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 Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:15 pm
It was ten-dollar spay and neuter week. On top of that there were two litters of puppies to look after and three miniscule abandoned kittens. Add to that the massive popularity of the pet-of-the-day online campaign and you were left with a horribly busy animal shelter and not enough people to keep it going. Maxwell Peace spent most of his time volunteering but this week he'd barely had a chance to leave the place.
"Here. Play with the puppies." He'd said, putting his son in a wire pen with six squirmy wiggly little bundles of fluff.
And so Darsh was imprisoned until his dad got to go home. Not that he minded too much. He got to watch the people coming in and out of the shelter and he got to play with the puppies who seemed content to wrestle and didn't mind it when he was a little rough with them. And he got to make pretty-eyes at the grownups who came to admire the puppies. In the end they always wound up admiring him as well.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:01 pm
Jane had brought Casia to the animal shelter because she wasn't particularly creative.
Sure, in some ways she was rather original, and she could be struck by inspiration just like anyone else, but the whole 'children' schtick was new to her, and though Casia seemed to amuse herself most of the time, Jane was afraid she was treating the siren a bit like one of those 'just add water' products. But she had already taken the girl to lunch once, and shopping, and she was out of ideas. She had fallen back on that old standby, fluffy animals, and since the guardian didn't approve of commercial pet stores a shelter was terrific. Not that she actually planned to adopt. A pet was a commitment forever, but looking had no strings attached. She shooed Casia out of the car and herded her inside. "Go." she told the siren. "Admire cute things."
This was not hard for Casia to do. She had been to pet stores before, and she was a fan of animals. Looking around, she remembered the last time she had been to a place with so many pets in one area, with Melchy. The shelter was different, but it didn't make the animals any less fab. She crooned over kittens and puppies and vaguely hoped there wouldn't be any snakes. Crouching down to look at a wire pen full of puppies, she made a face at them, humming little tunes as they jumped at the wire near her. She felt safe around animals. She was more of an animal than most people, herself, if siren wings counted.
A flash of blue at the edge of her vision. The siren startled and bit back a squeal, looking up horrified. In the pen was a boy who was precisely Meanie shade blue. Was he a Blue meanie?! Did they need adopting nowadays? She eyed him warily. If he was a Blue Meanie, he wouldn't be able to stand singing. Testing him, she began
"Picture yourself on a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes..."
A real Blue Meanie would at least flinch, the siren figured.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:22 pm
He'd been quite content to play and wrestle in the little wire pen, and that was exactly what he was doing when a sound cut through the din of barking dogs and shouting children and yowling cats. It sort of seemed that the whole place went silent except for the one girl - the winged girl - who was singing to him. The little boy stopped what he was doing and stared at her, utterly and completely enchanted. It was not only that she had a lovely voice and lovely wings, but she was looking at him (albeit with a slightly odd and not exactly adoring expression on her face) and singing. To him. His ego lapped up the attention and he raised a little blue hand to the wire wall of the dog pen and let out a sweet little sigh. Much like the puppies surrounding him, his eyes got all bit and pretty-looking.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:09 am
"Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
and she's gone."
Casia kept singing as he came over, because if there was one thing a Meanie would do, it was try to stop music. But instead, the little blue boy's eyes widened and he was shooting her a look Casia had never seen on anything but baby animals before. She hesitated. Was he begging her to stop? If he was a Blue Meanie, he was very small. He might not be able to stop her yet. She felt a brief pang of guilt, after all a baby Meanie in a cage was hardly a fair match against a siren. She stopped singing, making sure Jane was nearby and regarding him cautiously. "What're you?" she asked, musical voice tinged with suspicion. "Why're you in that puppy cage?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:33 am
"Darsh!" Said the boy, pointing proudly at his chest. "I'm waiting for daddy." He added. Though he was tempted not to, because then maybe the girl would take him home with her. Reaching through the wire lattice he wiggled his fingers at her wings, trying to grab them. "Pretty." He said, giving her that singularly sweet smile that said 'love me. You can't resist.' He'd really been spending too much time around Max's orphaned animals. He was picking up bad habits. "Who're you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:41 pm
Casia's walls were weakened. Blue Meanies weren't cute, and probably weren't waiting for daddies. Sitting down closer to the cage, she regarded the boy, hands neatly in her lap. "Thanks." she admitted as he complimented her. Her wings remained unhelpfully folded behind her back. He was cute, but he still COULD be a Meanie, and until proven otherwise nobody was touching her very-tuggable wings. "I'm Casia." she informed him offhandedly. She was thinking about other things. Why was he waiting for his daddy? Did he mean he was waiting to get a daddy, or did his old man really put him in a cage? She would have thought he would be at a center for adoption if he didn't have a family, but that begged the question; What kind of parent stuck his kid in a cage? Sure, he had puppies for company, and he was staying put, but it was still a definitely-not-meant-for-human(?)-children cage. The siren, with her big wings, hated enclosed spaces and seeing Darsh in one gave her a sympathetic itch.
