saveourearth | Don't pet them, grab them! [Mingle]

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Don't pet them, grab them! [Mingle]

Date: 25th of July
Characters: Open!

I.

In the afternoon on the 25th, a network message alerts the Numbered to the fact that the petting zoo in Moss Manor's Menagerie is facing a major break-out: Someone has torn down the fences, and all the bunnies, sheep, and all the other animals typically found in petting zoos have decided to book it. They are now swarming the manor's grounds.

Due to the staff being nowhere near enough to catch them all, and due to the generally low threat level of the animals that escaped, visitors are asked to help catch them instead of being sent away.

And anyone who just happens to show up and help will be happily welcomed and included in the fort, without any question of who told them that help is needed.

II.

Afterwards, Lady Margaret Camilla Brassant invites everyone onto her patio and offers refreshments - tea, water, little sandwiches, cake and scones with clotted cream and jam. She retires quickly herself, but not before giving a brief speech thanking everyone who helped save the gardens from hungry mouths.

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Russell starts a little at being addressed, much less seeing family, but... Benjiro lives in Moss Manor at least, doesn't he? Maybe he was just in the area. It's not quite so astonishing as running into Walter, or how Russell got here.

The initial shock - seeing that the animals really had gotten loose, that the voice had been right - didn't so much wear off as bury itself for a while. It's like his mind is full of potholes, freshly overturned soil threatening a return to bewildered frozen staring if he trips over them.

"I am! I, well..." He shakes his head, still not sure what to think about it all. "It's... complicated. Anyway, what are you up to?"

Complicated is right.

Overcoming the surprise, he notices the hesitation to give any reasoning for his presence. It isn't in Ben to press, but that doesn't preclude the possibility of giving his own hint to see if it gets any recognition from Russell.

Motioning loosely with one hand back towards and up into the tree now behind and to the side of him using two fingers, he'll explain, "I got a frantic sort of call about what was happening. After I got here, I helped with a few animals, but I kept hearing something around here. I came back to investigate and apparently one of the chickens got rather high up in a tree."

Edited 2018-08-05 01:06 (UTC)

"A 'frantic call'," Russell echoes, grimacing because that sounds worryingly familiar. He's been trying not to think about it, but he's also here because a frantic call. From his microwave.

"Right, right... Did you say a chicken?" Quick to grab the excuse of anything else to talk about, Russell steps closer and follows Ben's gesture to look up into the tree. He peers up, squinting for signs of feathers in the branches. "I didn't know chickens could fly?"

The grimace is noted, but it’s not quite enough to confirm any possibility just yet. At the very least, he has not eliminated the chance that Russell is involved with the numbers.

Matters at hand still requiring attention, he’ll turn to walk with Russell to get to a better place to stand to see the chicken. “Yeah, I was surprised too. They don’t actually fly, but they can use their wings to help jump to branches. Same way some can get on top of chicken coops.” He’ll point it out more directly as he talks.

Then, he speaks to a solution to consult with Russell, “The branch it’s on is too high to bend. I was thinking of climbing up, but if it falls it could get hurt.” It would be feasible to get the chicken to transfer to a long pole, but he has no idea where to find one long enough here. That chicken is high up.

Ah, there it is. Perched in the tree, as comfortable-looking as anything. Russell steps around, looking at the chicken's location from a few angles.

"So they don't fly... or even glide, like Minecraft, or Zelda, or anything." That means they can't count on the bird to save itself, and it's probably in danger up there - but it does make one thing simpler. "What if one of us climbs up, and the other catches it when it falls? If it just falls straight down, that shouldn't be too hard."

Staying on one spot as Russell shifts perspective to assess the chicken on the branch, he leans his head to one side with a half shrug to begin, “Some species can glide I think, but I’m not sure which.” This one got quite high, so it must have some effective amount of lift when it uses its wings.

“However it falls, it might panic. Chickens have claws so we need something to catch it with…” he ponders. “Maybe a shirt? Pulled taut between arms it might act like a net, and should allow enough space to catch the chicken while greatly reducing the risk of lacerations.”

