Housepets!

Sid looked at the giant-ferret-thing which ran back up to them. "Um... Hi wild ferret-thing... What're you doing this far from the forest...?"

---------------- At the Station where it's always fun... ----------------
Jack chuckled a little more, "Yes, blankets are fluffy too, and you know what else is fluffy? Puppies!" He cuddled Darin more.

(( So much Darin cuddling. Does this make Neko happy? ))

Pifer stood in the shower for a moment, water dripping off of him. He watched as Rikki jumped out, and then followed cautiously. The weasel shook as much water off as he could and grabbed one of the large cloth strips that Rikki had taken. He stared down at it, confused at what it was for. "Erm..." Pifer looked up at Rikki, then down at the cloth. "What is this?"

-----Still Peeping-----

"Guys, m-maybe we should... Leave? Before they come out and find us?" Ian suggested, electing a frantic nod from Terry. "For once, I agree with shy-guy. No one likes to be spied on." Thankfully the subject was changed as the noises from the basement returned. They jumped up and ran after Frank, wondering what could be causing the explosions. "Sam's down there?!"

"Zeke you're fine I think you just hit your foot or something," she turned her attention to Frank. "Oh, hey Frank. I didn't know you were here."

-------

Darin laughed, squirming around in Jack's arms. He pulled the towel over himself in an attempt to hide from Jack.

Rikki walked over to Pifer, his towel over his shoulders, "You rub yourself dry. Here, lemme show you..." he took Pifer's towel and wrapped it under his arms, rubbing it side to side as he slid it downwards. "See?" he asked as he dried.

---------------- Fun at the Station... ----------------
Jack Ruffled Darin's headfur through the towel until it fell off, then he picked him up again and carried him into the bedroom, laying back on the bed, unwrapping the towel, and setting Darin on his chest. He sighed, "You're such a nice puppy to have around. I'm gonna miss you when we bring you back to your parents..."

Darin snuggled against Jack, "Oooh, I'll miss you too....You could always visit us! You can visit with Mr.Raccoon and we can play fetch!" He smiled at Jack with his tail wagging.

Pifer stood stock-still as Rikki dried him, not wanting to make an even bigger fool of himself. After a second or two, Pifer turned and took the towel from Rikki. "I-I can take it from here." He said sheepishly. Pifer ran the towel over his body, making his way up to his head. As he rubbed the water out of his headfur, he looked at Rikki from under the cloth. He had been making an idiot of himself since they got here, and yet Rikki never missed a beat. Pifer sighed, frustrated with himself. "Hey... Rikki?"

-----The Bomb Squad-----

"Sam!" Ian called down. "It's Ian! From yesterday! What's going on down there?" Terry gave Ian a suspicious look. "Sam? Who's Sam?"

Rikki was finishing himself off, sticking the towel between his legs and drying himself down there, "Yeah Pifer?"

---------------- Station, Station, Station... ----------------
Jack chuckled down at the pup, still stroking him gently, "We'll see about that little guy..." He ruffled the fur on Darin's back with both hands for a second, then went back to stroking him.

((@Jofoxx: Sam, Zeke and trinket are at the top of the stairs that lead to the basement))

Sam looked up to see Ian and another cat. "What happened? I have no idea...I think something exploded."

-------

Darin snuggled against jack, nuzzling his shirt enjoying the petting. "Mmmm...." He closed his eyes, feeling nice and relaxed. "Jack, are the humans going to make our pack move somewhere else? I don't wanna move anywhere else..."

RockstarRaccoon wrote:Sid looked at the giant-ferret-thing which ran back up to them. "Um... Hi wild ferret-thing... What're you doing this far from the forest...?"

Kylie was surprised by this other cat. What's he wearing? "Looking for stuff," she turned to the cat that fell, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, just a little sore," Kytes said as he rubbed his back.

Kylie turned back to the "weird" cat, "What's with the... that?" She motioned to the thing he was wearing.

