked to joke in college that he grew up on the set of Cheaper by the Dozen except without Hilary Duff. Aidan always figured he’d get his own dog after college, granted that he had a job at the time, which was an uncertain to almost anyone in the entertainment business. 

Getting invited to walk dogs with Christian kind of just happened. He loved visiting the therapy dogs on set, even if he didn’t need any actual therapy. It mostly just made him miss the ones he had back home. Any opportunity to spend more time with dogs he’d take. Any opportunity to spend more time with Christian he’d also take. He greeted Christian outside the hotel with a casual “Hey” as if he hadn’t just spent 20 minutes fixing his hair. “All right, I’m gonna need to know names before I grab any leashes,” he started, adding, “Though I’m sure you have them all well-trained.” He smiled a bit sheepishly. “Where are you thinking we take ‘em?”

They’d had this walk planned for a while now. Not too long, a couple days maybe, but enough time for Christian to get illogically nervous about it. They were walking dogs, not going for a four-course meal at some restaurant he couldn’t pronounce. It was low-key, no pressure. He wasn’t even sure it was a date. Although he hoped it was one.

He hadn’t intended for the walk to fall on such an uneasy day... the halting of filming (whether temporary or permanent, he still wasn’t sure)and the mysterious reasons behind it. Something about Hallie’s kid? He didn’t know, but the aura on set was tense and sad and he didn’t mind getting away from it.

He came around the corner with six dogs - three leashes in each hand. He didn’t work out a lot, but with this job he could skip arm day. The hotel the rest of the crew stayed in didn’t allow dogs - and hotels didn’t usually allow so many at once, anyway - so he was renting an apartment for the summer about a block away. He beamed instantly at the sight of Aidan.

“Names. Alright.” He cleared his throat and tugged once on the leashes. All the dogs sat down in unison. “I love when they do that. makes me feel powerful,” he smirked. “Okay, the mop of fluff on the end there is Gambit. Dalmatian gentleman is Guinness. This beautiful lady is Ophelia. This is Tiger the German Shepherd, he used to be a police dog, didn’t you buddy? And then we have the princess of everything Harmony, you’ll have to pet her head before we go or she’ll be offended. And the tiny goofy-looking thing over there is Zeus,” he beamed. “Pick a team.”

“You show him, tiger” The words were quiet, mostly meant for Seth’s own amusement as he watched a fully grown man remove his shoe and throw it at an ice cream truck. Though, in Christian’s defense it did feel like the truck was mocking them. “That is, in all honesty, the least threatening thing I have ever heard in my entire life. What is he gonna do? Lick the man to death?” Seth had never been a dog person but the pups that were around set, waiting to be loved and played with were an exception. They were well behaved, had better manners than most people and the company they kept was someone the man found himself going to more often than not. “I don’t think they do- I wonder if we can convince one of the PAs to go for us or get Hallie to call for an ice cream truck on set”

“He could easily lick a man to death, and you know it,” he smirked. “You know, I thought you’d be a cat person when we first met. Are you a cat person? I know you love my dogs, but even Luca secretly loves them, and he hates everything.” He considered these options and his eyes lit up at the notion of getting an ice cream truck to hang out on set. “Holy shit. Yes. She’d go for it, right? We can say it’s for all the tiny humans hanging around,” he laughed, even though as far as he knew there were only two children on set. “You’re a genius, has anyone told you that in the last 15 minutes?”

“No, we established that I can climb out a window- running is a completely different ball game bud” Seth was not athletic in the slightest, never had been. He paused for a split second, pondered the idea of simply allowing Christian to go and pay for both of their ice cream but if he was going to run then Seth supposed he should too. So he ran as hard as he could, only faulting when he realised that they were chasing a lost cause “Dude, he knows we’re chasing him and he’s not stopping” the boy pointed out, breath already short

In a fit of childlike rage, Christian took off his shoe and threw it at the ice cream truck as it turned yet another corner. He was sure he heard it start playing its stupid music louder. He sighed as he hobbled to retrieve his shoe. “I’m gonna find that guy, and I’m gonna... I’m gonna sic Zeus on him,” he said, nodding sharply, satisfied with this threat, despite the fact that Seth knew full well that Zeus was a shih-tzu/poodle mix. 

“I still want ice cream. But I also want to lie down. Do they have postmates on this island?”

“It’s a very short list, to be fair.” Luca shook his head, a lopsided smile on his face. “So you pretty much have seven hairy toddlers that like to play with everything their hands can reach. Gotcha. To be fair, it seems pretty hard to be gentle when you don’t have thumbs and use your canines to pick shit up instead. How did you even get to pick up seven dogs and train them? No offense, just curious. There’s gotta be another reason aside from your poor social skills. — No. I don’t think it’d be fair for a dog, your job revolves around dogs so you’ll always have them around. I can’t take a dog everywhere and couldn’t keep it at home either. Getting a pet for the sake of your own selfishness seems stupid to me if you don’t have the time to actually care for it. You got a responsibility which I don’t really have the right job for. I live in London on top of that. Small flat, no dogs allowed.”

“They prefer ‘furry children’. Hairy toddlers conjures up very strange images that will give me nightmares for the next week,” he said with a shudder. “I started with just the one. My big ol’ pitbull mix, Eddie. Rescued him from a fighting ring, he’s such a cuddly little thing, he would have died in there. Then I started rescuing dogs kind of as... a hobby? I was in a rough place, and didn’t trust humans, and neither did the dogs, so we kind of helped each other, I guess. Sounds lame, but... people started calling me the Dog Whisperer or some shit, and I decided why not make some money off of my cuddly little annoyances?” he smiled. That wasn’t the full story, of course, but he never gave that freely.

“Yeah, you’re smarter than you look. Dogs are definitely like toddlers. Don’t even befriend one if you can’t handle lifelong love,” he smirked. “That being said, you could totally fit a chihuahua into your lifestyle. You seem like a chihuahua man to me.”

“It’s too late to take it back now, since we’re already here. Which neither of us really want to be but we’ll be done in no time.” Luca shrugged, eyes briefly falling onto the others worn out shoes. Not that anything was wrong with them  - but it had been Christian who had talked about theoretically getting new shoes. “Why don’t you train them not to eat your shoes? Sounds more logical than to adjust to what they do or don’t, in all fairness. Not that I really know anything ‘bout that. Never had a dog.”

“Don’t act like I’m not your favorite person to be around. I know I am,” Christian deadpanned. “I’ve taught them to be gentle with everything. They’re not service dogs, so they’re not heavily trained, but they’re therapy dogs. They harm nothing. They will however, play hide and seek with just about anything. I found fourteen single socks under my couch once. Fourteen. I thought the dryer had eaten them, but I live with seven rejected Easter bunnies,” he smirked. “You should get a dog. It’ll make you happier.”