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Post by Lucca on Jun 17, 2010 12:00:40 GMT -5
Dessert did sound really, really good, and Mirriam tried to put it out of her mind so she wouldn't have to get hungry thinking about it. But she couldn't help it; the visions of all those strawberries and blueberries and...and peaches all in a flaky, delicious crust...she licked her lips longingly.
Luckily, it was quickly forgotten as she tried so hard to remember what the handbook said. She remembered one thing...it said to always take the handbook with you when you went anywhere. But when you had wings, it was rather difficult to carry around the rather heavy manual everywhere...the little Bat's ears drooped a bit, but they perked up as Joel's memory served him better than hers.
"I think the moss is if you get lost in the woods," she said, blinking brown eyes at the Corvie, but she didn't add to that as Joel went on, wanting to be a good listener. She grinned widely. "Yeah...yeah, that's right! So we just need to find someone who can help us get back. Maybe like, a superhero! A superhero who is an adult." She'd never met one, well except for that nice lady back at Court who had the garden, but there had to be some around, right? And if not, a police officer would certainly do the trick.
Now that they had a plan, Mirriam took off again, fluttering own near Joel. "Good job 'membering, Joel. Where do you think the police Cards like to patrol near here? If I were a police officer..." She thought about it, tilting her head as she fluttered a bit down one of the side streets. She'd probably go somewhere there were helpless Cards that needed her protection...like the park! ...the park they couldn't find. Well that was out...
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Post by Harpsdesire on Jun 18, 2010 12:29:57 GMT -5
"If I Were a p'lice officer, I would be where the Bad Guys are, so I could catch them." Joel imagined himself with a shiny badge on his chest, snapping a pair of silvery handcuffs on an evil doer. But where were the Bad Guys? After only a moment's thought he realized: "And mostly, Bad Guys are in the outer bazaar."
This was not an especially helpful thought, because not only was he instructed to never go there without a parent, he also had no idea in which direction it was located. ".....Buuuuut I don't really know where that is, anyway." He kicked a pebble on the sidewalk, discouraged and increasingly frightened as the hopelessness of the situation became more apparent. Still, it wouldn't do to show his new friend, a girl, no less, that he was scared.
"M-maybe we should just wait here for a police patrol to come by. We could play while we wait."
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Post by Lucca on Jun 19, 2010 17:16:34 GMT -5
"Oh, yeah! Yeah!" Mirriam agreed, brightening up again. If they just found some Bad Guys, they could find a police officer, stopping them! And the Bad Guy would be where there were Good Guys to steal from and attack and whatever else Bad Guys always did. Talk about how much their evil plan was going to work, she supposed. "Well, sometimes they rob stores too. So let's just find a store!" To her, that sounded a lot easier than finding the Outer Bazaar, and a lot less boring than waiting around (or perhaps she hadn't heard this last suggestion; it was a bit hard to tell).
"Come on, Joel, I think I know where a store is!" Mirriam tugged excitedly on her friend's arm, and then fluttered in the direction she heard a lot of people and smelled something yummy, little leaf nose twitching. It turned out to be a busy street of shops, and what she'd specifically oriented to was...a doughnut place. "I bet some bad guys are around here somewhere!" Mirriam called happily, trying to ignore her stomach growling at the yummy smells. Of course, by this point she'd forgotten that they were actually looking for police officers, and that the whole reason for finding bad guys was only as the means to an end.
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Post by Harpsdesire on Jun 22, 2010 14:05:55 GMT -5
"Hey, that's a good idea." Finding a store shouldn't be that hard, and if it was a cool store, there was at least a pretty good chance there would be a robbery in progress, with police officers and Bad Guys everywhere. There were lots of stores in the city. They had probably already passed a few, although none that sold anything so interesting as to attract his attention, like candy or toys.
Joel gave in to Mirriam's tug (the petite bad would not have been able to budge him otherwise) and followed her down the street until they came to a small storefront. Mmm, donuts. The scent of baked goods hit him like a warm, sugary wave. Joel's tummy grumbled audibly, and he giggled at the silly noise. "Our tummies are talking!" He was hungry, but at least for the moment his focus on the search for Bad Guys (and the inevitably accompanying officers of the law) distracted him. "Now where do you think the bad guys are?"
The small shop looked peaceful, and in fact quite empty apart from the bipedal canine who stood behind the counter, looking somewhat bored by the current lack of customers. There was not a single bad guy in sight... unless the shopkeeper was not just a shopkeeper, but ALSO a bad guy?
