Logs:In the Doghouse

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Cast

June Desrochers, Sturm, Teagan, Vorpal

Setting

Fairmount Park

Log

"See!" June says, pointing at the sign stuck up on a lamp post in the park. "That dog, right there!" She had just been saying that she swear she saw a dog that was on a poster in the park. It's why she started phoning people up to come to the park to help her look. Apparently it has become a whole thing. A poor little lost dog is all alone in the park, and June is going to fix it.

The dog on the poster is clearly a papillon, so this is going to be interesting if it doesn't want to get caught. The dog in question:

His name is Atlas, for some reason

... and where there's a cute animal in need of rescue, look no further than everyone's favorite hard-boiled fuck up. So. Sturm's there. She'd've probably come just because June asked, but come on. Look at Atlas's widdle face. Just look at it. True to form, Sturm is - not wearing shining armor like a knight might, but - scowling, and wearing her dark coat atop some t-shirt from an 80's metal band that she probably listened to a ton of in high-school.

"So. Dog?" Her voice is a low grunt, but... when isn't it?

"... yes, that's... that's a dog, JuneyJune." Teagan is not really mystified by the fact that June cares so much, or the fact that she's called people to hunt for a dog, but ... well, it's Teagan. They're always Kinda Weird about dogs. "Have you seen the dog, boo?"

"I saw him, twice!" June confirms emphatically, pointing off into the distance. "Over by those bushes. The problem is, if I try to get near him he runs away. It's kind of hard to catch a dog by yourself if the dog doesn't want to be caught, you know? And he's been missing for 2 days, so I don't want to just leave him. I figured you could help me, maybe corner him or something."

The thing is, Teagan used to be good with dogs, and they're ... not that good with dogs anymore. Oops. "Uhhh. I guess we can try to herd him?" The Mirrorskin guesses, sort of randomly. They tuck their hands into the pockets of their leather greatcoat rather awkwardly. This is important to June, after all.

"I mean, we can try. The worst thing that happens is that we don't get him, and maybe the owners pick up when I call them or call me back," June agrees with a series of firm nods, before she turns to start marching off in the direction she saw Atlas earlier, moving with her rapid but sort of teetering gait.

Sturm follows behind June wordlessly when the lil red panda takes off. She shoves her hands into the pockets of her coat and then chimes in after a moment: "Yeah, but the three of us can probably catch a dog, right? We've... done harder shit than this by ourselves. Probably."

"... we have two dogs, they're young, they get into shit," Teagan answers as the red panda takes off, and they follow after her. Wait, Direct Action has dogs? "I mean that Sig and I each have a dog. June has no dogs." That's a necessary clarification for some reason. "They're not ... always easy to find."

"I should have told someone to bring treats," June says after Teagan's comments, since she realizes that might have helped. She's never had a dog! She doesn't really know. "It was over... there, I think, I saw him the first time," June says pointing at one of the bushes that they're nearing. "Does anyone see anything little and dog shaped?"

Which is when, like thirty feet away, little Atlas pops out from behind a shrub and peers at the trio of Lost, tail up and alert, ears forward, panting like this is just a fun Tuesday evening and he hasn't been hanging out in the park for two days.

"What?" Sturm quirks a brow in Teagan's direction. "... since when? I've been up to y'all's place like five times and I've never seen a-" The giant trails off, frowning as cute widdle Atlas pops out of the plants. "...Dog."

Her hands leave her pockets, and she points at the critter in question.

"Yeah, we have dogs. I don't know why we didn't bring them out, except on the times when June is around, which, we don't bring the dogs out because June is around." A vague sort of shrug. "They're little, and like... young still. Some people don't like dogs, so." Teagan's head snaps toward the dog, and they start circling around really wide, to the right. They may not understand dogs, but they understand flanking maneuvers!

