The Park, Wednesday Morning

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, a wee baby ferret needs to stretch his wings, so to speak. That's what Pogo was doing in the park. Although it probably looked more like he was making the ducks stretch their wings. There was some stalking of tail-feathers going on -- and the stalking looked very much like it had been learned from a cat. There was also some rolling around in the grass, and some occasional running about for no discernible reason.

Ah, the stress-free life of a ferret.

Anybody wanna play?

[OOC: About the ferret: Pogo is a perfectly normal baby ferret, about a year old. He has no special powers, except for being perhaps a bit precocious and really cute. And he likes cookies, especially gingersnaps. People with a natural ability to speak to animals, or who can cast a spell for that purpose, will understand what Pogo is saying -- although his worldview tends very much to center on food, play, and sleep. Everyone else will hear the typical ferrety chatter one might expect from an excited wee animal. He likes to assign names to people because it amuses me so that he can tell them apart. And he's an excellent cure for emo. ;)]

[OPEN!]

Comments

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Before her first class, Gwynn decided to take a walk through the park. She was enjoying the morning air and the feeling of just being with nature.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Pogo was in the process of creeping up on one of the ducks who had some particularly fine-looking tailfeathers. Creep creep...pause...creep...POUNCE!

The duck squawked and flailed its wings, and the little ferret ran off with his prize -- one very nice feather -- gripped in his teeth.

Then he spotted the human. Humans nearly always meant food and petting. Two of Pogo's very favorite things in the whole world. So up to Gwynn he bounded, dropping the feather by her foot and looking up at her with a happy chitter.

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn dropped to her knees to pet the cute little furry creature. She had never seen anything like him, but she thought he was adorable.

"You're so cute."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Technically, Pogo didn't really understand most human words. But he definitely was a master of interpreting tone of voice, and Gwynn's tone was encouraging. As was the fact that she was nice and quick with the petting.

Cookies? Cookiescookiescookies? he chirped, wriggling a little under Gwynn's hand.

Hey, a ferret's gotta try, right?

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he was acting like that cats did back home when they wanted treats.

She rubbed his head affectionately.

"I'm afraid I don't have anything but pretzels."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Oh, look. A very oblivious, whistling nun taking a nice, relaxing stroll around the park, watching the clouds.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aha! Another potential source of treats and attention! This one didn't seem to be noticing the adorable wee ferret, though. Which meant Pogo would have to do something to get her attention.

His first attempt consisted of bounding up and playfully attacking Rosette's shoe by pouncing at it, and then rolling head over heels and landing in a chittering heap in front of her.

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette's head snapped down as she caught something moving in the corner of her eye, and instantly let out a scream. Something was attacking her, oh my God! Thankfully, it seemed her big boots had defected the enemy. She took a few steps back and gazed wide-eyed down at the thing.

It was small. It was furry. And it was making a lot of noise.

Rosette didn't think they'd have sewer rats this size all the way out here in Virginia. She quickly looked around for a stick to poke at it with, but, finding none, she told it wearily, "Um, hi. I don't have any food. You should go...over there, or something. Maybe there's some over there. Please don't jump on my face and eat my eyes out. I'm rather fond of them."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

It screamed! The human person with the very hard feet screamed!

Pogo blinked wide-eyed at Rosette, freezing in place for a moment, and then suddenly wondering where the dangerous thing might be. After all, why else would she have screamed unless there was a dangerous thing lurking nearby.

Probably a dangerous thing that ate wee baby ferrets.

Helphelpdon'tletiteatme! he squeaked, promptly diving for Rosette's leg and attempting to scramble up to hide under her habit.

A pocket would be good. Pockets were safe places for frightened wee ferrets.

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God, there was a little furry thing crawling up her leg. This hadn't happened since...since...

since ever! She was a nun, for Christ's sake! Face flushing red, she started swirming and panicking, shaking her leg and the skirt of her habit intermittendly. "HELP! I'm being perverted by a weird rat thing!!"

If the weird rat thing were able to get far enough, he might have been able to weasel his way into the big pouches at Rosette's hips where she kept her ammo and money.

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

With no classes that day the twins took a stroll out-doors, looking for trouble or something interesting to do.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

At some point after his encounter with Rosette assuming it wasn't too traumatizing for him, Pogo had found himself a nice sun-warmed place on the arm of one of the benches to stretch out and snooze. So far the day had been awfully bereft of cookies, but hope beats eternal in the hearts of wee ferrets, and he wasn't about to give up that easily.

Which meant despite the snoozing, he was keeping one eye open for potential cookie donors. And the twins looked like they might be just the sort to have a treat or two hidden away someplace.