Jack sighed, "I dunno Darin, there's alot of things that can happen to them. They might be moved to another preserve, they might be sent to a closed enclosure where people can watch them, there's no saying what might happen. I'm sure everything will be fine, we just have to wait for now though..."

---------------- While all this was going on, you're probably wondering what happened with Taku and Melinda... ----------------
Melinda was unwrapping the bandages from Taku's face. He let out whimpers of pain as she did so, unsure if he still wanted this. The last layer was red, caked in blood. She threw the bandages out, taking out the tube and setting next to the new bandages...
"Alright Taku, be careful here: your skull is still healing, and you could break it again if you do anything too rough. Now, how much does it still hurt?"
Taku limply opened his mouth, muffling his words, "I' hurr's alawt, mah holl hed, lie' is ben spit ehn too."
Melinda carefully deciphered what Taku was trying to say, "Yeah, Taku, I had to open part of your muzzle to stem the bleeding. You really hit that door hard, was there something wrong with your muzzle before that?"
"Yah, a caat hi' meh it da faish wi' a me'al 'ing. 'ha' 'us 'here 'e foun' 'a 'uh' - 'a 'ulf 'uh'" he was having trouble making alot of the necessary words.
"Alright then, he probably cracked it and you didn't realize it. That explains why your nose broke so easily. Now, is there anything else you need to tell me?"
"'ah 'och 'ouch 'ee fuu' eh oo'"
Melinda stopped. She had no idea what Taku was trying to say. "Hold on Taku..." she wheeled her chair back to a bookshelf, finding and pulling the anatomy book she wanted. She looked at the index and flipped to the page as she wheeled back to the table, setting it down next to Taku. It was open to a cross-section of a raccoon's skull, "Alright Taku, point to where the problem is."
Taku immediately pointed to an opening behind his nose. "ech fuu' eh oo'"
Melinda's eyes widened a bit, "Your Jacobson's Organ is full of blood?"
Taku nodded, he didn't know what a "Jacobson's Organ" was, but the constant sense of being surrounded by nothing but his own blood was really bothering him.
Melinda sighed: if his blood had dried in there, she might have to open him up again to remove it, which wasn't something she wanted to do so soon. This could be a long night...


---------------- Back at the party... ----------------
"What's with the what? You mean the jacket?" Sid looked down, "I like it: you can keep all sorts of stuff in it and it keeps you dry in the rain. Why? I'm guessing you wild-animals don't see clothes too often?"

"I don't," Kylie stated as she looked around. "Why's there so many animals here? Don't most humans only have a few animals?"

Meanwhile, Kytes went over to the cooler, watching his step, and got a Coke. He took a drink and walked back to Sid and the weasel.

"Oh, most of us don't live here. Apparently it's some sort of party, probably because they just moved in or something." He saw Kytes, "Oh, coke sounds good..." He walked to the cooler, calling over his shoulder, "I'm Sid by the way."

"Kylie," she turned to the other cat. "And?"
"Kytes," he took another drink. "I'm guessing you don't know many others here, do you?"
"Nope, do you?"
"Not really"

"I wouldn't expect you to," Sid said, coming back with two cokes, "I'm surprised you came in here, with all these people around." He popped one open with his teeth, offering the other to Kylie, "Have a coke. Is this your first foray into the development?"

RockstarRaccoon wrote:"I wouldn't expect you to," Sid said, coming back with two cokes, "I'm surprised you came in here, with all these people around." He popped one open with his teeth, offering the other to Kylie, "Have a coke. Is this your first foray into the development?"

"Yeah," Kylie said, taking the can. She stared at it for a second. "Uh..."
Kytes laughed, "You pull on the little tab."
Kylie shook the can around looking for the tab, "This?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn-"
Before Kytes could finish, Kylie had already pulled the tab open. The soda burst out from the can, towards Sid. "Oops..."

