924/A Very Merry Unbirthday

A Very Merry Unbirthday
Date of Scene:	01 April 2020
Location:	April's Apartment
Synopsis:	April's birthday bash starts with an unexpected guest dropping in.
Cast of Characters:	April O'Neil, Terry O'Neil, Harley Quinn

---

April O'Neil has posed:
April had come home to the flower arrangement of petals leading into the apartrment and in to her bedroom where she was given a gift of a brand new STARKPAD. She'd been unable to keep the smile off of her lips from the message left by Harley and she'd gathered up the fancy bit of tech to sit on the edge of the bed to play with it. Harley's shopping spree had been a wild one and there was a lot of new clothes laying around her bedroom, in and out of the shopping bags they'd been brought in inside of.

Stand up, April removes her jacket and hoodie and takes the tablet computer in to the living room now, stepping out of her shoes she walks over toward the sofa to drop down on it and put her feet up on the edge of the coffee table to wiggle her toes while she stares at the fancy new tech toy... with even more bags of clothes and accessories on the table and the sofa!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
SOMEWHERE IN THE CARIBBEAN


Terry woke up a few hours ago. It couldn't be said that hi rest was uncomfortable, but the aftermath of it is introducing him to the trouble of having fur already. Sand in your fur, man, it's a drag.

More importantly, he is how maaaaany miles away in the middle of beautiful nowhere. And no phone.

And he doesn't know if Gar is okay or not. That is eating him up. And to make matters worse, it's April's birthday, and he is not there.

His bare feet kick at some sand, sighing. "How the hell am I going to get back home?" he wails. Nobody knew where he was, nobody knew he wa lost, and nobody was looking right now. And, what's worse, they'd be looking for the red-headed human, not the...

He check his fur.

.... not the salmon-and-red colored humanoid cat!

"How DID I get here?" he says to himself. Yes. He's talking to himself. No soccer ball needed, really, when you're on a deserted island. He remembered things- like how he desperately wanted to get to the man who was about to kill Garfield. He remembers the yearning, it was almost like a *pull*. And then, when he was about to die from fallitude (maybe? Did his new form land on its feet?) he really, really wanted to be somewhere else. And he was.

He frowns, hoisting up the cargo shorts. He has managed to tear a hole in the back for the tail, but he may have made the hole too big.

He looks over the ocean, which looks like a fricking beautiful postcard right now. Funny, he's always wanted to vacation somewhere like this, and right now he can't wait to get off the damned place.

Maybe.... maybe if he tried really focusing on that feeling? Intensity. He looks over the horizon and tries to think real, ,real hard about Gar. About April. About New York. Metropolis.

"There's no place like home... there's no place like home..." he smirks "There' no place like HO---"

The ground beneath his feet is not solid anymore. Jarringly, the world wooshes past and lands him somewhere hard and uncomfortable.

Namely, April's floor. A few feet from the coffee table and sofa.

There is suddenly a muscular feline humanoid in cargo shorts in April's apartment. Having landed on his ass the only thing that comes out of his mouth is:


"... ow ..."

April O'Neil has posed:
April does the first thing that anyone does on a brand new device. She starts installing apps. All her favorites. One by one she starts to click the button that makes the little animated wheel start to spin. As she does this she gets the first one going, a music app, some sweet tunes start to play.

So when the feline man just suddenly POPS OUT OF NOWHERE and lands on the middle of her living room floor, April is just sitting on her sofa on her big birthday and singing along to some music while waiting for Harley to get home from wherever the heck Harley is now.

"I set fire, to the raaain, watched it pour as I--- HOLY SHIT!" She jumps straight up on to the sofa and stands up with one foot on the back and both of her hands on the STARKPAD, raising it up to use it as a CLUB IF SHE HAS TO!

"Who the fuck are you?!" All bets are off with language when someone just suddenly falls on her floor. "And why do you look like that?!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry blinks. couple of times. The last time April threatened to bludgeon him with something, it was that sleepover they had when he grabbed her spare underwear, soaked it thoroughly and put it in the freezer. They had the best sleepovers.

