2019-12-27 - A Very Kitty Yule III

Ignacio looks around and back to Finch, "Ya know, I never thought building a snow chicken would wear me out. That chicken's whoopin my ass." He grins to Finch and up at the sky, "Was a good idea, and, to top it off, we got some cloud cover so, I mean, it could be colder so we have that going for us." Yes he's wearing his Gran scarf with the chicken on one end and a book and quill on the other. Sooooo we got a week off unless there's a major outage. What do we want to do with it?"

Bennie queues up in the line for the Cider stand, still dressed in her gear from a double shift on the Rig. She's been pulling extra time through the holidays, much to the grateful appreciation of her coworkers whose shifts she's picking up. She looks a bit tired around the eyes, but her smile is one of anticipatory giddiness at splurging on a little treat before she heads 'home' for the time being. The fact that its alcoholic and hot? Bonus!

Cider! Finch wants cider! It's been a really great holiday season so far. Thanksgiving went great, Christmas was lovely, they got to make snow sculptures and be in a snowball fight. Sure some of the weather was awful, but that just meant curling up with Ignacio in front of a roaring fire with Gran and Miss Mags, and hot cocoa. Oh and two new additions. For Christmas, Granny Dove got Finch a pair of eclectus parrots. A red female and a green male (which is how they are colored naturally) named Lucy and Ricky. All around, fantastic.

"Well for starters, I want some cider. We can go from there," she quips back to her Spanish Peacock of a boyfriend, bundled up in her black parka with faux fur around the hood, dark gray beanie hat, gloves, jeans, and snow boots. She has one arm looped through Ignacio's as they stroll through the park.

Thew is a fan of cider, really, but he also likes apple juice like a fiend. Stepping up into the cider line, the town Gravedigger is in heavy coat, collars up, beanie pulled low, trying to go less noticed in the crowd. Hands jammed into his pockets he keeps his head down, eyes on the ground.

There are a number of kids around him, much to his chagrin. They were muttering about costs and not having any money and in passing he put a few tens into the hand of the ringleader, muttering, "For cider... don't... not. Not to be... hoodlums." and now they're waiting to see if they can get more, or see if creepy old Thew Moore will be weird and they can laugh at it.

Justin's already made his way through the cider line to get himself a mulled cider, which smells delicious and steams from its cup as he steps out of line, having come out to wander a bit after having spent a good deal of the past several days cooped up in the house. He has a warm wool coat on, navy blue, with a dark wine colored scarf wound around his neck, and he wears jeans and hiking boots to wander the snowy walks. Recognizing Bennie in the line, he gives her a little smile and says, "Hey, Bennie," in greeting.

Bennie's stomping her feet, as if she just can't quite seem to get the cold out of her bones while she's waiting for her turn to order. "Heeeeey, Justin." Because running into one of your ex's tight friends isn't awkward AT ALL. But she still gives him a wide beam of a smile and waves him over. "C'mere and keep me warm while I wait. I think my tits are about to fall off."

Ignacio is pretty easy going about these things and the cold doesn't bother him so much (which will be incredibly fortunate a couple days from now). An arm loops around Finch's shoulders and he pulls her over to give her a smooch to the top of her head. "Ya know, I think I can handle that request. And I definitely approve of the go from there part." Okay he might have a limp to give Gangstalicious a little bit of envy but he seems to not get too cocky about it. He gets to the line and pauses looking at the 10 year olds, "Yoooo yo yo dudes, it's the holidays. Guy's doing you a favor. How about a thank you?" He looks up to Thewlis as the kids, called out mumble like they do. He offers the looming gravedigger, "Pretty cool of you, man." Gracias.

The two Chinese women running the cider cart, Chen and Jie, are bundled up against the cold, but in good spirits. They're older, in their fifties, and part of a craft brewery in Hoquaim that makes a variety of local beers, root beers, and ciders. They greet each customer with a smile, ask after their New Year's plans, thank everyone as they send them on their way.

There's a bit of commotion among the snow sculptures. A little girl runs out screaming for her mom. One glove is half-hanging from her hand, torn and shredded. "Mooooooommmm! The kitty bit me!!!!!!" She's sobbing and terrified, but more frightened than injured.

