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

[lyingheart]

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.

Comments

[yatagarasu]

Nope, I can just talk to them and they obey me. [Kay shrugs nonchalantly. This is no longer a big deal for her.]

[khajidont]

So that's the power they gave you? The power to control crows?

[That's a new one. It's nothing he would think would ever come in handy, but... Kay certainly seems to have figured out a couple uses for it.]

[yatagarasu]

Ding ding, we have a winner! [She makes a gesture as if ringing a bell in one hand, while keeping a firm grip on her basket with the other.]

It's harder when I have to keep an entire flock in check, though. Or as some call it, an entire murder.

Sorry for the late tag! Somehow this got lost in my inbox

[khajidont]

So - wait. Wait a second, do you room with a guy named Bart? About this high - [he holds one hand out to indicate someone considerably shorter than him] - talks really fast, eats a lot?

It's okay, things get lost in my inbox too wahaha

[yatagarasu]

[Kay nods.]

Tried to hide the remote control on his first day here? Yup. [One crow alights on her shoulder and begins to preen while the other crows continue shooing seagulls away.]

[khajidont]

So the crows were yours! [Is that him? Is that crow on her shoulder That Beady Eyed Asshole that bit him? Jaime can't tell; all crows look alike, right?] Did you tell them to terrorize him in return for the remote theft, or are they just naturally bitey? We spent, like, fifteen minutes trying to lure them outta his - your - living room.

[yatagarasu]

[She shakes her head; if her hands weren't full of turtle basket, she would have raised them in surrender.]

What? No! They just get...bored, and really tricky. I'm trying to control them a bit more.

[khajidont]

So they were just bored? Huh. [He crosses his arms, thinking back on it.] They got him pretty frazzled, but I dunno how you stop crows from getting bored. Daily... walks?

[He has the ludicrous image of a dozen crows on a leash, which, while amusing, probably isn't the most logical idea in the world.]

[yatagarasu]

[Kay laughs. She's got that exact mental image too.]

They don't need walking, they've got the entire sky to themselves! And...pretty much whatever city they land in. I have some toys for them and I tell them about places where they can mess around without hurting anyone, but I should probably start thinking of games.

[khajidont]

Do me a favour and make sure one of those games isn't Nibbling On Bart's Fingers. [He looks over towards the ocean, yanking a little at his shorts - thoroughly soaked at the bottoms - and considers the amount of little guys they still have left to save.] You could get them to, like, fetch things for you. That'd keep them busy.

[yatagarasu]

Don't worry, that can be arranged. [She grins and raises a hand to give a thumbs-up.] And they actually do more fetching than I want them to, so I'm working on that too.

[khajidont]

[He raises a brow at her, mouth twisting into a smirk.] That so? What kind of fetching would that be? Like, shiny junk and stuff, or what?

[yatagarasu]

Exactly that kind of fetching. [She puts down the basket to pick up two baby turtles at the same time.]

[khajidont]

[Jaime follows her lead, wading out a little further to scoop up a couple more of the little guys, laughing a little as one of them impotently attempts to nibble on his finger.]

Well, it could be worse. They could do the thing they always do in cartoons and, like, steal old dudes' toupees. How much crap have they gotten you into?

[yatagarasu]

...Quite a bit, but thankfully I'm not swamped by angry phone calls and messages.

[Actually, if they stole old dudes' toupees, Kay would laugh and approve before sheepishly handing those toupees back.

She kneels in front of the basket for a while, watching all the turtles inside.]