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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Aug 20, 2013 13:03:06 GMT -8
Mikhail had to wonder which particular deity he'd angered to end up in his current predicament. Even ignoring everything that happened in Antarctica, he'd started work in LA to find himself locked out of the Society headquarters without proper security clearance. He'd had a bizarre cat-thing dropped on his desk to take care of, been assigned to stalk someone half his age, and now he was supposed to investigate an animal at the zoo sometime in the following week.
What was with the society and sticking him with every animal related task? He wasn't a handler. They had people whose sole job was to take care of various fate creatures, and yet he'd still gotten stuck with one. At first he'd made a point of taking the cat with him everywhere, but it was too much of a risk transporting it back and forth, and the cat had a tendency to get out on his own and make messes. The fact that it could apparently spawn rainclouds was a whole extra ball of fun, and Mikhail was busy waterproofing the room he kept the cat in after it had destroyed one of his books.
Then, just when things weren't bad enough, it had bit him after he attempted to feed it catfood purchased from the local megastore, turning up it's nose and refusing to eat. As appealing as the idea of not having a cat was, he was fairly sure the Society would have issues with him starving a fate creature to death.
Which meant he was going to have to buy something live, which meant he was going to have to go into a small store. He had mixed feelings about small stores, simply because they so often forced him into a conversation he wasn't quite prepared to have. This one wasn't too far from his home, so he could at least retreat to there if necessary, but it was going to be a necessary evil to get the food the cat would need--might as well make friends.
Wearing long sleeves and pants and being pale as a ghost, Mikhail must have looked particularly out of place considering how hot LA was. The way he looked at everything--like he'd never seen most of it before in his life--probably made him stand out even more. He hadn't the faintest idea of where to go, and all he could do was stand there for a moment.
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Aug 22, 2013 11:59:56 GMT -8
Okay, don't get her wrong: Kris liked where she worked. It was perfectly nice in every conceivable way.
But holy crap did it get boring.
When the boss man had first asked her if she could open the store and look after it by herself today, a tiny knot of anxiety had formed in the pit of her stomach. It was one thing when she had someone else there to ask questions or take direction from- but to be all by herself in the store, and be responsible for it? Thanks, but no. She'd really, really rather not. She had the sinking suspicion the store would burst into flames the instant she tried to unlock the door. What she had meant to say was "I'd rather die," but what ended up coming out of her mouth was something more along the lines of "I'd be happy to!"
He had needed help, okay, how could she say no? Besides, so far so good- despite her initial worry, things had been running smoothly so far. No fires, no thunder or lightning or crashing waves. Just a few customers in and out of the store since it opened, and they had all been easy enough to take care of. Hopefully the rest of the day would go just as well- they had only been open for an hour, after all.
Speaking of which, they had only been open for an hour. Kris made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat as she glanced up at the clock once again, probably the 100th time in the last minute. She could really use a robbery right now. Or a parade. Or an alien invasion. Or anything, really, so she had an excuse to stop taking inventory and stacking items and cleaning and the million other things her boss had left her to do while he was gone. At least she was getting paid extra to do this, so that was something, right? Honestly, Kris just couldn't wait till she was done with everything so all she had to worry about was where she was going for lunch, her DS's battery life, and helping customers until she could leave.
The chime of the door indicated someone had entered the store, and Kris's head shot up, effectively knocking it on the shelf right above her. "Ouch!" Ohhh god that had hurt. She spent about a minute just sitting on the floor, waiting for stars to stop exploding in front of her eyes. Once everything stopped spinning, she slowly got to her feet, rubbing the top of her head gingerly. Ow ow ow ow okay that had really hurt. Walking out of one of the back aisles, Kris glanced around, frowning as she tried to find- oh!