Robert saw what happened and grabbed a hand towel from the sink and ran it under a running tap, squeezing out the access water and heading over to Sid. "Hey there buddy lemme help ya out." Robert said, helping the cat get the sticky soda out of his fur. He looked at floor where some of the soda had sprung out to and chuckled. "You guys sure are having a good time eh?" Robert said as he kneeled down to their level and wiped the soda off the floor. "I'm Robert Shepard by the way, extending his hand to the cat and the weasel who bumped into his leg.

Shep and Joy were now on the same couch with Jacob and Enya. Shep was helping to dry off Joy from the rain when he snuffed the air and looked at Joy. "Joy, is it me, or do I smell gunpowder?" Shep asked, raising an eyebrow. He got up and walked over to the door, where some pets were.

Pifer stared as Rikki started drying his- I can't remember what I was going to say! Pifer just looked at the raccoon with a stupified expression, racking his brain. "Er-I-Um-Can't-Aaaaah...." Pifer trailed off, unable to rememb- "Oh! The pup! Can I see him again?!" He said suddenly, a little too excited.

-----EXPLOSIONS?!-----

Ian stared at the others, confused. "Ex...plosions?" Terry gave them the same look, thinking. Suddenly he gasped, hand in the air. "Why would they have bombs in the basement with all of these people? Maybe they're TERRORISTS!"

Rikki turned around halfway, grabbing his tail at the base with the towel, and rubbing it dry from there, "Huh? Oh, you wanna apologize to him? Sure, I guess you can come down to the station..." he trailed off. The last time Pifer was at the station was two years before, Rikki still had the image of him weeping over the body on the table... "Er... if you'd rather not come in though, I'd uh, understand..."

---------------- Outside the bathroom... ----------------
(( Uh... Thrasher... you might want to be a little more intuitive about when/how people might want to react... 'cause Sid's got PTSD, and throwing a towel over him like that is going to set it off... ))
Sid swore loudly and threw up his paws as he was blasted with soda, dropping his own on the floor where more soda gushed out of it. He let out a loud grunt of frustration: all he'd managed to do was get soda up his sleeves. He swore again, shaking his paws, "Now what-" swearing "-am I gonna do with this-" more swearing "-Jacket? GAHH!" He was trying to pull off his jacket when someone came up behind him with a towel. He struggled out from under it, resisting the flashback that would've made him claw the man's arm's to shreds, and fell over on the floor, sliding in the soda. He swore even more as he hit the ground and struggled onto his back, now dripping in the soda. He reached up for his glasses: still on and functional, though sticky, he'd need to clean them soon. He growled for a second, but calmed himself down. Sighing and swearing one last time as he got back to his feet. "Ugh... looks like I'm gonna need a shower..." He looked up at the man, who was introducing himself, seemingly oblivious, "Uh, yeah, I'm Sid. I was having an ok time until ferret-face here blasted me with soda. Now I'm gonna need to take a shower or something..." He looked down, wiping his sticky paws on his sticky sides and grumbling profanity under his breath more...

Pifer was quiet for a while. He stared at his feet with moist eyes as he dried his ears. After sveral seconds, the weasel tossed his towel onto the counter, reaching for his collar. "I think I can take it. It's time I payed Jack another visit anyway. I appreciate you asking thou- GAH!" He nearly dropped the collar as the dried mud moistened and ran down his hands. "I forgot about these."

-----Near the Basement-----

"It was just a joke..."

Rikki looked up, "Oh, I almost forgot about those. Here, grab your towel and we can use it to wash them a bit. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, since it's just mud..." He took Pifer's hands and rubbed the mud off of them before turning to the sink and pulling out his own collar with a towel. He was glad it was watertight, because he... oops... He pulled the now mud-drenched note off of the one pocket which didn't close. Oh well, Frank and Matt were at the party, he'd just find them and talk to them...

