bananas are hardly that slippery, but watch your step anyway

[theoldgirl]

It's a beautiful, cold March day in New York, and street cleaners are upon us!

[Anyone receiving Cecil's broadcast on their phone or other device will be quite convinced of its veracity, thanks to his Radio Voice now being a rift power. Listeners can either call in at the broadcast post to discuss current events / ask for survival tips / tell their loved ones good bye, or use this post to act out their totally irrational justified panic.

But, here are the good news! (Real good news, not life-is-pointless-but-at-least-ice-cream-exists good news.) Since Cecil will make another broadcast the next day saying that nothing unusual actually happened, your characters won't actually remember this crisis as a crisis, so you can backtag to your heart's content without it affecting later events. Go somewhat literally nuts! And really make the TARDIS feel like a moron for letting Cecil do this.]

Comments

[stronglikebear]

"No!"

If anything, Yuri tightens his grip on the lead, though he takes a step with her before it occurs to him to dig his heels in -- he's bigger, after all. "You're not listening -- why is no one down here listening?! You're going to die if you go up there, Daine, why can't you just trust me?!"

He's shouting now, the shift from urgent but relatively calm speech to near hysteria quite sudden.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine stiffens at the sudden shouting, eyes wide. Sarge tucks in his tail and darts around to hide behind her, throwing Yuri an astonished look over his shoulder. Molly tries to follow suit, but Yuri's grip on the lead has given her far less room to work with, and she lets out a little yelp of distress when she realizes she's caught between Yuri and Daine. That spurs Daine to action - it's one thing for him to upset her, and quite another for him to upset her dogs. Pressing her lips together in a thin line, she swiftly reaches down to unclip Molly's leash, freeing the dog and leaving Yuri sole proprietor of an empty lead. Molly, at least, heels beautifully on her own, and she'd rather deal with a peeved cop outside than Yuri in his current state.

"No one is listening to you," she says sharply as she and the dogs resume their retreat, "because you sound mad. Street cleaners just clean the streets; that's all they do, and they don't do it often enough. No one is getting ground up for anything." Holding up a hand to forestall any more raving, she adds, "And don't you dare scare my dogs like that again!"

[stronglikebear]

Yuri's sorry about the way the dogs shy away -- no, flee from him, but he doesn't let go, nor does he back down. "Daine --!" he protests, starting like he's going to make another grab but too slow to do anything but get left with a detached lead in his hand.

"Daine, please, you have to listen to me," he begs her, voice cracking as it dies back down to a more reasonable volume. It's not just Daine; the thought of the dogs, who only think they're scared now, facing the ends of their lives just because she wouldn't listen to him and stay inside...Yuri can imagine only too well all three of them being reduced to paste. "I've lived here, I know how this works!"

[wildmage_daine]

Daine hesitates, in part because of how desperate he sounds, and, maybe a little, because of that last bit. It's true that he's been here longer than she has - and that he's more familiar with the way the city works. But it seems impossible that this horrible 'street cleaning' thing could be real; surely someone would have mentioned it before now.

"So you're saying this is normal, then? Street cleaners roll through the city and grind people up?" She plants her hands on her hips and raises a challenging eyebrow at him. "Why would anyone live here if that was true?"

[stronglikebear]

Funny how it's never come up, huh? It must be such an ordinary part of life that no one thought to mention it. Ever.

Yuri opens and closes his mouth. Why do people live here? It's kind of a horrible thing to put up with, knowing that the lights in your apartment might be running off energy produced from the bodies of your friends and family. "It's just how it is," he says lamely.

[wildmage_daine]

Uh huh. "And despite the fact that I've been here for months, you never thought to mention it until just now?" She could believe such a lapse about more minor things - Goddess knows it's happened before - but not this supposed 'street cleaning.'

[stronglikebear]

"I didn't know it was going to be today!" protests Yuri. "They didn't put up any notices about it."

