Wringing her hat in her hands, Cookie gives her take, “I don’t feel good about this. Kids going off on their own to seek out monsters? I mean, whole reason I’m out here is to get my own before,” she winces as a bad thought strikes her, and spits out, “before she does it.”
“Huh?” Chuu Lee looks to her friend, concerned.
“Before who does what now?” asks Peppa.
“...” The lady bites her lip, then relents with a shrug. She reaches into her hat for something, and asks, “Sooooo, have y’all seen my Muffin?”
“your what” “Cookie, c’mon”
The Cook finally finds and pulls out a picture. “My daughter!”
…
Peppa squints at the picture.
Wary Chuu Lee asks her, “Uh, something up, Peppa?” in the way one does when there's a right answer and then there's a <span class="mu-i">right</span> answer.
Too focused on the picture to pick up on subtext, Peppa points to it. “Is she holding a purse or a lunchbox?”
"Hm? Oh!" Cookie explains, smiling as she reminisces, “Yeah, that's her lunchbox, ahaha. Begged and begged me for a pink one. Ah, it's from her first day of school, pretty old for a picture. She's around your age actually! I should know, the two of you were present when me and Maple first met!"
Peppa nods. Tilts her head. "Huh?"
Chuu Lee asks more articulately, "What's with the pic? And what do you mean 'have we seen her'?"
https://youtu.be/ZLm1rGJl5wYShe frowns. "Should've had a newer one handy for something like this but I guess the whole problem was that I thought everything was okay and then it wasn't and it's going to get a whole lot worse if I don't find her and she's gonna take all of what I said and didn't tell her but really shoulda and she'll go off and I don't know what-”
Before she can go any further, Chuu Lee grasps her shoulders. <span class="mu-s">"I implore you to calm yourself."</span>
Cookie hyperventilates through teeth for a bit, then takes some controlled huffs. "Uuu... okay..."
"Now, what's happened with Muffin?"
“...” Cookie reaches into her hat again to pull out a note, and hands it to Chuu Lee.
While Chuu Lee reads the note, Peppa peers at the hat. Is it a purse too?
Chuu Lee gasps. “She ran away.”
Cookie nods, taking the paper back.
Peppa floats up to see it for herself, but notices some fresh droplets on the paper more than anything, and holds up her hand to see if the rain’s started. …oh! Feeling silly, Peppa has the Power Pole extend, plants it in the ground, then Clothes Beams a big umbrella to shield the three of them. There!
Cookie angles her head up to where her face is visible and sporting a shining service smile, with her eyes like ^_^. “Sorry ‘bout that, Chewie! Gonna have to offer you a raincheck on the babysitting, ahaha…”
Chuu Lee hugs her childhood friend. “Oh shush! You should’ve let me know sooner!”
…she wipes her face off, and hugs back. “...sooner? You mean before you stuck your foot in it, ahaha?” She giggles weakly, her body shuddering in tandem.
