[Game Thread] Chapter 1 - Market Day (CLOSED)

Everything happens at once.

Apple Tart and Rasputin both try to talk to the fleeing racoon, but it mostly comes across as yelling. To Jim, it comes across as yowling and hissing, which seems to send him into a bit of a panic.

Mr. Bigfoot gives the racoon a solid thump, causing him to tumble. It keeps him from dashing off, but unfortunately sends him sliding through Jim's legs. Middie manages to jump free of Jim's arms and land between Mr. Bigfoot and the now slightly stunned racoon, but in the chaos, Jim stumbles backwards. He falls through one of the doorways in the hall, landing on his back.

"What the...?" Jim says, somewhat dazed. "Why is there a hole in the ceiling?"

For a moment, the chaos takes a pause. The racoon is coming to its senses. Jim is on his back, apparently looking at the ceiling in the side room.

What do you do?

The racoon surveys the situation one more time, then darts down the stairs. Shortly thereafter, you all hear Jane's voice. "What ...!? Oh my! You need to get back outside, sir." The next thing you hear is the sound of racoon nails scrambling on the hardwood floors follows, followed by Jane's own footsteps. Then comes the faint but familiar sound of the rear screen door opening and closing. Unless your ears deceive you, the panicked visitor has made it back outside.

Meanwhile, Jim is still laying on his back, looking at the ceiling in his study. When you follow his gaze, you see a hole torn in the ceiling, straight through to the attic. Sheetrock debris is scattered around on the floor underneath. "I guess that's where our racon friend came in," Jim says. "Must be another hole into the attic from outside." Then he sighs. "We can't have a restaurant where wild animals can just come and go," he continues as he sits up. "I guess Market Day's over, fellas. I need to fix this ASAP."

At about that time, Jane arrives at the top of the stairs. "Everyone ok?" she asks, maybe to you, maybe to Jim, or maybe both. She surveys all the cats. "That was quite the adventure, huh?"

"I'm afraid it's not over yet," Jim replies. He points towards the hole in the ceiling. "I need to patch things up so this doesn't happen again. I think there's still enough daylight for me to run to the hardware store and at least get a board to nail up the outside hole temporarily."

From downstairs, another voice calls up. It's Apple Tart's owner. "Hey! You two okay up there? Need any help?" Then, before Jim and Jane can answer, he says. "Did you know your oven door's open? Did you move the chicken?"

With the racoon out of the house, the urgency subsides, but there is still a fair bit of chaos. There's a hole in the study ceiling that leads to another hole on the side of the house. Jim seems intent on fixing that immediately. There's a lot of conversation between the two of them and Henry that apparently ends with the decision that Jim and Henry will go to the hardware store to get some things to fix one or both of the holes. Jane will be staying behind with all of you.

But that's all small stuff. The really bad part is that someone stole the chicken! When you all came downstairs, you saw that the oven door was open. But there was no chicken inside. This lead to more discussion about how that could possibly be true. Jim insisted that the racoon must have taken it. Jane says she saw the racoon leave, and he had no chicken. The important part of the story, of course, is that there is no chicken. Jane offers all of you some tuna from a can, and that's pretty good as snacks go. But it's not that good-smelling chicken.

Jim and Henry drive off shortly thereafter, leaving all of you to finish your tuna while Jane cleans up around the kitchen.

---

It's been a while since the racoon incident. Jane cleaned up and then went up stairs to take a bath - one of the few times she insists on no cats in the room (humans are so weird). But that was a while ago. Jim and Henry have been gone a long time too. The sun is going down, and it was pretty bright out when all the excitement happened. Something doesn't seem quite right.

As you are each in your own thoughts about this, you all start to smell something. It smells like... chicken. Only not pleasant. And it's not that the smell is different - it smells just like chicken. But for some reason you feel repulsed by the smell, and you aren't sure why.