She paused mid-step when she finally noticed the tall, pale man near the front of the store, looking decidedly lost. W-Wasn't he hot in those clothes? Oh well, to each his own. She took a deep breath before approaching the man, a small smile on her face as she asked, lightly, "Hi, do you need help finding anything today?" |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Aug 24, 2013 19:21:47 GMT -8
tagged: kristen. time: may 7th, 10am. notes: notes. Mikhail was starting to wonder if the shop was abandoned. It seemed dead silent, there was no one else around, and he didn't see any sign of the staff for the first minute he was in there. He made a little 'hmm' noise, glancing around incredulously at everything. He was lost. Beyond lost. What did you even feed a cat like that? Hopefully the same thing as a normal cat, because there was no way in hell he was going to be able to explain what kind of cat it actually was.
Thankfully he wasn't waiting for long when a girl emerged--maybe twenty by the look of her, nonthreatening, and what Mikhail thought of as distinctly average. He still tended to think of people in terms of what they meant to the society. Did someone look like a threat? Like they might have information? The girl just looked like normal -- like one of the seven billion people who inhabited the earth, the very people the society fought to protect.
"I think I do." Which wasn't technically correct, because he was almost entirely sure he did. He had absolutely no idea what he was looking for, or where to look for it, or what it would cost, so he was rather hoping the shop was priced fairly. He glanced around one last time as he tried to formulate his question, lips pressed in a thin line for a long moment before he finally spoke again.
"I've recently become owner to a cat, and it refuses to eat the canned food I bought it. I think it wants to eat live prey, and I have no idea what cats eat." Mikhail lacked even the basic knowledge of 'cats eat mice', which was obviously extremely obvious to someone who lived in a place with both cats and mice. Even so, he had grown up in a place without either, and television was clearly meant to rot your brain with misinformation. |
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Aug 26, 2013 15:09:45 GMT -8
So it wasn't exactly every day someone came in asking for live food for a cat. In fact, it was pretty much unheard of; in her short time working there, Kris had certainly never been asked about it before, unless it was for reptiles. Being the opportune businessman that her boss was, of course the store had feeder mice for snake owners- which she didn't entirely agree with. There were more humane ways of feeding a pet than with live animals, but who was she to argue?
"Live prey?" She repeated, the polite expression on her face disappearing as she blanched a little. To be fair, mice were in a cat's natural diet, but most domesticated cats only hunted mice and rats for their owners- her own cat back home had only ever chewed on the mice it caught, but it never actually ate any of them. And cats in rural areas often caught their own dinner, but a cat in a city?
She... guessed it made sense? But it really... didn't.....
Kris rocked back slightly on her heels, chewing on the inside of her cheek. While it wasn't exactly against the rules to sell feeder mice for a cat, she'd really like to avoid it if she could. What if his cat just played with them until they died, and then didn't eat them at all? Those poor mice! It wouldn't be fair to them at all, but it wouldn't be fair to let his cat starve either, if what he said was true.
See, this was what was so tough about the animal kingdom; cute animals are always eating other cute animals in order to survive. Like sharks eating seals. Seals were cute, sure, but so were sharks! They just got a bad rap because movies and TV shows made them out to look like they were villains. Oh well, that was the food chain; there was no sense complaining about it.
She glanced up to meet his eyes, then quickly changed her mind. He was, uh, kind of intimidating. Instead, she addressed the space next to his head, as she abruptly asked, "Umm, did you get your cat from a shelter?" She inwardly winced- that sounded silly and out of context. Quickly, she added, trying to explain, "It could be that it's used to eating dry food, if you got it from a shelter and it refuses to eat canned food... unless it was a feral cat? Then I could understand why it might want live food, it's just a little odd, is all-"
Okay, time to shut up.
Kris immediately stopped talking, clasping her hands lightly behind her back. "We do sell feeder mice though, if you really think that's what your cat needs." She said sheepishly, scuffing her foot against the floor. The customer was always right, after all, but was it so wrong just to make absolutely sure? |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Aug 28, 2013 10:30:28 GMT -8
tagged: kristen. time: may 7th, 10am. notes: notes. Mikhail really had no idea how weird it was to ask for live food for a cat. He knew that his wouldn't eat anything but--the dry and wet food offered got it nowhere. The only thing it had eaten at all was a still flopping goldfish. That was the only reason he suspected live prey at all.
