"Not to worry, Joey, old chum," Sir Percy says, strolling over. "We'll have you out of those bonds lickety-split!"

Midnight stands where he is.  He wants to get going and ignore the entreaties of the mad god, but they're right.  It looks like a child.

Mephistopheles looked in the direction of the  fallen rubble, making sure the Boggin wasn't about to burst out of it, then turned his attention back to the boy.

"As my friend said, we will free you.  We destroyed two of your captors, are there more that might come back and interrupt us while we work to release you?"

"Tell me, young friend, can you move around...easily?"

Bones approached, a bit uneasily because the captive seemed to be in awful pain and Bones' closest non-cat confidantes largely don't feel pain the same way a person or a cat does--so Bones Fleabag was understandably uncertain how he could help. Moving easily is a good sign for a bug, though, so it must be a good sign for a human, right?

"I don't think there are more.  I only saw two before they... when I could see.  They chained me up and made me smash this city, or else they would hurt me.  Then they hurt me anyway.  I'm tired, and I'm hungry.  They didn't feed me for years.  I can still move, but the chains stop me."

Joey turns his head from side to side.  "I thought this city was a dream, least it was before I smashed it, but if it's a dream why can't I wake up?  Not even when the monsters hurt me."

"Do you know where my mum and dad are?  I haven't seen them since I hit my head.  Sometimes I can hear them talking, but far away.  But they can't hear me, even when I shout as loud as I can.  They just keep talking to the other man, the one they call 'doctor'."

"Hmm, intriguing," Sir Percy says. "You see, my good chum, you are in the world of dreams. We can walk here freely, because we're cats and that is only one of the ways that we are superior, but humans have a tendency to get lost. No, no, don't feel bad - you can't help that your senses are so laughably weak! It seems that you might have gotten stuck here from that mishap you had. Possibly we could help if we knew where you were in the real world?"

Miss Cuddles moved closer to what was obviously a child, or at least what had been a child but now, well, it was better to think of what could be.  She looked at the chains holding the boy and poked at them gently with one paw.

She laid gently next to the boy, purring loudly and giving him what comfort she could. She stared at the offending chain, her tail twitched and she hoped.


OOC:

11:41, Today: Miss Cuddles rolled 2 evens using 4d6 with the Advantage system with rolls of 3, 3, 4, 2.  release chains.

The boy thinks for a moment, then says, hesitantly.  "I live in The City.  There's a hospital there, and a doctor."  He closes his mouth tightly, and his brow furrows above the black mask.  Then, "She's a... a... pee-dio-tricity.  My mum and dad took me to see her last year when I was sick.  But it's a different doctor who talks to them now.  A man.  Maybe he's at the hospital."

"Never been to the hospital before.  Only seen it from the school bus.  It's a big place, with a helicopter."

"What's happening?"

What's happening, in fact, is that the cuff attached to the chain securing his remaining arm is unfastening itself.  The nut and bolt that hold it closed it are slowly turning in opposite directions, with a faint creaking, scraping sound...

Miss Cuddles' purring gets louder as she sees that the chain is beginning to unfasten itself.  She rubs her head gently against the boy's side, being careful not to jostle any of the feathers that are sticking into him.

"The chain around your arm is unfastening itself," she said softly to the child, "Stay calm for a little while longer.  We will get you free."

Sunny whole being rebelled at the situation. He trusted the boy not one whit. He slowly raised to his feet and moved down the scree and rubble to look around the city. He did not speak and he kept the headphones on, so he had no idea what was being said. He eyed the fried boggin and then the pile burying the other. Tails were rather remarkable things really. Sunny used far more mundane cat tricks, he walked quietly. The kind of quiet that let you sneak up on birds and and mice unawares.

If the boy truly could not see, he did not want the boy to know he was here. He looked at the others and, by their faces and body movement, suspected they were listening when they should not be.

23:25, Today: Sunny rolled 2 evens using 3d6 with the Advantage system with rolls of 4, 5, 2.  Legs, Quiet.

As quietly as he could, he tried to get the others' attentions, motion to his headphones, and then motion away from the boy.

"Just hold up a moment, old chum," Sir Percy says to Joey. "We'll bright with you, never fear."

He then goes to attend to Sunny.

Midnight too keeps going when he sees he won't be the only one.  Boy or not, it's still the mad god and probably a boggin in disguise.

Mister Pig does not follow the others as they move away.  He's a cat, and it is his duty to protect humans.  Doubly so children (though this part may be just his opinion).

