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Starfish Scares (13) : Starfish live in the sea. They do not live in freshwater rivers, lakes, or reservoirs with no connection to the ocean. Starfish are also not social creatures. And yet, here they are–in hoards. They can be found near any water source–and far from it. These starfish seem to be a unique species that are eager to travel and don’t seem quite bound to water, though they will seek it out. The starfish will latch onto just about anything they can to hitch a ride, even though they’re fast. They secrete an itchy, oozy slime after they’ve latched onto something, and though it seems as though they can absorb nutrients from any living creature, these starfish have an odd penchant for blood. You might as well have a colorful leech stuck to you as soon as you think one of these things crawling your way. Their bites are sharp and will leave the nearby skin itchy and painful. They are a bit difficult to remove but they can be killed; as soon as they have perished, they will rapidly dry out and crumble. However, it’s far more likely that they’ll escape before you can get your hands on them. Be vigilant; these things are pests–and smart enough to cling to people and vehicles alike if it means getting to where they want to go.
For Thierry, the day, sorry, days, had been awful. The weather had been unbearably hot for his thick coat, and it was a bit tiring to go back and forth between two houses, ten minutes away from each other, tend to his humans AND his two gardens. (Okay, so one garden was Glen's, but Thierry was clearly being a help) He'd get water and shade when he could, and felt awful leaving his poor Theodore alone in the little shack in the woods, because it had no air, but Theo didn't seem to mind, as he actually seemed to enjoy the heat, but also able to go to locations like the library, or the supermarket, or even his new job AT the park in their cool break room. They had caught the poor boy there several weeks ago, forcing Theo to use some of the money he had stashed for food to bribe the park ranger to overlook it, which, while not taking the money, took him to apply for a job as park keeper at the park, which allowed him to use their facilities and begin renovating the shack,which had turned out to be the original park wardens shack, but the ranger felt it could be repurposed to be an in grounds home for the newest keeper and any trainees they got, something Theo readily agreed to. Unfortunately, that did mean Thierry now had to wander a lot of the day now while the shack was being worked on, and Theo was being trained on their new job and duties. This would leave him to bother Glen typically, if he wasn't filming for his YouTube channel (often), working on scripts (also often) and preparing for Dual majors in culinary and writing courses at the college, leaving him asleep more often than Theirry saw. Which was great! unfortunately that did both his super powered wards were not able to work on their second job, and, being a softy and the heat trying to kill him, Thierry did not begrudge them. So, he began wandering, ready to sit under the nicest, shadiest tree he could find, the cat noticed something...moving near him. It looked like a little lump of flesh, until Thierry noticed the little nub arms, and that there were three or four. "Are ye, are ye Starfish?" He wondered about, ignoring the alarm bells in his head and getting closer to poke one with a paw.The second he did, two scooted faster than the average starfish and had latched on to the helpless cats front paw and belly. "AGH! WHAT THE HELL!? GET OFF!" He Shook's his paw and stomach, to no luck, these guys were stuck, and in that time he had stepped on another one, meaning three, then four, also latched on. Crap, this was bad! they didn't help his heat situation, and they itched?? And..and hurt? Were they biting him!? From the sharp pricks he felt they were in fact biting. Crap, He needed to get to Glen, that's whose house he was closest to. He began to run, slowed down by the starfish, heat, and his suddenly flagging energy. "Damn, the little guys are doing something else?: He thought, starting to slow, getting to a walk three houses down from Glens, beginning to crouch and crawl by the time he had got there. "Please, please be home Glen."He thought , dizzy now." Seeing he had made it to the door, somehow, he used the last of his strength to bodily thump against the door, leaving him on his side to accept the fate of his crappy little hitchhikers.
Thierry had been lucky, as Glen had been home, working on some techniques to maintain eyesight in her left eye, when she heard a small noise at the door. Wary, she got up, hesitantly opening the door and confused when she didn't see anything, about to go back in when a bit of fur brushed up on her leg. "Thierry!?" She gasped, horrified to see her cat friend in a terrible state, covered in little starfish blobs. Wait, starfish? She didn't have time for that, she quickly picked the cat up, flinching briefly at what was clearly two of the starfish moving to her arms and went to the sink, in her panic it was the only thing she could think to do. She set him in, torn, and trying to pull the starfish off herself, it wouldn't help the cat for her to also be passed out after all, and it was clear the starfish had caused that. She thought of starting the water, but that may not work and shed use it as a last resort. For now, she did one thing she knew might help, and quickly ran to the bathroom to get her shaving kit, having left it out because she was debating shaving the sides off again of her hair or shaving it all and letting it grow back and just throw a wig on in the meantime. He was going to hate her, but she would have had to shave the react anyway to get to any wounds. The second she turned the razor on, the starfish on her arms seemed to react, not liking the vibrations apparently and simply falling off and shattering. Chaos s**t, of course, she rolled her eyes. She pulled him out of the sink, to her kitchen table, and got to work. The noise of the razor seemed to affect the remaining starfish as well because, as she neared them with the razor, they simply tried to jump away, leaving her to squish them with a meat cleaver she left out, (and a silent rest in pieces for that cleaver, because she would definitely need a new one). Once shaved down to a fine peach fuzz evenly, Glen turned the razor off, trying not to giggle. She did quickly stop, once she realized he wasn't waking up to any of her touching. Well damn, this was gonna be a vet trip huh? He was REALLY not going to like this. Sighing, Glen went to get her sandals, helmet, and Thierry's carry bag she kept for moped rides with the cat. She did rub him down with a rag before placing him in the carrier, to clean the wounds and cool him down, realizing he was a pretty warm. With unconscious cat in carrier, she set off on her moped, ignoring the little starfish corpses shed be cleaning up later, and the ones she now saw either shattered or squirming on the street, She was REALLY sick of summer.
