Acer hopped up on one of the small stools at the counter next to Max. He made his order for a hamburger, but then became a little lost in his own thoughts for a moment, currently oblivious to the fact that Peter-rabbit had gone off somewhere else, and to the conversation of the other pets around him. It wasn’t until his food was served he snapped back to reality.

"alright".
Danny leaned back and took another drink, staring absent mindedly towards the back of the store.

Johnny stared at Danny for a few minutes, before asking him "What's wrong, Danny?"

Danny snapped to attention, "sorry I guess I just spaced for a second" he grinned sheepishly," what do you guys wanna do?"

Johnny smiled back "That happens sometimes"
Jack just titled his head "I was just about to ask the same question. We don't know this place, we just arrived"

"maybe we should ask that guy", danny pointed at a cat sitting at the bar not to far from where he was sitting
(OOC:that's you Ragriz)

Max had heard, 'that guy', but wasn't sure if that was in reference to him. His food had come and pretty much took over his attention entirely. He took a few mouthfuls before remembering the mouse next to him that might be hungry or try to obscond from the bowl. Pausing, he saw just that.

Nate was trying to climb up the edge of the bowl. Ice cream was something everyone loved. The small creature managed to climb up and then flopped into the bowl. It was hard to tell where there was mouse and where there was ice cream, both were pretty much snow-white.

OOC: okay, he's new too though, so, all that's on his mind is exploration....

Danny looked at the twins, "alright I'm gonna go talk to him."
Danny walked over to the other cat
Hi, me and my friends(as he said this he gestured to the twins) are new in town and were wondering where the pets like to hang out?"

"I just got here as well," Max said as he faced the other pet, "I really have no idea. I've heard some like to hang out at the park, but, that was pretty empty earlier."

"Bleh! Are you gonna help me out of here!" Nate yelled from inside the ice cream bowl. He for the moment had forgotten that the cat could decide to eat him.

"Oh hush you," Max said, then to Danny, "we could probably ask Acer though, he should know more."

(( Sorry this took so long... ))
(( Note to anyone else reading: What Taku is about to tell him is a HUGE allusion to one of the really out-there secrets that no one's figured out yet. Potential Spoiler if you're paying attention to that. ))

"Oh, that's just what we call this place out in the woods where some really fancy people used to live, you know, some big stone things that squirrels and raccoons and badgers built together or something, like where the humans live, it was a long time ago, so I don't really know too much about it..." he shrugged, not knowing anyone who'd been alive back when the ruins were built, "I dunno what 'endangered' is, it's some human word for something... I think it means there's like, not enough of you or something, so they want you to breed more and die less... I dunno... My dad was trying to explain it to me and he was using some word like 'extant' or something, but I really didn't get it..."

(( Taku can't think about large-scale populations well enough to understand "extinction". He knows "This forest" and "The next forest over" and "that other raccoon there" and "This extended family of raccoons", and after that it just goes over his head... ))


(( Don't rush it. The more we go with this, the more buildup it gets. Besides, Taku is a wild animal and doesn't have a close connection with technology. ))
(( Also, I'm probably going to retcon "Old Reeku" to "Old Acorn-Eyes" or something less Raccoon-sounding and more Squirrel-like. ))

"I still do not understand. thought these 'old homes' seem intriguing."


(I did say "eventually. I noticed that Taku isn't likely to show him modern stuff, so I was saying that eventually Samuel will probably have to leave him. slightly surprised you didn't make any mention of my thinly veiled MLP reference there.)

"Hmmph?" Acer looked at the Max and the other several cats who were now staring at him, catching him just as he sank his teeth into his sandwich. There was a bit of an awkward moment before the terrier finished the first bit of his meal and responded. "I just moved here this morning, I'm not very familiar with where most pets here like to hang out. But..." Acer set down his sandwich and pulled out his smart phone again from his collar, and quickly tapped something on it. "There's many places here in the commercial district that you may find interesting, a shopping mall is actually not too far from here."