Finch grins up at Ignacio but then her ears perk to the scream about a bitey kitty. The last kitty they dealt with was from Over There, and if that has gone all hissy and bitey, there could be an issue. "Maybe we should go take a look. See if it's that one little girl's kitty pal we helped." That got her her first plant friend a while back. She looks longingly to the cider stand, then sighs. "We can get cider after." She squints at the child with her torn glove. "She's not hurt at least."

Ignacio's address makes Thewlis jumps slightly, brows knitting. "It's... I. They're kids... Hot cider..." chewing at his lips, "It's. Day-nahta?" butchering basic spanish as he turns his head this way and that, too many people... He looks back at the ground. The screaming child draws a particular look from long, tall and stuttering though and he abandons the cider line without a second glass.

Long strides carry him towards the kid, making no quick motions, but he does sort of escort move until she's close to her mother. "I know... Aid... First... I" instinctively drawing a small white pocket pack with a red cross on it. Yes she doesn't look hurt, but she might have a little injury. He keeps a good three foot berth though, and looks to the child's mother with knit brows.

Justin doesn't seem particularly awkward about the meeting, himself, wandering over when she waves to him. He settles in next to her in the line and bumps shoulders with her, offering her a sip of his own mulled cider. "Want a sip while you wait?" he asks. He glances over at the shrieking child briefly, but only momentarily. "How are you doing?" he asks her. "Aside from any impending loss of.. extremities."

"...shoot." Bennie was really looking forward to that mulled wine and when Justin offered her eyes lit up like the a sparkly star at the top of a Christmas tree, but it will just have to wait. "C'mon!" She tells Justin, roping him into the commotion by linking an arm through his and giving an enthusiastic tug towards said shrieking child that might endanger the cup of warmed brew.

Ignacio pauses and looks up to Thewlis and says, "Si." He pauses and adds casually enough as eh and Finch notice the kid. His eyebrow goes up , "Ya know what, I got yours man." Looking to Bennie and Justin he asks, "You got yours, guy? And the hell, we'll get you too." It's fifteen bucks, not the end of the world. He looks to Finch and knows that look. He murmurs, "Make sure she's okay. Just don't make me chase you across the lot. I only got two hands." He drags himself up to the counter and counts out two tens and counts the bodies; two...one, and...her. "Four, please. Gracias." Turning to the side he asks Justin standing there, "Tore the end of her glove? How big was that kitty?"

Finch kisses Ignacio on the cheek before she jogs over to where the others have gone to check on the child. She wrinkles her nose a little. "What did the kitty look like? Maybe I can find him?" she offers to the child. She's less weird now that her hair is a normal color again.

"Kitties fight back when swatted at." he moves up to kneel in the snow before the child, gently removing the glove and drawing a small red sucker from a special compartment of the kit... and wonder of wonders he doesn't stutter when speaking to a child "It will... cleaning hurts. But if mom says ok, I keep a sucker in here for brave people?" it's a new sucker too, apparently he refreshes his kit regularly or he needs to. He is a gravedigger and grounds keeper.

A gauze pad, cloth tape, and packet of cleaning wipes come out, if the mother allows he hands over the sucker and goes to task cleaning and dressing the injury, looking up at the woman "Do... extra... for her hand. Gloves? Extra... gloves?" the adult, and a motherly figure - he looks like he is facing down an oncoming train.

"Yeah, I'm all set," Justin says to Ignacio just as Bennie gets ahold of his arm and starts dragging him off in the direction of the child, looking a little bit surprised. "I'm sure she's fine, looks like something just caught her glove." He doesn't fight the tug, though, going along with her with only that minor reassurance that things are probably fine. When the mother states it's just a scratch he says, "Well, that's good, that it's just a scratch. Cornered animals can sometimes get vicious. They're just scared."

"Thanks! You're a peach!" Bennie chimes up to Ignacio's offer. "Be right back." She says over her shoulder. Her head tilts conspiratorially towards Justin then, voice lowered just a titch. "We should probably find the cat, just in case we need to call animal control." The kid did admit to antagonizing the animal, but there is still the off chance the feral cat is a little too feral for the public park and then there is the threat of rabies. And the threat of Veil. Even though she's still wearing her GHFD EMT puffy jacket, she's content to leave over the tending of first aid to someone equally capable.

