Whoops.. [Damien]

[Leonard Collins]

Leo was expecting a normal walk with Sherlock around the lake - which was the terrier's favorite spot for a nice walk (which would occasionally turn into a run if the leash managed to get out of Leo's grasp). What was considered "normal" when you had a dog like Sherlock was far from what normal was for almost any other canine. This one would often veer off course to socialize or sniff something, and would refuse to obey until the stubborn dog did what he wanted to do. It bugged Leo, but dogs would be dogs, after all. Leo had tried to train Sherlock to get rid of the silly habit, but it wouldn't be rid of very easily.

They were nearly done with their little stroll when Sherlock spotted another dog and bounded towards it. The terrier's ears were perked up and the tail was wagging. The leash slipped out of Leonard's grasp in a moment of staring at the dog and not really paying attention on his part (which he mentally cursed at). "SHERLOCK!" he shouted, trying to get the dog to come back to him - but to no avail. The dog simply turned his head to look at his master, and then back to the new dog. He focused his attention on the leash, which he decided to get to stay in the air, holding the dog from going much further.

Shaking his head, Leo walked over to where his dog was - sniffing a rather pretty border collie. He quickly grabbed the leash from the air. "My apologies," Leonard adressed the other man.

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien was taking advantage of the nice weather they were having. There was no reason not to. Gypsy had been patiently waiting for a day they could go to the lake, rather than just walking around the residential areas while the weather was cool. Now the sun was out, Damien had decided early that morning that it was high time for a lake walk.

He had worked hard to instill good manners into the border collie as a puppy. Now at two, she had beautiful manners, to the point that Damien had a bad habit of letting her off her leash. Granted, the last time he’d done that, she’d led him straight to... well... someone very nice, and who had become very important to him.

Today, she was on her leash, mostly out of respect for the other people at the lake. She strolled along easily at a heel, pausing occasionally to sniff at patches of grass emerging from the snow. Damien was just enjoying the sunshine, glad that everything was finally melting away. He was sure it wouldn’t last for long. Vermont winters sometimes seemed right on par with parts of Canada. Thankfully, not B.C.. He might have had to start hibernating as a teenager if the winter was as long and as cold as it was here.

His mind was far from the lake as he walked, and it was only the sudden shout that brought him out of his thoughts. In front of him was a terrier looking dog. With... a... floating leash?

Right. Pilot Ridge. Metas all over the place. Gypsy started to wag and sniff at her new friend, while Damien glanced at the approaching man. “It’s okay, no harm done.” He gestured to the runaway. “Your dog is gorgeous.” Shy as he usually was, dogs usually got Damien talking.

[Leonard Collins]

Once the leash was back inside of Leonard's hands, he could relax again - sure, he was usually quite uptight about things, and his version of relaxed was far from what anyone else's was. His students probably noticed it; Leo figured that other faculty members were used to it as well, but he didn't really socialize with many of them. It wasn't because he disliked them, but more because he couldn't see how to relate with them. Most of them knew about Rick, and a few knew him from school days. Still, he just didn't feel comfortable becoming quite close to them.

Sherlock didn't react much to his master grabbing ahold of his leash. If anything, he was ignoring Leonard even more by this time. Rick was supposed to do most of the training, since it was his idea to adopt the dog - and what cruel irony that he passed two weeks after Sherlock's adoption. The terrier barked at his new buddy, continuing the sniffing.

"I'm glad - Sherlock here is a little Houdini," he sighed. "Yours too." A pause. "What's her name?" He figured it'd be the polite thing to ask. Talking with others was something he didn't do much of, and to tell the truth, he kind of missed it. Small talk didn't bother him much.

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien could understood the flood of relief that came from retrieving a loose pet. Though it felt like a long time since. Se had gotten away from him, she had still run off over a month ago while downtown. Yes, she had been responsible for him meeting Josef, but she had still run off while knowing better. He couldn't tell if the terrier knew better or not, but by the look on his owner's face, he was betting on the latter.

Gypsy continued to wag in a cheerful manner, twisting in circles as she sniffed her new friend. There seemed to be lots of dogs in Pilot Ridge, and it was nice for Gypsy to get out and make friends. As much as she adored Charlie, he was still a cat. This was good for her.