Taku shrugged, "Eh, they're kinda weird... Just a bunch of old rocks and stuff if you ask me... Never found anything too interesting there, but whaddo I know, I'm just a four year old scavenger..." He glanced outside, "So... We've been here for a while, you wanna go look around s'more?"


(( I got it, I just decided to leave it... ))

Danny looked back to the other cats,"Well I don't care. your call guys."

Johnny and Jack looked at each other for a few seconds
Then Johnny said "The mall sounds nice."
"Is it far away?" Jack asked

"yes, I would like to see more of my new surroundings."

"Not that far, maybe a 20 minute walk." Acer thought to himself. "I hope there are other dogs here too...I've only met cats since my arrival here and they continue to show up...odd."

"The mall works for me" Max said, taking another bite of his ice cream. "What sort of stores are in there?"

(( Guys, from now on, if I miss a post and start moving on, you need to tell me that week, not 2 months later... ))

"Can't... Can't walk there?" Rikki slowed, perplexed by the idea, "Wow... That's like... Really weird man... So... It's like an island or something? Where you're like, surrounded by water?" he shook his head, "Man... That's givin' me some serious perspective..." he shook his head, speeding back up, "Next thing you're gonna tell me Ice-Cream doesn't get driven here from China with trucks towing giant-sized refridga-ra-tors..." He continued on, shaking his head, then suddenly stopped, looking at Gladius, "Wait... I'm right about that one, right?"

(( Hooray for Season-1 references! Rikki told that to Darin when they were eating ice-cream bars and Darin wanted to know where they came from... "China's this big ol' factory where all sorts of stuff gets made by these human kids, and then it gets put in big boxes and driven out here by trucks, and that's how humans work." ))

"Ahehehehe....", Gladius laughed somewhat awkwardly, "You're kind of right in both accounts though. Here, I think I remember having a map in my notebook." he said as he started flipping through the little book he constantly wrote on, eventually flipping to a colored page with the map of the world. "Right now, we're somewhere in this place.", he informed pointing out to the continent of North America. "And where I used to work was located here.", he continued as he trailed his finger across the Atlantic towards the Middle East. Looking at the scaling ration on the map, Gladius tried to compute for the distance but quickly gave up, "Anyways to compare the size, I guess you can imagine this whole forest to be a dot on the map.", he said with high uncertainty. "Now as for China and the ice cream...", he then started before sharing a bit of his experience with sea based logistics.

After a few minutes of talking about imports and exports....

"So yeah, there are ice cream that comes from China through giant refrigerators carried by ships, but I have no doubt that there are plenty of American-made ice cream as well."

Acer tapped a few more times on the screen of his phone. “Well, there’s a lot. But in particular, there’s a pet store, a music shop, a game store...Ohhh, and even a hobby shop! I’ll definitely be going too in that case.”

Johnny grinned "Sounds fun!"
Jack nodded, smiling wide "The mall shall it be, then!"

(I noticed that most of you have colored text. I'm not sure what color would work for my characters, so I'll just stick with black for now, if that's alright. Well, without any further a due...)

