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 Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:00 am
Kathryn was back at the park. She'd traveled here twice so far in her feline state and found it just a little easier to maneuver about. It was easy to lose oneself in the crowds or hide in the shadows and escape detection from say the city's animal control group. You can't be caught if you can't be seen. Kathryn had found the perfect spot to people watch from as well. A grassy knoll gave the brown-coated cat the best vantage point. She could people watch and at the same time be alerted if anyone tried to sneak up on her. A win-win scenario.
Gazing down though on the various people pulled at Kat's heart. She wanted to be down there mingling. But the issue was a moot point. She couldn't mingle freely in this form. Maybe though there would be someone else she could talk to. Another cat perhaps.
Ears swiveling Kathryn directed her gaze to a small flock of birds flying nearby. What exactly would bird taste like? She gave her chest a quick grooming before she lay down. She was miserable, alone and hungry. This was turning out to be a long day.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:10 am
During the day Athene's preferred spot in the park was the bench that he'd mentally dubbed as his – the bench third away from the wire gates leading into the park. It made a great lounging spot from which to people watch and it was close to the gates – which meant that it was close to the bakery – or at least the bakery and hence kitty breakfast was a short-ish trot away from the park gates.
When Athene came trotting back from his morning routine of getting bits of bread roll from the cupcake bakery, he found that his lounging spot had been stolen by a couple of teenagers in the time it had taken for him to nibble down his breakfast and get back to the park.
Which meant that finding a new people watching spot was in order. The kiddy playground was out, there were a few kids playing in there and Athene had found out – the hard way – that little kids and kitties didn't necessarily match. In fact his little tail throbbed in pained memory just thinking about it.
A grassy knoll up above seemed like a good alternative – nice and high – and away from any little kids who might want to tug tails, so the dark-eared cat found his paws trotting in that direction.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 6:32 pm
It was a good place to have staked out. Kathryn had curled up a little to make herself less noticeable to those below. She had ignored the frustration when the birds she'd tried stalking had flown off. Returning to her position had been the only viable option. She cursed her predicament. She had no idea how to "act cat" long enough to even scrounge morsels from those below. Apparently she failed as a cat.
Instead of wallowing in her growing sense of depression Kathryn gave a very human-like sigh before giving her senses free reign. Her ears caught a myriad of sounds from below and her nose pulled in all manners of smell. Very carefully Kathryn tried sifting through the information that she was receiving. A hot dog vendor was yelling in anger as the food he'd been careful to prepare was discovered burning. The acrid stench of burnt meat made her nose wrinkle. A soft whisper of movement in the grass caught her attention. Apparently something was making its way towards her location. Inhaling again she identified that it was another animal. The softness of the footfalls pointed towards another feline.
Kat rose to her feet and turned her body so that she would not be surprised. Calmly she sat down. Her gaze narrowed on the location where she assumed the visitor would appear from. Kathryn raised her paw and briefly licked at it before resuming a position of statue-stillness.
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:40 pm
It looked like Athene wasn't been the only cat to consider the knoll a good spot and when the dark-eared cat finally made it to the top, it was to find the knoll already occupied by a brown-coated cat – a brown-coated cat with a grey forehead star.
Athene's noticed the star almost immediately, grey eyes glancing at it curiously for a moment. Funnily enough, although cats with forehead stars weren't exactly ten-a-dozen, it wasn't the actual presence of the star that caught the senshi turned cat's interest. Athene had come across a few cats with forehead stars and all of them had been of the talking variety. Recently, however, none of the cats with forehead stars that Athene had come across had been actual guardian cats.
He looked at the star again before speaking “If you wouldn't mind me asking" the words were human, their tone polite. "Are you an actual guardian cat?” The other two cats with forehead stars had turned out to be senshi turned cats like him, but maybe this one was a guardian cat.
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:45 am
Kathryn watched as a dark-eared cat crested the hill. She stared at the newcomer with interest. The coloration of the cat's fur appeared to be green. The markings were also unusual. The gold star on the forehead puzzled Kathryn at first. She remembered that she too had a star on her head. She had caught a glimpse of the star that adorned it as she'd gone by reflective mirrors on the way here. However her's was gray ... like her eyes.
When the other cat spoke to her thought Kat's gray eyes registered surprise. She knew by the timbre of the other cat's voice that she was dealing with a male. The question that he asked threw her for a loop. What was a guardian cat? Kathryn gave a couple blinks of her eyes before managing to form a coherent line of thought. "What do you mean by an actual guardian cat? All I know is that one moment I was doing something seemingly normal and the next minute I'm a cat. I don't think I am what you think I am."
Kathryn turned her gaze to the people still milling around below their vantage point. A sadness reflected in her eyes as she continued to watch. Her voice floated softly towards her visitor. "Are you like me as well; a human turned cat?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:55 pm
“Sorry I meant cat-cat” Athene said awkwardly. The words were awkward because the dark-eared cat had been referring to actual guardian cats, but the brown-coated cat's obvious confusion at his question suggested that she wasn't a guardian cat – probably not a senshi either – a senshi probably would know what a guardian cat was, which meant that it probably wasn't a topic Athene was meant to discuss.
The brown-coated cat's second question was easier to answer, the dark-eared cat glumly looking at his bronze front-socks “Yes, one minute I was a person....” A sigh. “Next I'm wandering around on four paws and trying to avoid little kids with a fondness for tugging cat tails. It's kind of confusing.” And also something Athene was hoping wouldn't be permanent – he really didn't want to be stuck as a cat for the rest of his life.