[wildmage_daine]

"You still knew that people were going to be ground up by horrible machines and turned into fuel," she points out reasonably. Canting her head, she asks, "How do you know it's happening at all?" Because she hasn't seen any notices, either, and he must have gotten the idea from somewhere. She still suspects he's running a fever or something, but if he watched a creepy movie or had a nightmare, maybe that's what has him raving about street cleaners, specifically.

[stronglikebear]

He did, didn't he? Kind of weird that he forgot to bring it up, but that seems a lot less important now than the fact that she is going to die if she goes up there. At least she's stopped to talk to him; the longer he can distract her, the better chance he hopes she has.

"There was a broadcast on the phones," he replies, as if that's perfectly normal and obvious. "Didn't you get it?"

[wildmage_daine]

"No." Frowning, she fishes her phone out of her coat pocket and attempts to turn it on. "Battery must have died again." It's too bad, really; now she can't verify that he dreamed up the broadcast.

But there's nothing to stop her from verifying that everything is okay topside. "Tell you what," she says, "I'll ask the People if anything bad is happening up in the city. I can reach most of the park from here, and there are plenty of pigeons up in the city itself. If they say there are street cleaners murdering folk, I'll stay down here where it's safe. Okay?"

[stronglikebear]

Yuri hesitates, not at all sure he trusts the judgment of pigeons over that of the soothing, knowledgeable voice of that mysterious announcer. But even pigeons have to be able to see what's happening, right?

"Alright," he says, deciding that she'll just hear the same news from a different source.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine sits down next to the wall, determined to do this properly - not because there's any real doubt in her mind that Street Cleaning is nonsense, but because she wants Yuri to see that she's being thorough before she tells him as much. Sarge, bereft of his hiding place behind Daine, looks up at Yuri and wags his tail hopefully. Molly stays where she is - a good five yards down the hall, where she bolted when Daine first unclipped her - but she sits when it starts to look like Daine might be occupied for a little while.

It doesn't take long for the pigeons to confirm the lack of current mayhem, and everyone she speaks to is baffled by the very idea of this ominous Street Cleaning, past or present. Not only is it not happening now, but it's never happened before, either. And whether they were personally affected or not, Daine would expect the People to remember something like that, even if it only happened once a year... or just once, really.

She comes back to herself, blinking her eyes open, then gets to her feet. "It's okay," she says soothingly. "They say everything's fine up there - no street cleaners. I didn't just talk to the pigeons, either; everyone says it's okay." She tries for an encouraging smile as she brushes grit off the back of her coat. See, Yuri? It's safe for walkies.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri gives Sarge a sad little smile in return, and even holds out his hand in a silent offering of scritches if the dog forgives his outburst and comes over to him. It's not that he's upset with any of you, puppies, just that he doesn't want you to die painful, terrifying deaths. At least Daine is finally taking the situation seriously; he's confident the other animals will confirm his warning and tell her to stay indoors.

It's a shocked look he gives her, then, when she stands up and says precisely the opposite. "But it's happening!" he cries, voice charged with emotion. "They just -- maybe they just didn't start yet. It could be any time now!"

[wildmage_daine]

Sarge cautiously steps forward for scritches while Daine is preoccupied, though his legs remain stiff in a manner that suggests he's ready to shy away again if Yuri should raise his voice. Which, of course, Yuri immediately does in response to Daine's attempted reassurances.

She's not done attempting, though, and her voice is studiously calm as she tries to reason with him. "Yuri, it's not just that it isn't happening now - or yet. They say it's never happened. I've even talked to some of the local pets - dogs and cats that have been living on the island for years - and they all say there's never been a disaster like the one you're talking about." Then, she lays down her trump card: "Don't you think, if there really was that much danger, they'd have told me? Even before you did? You know the People would want to keep me safe."

[stronglikebear]

"I don't --" Yuri looks down at Sarge, his gaze fleetingly accusatory as if the dog is responsible. He's not, of course, but the animals of New York seem to be culpable in general. "I don't understand. How can they not know?"