Sergei sat on the corner of the street, a worn gray wallet resting in the palm of his paws. He noticed it was beginning to loose its color; the dark gray fading and giving way to a solid back. Adjusting his reading glasses, he began to open his wallet.
"Hey Sergei! Want to play a little fetch?"
Rook's voice caused him to jump and hastily throw his wallet closed.
"Uh... no thanks!" Sergei cried startled. The massive wolf sat down next to his Husky friend. "I've been watching you sit here for like twenty minutes. Is something wrong?"
Sergei only smiled as he slipped his wallet back under his collar.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Rook obviously didn't believe him, but he decided to change the subject.
"Well, dad says we gotta be doing something, otherwise we have to go back to helping him unload the van."
Sergei sighed and looked up at Rook.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to pass the frisbee a little."
Rook grinned.
"Great, I'll be right back!" Rook said, excited to no longer be bored.
Sergei couldn't help but smile as he watched his friend dig around inside one of the boxes marked "toys." Rook was beginning to sound like his old self again. Maybe this was a sign that things were going to get better.
Maybe... they could stop running.
"That's a relief. I was starting to run out of breath anyways," Sergei whispered to himself.
Rook returned with the frisbee, displaying a mouth full of sharp canines.
"You ready?" Rook asked, tossing the frisbee over to Sergei.
The husky smiled. "Hope you're not to rusty."
"I guess we'll find out..." Rook said mischievously, as he readied himself to receive the plastic disk. Sergei loaded up, and threw the frisbee. The disk reached nine feet before Rook leapt casually up to catch it. Rook bit down on the plastic disk, and soundlessly landed on the grass.
"You're going to have to better than that," Rook said, tossing the disk back.

The matter of destination was settled. Now, what remained was the food at hand. Max quickly went through his Banana split, finishing it off so they could get going soon. His little brother pretty much got ignored until he got done. An evil thought and grin crossed the cat's mind, but, he decided to be nice for once. A single piece of pineapple was left for the mouse to eat along with some of the marshmallow material and a small bit of ice cream. On top of that, the cat through in a napkin for the mouse to wipe himself off with and let that be that.

Inside the bowl, Nate didn't like his being shoved around, the icky feeling icecream or anything. That evil look the cat got didn't help, but, once all was said and done, he was happy at least for the bit of ice cream left to him and for the napkin. Once he'd eaten what was left and toweled off, he looked up to see more cats. It was almost enough to make him faint.

Stepping in quickly, Max caught the unsteady mouse and put him on his shoulder. "I'm ready whenever everyone else is" he said as he spun around to get up from the stool.

Danny stood up, slapping a few folded dollar bills on the counter, "Alright, let's get going!

Jack and Johnny finished their shakes quickly, paying for them, as they stood up
"We are ready!" Jack announced.

"Alright, lets go then" Max said, standing, paying and walking towards the door. He was ready to see something more of this place. Not to mention go to a mall without having to break in through its ventilation system.

Danny held open the door for the other pets
"After you gentlemen"

Jack and Johnny looked at each other for a second, then shrugged their shoulders and exited the bar

Sergei took the frisbee in hand, and grinned.
"See if you can catch this!" Sergei exclaimed, launching the frisbee. This time, the disc flew even higher than the last toss. Rook jumped to intercept, but the disk continued to sail. Both Rook and Sergei chased after it, laughing and playfully pushing each other to reach it. Suddenly, the disk dipped, and fell to the street. The plastic disk went straight for a nearby gutter. Rook, ahead of Sergei in this friendly race, noticed the disk's trajectory first, and attempted to scoop it up before it reached its target. The disk gracefully fell through the grates, and a feeling of disappointment filled the both of them.
"That was our favorite frisbee..." Rook moaned.
Sergei patted his friend on the back. "It was time that we got a new one anyways."
Something inside of Rook wanted to tear out Sergei's throat. But, he knew, or at least, he thought he knew, that it was just an honest mistake.
'Or was it? He knew darn well it was your favorite frisbee!'
'He did, but he had no idea that it was going to fall into the gutter.'
'Maybe he did! Maybe he intentionally threw it in this direction.'
'Accidents happen.'
'They do. That's why you should "accidentally" tear his lungs out.'
"No!" Rook screamed! "No I will not! You just shut up!"
Sergei reared back. "Rook?"
Rook gave his forehead a smack and shook himself.
"Sorry Sergei. It happened again."
Sergei nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. He was hoping that they weren't going to have to call dad... Nicholas again.
"Now what do we do?" Rook asked, scratching his head.
"Well, why don't we head to the mall? Nicholas said they have here. We could grab something to eat and get you a new frisbee."
Rook's tail began to wag at the thought of food. Especially if the food was burritos.
He'd kill for a good burrito right about now.
"Let's do it then!" The both of them ran back towards the house.
"Nicholas! We're headed to the mall!" Sergei called through the open front door.
"Don't get into trouble Sergei! You too Rook!" Nicholas's heavy Russian accent called back lightly.
"We won't!" Rook replied back.
Smiling once again, the wolf and the husky shot off towards the commercial part of the community.

