#bergen_county

"Oh, Hearthy one is sick" Snow says , risking a wander through the grocery store, "She will need the fruits!" It can be dangerous for a chimera to wander to such places as grocery stores, so many mortals often have cold ones. But Snow has a mission! Yes yes yes!

Fruits, Snow knows, are the best thing for sickness

they are also the best thing for healthiness!

But first.. "I must find the right fruit" Her eyes light up as she sees for the first time just what 'fruits at a grocery store' means! "Oh, oh..."

"I must find the right fruit, but how will I know which one is best?" She hmmmms, then "Think Snow, Think. HOw is best way to..." She taps her own head, "I must taste them myself, of course! Oh my belly has such good ideas! Clever belly."

To mortal eyes, it might seem that someone has pinched a banana off a bunch, an orange has rolled from a pile, and apple group is missing one...

"Good! But must try this one to be sure" She munches. Snow had not realized how quests to help could be do tasty! No wonder Dagmar Friend likes them.

Jimmy walks by, and steals a fruit, more out of habit, and keeps going.

Snow watches him go by, "I like him. He understands fruit" A frown "But he did not offer to share with me. Oh , it must be sad to be selfish." She crunches an apple feeling sorry for the Piskie

Snow goes back to eating. She cannot believe how much FRUIT there is here. Just for the taking.

Not that she takes per se, she just loves fruit, and love should be expressed!

That's when the shot gun goes off, narrowly missing her tail! "EEEP!" Snow jumps in time to dodge the second chimeric shot!

"Listen up!" A melodramatic deep and yet oddly metalic voice says "You little primitive Peach Plucker! This is my BOOMSTICK!"

Snow turns to see another Chimera...

An anthropomorphic soup can with arms and legs (Though one of the arms has what appears to be a metalic hand), and in it's good hand it carries a chimerical shotgun with the word 'groovy' etched on it. Somehow, the Can has a spectacular jawline and chin, resembling a certain actor from Evil Dead Movies

"Would.. .would you like some fruit? " Snow eeps "Mister..."

"Bruce Campbell's Soup!" Needless cock chick sound, "Put down the orange, Fuzzbutt"

Snow looks down at the orange in her hand.

"Listen sister, did you hear me?" Bruce Campbell's Soup points at her, "It's the fruit or your life"

Snow fusses, "Snow is thinking about it! Give me time!"

Suddenly, this standoff is interrupted by a RUCKUS. A small boy who had followed a certain chimera when she traveled past her normal rounds and out to somewhere new... who had been lurking out of view behind an endcap of paper towels - is now a dog loose in the grocery store! He tears ass down the fruit aisle, upsetting a stand of pineapples to tumble to the floor, before Snow has to make a Life or Death... no, worse, Fruit or Death decision.

The Grocery Guardian, born of dreams of hard working wage slave stock guys and baggers both, turns at the new commotion "What in the name of a played out Franchises is this?"

Buddy plants his furry body in front of Snow, and takes a protective stance. The mortals see the pup squaring up and barking threateningly at... something? Nothing? A can of soup fallen from a cart?

Snow hears the bark, and realizes someone has placed them selves in danger for a noble calling, to save the fruit! Can she do any less? Grabbing not just the apple but a bunch of bananas she races for the door.

"I've shot cute before and money wasn't even involved," The Soupcan warns!

He chances a glance behind him to make sure that Snow is okay.... and spies her hightailing it to the door. Not one to do any less, he turns tail and darts after her - and will even nip at her heels if she hesitates or seems to get distracted by any other fruits. If she were smaller, or he was bigger, he might try to grab her by the scruff! Oh, to be a Big Dog like Oak!

Then he sees the monkey fleeing "Hey I... by the Anal stick of every movie censor, this is not happening on my watch! Not on my watch!" He chases after.

Darting around a cart! Through this tall man's legs! Duck, weave! Watch out for the old lady!

And suddenly, he's picked up , human hands!

"oh my, you poor thing.. what scared you so?"

Bruce Campbell Soup curses, for the unechanted woman cannot see him, and it is in hsi dream not to shoot paying customers

Old ladies that don't pay would be fair game

"Yip!" He makes a surprised sound, and squirms to try to see who has caught him! The pup is unleashed, but does bear a collar with the name Buddy...

"Buddy? " The woman reads, "Buddy. Well, hello Buddy." She's a old woman, like a million.. okay, early sixties, on the girthy side but her eyes sparkle with life behind thin glasses taht go far too down her nose. Her hair is in a bun, and she wears a casual dress at least two decades out of fashion, "Easy easy. I've got you, I wont' hurt you. I won't hurt you." She pets even as she holds. "Let's get you out of here, find out whose dog you are."

He whimpers, and shivers a bit in her grasp, even though she does look like a fairly NICE lady. Mustn't bite, that would be a Bad Dog, but she is a MUGGLE, and they are FEARSOME.

What was it that Dirk said? They would chop off his ears and put them in a stew? He laughed, but it wasn't a very funny joke...

"Shhh shhh" She says. She doesn't feel that cold for a mortal.

But that doesn't rule out ear chopping

"Lady, you can't bring your dog in here!" A pinch faced woman in her twenties, wearing an assistant Assitant manager tag declares

"Oooo-oooooo-ooooo." A forlorn sound.

"Seems I can, I just may not," The old woman says "Fine Fine. We'll go. Buddy doesn't like this place anyway, do you, Buddy?" The old woman jostles him like a baby needing comfort

He does NOT seem to like this place, no. Maybe if he had found the aisle with the snacks... but alas.

The woman checks out, in fact she gets a new lane opened for her ... and then, as she checks out, she says "I shouldn't do this, but as it's not chocolate" She pulls a powdered donut out of a bag, and offers it to him

Even as they go outside.

He had his nose buried in a fold of her dress and eyes squinched shut... but when the donut comes out, he cracks an eye open, and his nose quivers. ...trick? ...trap? ... .... maybe... just maybe... treat?

"Go ahead, it's a small one. Powdered donuts are my favorite. I know , I know, everyone else likes chocolate donuts, but powdered ones are mine. They just...they know how to roll in goodness and just be. Very zen, powdered donuts, and very tasty." She takes a small bite of the donut in her hand, a fourth, then offers him the rest "Go on, your turn."

Veeeeery slowly, he reaches out to delicately snarf the offered treat from the lady, though he ends up with a powdery nose.

It is... good!

"See? Powdered donuts make you feel better. " She smiles, and loads the groceries in a trunk, "Oh you're a big boy "She sets him in the cart, "Now, don't panic or run off. But I need both hands for a bit. My name is Mimi, that means 'religious woman' which is awkward as I'm really more of a buffet spiritual type." She pets him, then loads up the trunk still talking "When I was younger, I hated my name, but after awhile I got used to it. It's rare, at least, and rare isn't bad. Sometimes it's fun being a red dot in a march of green dots. Oh, sorry, how insensitive of me. I forgot about that color blindness issue."