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Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:56 am
Kathryn was all but ready to point out that the other cat had in fact said "guardian cat" but since he'd readily covered up the slip maybe it wasn't something to question until later when she was alone. Kathryn was content for the moment to just let it go. Something might crop up later in the conversation. Patience it seemed was the key.
As the other cat explained that he too had been a human before finding himself a feline Kathryn nodded. The experience rang true with what had happened to her as well. "I was the same. I'd been on my way to meet up with my room mate and had stopped along the way. One minute I was human - the next a cat. I've been keeping a low profile since. If people don't know you're around they can't pull tails," Kathryn gave a low chuckle. "Although with you unless the kids surprise you wouldn't it be rather hard for them to grasp it?"
Kathryn let her own tail wave around briefly before curling it back around her feet as if to make her point. "So who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:41 pm
“They surprised me” Athene's voice was embarrassed as he remembered being brought out of a pleasant daydream that had involved hot sausages by a yank on his stub of a tail. It had taught him a lesson – napping on the bench in the children's playground to nap equalled not a good idea... At least not while there was a chance kids were about.
“Oh I should have introduced myself first – my name's Athene. Please to meet you...” His voice tailed off as he waited to see if the other cat would let him know her name in turn.
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 12:45 am
Kathryn nodded at the confirmation that the other cat had indeed been surprised by kids. She let out a small snort of amusement before it turned into a purr. Perhaps it was unkind to do so but Kathryn couldn't help but see the humor in the situation. As the other cat identified himself she nodded. "It's nice to meet you Athene. You can call me Kathryn."
Unsure of what to do know that she'd introduced herself Kathryn turned her gaze to peer at Athene's star marking. The only other cat that she'd met so far had fur too dark to make anything out. However Benitoite had been relatively pleasant company. It was definitely something to try and puzzle out if she was going to be stuck like this for a while. For now though it looked like she had someone else she could talk to ... for a little while at least.
"So Athene - come here often?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:26 am
“It's nice to meet you too Kathryn.” Athene let himself flop on his paws since it looked like the other cat wasn't about to shoo him off and looked down on the people below. “To be honest I've been hanging around here as it's familiar. Things are kind of different when you're well um” he tried to think of a word and settled on “Cat-sized. Also it helps that there's a bakery nearby where the owner likes cats.”
He looked over at the brown-coated cat “How about you?” This was the first time that the dark-eared cat had spotted the other cat at the park, then again the knoll was pretty high up – maybe they just hadn't run across each other.
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:43 am
Kathryn copied Athene's example and lowered her body to the grass before giving what passed as a cat shrug. "Truth is - this is my first outing to the park in this form. I like coming here normally just as a place to relax and possibly gather my thoughts. Since it worked so well I thought I'd give it a chance in this form too." Kathryn's ears twitched at the sound of a loud motor passing by as she daintily licked at one of her paws. Public grooming. It seemed an odd enough activity if one was human. But as a cat - no one gave you a second look. Raising her paw she swiped it over her ear before returning her attention back to the tom in front of her. "I don't know if it is working though. My thoughts aren't really cooperating."
Hearing Athene talk about the bakery and its owner was nice she gave a small sound of disappointment. "It must be nice to have someone that reliable to count on for meals I guess. I definitely have seen a new side to some residents of the city," Kathryn paused as she tried to think of anything else to say. "Some haven't been too pleasant."
She fell silent after that. She'd let Athene draw his own conclusion to that statement.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 2:02 pm
“People can be mean” Athene agreed quietly. The dark-eared cat had had some run-ins of his own with that variety of person, they hadn't all been kiddy-sized. “I'm lucky I'm stumbled across the bakery lady.” He licked a paw, looked at for a bit and set it down before adding “It's on the same side of the road as the main gates leading out of the park, I'm sure she'd be happy to offer you breakfast too if you turn up.” The dark-eared cat didn't mind sharing. “That is if we're still cats.” Maybe something would happen before that and they would turn back to normal.
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Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:27 pm
Kathryn's ears twitched suddenly at the apparent sound of a motorcycle engine starting up. It was amazing just how much her senses had gone into overdrive with turning into a cat. Sometimes it was a little too overwhelming. She plastered her ears to her head before her eyes sought Athene's. She gave the equivalent of a cat shrug. "I think I'm still adjusting a little. But it sounds like you are doing alright Athene. You managed to ferret out someone who will feed you with no hesitation in this unfortunate situation."
Kat flicked her tail towards the other cat before sighing deeply. "I must admit I haven't been as lucky finding a stable source of food. I don't think my bad luck will continue for too long though. At least I hope it won't. I may have quite a tale to tell to my roommate when I see her next." Kat gave a thoughtful pause. "It is nice of you to share your source of food though."
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:43 pm
“I'll be glad when things go back to normal.” Athene admitted. “I don't want to get too used to being a cat.” That and it would be nice to go home again, to a proper bed and all the comforts of his cousin's apartment. Not that the senshi-turned-cat was looking forward to coming up with some sort of excuse to explain his sudden disappearance – somehow he didn't think that telling Saffy that he'd missed Thanksgiving because he'd turned into a cat would cut much ice with her – even if it was the truth.
He gave a feline shrug of his own at Kathryn's thanks, his attempt at an 'it's nothing really'. “Feel free to use it should you need it” Athene didn't really consider sharing a potential food source as that big a thing. “Maybe pass it on if you come across anyone else stuck as a cat.” The dark-eared cat wasn't sure how many cats that weren't cats there were, but he'd come across a couple – although both of them had been senshi.
Athene was content to stay where he was for the moment – having company was nice and the other cat had said nothing to indicate that his company was unwelcome. In time the dark-eared cat would probably move on to other places, but for now the knoll was a pretty neat place to hang out.
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