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xp_logsLiam and Match start to play video games. They're interrupted by continuing drama
Match had brought Milton gaming a number of times that week, leopard gecko in a travel cage held firmly on his lap to keep the plastic carrier heated properly, but today the lanky teen was alone as he fell into a seat on the couch. “What’re we playin today?” He asked Liam curiously, stretching because drawing back to rest his arms on his knees.
"Where's your tag- along?" Liam asked without thinking. Match could barely be parted with Milton and now he's missing and Match is unhappy? It didn't take a genius to put together that they're related. "Street Fighter?"
"Sounds good," Match replied automatically, cracking his knuckles preemptively. Flicking through the characters he put together what Liam was talking about. "Hm? Milton? I think I can leave him in my room again, and I'm glad, I was starting to worry I was stressing him out taking him everywhere"
Liam couldn't tell when someone was lying, not all the time, but this definitely didn't feel right. Match just seemed... off. He let it go through, selecting Chun-Li as his fighter. She was both good and cute! Best of both worlds. "I thought he was pretty chill, just hanging out all warm on you," Liam said instead. "I kinda liked him hanging out."
“It was nice, he does come to the office with me when I’m doing a research day, but I’d rather not potentially put him in a situation that’d get him developing stress habits. ‘s no good,” he commented with a nod, sure of his words as he finally settled on E. Honda. “He needs his own time to sleep and chill too, can’t take him running around the city when I’m looking for people… or their dogs.” Match offered as the thought occurred to him.
"Well yeah, but this is video games. I promise not to yell or whatever that might scare him," selecting a start, they game began and Liam's conversation have way to rapid button mashing.
“Yeah but I can’t promise that,” Match chuckled, mashing buttons on his own controller as he flicked the left analog to move while his character hit. “Anyway, Cats said she wouldn’t pretend to hurt him again, so I felt okay leaving him again.”
Liam stopped playing. "She did what?" he asked, certain he'd misheard. There was no way. Not after the chicken incident and her 'marriage' to Match.
The grin that had formed when he had been able to land a couple of hits slowly slipped into confusion as Match paused the game. “Huh? Oh, Cats pretended she ate Milton, it’s…. It happened, so I was bringing him everywhere but it’s all good.”
"That's.... no that's not cool. Why would she do that?" the why wasn't perhaps as important, but he couldn't help but ask it. "That's mean."
Match didn’t like this, a sigh was followed by a rise of the general bubble of heat around him. “She didn’t- yeah, it was but it’s fine, Liam, she said she wouldn’t do it again.” And he believed her. “Do you wanna keep playing or nah?”
"Nah," Liam shook his head. It was not fine and even if she said she wouldn't do it again, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. "I gotta go spray her with a water bottle."
Liam goes to exact justice for Match
Sharon found she could appreciate winter in the mansion. The heating system was surprisingly robust for such an old building, or at least it was if she confined herself to such areas where no exterior walls had been breached. The Rec Room was one such area. Currently she was availing herself to a comfortable hollow in one of the sofa cushions that was the perfect size to accommodate her smallcat form.
When someone entered the room Sharon didn't do so much as crack an eyelid. The scent told her it was only Liam. If he wanted an adjacent nap, fine. If not, this was also acceptable. Just as long as he didn't expect her to move.
Liam absolutely wanted a nap. Or maybe headache medicine. Either way, he wasn't getting any. Instead, he grabbed a nearby throw and quickly pounced, wrapping Sharon in the material quickly and holding her tightly.
The ensuing screech was muffled by the fabric, which also served as a handy buffer between Liam's skin and Sharon's claws. Despite the cat's thrashing she found herself tightly wrapped in the throw with only her nose exposed. Her attempt to shift was both instinctual and abortive. With the fabric pinning her on all sides her body had no space to expand. Spitting with fury, Sharon realized Liam had deduced her weakness: the purrito.
