Another Rainy Day

Hey Kid laughs as Mr. Boggs joins in the crab dance. As Sal sings his crab song, the devil child shimmies and skitters around the lobby, moving in circles around Mr. Boggs. They dart in between the businessman's legs, avoiding being sprinkled upon by his permanent rain cloud. At the end of the dance, Hey Kid gets back to their feet and cheers.

"Yay! You were so good, Mr. Boggs! Can we play like this all the time?!?" The child grins excitedly.

"What's the next game?"

At the end of the crab dance Gertrude finishes by doing a cartwheel across the living room floor! She grins as she shows off the skill then she jumps onto a couch. From on top of the couch she looks to Hey Kid, "Oh no! The floor is Lava! We have to get around the living room without touching the floor."

She jumps from the couch to a chair showing Hey Kid how the game is played. She’s actually having fun now, it’s been a long time since she’s just played around and had fun like this.

Mr. Boggs lays on the floor, flat on his back, panting heavily. To Hey Kid's question, Mr. Boggs manages to raise his hand with a thumbs up gesture. He is quite unclear why he has done this as he fully plans to do nothing more strenuous than Sudoku for the rest of his life. The mist from his rain cloud is pleasantly cool on his face. Then Gertrude announces that the floor is lava. Unlike Gertrude, Mr. Boggs does not so much leap as laboriously struggle into a chair for the next phase of game playing.

Rain usually kept the rabbits who lived in the garden who wear little outfits out of Yazeba's house proper--unfortunately, they had been there when the rain began, and very quickly it had become too muddy for them to venture back to their warren.

"I believe if we can get some ziplock bags from Parish, we may be able to fashion umbrellas out of them," Colonel said, his furry jowls wobbling as he spoke. He was decked out in a lovely floral shirt, but held none of the cheer of those sunflowers on this rainy day.

"That won't help with all the mud, though, Colonel," said Poppet. She looked down at her own paws and the patches of white that would be absolutely ruined by trudging through the grass in this weather, not to mention her lovely white pleated skirt. "I concur," said Vespa. She was scratching her ear with her back paw and hardly paying any attention, but an agreement was an agreement, so Poppet would take it.

"Right then, what do you suggest we do, if my suggestion is no good?" Colonel said. "If you are to shout down my suggestions, I'd like to hear some alternatives!"

"Now, now, Col, there's no need to lose your wick," Shiela said sweetly. She placed a paw on Colonel's shoulder. "Why don't we--"

But whatever Shiela was about to suggest, they were never to find out, because of the absolute ruckus coming from the lobby.

"What the devil was that?" Colonel asked. Poppet and Shiela could only shrug, and finally Vespa looked up from her scratching.

Shiela hopped a few steps down the hall. "I think--why, I think they are pretending the floor is lava!"

"Oooh, I want to play!" Vespa cried, and took off towards the lobby. "I do admit, that sounds rather fun," said Colonel, following her. Poppet and Shiela looked about themselves and, with a good-natured shrug, followed behind, their plans for travelling back to the warren forgotten.

"The floor is most certainly not lava." Amelie says, crossing their arms.

They are staring at the floor and are certain it's composition hasn't changed. There, in the lobby, the floor is hard wood. They would know, considering they sweep it every day. It both looks like it usually does, and has the same consistency. Still, however, everyone seems to be avoiding it which only confuses them further. They look between the people clambering over objects and the still normal floor.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't break anything." They said, at a loss for anything else to say. "And that includes yourselves."

The more they looked, the more they felt left out. The feeling wasn't a usual one for them, in these circumstances, yet everyone made it so much harder for them to do them to do their job and clean the lobby. Without anything else to do, they contemplated powering down, but something stopped them. They couldn't join in, either, so they had to stand there and watch, confused.

If the floor had become lava, surely the furniture would melt too. They thought.

"Wow! Awesome cartwheel, Gertie!" Hey Kid cries, surprised by the teenager's acrobatic display. Ignoring Amelie's droning commentary, the devilish child laughs and hops around on the furniture, because The Floor is Lava and you shouldn't touch it!

