The class met up at the edge of the preserve again, this time, where Eliot and Parker waited, wearing white coveralls and safety goggles on their heads. The usual duffel bags of supplies were on the ground by their feet, and accompanied by several large buckets of what looked like balloons
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Something large.
He narrowed his eyes, growling faintly under his breath. The thing locked eyes with him in return.
( ... )
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... That said, from where she was at, staring at all of that charging, (and it was alot of charging), she did have a perfect line of fire to...
"INCOMING!"
To start hurling paint balloons at the big, floppy, angry, hairy-looking creature. Have some pink, alot. Have alot of pink.
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The alot, distracted and further enraged by the pelting with pink, turned to start charging in Mabel's general direction, prompting Eliot's shout of "Dammit, Mabel!" even as the distraction gave him room to avoid its horns when he jumped onto it and grabbed its neck.
And not Eliot was alot of blue and pink. So there was that.
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"Grappling hook!"
Yes, she still carried that around with her to class. One never knew when a grappling hook would come in handy, out here in the woods.
So, there was Mabel, dangling safely from a tree branch as the alot stampeded along harmlessly underneath.
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Then the alot roared and started bucking to try to throw Eliot off, splattering pink paint everywhere.
"Stay there!" Eliot told Mabel, not even remotely expecting her to listen to him. "I got this!"
And, well, he was doing a remarkable job of staying on the alot. But that didn't do that much towards stopping it from rampaging through the class, yet.
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Mabel really had no intention of coming down from her tree branch just yet, anyway. It was the best place possible for throwing more balloons down at the alot, after all.
Have a purple one! Hopefully it would even land on the animal, instead of the teacher!
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. . . And splattered all over Eliot's safety goggles. So now he was blinded and riding a rampaging alot.
He sighed, attempted to wipe the purple off enough to see, and then gave Mabel a thumbs up.
Sure. This was his life now. Whatever.
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Look, if he was going to ride the alot, Mabel was going to do everything she could to try to help out! And if her only weapon happened to be an armload of balloons full of paint, she was going to use them!
... While hanging there. From her grappling hook.
Never leave home without it.
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Look, Eliot might have grown up in Oklahoma, but he'd never actually done any rodeo work before. Willie trained racehorses, dammit.
He managed to clear enough of his goggles so he could see again -- at least until the next one of Mabel's balloons splattered him, anyway -- and reassessed the situation.
"Try to aim next to it!" he called up to Mabel. "See if we can drive it back outta the clearing!"
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It was a step up from dangling, after all.
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The alot reared up again, roaring as it was spattered along its side by paint. Eliot grabbed on to the fur at the base of its neck and hung on, then grabbed onto its horns to try and steer it a little.
It . . . actually seemed to be working. Oh hey!
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Even Mabel probably wouldn't handle that one well.
"INCOMIIIIING!"
Yeah, she was going to just announce every balloon she threw until she was out of them, now.
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Eliot sat up a little and frowned down at it. ". . . Huh." He looked back up at Mabel. "It seem like this thing kinda . . . likes the paint?"
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... Where she was pulling them from at this point was anybody's best guess.
"Eat purple, yak-potato!"
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The alot let out sort a neutral meow kind of noise, turned three times in a circle, and sat down. It had successfully been transitioned from alot of aggression to alot of color.
Eliot continued to sit on it a little bit longer, just in case, but didn't seem intent on bucking him off anymore.
". . . Okay then."
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Mabel tossed one more balloon at it for good measure. And then just sort of peered down at it from her perch in the tree.
"... Is it done throwing its tantrum now?"
It looked like it, but one could never be too certain with those giant sentient mop beasts.
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