Refrigerator Raider

Refrigerator Raider
Date of Scene:	06 March 2013
Location:	Mullonde
Synopsis:	Katey gets a strange nighttime visitor.
Cast of Characters:	Katey Fray, Duke

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Duke has posed:
'Story's gotta start somewhere. Might as well be here. Duke's been lookin' 'round the place for days. Tryin' t'figure out exactly how he should get in. Turns out; Not so tough when you're so small. Got himelf over the wall with a bit o'help from his claws. Always did prefer usin' them to those grapplin' hook attachments.'

'All the lights 'round looked mighty interestin' t'Duke, but he had something else in mind. Took only a few seconds to cut open a window - little fresh air never hurt.

Now, he's inside someone's house. Well, not a house. Could just be some kind of loft. He's not sure, nor does Duke really think much on it.'

'The little guy scurries about the room, his nose sniffin' the air for whatever he's lookin' for. Doesn't take long. Nose like that's got some mileage.'

'Wouldn't you know it? A fridge. Nice an' pearly white, just makes Duke wonder what's inside.'

Duke glances skyward and makes a 'shhh'ing motion as he whispers something in alien at no one around.

'Duke gives the signal to be quiet. No worries. This is gonna be easy as pie. Little guy swings the frige door open, the light shining like a billion suns in the pitch dark. Looks like Duke's hit the jackpot.'

Katey Fray has posed:
It's hard to tell if it's the sound of Duke's sudden breaking an entering that wakes up Katey, or if something among the piles of machine bits in her little loft apartment might actually be a motion detector.

Click.

The light turns on to reveal some little creature rooting around in her refrigerator. Katey stands there, in all the wonder of a less than five-foot tall mouse-girl, dressed in a nightgown and holding none other than a particularly flashy looking bazooka.

"Drop the pie." It's hard for Katey to really be intimidating, maybe because she's barefoot and dressed in nightclothes, but the weapon might be enough to make someone think twice. Her tail twitches behind her. "And back away from the fridge. Slowly." The mouse's whiskers twitch, shifting the heavy gun on her shoulder.

It's anthro-nightgown-chibi-rambo. Ahh!

Duke has posed:
'Nothin's ever easy. Looks like Mousey's got the drop on Duke. Big ol' 'zooka held aloft, probably weighs as much as she does.'

'Duke looks to the pie, lemon marangue, perhaps. Maybe even key-lime. He's not really picky.'

In a moment of contemplation, the little experiment takes the pie by the crust in his mouth and hops off the fridge, taking cover behind the door in a blink.

'Girl's got a big gun. That's 'lright. Duke's got two.' The narrator says as Duke draws both his guns while stilling holding onto the pie by the tip of his teeth.

"Jooba gajwana maana!"

'Duke tries for some diplomacy. Sometimes it works with the locals. Then again, what kind of civilized soul wouldn't wear a hat to bed.'

Katey Fray has posed:
"That's /mine/." Katey replies with a squeek, clawed feet tapping on the hard floor. Seeing the little creature stick the pie in his mouth, the mouse curls her nose and sticks out her tongue. "Eww..." She whines. "I was going to have that for breakfast." Any display of ferociousness is defused as she pouts and blows a sigh out of her muzzle.

"Listen, take the pie, but back away from the fridge little man." She doesn't recognise his guns as, you know, actual guns. Where as her bazooka certainly looks real enough. It's that big round plasticy look everything form the alien-verse has, like it's a toy.

Of course, his attempts at diplomacy only get a confused sort of 'wtf' look from the mouse, who peers down the sight of her bazooka at him. "What?" She takes a step closer, which seems odd figuring that she's wielding a weapon that could probably blow herself up in the process in this enclosed space. "Guns down."

If he moves, she's going to pull the trigger. And he's going to get pied. Yes, she's trying to recover a pie, with a bazooka that shoots pies. Someone didn't think this concept out very well.

Duke has posed:
'Mousey's got the right idea. Let Duke take the pie. Bein' an intergalactic lawman comes with some advantages.'

