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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2025 3:01 pm
Night had fallen, but Eles couldn't bring himself to go home. For the better part of a few minutes, he had been following a leash as it lay limply on the ground, darting to and fro. He wanted to get a look at the animal that wore it. Really, he wanted to catch it. He wanted to know what it was like to hold something on the end of a leash — like it was being punished, like it was property.
He and the leash had made it as far as the park. Here and there, he caught glimpses of the freed little indentured servant — a flash of white here, a dash of orange there. Eles kept on its trail quietly, unable to call out for whatever it was or offer any food as an olive branch.
While he was aware that the park was dark and long since emptied of its usual patrons, he didn't feel intimidated by it. Rather, the darkness, the quietude inspired a pulse of adrenaline in him. Bolstered him somehow. Wherever the little creature dared hide, Eles kept up, kept jogging ahead, darted around bush or tree or metal bench to stay up with it. But it became clear that the pet's energy was flagging for how it traveled shorter and shorter distances, for how it searched for a place to hide.
Finally Eles heard the skitter of claws where the pet darted up the scraggly bark of an elm tree. He looked up, watched the leash flail like a noose with a ghost on its business end, until that leash was sufficiently out of his reach.
How unfortunate. Hands on his hips, Eles looked up at the strip of leather, temporarily out of ideas.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2025 6:08 pm
Today had been one of Rowan’s self-care days. The ones her moms and sisters had been continually badgering her to take. For months. She wasn’t keen on the idea, after all there was always so much to do. She had so many supplies to gather, footage to map and analyze, curricula to study, streets to patrol. To take time off, to focus on herself, that was something she might be able to do later. Much later. Maybe after she got through everything on her ever-growing to-do list. It was much easier to steal moments of self-care in the course of attending to her various responsibilities. There was always time for a cup of tea while she analyzed her observations. Or a travel mug of tea she could carry with her on patrol. Really, she didn’t see the need to do much more than that. Today, however, a trip to the garden store was her chosen indulgence. That she could use her purchases to continue her off-world experiments was simply a bonus. Late nights on the city streets had left her vigilant and the motion of a stranger in pursuit of some animal caught her eye easily. Hoping for the opportunity to be of help, she hurried toward them until she stood beside the stranger at the base of a tree, the mysterious animal out of sight. Even if had been able to reach the end of the leash, she wasn’t exactly in a rush to yank the poor thing out of a tree.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 11:51 am
He had been puzzling out how he might get up the tree, obtain the animal, and bring it down safely without having to jump to the ground with something that might bolt out of his hands. Lowering it would've been better, but Eles wasn't tall enough to slip down from the lowest branch with a burden in his arms.
Just his luck, then, that someone else turned up. He held up a finger toward her as if to say stay right there. Bending his knees, he leapt up and caught hold of a lower branch, which he used to leverage himself up high enough to catch a leg over it and haul the rest of his weight into the tree. Straddling the branch offered him balance enough to take his eyes off what he was doing and look up for the creature at the end of the leash. While it was much nearer the top of the tree than him, Eles spotted a round, orange and white fluff.
A cat, then. Someone was walking a cat on a leash. ******** weirdo.
It took some scaling — and slipping — to make his way up further and follow the leash. He caught hold of it, gently, to prevent the frightened puff from trying to squirm itself into a more precarious position. By the time he caught up to it, the cat was mewling pitifully. Its fight-or-flight must have been freeze, Eles, assumed, for it did nothing more than stiffen up when he got his hands around its midsection. Tucking the cat close, he started making his way back down.
Then came the hard part: holding the cat still enough while he laid flat on the bottom branch. The kitty squirmed, distrustful of his grasp, and grew more and more temperamental the longer he took to flatten himself against the branch. So it was with expedience that he held the cat toward the new girl as far as he could reach, hoping she could take the cat from him and put its paws on the ground before it shredded him half to death.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 1:08 pm
Before a question could escape Rowan’s lips the stranger was up the tree after the animal. She wondered if it was his pet or if he was simply a good Samaritan helping someone find a missing friend. The redhead anxiously shifted her weight back and forth between her legs as she watched the unsteady climber, worried that she would have to break the fall of both human and animal should the branch fail to support their weight. Catching a small critter shouldn’t deal too much damage, but catching an adult human was another matter entirely and for several brief seconds she contemplated transforming to take advantage of the enhanced strength that came with the wardrobe change. Almost as soon as she opted not to take that questionable course of action she found herself faced with a thoroughly disgruntled cat. Without a thought she held out her arms, taking the mass of fur safely against her chest before setting it gently on the ground, leash in hand. Looking up at the orange creamsicle’s rescuer she asked, “D’you need help down?â€
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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2025 12:53 pm
Eles relaxed a little to have the ball of fluff out of his hands before it degloved him. The stranger seemed to have the right touch with the animal, too — set it right down and kept its leash in case it tried to go bolting again. For the moment, the creature must have been tuckered out; it froze and loafed there as if having given up on the idea of escape.