Her reaction did give him some food for thought. Was it that odd to have a cat that only ate things that were still alive? Was it that strange? Her questions were a tad difficult for him, and he shifted his weight between legs, pausing a moment before finally answering. "It actually isn't from a shelter I don't think. It was a friends cat, but he had to move urgently and dropped the cat off with me to take care of." Which was a fairly close approximation of what had happened. "He didn't leave any instructions and I'm not sure when he'll be back in contact, so I'm stuck for a few days until he lets me know what it would normally eat. It ate a goldfish thought, so..." Definitely not dry food. "It might have been feral originally."
Which it might have, assuming you counted a 'winged cat' as feral. He considered the feeder mice, not entirely liking the idea of mice at all in his house, but he supposed it was worth the risk. If the cat died, he was in the short line for a demotion, and he simply couldn't risk that. "I think feeder mice might be the best plan. Just... one I think to test it out. I'd rather not have multiple feeder mice running around." Was a feeder mice different from a normal mouse, or was the name just the same? Did cats not normally eat feeder mice? Maybe they didn't eat mice at all. |
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Aug 30, 2013 11:36:29 GMT -8
On the one hand, it was a good thing his friend had left his cat with someone who cared about it's well being. On the other hand, what kind of person just leaves their pet without any feeding instructions or, or anything?! It didn't take that long to scribble a note about what to feed them before you go vanishing off to wherever! Ugh, people. She frowned ever so slightly, before remarking, with a small smile, "That was nice of you to take care of his cat for him-"
Wait, what.
"It ate a goldfish."
A goldfish.
She was pretty sure she had never heard of a cat eating a goldfish except in cartoons. But, well, there was a first time for everything, right? So this was a cat that ate live fish. Sure, why not. It's not like it was bad for it's digestive system or anything- it was just altogether pretty weird for a cat in this day and age to eat live food, is all. (Welcome to California, Kristen, everything is weird.)
So from what she could glean from that, he had no clue how to care for a cat. Which was, err, a little worrying, especially since it seemed like the cat required a special diet. If it was refusing both wet and dry food, it could be that it only ate a special kind of food- but because it's asshat owner didn't think to leave instructions, the poor thing was now starving and was resorting to eating live food!
Kris resisted the urge to sigh. Okay, that might not be necessarily true, and she could just be blowing things out of proportion. For now, she nodded, replying, "Okay, sounds good. Just one mouse is going to be $2.40." Now here came the fun part: actually getting the mouse. This time, Kris really did sigh; the poor thing. She hesitated briefly, then said, "I'll just-" Before she could even finish what she was saying, however, she became completely tongue-tied. Today was just not her day. Instead, she gestured down an aisle, a faint blush creeping up her face as she blurted out, "Get it for you."
Smooth. She was obviously hired for her people skills.
Saving herself from further embarrassment, Kris abruptly turned and walked down the aisle, mentally chastising herself. She needed to calm down, i-it wasn't even that bad--- okay yeah no it was pretty bad. She wanted to palm her face, but there was time for that later. For now, all she had to do was get him his mouse, ring him up, and then go sit in a corner and think about what she's done. She suddenly stopped and grabbed a plastic container from the top of the rodent display, before finding the feeder mice cage and biting her lip.
Why did she have the distinct feeling this was going to go badly...? |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Sept 4, 2013 16:41:51 GMT -8
tagged: kristen. time: same. notes: notes. Mikhail tended to feel bad about lying, but lying was simply a fact of life for him. It was impossible for him to tell the truth in almost any situation. If he told the girl the truth, she'd think he was insane. No one was actually going to believe he had a winged cat that could summon storms with its mind. At the very least he wasn't lying about the latest thing. It really had eaten the goldfish. It had been the only thing the damn thing would eaten.
"A small one, but yes. It seemed only interested in live food. I guess it's a hunter?" Which was something he could understand. It was a hunter--it wanted live prey, not food eaten out of a can. Once upon a time he'd been a hunter, and he could understand that drive, the need for the sport of it. Of course he wasn't a cat, and he didn't feel the need to hunt his food, but there was still a certain amount of understanding there.