Duke glances around the fridge door, the pie sticking out a good pie length from his muzzle.

'Duke takes a long look at 'er. Small. Almost timid-lookin'. If it weren't for that big ol' 'zooka, she'd be easy enough to deal with. 'Course, sometimes the smallest things pack the biggest punch.'

'Little guy puts the guns away and drops the pie into his hands. Takes a step to show that his hands are occupied and then he decides to go further with good ol' talkin'.'

"Amana woo tooga namba joo?" Duke says as his ears raise up, showing that they are about as long as he is tall.

Katey Fray has posed:
At the very least, the guns get dropped, which is enough for the girl to lower the bazooka a fraction. "You know, if you're hungry, you could have just /asked/." The adrenaline of having someone strange invading her house has started to wear off. Would she really have let a tiny little alien who doesn't speak English into her house and fed him pie? ... Maybe. He is kind of cute, with those big ears and everything.

The mouse might have that 'cute' factor, herself, if it weren't for the robotic arm and leg which only seems to add to the robo-cop in a nightgown feel of the moment. Still, she sets down the bazooka and walks over to the tiny table that serves as her 'dining room' pulls out the chair, and sits down with a confused expression on her face.

"So... you don't happen to spean common do you?" Katey asks, tapping her metal claw on the table thoughtfully. "Or have a translator or something?" Silly as the mouseling can be at times, she is pretty bright, so she does at least try the Tarzan/Jane thing. "Katey." Point metal finger at self, then point at him with a questioning expression.

Duke has posed:
'Diplomacy. Gotta love it.'

The little alien looks to the dinning table and tilts his head to the side as he keeps the pie aloft.

'Mouse girl takes a seat. Probably as confused as Duke, but that's common 'round these parts.'

Duke gives another shh to nobody around in before glancing at the nook and scampering up onto the table, pie and all.

'Duke thought this place as storage. What with all th' fancy 'quipment on the wall, looks like the closets back on the ol' ships. Who'd a thunk someone actually would live in this?' The voice says as Duke lowers his ears and snarls a little to the side.

"Agoonabaa mooba naboom." Duke states as he bops himself in the head, causing a set of electrical bolts to arc from the left hand side as something shorts out.

The little guy then quickly draws his pistol, aims it at the pie and fires. Literally.

'Never really did like cold pies.'

The 'fire' is out in a second and a smell of 'warm' pie begins to emenate from the now hot dessert.

'Little guy's nose shifts one or twice as his tongue hangs out the side of his mouth. Cooked pies always smelled better, anyhow.'.

When asked his name, Duke looks to the mouse girl's hand, mimics the motion and points to himself. "Duka!" He says with a wide smile as he then points to the pie. "Duka, Katey?"

Katey Fray has posed:
The brown and white mouse just looks over at him, sitting back a bit when he comes right up onto the table. She's certainly never seen anything like him before, and her nose twitches with that inate curiousity. "I wonder what you are..." She reaches that metal hand up and scratches at her chin, "You don't look like a Heartless, and I've never seen them eat pies. And usually fiends are more of the grr grr attack first eat later type." Mostly, she's talking to herself, still unsure if he can even understand her.

Luckily, she kind of gets what beating himself over the head and making it short-circuit means. "So, your helmet's broken?" She asks, "Can I look at it?" The mouse points over her shoulder at all the various machines, then mimes the motion of using a screwdriver. "I fix things."

When he takes out the pistol, Katey ducks under the table. From there, her nose twitches, smelling... pie? Blink. The mouse's hands come up over the edge of the table first, and then her nose, still sniffing. Finally, she comes up again. "Uh. I have an oven you know." She thumbs cautiously over her shoulder.

At least the attempt at introductions got somewhere. She points at herself, "Katey." Then to him, "Duka." Then at the pie. "Pie."

Duke has posed:
'Little Guy's got little to care about what the mouse-girl thinks of him. He's hungry and when Duke gets hungry, things get eaten.'