The question brought him back to his own situation, and Eles realized that climbing down was not quite the same as climbing up. He was a little hesitant to tilt his body off his makeshift perch and drop to the ground. Might piss off his ankle all over again.
So he nodded to the offer. A little bit of support couldn't hurt, he figured, as he began to make his way down.
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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2025 1:46 pm
Slipping the loop of the leash down her forearm, Rowan scrutinized the situation. She’d never helped someone down from a tree before, but she was a bit sturdier than she had been just a few months earlier. The rough water swimming was paying off. Hopefully enough that this person wouldn’t just flop to the ground. Or step on her head. That would be a less than perfect solution. Reaching out to support him as he descended, she put as much of her weight as she could into remaining steady so he wouldn’t touch down any harder than necessary. Her gaze passed smilingly between the unfamiliar duo. “So, is this your little friend?†She inclined her head toward the cat as she spoke.
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2025 9:41 am
To his curiously good fortune, he felt strong hands brace his thighs before he dropped to the earth. That a stranger bore some of his weight was a blessing for his injured ankle, and Eles was quick to sign his thanks.
And brush the tree detritus across his hips absently. He looked up at her question, lips pressed into a vacant half-smile, then shook his head.
Swallowing, his expression grew more solemn. While signing, he mouthed the words he wished he could say. No, I found it wandering around and dragging its leash. Don't know where the owner is, though.
To Eles, it seemed well enough to just take the cat home. People left their s**t unattended all the time — drinks, kids, personal records. It was almost invitational: have a look, taste for yourself, take my identity please.
Have my cat. I don't want it anymore.
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2025 2:08 pm
To Rowan’s relief, the stranger made it to the ground without incident. Dropping him would have thoroughly defeated the purpose of offering help in the first place. As he signed she gave a self-conscious smile and shook her head, regretting again that she couldn’t read sign language. “I’m sorry, I only know a few words in sign language.â€Honestly this should be a sign that she needed to take a class or two. It seemed like he was able to hear her so at least she could communicate a little bit. “Do you know whose cat it is?†She looked down at the seemingly less agitated loaf at their feet. Clueless or not about sign language, she did have her phone handy. Pulling it out, she opened the notes app and held it out. If he had something to say, hopefully this would be helpful.
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Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2025 7:20 pm
Eles only smiled at her; curiously, he found it relieving that she couldn't understand sign language. Like he possessed a secret code behind which he could hide all the tawdry scandals he had committed of late. Now wasn't that fun? Oh, had she been anything short of an angel, he could have insulted her to her face and watched her remain blissfully unaware.
But he'd save that for someone else. Besides, there was still the matter of the cat, who looked like it had given up on all hope of survival and remained flopped on the grass. Chunky little thing would have made for fine dining, too. When the stranger asked about it, Eles shook his head; he'd not seen hide nor hair of an owner, but the cat was obviously owned.
While the offer of her phone was likely thoughtful, Eles peered at it in mild consternation. He'd seen Malory use his phone like it was as natural as washing his hair or looking painfully beautiful, but when presented with a phone, Eles wasn't certain how to use one itself. He took it, of course — she seemed like she wanted him to do something with it — but nothing came to mind for what to do with it when he looked down at the blank text box and blinking cursor. <******** humbling, he thought with a measure of humor as he handed the device back to her.
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Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2025 7:51 pm
That the stranger wasn’t sure how to use her phone came as a surprise, but one she concealed, no point in making him feel self-conscious. If she was honest with herself, she felt the slightest bit of envy that he could navigate the world without a tiny computer in his pocket, even if it did further limit their options for communication. “OK, don’t worry about that.” She smiled reassuringly at him, they could figure this out. It seemed like he could hear her alright, or at least read her lips, that was definitely a point in their favor. “It looked like you’d been after this one for a bit already, did you see the direction they came from?” Bending forward, she held out a hand for the animal to sniff. Petting it would have been her first choice, but the poor thing was already so freaked out, the last thing she wanted to do was make the situation worse. It would be nice if the cat could lead them to their human, but if the little orange friend had been running around all night they might well be turned around too.
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Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2025 9:05 pm
The cat simply panted, its stress palpable in how its paws and nose sweated and it showed no interest in sniffing at anything. Ears planed against its head. Perhaps it was overstimulated from all the chasing, or simply coming to terms with all that it had witnessed to that point.
