To Rix_Scaedu‘s prompt and Kelkyag‘s prompt.
After Kitten Troubles and Auntie Kitty
Aunt Family have a landing page here.
“Well?” The Siamese kitten sat primly down on the edge of Beryl’s bed and began grooming a paw.
“Well?” Beryl stared at the kitten. Physically, she looked like any other kitten. But her voice, such as it was…
“Well?” Radar echoed. He seemed as uncomfortable with the whole thing as Beryl was.
::Well?:: Her necklace wanted to get in on this, too, and that was just too much. Beryl took the necklace off and put it – him? – in the silk-lined box she’d found for moments like this.
“Well.” The kitten looked between Beryl and Radar. “What can you do for me?”
Before Beryl could manage to respond to the small thing’s giant arrogance, Radar had arched his back and hissed at the kitten before batting her hard three times with his paw.
“We.”
“Are.”
“Their.”
“Friends.”
The kitten cowered, ears flat. “We’re cats.” There wasn’t much fight left in her voice, and she was mewling unhappily out loud. “We’re cats.” She repeated herself as if the words meant more to her than they did to Beryl.
“We are their friends.” Radar sat back and began washing his paws. “We are more than cats, my feisty daughter.”
“Don’t call me that.” Her ears were raked back again, and now the kitten looked as if she would try hissing at her father.
He was unimpressed. “It’s what you are. A feisty feline.” He seemed to like the sound of that. “And their friend.”
“Why?”
Radar glanced at Beryl. She, other than getting her hands out of the way of two angry cats, had chosen to stay as still as possible. This wasn’t really her business, not yet.
“That’s what we were made for.”
“You might have been made. I was born.”
“Well.” Radar did the cat equivalent of a shrug, and washed another paw. “Someone made you. Someone made you, and you were made from a kitten I sired. I was made to be their friend. And thus… you are their friend, too.”
“Or?”
Radar showed all his teeth to the kitten. “There is no or.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/529730.html. You can comment here or there.
Oooof. Radar, not winning any parenting awards. Made, huh?
Made *nods* I thought you might appreciate a little more on this storyline. Also… he is a cat.
He is a cat; they are cats. It’s less the hissing and batting and more the “you have no choice but to follow my path” that bugs me. He was made; he’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t know why/how she came to be what she is. Why shouldn’t she be free to strike her own bargain with Beryl and/or the family, or find another path? But perhaps that’ll get covered in the next few segments. (I’m also not sure what sort of mental/emotional age to expect of her — physically she’s obviously very young.)
Aaah! That makes sense. I’m not sure, either; she keeps throwing Beryl for a loop.
Perhaps he has cause to worry about what the alternatives might be?
Quite possibly, but he’s said he doesn’t know. And hissing at her is unlikely to change whatever magic(?) made her. Figure out why she is what she is and what the implications are first.
He might…
(Watching with interest.) The Doctor notes: Two tos + too → to + two toos. Two o’ “o”: Her necklace wanted to get in on this, too, and that was just
totoo much.argh.
Was link-surfing through the related stories, and found that there’s one called ‘Boy Trouble’ that’s locked on dreamwidth. Did you mean for it to be?
It was probably donor-locked as a perk. I can unlock it, just give me a mom.