"Yeah, you messed up," Liam growled, his claws puncturing the blanket just enough that Sharon couldn't wiggle free. "There's apparently a time honored tradition here, for when people are this level of dumb. You know what it is?"
The noise from the blanket indicated two crucial points: first, that the occupant neither knew nor cared about the punishment, and second, that its first action upon release would be the commission of a murder.
Murder was fine. After punishment. "See, actions have consequences and I don't know what you thought would come from yours, but you're going to learn this lesson," he used his back to push open the doors to the indoor pool, the humidity immediately making everything gross.
The cat's screech dopplered behind her as her body drew a perfect arc from Liam's arms to the center of the pool. In the absence of Liam's claws the blanket that had restrained her came loose, and at the apogee of her flight Sharon instinctively shifted to her hybrid shape in an attempt to get all four legs beneath her. She did not quite register that the position of one's legs was rather immaterial when one was hurtling towards was a large body of water, nor that the only thing she accomplished by increasing her size was a commensurate increase in the surface area with which she struck it. Both facts registered just slightly too late.
There was a splash, and the yowl terminated in a furious burble.
Liam was prepared if Sharon didn't come up and swim.... which also meant he was in range for immediate retribution. He was okay with that. Getting tossed in the pool like that was plenty horrible. "You deserve that!" he yelled at her.
An instant later Sharon's head broke the surface spitting equal parts chlorinated water and ire. She thrashed around until she oriented herself to the direction of her target, pulled her lips back from a mouth full of truly impressive fangs, and snarled:
"Kitten will die!"
"Like Milton?" he asked, trying to stifle a laugh and failing, "Bring it." She was the definition of drowned cat.
Sharon, already paddling towards the edge of the pool, narrowed her eyes to yellow slits. "Milton? For this you assault me?" Her tail thrashed behind her like the fin of a great sea serpent. "Is no crime! Milton was untouched. Was prank only."
"It wasn't funny," Liam stared down at her, "If it was a prank, then it should be funny. You upset your husband for no good reason."
The twinge of guilt she felt was immediately redirected towards the side of the pool. Sharon sank her claws into the delicately textured tiles and pulled herself over the edge, dripping from every miserable follicle. With an evil glare at Liam the great cat shook herself. This freed her of some of the water, but the effect on her fur did not help her dignity.
"Was meant to be a cautionary action," she said. "The cost of association with the interloper must outweigh the benefit. I meant only to instill fear so husband would avoid future transgressions. Is failed experiment. Cost to husband's emotional stability was too high. A new strategy must be considered."
It took a minute for Liam to parse through all that, so he went to grab her a towel and tossed it at her face, "You....interloper? Are you serious?" God, what was her problem? "Sharon, no. Are you are insane? I don't even know where to begin to unpack that, but you gotta stop all this. You talk about how you don't have the social skills I do? Well. Here's a lesson."
At this clumps of fur began to bristle in matted triangles of rage. Sharon's tail lashed.
"I cannot trust this. Kitten has been compromised."
Rolling his eyes, Liam turned and left her there. Until she stopped acting like a fool, and hurting her friends, he was done. As he left, he made sure to flip her the bird.
"Collaborator!" Sharon snapped after him. "I have seen you fraternize with the enemy. This I excused as the fault of the Temptress, but I see now it is betrayal. Your company is unneeded. Your approval also."
Liam didn't look back. Sharon could have pounced him -- and his exposed back was definitely inviting -- but something stopped her. She told herself it was only that no matter how annoying, wrong, and annoyingly wrong the boy might be he was still unsettled by what he'd seen in District X, and as such he wasn't talking sense. It wasn't the uncomfortable little tug of doubt in the back of her mind, nor the memory of Match's face screwed up in a rictus of misery that she absolutely did not keep flashing back to just as she was drifting off to sleep. Absolutely not.
Alone, wet, and increasingly agitated for reasons even she didn't understand, Sharon stalked off to find a towel.
