Star Candy (3) : In your mailbox, locker, or desk drawer appears a bag of star candy! There is no indication of where or who it came from other than a small tag that reads: “Happy Star Festival!” The small, colorful pieces of sugar seemed to almost glow faintly, and after eating them, the world looks a bit different. Cartoonish and much less…real. Is it a hallucination? Is it some new reality? The strange vision lasts only half an hour, and after it wears off, the rest of the candy seems to disappear. How strange!
He felt silly.
He felt silly and tired and flustered, and that was an uncomfortable combination. But what else was he supposed to do? Cierret had been so uncertain about accepting a different kind of help to find his kitties homes when Malcolm had presented it, but it only took a few days for the idea to grow on him. A few days where he didn't have extra help from the shelter, and he still had to go to work before coming home to a mountain of litter boxes to clean and vomit spots to scrub and a dozen tiny kitten mouths that required bottle feeding.
If his day job was half his life, fostering was certainly the entire other half, even if he hadn't intended it to be. And the longer he dwelled on it, the less certain he was that he wanted it to take up half his life.
He could do it.
He was doing it now.
But it didn't spark the same joy from so long ago, when he only had a few and homes were easier to come by. Cierret missed the bittersweet departures of something he'd practically raised being welcomed in by someone else... A burden relieved from him.
It would be nice to have that again. It would be nice to have some life left to enjoy for himself. So in the end, he'd agreed to let Malcolm come and take pictures or write profiles or do cat-adopting things to help his sixty some-odd cats find homes. It would be better for him, and it would be better for them. Cierret shouldn't be so selfish when there were so many other little lives involved.
So he'd tried to do his part in the process and set up a nice staging area where they could take some cute photos of his multitude of cats. Only he didn't really know what it was supposed to look like, and he wasn't sure he had the interior design skills to come up with something successful. Hence, the silliness, and the flusteredness. It was in his home, of course. There was nowhere else for so many kitties to safely go. He didn't have much by way of proper decoration; most of what he kept was just necessary to keep his charges happy and healthy. Cierret stared through icy eyes at the piles of colorfully patterned blankets, draped and pushed into heaps for the kitties to lay and knead on.
It was ridiculous.
But sure enough, many of the cats were intrigued by the scene change, and Cierret was joined by twenty or so of his feline companions, circling around him and stretching out on the blankets. Some pounced at the fabric, skittering excitedly around the folds.
Well, it wasn't photogenic. That was for sure.
But Cierret's sigh was soft, and much of the tension left him as he watched the cats explore the bizarre new fixture. They seemed pleased, so that was something. He just hoped Malcolm arrived before they grew too bored with it.
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:44 am
Malcolm took his offer seriously. Incredibly seriously. When Cierret had agreed to letting him do a photoshoot for the cats, he wanted--desperately--to make sure that he didn’t let him down.
So, he’d brought everything.
He had his best camera--and a backup, just in case he tripped and fell and broke it or something stupid on the way over. He had a bag of lighting equipment, and a few extra things just to help stage the scene. He’d packed everything he could think of--and given himself a workout that had his muscles screaming by the time he made his way to Cierret’s door.
This time, he knew he was in the right place. He set his bag down on the door; the straps had dug into his hand and shoulder, but it was his own fault for not driving. This would have been so much easier with a car. He wished he could have powered up and run over here, or done anything other than just carried everything over.
...Maybe he’d call an Uber or something on the way home. Depending on how exhausting this was.
Knowing what he was going into, and being a little excited to be useful, Malcolm knocked on the door with more confidence. He nearly texted that he had arrived, but he talked himself out of doing that in addition to the knocking; he was already a little worried about being annoying.
But, this was for the cats. Cierret had agreed to help.
So even if he felt a little silly, at least it was for a good cause. If it could help at least one cat--if it could give Cierret at least one less to worry about--then, it was worth it.
He stood a little taller on the doorstep, ready to do this.
He hadn’t gotten axe-murdered the last time he was here, and he probably wouldn’t this time, either.
Indigo_Plateau
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Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:01 pm
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The knock came (only discernable from downstairs because of how many of his creatures suddenly lost interest in him all at once), and Cierret suddenly felt even more frustrated with himself and his stupid pile of cat toys and blankets. He very much doubted Malcolm would say what a hassle it was to fix Cierret's cat area for photos and provide equipment and meet him at his own location and actually take the pictures and then also set up the profiles, but Cierret just didn't know what to do here. He'd tried to manage what he could, but everything just looked... so silly.
He took the stairs two at a time, an abnormality for him, but he didn't want to keep Malcolm waiting any longer than he had to. "Hey, good morning. Sorry to keep you waiting. Come in, come in." Cierret gestured with a wave for the younger man to follow him, but his gaze was directed over Malcolm's head, out to the front of his house and the street.
No cars... No one was pulling away. His icy gaze fell, tracing the other man in front of him. Malcolm had kind of a lot of equipment in his hands, and he was sweaty from the summer's day- Gross. -But not important. Don't think of that.
What was important was how blindly inconsiderate Cierret was of the whole situation. Malcolm had offered to do a great chore that Cierret had no experience in. He didn't know what he could do to help, but he should've offered something. Transportation, at the least. "Did you walk here?" He prompted. "It's not a problem if you want me to drive you home, after." And because it hadn't been discussed previously: "And I can pay you for your service, if you have rates?"
Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 2:03 pm
Malcolm looked a bit embarrassed when it was so obvious that he walked there--like, yeah, okay. That was the logical assumption, given that there was not a car, but he still felt silly about it. “I don’t want to impose,” he insisted, and he was an adult. He didn’t want to say ‘I can call my parents’ but maybe after all of this he wouldn’t want to walk home, too. So, he figured he could give a quick compromise and say, “I’ll let you know about that ride home though. Let me see how much energy they have. Um. But there aren’t any rates or anything. I volunteered to help,” he said, and flashed a quick smile.
“It wouldn’t be fair to charge anything. We both volunteer for the animals anyway, right? So this is for them. The only thing I want is to help. And maybe pet a few. Or all of them. I brought a lot of stuff--more than I needed, I’m sure, but. I’d rather be overprepared, you know? I didn’t know how much time you had today but if it goes well I can come back and do this again, too. I’m excited to get to hear all about them. Do they all have names?” he asked, and picked up his equipment again so they could get started on everything.
Indigo_Plateau
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2021 7:35 am
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"It wouldn't be an imposition," Cierret said quickly. "If it's close enough for you to walk, I'm sure it will only be a few minutes' drive. You're already doing... very much for me. I could spare a few minutes to make sure you get home safely." He didn't want to add that a young man walking around Destiny City while carrying a bunch of heavy and expensive equipment, even in a residential area, was just asking for trouble.
It wasn't going to be Cierret trying to explain to the police that he didn't know why Malcolm hadn't made it home after leaving his house.
"Is there anything I can help with?" He offered as he eyed the other man's cargo. "Anything I can carry down for you? We'll be working mostly downstairs, like we did last time, but we can probably see who's all out in the greenhouse... Do you want something to drink? Water or juice or anything? It's pretty warm out today."
As he headed for the basement door, kept shut always so as to prevent his rescues from terrorizing the rest of his home, Cierret gave a little roll of his shoulders. "Most of them have names," he admitted. "But I'm not very good at coming up with very interesting or unique ones. If you have suggestions, you can call them whatever you want or whatever you think will look good on their profiles."
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:44 am
Malcolm was initially reluctant to accept, because even if Cierret said it wasn’t an imposition, he still worried that it would be. But, Malcolm couldn’t be rude and decline when Cierret was being courteous and helpful, no matter how nervous he made himself about everything. “I’d appreciate that,” he blurted, before he could talk himself out of it. “Thank you,” he added, and passed over one of his bags for Cierret.
“If you want to help carry this, it would be a big help. I brought some water though, so I’m okay for now, thank you. I’m sure their names are fine! You have a lot of cats here, so I’m sure it’s not easy to keep up with a lot of different names. I’m looking forward to getting to meet them all! I’ll make sure we get some good pictures of everyone. That, and a good profile, can make a big difference. Sometimes people pay attention to the name, but most of the time people rename their cats when they take them home anyway. Do you have any favorites?” he asked, more out of making conversation than a necessity to know; if he was going to be here for a while getting to know the cats, he couldn’t help but want to get to know Cierret, too.
Indigo_Plateau
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:16 am
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Cierret accepted the offered bag and slipped the strap over his shoulder as they made their way to the basement steps once more. Hearing the knock on the front door had already roused many of his creatures. The meows from the basement had amplified ten-fold since Malcolm had entered.
As before, he was very quick to usher Malcolm into the basement, so that none of the cats would escape out into the rest of his house. Cierret paused briefly on the landing to consider the question, as if he wasn't sure if he should answer 'honestly' or 'correctly.' "I... Yes," he admitted after a moment. "I've had some of them for years, and I'm starting to expect they'll live their whole lives with me. Mmm..." His gaze scanned the gathering clowder, until they landed on an almost-Siamesey female, with dusty brown fur tipped in black points.
He was not shy about scooping her from the crowd and drawing her to himself. "This one is Honeydew! Mama Fruitbunch had her litter with me. She's somewhere around too, and I still have one of her brothers, as well, but Honeydew used to climb up my pants and nest on my shoulder. She knows she's too big to climb up people now, but if you happen to get in a good position for her, she will still jump on your shoulder. She's also a good flycatcher. And..."
It was then that he began to make his way down the stairs, and upon reaching the bottom, he set Honeydew free and turned his focus to an extremely massive tigerstripe. "This one is Tulip." Cierret hefted the cat into his arms, and Tulip's face immediately smooshed to his cheek, burrying the cat's face. "He had an eye infection when he was younger, so his gaze is a little cloudy and sad-looking. He likes people and attention, but he is very shy." Huge paws swooped to either side of Cierret's neck, and sharp claws kneaded against him. "Do you want to hold him? He'd be grateful for the attention."
They all would be.
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:32 pm
Malcolm watched with nothing short of affection, and it seemed like he had immediately become endeared to these cats as Cierret introduced them. He hadn’t expected the offer to hold one of them, but then--realistically--he probably could have gotten away with scooping up as many as he wanted, if he’d really been interested. He supposed Cierret must have been full of love to give so much to so many, and he couldn’t help himself when he nodded eagerly to accept the very large cat.
“I’d like to give him some attention,” he admitted. “If they’re all as sweet as that, I can see why you might have such a hard time giving them up. The way you talk about them already makes me want to just take them home with me, so I’m sure we’ll be able to get some really good profiles up.”
As he reached to accept the cat, he paused when he saw Cierret’s attempt at a staging area and he seemed to brighten at that, too. “Oh! Did you set that up for them? It looks really nice! They seem like they’re getting comfortable over there, too.” He smiled at the cats, at how lively all of them seemed to be. “I hope that’ll make it easier to get some good pictures. Especially if it smells like you already, that must make it feel a little safer, right?”
