The Volunteer Experiment

[Adeline Pierce]

a failure is fleeting I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna whistle all the while If that’s what it takes to make me smile I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna run right up this hill Summer sky or winter chill If I gotta take a break I will But I’m gonna run right up this hill I wanna hold the whole wide world Right here in my open hands Maybe I’m just a little girl A little girl with great big plans I’m gonna go and take a chance I’m gonna learn to ballet dance Learn a little something ‘bout romance I’m gonna go and take a chance I'm -- Adeline blinked rapidly and brushed at her eyes a little bit—some of the fumes from filling the bucket with bleach had made her eyes water. She was used to it, though probably should have learned by now not to keep her head so close to the bucket. “Mathmatics?” she repeated, wringing out the mop. She didn’t believe she had asked before, but she might have and just forgotten. “What kind of ability do you have that would come in handy for math?” Math. The one thing Adeline hated. So she could understand now wanting to go into it. After mopping up about half of the kennel and handing the mop off to Adelaide so she could give it a try, Adeline looked around. The question was one she hadn’t ever really considered before—could the dogs be happy here? Of course she knew the answer just by spending time in here and talking to the dogs, but she hadn’t actually straight up asked them that question. She considered her answer for a moment more and then sighed. “Well, some of them get lonely when there’s no one here. For the most part the really friendly ones are just happy that they get food and water and love every day,” she said with a slight smile. But not all of them could be. “There was once a dog here that wasn’t so happy, though. She was a herding dog, and her family had lost the farm and had nowhere to take her,” she said after a moment. Adeline perhaps remembered that dog the most out of any of them, just because she tried her best to make her time at the shelter nice. “She ended up here. After having acres and acres of space, she was confined to these cages. She was severely depressed.” It helped Adeline a little to know that she tried her best, but that dog would always be in her memory. “Her name was Sadie. She finally got adopted and they promised me she would get lots of exercise. I hope they weren’t lying,” she finished with a tiny little sigh. She turned and indicated blindly. “And of course we get the occasional dog that was abused or aggressive—they just hate everything.”

adelaide • 377 • there's been a lot going on, sorry. • THANKS ♥

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add nodded at Adeline's repetition. The question she was used to as well, and she offered an explanation easily enough: "I can accurate predict the probability of something occurring in an almost instantaneous fashion." Almost because sometimes her brain had to take in millions of variables, which could result in her locking up. She didn't think that this last bit was information that necessarily had to be shared, however.

Add took the offered mop and went to work. This was relatively easy and she had been paying attention. The only difficult parts were making sure not to overuse water or breathe in too much of the chemical mixtures. This did seem to make it easier for Adeline to consider Add's question, which did please the mathematician slightly. She kept at her job with a mechanical efficiency, glancing over at Adeline ever so often to show that she was, in fact, paying attention to what the other volunteer was saying.

Loneliness did seem to be an issue, and Add nodded at that. Adeline did follow with a story that was most unfortunate. Add supposed that it should actually have been  considered to be "sad," but she didn't quite feel that way herself. It was certainly an unhappy situation for those involved, but altogether commonplace. Then again, it was the commonplace situations that were often the ones that could most drag someone, or in this case some animal, down.

"The dog is probably happy," offered Add. "Most of the people who bother to go through with the process of taking a dog from a shelter are not likely to return it to worse conditions, and if they said they were going to get land, they were most likely thinking of needing a dog to fill that land," Add spoke with a quiet certainty before pausing yet again, both vocally and at her mopping. She looked over the floor. "I believe the mopping is finished. I am assuming the cell needs to dry out before we return the animal," she paused, again reviewing things before looking back to Adeline. "Is there anything else that we need to do to this particular cage before we move on to our separate tasks?"

[Adeline Pierce]

