2024-12-06 - Pets on Parade

Madelyne managed to get some space to run this event, and it's been set up with leashes, harnesses, dog and cat beds, and plenty of treats. There are treats for the humans too. Plenty of snacks, drinks, and a few fliers for the local humane society, just in case you come to see the pets, and you're wanting to get one yourself.

She stands near the door, greeting folks who come in, holding her cat Coal who is currently passed out and halfway hanging off of her arm.

He doesn't seem to care what animals enter, it's fast asleep, but that might change if something crazy comes in!

Doing his best to slip in without attracting any attention, but finding it a bit more challenging to do so having arrived on time and not realizing that one usually arrives to these things at least a few minutes late, Nick offers a bit of a bashful smile to Madelyne. "Hi, I'm Nick, I actually don't have a pet at the moment, I had to leave my doggoe back home when I came because, well..." He laughs. "I'm just not sure he'd appreciate me coming home smelling like all the other animals. He'd think I was cheating on him!" He gives a bit of a nervous laugh. "I'm mostly just here to watch, and, you know, if anyone has any questions or wants to get some pet training, offer my help or services. If I can teach a capybara to skateboard, I'm sure I can..."

He pauses as someone else arrives, this one actually with an animal, and uses this an excuse to slip out of the conversation mid-sentence and hightail his way towards some of the human sized treats and drinks before finding a spot at the wall.

Lucien decided to come out to pet day with his two cats, Salt (white) and Pepper (grey), green-eyed short-hair cats. They're young, still just kittens, and each one is wearing a dark blue harness so that they can only adventure so far as their tether will let them. Both seem more curious than anything else, of anything and everyone there and will accept pets and scritches and tribute of treats. Luc is dressed in a pair of jeans and a grey sweater that is forgiving of cat hair for today's event.

Madelyne waves as people arrive, toting around her sleepy cat. Coal ate dinner, and now he must sleep. He stirs briefly when he catches the scent of another cat, one eye opens and he gives them a brief look before he closes the eye again.

"Welcome! Your cats are adorable, what are their names?" She asks Lucien, showing him her cat. "This is Coal."

She holds Coal up to show him to Nicholas too. "Hi, Nick. Welcome, you're fine to watch. We also have fliers for a local humane society. Just in case you wanted a pet, you could go snag one!"

Lucien has one kitten on his shoulder and one in his arms. "This is Salt," he says as he introduces the white kitten, "And this is Pepper," the grey one, "And they're both brothers." He reaches out to offer Coal a little scritch if the cat seems amenable before shifting his own slightly, since they seem interested in smelling everything and are starting to squirm to get down, which he allows since they're on their harnesses anyway. "I'm Luc. Nice to meet you. I figured I'd come out and meet some folks and their pets. Just got here not too long ago.

Gaspar arrives without much fanfare, as he is a mostly quiet man without a lot of desire to attract much attention.

The same cannot be said for his dog. Large, black, and a pure bred mutt, Barghest lumbers into the scene with a lolling tongue and a wagging tail, heading straight for Coal and Madelyne. He does not have a leash, but it seems impossible to believe this bundle of dark hair and joy would hurt anyone. He stops next to Madelyne and Lucian and sits, looking up at them and their cats.

"Barghest." Madelyne greets, shifting Coal so he can flop over her arm. She leans down to ruffle the big dog's head. "You darling boy. Tell Gaspar to get you one of the treats, you adorable little man."

She shifts with Coal, and shows the cat the dog. They've met of course, but when he spots his large friend he actually wakes up and squirms a bit to be released so he can sniff around.

She releases him, and he rubs himself against her legs as she speaks with Lucien. "Salt and Pepper, that is.. oh they adorable. Have they met dogs yet?"

Fin is still wearing her uniform when she walks in, camera strap slung around her neck and her equipment sling bag strapped across her chest, hair up in a ponytail. Clearly, she is still in work mode, for the most part.

She comes in alone, no pet of any sort accompanying her. "Hi," she greets. "I thought I would come take some photos of people with their fur, scaled, feathered, and othered loved ones, if that's okay." Her still worn name tag announces her name as 'Finola'.

Louise doesn’t have an animal with her, but she’s looking around like she’s lost one, brow furrowed as she wanders in and looking this way and that - her pet is a taller blonde, anyone seen her? “She was supposed to-“ It’s half a mutter, and forgotten instantly when she catches sight of animals.

The kittens, the cat, but oh the dog - he in particular gets a jaw drop and silently mimed grabby hands, because Lou has no chill, as she heads over to grab one of those fliers and probably a snack. “I’m Lou. Just ogling.” That’s presumably for Madelyne, or any of the people present really, but her eyes are just on furbabies.