The cats dietary needs were quickly knocked out of his brain by the girl's extremely confusing reaction. Was she... what? She was blushing. Why the hell was she blushing? He simply didn't have a good enough understanding to even begin to understand why she was blushing. Was it something he'd said? Was it even him at all? Maybe it was something else. Maybe she'd been talking to someone before he'd come in and interrupted it. Maybe something else entirely.
He trailed behind, trying to work it out. Nope, he had no idea what was going on. "Just... whatever. If it doesn't eat it I can try and work it out, but hopefully it'll eat the mouse." Apparently cats ate mice. Or at least could, because she seemed surprised by the whole thing.
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Sept 11, 2013 18:59:15 GMT -8
Can we not talk about the cat eating the mouse so casually, pretty please? Just because she understood the food chain didn't mean she liked it. Cleaning up after her cats at home had been bad enough as is; the thought of an animal ripping another one apart was enough to make her stomach queasy. Nature documentaries were one thing, but she was certain she could never sit through a cat eating a fish or mouse alive-
"If the mouse doesn't work, you can always try another fish?" She asked, smiling slightly as she stared at the mice cage. Okay, time to do this. From a young age Kris had never been afraid of mice or lizards or much of anything, really, so she wasn't too worried about that. She just knew she was going to mess this up somehow- then again, of course she would if she was thinking like that! Without further ado, she opened the top of the cage and she dipped her hand in, gently scooping a mouse out. Now all she had to do was get it in the carrier-
And that's when, as she was lifting the mouse out of the cage and beginning to place it in the plastic container, that it suddenly lashed out and bit her.
Aaand she dropped the mouse.
Well, fuck.
She called that from a mile away, because, of course, this sort of thing would happen to her. "Ah, shit-" She cursed, quickly checking her hand and finding the mouse hadn't broken skin- well that was good at least. But there were kind of more pressing matters at hand here, like the fact the tiny rodent was scampering across the aisle. No, wait, she had said 'shit' in front of a customer, shit- "Sorry, sorry-" She apologized, her face now beet red as she glanced at him. She was a special kind of idiot, alright. "Uh, hold on a second--"
Placing the carrier on the floor, she followed after the damn mouse- okay, that wasn't fair, she had probably scared it and it was acting out of self-defense, this was her fault- before it could disappear into the store and never be seen or heard from again. Because, y'know, that would be just her luck. And to think, she had been doing so well too. Well, until she got to about now, anyway-
Holy crap, why was this thing so fast?! |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Sept 14, 2013 7:58:45 GMT -8
tagged: name. time: date & time. notes: notes. Mikhail had spent his entire life in the Antarctic, and he was well aware of just exactly how the food chained worked. He'd seen seals eat penguins, whales eat penguins, and whale's eat seals on what could only be described as a regular basis. Sure, he was relatively confident that most of those animals could be described as 'cute' by the average person, but he'd simply grown up understanding that nature would do what it wanted, and there was nothing they could do about it. He'd simply accepted it and moved on with his life, confident that the natural order was preserved.
"Maybe." Another fish would be his next best choice. At the very least he knew that the cat would eat it, but fish were also not nearly as easy to handle as a mouse looked like it would be. They looked... well, small and unintimidating, easy for someone to handle. Or at least it looked easy to handle. It apparently wasn't, because in the time it took for him to glance around the store and look back, the mouse had somehow gotten on the floor, the worker had cursed, and now the mouse was running across the floor.
Mikhail let out a grunt of his own, stepping down hard just in front of the mouse, stopping it from going under a rack of dog treats. He was fully expecting the mouse to turn, to head another direction, and instead it did nothing of the sort--scrambling up his leg.
It was a small miracle that he managed to move as fast as he did, wrapping his fingers around the pant leg just above the knee. As much as the rodent was scampering up and down the bottom half of his leg, it's tiny claws digging in, it at least wasn't getting past the knee.
Of course, that also meant Mikhail couldn't do anything. Both hands were occupied with keeping it from going farther up, and he glanced at the girl, looking downright mortified. "Get it out!" How the hell had this even happened? He'd just wanted some cat food. |
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Sept 18, 2013 15:46:36 GMT -8
She blinked in surprise at how fast the man had moved- to be honest, for half a second she had been afraid he had actually stepped on it. Those were some crazy quick reflexes. Okay, but there was no time for that, she needed to catch the mouse before it got away again.
