6/30 Instance: Mad as a Box of Frogs

[Starfish]

Timelined a few hours after 'Chocolate Bunnies'



Kitty: "I know Lola..." Kitty watched her bunny twitch one long ear at the incessant 'chirp chirp chirp' of the crickets Julie had turned loose in the room. "Darren said he'd see if he could think of something," She frown irritably and got more close out of her dresser so she could go take a shower and change in the gym shower. "This is just like the time my little sister lost her garter snake in my room. Except at the snake was quiet!"

Darren: Darren whistled cheerfully under his breath as he made his way through the corridors of the girls dorm, a cardboard box held under one arm, Kitty had told him about the buggy problem with her room when he'd found her heading down to the gym to get changed for bed the night before, and had spent the next eighteen hours working on a solution for her, at least it had taken his mind off what had been waiting for him when he'd gotten home from visiting his mom

Darren: He knocked on the door, he hoped Kitty liked his idea ... or at least found it funny, "Kit-kat, can I come in?"

Kitty: Shoving her clothes into her gym bag, Kitty looked up. "Sure, Darren. Come on in." Lola hopped closer to the door at the sound of his voice.

Darren: Darren pushed open the door, smiling down at the bunny at his feet, "Hey there, fuzzball," he said, leaning down to pet her before shutting the door behind him, nose wrinkling at the chirping, "Damn, you weren't kidding were ya?" he said as he scanned the room, "how many bugs does one lizard need to eat?"

Kitty: "All of them I hope," Kitty said irritably. "At least they haven't gotten out of the room as far as I can tell." Zipping up the bag, she gave a down right angry sigh. "And you know the worst part?? Julie is staying over in Alex's room! She makes the mess, then she up and leaves it here for someone else to fix!!" Even Lola twitched at the sound of her voice.

Kitty: Sighing a little, she shook her head. "Sorry, Darren. Just a little irritated..." She took a deeper breath. "So - what's in the box?"

Darren: "Don't blame you," Darren said, shifting the box a little, "you're showing a lot more restraint then I would in your place," if his roomie had unleashed a minor plague in his room and then high-tailed it he would have dragged them out of whatever hole they were hiding in and catch them with their teeth, speaking of which ... "The box? Oh, it's just an idea I had, I said leave it with me," he put it down on the bed.

Darren: "So ... what're your thoughts on frogs?"

Kitty: "Frogs?" she blinked. "Well, I watched The Muppet Show reruns religiously growing up," she offered, not sure where he was going with this. She looked the box curiously.

Darren: "Oh good, I was thinking it would be just my luck that you'd turn out to have a phobia or something," Darren grinned, opening up the box, "Wanna see my genius idea then?" He reached into the box and pulled out something, holding it out to Kitty, "This is CDF-01, hopefully the solution to all your infestation needs."

Darren: Sitting in Darren's palm, little golden eyes rolling with small metalic clicks, was a bright green robotic frog.

Kitty: "No. No phobia of reptile or amphibians. At least, not yet." Which was a good thing given that Julies 'solution' had been to turn her lizard loose in the room. Kitty looked at the toy frog with a slightly confused expression. Reaching down she picked up Lola, who was pawing at her leg. "The CDF-01?"

Darren: "Cyber Death Frog," Darren said, putting the frog down on the bed and taking another one out, this one was a lurid pink colour, "this is CDF-02, there's ten all together, see, they've got little serial numbers on their back legs," he said, turning it around to show her, "I made and programmed them myself," he said, looking very pleased with himself as he lined them all up on the bed.

Kitty: "Cyber Death Frog," she echoed, laughing as he lined them up on the bed. They looked kinda cute in a Bubo sort of way. Squatting down to get eye level with Darren's mecahnical frogs, Kitty studied them. "So... what do they do?"

Darren: "They do what normal frogs do, only in a less messy way," Darren grinned, "they kill bugs," he pointed at a small, red button set into the back's of the frog's heads, "See this, all you gotta do is press this button and they're off, then when they're done, you just need to whistle and they'll come back over, and you press the button again to turn them off."

