I'll Show You How It's Done

[Angel]

(ooc: September 4th. Open only to Angel and Patch.)

How on earth did they expect dogs of her stature to reach the books that were higher up?

Angel's brow furrowed in annoyance and she crouched down, staring up at the books with an irritated eye, so she could try to jump up and grab a book. Granted, her method might be looked down upon by the librarian or anyone else who happened to see her. Angel intended on getting to the books by jumping up and grabbing one with her teeth, which could do some damage to the covers, but she wasn't about to bat an eye on how her attempt would be viewed. The book she wanted was high up, and no one else was around to exactly lend a paw to help her, so what other choice did she have?

A small bark followed as Angel leaped up and made an effort to grab the book in question. Of course, she wasn't nearly big enough to make the jump and missed the book by several inches. Her tactic was repeated several more times before she finally just stopped trying to jump and grab it. Her ears folded back against her head and a huff escaped her. Stupid school... Why couldn't they accommodate the smaller animals that might have been attending? She was about to turn around and walk away when an idea came to her. It was clever, at least in Angel's eyes. She'd just use the books from the lower shelf as a ladder of sorts.

So, she began to pull out book after book and stacked them one on top of the other. Soon, she had enough to qualify as a sort of tower. Angel climbed onto the pile and made another effort at reaching the book she needed for her class, but still found the pile too short.

"There's got to be a better way to do this," Angel said at length. She was so engrossed in actually trying to get the book that she didn't realize someone might have seen her tactics. The street dog in her didn't really care what others thought of her, though. If someone saw her, she wouldn't have been that surprised. ...If she was paying attention, that is.

[Patch]

He was being much more careful where he placed his paws today.

After accidentally stepping on his tie the other day, and finding it a right pain to undo afterwards as the motion had pulled the knot very tight, Patch had realised that as long as he was wearing his uniform, he needed to pay extra close attention to where he was treading if he didn't want that to happen again. It was a curse of being so small, that the tie dragged along the ground and got under his paws when he walked - but after four days, Patch figured he was mostly starting to get used to it.

He wasn't really in the library right now for any specific purpose; mostly, the dal was just looking around. No self-respecting London library would have ever admitted dogs onto its premesis, so when he had found out that no such restrictions existed here, the pup had decided to explore. There were books as far as the eye could see, and everything smelt of paper and old leather; it wasn't like anything Patch had ever encountered before, and the pup was feeling kind of in awe of it all.

Head turning left and right as he tried to drink it all in, Patch's eye was suddenly caught by an unusual sight down one of the side aisles between the booksheleves, and the pup backed up a little way. A female pomeranian clad in a similar uniform to his own - though her tie (if she was wearing one; from this angle it was hard to tell) and accessories were green - was balancing atop a tower of books. Tilting his head, Patch watched her for a moment, wondering what she was trying to acomplish. She seemed to be straining to reach something on one of the higher shelves; he thought he'd better leave her to it for a moment, before considering that if he was in that position, he'd appreciate someone else lending a paw.

"Hey... do you need some help?" he enquired, padding forward and looking inquisitively up at her. Being not much bigger than she was, Patch wasn't sure what assistance he could offer; but perhaps there was something he could do to help.

[Angel]

Finally, a miscalculated jump coupled with the surprise of hearing Patch's voice proved her undoing. Angel's paws touched down on her tie, causing her to slip, and a small yelp followed as she inadvertently toppled over from her position atop the books. It wasn't a long fall, granted, but definitely not the most graceful way of her going about getting down. A shake of her head followed and she got to her paws as though nothing had happened. At least none of the books seemed to have toppled over with her. Then, at last, she looked Patch's way.

Admittedly, Angel didn't know quite what to make of the dalmatian at first. He wasn't much bigger than she was, so getting anywhere in her task of actually getting the book she needed might not get much further, but he did look nice enough. His uniform marked him in a different circle, though. Air, from the looks of it, while she was grounded in earth. Now that was interesting...

Under any normal circumstances, Angel might have rejected his help. But none of the other junkyard dogs were around to remind her that they had rules, and one such rule was to essentially look out for yourself. Besides, she'd already tossed that rule aside when she'd accepted Vanellope's help in the lunchroom before. Surely there'd be no harm in allowing Patch to assist her.

"At this point, I think it would be more advantageous to say yes. I'm not getting anywhere with this. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put that book up there must not have taken dogs into account," Angel said. She shot another glance up at the book in question, the subject being history based on what was written on the spine, and a soft puff of breath passed through her nose. All she needed it for was a bit of studying, really. Granted, before that point Angel never would have looked twice at a library. For one, she was a junkyard dog and never would have been allowed in at all. For another, she was a dog. Them being there was plenty strange when one took both points into account, but it was associated with the school. With that logic, animals were allowed in.