When the Rabbits in the Garden Who Wear Little Outfits appear, Hey Kid shouts to them, "Watch out, Rabbits! The Floor is Lava!" They continue to bounce from chair to sofa to table, laughing all the while. They don't notice as their body begins to glow red with the excitement of the game.

Suddenly, Hey Kid's body bursts into flames! The overstuffed upholstery of the chair they are standing on ignites, going up into flames. "Oops! Hehe, sorry about that! Now The Floor is Lava, and The Chair is On Fire!!! Hehe!" They giggle as the furniture burns.

Mr. Boggs finallycatches his breath and settles in to watch the leaping about when the chair suddenly goes up in flames. All traces of lethargy gone, Boggs scoops up his umbrella from the floor and snaps it open. "Don't worry. I've trained for this." He announces to the room. He flips a switch on his umbrella and little flaps of cloth stick up from the surface. Twirling the umbrella, he catches the water from his rain cloud and it spirals off in a stream directed at the base of the fire. He knew those specialty drills at work would pay off someday and this was his moment! Next step in the drill is to clear the area preferably to somewhere non-flammable. Ah, the basement! "Hey Kid, while I'm taking care of this, why don't you show everyone your new trick for sliding down the stairs?" Somehow, in the middle of all this chaos, Mr. Boggs is smiling.

"Wow, you're full of fun ideas, Mr. Boggs!" Hey Kid exclaims. "Come on, Gertie! Come on, Rabbits! Let's slide!" They dart about the bed and breakfast, grabbing blankets for everybody, before leading the way up the stairs.

"Here we gooooo!" Hey Kid shouts as they slide down the stairs, headfirst! They crash into and end table, knocking over a lamp, laughing all the while!

Gertrude has really gotten into the swing of things now. She slides down the stairs and collides with Poppet on the bottom. "Oh no! Poppet are you okay?" She couldn't help herself and tried to pick Poppet up and care for the cute fuzzy rabbit. She was just the most adorable thing ever!

While she was attempting to hold Poppet and care for her she added, "Don't forget to behave inside too rabbits. We don't want a repeat of last time when Colonel got sick after raiding the crisper in the refrigerator."

Percy the lava elemental is in the kitchens decorating a cake when the commotion begins, his bulky body pressed between the fridge and prep table as he carefully squeezes a bag of icing onto an undecorated cake. It's not his job or anything - in fact, Yazeba explicitly doesn't trust him near the food since the time he accidentally lit an entire rack of cakes on fire. Still, he wants to give baking a go and he won't let his clumsy body stop him! Probably. Unless it's inconvenient for the people who actually belong here.

The crash of Hey Kid knocking over a lamp startles Percy. The temperature of his body flares and his icing bag, cake, and a small bit of the fridge light on fire. "Just as I thought," he says to himself sadly before going to check out the commotion.

"Oh, hello Hey Kid. Gertrude. Poppet. What are you doing?"

"Percy! Hello!" Hey Kid shouts, waving up at the much larger lava elemental. "It's raining too hard to have fun playing outside, but we're having lots of fun playing INSIDE! Gertrude and Mr. Boggs have shown me lots of awesome games to play indoors. Do you want to join us? What game would you like to play?!?"

Amalie watched the entirety of the dance and the floor is lava situation after. They notice Mr Boggs put out the flames, and politely thank them before setting about cleaning up the aftermath. Along with all the various knocked over things. They don't notice when Hey Kid rushes off to slide down the stairs, though they hear the table being knocked over. If a robot could wince, that was what they did. They practically shivered, and sighed with static.

"More work for Amalie." They shrugged, and made an apologetic gesture to Mr Boggs while she searched for something to mop up his rain. "I'm sorry you had to go through all this."

They were about to mention that Hey Kid wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't been cooped up all day, but then something occurred to them. To no one at all, they mused the thought out loud. "At least they're not tracking mud everywhere, I should cut them some slack."