Barring that, they might be fun to play with. So this time, Pogo tried a different cuteness tactic. He yaaaaaaawned, then streeeeeetched, then rolled over onto his back with his wee ferret paws in the air.

Cookies?

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

The movement from the bench caught their attention so they went over to inspect. They had, in fact, just handwavily come back from getting some food to cook up for lunch, and may have had something the strange little creature would enjoy.
"What is it?" Apparently, they'd never seen a ferret before. They attempted a poke to see if it would move again.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was like when Jiji played asleep, and Pogo would pounced on him and then Jiji would pounce back! When the twins poked at the ferret, he squirmed around and batted at them, chirping happily at the game. Then he ran up the nearest arm and perched on the shoulder that was attached.

Then he stuck his wee wiggly cold nose in the ear that was near the shoulder. Because he liked the squeaky noises humans made when he did that. Also, other humans in the vicinity tended to think it was cute.

And Pogo was all about the cute.

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

"WAGH! It's trying to get in!!" Hikaru squirmed and pushed the ferret from his shoulder, Kaoru catching it before it got anywhere near the ground.
"It's too big to be a parasite. Perhaps it's someone's pet?" Kaoru held the wee cutesy ferret up at different angles to look, noteing how long it's body was and the very ferrety smell that it emitted.
"Looks like a cuter version of a stretched rat." Hikaru rubbed at his ear to try and get the cold feeling out.

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

The ducks still wouldn't talk to her. River wondered if the Cross Species Communication class would be helpful in this matter. She liked the teacher, anyway.

River lay down in the grass and smiled.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Nearby, a wee baby ferret was finally coming out of his caffeine-induced coma. With a little wuffling sort of noise, he rolled over onto his back and blinked, then realized that there was a human lying in the grass.

There were also two more chocolate covered espresso beans nearby, but something in Pogo's head told him maybe he should save those for later. Or to share with Bravepocketlady if he ever saw her again.

So instead it went to investigate the new human, who appeared to also be taking a nap. Naps were nice, although playing was better. He wondered if the human wanted to play.

Climbing up to sit on River's knee as she lay in the grass, he sat up and wiggled his nose at her. Playplayplay? Orcookies? he chirped.

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

River opened her eyes and looked at the animal. "Hello there." She attempted to stroke him on his back.

((ooc: sorry for extreme sp, had to go to bed last night))

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Yay, more petting! Pogo wiggled a little bit but mostly stayed still for River, at least for a few minutes. Then, since he was still just a little bit hyped up on caffeine, he scampered up and tucked himself under her chin.

Hadnot-cookies! SmelledlikeYummycookieman!

[ooc: No worries. :)]

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

This was a very friendly animal. River giggled as he curled up under her chin. She dug a biscuit out of her pocket and broke it in two. "Want to share?"

[mildly-super.livejournal.com]

Clark and Saigo headed for the park to enjoy a quiet breakfast.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Ooh, look! A human and his duck-friend! Pogo knew the not-ferret-or-humans were called ducks, because Brightpocketman called them that. And humans who hung around with ducks always had nice things to eat. So the little ferret headed over to see what he could con off of the pair.

The duck, of course, was going to be a bit of competition. But that was all right, Pogo supposed he could share in his spoils.

CookiescookiesCOOKIES! he chirped as he bounced in front of Clark, perhaps still a little bit affected by his earlier caffeine consumption.

[mildly-super.livejournal.com]

Clark's eyes widened at the unexpected greeting. he'd never seen a ferret here before. "Hello, are you lost?" he asked, crouching down and holding out his hand. No munchings and crunchings in the hand, but there are bagles in the bag held in the other hand.

Saigo had never seen a ferret, ever. //Sweet mercifull toast what is that?!// he quacked. Not so much in alarm as, `what is it?!`

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Pogo ambled right up to Clark and nuzzled his hand, encouraging some pettings. The duck's quacking didn't bother him -- the ducks quacked at him a lot. And this one wasn't trying to chase him.

Of course, generally when the ducks chased him, Pogo had instigated it.

Playandeatcookies? he squeaked hopefully. Maybe between the two of them, with the duck quacking and all, they'd talk the man into sharing whatever was in that sack he carried.

[mildly-super.livejournal.com]

can..not..move..ferret..too..cute..must..get..help..

Clark readily obliged with pettings.

//Try ear skritches.// Saigo advised. Hadn't he heard somewhere the furry creatures liked that? Ernest had said something he believed.

Clark moved over to a nearby bench and took out the blueberry bagel, and began to break off small peices. "Are you hungry?" Clark asked. He was slightly concerned. A baby ferret out alone? What if there was, whatever it was that ate ferrets loose? Was it someone's pet? Maybe he should call...who? Fandom didn't have a Humane Society. Didn't even have a proper vet.