No, probably not. Robbers, Joel knew from picture books, wore little black masks over their eyes. Evil villains wore capes, or at least had silly-looking mustaches. The canine was wearing an apron, which was probably the most un-bad-guy-like garb imaginable. His nose wrinkled in disappointment. It had seemed like such a good plan.
Of course, it never occurred to the child to simply ask the shopkeeper (who he had already determined was probably not evil) for directions. He looked at Mirriam a bit mournfully... then pressed his nose against the window, looking at the doughnuts even more mournfully.
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Post by Lucca on Jun 22, 2010 15:45:46 GMT -5
Mirriam giggled as Joel's stomach also growled, even louder than hers! " They're quite angry at us, I guess, for not finding food yet!" She gazed longingly at the jelly doughnuts...they were her very favorite! Especially if they were still warm...oh! But there was no time for thinking about food, they had a mission! Her ears moved, panning around and trying to listen for any sign of close movement, but the street was rather deserted this time of day. " Well, they might have a secret hide out inside the doughnut shop!" she told Joel in a stage whisper. She'd read a comic book like that once! So in that case... " All we have to do is hide and wait for them to come out!" So saying, the Bat darted behind a rather sorry looking bush that was meant to add some flair to the shop's front, trusting that Joel would join her or else dive into the matching bush across from her, since there was only so much room in one bush and Joel was, after all, a large individual. Brown eyes peered out from between the leaves, and she suddenly saw someone approaching the shop! He was tall, and dressed in a police uniform...maybe he was hunting the bad guys, too! Wait a minute...Mirriam's head tilted. They'd wanted to see a police officer for something, hadn't they? She looked over at Joel, hoping his memory was better than hers. Figures that the station had run out of coffee. Figures that he'd actually been involved in something and so couldn't just go back home and sleep, like he wanted to. The Goat's ears were pulled back unhappily and he was wearing his normal stony expression as he pulled open the door to the shop. This was the third place he'd tried, and if they, too, made some pinheaded excuse why they couldn't just give him a damn cup of coffee...  ((ooc: I HAD to. XD LOL.)) |
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Post by Harpsdesire on Jun 23, 2010 9:39:27 GMT -5
"Yeah, they sound pretty grumpy!" He agreed with a grin, patting his belly with a paw. His head tilted to one side as he considered Mirriam's plan. It seemed reasonable, so he stage-whispered back, "Okay!" then dove behind the second bush with an action-hero style roll in the mulch. To his slight dismay, this resulted getting tangled in the bush's lower branches with his limbs in an ungainly heap, rather than ending up in a cool, ready-for-anything crouching pose. At least this failure was mostly obscured by the bush itself. Joel scrambled upright and settled himself in time to see a uniformed policeman approaching the shop.
He pointed excitedly at the officer, giving Mirriam a grin from around the side of the bush. Apparently, he had been totally wrong about the apron, which was actually a clever disguise intended to throw police and super heroes off the trail. There were bad guys in there after all! Why else would a police man be going into a donu-- oh. Right.
At any rate, this particular police officer looked unusually grumpy. Suddenly he thought he knew what Mirriam had meant by 'horrible aura'. It seemed best to wait to ask directions until the officer had either triumphed over the bad guys or eaten a doughnut. Joel assumed that either one would improve his mood considerably. When the shop's door had closed behind the goat with a chiming of bells, Joel popped out from his hiding place and smiled, "As soon as the bad guys are caught, we can ask him to take us back to the park!"
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Post by Lucca on Jun 23, 2010 10:04:36 GMT -5
As Mirriam met Joel's eyes across the way in the other bush, the Deer-Cat was pointing excitedly at the officer with the large horns. This confirmed the Bat's thoughts that yes, they had wanted a police officer for something. And now they'd found one! She knew it was a good idea to come to this shop! She could barely contain herself as she watched the officer vanish into the shop, and fairly leapt out of hiding the moment the ringing of the bell faded from the air around them.
She nodded eagerly at Joel, rubbing slightly at her wing where it had apparently caught on a branch, but not enough to do any real damage. "Yeah! Yeah that's a great idea! Sprouts triumph again over the perils of being lost!" She raised one wing and leapt into the air, as if giving someone an invisible high five. Then, wondering how well the cop was doing with finding the bad guys' hideout, she peeked through the glass on the door to see what was going on, pressing her little leaf nose to the surface and blinking wide brown eyes at the scene inside.
