maskormenacelogs | [ open ] operation: baby sea turtle rescue is a go!

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[ open ] operation: baby sea turtle rescue is a go!

WHO: ALL IMPORTS.
WHERE: An Atlantic-facing beach in Eastern Florida.
WHEN: Saturday - Monday
WHAT: Baby leatherback sea-turtles have been stunned by the temperatures of the water at their hatching beach, and must be rounded up in their thousands to be relocated to warmer waters, either to struggle out through the surf on their own, or to be boated out and released directly into the sea!
WARNINGS: ... How can this log have warnings ImPorts rescue baby sea turtles! More information located here.

The long stretch of beach the ImPorts find themselves on is littered with baskets, coolers, styrofoam containers, anything the rescue workers could use to hold the baby sea turtles for transit. Dozens of nests have all emptied of turtles, and gulls roam overhead, looking for opportunities to snatch the stunned baby sea turtles tumbling around in the waves. The shock of the unexpected temperature on their tiny systems renders them incapable of moving, and ImPorts will soon find themselves ushered to the water line to grab tiny, tumbling turtles out of the water.

When enough are collected, a portion of the volunteers and ImPorts are pulled aside to ride with the baby turtles down the coastline to warmer waters, where they'll either be asked to cart the containers down to the waterline to release the baby sea turtles and watch that they don't end up shocked all over again, or instructed to go out to sea on any of the chartered or volunteer-driven boats and release the sea turtles directly into the warmer ocean waters.

Water and lunches will be provided, dinner is haphazard, come as you go. Bright search floodlights are set up on Saturday night so that collection rescue efforts can continue without much interruption. If the same is needed on Sunday night, it will be provided.

For some ImPorts, this will be the first time their arrival isn't treated with great fanfare. People with abilities that assist in the collection and redistribution of the baby sea turtles will get relieved displays of gratitude from attending volunteers and any press drawn to the scene, but much of the fervency seen elsewhere will be largely absent.

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[ As adorable as the baby turtles are, April is not personally handling them. That task is reserved for her raccoon army, each one of which is wielding a toy, brightly colored plastic bucket that they used to scoop and transport to the waiting cars. April herself is busy wielding her other gift: the power of tacos. Firing magically from her hands at the speed of a 30 mph, she is aiming at the swooping sea gulls (and, indirectly, covering much of the area around her in tacos). It's a two pronged attack, both stunning a seagull for a moment and giving them something else to eat while the turtles are whisked away.

It's not often she does the hero gig, but for the animals she can lend a hand. And laugh slightly maniacally in the mean time.]

Ten points!

[Mabel pauses to watch a seagull get stunned by a flying taco, clapping appreciatively. The line of pigs following behind her, each carrying a basket of turtles strapped to their backs, also stops to watch the bird carnage (and maybe chow down on a few tacos themselves).]

That was great!

[ April takes a quick, mock-curtsy at the applause. Then shoots another seagull that's trying to go after a taco one of the pigs had already claimed. ]

Nice minions.

[The pig oinks in gratitude around its taco.]

Thanks! They're not minions, though, they're friends. And I'm pretty sure they think your power is the best! Can you just do tacos or does the food ever change? Like daily specials!

It's all friends and games until the food money runs out.

[ She shoots at another seagull without really aiming, missing the animal entirely. Luckily, it still loves a free meal and squawks off after the taco. ]

But it's just the tacos. The porter's totally racist or just knows amazing food or something.

If it had to pick just one food then tacos are a pretty good choice! [She watches the gull go after the taco.] And they're really aerodynamic.

The raccoons are yours too, right? They're good at this. Like they were born to be a turtle rescue squad!

Thanks.

[ It's all things she agrees with. And she does admire the pigs. But small children...that's a whole new area for April ]

You never made capes for them. The pigs.

[This is the sigh of someone who has tried so, so hard to make capes for pigs.]

I know! It's their necks. It's not so bad when it's a little suit or a sweater but capes don't stay on like they should! It's especially bad when they transform. Things get all tangled.

They change into different pigs?

[ Or was it teapots or something? April has long ago lost track of what exactly everyone in this place can do. ]

Nope! Into different things like trampolines and golf carts and fans. [As she lists the items and ticks them off her fingers, the pigs wander off to deposit their turtle cargo, taking a couple stray tacos for the short journey.]

