16038/Housecats

Housecats
Date of Scene:	08 October 2023
Location:	Blake House
Synopsis:	It's a cat party when Catseye joins Kitkat and Thomas.
Cast of Characters:	Thomas Blake, Kitkat, Sharon Smith

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Thomas Blake has posed:
Rasputin has a well constructed tiger lair. It leads to a tunnel concealed by an overhang. Thomas was good at this sort of thing. The tunnel ends at a sturdy door often replaced. The door is to keep humans in the basement, not Rasputin out. Rasputin enjoys breaking down the doors at times and a heavier door might hurt his head, and still might not hold. In any case the big cat is enjoying some blessed cold weather and atop his sunning rock when a guest shows up. He opens one eye, takes a sniff and relaxes. Lets the guest go. Maybe gets a few scritches in passing.

Thomas, for his part, is working out in the basement. This involves hanging upside down from a rope and throwing several small blades at a target. You'd be amazed how often he had to do that. He also practices his biofeedback techniques to delay the blood pooling in his head.

This qualifies as a leisurely Sunday for him.

Kitkat has posed:
The guest leaves Rasputin not just a few scratches between the ears, but also a piece of cow that had been won by beating up someone in an alley fight club to eat. And after sharing a few 'words', she also puts a heavy, long metal item down on the inside of the tunnel, Then, there's a flash of light...

Maybe a minute later, silent paws attempt to operate the door knob of the access to the tunnel, pushing and prodding at it like with huge mittens. It's a lynx trying to open the door, but lacking an opposable thumb. Did Rasputin get slippy?

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake slides down the rope silently. He is barefoot and sidles up to the door. No enemy would get past the tiger. That still leaves a lot of wise guys who'd come in this way. Just in case, one hand goes to the kris knife at the small of his back as he yanks the door open. The creature before him puzzles and amusses him for a moment. Then in an uncharacteristic show of trust he scoops the lynx up.

"I caught you this time little Catseye! You can use the door, but you do amuse me..."

Kitkat has posed:
The Lynx soft looking paws show their claws as the hand tries to scoop up the lynx, leaving a set of pinpricks on Thomas arm as the large member of the small cats presses back in protest, hissing and showing the fangs. Wriggling herself free, the lynx darts to the ground, the stubby tail stretched in annoyance as the cat settles down, sternly eying back at Thomas.

Then, something odd happens. The cat glows up and seems to float up, spinning as the body made from light seems to melt, the legs elongating and forming a humanoid body. Magic was at work, and when the light ebbed off, it left a somewhat annoyed looking Kitkat.

"I'm not Catseye. She's not a Lynx."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake regards the pinpricks and decides they can wait. "Ah well you can understand my reaction but... why be a lynx and unable to operate a doorknob? In any case, welcome. What brings you here? Is this a social call or are you here to beat a confession out of me.The last good guy to try that... well we wound of becoming very close. He's the Cheshire Cat, also known as Vorpal. Oh let your fur lie down, girl. It was just a friendly cuddle and a matter of mistaken identity." He gestures for her to enter, and steps aside.

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat says, "Why be a lynx? Because it moves silently. Like, magical silent. I was about to get my thumb. Why don't you put in a door that Rasputin actually can operate in the first place?" Kitkat counters, chuffing a moment as she settles the seat of her clothes, grunting a little as a strap needs to be re-tied.

"You know that purple cat? Why would he need to beat a confession from you when he could get... wait, I think he does not understand Rasputin. Anyway, I wanted to ask if I could trade some ribs for a roof for a little. I won a half of those hairless squeeky beasts in the ring and can't possibly eat it all alone. Need to pick it up from the butcher, but wanted to discuss it first.""

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake has a little trouble following all this. He shhs Kitkat as she finishes these verbal avalanche. It's more let him speak before she starts up again. "You don't need to trade anything with me for a roof over your head for a few days. I put my friends up all the time. When I say you're welcome I mean it. Come upstairs and I'll make you some breakfast. You like eggs by any chance?" He removes the finger from biting range.

Kitkat has posed:
"Not sure. We have eggs in the Land within. But we had meat. Sure you don't want a share of this pork or whatever they call the beast?" Kitkat answers, making a nod to the door to indicate he should go first and lead the way.

