Pigeons Peppering Alma in The Park
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Date: 08/18/2018 Time: 13:00 EST |
Eastern Market Marketplace Open on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, the Eastern Market is almost
like a town square - one of the few places a cross section of folks from the
region regularly gather. It is crosshatched by streets filled with covered
sheds, and on special days, filled with street vendors beneath colorful tarps.
Parking is located centrally around the main sheds, where the restrooms are
located, and the ATM's. On Saturday mornings, especially during summer, the
Eastern Market teems with people buying fresh apples, blueberries and roses
from farmers who have driven here from across the Midwest. On one side of the market, there's R. Hirt Jr. & Co., one of the best places to pick up fresh cut meat and gourmet cheese. On the other side is the Russell Street Deli, whose breakfast - omelets, pancakes, and the like - draws a long line, especially on weekends. In between are over 150 vendors housed under five sheds. In addition, there are more than 140 other businesses in the district that are open all week. Hard to find ingredients, local produce, tantalizing dining options, and core services - you name it, the Market has it. |
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Cast: | |
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It's a busy Saturday in the Eastern Market. Crowds have thinned now that hte morning rush over, but there are people here bargain hunting, eating, and just plain enjoying themselves. There's a busker playing an electrical guitar with a wah wah peddle. An artist is drawing sketches. She's just flipped a page because she's seen the oddest sight. A woman dropped some seeds on the ground? and then all the pigeons started following her around. This is a sketchworthy thing. Other pigeons seem to be watching from the eaves and trees. Occasionally splatting as she walks by. Did this person tease fate one too many times? Jim flies out from the CYC toward downtown to just scout around a bit. When he sees Alma. With pigeons. And apparently intentionally since she dropped seeds. The large raven muscles his way in with the pigeons, pushing them out of the way, beaking at them, and trills quietly. "Howdy." Can someone look amused and angry at the same time? Alma can. The
teenager she was glaring at has stepped back a ways and has his phone out,
streaming Alma to youtube, undoubtedly. Whatever, dude. The pigeons are cooing
and strutting. Occasionally some will wander off only to be replaced by more.
Where did they all come from? "Oh come on, I defend you guys all the time!"
Alma says. "What gives?!" Note is there too, really confused. She's stepping
around the pigeons, make way make way, and ends up at Alma's feet looking up at
her. really? pigeons? what were you thinking? Note tells the big raven who just muscled in, hey big guy. I don't know what she did but now she has all the pigeons. Alma looks down at Note and then at Jim. "I'm apparently the crazy bird lady now?" She laughs. Jim looks at Note. "Is this some weird magic thing?" he asks her in the Spirit Speech, softly. Still pushing past any pigeons that try to get in his way, and allowing no bullying of any kind, he makes his way over to Notion, and brings her into is sphere of defense. Then to Alma, he looks up and speaks softly "Did you feed them, ma'am?" Note replies, I think so. It had to do with that kid over there.
Note cocks her head towards the kid who is videoing this. I'm not sure what
she's up to with this., Note is interrupted by a pigeon and caws at it. Her
feathers ruffle out. Stay out of my way!. "Not exaaaccttlly," Alma says.
The 'exactly' drawn out and full of doubt. "That kid was harassing the tamale
vendor. I was going to put a stop to it." She looks at the kids and considers
them for a minute. "Actually, I guess I did put a stop to it. Success!" She
looks down at all the pigeons, and frowns a little. "I guess my shopping is
done for the day. I could really use an unbrella though." She glances longingly
at a booth some distance away with a bin of umbrellas. "They are making a mess
of my rain shell." It really looks like she's talking to herself but at this
point she doesn't give a fuck because, hey, crazy bird lady. They're crazy, you
know? Alma ponders this. "Could you?" Note struts around Alma's feet a little, establishing her ownership of her human. My human. Mine. [POOL] Jim spends 1 points of Rage. Reason: 6 million dollar man mode to scare pigeons away Jim flaps and trills, acknowledging Maya and looking right at her. He finds that funny. But he has work to do. Na nananananana. Nananananana. The large bird for a few seconds is moving frightfully fast. Wings up wide, cawing loudly, a rage beast, doing his very best to be large, scary, and pushing away the pigeons. Maya, on the other hand, is moving fast through the day's produce
shopping, heading from one of the sheds to another with a bulging canvas bag in
each hand... when she spots the large corvid winging his way down to the
ground. She stares for a moment at the weirdly coherent mass of birds, as she
makes her way closer--and then of course sees Alma. Both brows lift, and she
heads that way. "Stay out of my stuff," she tells the birds. And then she gives Jim a narrow-eyed look. "You're gonna end up on YouTube with all the other bird videos, you know. Scaring those poor things." Note has had enough of these pigeons. She grabs one by the tail and starts spinning around with it as it tries to fly out of her grasp. <<DICE>> Alma rolls 5 dice, difficulty 6 The pigeon is not having it. She pulls her tail out of Note's beak and flies up to land on Alma's shoulder. Alma is painted. Ok, That shoulder is Notes. It's going down now. <<DICE>> Jim rolls dexterity + athletics, difficulty 5 Jim makes two really good passes through the birds, banging through them, wings out, really being a huge pain to them. Unless there's something magically keeping them there, there's a good chance they're going to scatter away from the interloper. Except for the one that went up onto Alma's shoulder. Maya just watches and lets out a sigh, stepping carefully closer to Alma. "Seriously, if anyone poops on my Birkenstocks, I will turn you into mice," she mutters. Then she looks over to Alma and asks, quietly, "Dox thing?" Alma tries to nod in agreement with Maya but at the same time she's