a failure is fleeting I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna whistle all the while If that’s what it takes to make me smile I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna run right up this hill Summer sky or winter chill If I gotta take a break I will But I’m gonna run right up this hill I wanna hold the whole wide world Right here in my open hands Maybe I’m just a little girl A little girl with great big plans I’m gonna go and take a chance I’m gonna learn to ballet dance Learn a little something ‘bout romance I’m gonna go and take a chance I'm -- Adeline smiled and nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, you’re right. Why bother adopting and go through everything just to return it?” she reiterated. It was a nice thought, of course. And the person had been told thoroughly that it was a working dog and needed exercise. There was no point in dwelling on it. “Yeah—that’s when we clean out the dishes. By the time we finish cleaning and drying the dishes, the floor should be dry and then Mr. Brownie over there can go back in,” she explained with a smile. She walked over to take a quick glance at the floor, then walked back over to the sink so she could explain the process she used to clean dishes. At the sink, Adeline plugged it with a stopper and started to fill the sink. “I do the same thing with the mop water—I fill the sink, then pour a little bleach into the sink and use this rag to scrub it clean. There are some sponges if sponges are more your thing,” she explained, waiting for the water to fill the sink about half way. She looked over at her companion with a smile. “That seems like a much more interesting power than mine, by the way. Is it like—if I drop this dish, could you tell me where it’ll land? Could you roll a bowl across a room and trip someone? Like that?” she asked while she poured some bleach into the sink.

adelaide • 246 • could probably wrap this up whenever • THANKS ♥

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add nodded, both accepting Adeline's suggestion about adoption, which made quite a bit of sense, and that their next task would be to wash the bowls. It made sense, seeing as the animals couldn't exactly do so themselves. The animals' name did seem rather ludicrous, but as Add looked at it, she could at least understand where it came from. The animal was small, brown, and rather adorable. Thus Brownie, while technically lacking in imagination, certainly suited it well.

They moved to a sink, Add following Adeline without saying much, not seeing the need to talk much while washing dishes. It was hardly something that required a good deal of communication. "Perhaps you should begin instructing them on better hygiene to save us the effort," she suggested, attempting to make another joke of sorts. She gave something akin to a smile as she said it too, wanting to further emphasize that she was, in fact, joking bout the situation, finding it all to be at least a little humorous.

"And yes, I could probably deduce. It is not completely perfect though: I could not account for your ability to do something to interrupt either the dropping or the tripping. It takes study," Add paused, both in the physical washing and in the conversation, reviewing what she said before nodding. It all sounded good and accurate to her, and that was what mattered.  "Most abilities are useful though, given the correct set of circumstances. Mine is simply useful in nearly all circumstances," thus proving that humility was not among Add's traits, even when she was elbow-deep in water washing dishes. She pulled them out, studying them and deciding that they were clean enough, ready to move on to the next task with that same, mechanical efficiency.

[yeah, I'm fine with ending it whenever. If you'd like another thread, feel free to let me know. I'm pretty well shutting down Add though, so it would probably be better if you went for one of my other characters {Beau, Frank, Guy, Zoe, JJ, or Elsa}. Enjoyed posting with you though! Sorry you got stuck with a character I decided to drop though xD ]

[Adeline Pierce]

a failure is fleeting I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna whistle all the while If that’s what it takes to make me smile I’m gonna walk a hundred miles I’m gonna run right up this hill Summer sky or winter chill If I gotta take a break I will But I’m gonna run right up this hill I wanna hold the whole wide world Right here in my open hands Maybe I’m just a little girl A little girl with great big plans I’m gonna go and take a chance I’m gonna learn to ballet dance Learn a little something ‘bout romance I’m gonna go and take a chance I'm -- Adeline giggled and nodded. “I probably should,” she agreed, playing along with the little jest. “Tell them to pick a corner and go in it. They probably would if I told them we’d have more time to play with them afterwards.” That was the thing about dogs. They did whatever you wanted if it meant attention and exercise. Most of the time, anyway. Occasionally there was that stubborn dog that just hated everyone and didn’t want attention. Those were always the hardest to place—she had to find someone who promised to take them to training, promised to do their best to open them up. Or send them off to police training—but most of the time it was just to the back room. The dogs didn’t like it when the back room was mentioned. The place boasted to be a no-kill shelter, but not every dog could be saved, not every cat. . . . Violent behavior was always culled. It was a shame, really. Sometimes not even she could get through to them. “It sounds pretty complicated, then. Though for you it’s probably instantaneous, huh?” she assumed, double checking the dishes she’d washed. They didn’t have to be perfect, just disinfected. She always liked them to be shiny and like-new. She turned back to Adelaide and raised the dishes. “Perfect! Now we just need to do this like a bajillion more times! Better get to work so we can move on to the cats before it’s time for us to leave,” she commented, upbeat as usual. After placing an excited Brownie back in his run, she started work on another run. It was nice to have company, and she was glad Adelaide was there to make it go faster.

adelaide • 291 • alright probably a good place to end it then :)• THANKS ♥