June jumps in delight when she follows Sturm's pointing finger and spots the dog. "See! That's Atlas!" she says, like she's suddenly vindicated. "Sturm, do you have, like... snacks or anything with you? Maybe we can distract him while Teagan circles around." She moves a couple of steps closer, but doesn't want to spook the little guy. Yet.

Sturm's frown deepens just a tad when Teagan spells things out just a little further for her. Fortunately the surly expression doesn't last long, because her attention has returned to the delightfully playful Atlas. She makes no moves to circle around - being more of a goalie type - but she does fish through her pockets. Tragically, the beef jerky she'd picked up at the gas station isn't there anymore, but she does have one thing in her arsenal of tricks...

She makes a little kissy noise, hoping to get Atlas's attention anyway...

... and succeeds at shattering the illusion of her being a badass - but failing to really bring anything to the table that Atlas cares about. Probably.


The Mirrorskin continues to circle around while Sturm makes kissy noises, but the corners of their mouth curl up in amusement as June is vindicated! Sneak sneak sneak, the Darkling do a sneak.

At first Atlas doesn't realize that Teagan is sneaking around him, since he's busy staring at Sturm and trying to figure out what the fuck she's trying to do. Then his head tilts and he turns around and barks once at Teagan before dashing off, sort of in the direction of Sturm and June, but angling off at like 45 degrees from them. Close enough that someone could try to intercept, perhaps!

Which is what June encourages when she says, "Sturm, go!" and starts hurrying that way herself.

... and Sturm does go. She bolts - way faster than someone her size has any right to go - after Atlas. Sweet, adorable Atlas who has done nothing except play like his heart depended on it. She closes in, ducking in an attempt to scoop the dog into her big arms - and succeeds, lifting the papillon up off the ground and cradling him as she slows down.

"Damn it!" Teagan curses, and they dash off after Sturm and Atlas, zoom. They're quick, but they're further away than Sturm is, of course, since they started circling around.

Little dogs can be squirrel little shits sometimes, especially if you don't actually want to hurt them, so you're not holding on hard enough to risk it. In Atlas's case, being an agile little papillon works to his advantage, too. He gets scooped write up and starts flailing about and yapping and somehow manages to basically squirt himself right out of Sturm's grasp. The fact that it's like 4 feet to the ground once Sturm picks him up doesn't seem to matter. He sails through the air like he was born to leap, lands on the ground with the agility of a gymnast, and goes sprinting off into the bushes while yapping his little doggy head off.

Meanwhile June is going, "yeeeeeesss, go Sturm! Wait, nooo! Atlas, we're just trying to get you to home where there's food!" And she goes circling around the bushes to try to cut him off. Or catch up if he just keeps zooming off into the park. "Atlas, come back!"

She's a way off, having had to puzzle out where everyone went, but Johnnie's working her way towards the pupwrassling competition. She's notable, and gloomy, and oh yeah, Wyrd AF. So she isnt sneaking up on nobody.

"Fuckin'," Sturm growls as the little dog kicks his way out of her hands - and her growl grows into a shout as he takes off running - and she tries to reverse her momentum in time to follow. "I regret making kissy noises at you- get back here you dumb bastard!"

She picks up speed again - watching June fan out to the side while she continues her straightforward pursuit.

As June heads off to one side, Teagan heads off to the other, branching out to circle around the puppy. Atlas may be fast, but Teagan has longer legs, and that's what they're counting on. They haven't heard nor seen Johnnie yet -- because they're focused.

A bunch of weirdos are chasing a tiny little dog around in the park, and are too busy to notice at first that Johnnie is arriving. The dog is just going under the bushes, but in theory Sturm can just go through them, or over them. It's not a very big bunch of hedges, and either's probably doable for the jotun.

June goes running around to one side, though, which causes the dog to dash off the other way, this time heading back around toward Teagan. Still yapping his silly head off, which makes it really easy to tell where he's likely to come dashing back out from under the bush.

It's... well, not what she expected, and Johnnie watches it play out, puzzled. She keeps approaching, picking up the effort to corral the seemingly random pup, noting it heading towards Teagan and aiming to help plug the gap between them and the next person in the formation.