"Maybe I need more books if we're going to make this work. ...Never thought I'd be saying that. This whole place is all kinds of strange," she admitted, mostly to herself, as she looked back to Patch again.

[Patch]

(ooc: It pleases me a lot that Angel's wearing the tie, so thanks for that Big fan of that look for her XD)

Patch's eyes widened with concern as the pomeranian fell, and on impulse he stepped towards her, intending to ask if she was alright; the slightly smaller canine was back on her feet in an instant, however, so Patch guessed she hadn't really hurt herself. Now that he could see her up close, he could tell that she was... well, if her fur hadn't looked quite so unkempt beneath her uniform, she would have been stunningly pretty. He'd... never really had much interaction with pretty girls before - with the exception of siblings - and as he looked at her, Patch felt an odd squirming sensation in his stomach that he tried his best to ignore; with only limited success.

"Are you okay?" he asked with reference to her fall, glancing momentarily back up at the small tower she'd tumbled from.

He listened as the pomeranian explained her problem. She was trying to get a book from one of the higher shelves.... that explained the pile she was making, he figured. There had to be a safer way to go about reaching it, though; Patch had a feeling the tower of books would only get more precarious if they tried to make it any taller, and he'd rather spare the girl another fall as a result of that. "Wouldn't it get unstable if you made it any taller?" he questioned, padding around the girl to better inspect her tower. It looked okay so far, but if it got much higher, he imagined it wouldn't take much to knock the whole thing over. As for a better way, though... he frowned momentarily.

"Don't you think they might have a stepladder around somewhere? That might make it easier," he suggested. Of course, the pomeranian had probably already looked for one before starting work on her pile; but he was short on any other ideas right then.

[Angel]

"Yeah, I'm all right. I've been through worse," Angel said, dismissing her rather clumsy fall with a brief shake of her head. That was true enough, too. She'd had to live on the streets for the majority of her life, so one clumsy mistake of stepping on her tie wasn't about to be the end of her. Mostly, the pom was just thankful that Patch was willing to help her. Normally she was more graceful and less likely to actually goof up like that, but today? Well, it was the first time she'd actually been in a library. Of course she was going to have difficulties with the books and things within in general.

Then, Patch suggested they use a stepladder. Angel opened her mouth, prepared to make a comment of her own, but it closed just as quickly. Of course... She should have considered using the thing the humans generally used. It just felt odd to her, even if she was a junkyard dog.

"Ah... Yeah. That's probably a good idea. I'm not sure where we'd find a ladder, but it's got to be a better idea than what I came up with," Angel said. Her smile softened into one of gratitude, and then she realized they hadn't introduced themselves yet. Smooth...

"Oh, right. I'm Angel, by the way."

[Patch]

"There's got to be one here somewhere; the top shelves are too high even for humans to reach," Patch pointed out. It seemed odd to him that the girl wouldn't have thought of that, but the dal supposed that he shouldn't really judge. Maybe she just didn't have much experience of the way humans did things. He gave her a little smile, meant to convey that he didn't think any the less of her for that.

"I'm Patch," he returned, forcefully reminding himself to stop staring at the girl. It was true that even in spite of her dishevelled fur, Angel looked undeniably very pretty, and the dal didn't have a clue how to deal with that. He'd never really known many pretty girls - and even less who would actually pay attention to him - so the young male was understandably feeling rather flustered. Come on, Patch, just don't make a fool of yourself, he encouraged himself silently.

"We should see if we can find it," he added, hastily returning his thoughts to their quest for a stepladder. Actually, he thought he had seen a human using one on his way in; though, of course, he hadn't exactly been looking for it at the time. "I might know where one- hrk!" The floor came up to greet him hard. With most of his attention fixed on Angel as he had turned to lead back the way he had come, Patch had completely forgotten to watch where he was putting his paws. Once again, he had stepped on his trailing tie, jerking it very tight and falling flat on his face into the bargain, and for a moment, Patch just lay there, feeling betrayed.

"Brilliant, Patch... just brilliant," he mumbled to himself, hoping that - even obvious as it had been - Angel might have somehow failed to notice his mishap as he quickly regained his footing. As if his now tightly-screwed-up tie knot wouldn't give it away even then. It wasn't as if he was trying especially to impress her or anything like that; he just didn't want her to take him for a complete idiot.