Taking a bite out of the pie and pausing with his jaws already through the crust, Duke looks up at Katey before looking to the side, not that she could see his eyes. 'Maybe she was as hungry as Duke. Maybe he should share. Lotsa people like a good piece of pie.'

Rolling his eyes internally, Duke's teeth retract from the pie, leaving a nice oval wedge down one quarter of the pie as Duke pushes it forward with a foot.

'Duke's eyes caught something then. Back on the bench Mouse-girl had pointed to. Something that would help with this situation. With little warning, the little guy hops off the table and up onto the counter. Diplomacy always worked better when both sides were civilized.'

Scampering onto the workbench, Duke snatches up a templar helmet and holds it towards Katey.

"Samana'hak. Samana'hak, Kaytee." He says, motioning with the helmet by putting it over his head and pulling his head back out before pointing at her, stilling holding the helmet towards her position.

Katey Fray has posed:
The fact that a half-chewed bit of pie is being nudged towards her allows a small wiggle of whiskers from the mouse, who shakes her head. "You can have it." You never know, he might have space rabies or something.

Still a little jumpy from sudden gunfire, the mouse flinches as he hops off the table and goes running off to find something among her piles of parts. When he returns with her helmet, the mouse justlooks utterly confused. "You... want me to wear a hat?" Blink. "Okaaaay."

The crazy has been outcrazied. That's alright, though. She shrugs, and pulls on her helmet. It slips on nicely over her ears, which wiggle free. She looks like she's ready to go off and defend Narnia... in her nightgown.

"Okay, am I properly dressed now?" She asks him, folding her arms on the edge of the table. "Now what?"

Duke has posed:
'Duke looks over the mouse-girl's attire. Properly covered forehead means she's at least decent, though showing that much of the eyebrow is considered risque where he's from'.

The little creature reaches forward and gently tips Katey's helm forward a little as to ensure it's proper.

'Always gotta make sure a lady is proper. Don't let 'em walk around showin' off too much.'.

Duke holds up one of the screwdrivers he had snuck with the helmet and makes the turning motion before bopping himself in the side of the head again - more arcing sparks.

'The smell of pie is gettin' to him now. She didn't want it, so. Hey. Why not just eat the whole thing?' Duke follows his own inner narrative voice and plots over to the pie, snarfing on it on all fours in a rather gruesome display of no manners.

Katey Fray has posed:
Clueless mouse is clueless, but she doesn't really know how to argue in goobledegook. Maybe she sould take a correspondence course in it, if random aliens are going to be invading her home. Or maybe she needs to set up a little space ship that goes back and forth and shoots them before they can come down. Yes, Katey's new defense plan for her apparent: Space Invaders.

Thoughts of new inventions aside, she looks up as he adjusts her helmet, then wiggles her ears a little. "Quite the fashion expert, aren't you?" She asks. "Well, I guess it would probably turn heads among the Templar." With a laugh at herself.

The mouse takes the screwdriver, "So, you want me to try to fix it?" She stands up, walking over to grab a toolbox full of various odds and ends. The source of the sparks would probably be the problem, so while he's chowing down on pie, she's trying to get him to hold still enough that she can actually get a look at the darned thing.

"Hey. I'll give you more food if you hold still, okay?" Still with not a single clue if he even understands her, Katey tries to get closer to the helmet so she can get a better look at what's wrong with it.

Duke has posed:
'Lemon marrangue. Not bad. Could've used some more lemon, though. Duke likes a strong taste.'

The little furball, having devoured the plate is currently licking the container clean while sitting on his rump and running his long tongue across the surface of the pie plate.

'Gotta get every. Last. Drop. Never know when you're gonna eat next with a life like this.'

Katey tells him to hold still for more and Duke tilts his head at her before turning around and plopping himself back down on his rump, tail curled up beside him as he watches her.

'Mousey's got more? Well. Why not? Better than the garbage Duke's been eatin'. He takes a second to look at her and her tools. Primitive. Probably couldn't even fix a leaky reactor with those.'