Ignacio waits on teh cider and sticks the change in the tip jar. He grew up in restaurants; tipping is paramount. Watching the group he asks teh ladies, can you hold on filling those a moment. I think we might be making sure there's not an injured cat around here or somethin." He heads over to where the gathered are, hands dropping in coat pockets and he listens, "Could be injured and scared. I think looking for it is a good idea in case it needs help."

Finch listens to the little girl with a gentle expression on her face. She's mellow to kids. Maybe because she's been feeling like one herself lately, after discovering her father. "We'll check on the kitty. You just get patched up, ok?" Then there comes that meow. And she straightens quickly. "That is a really big sounding kitten," she notes, exchanging a look with Ignacio before she begins heading towards those snow sculptures.

Once he's sure the dressing will keep in place Thewlis nods to the little girl, pulling a few cloth hankies from his shirt pocket. "You have your mom wrap your hand up with those and put your glove on. Will keep out the chill until you get home." Patting the child on the shoulder, and speaking to her without any of the kiddy talk tones. "Be careful around stra-" he pauses and looks up at the meow, brow knitting together and issuing a loud swallow.

"Alright," Justin says to Bennie when she suggests that they go and find the cat just in case, seeming fairly easygoing about the whole thing, and starts to look around in the direction that the girl came from to see if anything runs off. Then there's the meow coming from among the statues and he nods in that direction to Bennie, "Looks like it's over that way." He glances around at some other sound for a moment, but doesn't think much of it for the time being. He's a little more focused on looking for the cat at the moment.

Bennie used to think she could read people's auras but has long since learned it was her way of seeing someone's glimmer. She's not getting that feeling off the mom, so there's no guarantee that the lady will understand if this turns out to be something Other. Nor does Oakes know if animal control would even be equipped to deal with the thing that just made that yowl. "Um..let's just see if me and my friends can handle it first. Probably nothing to worry about and waste anyone's time over." She gives a Look to Justin at that noise like, 'here we go!'.

Ignacio listens and takes this in. He looks to Finch with that We can't take it home, we have birds look. "Fiiiiinch, Think of Mags." Oh yeah and the dainty very ladylike rat. What Ignacio lacks in physical prowess he makes up for i paying attention it seems. "Also you're not wrong, let's jsut not rush it in case and make sure we don't get collateral damage on any snowpeople or civilians." He pauses and consults himself on that one, "Snowvilians?" Anyways, Bennie said onward and Finch loves diving into shrubbery to save it. He falls behind his Battle ready Snow White to take a better look.

Finch stops when she sees the cat and, well, she may have anime heart eyes for a moment. Until Iggy has to go and remind her she has birds and rodents in her house and yard. "It could have its own enclosure," she whispers, mostly to herself. But she cocks her head to one side. "Is that a fucking lynx? That looks like a lynx cub." A BIG lynx cub. The glowy eyes seem to indicate it's not the sort of lynx that lives on their side of the Veil though.

"You... you're... I... You're welcome..." bowing his head a moment and giving a tight smile to the child before he starts after the other investigators. The sight of the cat "Yuh-yeh-yuhh-hheeehhs… Lynx..." frowning at the glowing eyes. "Wonder... I... who..." he goes quiet and watches the animal warily. "Bitey thing..." Thewlis's brow knits together. "Why?" Articulate. 10 of 10.

Justin is apparently in it for the ride as they come aroudn the corner and look in and amongst the snow lumps to find a big lynx looking kitten in the middle of it with the remains of the shredded glove "All evidence points to you, fuzzy. Did you get lost out here? And more importantly -- where's your mama?" Because where there is a baby, there is usually a mama, and from the size of that baby... He glances around, looking around the sculptures to see if there are any signs of a larger cat, or, up in the trees for that matter.