But then it scrambled up his pants leg and it took all her self-control not to burst out laughing at the situation. Holy crap holy crap this was like something out of a sitcom. She quickly screwed up her mouth to stop herself from so much as giggling, ducking her head so he couldn't see the expression on her face. Having a mouse up your pants wasn't funny in the slightest she absolutely could not laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Seriously, don't laugh.
Kris didn't really have time to laugh anyway, though; she winced at his raised voice as he trapped the mouse below his knee. Oh god, this was going to be so awkward. She was definitely going to have to touch him in order to get the mouse out. Moving closer to him, she silently apologized as she cupped her hands around the wriggling mouse. Sorrysorrysorrysorry. Slowly, she dragged the mouse down until it popped free of his pants leg. As soon as it poked it's little head out, she snatched it up in both her hands with no chance of escape.
"Got it!" She declared triumphantly, before remembering that she 1.) had a very perturbed customer and 2.) a very perturbed mouse. Right, okay. Walking back over to the plastic container, she placed the mouse in it and closed the roof, before it got any more funny ideas. Deep breathes, Kristen. You fucked up pretty bad, but on the bright side it could have been a whole lot worse! Probably. Maybe. Or not.
Turning back to the pale man with the container in hand, she managed to fumble out, sheepish grin on her face, "S-Sorry about all that." Hahaha she could kiss her job good bye. Glancing down at the mouse, she bit her lip, before asking, "Umm, do you want the fish instead...?" |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Sept 18, 2013 18:43:49 GMT -8
tagged: name. time: date & time. notes: notes. Mikhail had never seen a sitcom, and was thus largely missing the humor of the situation. He just knew it was... well, it didn't quite hurt, but it was certainly annoying. Ticklish would have been an accurate word, although it didn't quite summarize quite how odd and alarming it had felt. At least it hadn't gotten any higher, and the moment she reached out to touch him he froze. He was absolutely, perfectly still.
In a way, he was terrified. It was frightening to him. No one had touched him in ages, and there were so many things that could go wrong. She wasn't near any of his major scars, and while he knew she couldn't feel his scars, he couldn't push himself past it.
Thankfully, he had a good minute or so while she slowly inched the mouse down before retrieving it to calm himself, and he forced himself to take a deep, deep breath as she finally put it into the container. He could do it. He could be calm. He swore he could manage it. Even so, it wouldn't be hard for Kristen to tell that he was a bit more alarmed by the situation then the average person was. The average person might have laughed it off, but he still looked like his best friend had been run over by a truck in front of him.
Shaky, he finally responded. "I think.. I think both. Just in case." So he wouldn't have to come back and deal with the pet store ever again. Or at least not for a week at minimum. He didn't want to have to deal with someone who'd seen him freak out like that, even if it had been relatively subdued. |
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Oct 1, 2013 11:07:44 GMT -8
Kris noticed the expression on his face now that the moment had passed, and he didn't look so good. Oh no, was he afraid of mice- no wait then why would he have agreed to purchase a mouse in the first place- okay maybe it was something else. Well, crap. Should she say something? Or pretend she didn't notice? Or? She hesitated for a second, then finally asked, "It didn't hurt you or anything, did it?" She immediately regretted asking and eternally winced, but she would have felt even worse for completely ignoring him altogether.
All in all, she felt pretty bad about this whole ordeal; poor guy did not need this to happen to him when all he wanted to do was buy a dumb mouse.
"Okay!" She said it a little too quickly, but after all that could you really blame her? She at least owed it to him to get him out of there sooner rather than later. For all she knew next she'd end up spilling the contents of a tank of fish all over the place. Because with her luck that was exactly what was going to happen and that would be just splendid. But she could handle fish. Fish weren't pains in the ass. Unless you were trying to actually keep one alive, which in that case yeah, they totally were. It was possible to keep a fish as a pet, she knew that. It was just that all of her attempts in the past had ended in, uh, tragedy. (Killer the goldfish will never be forgotten.)
