Message 08: Pending Approval From the Local Feline

[unrecovered]

Did anyone else win a rare Spirit in the Moogle game at the party last week?

More to the point, if anyone won a Frootz Cat-

[There's a disapproving meow from offscreen - someone doesn't approve of the idea of a second cat in the household. Wash ignores it.]

-and hasn't put it together yet, would you be willing to trade the pieces?

[That's as far as he gets before Melody flies onto the bed in a whirlwind of sound and fury and snaps the communicator closed. No! She's the only cat here!]

Comments

[Text]

[guerriera]

[ A very confused and concerned Lela watches the feed, before meowing loudly at her Person. What happened! What happened, the feed ended! Rewinding and watching the playback earns a half-formed smile, before quick fingers send a text message. ]

Sorry, only the one rare here. Melody okay?

[brodakota]

Are you sure Melody will let you?

[You and your cats, Wash.]

Text

[unrecovered]

aooooljfseflojiSWeflkoSfel/ijA:Wlsijells

[Someone may have sat on the communicator the moment her person tried to open it. Someone may not want another cat in the house.]

Video goddammit

[unrecovered]

[A solid ten minutes later, someone may have gotten tired of their cat's antics and shut said cat out on the balcony. The racket can be heard through the closed door.]

Melody's going to have to learn to share. That's all.

[unrecovered]

[Hey North, if you're in your room, you can probably hear Melody. She's been shut outside on Wash's balcony and is very loudly making her displeasure known.]

Melody doesn't get a say in the matter.

video

[inmylight_commander]

Why would you even want another one?

[Really you must be insane. And Don't Shoot, the Meow Wow, is bouncing and whuffling nearby, too short to be in the video feed but doing his best to be noticed somehow.]

Video (From after Melody's shut outside)

[4letters4ninja]

Wash, what did you for her to make all that racket?

[Ziva looks like she's getting a headache, and Ducky and Abby are in the background covering their ears.]

[unrecovered]

[Oh great, her again. Melody's yowling is still audible in the background.]

Because they're good in battle. [And because it's another cat, but shhh, nobody needs to know that.]

Have you gotten around to training yours yet?

[unrecovered]

[Wash doesn't look too amused himself.]

Tried to get another cat, and shut her out when she decided to play keep-away with my communicator.

[He gets a good look at Ziva and her Spirits.]

That bad, huh.

[inmylight_commander]

I don't need anything taking the fight away from me.

[She's going to need something to keep her occupied here.] They're a nuisance and unnecessary weight.

[There's a sad little mrr from Don't Shoot.]

[Video]

[guerriera]

[ Lela, seated on Carolina's lap, pushes her face near the monitor once it connects, expression Greatly Concerned.

The racket was muted, but still audible, at the far end of the corridor AND across the hall; Melody certainly knew how to wail in discordant notes to make her displeasure known to all. It's certainly dispelled some of the humor Carolina felt earlier. ]

So we all suffer until she learns her lesson?

Wouldn't a water bottle be easier? [Or was it barrel? A few rounds with a training toy, perhaps..]

[unrecovered]

So is the concept of teamwork completely foreign to you, or do you just not like it?

You haven't seen it fight yet, have you.

[inmylight_commander]

You forget I've been with Noble since I left Basic. I know my team. I don't know these things.

I haven. I'm not impressed yet.

[unrecovered]

Have you ever tried to train a cat? [Spoilers: it's not easy.]

I figured I'd wait until she wore herself out, but I might have to think of something else.

[guerriera]

No.

[So utterly flat. No pets for this one growing up. And Lela was more kitten than cat (for the moment)]

At least it's morning. [Or what closely passed for such around here.] You better hope she can't keep that up all day.

[unrecovered]

And how was I supposed to know that? You haven't told me a damn thing, aside from accusing me of being incompetent.

Then get to know them. [Here, have a link to Sora's Dream Eater document.] Work with your Meow Wow a little more and it'll eventually have a Cure spell. That's an ally that can instantly fix your wounds. [Kind of a big deal.]

[unrecovered]

You might want to start early. At least Lela's pretty mellow. [Melody's been uptight from day one, which makes things interesting.]

She probably can. I just need to figure out what to do about it before it gets worse.

[inmylight_commander]

So your CO hasn't debriefed you on the situation? [That tells her a lot.]

Yes yes, I'll take a look at it later. So you like them and train them and have a happy little army. What does this rare one you want do? How is it special?

[unrecovered]

[It's been a long goddamn time since he's considered Carolina to be his CO.]

She's not in the habit of debriefing me on shit I already know. [There's a new Spartan in town! She's kind of a bitch! Yeah, he figured that out on his own.]

You're really not getting this, are you. [These are the soldiers on the front line against the Covenant? How the fuck did humanity ever win that war?]

I don't know its capabilities yet - they're not exactly running around in the wild. That's exactly why I want one - to see what it can do. [And because it's a cat shut up.]

[inmylight_commander]

Hm. [Clearly not impressed.]

[They won that war because Spartans weren't ever forced to deal with alien-like pets that tripped more bad triggers than good. Hey! What's brightly colored and looks like it killed your family?]

So there's a lack of intel on basic abilities and combat skills?

[unrecovered]

[...a Meow Wow killed your family?]

Only on the rare ones, which don't seem to show up as Nightmares. The document I sent you two minutes ago has information on the others. [Come on, you're supposed to be smart. Start acting like it.]

[inmylight_commander]

[Shut up. It reminds her of an Unggoy. Which comes with Kig-Yar and Sanghelli. Just hut up you!]

You should update it when you find out. [Kat's intelligence is not giving a flying fuck what other people think and just sort of doing her own thing. Which was usually hacking ONI and the like out of an insatiable curiosity.]

[guerriera]

[ A pink paw briefly blocked the view of everything on the communicator - someone's trying to pat Wash through the screen, it would seem. She's rather firmly displaced a moment or three later. ]

I don't foresee that being an issue. And I need to see what she can do, compared to Dax.

[Shrug? Shrug] Maybe find one of those kids with magic. If they can make things faster or slow them down, maybe there's something for noise too.

Or don't get another cat. That's what she's objecting to, isn't it.

[unrecovered]

[...a Meow Wow killed your family.]

Right. I'll get on that. Just as soon as I manage to find an incredibly rare Dream Eater that you can only get in one specific way. [The sarcasm is palpable.]

[unrecovered]

[Oh no adorable kitty is adorable. Somehow Wash manages to keep a straight face.]

Take her for a spin outside. [He pauses for a moment.] Do you think we can teach them to spar?

Or I could put her away until she calms down. Puddles would be easier to deal with right now. [He has no idea where Spirits go when they're not with him, or how, or why, but he does know it's soundproof.]

Yeah, it is. She also objected to York ever getting a cat. She just doesn't want to share.