Not a City Girl [Open]

[Kari Muffin]

Gigi was oh so very lost.

Honestly she hadn't intended to wander off. The babysitter was paying close attention to all of them. She was a very nice woman who was concerned and all that. This was the first outing they had made together to the city. Ez was even with them.

And she still managed to wander off and end up completely lost. She jumped when she caught sight of one of her kittens out of the corner of her eye. The feeling of impending doom was something she could never escape, and right now it was making her more jumpy than usual. She tried not to seek out the kittens, they would just distract her.

Slowly the giraffe made her way down the the street, her hooves clicking loudly on the sidewalk. People were staring. That wasn't her imagination. She really wished it was. Maybe she should pop into one of the shops and ask someone where the fountain she was looking for was?

She choked back her distressed noises and looked for someone helpful on the street first.

[Lucca]

There was someone very interesting in the city right now! Someone with a looooong neck and whiskers like a cat fish! Which was really just a fish and not a cat, as she had found out once after begging Daddy to bring her one once to eat. It had tasted gooood though, so in the end she didn't care so much. But this wasn't a cat OR a fish OR a catfish, which meant what was it doing with whiskers like that? Ginger tried not to stare, because sometimes Cards got real upset when she stared at them, but even though she turned her body away from the new Card, her eye swiveled to follow her.

It left the pup no choice but to go talk to it! Ginger wasn't one to deny fate, so she happily trotted up alongside the other girl, eye unblinking and staring at the long-necked-not-catfish. That would never do for a name! Too long to think! She would have to ask its real name. "Hiiiii there!" she yipped with customary disregard for what should be a normal volume of conversation.

A small, black shape that glistened in the sun and left a small trail of ooze slithered up behind the Coyote, forgotten for the moment.

[Kari Muffin]

Gigi hopped in surprise when someone suddenly said hello far louder than she would have expected anyone to. She craned her head to see who was talking to her properly with wide eyes.

They widened even more. There was a magical eye hanging over the girl's head. That... wasn't normal. She had seen a few weird mutations in the city but this was something else entirely. "H-Hi!" she finally said as she gathered her thoughts. Staring was bad. Ez had mentioned that it was rude.

"Um... I'm Gigi. Do you know where we are? I'm a little lost," she said as she shuffled her hooves a bit, looking embarrassed. The girl was around her "age" so maybe she would be willing to help? She couldn't remember what Ez had said about strangers that were around her age. Older ones she was supposed to stay away from if they offered her particular things.

[Lucca]

It seemed surprised by her sudden greeting. Why was that, Ginger wondered? Wasn't she supposed to be friendly? Daddy was friendly, all the time! So she wanted to be friendly too and make lots of friends! But then the long-neck returned her greeting and Ginger's tail started wagging frantically. "I'm Ginger!" she yipped back happily, tilting her eyeless head. The eye stayed where it was, floating and on fire.

"Weeeeeell yes, I do know!" the reply came after a moment. "We're near that one restaurant where they make reeeaaally good food." But when someone was lost, they really wanted to know where home was, right? They didn't need to know where they were as much as where they were about to be! "Wheeeere are you trying to find?" she asked. Gigi was lucky because she knew the city so well! She could find anywhere there, even the places she wasn't really supposed to be! Ginger was proud of that.

Her pet slogged up behind her, peering suspiciously at the Giraffe with beady green eyes.

[Kari Muffin]

Gigi finally noticed the strange blob creature and edged away slightly. It looked icky. It didn't look right. She decided there and then to do her best at ignoring whatever it was. She'd focus on the girl with the floating eyeball, Ginger seemed to know things after all.

"Nice to meet you..." Gigi said faintly. That was something Ez had told her to say but at the moment she didn't care all that much about "proper things." She really just wanted to find someplace safe to be. People really were staring at her.

"I'm looking for a hotel. The Gilded Canary... if I got separated I was supposed to go there. The babysitter said it was safe." The giraffe's nose wrinkled in worry as she looked around. She didn't know how to read very well, but she was told the sign had a little golden bird on it. There wasn't a sign like that anywhere around here so she could be any where. "You know where that is right?"

There was a little bit of curiosity nagging at the back of her head. She really wanted to know more about the girl she was talking to. Why did Ginger have a floating eye? What was that creepy inky thing following her? She bit the inside of her cheek as she struggled to hold back the flood of questions.

"Why is your eye on fire and not in your head?" decided to pop out on its own accord.

