2007-09-08: Wuffle. Snuffle. Leaves. Squirrels.

Starring:

Kitty_icon.gif Kory_icon.gif Mariska_icon.gif Monica_icon.gif William_icon.gif

Summary: A group of people converge in Central Park thanks to the irresistible drawing power of one ginormous dog.

Date It Happened: September 8th, 2007

Wuffle. Snuffle. Leaves. Squirrels.


Uptown, NYC - Central Park

Late afternoon, in September, in the park, is actually not so bad. The summer tourist crowds have already come and gone. The kids who care are doing their homework, and the thuggy ones are off doing more troublesome things than enjoying the crisp weather.

Kory is being towed cheerfully down the path by an immense Mastiff, who is frolicking like a truly immense puppy. Kory has her nose in a book. She's frowning intently at Knight Life by Peter David, but she's also got enough periphawareness that she's not bumping into anyone.

Having managed through the lunch shift with her sanity relatively intact, Monica decided to opt for some me-time. And while that's nice, having me-time when you're on a budget means you have to make your own fun. For reasons that made perfect sense to her at the time, she'd slipped into a late admissions tour at NYU, and now she's perched on one of the park's benches, leafing through the university's glossy recruitment pamphlet, which is practically a magazine given how thick it is. It's sort of Monica's version of window shopping.

William is out for a run. Well, really, it's more of a jog today. He's dressed in shorts and long sleeve shirt, showing enough sweat to make it clear he's been at this for a bit. One leg shows off still red scars. There's the occasional grimace on his face as he goes. An iPod is worn on one arm with the little white buds showing at his ears.

Whuffle. Snuffle. Leaves. Squirrels. Is that a Drumstick wrapper? It is! Oh, joy! Oh, rapture! The immense dog begins licking residue off the wrapper. Kory, unprepared, stops in her tracks, unfortunately, directly in William's path. "Ickle Ronniekins! You put that wrapper down right this second!"

The dog grins up at her, lapping at his chops. There was most of an ice cream cone in that wrapper, it'd appear. "Oh, come on. You know you have prime rib and mashed potatoes waiting for you at home, you spoiled thing." She gets down on one knee to wrestle with the dog after tucking the paperback into her back pocket.

Ironically enough, William has managed to mirror Mariska on a much delayed time scale — which is to say her first visit to the park in the early morning hours found her out for a jog as well. With take two and a change in lighting, the Russian woman has now returned with another purpose in mind — people-watching. Not in the creepy, stalker way, though.

Monica is distracted by the dog from her scholastic reverie, and can't help but grin at his antics. "Oh, ain't he the cutest thing." she comments from her park bench cheerfully. Her accent is surprisingly light, but definitely Southern.

William is distracted by looking towards his iPod to skip a song, but he does manage not run into Kory and the massive dog, barely. He skids to a stop with another wince then looks down to the dog. "Wow. So you left the comics for the monsters?" He jokes, apparently recognizing Kory from Lee's introduction.

Ickle Ronniekins apparently knows when he's being spoken about. He drops the wrapper and turns to grin his doggie grin at Monica, before bounding over to her. He is a polite giant puppy, though, and sets his front paws on the bench beside her, offering his head and chin for rubs, rather than just leaping upon her. Kory gives an exasperated blow of her hair from her face. Then, a voice catches her attention as the dog attempts to yank her arm from its socket. "Oh, well, y'know, all work and no play. Only excepting this is work too. More or less." She flashes a smile at William. "Hi there. How's work?"

Also in the park is the young mechanic Kitty, today she is wearing a pair of black shorts and a yellow tank top. Her hair is in a ponytail and she is walking in along the path. She sighs and tilts her head up to the sky. She continues to walk. Pondering.

Oh, look. People. And, holy crap, GREAT BIG DOG. There's something compelling about unusually-sized animals - gigantic or tiny - that just draws people in like iron shavings to a magnet. And so, too, Mariska gravitates over to the tiny gaggle of gathered folks, hovering just on the fringes of conversation radius, green eyes set on the massive beast in their midst.

Monica gives Ickle Ronniekins a good rough work over with her hands, ruffling behind his ears with enthusiasm. "Good dog, ain'tcha? Micah'd love you, yes he would." she tells him, and looks up to observe the interaction between William and Kory with polite detachment before returning her attention to the dog.