"You don't pamper me just because I am one of the Cat People, do you? Or do you want to try and get on The Tigra's good side? I can't help you with that, just trying to find her again myself."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake rests a hand gingerly on Kit kat's shoulder, ready to remove it if she takes offense. "I never heard of the Cat People or the land Within. I never met Tigra. So far I am finding you fascinating. But I am very partial to felines. I'm not sure if offering a breakfast is pampering. I don't think so. I have pampered partners and they all enjoyed it. So if I try to pamper you, you'll know it. You just look hungry, maybeb in need of a safe place for a nap. I'm offering. What is this meat you have?"

Kitkat has posed:
"The left side of an animal's flank without a head. The butcher called it pig or something. It's not as dark as this cow, which tastews quite well." Kitkat elaborates, then eyes him carefully. "You should strive to meet her. She's The Tigra after all. That should be enough reason to try to meet her."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake serves the eggs to Kitkat with a heap of bacon on the side. "Where is this animal you speak of? Is it refrigerated? It's very important to refrigerate or freeze pork, it goes bad very easily and humans at least can get very sick. If it's just laying around, past a couple hours, it is spoiled. And you got this meat as a prize for winning a fight? Tell me more." He sits and begins eating his own omelet, which spells extremely spicy.

Kitkat has posed:
"It's with the butcher still. In the very cold room. Told me to find a good spot for it first so I won't have to throw away half of it before it spoils. I'm not silly, I don't like the smell of rot." Kitkat nods, chuckling some at his assertion about the stuff going off easily, and her having won it for a fight. "A little underground fight. Some guy from 'the family' offered to pay me with that meat and those prayer slips with sorcerers on them for beating up one of their champions. Wasn't even too hard. He couldn't even throw a proper punch, and I did give him two minutes where he could try. Only made me yawn."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blakenods. "Let me see the paper. That's money. You can exchange the papers for goods and services. I'm aware of fight clubs. You're new to this place, They might have treated you unfairly. In which case I will help you correct this.Where are you from anyway. Are you a Mutant, space traveler, enchanted?" He inhales a piece of bacon as he finishes speaking.

Kitkat has posed:
"I know! The student of those magicians that put them into cicrulation guarantees that there's hard gold and silver to back the prayer slips, right? Makes them light!" Kitkat claims, nodding quickly as they show a small bundle of bills, mostly small denominations. "I'm from the land Within. That's where the Cat People live."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake looks at the money with a slightly sour expression. This must have been a third rate club. It looks like they paid you with the money they grabbed off a hoochie dancer's g-string. I can likely get you a better gig in Gotham. the opposition might be able to hit you and there may be superheroes sticking their noses in. Tigra probably would beat on me for offering this but you're an adult, right?"

"The Land Within... within what? Subterranea? Like underground?"

Kitkat has posed:
"It's just within. Like, it's a giant cave with a glowsphere and there's the styx flowing through at one side. So it's clearly within." Kitkat elaborates, shrugging a moment.

"Why would the Tigra beat you for suggesting a better place to beat up people for your prayer slips? But if they are insatisfactory, you forget the meat I won. The butcher said that half a pork is in itself almost thousand of these. But if they pay even better... I am game."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake leans closer to Kitkat, parlty yo see hos the eggs are received. "Because... I sometimes break the law and Tiogra and the Avengers try to lock up people who break the law. I go by the name of Catman, as I said when I need to operate outside the law. But sometimes the law is unfair or intrusive. I don't hold with that. Fight clubs are illegal. You should know that. Tigra would probably not want you to fight in one. However, Tigra has not kept you fed or sheltered, and... do you have any other marketable skills? data entry, plumbing, waiting tables?"

"Styx? Like in Hell? I was in love with a demon princess for a while. She treated me all right... till she got killed and returned to life all messed up."

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat says, "The law is only what can be enforced anyway. The men in black and blue didn't like me taking the head of the human traffiker, but he shot at me and so it was all fair for me to enforce their no shooting rule by taking his head." Kitkat muses, shrugging. "If they don't like fight clubs, and can't enforce it, then fight clubs are fair game."

"I havn't seen the Tigra but for the day I arrived. She had to do stuff and I didn't even knew she was the Tigra when she spoke to me! I thought she was just one of the Cat People! I need to meet her again still." The list of marketable skills makes Kitkat stare blankly, the words making little sense.

