(Untitled)

[morelikeasponge]

Peter is having an earnest conversation with a waitrat. As one does.

"...but toasted on one side. Is that okay?"

I don't speak your crazy people language, says the rat's face. Plaintively. "Squeak," says the rat's mouth

Comments

[cat_wth_panache]

Sorry, Puss is not thinking about the waitrats today. He's thinking about the man who is distracted with ordering from one of the rodents at the table below him.

Sitting in the rafters the cat watches closely, and when it seems Peter is at his most helpless the cat springs!

"Ha-ha!" He crows as he lands on the table beside Peter, boots landing with a solid thud and hat pulled down low.

[morelikeasponge]

Peter yelps and scrabbles backward, nearly knocking his chair over in the process. It looks about as dignified as it sounds.

The shock fails utterly to abate when he gets a good look at the...cat...thing.

[cat_wth_panache]

Puss glares a moment more and then straightens up, the picture of casual. He tilts his hat back and nods at Peter, his tail flicking behind him. "Hola."

[morelikeasponge]

"Hi?" Peter squeaks.

[regrowingpains]

"I think you're scari-"

She stops, staring.

"Peter?"

[morelikeasponge]

Peter glances up automatically at the sound of his name, but it takes him a moment to place the speaker.

He blinks, puzzled, and shoves his hair back. "He -- hello?" And a moment later: "I'm sorry, have we met?"

[regrowingpains]

And she glomps him.

"Omigod, it's you! Oh, wow!"

[morelikeasponge]

Peter does not actually get tackled by strange teenage girls all that often. Shockingly enough.

He goes rigid with shock, and then he tries to gently push her away. This may or may not work, since Claire is probably stronger than he is. "Um. I-I think you have the wrong guy?"

[soulburden]

Renfield's given plenty of thought to the waitrats.

Roughly five thick journals (and counting) worth of thought.

"Rats have not the capacity for it in their small minds. Perhaps a dog could be taught code, in a simple form. There is a man in Russia who believes in the psychic powers of canines. He has no idea of the extent, though. His theories are still in their infancy."

[ooc: if you'd rather not thread with Renfield, just lemme know! :-D]

[morelikeasponge]

Peter looks up, startled. The rat seizes the opportunity and gets the hell out of Dodge.

"Uh, hi," he says, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Psychic dogs, huh? I guess that makes sense. Man's best friend, and all."

[soulburden]

Methodically, Renfield looks up. "Hell's inner-most circle is guarded by the three-headed Cerebus."

He looks away, then looks back at Peter curiously. "Sir, do you happen to know German? I ask because this is written entirely in German, and I have not used German in many years."

[morelikeasponge]

...he's a real ray of sunshine.

"Sorry," says Peter, blinking, and trying to keep his expression closer to neutral than what-the-hell-dogs, "no. What is it you're reading?"

[teh_data_fork]

"Are you afraid Bar's going to hit on you again if you order from her?" says Adam sympathetically.

[morelikeasponge]

"It wasn't hitting on me!" Peter says, just a little more loudly than is entirely necessary. "It was just...being friendly."

"I mean, it's wood."

Okay, that wasn't exactly the right thing to say.

[teh_data_fork]

Adam bites his tongue and wisely refrains from giggling.

"You know, there's this guy I used to work with, and Bar used to just take his clothes away and make him wear bedsheets."

He raises an eyebrow. Comforting, innit?

[morelikeasponge]

"What?"

Peter is horrified. Horrified, and afraid, and just a little bit suspicious of Adam's reliability.

"...How?"

He's imagining forcibly stripping by mobile bar stool. In case you were wondering.

[nitro_is_ace]

There is a werewolf teaching Ace to dance. She doesn't know it, but classes will be interrupted for a while.

Be that as it may, Ace is trying out her new skill. With limited (read: no) success. The waltz does not translate to Ok Go's 'Do What You Want'. Not at all. But she's heading over in Peter's direction, which might solve his rat problem, if it isn't a stout-hearted rat.

[morelikeasponge]

The rat is not stout-hearted. It flees, squeaking all the way, to have a nervous breakdown in the kitchen while its fellow waitrats gather round and try to comfort it.

Peter just looks up, and wrinkles his forehead.

He hasn't seen dancing this bizarre since Heidi's accident.

[nitro_is_ace]

The cowbell banging out the rhythm in the song doesn't help. This song definitely doesn't need more cowbell.

And then she trips over another rat with a tea tray (thankfully empty), causing a crash and another traumatized rat. Ace just isn't good with rats.

Just like she really isn't good with dancing. At least that's stopped.

[morelikeasponge]

Does Ace have a fever?

He starts to his feet when she crashes, hands (uselessly) outstretched. "Hey, are you okay?"

He's not really sure whether he's addressing the girl or the rat.