"April, chill, chill! It's a long story and your arms are gonna get tired if you keep them like that, okay?" he says, arms going up to shield his head. "It's me, Terry! It's Terry, your cousin! And I don' know why I look like this!"

He pauses for a second. "Actually I think I might know..."

April O'Neil has posed:
April is a perceptive person, even if she's wearing frozen underwear, and it doesn't take but a few words spoken from the cat-man for her to realize that that voice is a voice she recognizes. But, he also quickly identifies himself... so there's a twitch of her arms as she takes a second, but ultimately lowers the STARKPAD down to hold it in front of her.

She remains standing on the sofa for now though.

"Terry?" She asks, her eyes now squinting at him. The sunlight from the windows along the wall behind the sofa are illuminating Terry quite brightly, but April is in the shadow since her back is to them. This lets her get a goooood look at him.

She quickly steps off of the sofa and sets the gift from Harley down on one of the bags filled with designer clothing.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself in to now? You look like... well..." April puts her hands on her hips then and she stares flatly at him, her tone goes flat too. "Terry, I know you said you wouldn't go see Cats with me back in December, but this is a little extreme." She reaches out to tug at his fur. "Where'd you get this costume? It's legit..."

Harley Quinn has posed:
Enter one Harley Quinn, "April, I know its ya birthday an' everything - Hey Terry - But I was thinkin' we'd jus' oahdah out." The dolled up Clown Princess pushes the door open backwards, spins on her heels to close it with her foot, and pads across the living room right past Terry without even batting an eyelash, "I see ya went all in wit ya little furry puberty problem... good foah you, good foah you."

Super cash.

She's carrying take away boxes from one of those expensive high end Thai places, which she sets down on the table. "Imma take the boys out foah a walk... this-" Motioning around with extended fingers, "-is a family issue, an' while I'm an unlicensed psychological professional, I don't do couples yet."

She winks, gently leans over to kiss April's cheek. "Happy birthday, glad ya like the gift, I got the extend't warrantee cus yer proclivities towahds usin' household objects as bludgeonin' weapons." Sharp turn, "BUD! LOU! Get ya cut butts out heah, we needa give these two some time alone..." Side glancing Terry, "Does ya peenah have hair on it too? Ya know what, don't answah that... I'll go.. Enjoy the food." Leashing up the hyenas, she leads them towards the door with a quick stop for them to rub up against April's leg and sniff her crotch. "Cut that out.. ya pervs. Sorry, babe.. back soon!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I look like the centerfolds of Cat Fanciers magazine, is what I look like," Terry says, "And it's not a costume. It's the real thing. April... I'm...." he spreads his hands, "There's something I haven't told you. For... the last year and a half or so, I've been trying to find out who dad was."

The saga of Agatha O'Neil was a sordid tale, alright- at least, it was for Grandma O'Neil who, bless her, came from a strict Catholic background and simply could not abide that one of her two graddaughters had 'gotten herself knocked up!' at seventeen.

The fact that she didn't marry the guy and chose to have Terry out of wedlock was the final blow, and the reason Agatha O'Neil was disowned.

Not that Agatha, or her sister, took that much to heart, since Terry and April saw quite a bit of each other growing up. June, too, but he was never a close to her as he was with April.

"Well, I suspect that dad was-"

And then Harley Quinn happens. It doesn't surprise him at all that she is not surprised at all, and yet, there is always so much to Harley, that even the most unflappable can't help but be flapped. And right now Terry's anxiety levels are so high, he is as flappy as a flag in high summer.

He blinks a couple of times and watches Hurricane Harley go through the room, and then leave.

With the look of someone utterly lost, he looks to April and says "... what was I saying?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April has her hands back on her hips as Terry starts to explain his tale, and what a tale it is! (tail jokes are TIGHT). She's about to say something when the door opens and Harley rushes in and starts to speak up. It's hard for April to take her eyes off of her cousin in this moment due to his... new appearance, but if anyone can get April's eyes off of that new development right now, it's her roommate Harley.

"I uh..." April stammers a bit when the cheek kiss comes in and she just accepts it and keeps standing there.

The two Hyenas rushes past her out of her bedroom and the other out of her office where she setup pet beds for both of them to lay on. When the trio of Quinns's leave the apartment, April looks back to Terry.