(no subject)

aggressiveapathy - 2014-10-06 01:04 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

glitterateur - 2014-10-06 14:46 (UTC) - Expand

Are they yours?

[ Annie is walking back toward one of the vans loading up the baby turtles for transport when she hits the section of beach where April is... running a raccoon and taco circus. It's enough to make her stop and stare, open her mouth, then finally identify the critters responsible for having delivered something to her a while back. ]

The raccoons, I mean.

Depends what they did.

[ She says this as one of the raccoons, looking for a quick snack, crawls up her leg and starts tugging at her shirt.

Not that that changes her answer. She stares back with calmly, waiting to hear if they'd tried to hijack the car or something before claiming responsibility. ]

Delivered shirts.

[ Mor eexpensive ones than she'd realized at the time.

... Not so nefarious, in the scheme of things. Annie watches one scaling the other woman, blinking once to denote her general surprise, but otherwise... also calm. Raccoons were clearly supposed to run around shoving turtles in buckets. How natural. (Not that Annie actually knows. She's only seen raccoons in dumpsters and once, out in the woods.) ]

...They were probably on loan.

[ Because she does that, from time to time. Though in the last few weeks, she could count the number of people with access to her hoard on one hand. ]

Who did it?

Will Graham.

[ Nonchalant - Annie doesn't care, and doesn't do more than make a mental note of the connection. Who knows to what degree? Not her business, not her concern. ]

They're efficient workers.

[ April nods. Of course. He's one of the few that actually use her minions for good instead of chaos. ]

Thanks. They have to earn their keep somehow. Do you know how expensive twenty raccoon sized sweaters are in the winter?

I suppose it'd depend on the dye you want for the wool.

[ is she seriously responding? or is she not? it's difficult to tell. far too calmly delivered either way. ]

Neon green and teal, obviously. It goes with their eyes.

[ She can play this serious or not game all day. And let the raccoons continue to do the work. ]

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lyingheart - 2014-10-06 02:37 (UTC) - Expand

[ Hahaha, yeah, the gulls can eat the tacos if they get to them before Ace. April is firing food into the air, no one should be surprised by what happens next. He bounds in out of the blue, chasing after the projectile taco.

A gull dives for it.

A husky leaps after.

There's a midair collision, but Ace, with more mass and more teeth is triumphant. The gull wheels away squawking, while Ace, once he lands, turns and trots back over to April, taco in mouth, tail wagging wildly. Look, look, he got back what you threw, April, look.

Please, please say he can eat it, please... ]

God, fine.

[ It got the job done, anyway, even if it ends in April rolling her eyes. Eat, Ace. Eat all the taco you want.]

I have these all day everyday, you know.

[ He has something to say about that, but first, taco. He holds it low to the beach to minimize the distance between his face and whatever might fall out when he starts crunching away on it. Ultimately, he makes very short work of it.

Then he'll look up, licking crumbs off his chops. ]

But these ones were airborne. That makes it completely different.

You really wanna play fetch?

[ God, Ace. You are the best roommate, and her amused tone implies that. Or at least covers the fact she's down for keeping this game up for as long as it's entertaining. ]

How fast can you run?

Yes!

[ April said the magic word.

Fetch, fetch, yes, please play fetch with him (with food, even, this is suddenly the best day ever). He can't help but bounce, hopping back a few paces and then bowing down in that playful way the dogs are wont to do, his forepaws pushing deep through the top layer of sand. ]

I can run pretty fast! Not super fast, but fast enough!

Okay, boy. Here we go.

[ She's still aiming around the general area of seagulls, so when Ace goes running he will be scattering them anyway. The first taco gets shot at an easy mode level of 10 miles an hour, a few meters above the ground.

Go get it. ]

[ And he's off!

He dashes across the sand, kicking up, uh, sand, more sand, and the occasional poor unfortunate baby leatherback turtle in his pursuit of the taco. As it finishes its arc through the sky and begins hurtling towards the beach, a gull dives. Too bad Ace is already there, leaping with a hell of a lot more force than a normal dog should be capable of. He goes pretty high up, snatching the taco right out of the air and all but actually knocking the poor bird out of the sky.

Then he twists about and lands, taking a second or two to figure out his surroundings before turning to trot back to April, food intact for the time being.

Fetch taco first, eat after, that's how the game works, okay? ]

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