[Angel]

Well, at least Patch wasn't judging her about not knowing about that particular human convenience. Good thing, too. Having to explain to him that she was stray would have been awkward, if nothing else. Besides, she hadn't told anyone else. As far as everyone was concerned so far, she was just a particularly scrawny little female who wasn't familiar with the human world so much. Angel wasn't about to comment on it, either. The less said, the better. She smiled back at him and listened as he began to speak again.

Patch... Well, she could certainly see why he had that name. The marking over his eye was all the proof she needed for a reason. Regardless of that obvious fact, she thought he was pretty cute in his own way. Why that was, the pom couldn't really hope to explain. She just kind of thought that for one reason or another. As Patch suddenly stopped speaking, though, Angel gave a start and stepped forward to see if he was okay.

Then, she saw it as she came up next to him. The knot in his tie had gotten tightened a bit too much, and it caused her to laugh a little bit. It wasn't a condescending laugh, as she'd had her own troubles with her tie the first time she'd worn it, but instead a slightly amused one. He seemed all right in spite of that mishap.

"Need a hand fixing that?" she asked. She didn't claim to be an expert, but maybe she could give Patch a hand.

[Patch]

(asdafas Angel helping Patch with his tie, that's going to be like the most adorable thing ever <3)

If he'd been capable of it, Patch would have blushed crimson as Angel called attention to the mess he'd made of his tie; as it was, his ears drooped a little and he lowered his head sheepishly. So much for hoping she wouldn't notice; though in actual fact, he had already known it was much too obvious for her to have missed.

Still. Even if she was laughing at him, she was at least offering to help; that was more than most of his siblings would have done, he was certain. He wasn't sure anything could be done for the knot as it was; as small and screwed up as it had become, Patch had an idea that it could only be remedied by completely undoing the tie and starting over. He raised a paw to his throat, trying to work the tie looser; an effort that proved unsuccessful.

"Yes, please," he replied eventually, looking incredibly embarassed. Way to make a good first impression... he shook his head in frustration at himself. "I keep stepping on it," he admitted, though Angel had doubtlessly noticed that was what had happened; or at least put two and two together. He didn't want to complain about the uniform, which for the most part, he didn't find too awful, but the way the tie trailed between his legs and constantly got under his paws was infinitely frustrating.

He glanced at Angel for a moment, embarassment fading slightly. "How come you don't have the same problem?" he questioned curiously. Her tie was so nice and neat, and she wore it well; there was no way she could have the same difficulties with it that he did with his.

[Angel]

(ooc: Thought you might like that.)

"Let's just say that, where I'm from, you have to learn these things if you want to get by," Angel said. It didn't give much away, hopefully, and it was an answer. That was all Angel would really say on the matter. Now, on to that tie problem. She carefully took Patch's tie with one paw and, with the other, began to gently tug at the knot with her blunt little claws. If Patch looked closely, he might have seen how callous and rough her paw pads appeared. Even her claws looked like they had seen better days. Angel made no comment, though. She just set to work undoing the knot as carefully as she could.

"See? It's not so bad. All we have to do is reknot it now, and that should do it," Angel said after a time. The knot had come undone at last and Angel pulled her paw away. She wouldn't ask if he needed help retying it, though. If Patch wanted help, she was sure he would ask for himself. She didn't want to baby him if she could help it. Besides... She'd noticed her own tie needed a little bit of fixing, too. She could straighten hers later, though. It wasn't her top priority.

[Patch]

(ooc: Made it that obvious, did I? XD But thaaaaaanks )

"Where are you from?" Not realising that me was stepping straight into territory the pomeranian might not want to discuss, Patch tilted his head curiously as she began to work on his tie. Actually, with her so close, he was finding it hard to focus on anything at all; he could feel her hot breath on his neck, her paws occasionally bumping his chin as she worked, and every sensation caused the dal's stomach to do a little flip. The fact that she was so close to him... if it had been a less pretty dog, he would probably have thought little of it, but as it was, having an attractive girl so close to him... it wasn't something he had really ever expected to experience, and he felt it was a wonder Angel couldn't hear his heart rate picking up. In a desperate attempt to take his mind of her incredibly distracting nearness, Patch tried to casually look around, but somehow, he was having trouble removing his attention from the small female before him.

He noticed that her tie actually wasn't quite right either - he wondered if she was aware of that. He noticed she had one ear flopped over while the other stood straight. He noticed that her blueish-grey eyes had a most endearing sparkle to them. None of his observations helped in the slightest.

