Face the Blood - Doreen & Catseye: Tag, you're it!

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

In the Red X Camp, two ferals enjoy a game of tag with the local children, proving some things really don't have borders.

Doreen had only ever been out of the country when going on skiing trips to the Alps with her family. They had done it once or twice, when they didn’t go to Colorado. Even so, this wasn’t like the resort towns in Switzerland and she hadn’t done anything with her family like that in two years. This was completely new.

But kids, at least, always seemed to be the same.

They ran around and were playing tag, a game Doreen joined in, despite her tail being a target nine times out of ten. And she wasn’t the only one playing games at the moment.

Catseye bounded around after the children in cat form, chasing them. She didn't mind being 'it'. The children had seemed uneasy around the purple cat at first, which had been the start to their game of tag, with them trying to avoid her. They had warmed up to her quickly enough, however, and now when they squealed at her proximity it was because she was close to making them 'it', not because she was purple. Changing direction mid-leap, she overcame Dori and tagged her classmate triumphantly on the tail.

Doreen squeaked and then laughed. She loved kids. When a little kid stared and a little kid asked questions, it was because they were really curious, not because they were trying to be mean. And now she was it, and it was an excuse to chase after little kids. She held back, not running as fast as she could, or not jumping as high as she could to make it fair.

“I’m going to get you!” she said brightly, more intent at this point of tagging Catseye back. Chasing after the other kids was just a fun diversion, “Tail shots shouldn’t count!” she said brightly.

Catseye dodged in front of some of the children, careful to stay out of Dori's reach and essentially using them as a wall between herself and her classmate. She didn't mind being 'it', but it was much better not to be 'it'. She bounded among the children with bouncy leaps forward, almost comically high, unaware that her performance was slowing her down.

There weren’t many situations in which you could say a squirrel was pouncing a cat, but this was one of them. Catseye was slowing down a bit, and Doreen to the opportunity to jump for it, and jumping and aiming the tag were two things she was very good at. She was giggling insanely as her jump sent her flying towards Catseye.

Shifting into girlform, Catseye somersaulted out of the way in a move that a cat couldn't do very effectively. Danger Room sessions were paying off. "SquirrelGirl can't catch Catseye, nyah!" she taunted, swishing her tail. She grabbed up a child around his middle. "Here, SquirrelGirl can have this one! Tag him!" The boy squealed in protest- even if he couldn't understand her language, he seemed to understand that she was offering him up as bait- and wriggled in her arms. Catseye giggled, nuzzling his neck with her nose affectionately before setting him down and taking off again, waving her arms at the children.

Doreen landed easily on the ground, “Hey, that’s cheating! You’re not allowed to use the kids like that!” Doreen said, laughing. Her tone wasn’t angry at all. She patted the kid on the head when Cats set him down, but made clear that wasn’t a tag by going again after Catseye, laughing hard. “I’m gonna get you!”

The purple-haired girl made a show of being tired, even though she wasn’t, panting and putting her hands on her knees so that Dori would be able to catch her.

Doreen took the chance that seemed much to open. It did raise her hairs a bit, but this was a game, so she knew it was just for fun. She jumped for Cats, laughing as she fell towards the catgirl.

Letting herself be tagged, Catseye took off like a shot towards the other children, waving her arms menacingly once again. She bypassed the one missing his right foot but hobbling along gamely with the others, too easy a target, and caught up a little boy around the waist, turning him upside down. "You're it!" she crowed, then put the boy on her shoulders. "Let's catch SquirrelGirl!" She gripped his legs firmly and took off towards Dori, whooping. The little boy whooped as well as they gave chase.

“Eee!” Doreen squeaked and laughed, running away towards a lone tree, “Safety, the tree is safety!” she shouted. She lunged for it. “Safety!”

The little boy on her shoulders directed Catseye to turn with his knees, as if she was a horse or camel, going after the one-legged child. Catseye swooped in low so the boy on her shoulders could tag the other one, then pulled him off her shoulders and pulled the minefield victim up instead, letting him direct her to chase the other children as they waited Dori out.

It didn’t take long for Doreen to decide she’d much rather be on the ground chasing the kids back and forth. She climbed up to a good jumping branch and made a running leap from the tree, landing smack in the middle of the kids.

The boy on Catseye's shoulders reached out and tagged Dori when she swooped down, and Catseye took off in the other direction with him still on her shoulders to avoid being tagged back.

“Oh no!” Doreen exclaimed, overly dramatically and went through this process of ‘dying’ that was so overdone it was comical, “I’ve been got!”