Bennie seems to echo Finch's anime heart eyes with her own little squeal at seeing the fluffy snow kitty, adding almost breathless with girly joy. "I would so come over and visit." Does Bennie know Finch? If only by sight and not directly, but that doesn't stop her from suddenly becoming her very best friend if Lynx adoption is on the table. "Soooomething tells me his mama is on the Other Side. Okay. What's our plan. Cuz my first instinct is to hug it, so I'm not sure we should be listening to me."

Ignacio lifts his hands, the voice of cautious reason, "Okay for one..." He looks at Fincha nd Bennie and sighs, "Maybe and ONLY if it wants to... we'll talk. I'm gonna look for Mama cat." He sighs and tarts to do a mental scan of things in the area trying to find who is close. "Could be hungry, and if we get too close the mama might think we're attacking or possibly abandon it and it probably can't afford counseling for that so...Yeah."

Finch 's head swivels around when her spirit senses an injury that isn't one of Ignacio's perpetual ones. "Oh little one, sit still a minute precious," she coos to the kitten. She crouches down and tugs her gloves off, weaving her fingers in the air as her spirit essence moves into the Veil kitty and begins to stitch up that wound with magic and LOVE. LOVE DAMMIT! "We need to get them to their momma."

Nommed on! Kitteh! Affection... NOT A PERSON. Thew actually looks fine with a kitty on his leg, kneeling down slowly while it clings and nips at him. It's adorable, he loves cats. It's true! But he doesn't flinch or flee. "Oh... you're just..." he dares to gently brush his palm across the back of it's neck, smoothing through the fur.

"Look at you... I'm going to call you Sprite... Little adorable thing." he's actually smiling... and might be considering keeping it if he can.

And then there were more cubs, and more, and then there were four. Justin watches as the kitten approaches them with hopeful meows. He crouches down and he extends one hand just down by his side and out a little bit to allow the cub to come to him and smell. He makes no attempt to touch them at all, and says, "Hey little guys. Where's your mama, hm? You sure do seem lost. We should see if we can figure out how to get you home." Then he looks over toward Ignacio and asks, "You're looking for the mother?" His expression turns curious then. "Can you find her?" He glances around, looking for tracks, or some more visible sign.

One of anything can be cute. When you start adding to their numbers? It can be unsettling. One bunny? Cute. A thousand bunnies? Forget that shit. Four (not so little) Lynx cubs seems a tolerable amount, but if any more are going to start pouring out from between snow mounds, Bennie might retreat and call in the calvary. "I'm more concerned about their momma coming to the middle of the park to find them. Let's try to coax them towards the woods?"

Ignacio stops and gets that look. He frowns and glances off into the middle distance with that same look EVERY human being gets when they're mentally tryig to sing their way to teh chorus of a song to remember the damn name of the thing. Slowly his brow furrows, "Uhhhh guys? Weeee may have toplay defense on this one. I htink I found... mama maybe? and something else it's... " How to find words for this stuff, "It's evading? But something might be hunting them? Mama might be trying to deal with that so... I guess don't look like you are trying to eat her children?!" He looks to Justin, and Thewlis. Got that? Good. He looks to Bennie and Finch and hopes for their sake restraint is possible in the face of unfiltered feral adorableness. As an after thought he takes on as a matter of fact notion, "Oh! Oh yeah and one might be trying to eat me. So if I am unable to respond?" He takes a deep breath trying to stay calm, "No. No I do not care to be kibbled today. So..." He nods slowly trying to keep his wits about him and looking for circling things numero dos. "So yeah."

"It better not be that bitch with the rifle from the Firefly," Finch growls. That mean lady was hunting Veil Utahraptors which Finch ALSO wanted to take home with her, go figure. "Point the way Iggy, we need to help mom, I don't think the cubs are old enough to survive without their mother."

Then there is that whistling shriek and she almost squeals. She knows that sound. "It's the raptor! One of the raptors. We need to herd her away from the cats! Iggy can you do that illusion thing? I'll try to head her off and help the mom." And there goes Finch, running to the rescue of things that will likely try to eat her.

When Finch takes off running he looks to the others. "Protect the cats.." more kids, in need of safety and then Thewlis is moving. Long legs carrying him after Finch at speed. He can't read minds, can't lift cars with his brain... But he can snap bones or heal them as needed. The lady running off like a psycho shouldn't go alone either, in his opinion.

