Kitty, Harps, Lucca, Lauryn

[Nathalia]

((The blob under Cal’s claws just barely wriggles away, scorching his poor paws!
The flaming blobs flee into the door of the meat shoppe...brrr!
It's awfully cold in there.

The one furthest from the group sizzles and goes out, black ink bubbling with heat as it slides under the counter, while the other two whizz through an open door in the back.
The shoppe itself is very cold, the freezer in the back was left open and it's sending waves of magical cold all over the rest of the area.
The case in the front has various meats set out...though they don't smell too great anymore, but the ones in the freezer are starting to thaw.
Whoa!
Whole, headless carcasses dangle from hooks in the ceiling and skinned heads sit in a corner on melting blocks of ice; animals like cows, chickens, and pigs...all just sitting there...))


~Nathalia

[Lucca]

Eldy was expecting the matter to be dropped, or maybe Nova to try and get one last word in to defend his high-and-mighty attitude. What she wasn't expecting was to be slapped. She -stared- at Lariel, eyes wide and fur puffing up, struck speechless for a moment. The slap had barely hurt, it really only stung a little, and compared to her tail mutating and her fang breaking off the pain was nothing...but the fact that the other Feline had done it was just...unbelievable. What was WITH these people?

Eldy hissed at the Bobcat, taking a small swipe with her claws that she didn't actually intend to hit, because she knew the woman would back off, as she did next. "You...you...YOU B**CH," she sputtered, too angry to actually get any coherent thoughts out. Her tail lashed, though it was back to its normal, non-weapon form, and she bared her teeth, ignoring the pain of her broken one. The children were almost background noise at the moment, and she opened her mouth to say something nasty to the Bobcat, something about how she and her little boyfriend had started the hostility, when Nova stepped in. Eldy bristled, but forced herself to listen.

And as she did...her expression slowly softened. She opened her mouth, closed it...frowned. "I'm...sorry, Nova," she grit out, the words tasting bitter. "I...overreacted. I just...don't like it when everyone assumes I'm not fit to fight just because I'm not a high Rank," she admitted in a low voice that the b**chy Bobcat hopefully wouldn't hear. She wasn't sorry to Lariel. Lariel was annoying. Nova had perhaps meant well.

Of course...once the anger was no longer rushing in her ears, she heard the shouts of the cannibal children and...groaned. "Oh no. Oh Suits," she muttered, and turned to walk over to Cal, who was already half way towards a meat shop. Chasing after blobs in the hopes another one spontaneously turned into a pet sounded like about the worst waste of time right now. "Something is wrong with these children," she muttered under her breath.

[Harpsdesire]

Cal howled in pain and frustration as a fiery blob singed his grasping paw and escaped into the darkness of the shop. Mean Squishy, couldn't it see he was trying to help put out the fire? Whimpering but undeterred, he followed, barreling headlong into the magical cold.

Woah. His steps slowed. So much food-meat! Blank eyes widened and for a moment he almost forgot about the ink blots. There was food everywhere. It wasn't special food, the meat that came from other cards, the kind that burned and fizzed and danced rapturously in his blood when he ate it, but still. Sometimes quantity was more important than quality. What was probably a grisly sight to most was a dream come true to the carnivorous child.

There was enough here to feed all four cannibal siblings into a happily gorged and sleepy pile for weeks, and it was hanging from the ceilings, sitting on blocks of ice, in freezers, everywhere! Even heads, probably with tongues included for Fi's cravings, suckling piglets for Hereliescaptainunderwood. No adults to yell or kick him if he helped himself... He whined in hunger and pleasure at the sight. "Fi! Cat! Come see! Is so much meat here!" He yelled over his should as he moved further into the shop.

Although there was an undertone of sick meat in the place, the overwhelming odor was of blood, and Calamity liked it. He liked the sawdusted floor too, and the shiny case that the more rotten smell emanated from, and the wicked-looking hooks up above, most with a carcass hanging on them. This place... it was paradise. All it really needed was a few more books. It could also be warmer, he supposed....

A darting black blob roused him from his contemplation and he followed it into the freezer. It was cold and rather dark in there, but the frost and bits of ice on the floor soothed his burned paw. And there was a blob heading for the back corner of the space. Now the little black goos were trapped for sure!

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol had been watching the fight between the two with anxiety. There was already so much nastiness going on, did there really have to be more? He didn't have to long to think on it though, because that's when he noticed the blob of stuff schmooshing about in a glass jar. But, Suits! It was alive! He watched it move about as the two Cannibal children discussed what to name it.