"Gypsy," Damien answered easily. After a moment of hesitation, he shifted Gypsy's leash to his other hand, and extended his right. "And I'm Damien." That was only polite, right? After another uncertain moment passed, he had to smile. "He may be Houdini, but it looked like you had him covered. Telekinesis? Must be handy." Especially when dogs were making getaways.

[Leonard Collins]

Sherlock did run off quite a bit, but his power did come in handy with retrieving the dog. However, he knew he'd have to teach the silly terrier not to run off again, but he didn't quite know when he'd have the time to do so. Perhaps there was somewhere he could drop the dog off while he went to work - but that was something he'd have to research. Rick would have knew how to do it, but he couldn't dwell on that. On the other hand, Sherlock could sit perfectly well, and he knew the "down" command, though others were yet to register with the dog.

Sherlock had a few friends in Pilot Ridge; there were quite a few dogs out and about on a usual day near the lake. Most of which were friendly, thankfully! Leo could barely keep the names straight - whose dog had what name could be confusing.

"That's a pretty name for a lovely dog," Leo replied as nonchalantly as possible, sporting a small smile. He did mean it - the dog was quite pretty, and seemed to be getting along well with Sherlock, who had just slipped into the play bow. "I'm Leo," he introduced himself, preferring to stick to his nickname. "It comes in handy when you have a dog like this one - able to escape out of almost anything and full of energy." He wondered if this man was powered, too. "I teach down the road at Hammel. It comes in handy - making things zoom across the room manages to get the attention of most of my students."

[Damien Tremblay]

It had been the fear of his new puppy running away and never coming back that had spurred Damien into investing in multiple books on training, as well as researching methods online. He had spent a lot of time with Gypsy in her first few months with him working on very basic manners and training, including coming when called. It helped that Border Collies were quite intelligent, and were happiest when working. Heck, he’d even caught her trying to herd Charlie when they were in the yard and he was slinking to the fence. Apart from the recent incident downtown, she never seemed to have much interest in running off. (He was still chalking the incident up to the fact that Josef had been whistling. She always came to a whistle.)

“Thank you,” Damien managed to say with more confidence than he generally managed. It had seemed fairly fitting when she was little. “Sherlock is a pretty great name too.” Much better than Buddy, or some of the more common names. Nothing was worse than going to an off leash area and seeing several people calling the same name for three different dogs. He hadn’t encountered many Gypsies, thankfully. He glanced down, and after a moment of debate, Damien leaned over and unclipped Gypsy’s leash. She wagged harder and bowed back before leaping to the side, ready to run. He glanced back at Leo at the mention of Hammel and had to laugh. “Yeah, that would do it. I graduated from there myself.” And, being that Leo had already given an unintentional demonstration, he shrugged his shoulders and buried his hands in his jacket pockets. “Invisibility. Not as handy.” Unless you were trying to hide from your delinquent intern at the office.

[Leonard Collins]

Leo, too, had been afraid - but he had absolutely no clue where to start with training of his new puppy. Rick had said that he'd take care of it, but his death had come too soon. Terriers were fairly intelligent as well, and the shelter that they'd adopted Sherlock had guessed that he was part Jack Russell terrier(they weren't sure about his other parentage), and usually, those dogs were quite high energy, which was both a positive and a negative. A double edged sword. On the plus side, they'd always want to go out and do something, but the same argument could be used for the other side. Occasionally, all Leonard wanted to do was to grade papers, but all Sherlock wanted to do was have attention. He'd give in and end up playing with the dog for a little bit, and then going back to grading chemistry quizzes and tests.

"Thank you. It was a good friend who named him," he said, gesturing to his dog. It was usually how he referred to Rick - he normally detested the apologies that usually followed that statement. Plus, it was fairly personal, and later on, it could be used to manipulate the man, or so he thought. Personal information was to be kept private in his opinion. "I don't think I've ever met a dog by the name of Gypsy before today," he mused with a small smile. "That seems as if it could come in handy at times, though. Hiding from those that you'd rather not converse with would be a bit easier, I'd think." He'd taught a few students with the same power - it was actually fascinating to Leo.