Casia wasn't sure how to ask tactfully, but she was too horrified to avoid it. "So... Where is Daddy, then?" she asked apprehensively.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:48 pm
That was a very good question and Darsh had to think about it for a moment. He craned his neck to peer around, but he didn't see Max. Which meant Max might be any number of places. Darsh wasn't allowed in the back rooms where the kept the animals that were recovering from surgery and the two little operating suites. Max could be back there. Or he could be shoveling poop. He'd tried to get Darsh to help with that chore and the tantrum that had resulted had been magnificent.
"Dunno." He shrugged his slim little shoulders and pushed away a ball of brown-and-white fluff that was trying to chew on his toenails. "Wanna come in?" He finally offered. He wasn't sure she'd fit, what with the wings and all. But if she would come closer he could touch her feathers.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:00 pm
A nervous look flickered across Casia's brown eyes. "No thanks, it's cool." she said hurriedly. She laughed, a melodic chuckle at the puppy nibbling at Darsh's toes and reached through the wire to touch it. "Hey, over here, cool cat." she crooned. "Don't do that to him." The siren was far more open with animals than people. Looking back at Darsh, she tilted her head at him, a quizzical sort of frown gracing her lips. "You don't know where he is? Are you waiting to get one?" She looked around at all the critters up for adoption. "Because I don't think this is a people adopting place." Not that she knew much about animal shelters. For all she knew, it could be.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:07 pm
It took the blue boy a moment to realize what she was implying, then he grinned. "Will you take me home?" He asked, putting on the puppy-eyes again and definitively not answering her question. He even batted his eyelashes for good effect. Emma liked to watch old black and white movies when she was stoned and Darsh had gotten into the habit of imitating some of the starlets, tossing his hair and batting his eyelashes and on occasion delivering terribly innapropriate come-ons.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:26 pm
Casia's eyes widened and she let out a weak laugh. "I'm not here for that." she informed him cheekily. "I'm a day tripper! One way ticket, yeah." Harmonizing to the song line, she flashed him an apologetic grin. "You're a hunk though, huh? Someone'll want you." she assured the boy who she was starting to think was coming on a little strong. She stretched and looked for Jane, spotting her near the cats. That was far enough away. Casia didn't mind the kid, but she didn't want Jane getting the idea that the siren really needed a sibling. She was just barely getting used to the guardian, let alone another new face, another new melody in the already cluttered symphony of her life.
She paused, mid-stretch. Furiously running over the conversation, she looked back at Darsh. Casia's mind was hyper-sensitive to deception recently, and there was a note out of place in her conversation with the mysterious caged boy. "You didn't answer me, though." she pointed out reproachfully. "Do you know where he is?" Maybe he was at least part Blue Meanie after all, if he was being tricky about things.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:40 pm
One of the more interesting - and unfortunate for him - things about Darsh was that, while capable of evasion, he wasn't capable of lying. The toddler didn't quite understand this phenomena yet. He smiled. "He's... somewhere." He gave a little shrug. "Dunno where, though." His gaze wandered to the door that led to the back rooms and he put a little pout on his face. "Rather go home with you. Daddy doesn't sing."
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:21 pm
Casia shot Darsh a very old look, clearly disappointed with his stab at deception. It was a very Meanie sort of thing to do. "You know, deception is what weakens the moral fiber of society." she told him gravely, using some of the words Jane had used when she was listening to the candidates' debate on the radio. Casia had always upheld to a strict policy of honesty, and sometimes even acted like she did. However, she was flattered, she had to admit. Her singing made him want to come home with her? That meant it was really boss, right? Her wings gave a pleased little flutter and she didn't quite manage to bite down a faint smile.
But considering his old man put him in cages, was it actually that much of a compliment? She fingered the wires, biting her lip thoughtfully. Even baby Blue Meanies didn't deserve being caged, and if he really was a Meanie and started doing evil stuff when he got out, she could deal with him. "You wanna get out?" she asked.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:32 pm
He didn't know anything about moral fiber or society, but he did recognize the reproach in her voice and he managed to look suitably abashed while she told him off. Though when she mentioned letting him out he perked right back up. He didn't really mind being penned up with the puppies, it was mostly fun. It was definitely more entertaining than sitting in a hard chair waiting for Max to be done with his work. But the prospect of getting out to play with Casia was way better than staying in. So he nodded eagerly. "Yes! Out!" And then after a pause, "please."
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:49 pm
Casia nodded and got up, looking at the cage with her hands on her hips. "Okay." she said authoritatively. The please was a good sign. Even she didn't say please most of the time. Walking around it, the girl looked the puppy cage up and down and it perplexed her. "How do I open it?" she asked Darsh quizzically. Breaking and entering wasn't the siren's specialty. "How did you get in? You don't need a key or anything, do you?"
At the last minute, Casia's heart jumped and she swiveled her head around to look for Jane again. She had forgotten all about the woman, and nothing was more likely to make a parent go ape on you than if they found you doing something that would probably cause chaos. She was safe, the guardian was too preoccupied to notice the siren planning a getaway for the blue convict, but she reminded herself to stay on guard. Never let your guard down!
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:35 pm
"Like this!" Darsh reached through the wires and fingered the clasp. It was clear he knew how it worked in theory, he was just too short to reach it. "Pull." He added, just in case. "Daddy put me in so I could play with the puppies." He explained while he stood on his tiptoes trying to reach the latch.
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