Darren: He eyed up the viv on Julie's side of the room and shrugged, "I figured that since you're stuck with her, this probably isn't gonna be a one-off thing, so I made you a solution that's reuseable."

Kitty: Kitty got a gleeful look. "Darren, you're a genius!" Picking up a chartreuse colored one, she let Lola sniff at it for a moment, then sat it on the floor. The cricket noise had been nonstop the whole time and whoever said the sound of crickets on a summer evening was relaxing was a moron... Pressing the red button, Kitty quickly stepped back and held Lola closer.

Darren: "So I keep telling everyone," Darren said smugly, as the frog hopped on the spot, seeming to be picking a direction, then hopped off, making mechanical 'ribbit' sounds. A cricket was sat on the leg of Kitty's desk chair, and once the frog was in range a long, pink tongue shot out, caught the bug and dragged it back into the frog's mouth. The mouth shut, the chirping stopped and the frog leg out and exagerated cartoon belch before going off in search from the next morsel.

Kitty: The long pink tongue made Kitty's eyes go wide as it moves almost too fast to be seen. She giggled at the 'burp! from the frog as it hopped off under her bed. "Nice touch!" Quickly they set the rest into motion. Lola was watching them intently as they bounced about in the room, making war against the crickets.

Darren: Darren sat down on Kitty's bed to watch his genius at work, "It appeased the inner kid," he confessed with a grin, "so hopefully you'll be able to sleep in your own room again now ... though the downside is Julie'll be back to ... unless she didn't find out that the room's bug free ..." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he scritched Lola behind her ears.

Kitty: The room was getting quieter and quieter as Kitty gave a contended sigh. "I owe you one, Darren. I didn't know what I was going to do." A conspiratory grin stole over her features at his suggestion. "You know - you're a lot more conniving than me. That thought hadn't even occurred to me...yet." But it was a good idea. Kitty did miss having her own room. "What do you think Lola?"

Darren: Lola was doing the 'sleepy blink' thing that most animals did when they were contented as Darren continued to pet her, "I think she thinks it's a damn good idea too, after all, rabbit's like peace and quiet too, speaking of which. how's Bit doing?" he asked as he watched orange number 07 snag one from the side of Lola's hutch.

Kitty: "Bit's doing great!" she answered a little proud of the match she'd made between him and Adam. "Adam's spoiling him rotten and Bit's loving every second of it. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him." The frogs definitely had the crickets on the run by this point. "Is Jay doing all right? I mean, with the wing and all," she asked a little shyly.

Darren: Darren smiled, "Good, glad he ended up in a good home then," Darren said, leaning back, "Jay? He's fine, the lighter wing is coming along pretty well, how about things with you ... you were there when Sam ..." Darren trailed off ...

Kitty: Her face lit up at the mention that Jay would be getting an even better, light wing, but her expression fell when Darren mentioned Sam. "Yeah... that was..." It was the kinda of thing she'd see for years to come when she closed her eyes. "I'll be fine," she managed. "More worried about J and Adam. That thing got a hold of Adam and then J had to get in Adam's head to try and get them separated."

Darren: "I'm just worried about everyone Kit, that was fuc-messed up, but we're looking into it," or at least trying to ... there were no leads on this 'Kevin' so far and rewatching the security footage told them nothing new ... and now he was kinda regretting bringing the subject up, "Hey! Look at number 05 go!" he said, pointing as the frog lept up into the air to catch a grasshopper that was making a break for the window.

Kitty: "Wow!" Kitty was temporarily distracted from her morose thoughts, watching number 5's acrobatic skills. By now, the frogs had eaten most of the crickets. For a second, Kitty wondered where the crickets went after the frogs ate them - then decided she probably didn't want to know. "So how's Sel doing?" she asked, perfectly agreeable to changing the subject.

Darren: "She's doing pretty cool, she's applying the knowledge we gained from making Jay's wing to try and make herself an flying army of snails, it's keepng her occupied," he glanced over at the viv, "... Does Julie know that her reptile isn't in there by the way?"