"Something about your dad?" She asks Terry, giving him a once over now and trying to get the thoughts out of her head that Harley had just unceremoniously implanted within.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It is such a good thing that fur hides any blushing whatsoever. He exhales. "Right... Stuff i've been finding out is that dad apparently brought a 'monster' and attacked gangsters and mobsters with it. Well..." he looks down at his clawed hands, "Ape I've been... experiencing things for the last year and a half. Dad didn't have a monster. He /was/ the monster. What's worse..." he shakes his head and crosses his arms, "When I... transformed into this, I started getting memories. They're not mine, and yet..."

He starts pacing the room. "It's crazy. It's absolutely fucking crazy, Ape. I see a little girl in a pinafore asking me which way to go. There's a woman shouting about beheading people." He turns to look at April, intensity in his eyes. "I know what it means. But it can't. Be. It's. NOT. possible."

April O'Neil has posed:
April looks down at that clawed hand also. This is heavy, as Marty McFly would say. This is a lot to take in, as a whore would say (what has Harley done to me?).

"Hold on." April says as she looks back up to her cousin. "Here, sit down." She motions toward one of the sofa chairs and moves some of the bags off of it so that Terry can sit if he wants. "Your dad was a... monster... fighter mobsters?" She asks then. "Do you want a drink?" She asks. "It's my birthday and I got a bunch of alcohol. Vodka and cranberry? Anything?" She starts to walk toward the kitchen to get herself something either way. She took tomorrow off because she planned to get drunk tonight. This is only helping that desire.

"Terry." April says as she's in the kitchen getting her drink. "I don't know how you manage to end up in situations like this, but you always do. And it still doesn't explain how you just appeared out of NO WHERE in my LIVING ROOM."

April is getting used to weird things in her life. From the Turtles and Splinter, to the Foot Clan and... Beebop and Rocksteady? (thank god they're MIA of late). To Harley, Bud and Lou Quinn now liaving in her apartment.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry takes the proferred seat, careful ot to sit on his tail. "I ... yeah. It' more than that, Ape. I think I know what dad wa now, and... it's too crazy to say out loud."

He closes his eyes and looks like he's about to cry for a moment. "I don't know how exactly I got here. Yesterday the Titas reformed and stopped those echanical spiders that were atttacking. Gar got hurt... I... turned into this, and then I saved him. But I coered the space between us in an ... impossible way. I just wanted to be there... and I was. Then I was somehow in the caribbbean Maybe. And then when I woke up, I wanted to be here. I wanted to see you. .See Gar. And next thing I know, I am here."

He exhales "Ape, what am I going to do looking like this?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April comes back with two drinks, because even if Terry doesn't want the second one, she does. She does offer it to him though before she sits down on the edge of the coffee table so that they can be close to one another. She takes a sip from her drink and then reaches her hand out to place it on his wrist, his fuzzy fuzzy wrist.

"Terry." She says to him then cause she can see his mania is dying down and the reality of whatever he's going through is setting in. "This sounds like some kind of dormant mutation that has woken up in you. I've heard of it happening befor eon my podcast. I've had mutants call in and tell me stories like this, like you're telling me now."

Another sip of red vodka is taken. She then shakes her head. "I didn't know the Titans had reformed. But I only just got home, I haven't checked my messages." She says that last part a bit quickly and dismissively because it's beside the piont.

"Look." She restarts. "What you're going to do is use my phone, call Gar, tell him where you are and that you're okay. You're then gonna get back with the Titans and figure this out. They got connections, right? To just about anyone with a brain wired well enough to figure this... all out." She doesn't want to call it a 'problem' because that would be wrong.

"If your dad was going through the same thing? He figured it out, probably, I mean right? I never saw him looking like this." Quickly her eyes wander over him again. "So he figured out how to turn it off, which means you can too."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"That's the thingg, Ape. You never saw myd ad." Terry looks down. "That... that was mom's boyfriend at the time. I guess she found it convenient to tell everyone it was him. My real dad..." He shakes his head, "He disappeared before I was born. I didn't know the truth until after I graduated from highschool."