When Finch and Thewlis take off, Justin stays behind with the kittens and tries to uh, herd cats, gently encouraging them to stay together. He's not sure exactly what he's protecting them /from/ at first, but he gets the impression that the protecting needs to happen. Unfortunately, he came armed for a walk in the park -- which means entirely unarmed. "Okay," he says to Bennie, "Let's see if we can encourage them toward the tree line." The tree line that seems to have gotten further away. He talks quietly to them "Okay little guys let's move toward mama, and the trees, hopefully." He starts to ease in that direction slowly, making no sudden moves.

That noise came from BEHIND her. Bennie's eyes go wide as saucers and the Blonde just freezes in place. "Did you say Raptor?" Bennie asks without spinning back to face Finch flee. No sudden movements! "Like Jurassic Park, hot version instead of cuddly version of Chris Pratt, Raptors?" Whinnne. She just wanted some hot tasty beverage. Slowly, very slowly, she starts to turn towards the sound of the noise and prepares to defend the furry. "OOOH! I have a pen light! It's not a laser pointer, but..." She offers to Justin, sloooowly reaching into her gear jacket to find it.

Ignacio pipes up, "Utah Raptor. Uhhhh deinonychus technically? Look it's a god damned dinosaur." He pauses and adds, "And we tried pretty hard to keep it alive- FIIIINCH... don't lose an arm trying to feed it if it's...the one that tried to shake me like a squirrel?" Man, nothing shakes this guys's tree. He sighs looking at the cats and looks to Justin I'll hang with you and hope we can keep mama away from us long enough?" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND...dothethingIggy... He blinks and looks around. dothething! He tries again. Nothing. He takes a slow deep breath and backs up towards the cats and tries to make their area look like a bunch of rocks with graffiti and snow on it. There. Totally normal right? Maybe? Any Jedi out there able to confirm? Here's to hoping.

Her pretty Murderbirds are back. Finch is so happy, and so trying to keep the humans and kitties alive. She looks over to a massive fir tree, towering more than 30 feet above them. She whispers silently to it, asking for it's aid, asking it to convince the raptors to go elsewhere for food today. And it uproots itself and begins to move.

Whirling at the sounds of other raptor, though keeping close to Finch while she goes all captain planet, Thewlis eyes the raptor about to see who is... in rocks? Who rocks? Either way his eyes flash and a look of anger precedes his hand snapping sideways in attempt to cut the major leg tendon, hoping he can impair walking if nothing else. He's in a flop sweat now, he's doing things, in front of people.

Justin is suddenly in a rock with the cubs and that seems to suit him just fine, though that very angry raptor looking like it's considering taking a bite out of the rock is somewhat disconcerting. He doesn't make a sound, just hunkering down a bit and backing up a little, as though to ease them back with him, staying within the illusion but putting a little distance between them and the angry mirrorchicken.

"I think we're holding down the fort." Bennie tells Justin, as she takes a little step backwards and slowly sinks down to a knee amidst the illusion and meowling cubs, "I guess now's a good time to have that fun conversation of, Oh you Glimmer? Me too! Normally I'd be able to tell, but Justin your aura is all over the place, all swirling bits of blue and yellow and red. And you're like, totes red mister." She said to Ignacio. "Oh cripes. Are we supposed to be quiet too?"

Ignacio gets wide eyes and his heart is racing. He looks to Bennie and points CAT!. He inches closer to them and whispers, "Can you make sure teh cats are all healed up. Keep them calm cause she...is pissed?" He looks back wiping his hand over his face nodding slowly, "And... and not at us. Just the drumsticks that bite back."

Oh no. It's nature, well, Veil Nature, so Finch can't really fault it, but she may have tears in her eyes as the mama kitty makes a snack out of one of her beautiful raptors. She grimaces and urges her tree friend to shoo the other raptor in an effort to save it from a similar fate.