Percy carefully hangs up his singed apron and puffy chef's hat, then squeezes his bulky body through the doorframe as carefully as possible. "Games? Oh, I'm not sure I know any." He shifts his weight nervously. "I'm a little... big for indoor games. Sorry," he apologizes while gesturing at himself: at 7 feet tall, Percy has to stoop to go through doorways (except the door leading to his room. That door is inexplicably exactly the right size and fireproof to boot). A single one of his hands dwarfs the average human's head.

He pauses awkwardly, torn between his desire to be included and his urge to make an excuse to leave so as not to be a bother. In the end, curiosity wins: "But maybe if the next game you play isn't too complicated... or fast... and doesn't require much in the way of manual dexterity... then I can figure out how to join." He peers hopefully at Gertrude and the rabbits in the garden who wear little outfits. A panicked expression flashes red-hot across his face. "Unless that's too much to ask!"

Mr. Boggs lowers his umbrella now that the fire was out and Amalie was on hand. "No need to apologize. I find it good to be found useful." He looks over towards the sound of breaking furniture. "Besides, I sympathize with those that have been stuck inside with the same old routines." His gaze shifts back to Amalie. "Sometimes you just have to try something new."

"Of course, Percy! Join us!" Hey Kid says with a grin. They turn towards everybody else. "I've still got some more energy to burn off. Somebody think of a game before I start bouncing off the walls again!"

After Colonel had gotten over his mild embarrassment of having his crisper drawer raids publicised, the rabbits turned to watch Percy coming through the door.

Collectively, all the rabbits twitched their little noses, thinking about a game that they, small as they were, could play along with Percy, who towered over them--even Vespa, who was the tallest of them. Vespa, especially, did not want to leave Percy out of the games. Everyone deserved to have some fun!

But, oblivious to all that, Colonel said, "You know, when I was a young bun, I was quite fond of jumping over a stick! You start with it on the ground, and then you gradually raise it, seeing who can jump the highest!"

"Oh, that game is quite splendid," Shiela said, happily. "Though...I'm not sure that'll be much good to someone as tall as Percy when we're stuck inside!"

Poppet sprang up, hopping a few times in excitement. "Wait! I've got it! We'll play Grandmother's Footsteps. Percy, you close you eyes and turn around. We have to try and sneak up on you. When you think you hear someone moving, you turn around and open your eyes, and we have to try and freeze! If you catch any of us moving, then we're out! If we use the hallway, we'll have plenty of space to try and reach you!

"Hooray! That sounds like a GREAT game!" Hey Kid cheers. "I'm gonna be so super-duper sneaky!"

Gertrude was very happy to see tha Poppet was okay. The little bunny was just so adorable and Gertrude sort of wanted to keep petting her but, it seemed that the bunny was just not the sort. Instead Poppet thought up another fun game they could all play! She smiles happily and says aloud, "That’s a great idea. You are the sweetest, smartest, and most adorable bunnies ever.

Gertrude blushes brightly after the sweet compliment and decides to try and keep her mouth shut for the game. Looking over at Hey Kid she says, I don’t know, maybe I am sneakier than you. Let’s find out!

A slow smile splits Percy's face. "That sounds like a good game," he says. "And I know how to make it even more interesting!" Percy's eyes glow with concentration as he places his palms together and presses. The temperature in the hallway ratchets up a few degrees until he opens his palms, revealing a freshly made green greenstone. "The winner gets this!" he proclaims. "It's just a little gem, but I hope you like it."

Percy gently places the gem on the ground, then turns away from the group. "Please go to the far side of the hallway," he requests. He gives everyone a few moments to rush over, their eager footsteps not yet soft and careful. "Ready? Go!"

"It's beautiful!" Hey Kid declares, eyes sparkling.

When the game begins, they do their best to creep quietly forward while Percy's back is turned, then freeze whenever he turns around. They really do try to be patient, but the thought of claiming the glittering prize erodes at their patience.

After only a minute or so, when Percy turns his back once more, Hey Kid breaks into a run! They zip forward at blazing speed, nearly colliding with the hulking lava elemental! "Yay! I'm first! Did I win? Did I? Did I?"