He stands up, looking flustered. "No... no. You know, Harl knows, Colette knows... but we're not telling the rest. Not yet. I need... I need to sort it out. April, this isn't just a mutation. I have memories. Someone else's memories, but they're also *mine* somehow."

April O'Neil has posed:
April shifts her weight from buttock to buttock on the edge of the coffee table and she takes another sip of her vodka and cranberry while she listens to him further explain. "Shit." She softly says. "I never knew that about your father, no. I always thought..." Exactly like he said, she thought the boyfriend was the father.

April gives his wrist a soft squeeze again before dropping it down to hold her glass between both hands. "You take all the time you need. Whatever has gone on, has happened for a reason. I believe that about all of this kind of stuff. I believe that people get themselves in to situations like this for a reason, Terry. I don't know what..." She searches his features over for a quick second. "What all of this is about, or what not, but you just teleported into my apartment, Terry. Who knows what else you're capable of right now."

There's a brief pause then from the birthday girl.

"You just hang out here today then, we'll relax. Harley will be back in a few and we can order some food in. Just sit here and unwind, whatever you wanna do. Whoever you wanna call, or not call, we'll take care of it."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Ape, I can't... Gar was hurt. I need to see him." He freezes and queezes April's hand. "But not like this. Ffu--"

Terry starts pacingg the room, hands behind his back. "What I can do? God, I wih..." He pauses suddenly, as if a new idea ha loded into his brain. "What I can do. That's a very good point. We don't know what I can do."

He glances over to the bathroom, door open., and walks into it carefuly.

Carefully because you never know what you might find in there, what with Harley being Harley. He look at the mirror and his reflection. "God, I look so weird. I'm orry I'm ruining your birthday, Ape...."

April O'Neil has posed:
April stands up when Terry goes in to the bathroom because she's pretty sure he's not going in there to steal her toilet paper. She stands by the door and then peaks inside to watch him peering at himself in the mirror. "You're not ruining anything. I didn't have big huge plans. It's not like my twenty first." That was a big party and Terry would've definitely been there for it.

She takes a sip from her drink again before looking at the side of his face. "I like it." She tells him, before smiling. "Seriously. You look like one'a the cartoon characters I used to love when I was little." Another sip.

"Just call Gar." She pleads with him now. "Not like he can see you right now over the phone anyway. Your voice sounds the same, not even slightly different."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Heh, I rememberr that one," Terry says of that party, "Freddie ended up in the pool in his underwear. God, I had the hots for him.." Pause. "He was such an idiot. Soo was I."

"I... can't call him. I lost my phone in the scuffle... I could swing by the tower... but not like this." He exhales and stares att himself in the mirror. "April, I'm just gonna go out and say it, and it's too crazy, you can ask Harl to get a room for me at Arkham"

He turns around to look at April.

"My dad was the Cheshire Cat..."

April O'Neil has posed:
April shakes her head at her cousin's reaction. "Oh stop." She says as she turns around and starts to walk back toward the living room furniture. "Harley can't get people rooms at Arkham, because if she could that place would be filled to the brim with just about everyone she meets. I'm pretty sure anyway. Maybe even /me/." She says this while going to her room to get her phone out of her jacket pocket. Once she returns she sits back down on the sofa and calls out to him.

"Gimme Gar's number, I'll text him." She says once she's settled down with her feet up again similar to how she'd been when Terry had first APPEARED in her apartment. She takes another sip from her drink. "I'll text Freddie too if you'd like, let him know you're interested." She's teasing now, of course.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't know it... I have it saved on my phone. Which is missing. With the footage. Crap!" He bangs lightly on the sink and hurrrrs, "Miss Lane's going to have kittens when I how up empty-handed." He looks at himself in the mirror, and frowns. "None of my shirts are going to fit, damnit." He could see that his shoulders were much broader now. "And I'm going to have to cut a hole in all of my pants." For the tail. "I am so not ready for this, Ape. My life is a madhouse and it's being run by the inmates."

A madhouse. He sighs and rubs his chin. It feels weird, feeling fur everywhere. "Mad." And then, with a slight smirk, he says something that comes to his mind, because it's very a propos. "We're all mad here."

