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 Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:43 pm
"Ah!" Casia exclaimed, and feeling somewhat dense she sheepishly pulled the latch. The door swung open, but she had forgotten that Darsh was probably not the only one in there who wanted to get out. As puppies ran past her, yipping and barking, she stood on her tiptoes dodging them, hands raised to her face. "Oh no..." Frozen, she looked around and saw chaos, in the middle of it all, Jane coming for her. The siren panicked. "Come on!" she said, and reached out for Darsh's hand so they could escape. Wherever they were going, it had to be better than Jane catching up to them. She had a distinct 'You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl' look, and Casia was keen to do just that.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:52 pm
"Oh! Puppies!" His first instinct was to chase and catch the errant fuzzballs, but it looked like Casia had other ideas. "Oh!" He said again when she grabbed his hand. He was pretty sure he would follow her absolutely anywhere. People had started shouting in suprise at the escaped puppies, but it in no way caused mass panic. The staff and volunteers were used to dealing with such hiccups.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:10 pm
The volunteers may have had the puppy problem well in hand, but no amount of volunteers could keep Jane from sounding Casia out, and the siren was too busy exiting stage right to really notice anything but the panic in her own mind. She had never seen Jane angry before. She had no idea what it would be like, but it was probably going to be hairy, which meant it was time to burn rubber. She just started running to get away but it soon became clear that Jane was going to catch up unless she could find a good place to hide. Then she could come up with a plan to neatly dodge punishment from there. She turned back to Darsh, hoping he'd have the solution. "Are there any choice hiding places around here, little man?" she asked, big brown eyes looking at the blue skinned boy helplessly. "If Jane catches me, I'm toast!"
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:21 pm
His damsel was in distress! That wasn't good. Luckily, Max had given Darsh the behind-the-scenes tour and he knew exactly where to go. "Here! Back here!" It was easy to slip behind the customer service counter and through the curtained doorway that led to The Back. Immediately the noise was cut in half as they found themselves standing in a white hallway with two doors to the left, one to the right and one at the end of the hall. He grinned in triumph. "Nobody can come back here. Whose Jane?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:33 pm
Casia sagged with relief as they slipped into a newer, safer, duller hallway. "Thanks, cool cat. Jane's a real Nowhere Man." said the siren absentmindedly. "My aunt." Sort of kind of not really true, but one boy had already coaxed her life story out of her, and she wasn't going to let it happen again. Anyway, aunt was close enough. Looking around, she asked "Where are we?" in a hushed tone. She felt the vague illusion of distance with the muffled noises whispering into her ears from the shelterworld they had just left. This was Darsh's territory, and the girl was safe from Jane, but couldn't help but feel uneasy without being able to feel in control of her surroundings.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:57 am
Darsh was not exactly sympathetic to her feeling out of place, but he was always happy to show off things that he knew. "Thos're operatin' rooms." He said, pointing at the doors on the left. "And thats where the animals get better." He pointed at the door on the right. The shelter had a vetrinarian on staff, but they did little more than spay, neuter and treat things like mange and dehydration. "An' that door goes to storage." He beamed up at her proudly. "We dont wanna go in the operatin' rooms, though. They smell funny."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:27 pm
The image that Casia recieved from operating, recovery room, and storage room, coupled with the fact Darsh had been locked in a cage when they met was not a very calming one. Her wings flapped tremulously, but she counted to ten in her head. She was a siren. If anyone tried to operate on her they'd get more than they bargained for.
Or at least get kicked in the shins. Anyway, animal shelters were obviously much more sinister than she had thought they were, and she was on her guard. But that still left the problem of Jane. She couldn't beat feet until she had a plan and Casia settled down on the floor for a good think. What would get her out of trouble when she didn't even know what kind of trouble she was in for? Maybe if she could play up the pity card. Maybe if she burst into tears or looked terminally ill. Maybe that would work. She looked up at Darsh. "Anything scary in any of those rooms?" she asked him. Something to make her face lose some colour. "What can we use to make me look really sick?" Thinking about the statement, she hastily added "But not actually sick."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:39 pm
Hmmm.. why would she want to make herself look sick? The minds of older girls was clearly far beyond him, Darsh decided. But that didn't change his infatuation with the siren or his desire to help her. Plus, this was a lot more fun than playing with the puppies! "The operatin' rooms have knives and blood in them." This of course was a gross overstatement. The rooms were clean and sterile. But Darsh, while unable to lie flat-out, was perfectly capable of embellishment. "It's where they take the animals to get fixed." He added helpfully.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:24 pm
Casia looked morbidly intrigued. "Why do they need fixing?" she asked. They seemed fine to her. maybe they came out looking cuter? Maybe that was why Darsh was in the cage, maybe he was waiting to look less like a Blue Meanie. Still, real animal blood... The siren bit her lip. How badly did she want to get out of trouble?