Match had brought Milton gaming a number of times that week, leopard gecko in a travel cage held firmly on his lap to keep the plastic carrier heated properly, but today the lanky teen was alone as he fell into a seat on the couch. “What’re we playin today?” He asked Liam curiously, stretching because drawing back to rest his arms on his knees.
"Where's your tag- along?" Liam asked without thinking. Match could barely be parted with Milton and now he's missing and Match is unhappy? It didn't take a genius to put together that they're related. "Street Fighter?"
"Sounds good," Match replied automatically, cracking his knuckles preemptively. Flicking through the characters he put together what Liam was talking about. "Hm? Milton? I think I can leave him in my room again, and I'm glad, I was starting to worry I was stressing him out taking him everywhere"
Liam couldn't tell when someone was lying, not all the time, but this definitely didn't feel right. Match just seemed... off. He let it go through, selecting Chun-Li as his fighter. She was both good and cute! Best of both worlds. "I thought he was pretty chill, just hanging out all warm on you," Liam said instead. "I kinda liked him hanging out."
“It was nice, he does come to the office with me when I’m doing a research day, but I’d rather not potentially put him in a situation that’d get him developing stress habits. ‘s no good,” he commented with a nod, sure of his words as he finally settled on E. Honda. “He needs his own time to sleep and chill too, can’t take him running around the city when I’m looking for people… or their dogs.” Match offered as the thought occurred to him.
"Well yeah, but this is video games. I promise not to yell or whatever that might scare him," selecting a start, they game began and Liam's conversation have way to rapid button mashing.
“Yeah but I can’t promise that,” Match chuckled, mashing buttons on his own controller as he flicked the left analog to move while his character hit. “Anyway, Cats said she wouldn’t pretend to hurt him again, so I felt okay leaving him again.”
Liam stopped playing. "She did what?" he asked, certain he'd misheard. There was no way. Not after the chicken incident and her 'marriage' to Match.
The grin that had formed when he had been able to land a couple of hits slowly slipped into confusion as Match paused the game. “Huh? Oh, Cats pretended she ate Milton, it’s…. It happened, so I was bringing him everywhere but it’s all good.”
"That's.... no that's not cool. Why would she do that?" the why wasn't perhaps as important, but he couldn't help but ask it. "That's mean."
Match didn’t like this, a sigh was followed by a rise of the general bubble of heat around him. “She didn’t- yeah, it was but it’s fine, Liam, she said she wouldn’t do it again.” And he believed her. “Do you wanna keep playing or nah?”
"Nah," Liam shook his head. It was not fine and even if she said she wouldn't do it again, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. "I gotta go spray her with a water bottle."
Liam goes to exact justice for Match
Sharon found she could appreciate winter in the mansion. The heating system was surprisingly robust for such an old building, or at least it was if she confined herself to such areas where no exterior walls had been breached. The Rec Room was one such area. Currently she was availing herself to a comfortable hollow in one of the sofa cushions that was the perfect size to accommodate her smallcat form.
When someone entered the room Sharon didn't do so much as crack an eyelid. The scent told her it was only Liam. If he wanted an adjacent nap, fine. If not, this was also acceptable. Just as long as he didn't expect her to move.
Liam absolutely wanted a nap. Or maybe headache medicine. Either way, he wasn't getting any. Instead, he grabbed a nearby throw and quickly pounced, wrapping Sharon in the material quickly and holding her tightly.
The ensuing screech was muffled by the fabric, which also served as a handy buffer between Liam's skin and Sharon's claws. Despite the cat's thrashing she found herself tightly wrapped in the throw with only her nose exposed. Her attempt to shift was both instinctual and abortive. With the fabric pinning her on all sides her body had no space to expand. Spitting with fury, Sharon realized Liam had deduced her weakness: the purrito.
"Yeah, you messed up," Liam growled, his claws puncturing the blanket just enough that Sharon couldn't wiggle free. "There's apparently a time honored tradition here, for when people are this level of dumb. You know what it is?"
The noise from the blanket indicated two crucial points: first, that the occupant neither knew nor cared about the punishment, and second, that its first action upon release would be the commission of a murder.