Double checking to make sure the mouse's container was definitely closed, Kris turned the corner around the rodent cages to the wall of tanks where the fish were kept. Placing the mouse down carefully on the counter, she grabbed a net and a bag and made her way over to the goldfish tank. The cat had already eaten a goldfish, so why not, right? With the bag half full of tank water, she quickly scooped a fish in, and tied the bag off at the top with a knot. "There!" She managed to give the man a small smile before she asked, "Anything else?" |
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Post by MIKHAIL USENKO on Oct 1, 2013 16:47:23 GMT -8
tagged: name. time: date & time. notes: notes. He could never have been considered used to people. Not to normal people. He could handle members of the Society easily enough, but there were just so many possible mistakes he could make when dealing with someone outside of the society. He could slip up. Could make them suspect, could give them too much information and draw them into the line of fire. There were too many possibilities.
Sometimes he felt like he was drowning in them.
"I'm - I'm fine." He tried to sound firm and failed utterly. He wasn't fine. He was too worried, too lost in his own thoughts and paranoia. In his mind he knew that she hadn't. She wasn't showing any signs of suspicion--just worry over someone who was acting like a damned lunatic. His behavior was erratic and pointless. It didn't help things, and was simply making them worse. He was creating a problem when there wasn't one, and he took several long moments, sucking in deep breaths to try and calm himself.
It helped a tiny bit to think of home--of the cold white wastes, of how the sun looked when it finally rose after a long winter. He missed it, but at the same time he couldn't imagine himself ever returning. He'd left it behind, and the whole continent might as well have been buried in his regrets.
All of a sudden she was talking to him, and his eyes snapped open. He hadn't made a conscious choice to trail behind her, but he had anyway, operating on autopilot. She had a fish and a mouse, both in their little containers, and he paused for a moment to think it over before finally nodding.
Yes, that was all. "I think just those. And then... I guess I'll come back when I find out if it'll eat both." And then whichever was easier he'd have to buy. He was hoping it was the fish--fish seemed a lot easier to purchase, and he could easily keep a literal tank of them to feed.
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Post by KRISTEN MAYOR on Oct 2, 2013 15:35:13 GMT -8
He said he was fine, but he didn't seem fine at all. Between the stammered reply and the deep breaths he was taking, she half-wondered if he was about to have a panic attack. But, well, what could she do, y'know? She couldn't exactly tell him he wasn't fooling anyone. Not only was he a complete stranger, he was also a customer, and the customer was always right. So the best she could do was agree and move on; besides, he'd probably feel better once he got out of the store.
"Okay, sounds good." She replied with a nod, shooting an apprehensive glance at the mouse container. Live food for a cat. Oh well, there's been stranger she supposed. She just really hoped the cat's owner got back to him soon so he could feed it properly. Kris gently picked up the mouse, then went behind the counter with both fish and rodent. After ringing him up and accepting his payment, she handed them both to him with a grin. "Thank you, have a nice day!" (Or at least try to, without thinking about how a mouse ran up your leg earlier ahaha-)
Kris paused for a moment, then quickly added, sheepishly, "And, uh, sorry again about all that." And then he was gone, off to go feed his cat or call her boss to have her fired or something. She let out a light sigh, absently rubbing the spot where the mouse had bit her. It, uh, could have been worse, right...? At least nothing was on fire....
And now she was going to beat her head against the wall for the next 4 hours. |
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TERRESA
UNKNOWN ENTITY
RESIDENT UNICORN
小書瑀
Posts: 105
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: HOW DARE YOU ASK A WOMAN HER AGE?
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Guardian Kirin of the White Rice Paddies
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Post by TERRESA on Oct 4, 2013 21:08:01 GMT -8
| | | Finished Thread
You have been rewarded with ONE RESIDUE as this thread is now complete. It has been placed in the archives under the 'finished' sub-board. You are more than welcome to PM fate if this thread is not finished or if you are unhappy/unsatisfied with the amount of residue that has been rewarded. Keep up the great work and keep posting with other members.
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