William gives Monica a smile. "Oh, it's work. It's not going to be easy, but then, what is?" He says before he gives the dog a grin. "Man, that thing should be classified as a bear or a horse if it gets any bigger." He states, stretching his legs out with a soft sigh.

Kitty grins as she makes her way over to the people talking together; she knows almost all of them! Yay. "Hey guys, cute dog!" Kitty says and grins as she looks down at the dog. Kitty spots Misha and grins at her, "Hey Misha." The young woman pets the dog and smiles at Monica.

The big mastiff gives a contented little whuffle and stays right where he is, as long as Nice Lady keeps giving him the scritches. Kory adjusts her posture slightly to ease the tension on her arm. "He's a big sweetie is what he is," Kory says, with the voice of experience. "Ickle Ronniekins, William. William, Ickle Ronniekins."

Another Nice Lady giving with the scritches! Giant Dog has gone to Giant Dog heaven. Thankfully, though, this means he's forgotten the ice cream. "True. At least it's a challenge, and not boring?" she offers hopefully to William.

Monica smiles furtively back at Kitty. She's used to strangers being amicable back in New Orleans, but she's been in New York long enough to have learned people being so friendly without knowing you might be up to something, or a little crazy. "Um, hi." she says to Kitty, withdrawing her hands from Ickle Ronniekins.

Mariska offers Kitty a slightly side-long glance and then pastes on a pleasant smile before greeting the young woman in that winter-thick Soviet sway, "Hello again, Kisa." Her eyes remain on the majestic Ickle Ronniekins, though.

William gives Kory a grin. "I love challenges." He states honestly before he just laughs at the dog's name. "Hello Ickle Ronniekins. Your owners must be sadistic Harry Potter fans, huh?" He jokes before he gives Kory a grin. "Those books were huge with the SEALs when we were out in the wilderness." Yeah, that's likely a joke. Kitty even gets a smile. "Evening, Kitty." It seems the man is in a good mood tonight. He's back to running!

"Oh hi! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your petting of the dog here. Couldn't help myself. I'm Kitty" she says and holds out her hand for Monica. "People always seem to give me this look because I'm nice and not a real bitch although I have my moments" Kitty winks and looks up to Kory, "He is so cute, yours?" she then looks over at Will, "Well look who is up and about now"

"Oh, yeah. His master is a big fan. But the thing is, when he got this …this part Cerebus monster, he was a tiny little puppy, and he was red, nose to toes. Now all that's left of him that's red is that patch on his chest." She indicates such. "Sorry," she adds, by the way, to Monica. "He's showing off his good manners today. He didn't get mud on ya, did he?" She grins again, as the dog draws attention. "No, he belongs to a guy on the Upper West Side. I just walk him so that he doesn't run the household crazy when they come home from work." The dog gives his best innocent look, and lies down on his front paws, dainty as can be. For a ninety-pound dog.

Okaaay. Monica is thoroughly weirded out. Just keep smiling, and maybe the scary lady will go away. "Monica." she says, and shakes Kitty's hand gingerly. "Does dog walking pay a lot?" Monica rises from the bench, tucking the NYU catalog under her arm and approaching Kory and William.

William gives Kitty a smile. "And running. Well, this is my first day back out for that, so it's more like a light jog than a hard out run. But I'll get there." He laughs easily over to Kory. "I can't imagine this huge guy as a little puppy."

Let's go with a bold statement of the obvious here, Mariska: "That is a very large dog." Nicely done. She's addressing Kory's back, so it's entirely possible that she might not even be heard, but it's as good an opening into the scattershot conversation as she's likely going to get, short of shoving MISSING CHILD fliers into everyone's hands… which she isn't… because she ran out.

"Oh, trust me, he was the cutest little thing, no bigger than a loaf of bread when they got him. They're not sure he's full grown yet, either." Dun dun dun. Kory shrugs, undaunted, and turns to answer Monica's question. "It pays a lot if you're walking dogs from that part of town, and you give very, very long walks," Kory replies to Monica with a grin. "I think this one is part Greyhound or something. He's never happy unless we walk for at least two hours. But I get a lot of exercise and fresh air, and that counteracts all the sitting on my ass in the Lair."