--
Aberforth, unaware he had an audience, wasted no time in moving right up to the counter, hooves echoing oddly on the tiled floor. He brought out some coin and threw it on the counter and said, without deliberation, "I need a coffee. Black."
He stood, watching the man through dull pink eyes, as he got to fixing the coffee. It even seemed to be a fresh pot, which was certainly an added bonus. Maybe this day was going to be all right after all--the Goat froze as he felt suddenly odd, like he was being watched...what had followed him here? With his paranoid mind already cooking up all sorts of various scenarios, he tensed, ready for anything...but he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of knowing he knew, yet. Especially not before he even had his coffee!
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Post by Harpsdesire on Jun 23, 2010 19:46:41 GMT -5
Joel was very pleased with his new friend's enthusiasm. He offered up a large paw for a real high five, his hunger and tiredness forgotten. His idea about the police and bad guys had worked out, and he was feeling quite cheerful now that it was looking like they would be saved. "The Green Team is victorious!" He agreed, striking what he hoped was a dashing and heroic pose.
With a happy bounce, he joined Mirriam at the window, nose pressed to the glass just a little to the side (and above) hers. "I think he's going to arrest the doughnut lady! Maybe. Maybe he has real handcuffs!" He couldn't hear what the Tulgey goat was saying, but from the look on his face it was very, very serious. The shopkeeper even looked a little scared, Joel thought. He hoped the canine wasn't actually an innocent bystander about to get caught in the crossfire as the bad guys came out from their hiding places and revealed their dastardly plans.
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Post by Lucca on Jun 23, 2010 22:23:00 GMT -5
Oooh, an actual high five was even better, and Mirriam happily met his large paw with her little wing claw. And it worked well, despite the potential awkwardness of her limited limbs. "Yes!" she cried, also striking a heroic pose. Which mostly involved one wing in the air, her other wing held rigidly behind her like she was about to take off, feet in an action stance, and head held high. Of course, she couldn't hold it for long, but that was all right.
She watched curiously as the Goat approached the counter. He was very white...oh! He was a Tulgey! That was pretty cool, though she knew they were sometimes a little mean. But this one must be friendly because he was a police officer! "You think?" she asked, turning to Joel. "Oh, I'm sure he has handcuffs. But he hasn't used them yet...maybe the Donut maker is just an accomplice! Or maybe doesn't even know about the bad guys living in the shop, and the police man is there to give a warning!" Mirriam's words are a bit muffled, as she keeps her nose pressed against the glass even as she responds to her friend.
--
The prickling on the back of his neck was getting worse, and the Goat twitched an ear, the growing sense of unease and suspicion in his belly not helping him feel better at all. But wasn't the just his luck, really, that it would be on an innocent and drawn out quest for coffee that something would lie in wait to jump him?
It was a note of how tense he was that he nearly swung his horns at the shopkeep when handed his coffee. Instead, he just tipped the cup, downing half the scalding hot beverage right on the counter, before whirling around to see--to see two children with their snotty noses pressed up against the glass. Not quite what he expected. Closing his eyes for a moment and letting the lovely caffeine filter in, the Goat picks up the rest of the coffee and heads for the door, hoping the kids will get the idea and move out of the way.
Though, Aberforth actually tends to tolerate kids a lot more than he can tolerate most other Cards. A lot of them haven't yet been corrupted by the horrible society they live in. Though their blissful ignorance is rather tiring sometimes.
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Post by Harpsdesire on Jun 25, 2010 19:55:19 GMT -5
"Yeah." Joel was just a tiny bit disappointed when the police man concluded his business without criminal showdowns, arrests or even doughnuts. Just coffee. Blech, coffee. Like most small children, he found the beverage unbearably bitter. "I guess he can't find the badguys." He thought about this a moment, "Or maybe they just aren't in their hideout right now, and he's staking out the shop." The more likely, but much more boring possibility that the officer was here for a routine coffee run crossed his mind, but was quickly dismissed as the bakery door swung open.
"Mister police officer, sir!" Joel waved and called to the Tulgey, combining all the polite titles for adults he could think of into what he considered the ultimate respectful greeting. There was no way this police man could be mad at him, no matter how grumpy-looking he might been. Joel had said 'sir'!
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