[Lucca]

A hotel? Those were the funny places Cards slept in when they didn't have a real house in the city, weren't they? Ginger tilted her head in thought, one ear canted to the side. Gilded Canary...ah! Her eye bobbed a bit as she nodded to herself. "Yeeees I do!" Her tail began wagging frantically again and she jumped around a bit excitedly, a very puppy-like motion. "Come come ooooooon!" Bounce bounce.

She started to bounce down the street, feet barely touching the ground, but her eye swiveled backwards to focus on the girl as she asked that question. Far from seeming offended, Ginger giggled. She got that a lot of for some reason. Most Cards were so plain and weird! But Gigi wasn't as plain as them. She had catfish whiskers and a long neck! "It's aaaaaalways been like this!" she yipped. "Since I was first booorn." She paused and turned her head towards Gigi, mouth stretching into a smile that was creepily wide.

The blobbling just oozed along behind, hissing quietly at Gigi when it felt she was a bit too close.

[Kari Muffin]

Oh thank goodness! She had found someone who knew where they were going! The giraffe seemed to perk up a bit with each step. For once things seemed to be going right. Better yet the girl wasn't upset about the question, though she seemed to be talking weird.

Then again everything was "weird." She had yet to find something that Ez claimed was normal. If she couldn't find what normal was to begin with how could she really know what was weird. Maybe the girl was just a special sort of different. That didn't sound right either.

"Oh, does your Mommy or Daddy have one?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head. The smile didn't particularly bother her, she was awful at gaging facial expression since her family was filled with people who had beaks.

And then the blob thing hissed at her. The giraffe made a loud squeal of surprise as she hopped to the side. A cat darted away in the corner of her vision, making her over compensate when trying to balance. Ultimately Gigi ended up leaning on the side of a building looking startled. "What is that and why is it angry at me?"

[Lucca]

Ginger paused, not sure how much she was allowed to reveal about her family. Her Daddy could make himself look less weird, if he wanted. It was one of her favorite things to watch. He could look like anything and it was so cool. But in his natural form, he looked the best of all. That was what Ginger thought. "Yeeeeees," she said eventually, tail wagging up a storm. "Daddy has one toooooo." If she ever, by any chance, brought Gigi to meet Daddy, he'd just have to keep his eye in his other form. He could do things like that, sometimes.

She was about to turn and keep walking when her eye caught a flurry of motion and her ears caught a loud, shrill noise. Her ears pinned back and her eye swiveled around. What was wrong with Gigi? She turned her body around, slowly, and moved back towards the other girl. What was wha--oh. OH. She'd almost forgotten about her pet!

"It's Bloooobby," she said happily, and put one gold-tipped paw out to brush against the thing's head. It burbled happily and leaned into the motion. "I fooooound him, and he follows me arouuuund. He gets angry at almost everyone." She shrugged and turned to give Blobby a severe look...as much as she could manage with no eyes in her head. "Nowwww Blobby. Be nice!" The black creature burbled again, now sounding more like it was grumbling.

[Kari Muffin]

All of Gigi's thoughts were derailed by the blob monster. She would have honestly made a comment about fathers and how it might be nice to know them.

But that blob was terror inducing, grumpy, and clearly mean. The reassurances helped a bit, but Gigi was still a bit flaily about the entire situation. People didn't like when other people were "spazzy" right? Ez had said that, he normally was right. Maybe.

The giraffe took a few deep breaths before proceeding. "O-okay. Um... he's really quite scary," she said as she shifted on her hooves with a weak half smile. Honestly a part of her wanted to poke it, but the rest of her just found it scary. Her brow furrowed as she stared at it and then the girl. "He won't bite me will he?"

Could it even bite? It could growl, that was for sure.

[Lucca]

Ginger continued to pat Blobby for a minute or two, and when she brought her paw away, it was sticky and black. If the pup minded this, she didn't show it, though the blobling moved a bit closer to her again, burbling and wanting more petting. Ginger indulged it with a small smile, using the same paw since it was already sticky with the ink-like substance.

Ginger's ever-present smile wavered a little at Gigi's trembling words. "Scary? Really? But he's cute," she informed her, tail going still as she continued to pet the creature, which burbled along quite happily, green eyes closed in contentment. "Heeee won't bite. He doesn't even have teeth!" she said, turning to the Giraffe again. "I do though. Sharp ones." She opened her mouth to show off her lovely rows of Canine teeth, just in case Gigi needed reminding of this fact.