Duke gives another 'shh' noise as he snaps at the air to the side before licking his lips and looking back up at Katey expectantly.

'Helmet's got some damage.' The voice narrates to Katey, but of course, she can't hear him. 'Took a shot to the skull a while back. Fried some important connections. Also did some damage to the helmet. Nothin' big, though. Probably a little bit o'elbow grease, some TLC an' a universal Codec an' she'll be good as new.'

Katey Fray has posed:
As much as Katey's tools might look primitive at first, she's got a good selection of various things from places with all sorts of tech levels. She might even have a few gadgets traded for at the spaceport, although this is probably her first experience with technology from this particular world. The few remaining ships that were part of the fleet were not that keen on sharing their technology with the rest of the world.

Without the guidance of the narrator, Katey is stuck doing her usual sniffing around sort of thing, "Looks like you've been in a fight." She takes a look at the fried circuitry, but then gets up and goes to dig in one of the boxes for parts. Useful that - all the junk she has lying around seems to at least have some purpose. "I can fix the wiring, but I'm not sure I can do much for the translator."

Yep, smart mouse can figure out what it's supposed to do, and she sticks a wire into her mouth, tongue sticking out comically as she works, mumbling sometimes with her mouth full of parts. It might take a few minutes, but hopefully it would stop his helmet from sparking constantly. When it's done, the mouse wipes off her hands and gets up, walking over to pluck up her bazooka.

Wait, she's going to shoot him after all that? No. The mouse-girl undoes the 'ammo' compartment, and pops out what looks to be a ... stack of pies all neatly lined up. The entire 'ammo' clip is put onto the table. "I'd suggest checking out Montressor if I were you. They've got all sorts of aliens there. Just watch out for the ones who speak Flatula." She holds her nose, waving a clawed hand in front of it.

Duke has posed:
'Mousey does good work. HUDs showin' connection's been re-established, but the verbal ouput is all kinds of garbled. Best to keep that turned off, for now.'

Duke gives his head two knocks to check to see if the wiring has been fixed. There's no spark, no lightning arc, so that's good, at least.

'Isn't that the way things go? Break into a supply closet. Take a pie. Meet a mouse-girl and get your helmet repaired. This Universe is all kinds of weird.'

The little critter holds up a claw to his muzzle as he lets out an audible 'hmm' noise while the pies are distributed as a clip. "Oona zoozoogama Montressor?" He asks, making an exaggerated shrug motion as he tries to communicate with this mouse-girl.

'Perhaps a game of charades is the perfect way t'end this night.'

Katey Fray has posed:
"You're going to turn your brain into scrambled eggs that way, you know?" Katey replies with a smirk, unloading one of the pies. Like the ones in the refrigerator, this one is cold, but it appears to be chocolate cream or something. Just how she manages to get the device to work at all is a wonder, but hey, this is fantasy, best not to think about it too much. The bazooka is set back down against the wall as the mouse takes a seat.

"Montressor is the space port." The mouse grabs a napkin and a pencil that she had hidden somewhere in her hair - must always be prepared, and starts to doodle what looks like a moon hanging in the sky. There's a rough little ship being drawn next to it, with wavy lines like 'swoosh' motion blurr. "There's lots of creatures like you there. Can't say I've met one like you, though." She draws a stick figure with six eyes and wavy limbs. Clearly, the engineer is better with blueprints than she is with people.

"You can get there from Traverse Town." More scribbles, indicating a town below, and then an arrow that points up from the town to the moon-shaped spaceport. "As for how to get there, well... " She taps the pencil on her muzzle, and shrugs. "Last time I was up there was on a Church mission, bringing Faram's message to the unwashed heathens of the universe." Katey rolls her eyes, laughing to herself.

Duke has posed:
'Mousey puts another pie in front of Duke. Duke likes this little lady. She's got the right idea.'

Scarfing down the pie, Duke listens to Katey in relative silence. Only the loud smacking and plate-licking sounds come from the little creature until Katey pulls out a napkin and starts doodling.