It was, in fact, a huge relief when he finally felt his tie knot come undone, and Angel stepped away. Hoping he didn't look too flustered, it took Patch a moment before he trusted himself to speak; and even then, all he could immediately manage was an "Ah, thanks." Retieing his tie wasn't a problem; he'd got used to that fairly quickly, and the dal sat back on his haunches to work on doing it back up again; something that did successfully distract him from his state of discomfort. It was a simple matter to bring the wide end of the tie over, around, up and through, and he had a nice knot which he slid carefully up to his collar. There, nice and smart - at least until the next time he stepped on it. But as long as he kept his eyes on where he was walking this time, he should be fine. He'd just been too busy looking at Angel that last time.

Speaking of Angel... he wasn't sure if he should really mention it. But he felt as though he would be doing her a disservice not to at least point it out after she'd helped him with his. "You know your tie isn't quite straight either?" he asked, almost feeling embarassed to point it out. Maybe she just liked wearing it like that, or perhaps something had happened to it after all; though the fact remained that hers still looked significantly less of a mess than his had after his incident.

But Angel's tie wasn't any of his concern, was it? Finding her a ladder was. Patch shook his head firmly, resolving to focus on the task at hand; he was ready to head back in the direction he had thought he had seen the ladder as soon as she was.

[Angel]

A place you wouldn't last five minutes in.

That was what Angel wanted to say, but she decided against it. She didn't have to look too hard at Patch to know that he had a good life back where he was from. His fur, the way he spoke... Well, it all screamed innocence to the stray. She couldn't imagine what the streets would do to him if he were ever thrown out on them like she had been. For a moment, she glanced at her own tie again and made a brief effort at fixing it. Still not the best effort, she supposed, but her tie hadn't been nearly as messed up as Patch's had. She could still ignore it for the moment. What mattered was his question of where she was from. What could Angel even say in response to that? She didn't want to tell him she was stray. That would be too awkward, she decided.

"Far from here, that's for sure. Let's just say it's not a place for the soft-hearted. Always have to stay on your toes, is what it comes down to," she said. That seemed to be the best way of going about answering his question. That was the most indirect way of saying it, and Angel wasn't about to push too much further into Patch's questioning. All she could do was hope that was good enough. She wasn't about to tell him that she didn't even like the life she led, either. Patch didn't need to know she secretly longed for a family of her own.

"And you're welcome. Glad I could help, Patch," she said. She'd advise that the tie would be more effective if it didn't drag against the ground, but given how the pair of them were both fairly small dogs that was neither here nor there. Besides, her own tie kind of dragged a bit too. That was why she'd accidentally tripped herself up on it when she'd been trying to jump up to reach the books.

"Okay. Now, back to finding that ladder."

[Patch]

Okay, she didn't seem to have noticed anything about his flustered behaviour, Patch was somewhat relieved to note. Or if she had, she wasn't saying anything, and that was good enough for him. He frowned slightly, however, as Angel belatedly answered his question. It sounded as though she had possibly had a rough life before coming here; it also sounded as though she was avoiding giving him a direct answer. Was she trying to hide something?

A moment later, though, his smile had returned as the pomeranian spoke again. He was surprised she'd been so willing to help him at all, actually; he could only guess that in spite of his earlier assumptions, she must have had similar troubles with her tie when she had arrived and knew what it was like - even if he couldn't imagine her doing anything so clumsy as tripping on her tie. But that was neither here nor there right now, and he quickly nodded as she mentioned finding the ladder again.

"I think I saw one on my way in," he explained, risking a slight glance back at Angel as he began walking; although he kept most of his attention on where he was putting his feet. He couldn't embarass himself by stepping on his tie in front of her a second time. Assuming that the female canine would be right behind him, Patch led the way around the end of the shelf, back in the direction he'd initially come from. He was sure he'd seen something suitable here... finally, he saw what he was looking for. Not a full ladder, but more like a standing set of steps; it would do neither him nor Angel any good at all if they had wished to reach the topmost shelf, but he thought it just came tall enough to let her grab the book she had been after. And if it wasn't quite, he figured he could always stand on the top step, let her stand on his shoulders, and she would definitely be high enough to reach it. The pup yipped and bounded towards the ladder, putting his forepaws up on the first step as he reached it, as though claiming for their use before anyone else could.

The human who's been using them was nowhere in sight, so Patch doubted anyone would mind the pair of them hijacking the stepladder; the question, however, was how he and Angel were going to get it back to where they needed it. There was a bar at the back he supposed they could grab in their mouths and use to drag it that way, but that still looked like it would present its fair share of difficulties.

"How d'you want to go about moving this thing?" he asked Angel, hoping that she might have a better idea than his.