And suddenly, there is a breeze and a bright purple flash from the bathroom, and Terry's startled cry.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is just looking down at her phone and reading the messages while also listening to Terry talk. She's quietly saying 'Uh huh' to him until she hears him say cut holes in his pants. This makes her look up, but a second later he explains and she softly says. "Oh. Whew." and looks back down to her phone. "Ya know these damn phones of ours make it a lot harder to remember numbers then it probably used to be for people." She says just before she sees the flash out of the corner of her eyes and the shout.

Quickly the reporter stands up and she starts to walk back toward the bathroom. "Terry?" She calls out as she moves to peer inside of it again. "What the hell was that?!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I think I've just discovered something," Terry says with a rather shaky voice.

It's the human redhead standing in front of the mirror now. The cargo shorts are gone, and he is wearing the clothes he was wearing yesterday. They are somewhat dirty, as if they had been through a war zone.

He touches his face and turns his head this way and that. No fur.

"I'm... I." He turns away from the mirror to face April. "Apparently... I have an off switch."

April O'Neil has posed:
Upon arriving, and hearing this, April pushes the door open a little further and she motions toward him with her phone holding hand. "See?!" She says. "You did it!" She's all smiles now for seeing her cousin as she knows him and is most used to. "You figured it out!" But then her smile fades fast and she narrows her stare a bit. "How did you figure it out?" She asks. "It isn't something weird is it? Like farting? If you have to fart to change forms, then I'm going to be really weirded out, more than I already am."

She takes another sip of her drink then and it's likely that her drink is making her a little more loose in the tongue than she normally would be, though Terry's probably seen her drunk more than anyone in the world has.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's... a phrase. A catchphrase, I guess. My signature one, if I'm supposed to be the Cheshire cat." He looks at himself in the mirror, relieved to see himself again. "I wonder."

He turns away from the mirror and looks at April.
"We're all mad here."

An nothing happens.

"So when I said it, I was here..." he puts his hands on either side of the sink, "And I looked in the mirror and said 'We're All Mad Here.'"

A purple aura covers Terry, coruscating across his entire body, glowing here and there with iridescent flashes of a multicolored rainbow. It takes two seconds, and then what is left is the Cheshire cat again.

"... okay. Mirrors are a thing that are involved, I guess..." he looks at April, "Which fits. If you think about it."

April O'Neil has posed:
"The Cheshire Cat?" April says in response as she watches him turn around and try his catch phrase. When it doesn't work, she looks more confused at him. "You mean from Alice in Wonderland?" She asks then, even though it's obvious.

When he turns back to the mirror and tries it again, April's eyelids flutter as she watches it work this time and the display is quite impressive. "Holy shit." She gasps lightly.

"Terry..." She says, seeing him back in that form. "Wait!" She turns and hustles out of the bathroom doorway and then back across her apartment.

When she returns to him she thrusts her hand out and offers him a compact mirror that used to belong to her mother, encased in sterling silver. "Does it work on tiny ones like this one?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
He grabs the mirror with a hand, careful not to scratch it with his claws. He sheathes the claws and hmms. "Well, there's one way of finding out, isn't it?"

He holds the mirror up, looking into it. Two green eyes with slitted pupils look back as he takes a breath and says:

"We're All Mad Here."

There's the flash, and the light, and then there's a Terry, holding a mirror and looking decidedly human.

"Yep." He hands the mirror back to April, an eyebrow raised. "My dad was the Cheshire cat. And I'm taking this way too calmly. I should be freaking out. I'm probably in shock and it'll catch up to me later today."

April O'Neil has posed:
April watches it work and a broad grin strokes across her lips. "Thats so cool." She says as she sees it work. She accepts the silver mirror back and snaps it shut again. "You gotta get like a buncha these and carry them around with you." She states to him before taking another sip from her drink. April was always like this, Terry knows that, she always wanted to have powers and be a 'super hero', so he'll know she's likely far more in to this than he might be.