Then one of them looked towards him with an expression of surprise and awe, and... Lizard-cat? He looked down at himself and realized he actually was part Tiger and Chameleon. Bristol chuckled softly. Lizard-cat.

The Mix had been biting his lower lip, wondering slightly if it was a good idea to keep such a thing - it just seemed wrong - when one of them he didn't know took off after the few remaining blobs as they shot into the Meat Shoppe. No one should go anywhere alone! And just because one of the blobs had turned friendly didn't meant the others would!

Bristol chased after Calamity, stopping dead in the door of the shoppe while his eyes widened at the sight of so much prepared carnage. He knew places like this were essential for a surviving city, but did it really have to be so gory? He watched as the young male followed one of the blobs into the freezer and went after him.

Suits, but the entire place was cold! Was it just because the freezer door had been left open? Or was that skin-prickling sensation a sign of something more?

Cal was just inside, corning one of the two blobs that had gone in the freezer when Bristol caught sight of the other one, trying to shove it's malleable form under a few packages of meat in the other corner. Maybe it was the skin-prickling cold, but to Bristol the little blobs of ink seemed to be getting a bit slower.

Looking around, he realized the meat in the freezer was beginning to thaw. Against his will, his own stomach began to growl reminding him that he hadn't had a bite to eat since he'd been "born". With all the excitement eating didn't seem like such an important event. Bristol felt bad for thinking about taking some of the food, but surely the owner of the shoppe wouldn't mind. Besides, the meat would probably go bad before or even if the owner returned. Why not put some of it to good use?

The Lizard-Cat walked over to a shelf, pulled quite a large chunk of meat off of whatever was in front of him and gnawed on the end. Bristol grimaced and wished they had a fire with which to cook the meat. But still, it was better than nothing. He wondered when it was the others had eaten, and found himself thinking about the little alive-blob that had adopted one of the cannibal kids. Frowning, he turned to look at the blob trying to squish it's way into hiding. Were those things really alive? If they were, could they be hungry?

Bristol crouched down on the ground and scooted as close as he could manage to the blob under the packages and extended his hand. The chunk of meat was more pink now as it thawed from his own body heat.

"Here you go little guy. Are you hungry? Don't be scared, I won't hurt you." He tore off a small piece of meat and laid it down on the floor, hoping the blob - if the thing ate at all - might take a bite.

-------------------------

Lariel had been prepared for Eldy's reaction. A small part of her respected the other Feline's decision not to just back down, but respect didn't equal liking someone. She figured she and Eldy would never be more than passing acquaintances after this, and personally she hoped she never saw the other Cat again.

She raised an eyebrow when one of the children she didn't know began to scold her. Fish-cat? Amused, Lariel consciously unflexed all of her fins and stood back in a relaxed pose. These triplets were certainly strange, but in a good way. Which was odd, because generally speaking Lariel didn't really care for children at all.

She listened as Nova talked to Eldy and was proud and annoyed all at the same time that he could remain so level-headed in the face of someone who obviously couldn't. Still, she had apologized to him and that was something Lariel hadn't even expected. Nova seemed to think it was good enough. Crossing her arms over her chest she gave Eldy a nasty smile. Yes, she could be bitch but that was usually when other people deserved it.

The Fish-Cat had been too busy concentrating on Eldy and Nova that she didn't realize one of the children had taken off after the remaining blobs into the meat shoppe, but she did see the strange new Mix teenager go in after him. Groaning, she ran after Eldy. This was one of the reasons she didn't like children. They seemed to have no common sense most of the time.
She stopped in the doorway and frowned. The smell of thawing and almost rotting meat stopped her from going in, but she couldn't see where the child and teenager had gone.

Lariel felt gooseflesh break out over her body and realized though the whole shop was cold, it wasn't a natural cold. She knew magic when she felt it.

Turning back to shout at Nova she said, "There is something going on in here. It's cold, more cold than it should be, and it feels like magic." Her voice was slightly nervous. She didn't want to have to deal with more cold or ice after the last shoppe they'd been in. After all, that one had eventually burnt down.

[carcinoGeneticist]

As she clung to her siblings and rubbed against their faces, Cat felt herself fill with a happiness that seemed to overflow, pouring out of her every crack in the form of happy purrs. Safe as she was, her brain started to slip away, her expression taking on the airy quality that her siblings would recognize as dream-time, her attention following the action without really being a part of any of it. Her eyes blinked slowly at the momentary upset and she looked down at the blobby, head tilting to the side as it crawled up onto Fi and snuggled him.