Pifer took his own collar in the towel and walked over to the sink alongside Rikki. He noticed the raccoon holding a waterlogged slip of paper. "Some kinda note?" He asked as he washed.

Jacob watched as Sid freaked out over the towel being put on him. He turned to Enya and whispered, "What the heck was that?"

"Yeah, it's from the guys that found the wolf-pup. That blue cat who got tackled was one of them. I need to talk to them before they leave..." Rikki crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash, finishing his collar and putting it back on. He looked at Pifer's, "So... Where'd you get that collar? I've seen it on you before, but I know you're not a pet, so..."

RockstarRaccoon wrote:---------------- Outside the bathroom... ----------------
(( Uh... Thrasher... you might want to be a little more intuitive about when/how people might want to react... 'cause Sid's got PTSD, and throwing a towel over him like that is going to set it off... ))
Sid swore loudly and threw up his paws as he was blasted with soda, dropping his own on the floor where more soda gushed out of it. He let out a loud grunt of frustration: all he'd managed to do was get soda up his sleeves. He swore again, shaking his paws, "Now what-" swearing "-am I gonna do with this-" more swearing "-Jacket? GAHH!" He was trying to pull off his jacket when someone came up behind him with a towel. He struggled out from under it, resisting the flashback that would've made him claw the man's arm's to shreds, and fell over on the floor, sliding in the soda. He swore even more as he hit the ground and struggled onto his back, now dripping in the soda. He reached up for his glasses: still on and functional, though sticky, he'd need to clean them soon. He growled for a second, but calmed himself down. Sighing and swearing one last time as he got back to his feet. "Ugh... looks like I'm gonna need a shower..." He looked up at the man, who was introducing himself, seemingly oblivious, "Uh, yeah, I'm Sid. I was having an ok time until ferret-face here blasted me with soda. Now I'm gonna need to take a shower or something..." He looked down, wiping his sticky paws on his sticky sides and grumbling profanity under his breath more...

"Hi Robert, I'm Kylie," she quickly said as she dropped the can and ran over to Sid. "I'm sorry. Ididn'tknowwhattodoanditjust-" she continued on, but she was speaking to fast to be understood.
Kytes snickered at Sid covered in soda. He grabbed a dry towel off the counter and held on to it for Sid if he needed it. He looked at Robert, "We've already met, Mr. Shepard."

Sid held out his paw to stop the weasel, "Don't worry, I just gotta take a shower." He looked over at Kytes, "Hey, C'mon, help me find the shower. I'll use that when I'm done... You can come too Kylie..." He turned and started walking off as Robert cleaned up behind him.

Pifer gave an understanding nod, drying off his collar. He looked down at the silver collar, studs gleaming. "This old thing?" He said with a shrug. "I found it in a pile of garbage a few years ago. It was in rough shape, but nothing a little spit shine couldn't handle." The weasel clipped the collar on with a *snap*. "It keeps the animal catchers off my back." Pifer stared off into space for a moment, adjusting his collar. "Hey, Rikki." He said. "Thanks for sticking around with me after I- Out there..." He looked up at Rikki, tears streaming. "It means a lot." He choked out.

Rikki looked at Pifer for a second, a little surprised, before pulling him into a hug, rubbing his back. "It's ok man, I understand, it's hard for you. You just gotta learn to move on..."

RockstarRaccoon wrote:Sid held out his paw to stop the weasel, "Don't worry, I just gotta take a shower." He looked over at Kytes, "Hey, C'mon, help me find the shower. I'll use that when I'm done... You can come too Kylie..." He turned and started walking off as Robert cleaned up behind him.

Kylie and Kytes followed Sid. "I was going to warn you, but..." Kytes whispered to Kylie. She just looked down while walking behind them. Kytes ran up to Sid, "Is that it?" he motioned toward a door that had a sound of running water from behind it.