It's Sadie, Sadie is the taller blonde. She's looking up from her phone when she arrives, up on her tiptoes to do the ol' 'scan the crowd' neck crane. Spotting her sister, she weaves through people and animals with incredible restraint. Don't think she doesn't want to kidnap every furbaby here.

"Hi," she says into Louise's ear in a low, deep demon-y kind of voice, having snuck up behind her.

Barghest is ecstatic to get some pets from Madelyne, and he even flops on his side and gives her access to his belly for more. But she's busy, and eventually, the greedy pet glutton must find new sources to feed his demanding appetites for human love.

Oh, look, there's Sadie.

Barghest bounces over that way, all sixty-ish pounds of him, and then flops on the ground and skids along on his fur until he comes to a stop at Sadie's feet.

"He will do this until the world ends, hopping from one victim to the next," Gaspar says, taking a sip of something in a solo cup.

Lucien watches as the big dog comes over and glances down at the kittens who seem largely oblivious to his presence until they turn around and both seem to jump simultaneously. Where'd that come from? Then they proceed to approach, sniffing, sniffing, sniffing. They are deeply curious, but aside from being momentarily startled, pretty comfortable with the big dog. "Now they have," Lucien says when Madelyne asks if they've met dogs.

Pictures?" Madelyne flashes Fin a bright smile, clapping her hands. "That's amazing, can we check out the photos when they're developed? Maybe purchase a copy? It's hard to get good pictures of our cats, even though my phone is full of them."

She greets Louise and Sadie when they arrive, smiling brightly. "Welcome in. Ogle away. We might do this again, so if you pick up a pet, you can bring them next time." She gestures to the treats for the animals, and the treats for the humans. "Feel free to take some goodies, there are plenty of pets in the park, and they love treats, so.." She trails off and goes to grab herself a bottle of water.

"Barghest is such a gentle little gentleman. I'm glad to see he gets along with other pets."

Using the screen on the camera at the moment, to frame out photos, Fin takes a couple of photos as people arrive, saying to Madelyne, "of course! They'll actually be uploaded to the employee site. No need to purchase these, but I am available for official photo shoots if people want. Could do some awfully cute holiday photos." Nodding there is a small laugh. "Yes. Cats are the hardest. They do exactly what you want them to until you lift the camera. It is like they see a lens and act a fool." That said, she steps back slightly to take a photo of Madelyne and Coal.

Oh there she is - Louise startles, satisfyingly, and shoots her sister a dirty look. “Hi Zuul. You’re late.” She had to walk into this bunch alone.

Barghest may have come for Sadie but Lou is happy to intercept, dropping to a crouch to fluff some ears as long doggo seems willing to be lavished. She will lavish. “I’ll take five of these.” They’ve got the space, right?

From his post at the wall, Nick sips from his cup and watches the interactions. Briefly he considers the idea of taming one of the cats, but lacking any sort of creative them to get them to do, he settles for just...watching.

It does his heart good to see folks engaging with their pets, as if he can just sort of absorb the power of those heartfelt connections.

He finishes off his cup, and then heads over to get a refill, thinking of Banjo.

Salt and Pepper seem happy to wander around and poke into things and Lucien sort of lets them lead him around rather than the other way -- cats. They sniff about at the people gathering and walking about, poke around wherever the treats are, trying to find a way to get up and into them, but Lucien keeps them mostly in check, though having to do at least one mid-air catch as Salt makes a leap for the goodies. For the time being, watching the two of them keeps him distracted enough to not yet partake of the human treats. "Getting some pics for the holidays might be cool," Lucien says to Fin. "Where can we reach out if we might want to get some?"

"Yeah, yeah, ye-- oh my god hi!" Intercepted! "What am I, chopped liver? ...you'd actually probably love that, nevermind." Her little Spider-Man backpack drops to the floor a beat before she's crouched and ready to deliver upon Barghest 1000 pets. "The gentlest man," she agrees with Madelyne, rising with a grin. And if Barghest is here, then... yep, she spots Gaspar and waves, her smile just a quirk of a thing.

Of course, there are so many animals to distract her and she's only human, so-- "oo kitty!"

Neve is sitting on the ground, next to her dog Sarama who is sitting in one of the dog beds. The cocker spaniel is asleep, and Neve looks like she might drift off and join her. They're fine. Just tired.

Barghest enjoys all the pets, but once that's done, he gets up and ambles to one of the kitties. Salt gets the attention.

Barghest sniff sniffs again, and then, after the two get smell-acquainted, he decides Salt is a little too dirty for a formal event such as this, so... slurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp.

Gaspar waves at Sadie, and then says, "Barghest, don't bathe the cats without permission."