"I don't want to wreck this shirt..." He brushes a hand along the base of his hairline, careful not to muss up his styling anymore than it already is, and thinks. Admittedly, there's some twigs and dirt stains on the shirt. But he's managed to avoid tearing it so far.

"Tell you what," he finally says, "I left a windbreaker on my scooter, we could use that. It'll just take a couple minutes to grab, then we can do this."

The offer's moot if Ben offers up his own shirt, or thinks of another way of catching the bird without claw scratches.

Time is not pressing, but Benjiro would much rather not cause Russell any undue stress in lending him a hand with this task. With a shrug, he reaches down with arms crossed and pulls his shirt up over his head and off, “We can use mine.” Turning it right side out once he has it off, he offers it to Russell, “Would you rather catch or climb?”

Whoever climbs has to make it to the chicken and then back down. Whoever catches has to grab said chicken and calm it down.

"Oh, thank you." Russell accepts the shirt reflexively on being offered something, then looks at it more carefully. "Hmmm... I'll catch," he slowly thinks aloud, then nods more decisively. "Yes, I'll catch, if you're okay at climbing. Because, as the older cousin here, it's my responsibility to face the beak and claws of the beast."

Chickens are probably about as hard to hold and calm down than dogs, albeit with their own challenges to it. He can at least try to turn the chicken's beak away from his tender body parts.

His shirt being accepted so readily is unexpected, but he waits as his cousin mulls it over with proper thought. The stated reasoning makes Benjiro smile, “I appreciate it. I will do my best not to rile it up in the process, and if it turns out to be friendly, I’ll just carry it down.” Not that he expects the chicken to want to come down with how comfortable it looks from here.

Walking up to the tree, he already has a clear path in mind to ascend as he reaches up to the first branch. He would never consider himself an athlete, but he keeps fit for his health with swimming. Pulling up, the prickle of the bark against his skin cautions him to move thoughtfully as he swings a leg up to pull ontop of the branch. Then, focused upward, he rather nimbly stands up on that branch to reach for the next without any pause necessary to find his balance and continues in the same efficient manner up.

Russell follows after, slowing to a stop when he's about underneath the chicken. The better to move quickly, if she comes directly down for any reason - like Ben passing her down, or her spooking and fleeing the tree.

He spreads the shirt out, trying to figure out how to make it a plane to land on instead of a shirt-rope, and notices how far Ben's already gotten up.

"Oh, wow, you're more than okay at that. I'd still be halfway up the trunk..."

Nearly as far up as he had planned to go, Benjiro pauses to catch his breath and let his arm muscles recover. Nearer now to the chicken, he can see how thin the branches are by the meter or so distance out where it perches. He won’t be able to crawl along the same branch the chicken is on without a high risk of it breaking away under his weight. The two below, however, look like they might suffice. Of course, the further out he goes, the wider apart his stance will have to be and -

Russell’s comment draws his attention to look back downward. “Really? I think you’d be here. It’s always faster after the first couple of branches, and you have a better point of leverage.” That height difference between them would matter here.

"I climb slowly and carefully," Russell says with a sniff from below, still watching the bird carefully. "If I'm going to break a leg, it'll be on-stage, not falling from a slippery tree."

His nose-in-the-air aside, it's true his height would give him an advantage in climbing trees... if he ever bothers practicing. Russell didn't do a lot of adventurous things like climbing trees and going in caves as a kid, partly from a concerned mum encouraging him to do other things, and partly because he got much more interested in those other things. He's only recently starting to catch up on these experiences.

Benjiro had made it up this far with merely a few superficial abrasions, and he feels like he was being careful about the climb. With more pressing matters at hand, he doesn’t dwell on it, “Right. My mistake.” Having seen Russell perform, he’s not too concerned about his cousin participating in dangerous stunts that would actually put him at risk for breaking a leg.

Hoisting up to the next branch at his waist level, he crouches there as he maneuvers to get one foot over to the branch just above and beside it. Half rising, he makes his way forward with ginger steps that ease into his full weight only as he slides the other foot forward. Each consecutive step out makes the branches bow and sway a little more visibly with a rustle of the leaves.

