istandwithmycancelledwife | labyrinthium inbox

[ Surprise, there's a cat waiting for him by the Crystal, tail swishing behind her with a hint of irritated impatience. She wasn't kidding, she stands
out in a crow, especially when she's perched somewhere high. ]

[ He does take a while to get there – he lives kind of out of the way, so it's always a little bit of a schlep into town. It's true, though, that Catra is easy to spot. Kalim waves energetically as soon as he catches sight of her. ]

Hey!! You're, uhhh... Catra, right?

No, I'm some other cat with blue and yellow eyes hanging around here with nothing better to do.

[ There's a tiny pause, and then she hops down with a hint of a grin, walking a slow circle around him. ]

Yeah that's me, Kalim right, where are we going?

Edited 2024-11-12 02:02 (UTC)

[ The sarcasm rolls off him just as smoothly in real life as it did online. He doesn't even react, just grins at her like she was being polite and pleasant. ]

That's right! You still wanna check out the arcade?

[ A small part of her is thinking about how easy it would be to kidnap or take him out right here. He just met with some vague stranger in the middle of town by himself for no reason? Wild.

But then, he's right, there's no real reason to, here. Aside from maybe ransoming to Jamil. ]

Yeah, I wanna see what these things are if you say they're fun.

[ Not for no reason! There is a reason and it's Friendship :) ]

Cool, okay! C'mon!

[ He sets off down the street. He really isn't worried about anything happening to him in town for precisely that reason – why would anyone bother? It's pretty refreshing! ]

You really weren't kidding about standing out, haha! There are loads of beastmen at my school but I've never seen anyone with eyes like that!

[ Kamil would make a great Pony.

Catra's trailing along beside him, not quite close, but she's got this cool demeanor that settles in fairly quickly. ]

There are? What do they look like? I've not seen anyone quite like me. [ Well, there's that one catgirl, but still. ] Do they have fur as well, or are they like... almost full animal?

Oh, usually just on their ears and tails. Some of them have pointy teeth, too – unless they're, like, a horse beastman or something, ha ha! But apart from that they just look like everyone else, really.

Pfft... that's barely even close.

[ No fluff?! What's the point! All these half-assed furries out here. Her tail gives a few slow flickers while they walk. Occasionally glancing.. up? Yeah he's probably taller, at him with a faint side eye. Not huge on trust. ]

Where'd you come from, anyway?

Haha! Yeah, it would be pretty cute if they had fur all over too!

[ Kalim grins at her every time she shoots him a suspicious look. ]

Oh, and I live out in the woods! It's a little way out of town but it's nice living with my friends, haha.

Wha- don't call it cute! It's just fur!

[ Please Kalim that's embarassing- ]

Which way? [ Also hey, tell her where you live. That's a good and smart thing to do. ] and wait, you have more friends than just that minion of yours?

Fur is cute! It -- heyy. Jamil's not my minion.

[ :( ]

[ Oh good she distracted him, perfect. That conversation might have ended her. ]

Sorry, your hench-friend? Friend for Hire?
Anyway, how far's the arcade.

[ Kalim...pouts a little. This has clearly thrown him off; he's absolutely not as quick to recover his pep as before. ]

Oh, uh... It's not far. I think it's down this street...?

[ He takes the opportunity to turn away from her to get his bearings. ]

[ Oh- so there's a crack in his armour, huh? That's being noted down for later with a sly little cat smirk. If she were bored this would be a great chance to push his buttons a little more.

But! She does want to check out the arcade, and this is already one of the longest conversations she's had that's not been at least partially hostile. ]

You think? Hah- [ She lets out a bark of a laugh, stepping along to his side to look down the street with him, and then over, one brow lifting. ] Lets just go this way, if it's not there we might find something interesting anyway.

Haha, I always get directions mixed up when I come to town on my own...! Let's see... Okay, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this way!

[ He speeds up, grabbing her hand to pull her along. Let's hurry up and get to the arcade so we can talk about rhythm games instead of uhhhhh anything else! ]

Huh! Hey, Ah!

[ He almost gets claws in the back of his hand, briefly pressing along the back of his palm, wriggling to try and free it before she lurches forwards and gets tugged along. Quickly catching up.

Her hands are fluffy... ]

What's in an arcade anyway? You said games but... like what are they? Why are they fun?

[ Her hands are fluffy... 🥺 ]

Uhhhhhh it's easier to just show you! Hold on!

[ AT LAST HERE IT IS: THE ARCADE. Kalim is very pleased with himself for not actually getting lost. He drags Catra through the door. ]

[ Fluffy and dangerous. Truly the cat motto.

She steps inside and nearly freezes, eyes wide, ears folded back. It's loud, VERY loud for those cat ears, but t he lights and sounds and everything else are like an explosion of unfamiliar sights.

Catra's eyes go big and wide, tail flickering, and she glances around with quickly rising excitement. ]

Woah! That's a lot! What do we do first?!
What's that? [ She points to a spinning machine with a ball in a chute, and then to angled seats with steering wheels in front of them. ] And these!

[ Perhaps thankfully, all the more complex machines are on other levels. ]

[ Kalim is delighted. He wasn't actually totally sure she was going to be into this, but seeing that she is, he's thrilled. ]

Whatever you want! This is... Uhh, actually I haven't played that one before! But I think that's one where you pretend to drive a car? Haha! I'm still pretty new to this stuff, so we can try things out together!

Huh? What's a car? Anyway- there's so many other things!

[ Hey Kalim have you ever had to wrangles someone so excited they just couldn't stop? Sorry Catra's getting Zoomies. ]

Oh, and there's this one too! [ She points at a skeeball machine. ] And what's that?!

[ Again, pointing, at something that looks a bit like Taiko but copyright free. ]

[ Kalim has never played skeeball either, so he can't help her there. The last one, though – ]

Oh, I know this one! It's a rhythm game! It's kind of like playing an instrument, but it's a game!

Huh? How does that work.

[ Colour her curious, she's sneaking over and looking over the drums and the lights, there's a few instructions on the machine. ]

You just hit them? How's that an instrument?

[ The horde wasn't big on music. ]

[ He walks over after her, his hands clasped behind his head. ]

Mmm, well, have you ever played the drums?

Uhhh, no? We didn't really have instruments around.

[ She does spot the sticks connected to a cable though, lifting them up and giving them a little wave. ]

Can't be that hard though, right? I just use these?

Arcade Time

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