Outside the bar, Max looked up and down the street to see what other shops were there... Just in time to see a dog and a wolf coming their way. He had no fear towards either, as, when he'd been a mouse, wolves had no reason to go after him. He simply hadn't been worthwhile prey. If the wolf had been feral, he probably wouldn't have cared or felt any more at risk.

Nate, on the other hand, kept to his typical terror-filled thought patterns and imagined the wolf as a problem. He squeaked in terror and hid himself in the cat's fur, digging in as tightly as he could.

"Huh, I didn't think we'd see a wolf in town" Max said to himself.

OOC: I figure rook and sergei would end up coming our way..

Sergei watched as Sergei became excited.
"Look Sergei! A cat! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Can we?"
Sergei shook his head.
"You know the rules. If we did so much as chase that cat, we'd be in a lot of trouble."
"Oh come on! Dad will never know we made friends with some of the locals."
"Rook. We can't afford to take any risks. And it's Nicholas, not dad."
Rook rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm still going to say hi."
"Don't..."
Before Sergei could stop his large lumbering friend, Rook was shooting off towards the cat exiting a nearby building.
"Rook! Erg!" Sergei, in frustration, quickly followed his wreck-less wolf friend.
'That wolf's going to get us both in a whole lot of trouble...'

Being charged by a running wolf. Max's attitude quickly changed as the last thing that ran at him wanted to eat him... Or wait, no, that was a girl who tried to pull out his tail at the animal shelter and then say she only wanted to brush it... Either way, BAD.

"Hey there!" He said, stepping back towards the building just in case the canine was going to run past them. "Where's the fire?"

Meanwhile Nate continued to squeak in terror. "Why couldn't you leave me with dad!"

Rook skidded to a halt, and grinned a big toothy grin.
"Hey there cat, I'm Rook!" The large wolf excitedly introduced himself, extending one of his massive paws in the cat's direction. Sergei ran up to his overly-friendly wolf friend, and put a paw on Rook's forearm. He wasn't tall enough to get a paw on his shoulder, but Rook knew what that meant.

Acer finished off the rest of his sandwich and hopped down from the bar. As the cats left, he just trailed behind them, once again lost in his thoughts. He scanned the stores they passed with a distant expression up until two very large dogs ran up to the group. “A wolf, In this area? Interesting...” Acer stood off to the side as the much bigger dogs introduced themselves.

Jack and Johnny were standing by the wall, curiously looking at the newcomers, waiting. Johnny had already prepared a stunt trick to scare them off if needed - a small vial in his paw and lighter in Jack's paw, ready to be grabbed at any time. Both their paws weren't visible from the wolfs and dogs point of view, but the twins were ready to hide the stuff in a matter of seconds. They weren't sure what to expect from the canines, although they weren't afraid. They were experienced on the matter - patience is a virtue.

"I'm Max" the cat said, stepping foward and shaking the paw. "I didn't even know there were wolves in the area... And who's your friend?"

Sergei shyly cleared his throat, and stepped up next to his friend.
"I'm Sergei," he answered, his voice quiet.

"Pleased to meet you two, I'm Danny. we're on our way to the mall if you want to come with."

Since the things were going smoothly with the intervention of the smaller dog, the twins quickly hid the lighter and the vial. then they both gave the dog and the wolf a light bow and introduced themselves:
"Greetings, Rook and Sergei! I'm Jack" the green eyed cat said
"And I am Johnny" his blue-eyed twin said