Seeing the big cat, and trying to get his bearings, Thewlis watches the mother roar and leap at the avian sauropods. Blinking as something springs to mind "Wait..." he rips the hat off of his head and turns to Finch, shoving the hat into her hands if he can "Merry Christmas!" yes it's the day after... "Scratching Post!? They're..." Thewlis frowns again silent as he works to affect the fortunes of the, "Yule cats?"

This friggan town.

Holy Shit, that is a cat the size of a Buick, and while Justin's eyes grow, and grow, to his credit, he does not let out the strangled noise that threatens to break free of his throat at the size of that raptor getting shaken about like a canary by the giant beastie. It's the mewing of the cubs that continue to cling to them that manages to shake him out of his stunned silence. "Look," he manages, a little shakily, with perhaps the tiniest bit of a squeak in his voice. "Mama's here. It's going to be okay." For them, sure. For the two-legged contingent, he's not sounding so confident. Then he looks over at Bennie and says, "Oh, uh.. yeah.. I guess it would appear that way, wouldn't it?"

"I'm...I'm honestly not sure who I'm supposed to be rooting for." Bennie admits quietly as she reaches out to hug one of the excited cubs towards towards her side as the injured Raptor screeches, trying to settle them with carefully placed pets because she likes all her fingers right where they are. "If something breaks through, though, I can likely safely put them to sleep without much long lasting damage." Maybe momentarily shutting off blood flow so they pass out? Whatever! Reassurance!

Ignacio holds his hands up as the tree is chasing the other raptor off and, what you'd think he's been stopped by the cops before. This is followed by his backing up slowly. "Heeeey Mama, they're okay. Just kittin sittin'." He backs up and looks to Bennie or Justin, "Uhhhh any ideas?"

Finch blinks at Thewlis and takes the hat from him. "Yule cats?" It takes her a moment to dredge up that bit of folklore. "Oh shit!" she hands Thewlis her gloves in exchange. "Iggy has a scarf from my Gran. I dunno about the other two though!" Her giant tree goes back to settle in its former spot. "If you aren't wearing gifted clothing exchange something now!" she calls back towards the rock.

She looks sadly after the fleeing raptor. "If you left when I warned you off they'd still be alive!" she calls after it. Then she looks at the one on the ground and moves over to see if it can be helped, or if it's too late for that.

Rushing towards the rock that is not a rock any more, looking at Bennie and Justin, and unsure if they're safe. Thewlis whips off his jacket and hucks it at the blonde girl once he's in range, and to Justin he hurls his belt. "Happy Holidays!" Saving lies with jackets and pants holders. That's the Thewlis way.

Justin looks completely confused by the sudden assault with a gifted belt but he catches it and then takes his scarf off and tosses it to Thewlis in return. "Um, Merry Christmas?" There's a certain urgency in Finch's exclamation and Thewlis' reaction that Justin just decides to play along with, because he can ask questions later when there isn't an enormous mama cat looking at them like they're a food group. When mama cat moves forward, Justin steps back from the kittens. "Look, there's mama. Go to mama." He urges the kittens gently, not that they've done anything he's said so far, but that's not going to stop him from trying.

"Uh...thanks?" Bennie chirps at Thewlis, "I missed something, didn't I?" She says as an aside to Justin as she bundles up the jacket into a ball at her stomach and sloooowly rises to her feet. Wait, Yule cats? Gifted clothing? Only in Gray Harbor. "Yeah, I say we just back off real slowly like, and let mama come get her babies. Maybe she'll be on her way instead of deciding we're tasty desserts."

Ignacio blinks. "I'll be honest I have no fucking Idea what's going on here, lil fluffball but if you don't go back to your mama I'm going to get eaten cause my girlfriend is going to try to adopt you and hug you forever maybe. Honestly it's not a bad gig, buuuut I ain't ready to trade. So you go with mama, alright and... be careful." It gets a little pet on its noggin and he backs the hell away. He smiles to Justin and says, "No idea either man, but our cider's done and if you need another I think now is a good time for a second." And with that he baaaacks away suuuuper slow like certain Finch will explain it eventually.

The whisker draws Thew's attention. Kneeling down to pick it up and frown in consideration... He needs to see if someone has a cat allergy... He also needs to buy a new coat...