Quintus turned his head towards Ciaran from the window sill. "I think we should keep living in the store, whether we run around and look for food or not." Quintus hopped down from the window to the ground. "But either way, there's a bigger problem. How are we going to get out from this place? It's not as though we could just walk out the front door, or I would've done that already."

Finishing off her meal Sekhmet squinted around at the colony. "I agree, we should use the shop as home, there's plenty here to keep us occupied. All we need Out There for is food, and that shouldn't take too much effort." Besides, she left unspoken, the fact of the matter was most of them wouldn't do well as Alley cats, they hadn't the instincts. Eccentric had gathered them all here after their other Homes had let them go.

"He's gone and locked the door this time...I was hoping otherwise," the Abys muttered, thinking about how he used to be able to get out. "Those round things..." he wondering, staring at the bronze handle sticking out of the door, "...what are they called? Doorknobs? Well, they probably won't be of any use to us. Quintus, what can you do about those windows?"

Quintus hopped back on to the window sill. Starring at the window sill, there was chance to get out. "The window here is open a crack. If we found something to wedge it open, we could get out, but without a way to close it, we'd be letting all the cold in."(aka a lot of stray cats)

As Jinx nibbled he listened to the rest of them. It could not have been that hard to get out of the building, but then why would they leave? Didn’t they have the magic white box that was full of food? All they needed to do was figure out how to open it. Surely another Eccentric would come around. When he was finished Jinx pounced on to the counter and strode up the transparent part of the wall that Ciaran was talking about. He perched himself on the ledge watching the world outside the shop, just as he did many times in the display window of the main room. He watched Quintus try to open the window.
A sense of adventure was itching in his paws. “Why don’t we go and find another Eccentric?”

Quintus immediately stopped what he was doing, almost as if someone pricked him on his blind side. "No one can replace Eccentric," he said sharply, and hopped of the sill, searching for some sort of lever to possibly lift the window later.

Ciaran wondered to himself. [i]What's the big white box called...? Ree-free-jerr-ater? Anyways, he was sure there was food inside. He'd seen the Furless take food out of the box's belly, and even though that made him feel queasy, he padded to the Slippery-Square room and stared at the box, mentally willing it to open. After a few minutes, he decided it wasn't enough, and tried to paw it open.

Try as he might, the door was firmly shut. Or stuck.

"Quintus...It. Won't. Open," Ciaran growled, gritting his teeth.

Retrieving her glasses Sekhmet wandered over to the white box, the Ice-box, and wandered from side to side. Watching Ciaran knaw on it she sighed. "What we need is something to get around the handle there, then we can pull it open." Looking at the kit she nodded to the room. "Go find us a nice bit of string, or one of those silly things Eccentric used to hand around his neck."

Listening to the interplay between the cats, not about to go anywhere until she finished her milk-tea. "I can fish" she commented, "there's a stream not far from here, out beyond the houses." She finished lapping up the remains on the plate before adding, "There's a window upstairs. The latch it broken. Push it hard enough and it will open, but it's up high and there's no sill."

Height...should not be an issue. Ciaran padded upstairs, and, seeing the window, searched around for what the Furless called "cardboard boxes".

"I need help with this!" he yowled down the stairs.

Jinxed swished his tall for a moment. He didn’t know why Quintus was so angry and protective over the Eccentric. Beyond the transparent wall was a buffet of Eccentrics. He watched their blurred grey outlines scurrying about with interest before turning to do Sekhmets command. He bounced off the window ledge knowing exactly where to find what she requested. Locating the Eccentrics abandoned private chamber, Jinx looked about the room for anything he might have left behind. At last he came across the piece of fabric he used to wear around his neck abandoned in a darkened area of the room. Quickly, he returned back downstairs to the others. Jinx was not one for loneliness despite his bravado. He dropped the cloth at Sekmets feet. “What is wrong with a new Eccentric Quintus?”

"Good kit," Sekhmet gave Jinx a fast head rub and picked up the length of cloth in her mouth. With a fluid leap she made it onto the counter beside the ice-box and paused. Placing one end of the material underfoot she took the far end in her mouth and carefully leaned out to wrap it around the handle part. As soon as the bit of fabric was through she let both parts fall, and they trailed down to the floor.

Pleased, and purring, with herself she hopped back down and looked at the newly created handle. "All we need do now is have a cat on either piece to pull and we can open the white box." Sitting on her haunches she watched all the others going about like a bunch of kits on a 'nip high. "The only dilemma with a new Eccentric is they might not be 'cat' people you know, or worse even, prefer Canis lupus familiaris." She shuddered and contemplated going to get a bigger fur-bit.

Mirri finished up her milk-tea, licking her lips and whiping an imperceptible bit off her chin before stretching again and moving towards the ice box. "If we choose to stay, then we will have to see what manner of new man comes to us when he comes." A sizable cat, she had some body to throw around, and grabbed one end of the fabric, looking expectantly at Sekhmet.

Not sure if Mirri is expecting Sekhmet to help or move out of the way. That can be left to interpretation ;).

Well Sekhmet's not big...so this can be hillarity in 3...2...1...
"Oh, right, right," eying the bit of cloth on her side she looks at where it loops over the door and then at the ground. That silly ground that lets no cat get good traction when they really need to catch something. Taking it between her teeth she faces away from the box, mayhap the extra bit of force from this direction will help....

Ciaran shook his head, wondering what the others were doing, and left the mess of cardboard boxes for a bit. Taking the stairs four by four, he wandered into the Slippery-Square room and nearly slid into Sekhmet. He backed up a few paces, and sat down half in amusement, half in boredom.

((By the look of it, Ciaran's the strongest cat around here...Quintus might be on par.))

Jinx watched the elder cats with mild amusement. Scurring over to the others Jinx also grabbed what he could of the fabric and began to pull in the direction with the others.