Shopping Trip and Elevators

[dog_of_mishap]

Vext distrusted elevators. There were too many things that could go wrong. But it was the fastest way to get up to the seventh floor where the men's clothing was. He couldn't understand why there were so many floors dedicated to women's clothing but only one to men's.

Watching people go in and out of the elevator for a moment, he took a deep breath and stepped inside, pushing the button for floor number seven.

Comments

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Climb! I'll carry Inky out."

But as they begin to climb down, the elevator drops a foot, and swings precariously.

"We have to get out of this shaft before that thing falls..."

He reaches for the elevator door of the next floor and begins to pry the doors open...

...even as the elevator begins to creak...

[dog-of-mishap.livejournal.com]

It can't actually be said that Vext climbs through the doors so much as splats. As he steps through, he trips on his shoelace and falls flat on his face.

Looking up he sees a macaw staring down at him.

"Hello?" the bird asks in its screechy voice.

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

The chimp has less time. As the chimp hears the elevator's cord snap, he's already in motion, swinging (with a large squid wrapped frantically around his head and body) in through the open doors just as the elevator drops down, narrowly missing the primate and mollusk.

His hands, however, are wet with ink and water, and what should be a graceful leap turns into a spinning, flailing, tentacled mess through the air, past several animal cages, and directly into one labeled, "Quarantine - fleas."

There's a crunch of chimpanzee on wire mesh.

[dog-of-mishap.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear," Vext says as he gets to his feet. Hobbling, he hurt his knee in the fall, he goes over to the chimp and squid. "Are you all right?"

He means both of them, of course.

"All right?" the macaw repeats, wings stretching in its cage.

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He looks up at Vext, a dark expression on his simian face, a squid clinging tightly to his body and peering from the top of his head.

"I. Have. Fleas. Now."

He gets to his feet.

"I'm never riding an elevator again."

"Again!" the macaw squawks, flapping its wings, then returning to its perching posture.