He sniffs at the black substance over the eyes.  It seems to be dry and inflexible.  In fact, now that he looks, he can see that the substance is flaking and cracked on the arm.  He leans forward and bites at the covering, breaking away a large piece, which crumbles into a number of smaller ones as he pulls it away from the boy's face.  There is a blue eye below the brittle shell, which blinks furiously when exposed to the light.

"I can see!  They told me I was blinded!" yells Joey.  And then the eye is blinking again, but this time it is to clear away tears.

The chain falls from his wrist and he lifts his hand, a tad clumsily, and starts peeling away the black substance from his face...

Seeing the situation unfolding, Sunny feels a fright climb his flanks. Still, Mister Pig is there and Sunny would not abandon his allies. Those he cared for was a much smaller circle than that of other cats, but he cared just as fiercely. Thus, as he glanced between a nearby nice hiding spot and his ally, Sunny hesitated. The sound of crunching bird bones in his mind could not even soothe him.

Dancer, curious as to what Rumbler wanted, followed the other cat away from the child -- Dreamcatcher and Katerina Auguste appeared to have things well in hand there anyway.

Finally, at what felt like a safe distance, that curiosity got the better of him.  Hopefully it wouldn't kill him.

"What is it Rumbler?" he purred.

Clearing the cover from his eyes, Joey sits up and looks around.  Then he starts to laugh and, while there are still slight traces of the insane laughter that the cats had heard earlier, there is much less of that, and more of the pure joy of a child.

"You're all cats!" he says, and falls flat on his back, laughing uproariously.

"We are cats, Joey. Cats in dreams are very natural, young-friend, and we're always here to help." Bones felt immense relief to see Joey coming back to himself now, and trotted close to the boy as he laughed.

"Well, did you expect us to be dogs?" Sir Percy says. "Pshaw! Imagine dogs trying to save someone. Their idea of helping is running off to find a human to bark at."

He strokes against Joey's foot.

"Now, this will sting just a bit," he says. "But it may provide some necessary help with your case later on."

He bites Joey in the ankle, gently but firmly, marking the lad for later finding. It should be possible - keeping track of people and making sure they aren't in trouble is, after all, what he does!

07:47, Today: Milk-Whiskers rolled 5 evens using 6d6 with the Advantage system.  Tail 4 + Friend to All 2.

Mister Pig watches Sir Percy marking the boy.  Joey just looks at his ankle curiously.  Then Dreamcatcher asks, "Joey?  Can you stand up?  Are you strong enough?"

The child struggles a bit, but he manages to push himself to his feet, and stands there, swaying.  He still has his ankles chained  He sniffs suddenly, "What's that smell?  Oh, I see."

The corpse of the nearest Boggin is boiling away into tendrils of black vapour.

"Smells like Frankie Seddahecker's farts." Joey comments.  "He's in my class.  Nobody likes him."

The boy does not seem to have notice that some of the cats have moved away from him.

Sunny is reluctant, but finally rubs and paws at the headphones enough to dislodge them from his head. However he was going to get them back on was another matter, "We were told rather explicitly, though by an untrustworthy source, to avoid listening to the Mad God. I get they want to help the boy, but some of us should heed the warning just in case." Sunny liked people and he loved his boy, but he did not love this boy, nor hate him, yet. His was a more cautious soul perhaps. He waited for replies to his statement.

"Hrmpf." Sir Percy inclines his head. "I suppose that is only prudent. Keep a safe distance in case we start dissolving back into the primordial ooze or something equally upsetting."

Miss Cuddles walked around the boy, looking at the chains which secured his feet, her tail twitching only slightly as she stared at the offensive restraints.


OOC:  20:29, Today: Miss Cuddles rolled 1 evens using 4d6 with the Advantage system with rolls of 1, 2, 1, 5.  release more chains.

(I don't think that's worked this time :( )

Midnight says nothing but decides to stay with Sunny, watching from what he fondly imagines to be a safe distance.

Mephistopheles considers Sunny's words, "Caution is good, yes.  But if caution causes us to leave a real Human child chained up, and in the hands of Boggins, then it is less good."

"We should not judge him unless he does something to earn judgement, and we have not seen him do any such thing.  From what he said, the Boggins have tormented him, lied to him, and forced him to do bad things.  From his own words, he may be asleep in the real world, and unable to wake up.  If we leave him here, then more Boggins might find him, and do the same, or worse."

Trotting back to his friends for a moment, Bones offered his opinion. "We might...bring or send him somewhere with more cats, if we can get many cats to agree to defend the boy from Boggins." He was clearly enthusiastic about helping the child.