Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

[puppy_fair]

It was actually a pretty quiet day at the animal shelter, today. All of the puppies seemed to be pretty tuckered out for some reason, which meant less playtime and more cuddle time. Which suited Zack just fine, admittedly. He was still a little bit out of sorts - Portalocity wasn't going to let him book a portal back to his own world, and apparently nothing he could say or do was going to fix that.

Giving a heavy sigh, he flopped down in the seat behind the counter, Girl resting her chin in his lap, and tried to take advantage of some of the quiet in order to catch up on paperwork that had fallen a little to the wayside around all of this Portalocity nonsense and that roiling sick worry that he got every time he tried Ino's phone and was sent directly to voicemail.

... The number of cozy puppies in his lap might have steadily increased as the day went on.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[what_the_shock]

And that was how Miguel found him.

"Uh-oh. Do you need rescuing?"

[puppy_fair]

"Me? Nah, I'm supposed to be the one planning the daring rescue," Zack replied, shaking his head. "Somehow. Once I manage to get out from under all these dogs."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel grinned and came up to ruffle one puppy's hair. "How's the planning going? Need help?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack smiled back at Miguel wryly.

"Kind of desperately, yeah," he admitted. "The gnomes aren't playing nicely at all."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel frowned. "You have the information?" He held out his hand. "Let me call, see if it'll help."

[puppy_fair]

Zack shrugged a little, rummaged around on the counter for a moment, and then picked up the paper with the info on it and passed it Miguel's way.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel picked it up and read it, started to pick up his phone, then shook his head. "Nope. Doing this in person. I'll be right back."

He was probably overly optimistic.

[puppy_fair]

"Uh," Zack said. And then shrugged. "Okay, man. Thanks. Tell me how it goes?"

Probably not great.

[what_the_shock]

Yeah, not that great. Miguel was back in about ten minutes with a scowl on his face.

"They won't even talk to me. Soon as I mentioned your world, they clammed up."

[puppy_fair]

"Yeah, that's been my life for the past little while," Zack sighed. "I think they're more afraid of Iris than they are of me."

Because who else would have slapped a travel ban on him?

[what_the_shock]

"To be fair, she's Iris," Miguel pointed out. "Why would she have done this, though? Are we sure there's not just a broken something somewhere and they're refusing to admit it?"

[puppy_fair]

"She would have done this because she knows I'd follow her eventually," Zack sighed. "And home's a death sentence, Miguel."

And she'd already mourned his death once.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel sighed in turn. "Not for me! What's she up to?" Apart from worrying her friends and driving her fiancé to distraction?

[puppy_fair]

"I mean... if I knew the answer to that, maybe I wouldn't be half as worried," Zack pointed out. "But considering she lied to me about how long she'd be gone and she's got me functionally under house arrest...."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel pushed his hands through his hair and gave Zack an apologetic grimace. "Can we contact anyone from your world? Is there anyone you'd trust?"

Doing nothing sucked.

[puppy_fair]

It really, really sucked.

"There's... maybe a person or three who know I'm not dead," Zack replied. "They're also the people who were responblie at least in part, for taking me in and handing me over... before. It's complicated."

[what_the_shock]

"Oookay. So that's a no?" Miguel asked, just checking.

[puppy_fair]

Zack lifted a shoulder in a noncommittal shrug.

"It's a maybe," he admitted.

[what_the_shock]

"How do we make it a yes?" Miguel asked. "Work with a pseudonym? Mask your signal? Get blackmail material?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack ducked his head a little.

"They're Turks, Miguel. There's nothing they're ashamed of and it's their job to know what's up. What'll make it a 'yes' at this point is just... me getting over it, I guess."

[what_the_shock]

"Hm." Miguel thought about it, then eyed Zack. "Do you think you need to yet?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack fell quiet for a few long moments.

"I don't know," he admitted, softly. "I trust she can handle herself, but it's been so long, now."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel chewed his lip. "The Panoptichron can look in on other dimensions. We could try to look in without going there. Make sure everything's okay. If we can find your dimension."

[puppy_fair]

"I'm not even sure where in the world she'd be," Zack noted, "but... it's worth a try."

[that_oldsaying]

Not all of the things she had to do this time of year were ones that troubled and excited at the same time or ones that gave her and Nanika many things to think about.

No, there was also fun things to do and she wanted to make sure she got them done.

So there she was, after having had a small chat with some of the squirrels outside, entering Furnado with big eyes.

"Ah! Look at all of you!"

[That Alluka showed up at Furnado is FB, that she's buying Christmas presents is NFB please!]

[puppy_fair]

Zack glanced up at the exclamation, and then blinked, and then smiled. He didn't know Alluka well, but they had met a couple of times. She was good people.

"They're all pretty great company," he shared, nodding at the critters around the room. "Hey there!"

[that_oldsaying]

"Oh! Zack, hi hi!" It had been a good while, hadn't it? But it was impossible to forget him, it really was. Alluka beamed at him, bouncing over. "Do you have a favourite? Or, or should I not ask where they can hear?"

She didn't want to hurt their feelings after all.

[puppy_fair]

"My favorite is my dog," Zack said, leaning forward and talking in a not at all subtle stage whisper. "And everybody here already knows it. But they're all great animals, really."

Except the gerbil in the Habitrail on the counter. Mr. Winkles was evil.