surrounded by pigeons trying to land on her to flee the aggressive raven. Alma
is an honorary statue! There are pigeons getting their feet tangled in her
hair. There are pigeons deciding that pockets are actually pigeon holes. There
are more pigeons on her shoulders; however, Note still has eyes of laser death
for that first pigeon that dared to go there. Alma poofs a piece of fluffy
pigeon down away from her face. "Really, Jim? Really?" Yes, one of the feathered fuckers poops on Maya's birkenstock. Note would never do this. Note is just, hmph. "Caw! Caw Caw!". Jim flaps and settles down. He speaks quietly. "Miss Alma, that should have scared them off. I don't know why they love you." Then to Maya. "I tried, miss Maya, but she did something weird, I reckon, to attract them. And someone should have made a video. I was good back there." Maya chews on one side of her lower lip. "Mother nature in action," she murmurs. <<DICE>> Alma rolls charisma + animal ken, difficulty 6 Alma sighs and ponders all the pigeons. It's not their fault, a big raven did just fly at them. She talks very gently and smooth. "It's okay. I'm quiet. let's just relax here." She stands still and breaths a few breaths. Some of the pigeons are less distressed now. "I'm sorry," Alma says to Maya. "I'll help you out later?" She points her chin over to the teenager who is filming this with his phone. "He was being a dick to the vendor over there. I tried to do something about it. It didn't go like I expected. But," she shrugs (and a couple of pigeons coo at her), "hey, it worked. Now he's being a jerk to us instead." Jim hears Alma say the kid was being a jerk, so he decides to do something about it. The large bird walks past the pigeons that didn't land ON Alma. And then starts flap-hopping over toward the jerk. "Awesome," Maya says dryly. She sees the raven's antics and rolls her eyes heavenward, then. "Jim. You're gonna be on Youtube, seriously." "Hey," Alma calls after Jim. "There's no need for that." Meanwhile, Note wants on Alma's shoulder. /Her/ shoulder. She flaps up to the shoulder and starts trying to edge /that/ pigeon. "Hey," Alma says. "There's no need for that either." Jim knows there's no need for that. And frankly he woudln't mind being on youtube. But he walks up to the jerk, and tries to untie his shoe. <<DICE>> Jim rolls dex + crafts, difficulty 6 Maya makes a small choking sound that might be 'trying not to laugh and make things worse', and turns to Alma, brows raised in query. "You're okay?" Alma starts to reply in hte affirmative but watching the kid put down his bag of stuff is just too much and she starts laughing. The kid videos the raven walking up to him, "hey, check it out, this guy is walking over here. hey birdie. hey. HEY, get, get." The kid doesn't want to kick the bird because he's not that /that/ much of a jerk. But he does want to retie his shoe and shoo the bird away too. there are too many things in his arms for this to work. He sets his phone and his paper shopping bag ont he ground and does a shooing motion with his hands and also tries to tie his shows. The paper bag is crumpled and weak at this point, he's been paying more attention to filming the pigeons than to stabalizing the bag. it settles down sideways and some kitchen utensils roll out and there's a plastic bag of tamales sliding out with everything. Maya glances over despite herself. She's still polite enough to *try* to hide her amusement. Instead, she's sort of... wincing. Jim makes ONE more move. Seeing the weak paper bag, he tries to jab his beak into it, and drag up, to tear a hole into it and make it useless. Either way, he'll fly off at this point, to make absolutely sure he doesn't get kicked for real. <<DICE>> Jim rolls dex + brawl, difficulty 6 Alma is feeling guilty at this point. She's starting ato regret her actions. Maybe this was an abuse of fate? Maybe she should have tried just talking to the kid? At this point, there's not much she can do. She looks over and sees a park bench that isn't too awfully close to anyone. "I'm gonna go sit down." She tells Maya. "You might want to stay off a ways?" It's a nice park bench and it is now Alma's. and all the pigeons. and some new pigeons too. She removes a pigeon from one of her vest pockets so that she can get her notebook. A pencil comes out from pocket in the vest that is too small for a pigeon. She settles cross legged on the bench, and props up her notebook with a knee. Note decides to claim new territory and lands on her other knee. "Hey there." She tells Note a little scoldingly. "Be kind. It's not their fault." Maya's brows inch up a little farther. "Yeah, I'm gonna... I'll be over there," she says, gesturing to the next shed. "Just in case, okay?" She gives Alma a sympathetic little half-smile and then heads over to get a drink from one of the booths. A short while later, when it seems like there's not going to be any trouble, Maya gives Alma a wave and goes off to finish her shopping. She walks fast, purposeful. No time to waste having a nice Saturday at the market. Later that day When Maria asks her aunt if that is actually her on youtube Alma explains that it must have been some kind of prank. "I don't know /who/ planned the prank, but someone must have trained the pigeons to react that way when she dropped something. Have you heard about the pranks with birds on the football field at Rice University? like that. Probably some ornithologists in some department giving me shit." She smirks. Maria just looks at her for a really long time, then is like: I'm gonna do laundry, plz if you put the bird shit clothes in the laundry basket take them out, I don't want bird shit laundry water. | |