Eles nodded, then waved for her to follow along. The path would take them back through the park, of course, then up the street a couple blocks. He'd initially found the cat in an ancient alleyway that likely hadn't been paved in 50 years, where whole chunks of macadam had been torn up by the weather's endless lash and its original brick surface peered up at the sky. The alley was strewn with windswept trash and sagging buildings, deferred maintenance and paint that wilted and chipped under the hot summer sun. The cat had originally been hidden halfway in a plastic garbage can that laid on its side.
It was here that Eles would stop, then point at the can. Wherever the cat had come from up to that point, Eles didn't know. Could've been further down the alley, could've been the next street over, could've been some distant balcony that had the cat hopping roofs until it finally found lunch in the form of rotting trash.
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2025 1:12 pm
Rowan wished desperately that she could do something to soothe the cat, but she doubted that they could do anything to that end without figuring out where it came from. It didn’t seem inclined to follow along with the leash in its current state. Hoping that it wouldn’t result in losing an arm she crouched down and gingerly picked up the cat, carrying it securely against her chest as she trailed behind the stranger. Alleys, she suspected, would always remind her of her first encounter with a youma less than a year earlier. They were probably enjoyable for creatures that preferred to stay hidden until the time came to strike, that’s what she would do in their situation. She knew (at least academically) that youma started life as humans but she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the idea. Maybe she simply didn’t want to imagine such complete distortion of humanity even if she couldn’t dismiss the idea that youma were still, in fact, people. The derelict state of the place struck her in tandem with the less than charming smell that emanated from the toppled bin. “Let’s look further down the alley, maybe we’ll find…something down there.” Solving The Mystery of the Lost Cat superseded the rest of her anxieties, for now, anyway. With luck, they would find its human sooner rather than later.
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2025 6:09 pm
Keep going sounded fine enough, particularly since they were two (plus a cat). More curious than anything, Eles kept ahead by a few paces and checked what few alcoves he found along the way. Nothing behind a stack of bins, no one collapsed on top of a bunch of palettes, nothing in a weird divot of a building that was probably there for some heavy machinery.
However, when they reached a one-way side street that bisected the alley, Eles saw what looked like a tarp. With a quick glance back at Rowan, he pointed in the direction he was heading. Couldn't have been more than fifty feet, and the street was entirely unlit. Might've been a good place to dump someone who was walking their cat.
But as he approached the tarp, he realized he was actually looking at some kind of fake leather trench coat that caught the daylight like a plastic tarp would. The wearer was, perhaps unsurprisingly, face down in a heap. Eles assumed dead.
He almost hoped it. He would've liked to take home a new cat. Maybe it liked perplexing little demon dogs.
Either way, he wasn't touching that. Nor was he calling 911 from a phone that he still didn't know how to use, so any assistance — if any was needed, if any was rendered — would be coming from Rowan. He'd offer to hold the cat, though. Might as well bond with it before taking it home.honkzilla just unconscious, could use medical attention!
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2025 9:30 pm
Rowan nodded, following the stranger. He seemed like he knew the area far better than she did and stranger or not, they had a common goal. And if he was a serial killer with elaborate cat-based methods of luring people into alleys, she had her pen with her. A horrified gasp escaped Rowan as she realized the shape on the ground was a person. She quickly passed the cat to their companion and knelt beside the still form, doing the best she could to assess their injuries with their facedown position. Don’t move them. That could make things worse. Could worsen internal bleeding. Could exacerbate head or spinal injuries. Her phone was in her hand and she was dialing, she noticed that she wasn’t shaking. Her phone was pressed against her shoulder by her cheek as she gently applied two fingers to the unconscious person’s neck. She felt a pulse. She thought she felt a pulse. She hoped she felt a pulse.
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Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 6:46 pm
Eles quickly accepted the cat that was thrust into his arms, though the creature was again wiggly and attempting to liquify through his grasp. With a tighter grip, however, the cat calmed a margin.
Do you want to come home with me? He mouthed to the furball. If that's your owner, he's probably dead. So sad. But you could come home with me. I bet you're a lot of fun around furniture.
The cat, however, had little to say in response but for a few whines. And, to his chagrin, Rowan was on the ground next to that man and making a call with urgency. Maybe she figured he was still alive? Maybe he was actually still alive and she wanted to keep him that way. Fine, she could rescue this person. Eles would find his own cat eventually.
Better that he wasn't around for the inevitable police report, however. When it seemed that they entered a holding pattern of waiting for an ambulance, Eles approached Rowan with the cat and set the feline next to her, then offered her the leash. With a half-smile and a wave, he made for whence they came; the alley was about to become quite crowded, after all.
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