milliways_bar | (no subject)

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After this:

The bar is missing some people...

It happened so quickly, you may or may not have seen the creature outside. If you didn't, you may see the basset hound puppy carrying Shufti's security badge, or Enzo's T Minus chat client floating around, both of which have sent a distress call. Neither Shufti or Enzo are anywhere to be seen.

If you didn't get the call, the dog continues to potter around the bar trying to find the mailman he was sent to greet.

[tinytag: Krampus plot
ooc: Feel free to react/threadhop/pet the doggy]

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"...Minus?" Gavroche reaches out for the little client, looking around. "What're you doing on your own?"

The puppy comes up and sits next to Gavroche, whining.

"Hello." He looks down at Chase, frowning. "~Are you on your own too? What happened?~"

Chase barks.

According to him, it was ruff out there.

"~Who do you live with?~" he tries, stroking Minus' carapace.

"~New Mummy~" Chase wags his tail. "~Big Master. Loud Humanpuppy. Humanpuppy That Dresses Me.~"

He drops the slobbery Security badge to show it, then picks it up again because New Mummy wanted him to guard it.

Gavroche gets a look at it in between, and his frown deepens.

"~New Mummy gave you that? Where is she now?~"

Chase whimpers.

"~Big sheep took New Mummy and No Smell~"

"~No Smell?~" He looks at Minus again, then points at it for Chase's benefit. "~No Smell like this? And a big sheep took them?~"

...it's Milliways, it might be literally true.

"~Big sheep with a lead~" Chase says, spinning round in circles on his stumpy little legs.

"~Good dog Chase have a sausage.~"

"~You are a good dog~", he agrees. "~And I'm going to take you to my house, where you'll be safe until New Mummy comes back. Okay?~"

"~Chase find New Mummy~"

The dog pads over to the back door and scratches.

"~All right, we'll go and look for her. But if she's not there, then back to my house?~"

Woof!

Scrabble scrabble.

"~Okay.~" He opens the door and prepares to run. "~Show me where she was.~"

He doesn't have to run that fast, the dog is very stumpy.

He goes to a spot a little way out of the door and sniffs.

"~This is where you last saw them? With the sheep?~"

"What on earth are you speaking?" Autor says, crouched down and frowning at a particularly muddied portion of snow.

He has a long, matted strand of dark fur in one hand and a camera in the other, which he's using to take pictures of a hoof print.

"The Speech", Gavroche tells him, dropping back into... well, French, but English to all intents and purposes. "I was talking to the dog. What happened out here?"

Chase sniffs at the footprints and whines.

"The Spee--" Autor starts, and then shakes his head, chastising himself for being distracted.

He stands, holding up the hair. "It's a demon called Krampus," he says. "It took Rae, Ichabod, and Alex last night, and I'm pretty sure they're not the only ones."

He glances down at the little animal. "What'd the dog say?"

"He says a big sheep took his owner. And this - " He holds up Minus where it's curled in his hand. " - belongs to Enzo, but I couldn't see him anywhere inside."

Autor glances down at the dog and folds his arms. "Okay, so that's five confirmed. Who's his owner?"

"Hadn't got that far yet. ~Chase? Do you know what other people call your NewMummy?~"

Chase shakes his head, jingling his collar which has a tag on it.

'If lost please return to Carl Johnson'

Autor kneels down and glances at the tag. "Gavroche, do you know who Carl Johnson is?"

"Never heard of him", he says apologetically. "But he's not the victim, Chase was pretty clear it was a woman - and I think he was talking about kids, too. Maybe they're a family."

It's a small tag, and the words only just fit with the phone number.

The dog is still carrying the Security badge in his mouth.

"Shufti," he says, frowning down at the badge. "It's Shufti. She calls her husband CJ."

"All right." He straightens up, with a quick pat to Chase's head. "So, one more for the list, and something - Krampus, you said - is taking people. What do we do about it?"

And here Autor falters. "Tell a god?" he says hesitantly. "Krampus is a demon from the Alpine area who drags naughty children off to hell in chains. He's clearly different here, and I doubt we'll be able to hunt him down by ourselves."

"He's breaking the rules, is what he is. But you have a point - he might just be out of our league."

"I'm planning to tell Security," Autor says. Ugh, Gene. "They might have something to do about this.

He crouches down to regard the puppy. "What are you doing to do with the dog?"

"I was going to take him home", Gavroche says with a shrug. "He'll be safe there until we get Shufti back."

Because they will.

Chase starts to lick Autor without letting go of the badge.

"Good plan. If I hear anything I'll let you know," Autor says, adjusting his glasses. "You... make sure you don't get yourself taken. Stay inside? I guess?"

He withdraws his hand from the dog with a bit of a wrinkled nose, and buries his fingers in its scruff.

Edited 2013-12-31 22:40 (UTC)

"You too", Gavroche says with a nod. "And... let me know if anybody else turns up missing."

He leans down and scoops up the dog as Autor lets go.

"~Come on, Chase. I'll get you sausages.~"

Chase wags his tail, but looks worried about his mistress.

"I will," he says. Autor watches them go, and then heads inside to find Security or a god, strands of dark fur clutched in his cold fingers.

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