(Untitled)

[happy_footed]

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The door opens to a blustery, snowy day... and a flailing, screaming penguin sliding in on his belly, his little wings flapping furiously in an attempt to go faster before--

"Oh."

The brown-ice place. Better than predators trying to eat him, anyway.

Comments

[sime_channel]

"Mumble!" Happy Suzi! Suzi? Loves penguins. Really, really, really loves penguins.

Suzi has a collection of music for him, too! "Hi!"

[happy_footed]

He bounces and taps his way over to her.

"Suzi! Hi Suzi hiii!"

[sime_channel]

"Hiii!" She echoes, kneeling down and beaming at him, "I have music! I've been keeping it with Bar? We can listen to it whenever you want! Whistler helped me pick things."

[happy_footed]

"Music?"

One would think someone had taken a rubber ball and covered it with feathers and enthusiasm and... well, tap shoes, which is where the mental image gets a bit complicated.

Either way, he's excited at the prospect.

"C-c-can we listen to it now, Suzi?"

[sime_channel]

"Uh huh! Do you want to go outside, or can I get you ice or fish or something?" She is just as beamingly enthusiastic as he is over this. She gets to share music with a baby penguin! EEEEE! EEEEEE!

[happy_footed]

"C-c-c-could I get a box of ice?" he asks carefully, not wanting to be a bother. "M-Mister Harry got me a b-box from the bar full of ice and it was nice and c-c-cold."

[sime_channel]

Mumble has Suzi wrapped around his itty-bitty flippers. "Of course! I'll be right back!"

It doesn't take long to get a Mumble-sized box of ice, a CD player with speakers, and a gigantic shopping bag full of mix-CDs. She sets the box on the ground under a table, and then sits down next to it.

"Okay...the first one is a collection of different kinds of dance music. Waltz, salsa, swing, tango, um...disco, belly, and some others? Then there are other collections with more from each category?"

She puts the CD in after he's settled, and hits play.

[happy_footed]

What comes on first is a waltz and he listens to it, intrigued, before swaying slightly and tapping lightly on the icy box-bottom.

"This is n-nice..."

[sime_channel]

This is why Suzi sat on the floor. She stands up when he says it and says, "The movement is like this..." and she does a one-two-three swirly sort of step along with the music, "I've been looking up the dances that go with the music?"

[happy_footed]

He tries to mimic her, but he can't help the tittertapping as he moves. Those feet are happy and they don't like to keep quiet about it, apparently.

He giggles.

"It's n-nice."

[sime_channel]

"Uh huh! This next one is called a circle-dance, it needs lots of people to really do well...so I got a book?" It's a high-tech sort of book, and it shows people doing an old European folk dance.

[happy_footed]

Mumbles watche the 'book' with wide eyed wonder.

"Whoaaaaaaa..."

[sime_channel]

"Uh huh." She sets it down next to him, "I got that for you, so if you come back and ask the Bar, she'll give it to you again and again. It's got lots of dances in it."

It takes some fiddling around, but eventually she manages to make it show a baby penguin in with the people. She had to sweet-talk Bar a lot for that feature.

[happy_footed]

He bounces in his box and points with his flipper.

"Lookit lookit! It's a penguin! It's another dancing penguin!"

[sime_channel]

"Uh huh! And if you poke this, here?" it's a little area of the "book" with a cartoon penguin drawn on it, "He'll show you the steps to whatever dance you're looking at more closely."

[happy_footed]

He leeeeeeans over and looks at the book and the little penguin and we return to the feathery rubber ball concept again.

"R-r-r-r-really?"

He turns to glance at Suzi, so excited he can barely believe it.

"T-t-t-that's so c-c-cool!"