Meat, the laboratory retriever.
Meat was a dog who had started working with Brian Devonhyre at some point prior to unctual year 3892. He ended up being one of the only New Age creatures in existence to visit the Old Age.
Meat was a laboratory retriever, a breed particularly suited for hunting and tracking. His black-and-grey speckled coat was characteristic of his breed. Brian Devonhyre was responsible for much of Meat’s training, both physical and psychological. He was capable of making great jumps, could distinguish millions of different scents, and was capable of committing any new scent to memory. His rigorous conditioning was such that he was extremely obedient and very loyal to Brian, who preferred not to show him too much affection. He was trained to take aggressive action against any creature who was not making a specific hand gesture upon hearing the command “attack.” Meat had learned several hundred of these commands. Brian valued Meat as a working dog, but he also recognized the sad truth that every living creature can potentially become food for another creature, hence the name he gave the dog.
When Brian Devonhyre began working as a bounty hunter for Deorwynn Fletcher, Meat accompanied Brian and his partner, Mirabel Miller. They were sent through a magic portal created by Deorwynn to chase down their quarry, who had also been accidentally transported through a portal. They emerged in the fabled Old Age, a pre-Cataclysm time period during which humanity was nearly extinct and technology reigned supreme.
Meat was able to track the human, "Four" Wheeler, and the butterfly princess, Mariposa, to a bridge near a megalopolis where the bounty hunters were prepared for an encounter, but a rain storm interrupted their confrontation and they were forced to retreat.
Mirabel had tried to befriend Meat, offering him pieces of wyvern jerky, despite Brian’s admonishment that she stop showing him affection. Soon after, Mirabel was left alone with Meat and inadvertently uttered the code word for him to attack. Meat, not knowing any better, responded as he was trained to, lashing out against Mirabel. It was only after Mirabel offered him another piece of jerky that he stopped attacking, remembering her earlier attempts to befriend him.
Later, Brian and Mirabel attempted to scale the side of a local hospital in order to reach Four and Mariposa, whom they believed to be inside. They were forced to leave Meat waiting outside in the sweltering heat. The plan was to come back for Meat, who was unable to climb, after they had entered the hospital. Instead, they fell from the side of the building. Recognizing Mirabel as a member of his pack, Meat sprang to the rescue, making contact with Mirabel in mid-air, absorbing much of her fall with his own body and partially cushioning her fall. She survived the fall, but Meat was badly injured. The robotic medical drones running the hospital only recognized human patients, and failed to provide the care for Meat that he required.
Brian and Mirabel lamented Meat’s fate, unaware that the drones were building a second generation of drones and were incorporating any and all raw materials into their construction. It was Four and Mariposa who would eventually encounter a mechanical drone armored with human bones and skulls, including one skull that appeared to be canine in origin, but they did not fully appreciate the chilling ramifications of this discovery.
Behind the Scenes[]
Much like Normal, another non-speaking character, the narrative passages describing Meat's inner thoughts depicted him as a highly intelligent and capable animal, though very little of his deep introspection was evident in his behavior.