"Hell? I wouldn't call home hell. Though we had strange neighbors..." The Styx ran through *hades* after all."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake shrugs. "I'm not a wizard. I don't know all the spots. 'Tana said there were a lot of realms each with a head demon. She was the daughter of one and they were always plotting against each other. Sounds a lot like this place. Someone tries to kill you, kill them first. How do you like your omelet and bacon by the way?"

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat shrugs at the affirmation that Thomas wasn't a wizard, reaching to actually try the omelet and bacon for the first time now, the food having been somewhat forgotten for the moment. "Hmmm... not sure I like the eggs too much. They're clearly better than this 'salad' or something that one guy offered me. That tasted like nothing and the paper box had more flavour. Though I love the bacon.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blakedumps the bacon from his plate onto Kitkat's. "I'll get a room ready for you upstairs. That's my room. I have a bunch of clothes for different sized people. This comes up a lot since I entertain a lot... or did. I'll get you something comfortable to wear," He gets up to do so. "Im warning you now, don't touch my omelet. It is very spicy."

Kitkat has posed:
"You entertaine or entertained a lot... what? The sentence is missing something." Kitkat complained, waggling a strip of bacon at Thomas. "My leather is comfortable. Much more than heavy plate armor. Or Maile. Or Scales."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake calls from a closet, "I entertained friends... woman... men... I have a pool outside. I had parties around it, I roasted animals. We drank beer and liquor. We had fun. But... the friends I make don't seem to stick around for long. Neither do the lovers. And leather is fine but here, you have options. You might find these comfortable. I wear leather too when I expect trouble but I don't expect trouble." He comes over with a handful of t-shirts and sweats. He stands a little closer to Kitkat. "Should I expect to defend myself from you? Barring my doing something rude, like pulling your tail? Not that I would. I have done a lot of questionable things. Laying a hand on a lady unasked is not one of them, I... do not like people who hurt women." He lays the clothes on a chair.

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat blinks as Thomas offers a lot of fabric stuff, the head tilting some. "Why should I attack you?" she counterinquires on his inqierry, then eying the clothes on the stack. "My clothes are still good, I hope."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake nods. Such a cat. "You are quite lovely as well as strong and fierce. Your clothes convey all that. It's just humans do not usually sleep in leather armor. I assumed the same was true for you and about you being dangerous, I was making a joke. Do Cat People make jokes? Oh, help yourself to whatever is in that box, That's a refrigerator. It keeps things cold. Get yourself a drink or I can make coffee or tea if you prefer. I will be back in a bit." He heads out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat eyes the refrigerator at the notion, nodding slowly as Thomas started to leave upwards. His eggs she left alone, and the pile of clothes he left on the kitchen table she didn't yet inspect. Instead... she raided the fridge, looking what was in that magical cold box. Which took the shape of getting everything out, taking a nose full of its smell and then putting a lot of things back in to it. Like... anything non meaty.

Sharon Smith has posed:
Sharon Smith arrives with full-fledged chaos. A large, black panther burst through the front door with a familiar striped tiger in toe. Catseye occasionally came to visit Thomas, or at least to mooch his food, but most often it was to visit his more feline minded companion, Rasputin. This particular meeting seemed to include a game of chase, although it didn't seem to take into account the poor, defenseless furniture, which flew about in spectacular fashion as the two large cats dashed around at full speed.

Kitkat has posed:
With a sudden flurry of claws and beasts, Kitkat shoves the door to the fridge closed before trying to cut off whoever just invaded the house, only to be almost pounced to the ground by Sharon first, and then shouldered out of the way by Rasputin. Growling, as the two circle in the kitchen, it's the moment that the purple cat is passing the calico a second time that an arm comes down to try and get a hang on the panther sized cat, getting pulled over and with - yet also adding weight. "Hold it there..." Well, she can take the impact.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake returns to his ground floor upended by a feline... cat-astrophe. the theme criminal appreciates this. His response is unconventional. Do you tut tut a tiger? Nope. Instead he grabs a pitcher of ice water Kitkat had removed and not yet replaced. Rasputin gets it dashed in his face and recoils spitting and snorting. Thomas adds a hearty and loud, "Knock it OFF!"

Most humans would be facing death. This is Thomas. Ras merely jumps onto him, bearing him down and pretends to maul him -more to show that while he respects and loved Thomas, he IS NOT a tiger. Thomas quite forgets the cat fight for a moment, he's laughing too hard.