'Plate hits the table with a thud. Duke's more interested in whatever Mousey is doodlin' than lickin' the thing clean. Looks like a Tentaclean in a cruddy ol' beater ship. Girl might be good with tech, but she's rather lousy with drawin'. No big deal. Everyone's got their faults.'

Again, the little critter gives a 'shh' noise before standing over the napkin and looking down. He regards the drawing, holding it diagonally, upside down and finally right side up as Katey talks about her last mission.

"Doopa juzuk. Wamma oollamba zim, Duka pun Katey?" He asks, holding the napkin to Katey's muzzle while his other hand points to the Traverse town item and then to the space station.

Katey Fray has posed:
Well, he's at least got an appetite. Good thing she always has a decent supply of food, especially pies. The mouse-templar has no idea why he keeps 'sshhh'ing the air, but she's seen stranger things. You know, like little aliens invading her refrigerator.

Of course, having a napkin waggled under her muzzle doesn't help her from seeing the situation as any less strange. "I can't take you." This is a wild guess at what he might mean, either that or she's picking up on alien. Who knows. "I've got duties." She thumbs towards her armor, which is piled haphazardly in a corner. "You know. Soldier. Templar. Walking in straight lines and looking stern."

She mimes the face of a serious soldier, but it doesn't look quite right. "You might be able to hire someone to take you if you have some munny. I think there's a caravan of Templar heading to Fluorgis, so you could try tagging along with them. There's an airship port there, and some clans that might be able to help."

Duke has posed:
"Paaaah!" Duke says with a hand wave as Katey speaks about being a soldier and the stern look. Obviously this universal sign of disagreement is easy enough to translate.

"Wamma... oollamba... zim, Duka pun Katey." Duke states once more, though more slowly, as if she'd understand him if he spoke at a slower than normal pace.

'Talkin' to the locals is gonna be tough. Got a language that about as much sense as a three legged octopus. Well, either you get some shoes or you learn to swim.'

The little guy gives a huff at something and raises his arms before letting them fall, with the napkin. Then, his ears perk up as he looks to Katey and starts making spin-around motions with one claw.

"Tumma gammu!" He states while he taps the broken area of his helmet.

Katey Fray has posed:
Speaking slower doesn't seem to help, and the mouse just cocks her head slightly, whiskers twitching. "Sorry. I don't follow." She scratches at the side of her head, trying to figure out what she can do about the whole communication issue. Clearly, he can understand her, at least to some extent, but she hasn't a clue what his babblings might mean.

The little 'spin' motion has her blinking though. Without saying a word, she stands up, turns around, then looks at him and shrugs. Then... bling! Lightbulb.

Katey fumbles around, trying to find something, but seems to realize after a moment that she's in a nightgown. The mouseling nearly trips over her own chair, making her way into the other part of the loft which is likely her bedroom, only to return a moment later with a tablet-phone in her hands.

"Come on, boot up faster." She mutters, knocking it with her hand. A little logo appears, and then it loads up. A few taps of her finger later and she has up the application of ultimate interspecies communication...

Draw Something.

Katey puts it down on the table. "Here. Try drawing it out?" She demonstraits, wiggling her finger to draw some squiggly lines.

Duke has posed:
'Mouse-girl takes a stroll to her bedroom. Probably gone to get another one of her tools. Girl's got a lot of 'em. Probably too many to be a coincidence.'

The critter watches and when Katey disappears for a second, his hands press up against the side of his helmet as he quickly removes it and glances at the damaged part.

'Duke's done some repair work in the past. Nothin' fancy. 'nuff to keep himself goin'. Sometimes that's just what you need.'

The critter gives a mutter in alien and his little claws press two of the small rectangular squares, which pops out a small cube.

The sound of Katey starting to return makes Duke look up with his big black orbs of eyes. 'Not the time to panic. Jus' gotta put on the helmet an' everythin's good.' The voice states as Duke hoists his helmet up, straightens his ears and slides it back on right as Katey comes into view.