(ooc: not sure if it matters, but this is about what I imagine the ladder in question to be like: www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/ultraslim-compact-aluminum-step-ladder-2.jpg )

[Angel]

Oh, Angel had noticed his flustered appearance all right. She just chose not to humiliate him by mentioning it out loud, just like he'd chosen not to comment on her own decision to try and use a book tower to try and get the book she needed. So, pushing aside the thought of how cute the flustered dalmatian had looked, Angel smiled a bit and fell into step behind Patch as he led the way. The sooner they got the ladder, the sooner she could get her book and the sooner she could begin taking notes on its contents. Or maybe it would be better if she just checked it out. It wasn't as if anyone could necessarily object to her decision, after all. It was a library; people and other students would take books out every day.

"You sure know your way around a library," Angel commented. Angel masked her internal envy to the best of her ability, and she thought she was doing a good job of it. Her voice made it sound as thought she was impressed to some degree, and in part it was true. The stray was impressed that Patch knew so much about the area they were in when, under normal circumstances, she and Patch probably wouldn't have been allowed into a library anywhere else.

Soon, he'd led her to the ladder in question. Blue eyes went up to the ladder and a look of approval formed on her face, but then the question of how they were going to move it came to mind. Two small dogs no older than puppies likely couldn't move it on their own. Unless...

Angel's gaze shifted to a nearby table, and she spotted a chair that looked like it would suit their needs. Her expression brightened again and her tail wagged. Time to put her skills as a stray to work.

"I've got an idea. Follow my lead, Patch, and if this goes well all we'll have to do is drag the ladder back," Angel said. She briskly padded to the chair in question and positioned herself so that her hindquarters were facing it. Now, all she had to do was position herself just right so she could try to kick it over. Like a sort of trashcan trick she used back in the alleys. Angel could only hope that Patch got the gist of what she was trying to do.

[Patch]

"Not really; I just knew I'd seen the ladder here earlier," the dal replied with a shrug. Patch wasn't purposefully trying to be modest; the truth of it was that if it had come to trying to search for a specific book here, he would have been as lost as anyone else. He continued to frown at the ladder in question as, beside him, he supposed Angel must be thinking over the problem of how to move it, just as he was. He had just opened his mouth to suggest dragging it by the back bar, in spite of his feeling that the method was clearly less than ideal, when the pomeranian spoke up.

She had an idea? Well, that was more than he had, so Patch wasn't going to question it. He hurriedly followed Angel over to a nearby chair. The pup's head titled slightly, not quite sure where she was going with this, even as she moved to stand as if she was going to kick it over. Was she trying to use it to knock the ladder down? That would make it easier to drag, for sure, but the male was less certain that they'd be able to set it up again once they got it back where she wanted it. But maybe she had a plan for that, too; or maybe her aim here was completely different after all. Either way, Patch was sure Angel must know what she was doing - she seemed more than capable, after all - so he mimicked her pose.

"On three?" he suggested, raising his hind leg in perparation for the kick.

(ooc: I know it's not usually done, Angel, but feel free to 'god-mod' Patch kicking the chair with her, because I'm not sure we'd be able to drag out the process of them preparing to kick it for another post each XD)

[Angel]

(ooc: Got it. Hope this is okay!)

Patch wasn't too far off in guessing that Angel intended to use the chair to close the ladder. The weight of it would close it, hopefully, and knock it down so they would be able to drag it back to where it needed to go. Getting it open again would require standing it up and pulling it apart again, obviously, but for the moment Angel was more focused on getting the ladder to their original meeting spot. So, as Patch got into position beside her, Angel nodded and prepared herself. Normally she would have done this by herself, but the chair was probably a bit heavier than the trashcans she usually knocked over. This would require a team effort.

...Funny, really. If Buster saw this, he probably would have gawked a bit. The general rule of the yard was to look out for oneself, after all. Well, Buster could stick it for all Angel cared. She wasn't under his junkyard anymore, and since he wasn't the king of the school she could make up her own rules.

"One... Two... Three!"

In one swift movement, the two dogs kicked their legs back and knocked the chair over. Then, like a domino effect, the chair fell over and collided with the ladder. There was a great sort of clatter that followed from the two things colliding, and both objects hit the floor at last. Angel glanced back at their work and grinned a bit. Perfect.

"Good. Now we don't have to worry about dragging it while it's standing up. Come on, let's start pulling it back before someone comes to see what's going on," Angel said. She didn't wait for Patch to speak and instead padded back to the knocked over ladder. Her mouth went around the top part of it and she glanced back to see if Patch was still following her lead.