Sharon Smith has posed:
Sharon Smith 's eyes darted at Kitkat, sending a large, unclawed paw blopping over the catgirl's face. Finding herself caught, and a large tiger barreling in, Catseye quickly shrank. The weight in Kitkat's arms suddenly relinquished. She found the large black cat shifted into a far smaller, more managable sized feline, also the black paw on her face was far less obstructing. The little black feline crained her head back to give a less than innocent 'mew.' As if to suggest nothing out of the ordinary had occured in his absence. His tables and chairs would have complained otherwise, but instead the inanimate objects were left to lay around in silence, unable to voice their concerns about their horrible treatment.

Kitkat has posed:
Suddenly holding a much smaller feline, Kitkat laughthes, holding up a hand to stop Rasputin from running the two into the wall or ground. Ruffing Catseye as she realies who she's holding, the feline woman licks over the paw in her face, then offers a somewhat teasing wink to Rasputin. 'Seems like I caught the black one!' she told in the way only cats could, offering the Tiger a headpat in return. 'I found Bacon. Who wants some?'

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake looks around and sees the food on the floor. "My. Breakfast." He glowers as he gets up to clean. Rasputin has other ideas. He apparently took Kitkat's invite to heart. The bacon and eggs on the floor vanish at an alarming rate. Thomas gets up. He points at the tiny feline. "I don't mind a wild rumpus with the tiger. I look forward to him actually catching you. But... I do not want you wasting food and wrecking my breakfast. This is the first time I had Kitkat over... turn human so I can yell at you properly." Kitten eyes. Damn kitten eyes.

Sharon Smith has posed:
Sharon Smith clambered onto Kitkat's shoulder, making her look like a cat-themed pirate for a while. The true purpose was to gain elevation so she could spot the afore mentioned bacon. She did look over in Thomas' directions, as though listening to his demands, but in a very feline fashion, she didn't follow them. Instead, she remained on her perch and started looking for the bacon once again.

Kitkat has posed:
Kitkat reaches up to ruffle Sharon as she perched there, working her way back to the feet, the hand on Sharon supplying support as she moves to the fridge, where she had spotted the bacon. 'Rasputin, you got Thomas Bacon.' she told with ears and tail, just as she opened the fridge door to pick up the package that contained the bacon, showing it off to Catseye the pirate cat. "You want some, don't you?"

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake says, "Excuse me. She can set the chairs and table up if she wants some. Or she ever wants to taste my lasagna again. The bacon on the floor is Rasputin's."

Indeed. How does a fellow cat not know this? The tiger seems to say that.

Anyway, the floor is clean. If you don't count tiger spit. Thomas doesn't.

"Well, do I get what I asked for?"

Sharon Smith has posed:
Sharon Smith 's front paws swiped wildly at the ruffle. Luckily, they were unclawed, so rather than a small, prickly/scratchy situation, it was a light patter that felt closer to a hand massage than anything. Catseye carefully listened to all parties, but her eyes remained carefully locked on the package Kitkat was waving about.

She seemed torn deliberating her options. She could either figure out the feng shui of Thomas' apartment or...

Bacon!

The small cat pounced off of Kitkat's shoulder, her size exploding as she latched onto the bacon with a dangerously large maw. Kitkat would have risked losing a few fingers in the process, but fortunately, Sharon's dexterity was superb (at least when it came to bacon related attacks).

The large, black feline then made a dash for the door. She could figure out the odd furniture nonsense later...

Kitkat has posed:
"HEY!" Kitkat tries to once more snatch Sharon at the sudden stealing of the plastic wrapper with the bacon. "You can't eat the wrapping, silly cat. Come back and share... or use your thumbs." Kitkat reminds the cat dashing for the door, before giving Thomas the evil evil pleading cateyes. There was one benefit to cat people physiology: always cat eyes.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake grabs the table and sets it up right with a bang that makes Rasputin jump a little. He begins setting up the chairs without a word. He fairly radiates displeasure. then he starts to pick up the dishes and utensils.

Sharon Smith has posed:
Sharon Smith couldn't be convinced. She could already TASTE the sweet bacon after her teeth pierced through the flimsy supermarket packaging. It wasn't her fault that bacon was so braindwashingly sweet and savory. The feline made no detours as she dashed out the door. There might be some hope she would share at some point, but it was highly unlikely.