If she backed down now, she'd look stupid. Giving an inward shudder but bravely lifting her chin, she said "Maybe we'll just take a look and see." If she went in and decided it was no good it would be gross, but she'd get out of it with dignity intact. The siren squared her shoulders. She wasn't afraid of any operating room, she had been through a lot worse than that. And it wasn't like it was blood and knives and SNAKES. It could be worse!
Even with all that in mind, it was all she could do to bite back the pleading suggestion that Darsh go in first.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:12 pm
When they finally did enter the room it was definitely a let-down. At least, there was no blood spattered on the walls or body parts on the floor. The operating room was clean and sterile but there were all sorts of intriguing tubes and instruments and a little table set with sterilized scalpels and scissors. Darsh looked around. He felt a little dissapointed, he'd been hoping it would be as cool as he'd made it sound. Glancing up at Casia from the corner of his eye, he waited for her reaction.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:04 pm
Casia was surprised at the room, but she could barely maintain her composure. She wanted to sag with relief, this was much less frightening than she had been expecting. However, her relief didn't change the fact that Darsh had once again stretched the truth, and feeling his gaze on her, she looked back at him, delicately raising an eyebrow. It was a quirk that she was rapidly picking up from Jane, whether she realized it or not, because when people were just so strange, she needed an easy expression to convey just how much they were so. "Well." she said, looking around at the tools the room provided, "I don't think we're gonna find any blood here unless we use those knives." She glanced at the scalpel nervously. "And I don't think that'd be cherry." It provided her with an excuse to abandon the sickness idea, which was becoming less and less appealing with all the talk of blood and such. The siren seized it gladly. "I've gotta come up with a new plan, then." She put a hand to her cheek and sighed. Evading trouble was a lot of trouble.
The surgery was pretty intimidating even without buckets of blood. She considered it as she thought, eyes scanning the room. What kind of people used stuff like this? She felt a ball of nervous worry building in the pit of her stomach. If someone used this, would they be back? She didn't want to be here when they did.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:36 pm
Darsh frowned. "Tell her you founded me and are helping me look for my daddy?" He suggested. It wasn't a total falsehood since she had found him and they could easily start trying to find Max if they decided to. He smiled tremulously as if to say, 'see? I can stretch the truth for you, too.'
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:53 pm
Casia considered this. All in all, it was a pretty nice offer. She smiled. "Thanks," she said, "that might work!" Peering out from the surgery, she looked up and down the hallway. She could face Jane now. "Let's go find my aunt."
Casia's 'aunt', meanwhile, was very busy trying to find her. Frowning, she weaved between people, amazed at how quickly a girl with great flapping wings on her back and a strange blue figure could vanish. The postal worker was beginning to realize she needed help, and kept her eyes open for someone that worked at the shelter to ask. Whenever she found her, Casia had better have a good reason for all this trouble.
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:50 am
Darsh smiled up at Casia, reaching up to take her hand and putting on an adorable "I'm Lost" face. "Will you be in big trouble?" He asked with concern. Darsh didn't believe in being in trouble despite the fact that he was neck-deep in it more often than not. But he knew a lot of people were afraid of it and he wanted to protect Casia from getting yelled at if he could.
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 9:08 pm
Casia thought about this. "Probably. She's never been ticked off at me before" she admitted. She peered into the main area of the shelter and took a deep breath, spotting Jane. Putting on the most charmingly concerned look she could, and a siren could manage quite a lot of charming, she rushed out to Jane. "Oh Jane, oh, thank heavens!" she said breathily. "This poor little boy's all lost!" She gestured to Darsh. "I've been trying to help him find his old man, but he just isn't anywhere!"
Jane opened her mouth to scold Casia, but closed it as a wave of information swept over her. She frowned. "What does his father look like?" she asked. Casia paused. How was she supposed to know? "Uh..." She thought wildly. "He should tell you. For accuracy."
Smooth.
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