Kitty: "Flying snails?" That bent Kitty's brain a little bit. "What would she want with fly -" She suddenly looked around, trying to spot the little purple monster. "Barney's flew the coop?? Julie can't even remember if she's wearing underwear so I doubt very seriously if she's kept up with a pet." Kitty made a face and put Lola down on the bedspread.

Darren: "... Ew," Darren looked a little grossed out, "Well, guess we should look for him or something, I'd feel bad if the critter froze to death 'cos it's owner's a complete nimrod," Darren stood up from the bed, scanning the room, "I seriously think there should be a law that you have to pass a test before they let you keep a pet."

Kitty: "I agree," Kitty nodded with a little frown. It was September now; if Barney got outside he was done for. "I think Julie meant well. Maybe she just needed to start with something easier that a lizard... " She got on her knees and looked under Julie's bed, seeing two metallic frogs hopping about and a discarded Happy Meal. "... like maybe a rock."

Darren: "She's probably still manage to damage the rock," Darren said solemnly, opening the door to the shared bathroom and having a search, "I don't think there's any more crickets left, it's probably safe to shut down the frogs."

Kitty: Kitty tilted her head listening to the blissful sound of frogs ribbiting. Sounded like heaven after the swarm of crickets. "I think your right. Just whistle right? Any tune in particular?" she grinned.

Darren: "Naah, I'm not really musical, so I didn't bother setting it to anything," Darren said, emerging from the bathroom with something small and scaly curled up around his hand, "found him down the back of the sink, around the hot water pipe," he explained, looking down at the critter, "... a purple lizard called Barney? Surely she could think of something better then that like ... like ..?" he trailed off, mind going blank for a second.

Kitty: "I like Lockheed," Kitty nodded looking at the little lizard, the name popping into her head from out of nowhere.

Darren: "Lockheed!" Darren nodded, stroking the back of the lizard's head, "Yeah, that's a great name, suits him in a weird way," Darren walked over to the viv and carefully put the rechristened Lockheed back in, "Hmmm ... needs more water too," he said, grabbing the bowl and making his way back over to the bathroom, "Kit, could you round up the frogs for me a sec?"

Kitty: "Sure," she laughed and put her fingers to her lips, letting loose with a loud, clear whistle. Obediently, all ten frogs hopped towards her and stopped in a row. That is the coolest thing ever...

Darren: Darren returned with the bowl full and grabbed one of the frogs on the way past, "Thanks Kitkat," he said, before putting the water bowl back in the viv, the lizard immediately scuttling over for a drink, and turned the frog upside down, opening a hatch on its back he shook out three still reasonably alive crickets in to join the lizard and shut and locked the lid, "There we go, that better buddy?" Darren asked, tapping lightly on the glass, the lizard seemed

Darren: *seemed kinda relived to be back home.

Kitty: "And nothing goes to waste," Kitty chuckled watching the frog give up the crickets it had 'eaten'. "What do you think of that Lockheed?" she grinned at Barnie's 'secret' name.

Darren: The lizard finished drinking and rolled it's eye's to watch the scurrying insects, and his own tongue shot out to catch the morsel, "I think he thinks it's pretty cool," Darren smiled.

Kitty: "He's got an army of frogs to catch dinner for him - who wouldn't think that's cool," she grinned. "Thanks, Darren - it's going to be nice to sleep in my own bed again." She unzipped her bag to pull her clothes and toiletries out. "I think I'm going to celebrate with a shower!"

Darren: "Anytime Kitkat," Darren said, "don't worry about it, just glad I can help someone out around here," he straightened, "Heh, in that case I'll leave you in peace then, enjoy your shower then."

Kitty: "Will do!" she grinned. "I owe you one Darren." She stopped what she was doing to give him a big hug. "You're the best!"

Darren: Darren stiffened a little reflexively at the sudden touch, then smiled and gave Kitty a squeeze back, "Yeah," he grinned over her head, "I know."

[Ult_Sm86]

Barney?
Or Lockheed?


Needless to say Lockheed is a much better name, I was just afraid of infringing on Kitty's rights.

However; I made him purple once I found out who Jules' room mate was so >_>

It's not that I didn't expect this.