Murder was fine. After punishment. "See, actions have consequences and I don't know what you thought would come from yours, but you're going to learn this lesson," he used his back to push open the doors to the indoor pool, the humidity immediately making everything gross.
The cat's screech dopplered behind her as her body drew a perfect arc from Liam's arms to the center of the pool. In the absence of Liam's claws the blanket that had restrained her came loose, and at the apogee of her flight Sharon instinctively shifted to her hybrid shape in an attempt to get all four legs beneath her. She did not quite register that the position of one's legs was rather immaterial when one was hurtling towards was a large body of water, nor that the only thing she accomplished by increasing her size was a commensurate increase in the surface area with which she struck it. Both facts registered just slightly too late.
There was a splash, and the yowl terminated in a furious burble.
Liam was prepared if Sharon didn't come up and swim.... which also meant he was in range for immediate retribution. He was okay with that. Getting tossed in the pool like that was plenty horrible. "You deserve that!" he yelled at her.
An instant later Sharon's head broke the surface spitting equal parts chlorinated water and ire. She thrashed around until she oriented herself to the direction of her target, pulled her lips back from a mouth full of truly impressive fangs, and snarled:
"Kitten will die!"
"Like Milton?" he asked, trying to stifle a laugh and failing, "Bring it." She was the definition of drowned cat.
Sharon, already paddling towards the edge of the pool, narrowed her eyes to yellow slits. "Milton? For this you assault me?" Her tail thrashed behind her like the fin of a great sea serpent. "Is no crime! Milton was untouched. Was prank only."
"It wasn't funny," Liam stared down at her, "If it was a prank, then it should be funny. You upset your husband for no good reason."
The twinge of guilt she felt was immediately redirected towards the side of the pool. Sharon sank her claws into the delicately textured tiles and pulled herself over the edge, dripping from every miserable follicle. With an evil glare at Liam the great cat shook herself. This freed her of some of the water, but the effect on her fur did not help her dignity.
"Was meant to be a cautionary action," she said. "The cost of association with the interloper must outweigh the benefit. I meant only to instill fear so husband would avoid future transgressions. Is failed experiment. Cost to husband's emotional stability was too high. A new strategy must be considered."
It took a minute for Liam to parse through all that, so he went to grab her a towel and tossed it at her face, "You....interloper? Are you serious?" God, what was her problem? "Sharon, no. Are you are insane? I don't even know where to begin to unpack that, but you gotta stop all this. You talk about how you don't have the social skills I do? Well. Here's a lesson."
At this clumps of fur began to bristle in matted triangles of rage. Sharon's tail lashed.
"I cannot trust this. Kitten has been compromised."
Rolling his eyes, Liam turned and left her there. Until she stopped acting like a fool, and hurting her friends, he was done. As he left, he made sure to flip her the bird.
"Collaborator!" Sharon snapped after him. "I have seen you fraternize with the enemy. This I excused as the fault of the Temptress, but I see now it is betrayal. Your company is unneeded. Your approval also."
Liam didn't look back. Sharon could have pounced him -- and his exposed back was definitely inviting -- but something stopped her. She told herself it was only that no matter how annoying, wrong, and annoyingly wrong the boy might be he was still unsettled by what he'd seen in District X, and as such he wasn't talking sense. It wasn't the uncomfortable little tug of doubt in the back of her mind, nor the memory of Match's face screwed up in a rictus of misery that she absolutely did not keep flashing back to just as she was drifting off to sleep. Absolutely not.
Alone, wet, and increasingly agitated for reasons even she didn't understand, Sharon stalked off to find a towel.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-27 12:36 am (UTC)Also, Sharon slowly but surely alienating everyone... interesting to see it progress.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-27 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-27 05:15 pm (UTC)"I cannot trust this. Kitten has been compromised." and "Collaborator!" were excellent reflexive reactions to how Sharon turning everything against her (matched against her own conscience).