She giggled. How funny! Fi had a little buddy, but... It seemed to make Cal upset. That part, she didn't understand, the corners of her mouth slowly turning down into a concerned little frown. Even in the midst of her own personal crazy, her brothers were able to break through to her thoughtful mind. That was how things always had been. Her feathers fluffed uncomfortably as she tried to decide how to improve the situation, but it was difficult, her thoughts slow and muddy.

But when someone came up with the idea for her, that grin returned and Cat rose to her feet, a predatory shimmer to her eyes.

Lightning-quick, she darted after her siblings and Bristol, her eyes trained on the dark blobs that had raced into the meat shop. She couldn't recall, for a moment, why they were chasing the things, but the thrill of the act kept confusion from slowing her movements. Without even slowing her movements the girl darted into the freezer - then promptly screamed. The shapes of meat looming out of the darkness took her by surprise, at first, and to her brain they appeared to be people rising out of the mist, ready to attack them -- she wouldn't let them!

With a very falconid scream, Cat launched herself at the nearest (cattle, most likely) and sunk all four talons and beak into its side. It wasn't until she'd tasted the frozen meat that she realized her error and started to laugh. "Is food-meats!! Good food-meats!! ...Cat not very hungry, though..." Her ears laid down as she looked down at her brother, creeping into the shop before her. She was still dangling from the carcass, now using it as a vantage point. "Blobby goes here, too. Bring back food-meats and blobby?"

~~~

This whole... sitation... Was too weird for Sergei to deal with. Now that everyone else seemed somewhat more settled-in, he stood off to the side of the group, using the time to try and settle himself. Today had just been... Too much. Way too much. He wrapped his arms around himself and set his jaw, determined that he wouldn't cry. His mom wouldn't approve of that, and his dad.... He could only guess that Seth wouldn't approve, either. So he wouldn't.

But Suits, did he want to just break down. He stared for a long time at the place where a building had stood only minutes before, stared at the rubble. Then, slowly, he made his way over to it. He poked around the outer edges, finding that it was still too hot for him to get very close to the entrance to the basement... But perhaps he could still investigate what was there.

Concentrating on the power embedded in his hand, Sergei reached out and closed his eyes, feeling the lid in his palm slide open. He focused it on the floor - after all, when it was over a basement, a floor was a lot like a wall... Wasn't it?



Dragon's eye: This SD's hand slips on what first feels like a wet and slippery marble...it turns out to be a little more horrifying than that.
This eyeball is about the size of a Human eye and still has the eyelid wrapped around it.
When touched, it will sink into the hand laid on it and become fixated inside their palm.
They can now use it, once a day, to see through closed doors and walls that are NOT enchanted against spying spells. When they do so, they have to extend the hand outward and close their original eyes to concentrate. The eye in their hand will open and burn an odd orange red as it stares impassively through the surface shown. The eye will come out for as long as 5 minutes, before closing, leaving the owner slightly tired and shaky after.

[Nathalia]

((The smell in the shoppe is terrible to anyone who isn't into eating raw meat...thick and heavy, stained with blood.
And now, ink.
Something under the counter whips out at Bristol and rips the meat forcefully from his claws, dragging it back under the counter and then rattling off along it towards the side of the shoppe.
Cal managed to run two blobs into a corner and they split! Heading in different directions up the sides of the freezer in an attempt to escape him, one has a slight blueish tinge to it...

Sergei sees a large dark mass sliding around in the basement...it's huge, easily twice the size of a Bipedal Canine and looks like it's made of sludge!
He...can see inside of it...
There's a skeleton inside of the inky mass, part of an upper torso with the skull and one arm. Twisting and flailing, it moves as though still somehow alive!
There are also boxes, everywhere...and what looks like a twisted metal husk...))


~Nathalia

[Harpsdesire]

Cat's scream made him look up for a moment, but she had leapt before he had time to say anything, and now hung oddly from a cow carcass. He chuckled. "Foods, yes. Cold foods." Still eying his ink-blob prey, he agreed, "We bring back. Fi maybe hungry for not-sick foods." There was a note of distraction in his voice, as Cal was unwilling to take his eyes off his quarry. He himself would probably have been hungry if not for his single-minded focus on the blobs. It was rare that anything short of a hard covered coffee-table book got between Calamity and meat, but after what happened with Fi and his original Squishy, getting a gooey pet for himself was a matter of honor. A matter of ultimate importance in his young mind, anyway, since the boy had no real concept of honor outside of what he had read in a book about the Midrange. He needed a blob so that his brother would know that Cal was worthy of love too.