Trinket was still clinging to Zeke when he realized that there were voices...he quickly sat up and threw his hands behind his back. "What happened...?" Trinket's ears were still ringing. "Uh... Zeke and I decided to wander down there, but the lights were out. We fumbled around for a bit, trying to look for a light-switch, but when I flipped it on...well...it blew up and sparks flew about. I think a spark ignited something, and that set off some bullets or something..." Trinket flopped on the ground. "I'm glad we're alive!"

Pifer Buried his face in Rikki's shoulder, his chest convulsing violently. "I-I can't..." he managed to say between sobs. "I can't explain why. I have no reason." Pifer was silent for a while, even his sobs gone. Then, the weasel jerked, throwing Rikki's arms off. He glared up at the raccoon, but not with the same eyes. His normally violet irises were a deep red, and his jaw was set in a snarl. "What do you care?! You just want me to forget about her!" He gave a deep, guttural growl, his teeth showing, but as quickly as the rage had come, it was gone. Pifer backed into the door, sliding down to sit against it. "I-I'm sorry... You didn't deserve-" He clutched his head in his hands. "What is wrong with me..."

Matt came back in and re-wrung out his shirt.
"Ha! I knew it! That lightening rod WAS a bad idea!" he said at Trinket's explanation. He walked back to the bathroom, which he assumed everyone was still at. He was surprised to find the area empty of his party save for some yelling from inside the bathroom and a cat with gigantic sunglasses, another cat, and a weasel.

He ignored them in favor of eavesdropping on the yelling.

------

"That... sounds dangerous," said Frank, scratching an ear. "Ehh... so. You with the trinkets and such. What's your name? I'm Frank, Frank Holiday."

Rikki had tensed, ready to subdue Pifer when he lost control, but calmed when he slumped against the door. He went over and sat down next to him, tentatively bringing him back into a hug. "Pifer, you need to get a hold of yourself. You're losing it man. We're in the worst place possible for you to be behaving this way, you gotta stay calm, alright?"

-------- Outside... --------
"Yeah," Sid said, "It sounds like someone's in there though, and I don't want to barge in on something..." He knocked on the door and called, "Hey, can we come in? I gotta use the shower..."

Rikki looked up at the door and called back, "Give us a second, ok?" He turned back to Pifer, "Look, Pifer, this isn't the time or place for this. You gotta hold it back for now, ok? Just, try and stay calm until we can go back to the woods. Everything's gonna be fine..." He gave Pifer another squeeze, before taking a towel and handing a clean end to Pifer to wipe his face off, "Alright? You ready to go back out?"

Darin opened his eyes to look at Jack. "An en-coshure? Why would people want to watch us..." Darin was confused about that, it didn't make any sense to the little pup.

---------
That's what that flash of light was... Sam stood up, offering her paws to Trinket and Zeke to stand up. "Wow, I'm glad too. I didn't think those were bullets going off..."

Zeke Ignored everyone else, and quietly examined his foot, checking that it was in one piece. when that was done, he looked over at Trinket. "He inst moving! Is he dead?" he looked over at Trinkets lifeless body.

Trinket raised up one arm, and pointed upwards with his finger. "...NOT dead," he proclaimed. Trinket sat up, talking. "I'm telling you, the spark probably set off the bullets somehow. I know there was some flying! One whizzed past my head! If Zeke didn't grab my arm and pull me down, I'd have a hole in my ear. Or head." Trinket shook with a little bit of fear. "I gotta find the ear banner before something like that happens again. Or maybe the day's almost over anyway. Still doing better than the bedspring incident, though...Zeke...you recall why we even came here, again?"

Frank cocked an eyebrow.

"BEDSPRING incident? How dangerous could BEDSPRINGS be?"

Zeke gave a sigh of relief. "Oh good, your not dead!" He was still shaking as he allowed himself to slip unconscious, only to be interrupted. "What? I dunno why were here... last I remember, We were looking for food though. maybe that's it?" he tilted his head. looking around at all the faces, he wondered what had just happened. He was still shaking, so it must had been bad.