Calling down to check with Russell as he gets nearly in reach of the chicken, wrapping one hand on the branch where it sits, he asks, “Are you ready?”

For what it's worth, Russell didn't intend to be sarcastic or cast criticism when he praised Ben's climbing; the praise was sincere, and the part he was mocking was himself. Russell's sure he would have taken longer and slipped more often, compared to Ben's easy-looking progress up. With stage props and scenery, he's practiced with them and helped make sure there's good handholds already in place. And no moss.

But that's a passing moment. Here and now, Russell shifts back to improve his field of vision, and bends his knees a couple times to avoid locking up, before finally nodding. "As ready as I'll ever be... Let her fly!"

It has more to do with Benjiro rationalizing his own success at climbing the tree than anything else, and there’s no perceived slight towards himself.

With verbal confirmation that Russell is prepared below, the teenager looks back up to the chicken seated so steadily on the branch. It had certainly noticed his approach, head tilting one way then the other. He takes that last step forward with each foot on the two branches, legs starting to feel the strain of holding a crouch, and now within reach, he speaks quietly to the chicken, “Hi there, miss... I know this is a nice spot, but the ground is much safer. Let’s just get you back down, okay?” Aware that this chicken is one that lives in a petting zoo rather than a farm, he initiates contact by reaching behind the bird to pet along the feathers of its back. When he doesn’t receive a peck for it, the confidence in his motion improves, and he speaks again, “That’s a good girl.”

Laying his hand over the back of the chicken, he releases his touch to the branch to reach his other hand to come up under the chicken’s chest, but before he can get a proper grip, the chicken squawks in protest and spreads out its wings. In an instant it baps Benjiro right in the face with a wing, and jumps over his hand at its chest into the air, flapping its wings as though to fly out from the tree. Instead, downward it heads towards Russell.

Caught by surprise with the feathers in his face, he sputters in surprise as his precarious balance on the branches is disrupted by his reflexive withdraw. One foot slipping from a branch, he teeters on the other and scrambles for a hold on the branch the chicken had been on.

For a moment it all seems to be going to plan, or even better than it. The chicken hadn't balked at Benjiro's approach, his cousin had gotten in reach... Then there's a flurry of batting and flapping, the chicken falling and Benjiro losing part of his grip, and Russell goes cold with

He screeches as he spreads the shirt out to catch the bird, managing to get out "Hold on!!" Even as he moves - he was already in motion to catch the chicken before noticing Benjiro's grip slip - he starts berating himself, "oh god oh god I knew this would happen... Don't both fall at once! Stay up there!"

The chicken falls into the fabric well enough, wings still flailing, smacking his ear and shoulder as he hastily drops to a kneeling pose. The bird doesn't quite fall out of the shirt, but he leaves it there to be relatively safe on the ground as he whirls back up to look for his cousin's condition.

Heeding the instruction on instinct, Benjiro manages to barely catch the tips of his fingers on the branch the chicken had been on with his freed leg kicking out straight as a counter balance on his single foot with the knee bent. The catch of his fingers is just enough to delay, but his hand is already straining as he hears a crackle in the branch under him now supporting almost all of his weight. “I don’t think I can...!”

He’s off balance and he has very limited time before the branch gives, so rather than think about it, he takes in a breath and pushes up with a pull at his hand before hopping softly backwards off the branch with nothing more than a nervous glance down. Out so far from the trunk, the branches are more spaced, which gives him room to drop to a lower branch without colliding into one as he twists fully around in the air. The lower branch, midway down the tree, shakes as he snags it firmly with both hands. He swings from the new rotational axis as his momentum is converted from the fall, but Benjiro hangs tight switching one hand hold and curls his whole body to slow more quickly. As his swinging lessens, he relaxes to hang from his arms with a relieved exhale.

Looking down from where he dangles to find his cousin, he calls down, “I’m okay, Russell! Is the chicken alright?”

Edited 2018-08-22 23:13 (UTC)

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Don't pet them, grab them! [Mingle]

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I laughed at the microwave

He spaced out, typed too many digits for his lunch, and the machine started yelling at him

Best off-screen moment

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