The accent is remembered, though, and Kory glances around for a second before she turns around, switching the lead to her other hand. "Oh, hey. I remember you. From the bookstore. Yeah. I don't think he was supposed to get this big. He's a mutant or something. Howyadoin'?" Kory seems to be perfectly used to round Robin conversations. The dog must cause them a lot.

Kitty smiles back at Monica and then nods to Will, "It's nice to see you out running!" She then looks to Kory, "Ahh ok. Dog walking, hmm sounds like you would meet a lot of interesting people" Kitty plays with her black and yellow fingerless gloves and then smiles at Misha, "How's your daughter?" she remembers the vision that she had but of course she won't mention that to strangers!

William moves closer to the dog to give him a chance to sniff the man before he reaches out to give the dog some attention. "He's a great big guy then. A dog like this would be great if you like to run or go for long walks. Good company."

Monica is a little weirded out. Not that she's ever heard of Neil Simon or even Six Characters In Search Of An Exit, but if she could put too fine a point on it, she feels like she's been unexpectedly cast in an absurdist play. And she's not even waiting for Godot. "Sounds like a good trade off. Bet the schedule's flexible too."

Mariska brings in her hands close together and cups her palms ever so slightly to suggest smallness as she notes, "You had much smaller one last time." See? She remembers Kory and her tiny teacup dog, too! And then, whoa — crash. Kitty's inquiry as to Sasha's well-being draws the Russian woman's face down into a frown. "I… I don't… good. I hope…"

The dog sniffs William, and then his eyes go half-lidded as he's getting more attention. "Yeah, and his masters are just spoiling him rotten. I don't think he's ever eaten dog food once." She glances up at Kitty. "Yeah. Some days. A lot of the time people are scared to death to come near me because I'm walking a Luck Dragon." Yep. She reads a lot.

Mariska gets a grin. "Yeah, that was Trivet. He's tiny for keeps, thankfully." Kory's own smile falters as Mariska's does. Sad face means the lady hasn't found her daughter yet. Ronniekins seems to notice she's dimmed, and gives her the dog-equivalent of a concerned look, whining slightly in his chest.

William looks over to Kory. "Do you walk a lot of dogs?" He asks before his gaze is back down on the giant. The dog seems to be enjoying the attention, so he gives it more.

"Oh look at my wrist." Monica murmurs wryly. She offers people a wave. "Nice to meet y'all." she says in a friendly fashion, but then heads down the well worn path, intent on returning home.

Ickle Ronniekins looks up. Another voice, another person to love him. Being loved is the coolest thing ever. He doesn't bite, though. He just basks.

"I'm up to six, now, but the other two I haven't bonded with yet, so I don't go for long walkies. Just short ones around the block until we're all comfortable. But nobody ever mugs me when this guy's with me. Even though he'd probably hide behind my legs." Kory laughs. "But that's the biz for ya. Never know what you'll end up with."

Kitty looks to Misha and her brow furrows, "Are you sure?" she walks nearer to Misha and places a hand on her shoulder. She immediately throws her head back and opens her mouth, no sounds comes out though. The vision she is having is a short one and she blinks as it ends. Looking at Misha, "Tough time you've been having huh?" she asks and tilts her head.

William looks over to Kitty with a blink. "You okay?" He asks. No matter how quick it is, that looked kind of weird. Will leans down to keep petting the big dog. Hey, this he understands. "A woman of many jobs, huh, Kory?" He asks with a smile.

Mariska is clearly not the only master of the obvious in this group as soon Kitty follows suit with an observation that may just as well be true of anyone still searching for something. It's, uh, just a little bit alarming that such a statement comes accompanied by Kitty's odd physical reaction. What just happened there? "Da," replies Mariska, one eyebrow hooked higher than the other. She turns her head slightly to look at the younger woman holding her shoulder a little more straight on and then sweeps a glance around to Kory and William as if seeking some sort of reassurance that everything's totally cool.

Kitty blinks again and looks to Will, "I'm fine. Yeah" she says in a soft voice and then looks to Misha and nods her head. Weirdness!

Kory just sort of freezes where she is, holding the dog's lead tightly. He's the sort who'd want to go investigate or offer his head for scritches by way of helping. She watches, but lets the people who know the other woman better do the talking.

Awkwardness permeates the group and eventually prevails in sending them each off on their separate ways…

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