A human was sitting in the park softly weeping, they'd had a very bad day. But it's hard to stay sad when kitties and Skitties crawl in one's lap and start purring. -- Anon Guest
The straw often gets the blame for the breaking of the camel's back. Metaphorically speaking. It is not the straw, but rather its addition to weights already in excess of what the camel can handle. One last drop of rain does not cause the dam to burst. It's all the rest of the water threatening its integrity.
So too, when the vendor was out of soft-serve, Human Bor had had enough of their day.
It wasn't even noon, yet.
Rather than make a scene about ice cream, he turned from the counter and marched straight into the lushest green of the nearby park gardens. Looking for somewhere to -hopefully- quietly have a meltdown.
It was not about the ice cream. It was about the lengthy and tiring chain of malevolent synchronicity that preceded the lack of ice cream. In fact, Human Bor had been seeking it as a conciliatory treat after such an exasperating day.
It's not true that nobody can hear you scream in space. Screaming requires atmosphere, and in the spaces with atmosphere, sound carries. Which, in turn, disturbs the Havenworlders and that sort of trouble was deemed unnecessary in Bor's mind. So, in lieu of screaming, he sat in a little grove and tried to breathe his problems away.
It was... semi-successful.
It succeeded in that he didn't scream. It also did not prevent his emotions from spilling out by other means. Such as tears and trembling.
"...mew?"
A tiny Skitty, barely past needing its mother, had found him. Criminally small, the feline approached with all the confidence a kitten could ever have.
Bor managed, "Hello, li'l baby..."
Which seemed to be the cue for a cluster of tiny Skittens to emerge from the undergrowth and overwhelm him. An adult one, presumably one of the mothers, was dragging a half-grown whelp in the same direction.
Bor's crossed legs soon became a carpet of Skitties and Skittens. Purring, grooming each other, catching each other's tails. Some kneaded their claws into his clothes or the flesh underneath. They all submitted to his careful touch.
It was very hard to be sad with a lap overflowing with cats. But it also lead to the next problem.
How to move on without waking any of them up.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / tomwang]
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