[wildmage_daine]

Sarge slinks around to hide behind Daine again (as much as a seventy-pound dog can) as Molly creeps back up the hallway to hide behind him. Daine reaches down to give him a reassuring pat.

"Something is going on," she allows, "I just don't think it's street cleaning." She peers up at Yuri with a thoughtful little frown. "You're not running a fever, are you?" And, yes, she's going to try and check (if he holds still), reaching up to press the back of her hand to his forehead.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri doesn't pull away, but the frown he levels at her is almost a pout. "I feel fine," he insists. If he were a bear she'd see that he's fine -- okay, so she'd actually get eaten, but at least she'd see that he's not sick first. "It's not worth the risk, Daine. Just...one day, that's all I'm asking."

[wildmage_daine]

No fever. It's almost a disappointment. Daine pulls her hand back with a little huff of frustration.

For a moment, she seriously considers just humoring him, but... no. She's not going to hide underground all day just because Yuri has a burr in his breeches - not least of all because he so rarely talks to her, anyway. It's just a bit much, having him finally deign to speak to her for any length of time only to have the conversation revolve around imaginary impending disasters.

Since he's not ill, she falls back on the next best guess for this sort of thing. "Maybe the rift is messing with us somehow," she hazards. "Like when none of us could understand each other." She's being a bit generous with her pronouns; she's fair certain the rift isn't messing with her directly (unless inflicting an addled Yuri on her counts).

[stronglikebear]

But he's just concerned for her welfare! Doesn't that count for anything in all this? His frown deepens as he catches the implication that the rift has set him off his rocker, but then the other side to her suggestion makes him brighten with renewed determination. "Maybe the rift made everyone forget," he suggests, latching on to the idea.

[wildmage_daine]

Maybe if he expressed his concern in a manner that didn't involve shouting at her and scaring the dogs, she'd be a bit more appreciative.

"I don't think the rift would be messing with the People," Daine says hastily. "It's never done that before." She doesn't want to say it couldn't, but it doesn't seem likely.

Then again, if Yuri's going to insist on being delusional, maybe she can at least turn it to the dogs' advantage. "Maybe we ought to go out there while it's safe and see how widespread this rift thing is," she says, quite seriously. "What if no one out there has any idea what's going on?" Why, he might have to actually accept the possibility that he's the one who's all confused!

[stronglikebear]

Yuri opens his mouth to argue that they don't know if it's really safe, as the cleaning could start any minute. Then he closes it again with a look of serious distress. "The carnage..." he murmurs, looking utterly horrified. "You're right -- someone has to warn them!"

[wildmage_daine]

... She's made a terrible mistake, hasn't she? This is going to be embarrassing. But she's still hoping that if he can just see that everything's all right, it'll calm him down.

"Well, give me the leash back," she says, holding out her hand. "And remember, you're only going to make matters worse if you go shouting at people. You don't want them to be scared of you."

[stronglikebear]

Yuri pouts frowns in a manly way again, handing the leash back. It's not like he wanted it. "We have to find a way to get them to pay attention, though," he says firmly.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine drops into a crouch and gives Molly a reassuring pat before clipping the leash back on. All the while, her mind races: there has to be a way she can rein Yuri in. If she can just keep him from causing a scene until they've had a good look around the city...

What would Numair do? Or the Lioness? Knock him unconscious for his own safety, probably.

Well. She's been through a siege before. If that's what Yuri thinks this is, maybe it'll help for her to treat it like one until it becomes painfully obvious that there's no real danger.

"Our first step will have to be gathering information," she says, straightening. "But we'll have to be sneaky about it. We don't want the wrong people finding out that we know what's coming."

[stronglikebear]

Yuri chews his lip, feeling like he ought to take charge but really sort of liking the way Daine's acting like she knows what to do. He certainly doesn't know how to help all those people aboveground, and the thought of someone else taking charge and telling him how he can help is comforting. Daine has experience with this kind of thing, doesn't she?

"But we don't know who the street cleaners are," he reminds her.