Coal promptly flops over and stretches out his legs, one paw reaching out toward the other cats, and likely Barghest. He wants attention, and he's not afraid to meow for it. Madelyne is used to her cat being a tiny chaos goblin who think that the world revolves around him, so she gets some cat treats and puts them down so Coal can partake. "Oh I would love some holiday photos as well, do you have a card, Fin?"

"Oh, um, here," Fin says to Lucien as she holds her camera in one hand and unzips the front pocket of her equipment sling. She pulls out a card that has her contact information on one side and a photo of a landscape on the other. "Feel free to call me," she says, handing it to him. "Yep!" she answers to Madelyne, fetching another card to hand to her, this one with a different photo on the back.

This is actually something he could probably help with. Nick pushes off the wall and heads over towards Fin as the cards are being exchanged, and raises a hand on his approach. Halfway between a wave of greeting that a normal person might give and a raised hand that a second grader might use to indicate a need to use the restroom.

"Hey, uh, if you're going to be trying to shoot pet photos for the holidays, if you end up with any particularly, uh, ornery fellows, or gals, I've got a few techniques I can use to try to keep them focused." He glances over towards Coal. "Even kitties, believe it or not."

The look on Salt's face when the big dog suddenly licks him is pretty funny. He just sort of freezes with all four feet planted on the ground. And while his tail doesn't bristle the wide-eyed look says "Why am I damp?"

Lucien just laughs and says, "Have you tried not being delicious?" to the cat who of course comes over to rub on his leg to dry off. "Or that.." he laughs.

Fin makes a gesture with her hand, pointing toward Nicholas. "That sounds like it might be extremely helpful." Walking over, she slips another card out to give to him. "If you wouldn't mind, shoot me a text sometime so I have your contact info?" She turns swfitly, trying to catch another moment between the big dog Barghest and another cat, or person. He seems to be the life of the party at the moment and she hopes to be able to snatch a pic of another of those moments.

Barghest is aware he has been scolded, so he does NOT go and try to give Pepper a similar bath. He will, however, be on the lookout in the future. Grooming is an important part of any young furry mammal's education, after all.

For now, though, he decides to go say hi to the other canine. He pads over to where Neve and Sarama are, and he flops on his side and puts his head near where Sarama's is, while smacking his tail lightly no Neve's knee. Pet me pet me pet me pet me...

(Whenever he catches sight of Fin's camera aimed at him, he does pause whatever he's doing long enough for a candid. Is it a candid if he's posing? Weirdo.)

Gaspar comes to a stop next to Madelyne, nudging her elbow slightly, and says, "I cannot take him anywhere..." with a sigh.

Nick nods in response to Fin and reaches out to take her card. "Sure thing, will do," he gets out just as she turns away. He pulls his hand back, trying to roll the card back along his knuckles in an imitation of a cool trick he saw once in a movie, however the card flicks up into the air and falls to the ground. He ducks down to grab it and then slips back in the direction of the snack table, sliding the card into the back pocket of his khakis.

"He's such a ham." Madelyne murmurs back to Gaspar, shaking her head back and forth.

"Honestly if my cat doesn't mind whatever it is you're going to do, you're more than welcome. Coal is pretty laid back, will lay there and wait for someone to pay him some attention, honestly." She says to Nicholas.

She makes a kissy noise, and Coal stretches and parades around.

Lucien just chuckles when Salt gets the bath and Pepper gets off scott-free, blissfully unaware of how close he came to being bathed. Fortunately, the experience is soon forgotten and Salt is busy once more trying to climb into any bucket, bin, or tub that might have treats in it. Lucien finally scoops both he and Salt up and tucks them under one arm like a pair of fuzzy footballs and says, "Come on. Snack time." For all involved.

He also smiles and thanks Fin for the card. "I'll hit you up for some photos soon. Thank you for this." He holds it up with his other hand and then tucks it away before making his way to the snack table.

After taking some more photos of pets with their people, pets on their own, pets with pets, and even just people, Fin begins to pack up her equipment. She approaches Madelyne after and says, "this was a great way to get people together. I love coming to little get together that make us feel like a community not just a bunch of coworkers. I'll have the pics posted up on the site as soon as I can. But yeah, just wanted to thank you." Smiling, she adds, "and, it gave me some possible business opportunities. Can't beat that."

Lifting her hand to wave to Lucien, she says, "oh! No problem! We'll do something soon." She then moves her elbow as if she is nudging Madelyne, but she doesn't actually touch her. "See?" And with that, she turns to make her way to the door.

Madelyne steps to the side, passing out treat bags for the people who showed up. There are lots of people around! (Yep, even some random NPC's!) and she manages to get most of the pet things passed out to various people.

The sandwiches and the drinks remain for those who continue to hang out. Maddie picks Coal back up, and he immediately relaxes, clambering up on her shoulder to roost there. He'll be asleep before she can turn around to grab a sandwich.