An Icky Day

who: lullaby and judiel
where: third street
when: mid morning

Lullaby had been woken up by her parents early in the morning, with the issue of there being dead cats all over town. After some confusion, and a few radio announcements about not panicking, they got rubber gloves, face masks, and all three of them trudged out into the heat to start helping with the clean up. They'd helped with their own street, and had started spreading out onto other ones.

Lulu had picked Third because eventually? She'd hit Frosty Treats, and she could get some ice cream or something. It wasn't like it was hard work, but it was too hot out, and the stench was bad, and okay maybe later she wanted to hit the lake. ...which now that she was thinking about it, might have dead cats too. UGH.

Stopping for a few moments after tossing another cat into the back of a city truck, she swiped her arm across her forehead and stepped back, pushing the mask off of her face. There was bottled water and stuff provided by pretty much all the local businesses who were trying to help out as much as possible too--a real community effort. She started glancing around to see where she could get another bottle of water.

Picking up dead cats wasn't Judiel's super-fantastic idea of a good time. But it needed to happen, and it was rare for him to pass up opportunities to help. So he'd put on some long sleeves and the provided mask and gloves and went about stuffing the damn things into trash bags three and four at a time. There was just one problem. The smell. It had wormed it's way up his sensitive nose straight into his brain was had settled there. Permanently, it felt like.

He stood next to a little group of people standing around a cooler that was set on a bench, a bottle of water in one hand, the other braced against his knee. He was valiantly trying not to get sick again. Judiel took a swallow and tried to breathe slow.

Lullaby looked over at a guy who looked like he was gonna be sick, and looked around for more water. She got two bottles, then walked over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked, hoping he heard her since he looked distracted, and there was so much going on around them that she might be easy to ignore. Putting the bottle into his line of vision, she wondered if maybe he shouldn't go inside one of the businesses to get out of the heat and oh--horrifying stench--for a little bit.

He was distracted, but he heard her well enough. He nodded, even though he didn't feel so okay. Judiel dropped into a crouch, blowing a slow breath out through his lips. Going inside somewhere was probably a good idea, but he wanted to help. He just ... needed a minute ... He picked up the fresh bottle of water and cracked it open, taking a swallow or two. Blasted sensitivity, he should've known better. "Thank you," he said, glancing up at the young girl.

She still looked concerned. "You're welcome. Um...I think you should go sit inside for a few minutes..." she said, looking around. "Maybe in here?" she asked, nodding to the sporting goods store nearby. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

It was too late for that, but Judiel recognized she was right. He wasn't doing any good, really, as it was. And some filtered air would probably feel fantastic. He nodded and stood up slowly, giving her a sheepish little smile, noting more thoroughly her flat way of speaking. "A shame this couldn't have happened after the weather turned, no?" he posed.

She returned the little smile. "Yeah. But then we would have been finding cat corpses like, all winter, and then in the spring, so I guess I'd rather get it all done in one shot, and pretend I never witnessed it." she added. "C'mon, let's get you inside.." she said, reaching out to try to help him.