He felt a thrill of triumph as he got closer to his goal. It was very cold, and that seemed to make the blobs slower. He had them now! Cal hollered over his shoulder in the general direction of the shop's door, "Fi! Bring jar!" He watched as the pair of gooeys split, each traveling a different direction along the floor. With no time to make complex decisions, he simply went after the more brightly colored of the two, which caught his eyes with it's slightly bluish color.

It was probably still hot. He quickly scraped up some frost from the corner of the freezer and packed it into a sort of flattish snowball in the palm of his paw. That should put the fire out! With his toes tightly cupped together in hopes of preventing another wiggling escape, Fiasco made a pounce for the little blob.

[Callypso]

A strange, gurgle-purr rumbled from the cannibal’s throat as he half-skipped into the meat shoppe. He was going to get a gooey for Cal! And all the people were going to help! He strutted purposefully through the door, his eyes traveling from the floor to the glorious display of hanging meats of every kind. He stopped short. Fiasco couldn’t help but drool a little as he took in the sight, and plopped onto his fuzzy butt in shock.

Food-meats… he muttered, stunned by the possibility that there could be a whole house full of delicious, delicious meats. It wasn’t the best kind of food-meats, the kind that was warm and made his skin tingle with pleasure, but it was food-meats nonetheless. Glancing around, a dazed smile on his face as he called to his siblings.

Lookit, Cat! Lookit, Cal! Food-meats!! FOOD-MEATS!

The gooey on his shoulder burbled curiously as its master sat and cooed happily at the frozen delicacies. A shiver, both of content and from the cold permeating his tiny frame, shook Fiasco's little body as he admired the view.

A shriek from behind caused Fi to leap to his feet and spin around, stubby caracal tail fluffed out as his sister launched herself at the nearest carcass. He bristled, then relaxed, recognizing the tell-tale signs of disorientation that signaled Cat was in the Other Placed. The cannibal grinned and nodded fervently as his sister’s expression cleared enough for her to grasp the situation. Silly Cat!

Yes! Food-meats, Cat! Fi gasped, remembering his mission, his ears perking up as Cal called out for his assistance. Cal needed him! More importantly, Cal had forgiven him enough to let him help! Yay!!

Yes! YES! Get the GOOEY! Fi warbled as his excited war-cry, then scrabbled across the shoppe toward his brother.

As he rounded the corner he slid across the slick floor and bumped into the side opposite of a slightly glowing blue-ish blob. He cackled with feral glee, snatched the jar from the gooey on his shoulder and used the wall as a springboard to launch himself across the room. When his hindquarters touched ground, he slammed the jar down, hoping to trap the inky creature.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol had been holding out the small chunk of meat for a few moments when suddenly it was snatched from his hand! The Mix was momentarily startled and watched as the blob made its way along the side of the shoppe, further in. He followed the little thing, too amused at the whole situation to worry about any danger.

"Did you like that?" he asked the blob.

Spying a huge chunk of meat that appeared to have been in the middle of being cut, Bristol grabbed another chunk of meat. Hunkering down to the ground and making himself seem as small and unmenacing as possible, he very slowly extended his hand again. This time, however, he didn't extend his arm quite so much but instead kept the meat closer to his body. Maybe this time, if the little guy was still hungry, he would be able to get a better look at it. Should the blob try for the meat again, Bristol decided to hold on a little tighter to the meat and hopefully elongating the quick "visit".

--------------

Lariel watched in disbelief as all three cannibal children went about their business in the shoppe. She was particularly perplexed at the sight of the female hanging from a swinging carcas suspended from the ceiling. She couldn't really see the other two boys from here, but knew they were probably trying to catch some of the ink blobs that had made their way inside.

Shaking her head and looking back outside it was then that she noticed Sergei standing by himself and awefully close to the smouldering rubble of the building they'd been in before. Frowning in concern, Larie made her way over to him. As she got closer she realized he'd closed his eyes and hand his hand extended towards the disaster, palm outward and facing away from her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, pursing her lips.

[Lucca]

Hissing and cursing about being forced to run, especially as the small key she insisted on keeping with her dug into her paw as she ran, she made it inside the shop and let out a breath, the coolness actually feeling good on her black, hot fur after all the running and fire. She breathed in--and gagged on the smell of rotting meat. And, of course, more ink. Gross. And Lariel...had just left to go check on Sergei, which left her as the only responsible adult to watch these weird children. Figures.

She frowned, listening to them shouting, and walked over, shivering slightly and looking up to see Cat dangling from a frozen carcass. "Y'know, that doesn't seem safe," she pointed out, which was actually an absurd statement considering none of this had been safe. She choked out a laugh, and walked over to beneath the carcass, nose scrunching up from the smell. "Do you need help? Hopefully your crazy brother'll find a little nasty ink-creature of his own and we can get out of here," she muttered, tail swishing lightly.