“Yes, I would. Thanks.” Jenny replied before raising her hands slowly, making sure she had a good hold on Machli before taking her weight.
“Rah, rah.” She seemed to protest at being away from Molly, though Jenny was careful to stay as close to her as possible.
“She’s so cute.” Jenny said quietly, a soft smile on her face as Machli appeared to calm down. “Aren’t you going to hold Michael, Clemens?”
“Ssorry,” Clemens began. “But there’ss still a chancce that they’ll match my ssccent to that of a predator’ss. If that happenss…”
“Then I’ll be here to pick him back up.” Molly reassured him.
“Okay.” Clemens relented, but was much slower in wrapping his arms around Michael and taking his weight. He noticed that in spite of Tigers being able to surpass 500 lbs, at this extreme youth, he didn’t really notice the weight unless he actively thought about it.
Though in his mind, his concern was quite justified. While himself, Molly, George and indeed all adult animal-people could stay ahead of their instincts, for these cubs, those same instincts would be the dominant factor in their infant minds. A completely normal evolutionary survival mechanism, but one that could be very, ‘inconvenient’ in the civilised world.
And it seemed he might be right, because Michael had started to kick about a lot, crying out as Clemens closed the gap between himself and Molly, hoping that her being right next to him would ease his fears. It seemed to work because when Molly placed a hand by him, the kicking and crying subsided as he appeared to calm down again.
“Ssorry.” Clemens apologised as he handed Michael back to Molly. “But it ssseemss that they sssee me ass a predator.”
“Perhaps in a few years, when they’re older they won’t be so frightened by you.” George offered in consolation.
“I believe ssso. But not today.” Clemens added as Jenny handled Machli with far greater success. “Not while they’re ssstill ssso young.” Michael may have fallen asleep in Molly’s arms, but since tiger cubs needed to keep their eyes shut since they were born prematurely, a trait that was carried over to these cubs, there was no way to be certain.
“It’s not too different to normal human babies though.” Molly added to help. “They attach themselves firmly to their parents and are very vocal about being kept away from them for even a short time.”
“And in that respect, Machli and Michael here are the same.” Jenny determined as she handed her back to Molly as well.
“That would be correct, in any case though, I think it’s time for them to be back in bed.” Molly headed back up the stairs with the cubs.
“Sssorry about that.” Clemens apologised again.
“No need, you’ve already apologised enough.” George made clear he didn’t hold him at fault for that mini-episode.
“So what else is there to talk about?” Joseph asked to try and move the conversation forwards.
“Come to think of it, it’s been mentioned that you went to a convention last year, but no real mention has been made of which one.”
“Ah. DragonCon 2012, Atlanta, Georgia.” Clemens answered. “Wasss quite the number there.”
“Over fifty thousand.” Jenny added. “And a good number of guest stars as well.”
“Ah-nuld for instance.” George imitated the actor’s accent.
“He wasss one yesss. Which made for quite the ssshhow.”
“So I’ve heard.” Joseph pointed out.
“So where did that idea come from?” George sought to know.
“1982, Conan The Barbarian. That wasss hisss breakthrough role.” Clemens supplied the information, remembering that that was the movie that helped to make him a household name. “Though the villain, Thulsssa Doom, wasss portrayed by Jamesss Earl Jonesss. Ssstole every ssscene he wasss in.”
“Of course he would.” George chuckled, aware of the sheer difference in their respective acting abilities. “And he was the one you went as?”
“Dependsss on your definition, that ssscene wasss only about sssix sssecondsss long, CGI ssstill being very primitive back then, leaving them dependant on latexxx, animatronicsss and good editing cutsss.”
“And yet still more convincing than a lot of today’s works.” Jenny cut in.
“Though it lets them do a lot more.” Joseph pointed out. “Even if the story is seen to suffer because more time is spent on the effects than on the story and characters.”
“Perhapsss.” Clemens conceded. “But I still prefer the story and characters being done right.” Then he checked the time, seeing how much was left that they could spend here.