ＡＣ！Ｄ ＳＨＡＲＫ

Had to clean out some litter boxes after today's stream and that's not the sort of stuff you want sitting in your house for an extended period of time and the bin specifically for trash pickup was already full, so I thought, fuck it, I'll go ahead and bring it down myself.

I turn on my phone's flashlight just as a sort of Critter Deterrent. I don't wanna get in any li'l dude's way and I'm sure they don't want to get in mine, so it seems beneficial all around. The walk to the dumpster is clear; so far so good. The dumpsters in our apartment complex are in little fenced-in areas, so I shine my light in ahead of me just to possibly encourage anything inside to clear out.

Again, nothing around. I'm pretty thankful for this! I can just go ahead and throw the trash bag into the dumpster and--

I suddenly find myself locking eyes with a raccoon as I look into the side door of the large, metal container. In that moment, it feels as though we sense each other's thoughts: Neither of us really wanted to find ourselves in this situation and, yet, here we are. For a moment, neither of us move.

I'm the first to break line of sight, retreating out of the li'l guy's vision cone and putting a wall of metal between us. I feel like I just walked into another person's house right in the middle of dinner. I peer over the side of the opening and, confirming as best I can there are no further residents sitting just below it, carefully drop the trash bag in and walk away.

I hope that dude's having a good night.