Sturm's gonna try to go over the bushes, because crashing through them seems like a good way to have some pissed off landscaper cursing your name next time they get hired to come out and take care of shit. She catches sight of Atlas running off a different direction while she's mid-air. Oh well, does she stick her landing...? She does, and keeps going - hoping to corral Atlas towards Teagan.

Teagan ducks and dashes, not trying to actually catch the little dog but just keeping him penned in. Their attention is focused on catching the damn dog, because this will make June happy. Their priorities are simple.

The dog zips out from under the bush, barking his head off, and spots Teagan only to veer off in another direction, circling his way around the bushes until he spots Vorpal.

For some reason, instead of running away from her like he does for everyone else that's trying to catch him, the little pup looks right at Johnnie, somehow manages to pick up more speed, and springs directly toward her. When he gets about two feet away he promptly plops his butt down on the ground, tail wagging furiously, and lifts his front paws into the air, where he remains with his wrists bent, and lets out a single additional yap.

"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me*." The Jotunn slows, incredulity clearly visible on her face - gesturing at the little dog with both hands. "Come on..."

Johnnie leans down and does her best to scoop up the pup she thinks for sure is asking to be picked up, rewarding him with the best scritches a Torrent can buy while she looks over at everyone else as Sturm's response further complicates her understanding of the situation.

"... what? Should I put him back down..?"

The Mirrorskin hadn't noticed that Johnnie was here, but now they do, and a scowl slides briefly over their face before the Resting Mirror Face comes firmly into place, eclipsing all other expressions. "No, please give the dog to June," Teagan answers. "She's going to call the owners again."

Sturm sighs heavily, fishing a cigarette out of her pocket - which she lights. "Almost caught the slippery little fucker, but he squirmed free and kicked out of my hands." Then, in a much quieter voice: "Also he didn't respond positively when I blew kisses at him, which wasn't very nice either."

She tucks her thumbs into her pockets, and quirks an eyebrow at Teagan's reaction to Johnnie.

June comes to a stop when she realizes that Atlas has just gone right up to Johnnie and basically jumped into her arms, and unlike Sturm, her reaction is to laugh. "I think he likes you," she says as she's already getting her phone out of her pocket again. "Just try to be sure he doesn't get away, okay?"

She hits redial and then puts her phone to her ear, and a few seconds later starts speaking. "Hi, yes, is this Atlas's... person?" she asks, and there's a short pause. "Yeah, we found him in Fairmount Park. Yep, he's right here. He seems to like my friend. Well, hopefully he won't slip away from us, but you should probably come get him. It looks like he lost his collar, and he's kind of squirrely."

Johnnie catches the brief scowl. She has a much worse pokerface than Teagan- rather than RMF, which could mean anything, shadows slide down her face a little further and her eyegleams drown. "Ah- yeah. I would, but. Hard to call someone holding their dog." Scritches continue. Pacfication of the target is commenced. "I'll hand him over after." She takes in what Sturm says and scolds Atlas gently. "It's not nice to run when people make kissy sounds. At least let them know you aren't interested before you run for the hills. It's just polite." Untitled Goose Admin (she/her)Today at 11:00 PM

The Mirrorskin doesn't say anything -- they have said all they need to for the moment -- so they just stand there awkwardly. Teagan has their moments, and this is certainly one of them, for better or worse.

Sturm shifts weight between the balls of her feet and her heels. "Lemme take the little bastard and go bring him to June. In case there's something you two need to talk about?" She flashes the pair of them a knowing look. She's not like. Tremendously good at people, but she's perceptive enough to put two and two together. "'Cause..." The Jotunn hooks a thumb over her shoulder, and her lips twist into a scowl around the lit cigarette - smoke begins to escape alongside her grumbles. "Y'know what, lemme just. Yeah, I'm gonna go help June with the thing..."

TO BE CONTINUED...