He acts as though nothing has transpired and when Katey puts down the tablet, Duke merely looks at it with interest.

'Duke takes the little pad up and starts scrawling about the screen. Normally, this wouldn't cause a problem on some of 'em heavier duty models, but those claws a'his are mighty sharp. Probably not gonna be th'best mirror when he's done with it.'

After the scribbling, Duke tilts the datapad to the right and thrusts it upwards, towards Katey's position. The drawing on it is rather detailed. It's a cube, wiith a diagram and a bunch of different lines with alien text to 'highlight' what he needs.

Duke taps one of the lines after examining his drawing, a smile from large ear to large ear.

Katey Fray has posed:
Luckily, Katey's little tablet-phone is quite used to having claws used on it, since the mouseling, herself, has them. Of course, his might be just a little more fearsome than her own. At the very least, she has one of those super-duper-covers that is supposed to prevent all sorts of damage or twice your money back. The poor sales person is going to hate her.

Taking back the tablet, the mouse stares at it for a moment, looking from it, to Duke, then back again. "This would help, if I could read jibber-jabber. All I can make out from this is squiggly, dot, rabbit, bird, squigly, dot curlbracket." Clearly, her internal translator doesn't really work on alien-language, and she's got a very active imagination. Pssh, a bird? That's totally looks more like a platapus.

"Unless you've got a translator, I'd say we're up poop creek without a scooper." She looks at the design of the cube, trying to make sense of it just from appearances. Maybe she could take a bash at it, but without really understanding it, who knows what would happen. He might end up talking like inconspicuous narrators that no one knows about because they exist in little alien brains.

Resting her head on one hand, propped up on the edge of the table, Katey yawns sleepily. "Tell you what... maybe I can try seeing if any of the Templar have seen this kind of thing before. Tomorrow. When it's light out. After I've slept." The mouse's tail twitches.

Duke has posed:
'Mousey's gonna need some shut eye before she's useful. No worries. Sleep always helps.'

Duke sits on the table with his ears up as she talks about sleep. The little critter gives a few muttered alien complaints, but it's about as coherent as anything else. Picking up the cube he unnatached from his helmet, the little critter holds it up to Katey.

'Some people have a hard time learnin'. Be it 'cause they're stuck in a thought or because their brain jus' don' work right. Sometimes they jus' need a nudge to get going'.

"Katey murramus litinak zuuwa." He says as he puts the cube down, puts the napkin on the cube and mocks lieing his head down on it.

Katey Fray has posed:
"Yeah. Katey is going to sleep. Then Katey will think about your cube." And apparently, Katey will talk in third person. This is what people get for invading her house in the middle of the night. Crazy scientist inventor girls need their shut-eye, lest their inventions have more red buttons. Speaking of that. "Just... don't touch anything that has buttons, okay?"

The last thing she needs is alien bits all over her house, or waking up to explosions. Though, she's not sure which is worse. Hrm. The mouse gets up, stretches, totally not worried that there is a strange creature in her kitchen, and wanders back off to her bedroom as if this were a particularly interesting dream. Then, she face-plants into the pillows, helmet and all. Oh, yes, and within a few minutes, she's murmuring calculations in her sleep.

Duke has posed:
'Mousey girl walks off to her room again. This time for keeps. Probably ain't gettin' up anytime soon'

'Little guy gives her a second to fall. Always was the considerate one. He takes a minute to listen to her sleep-addled muttering. Heh. Always was interestin' t'here what some people dreamt 'bout.'

Duke glances at the pies and lets out a snort as he looks towards the window with a circular hole. The draft certainly wouldn't bother him, what with the fur and all. Plus, Katey looked like she had a coat of fur on - surely that would be enough.

'Little guy's feelin' the journey start taking its toll. Time for him to get some shut-eye as well.'

"Mumanee putaanko." Duke mutters as he looks about. 'Little guy gathers up some of Mous-girls smaller crates to make himself a little box-hut out of. He didn't need it, but it helped him feel just a little bit -' "Humanee!" '... G'night, Duke.'