[Damien Tremblay]

Once Damien had settled into a routine with Gypsy, training had seemed to come easily. She was always willing and eager to learn. He’s had her sitting on command within days of bringing her home, and had worked on recall until her name was firmly engrained in her memory, and what it meant when he called it from far away. She didn’t know many tricks apart from roll over and shake a paw, but that was okay with him. She wasn’t a circus act, she was a companion. Charlie had been more difficult. Some people claimed you could train a cat. All Charlie knew was his name, that a snapped finger and a point at the floor meant ‘get the hell off the counter’, and that the sound of a can opener was almost always a good thing. Oh well. At least he didn’t bite or scratch.

“No?” Huh. Damien hadn’t thought he’d been that creative when naming the little puppy, but now he thought about it, he hadn’t really heard the name much either. Well. He just shrugged and smiled. “It suited her.” As for his commentary on his power, Damien shook his head and laughed quietly. “I actually did that a lot in school. I wasn’t... well, particularly social, so once I learned how to control it, I had a habit of disappearing.” In all honesty, if he didn’t want to talk to someone say, at a bar, he was more likely to slip into French in the hopes the other person didn’t know the language than to go invisible. “Though I did start using at work for a while. We had an intern whose behavior was wildly inappropriate.” Of course, that always backfired once Vincent had learned what he could do. Then there was running around and wild flailing of his arms in an attempt to find him. At least it had kept him busy.

[Leonard Collins]

Before Rick had perished, Sherlock had gotten the hang of how to come - the then energetic puppy would bound into either of their arms, lick one of their faces off, and demand to be pet. It was something that Leo would look back to when he was having one of those days, and on a day where he just needed some memory to get him through. He hadn't had one in a while, thankfully, but Sherlock still was energetic - he wasn't sure if it was a blessing of a curse. Still, he loved the dog unconditionally, and he returned the favor. It was as simple as that.

"Not one at all," he confirmed. "That's a good reason for a name," he pointed out the obvious. He really wasn't a social person, as shown by his...odd comments. Students would occasionally talk to him, and he'd smile and nod; he preferred listening to talking, as he always had. It was natural, really. His brother Gavin would ramble for hours while Leo sat and listened. Sometimes he wondered what his brother would have thought if he'd gotten to attend Hammel - it would've made their relationship much better, probably.

He listened to what Damien had to say - he could sort of relate to wanting to be invisible sometimes, though he never could disappear. He could cause distractions, but that was about it. "Huh. I sometimes wished I could be invisible," he offered, looking down to the excited dog and his new friend. "I'm still not the best socially... and that must have been some intern."

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien hadn’t had anyone to consult with over puppy training, or even picking Gypsy out. Hell, he hadn’t even been in a relationship until recently, and Josef seemed... well, a little clueless when it came to owning pets. But that was all right. Both Charlie and Gypsy adored him, which was good enough for him. They were both past the point of needing training anyway. Had he known what Leo had gone through, he’d admit to not knowing how to handle it. Especially if the other person had been the one driven to do the training.

“Yeah, I suppose it was.” Damien smiled as he watched Gypsy run sideways, always within range of Sherlock’s leash. He didn’t claim to be an expert, or even an animal communicator, but Gypsy seemed fairly understanding of things like leashes. He didn’t dare suggest Sherlock come off the lead, though. Not after he’d already run off once. Even if Gypsy might be a distraction from running away. She seemed content to play in the range of the leash, bouncing around and wagging happily.

Damien had often wished as a child to be invisible. It had seemed fairly fitting for the shy boy to manifest with invisibility. “I did that a lot when I was a kid. I guess I wished it so hard one day, it just happened.” Mostly because his sister had been giving him grief over an incident. “I was really shy when I was younger,” he explained. And now, but Leo didn’t really need to know that. “And it was some intern. He was terrible.” ... And if Leo taught at Hammel, he probably knew of him at the very least. “His name was Vincent Verax. I really hope you didn’t have the misfortune of teaching him.”