"So Alice in Wonderland was a true story? Or... based on one maybe?" She shakes her head softly. "I'm not chasing any white rabbits, Terry." She states with another littler grin at her cousin. "So you can turn into this colorful... cat, and you can teleport... like huge distances. What else? I don't remember what the Cheshire Cat could do, other than smile and kinda creep me out."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I have, like, absolutely no idea, to be honest. I punched a spider robot and it glowed purple and keeled over. I'm not entirely sure what I /can/ do, but maybe..." he pauses, and then looks at April with a smirk.

"Well, maybe my favorite cousin and her chaos hurricane of a room-mate might be able to help me discover it." The redhead walks out of the bathroom, rubbing his shirt and looking at the soot from the explosion. "I'm filthy. I should go change..." he looks up, "I need to go see if Gar is okay. I... he's sort of my. I mean, it's nothing official. And I don't know if he's decided that. Well. If. He and I are sort of." Pause. "We kissed."

April O'Neil has posed:
April sees Terry walk out and fuss with his shirt, she hears him say that last part about kissing Gar and it just makes her start to tear up-- which could also be the alcohol. But either way she walks toward him and puts her arms around him to giving him a squeezing hug whether he likes it or not. "You know that we'll help you." She tells him while hugging. "Whatever you need." She pulls back, still misty eyed and then motions toward her bedroom.

"I got some of Casey's clothes in there, clean, don't worry. There's some hockey jerseys and some tshirts, and jeans. Take whatever you want or need." Another sip of said drink is had and April moves to sit her butt down on the arm of a sofa chair. "This is all so exciting, Terr. But we really need to find your dad. He'd have all the answers."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry hugs April back. "Ape..." he says quietly as he squeezes her, "I'm gettin' soot all over ya."

When she breaks the hug, he nods "I'll get something quick on. I just- I just don't want to tell Gar /yet/ about this. There's things I want to figure out yet..." such as what, exactly, he can do. He vanishes into the bedroom and he comes out in record time, wearing a hockey jersey and a pair of jeans that are kind of tight. He guesses Casey must like a good fit.

"On that other thing... I don't think we're going to find my father," he says quietly as he adjusts his jersey and puts his wallet in his pocket. "At least, I'm pretty sure. If ... one of those memories is what I think it is."

April O'Neil has posed:
By the time Terry comes back out in new clothes, April is back on her sofa with her feet up again. She looks up at him as he comes out in the jersey and jeans and she grins. "Look at you. Like a sexier Kevin Smith." She teases him before glancing back down to her phone to stare at it while listening again--a common trait these days!

"Wait." She states then as she looks back up. "You're not saying that this is one of those things where... you got this... power, becuase your real father, passed on, are you?" She asks then. "I've heard of things like that, power inheritance. I definitely didn't get any such thing when mine--Yeah." She trails off her words then.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't... I don't know. Tail for another time, though," Terry says, trying to steer away from the gloom. "It's your birthday. Tell you what- I'm going to go see Gar and make sure he's ok, talk with Colette, and then I'll be back here. We'll order pizza and I'll make tiramisu and we'll watch movies, and I imagine Harl will join at some point and we'll end up in the middle of a high-speed chase somewhere, and balloon animals will somehow be involved." He smirks.

April O'Neil has posed:
April laughs at the balloon animals part and she holds up her phone. "Want me to get your a Uber somewhere? I'll pay for it." She offers him. "When you do come back, just expect to find Harley and I here pretty drunk." She needs to find time to see the Turtles too, they said that they wanted to come by at some point... but thats going to be tricky since neither Terry nor Harley have been introduced to that side of her life. It's still a fairly new side of her life for that matter. Everything that happened with them happened last fall, they'd come out of no where to save her and the encounter with the Shredder unfolded there-after...

"I gotta hear what Gar says about all of this now too, and I need to meet the rest of them sometime too." She adds as she pulls up an app to call for the uber anyway!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I'm not going to tell Gar. Not yet. But I will. Soon. Ish." Terry smiles, "Sure, call me an Uber. And when I come back, I expect both of you to be drunk. I'll buy the pizza tonight- my treat, in repayment for the uber. I sure hope someone has found my phone, because I had some damned good footage in there."

And, Uber on its way, he hugs April and says "I'll be back!" and heads out the door to get a ride back to his apartment. He can take his car to the tower.