vatheon | ♣ 01 ♣

Entry tags:

ivy pepper,
matthew

♣ 01 ♣

Who: Ivy, Calvin, and everyone!
Where: The Plaza
When: January 26
Style: Any!
Status: Open

Now wasn't the time to be sleeping. There was a sense of urgency in that thought but Ivy didn't immediately stir or open her eyes; she knew she should be up but she couldn't recall exactly why. The why was important. Ivy's brow furrowed over her closed eyes as she tried to remember. It seemed to her that her mind was moving like molasses, but it was slowly coming to her. Something about Rocky--big surprise there. That cat made everything seem urgent. Ivy got the sense that it was because of Rocky beating his gums, but this wasn't particularly revealing either.

Whatever had happened, it had ended with them being in a pickle. Ivy should have known better than to go with him...wherever it was they'd gone, but Viktor's rejection had stung--yes, she remembered that--and she'd wanted to get up to her knees in things.

Ivy's eyes flew open as the blank spots filled in, but the disorientation of her surroundings made her see mental spots. Thoughts about Rocky and the corn field and nearly being run down vanished as she realized that this was not where she'd been. It was not anywhere she'd been.

Ivy rolled onto her side, barely comprehending this strange area, but the figure beside her pushed these thoughts back as well. There was no mistaking this person for Rocky, the coloring was all wrong. In fact, it looked a lot like--

"Freckle! How'd you get here?" For that matter, how'd she get here?

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Calvin was sprawled out, next to Ivy; his face pressed firmly into the ground. A small mumble creeps out, then a groggier grumble.

"Wh-....What? Where am I... Ivy?"

He's just as disorientated, slowly turning his head on its side. His fur is sticking to him, making him look more like a drown victim than anything. Wasn't he just about to save the day? Or was he going to go off on a psychotic rampage. Either way, this was NOT where he was a second ago. How long has he been out?! As awareness slowly comes back to the kitten, he gets more and more fidgety, finally rolling onto his back.

"Where are we? What happened?!"

The cat's eyes dart about like a madman. All of this blue! Why is there so much light! He was just in a cave, and now... Now this!

"I was really hoping you knew!" So much for that. Ivy rolled onto her knees, and it's not until she sits up and feels the heavy weight of her sodden sweater that she realizes she's soaking wet. She reaches her hands up, patting at her matted hair, her fur slicked to her body, making her clothing feel like it weighs a ton, her toes squelching in her shoes.

His evident panic is catching, and Ivy's mind is starting to kick at it's usual speed, letting her process the strangeness of the environment more quickly. On it's heels is fright; she's never seen any place like this, and it looks far too weird for her comfort.

"I don't know where we are. Rocky and I were just looking into a stash Viktor had told him about, and these guys in a car came by and chased us through this cornfield and we hid in a barn but--" and now she's babbling.

"Well, I don't!" He sits up too, little drops of water trickling off the tips of his ears and clinging to his whiskers. Calvin's not even going to try to deal with his soaking wet problem yet. He hopes he's not gonna end up sick or something. His mother would kill him.

"A stash? This isn't more of that bootlegging stuff, is it? Wait, no... Rocky was with me! We were trying to get out of that music hall... Or gin joint, I guess. And there were those farmers that wanted to shoot us."

"Huh? No, that was last night!" How could he even confuse the two evenings? What had he been up to after she and Rocky dropped him off? Had he gone back to the Lackadaisy and gotten into more trouble? Even as the thought occurs to her Ivy rejects it; it's hard enough to picture him shooting up the joint once, let alone twice--and the second time going there on his own. Ivy had to practically drag him to the Lackadaisy the other night, and those pig farmers.

Well, that was all Rocky's fault. Everything was always Rocky's fault.

"Last night those farmers were shooting at us. Tonight Rocky and I went to Defiance because Viktor said he could get some better hooch there."

"What do you mean last night? I was just there." He's giving Ivy a look as if she were trying to play a prank on him, or something. She didn't seem to be the type to do that, though so what was going on? He already has to deal with the fact that his cousin has been lying to him. That vigilante story was one giant wooden nickle, and Calvin is kicking himself for falling for it.

"You guys were being shot at last night too? That's not that surprising, since speakeasies are pretty shady places, Ivy. You shouldn't even be going there."

"No, no, no." Ivy shakes her head with a quick jerk, taking a moment to marvel that yet another person was telling her that she shouldn't be near the Lackadaisy. Coming from two guys who certainly weren't going to end their associations with the Lackadaisy, which made their assertions more than a little hypocritical. It was a good thing Calvin was cute. She'd let that slide for now because there were bigger fish to be fried.

"No, we were shot at last night; you were there for it. I'd given you my pin and we were going to dance but then Rocky came in a ruined everything. He shoved me out of the Lackadaisy but you stayed behind with him." She's frowning now, watching Calvin's expression to see if any of this is ringing a bell. Maybe whatever had been done to them to get them here had left Calvin addlepatted.

"That was this night, though! That only happened an hour or two ago! See?" He lifted his collar, showing that the little club pin was still stuck on. "I'm still in the same clothes, too! It's not like I'd be in the same getup two days in a row. You're wearing different clothes, though. How'd you get dressed that fast?"

He's looking genuinely confused, but completely sane. This was all too much for the kitten. How. What. Huh?

Ivy opens her mouth to argue but hesitates, eying the pin under his collar and then looking him over. He wasn't lying; he was wearing the same outfit he'd worn the other night, albeit now soaking wet and slightly wrinkled from the way he'd be laying. But there was no mistaking that the vest wasn't the same he'd been wearing when they'd dropped him off at home, and she distinctly remembered that he'd been wearing pinstripe pants; she could still see them sticking out from under the sink as she'd knelt and crawled under with him.

Her ears droop as she sits back on her heels, confusion and a wave of fresh worry making her shoulders slump.

"I didn't change. This is what I was wearing today. You and Rocky came to see me at school, because Rocky needed to talk to Viktor but didn't want to go on his own."

"That sounds like something Rocky would drag me to, with him. Who's Viktor?"

He shook his head, trying to get water out of his ears. Calvin still wasn't sure what to make of all this. Going from the police academy straight into bootlegging didn't really seem like a good idea. Ivy looks upset though, and Calvin has no idea how to fix that.

"He did drag you with him! And Viktor's our bartender, though he used to be...well, he used to do what you're doing. What you and Rocky are doing, I mean. Only Rocky's not so great at it, which is why I think he got you into it, and also why he needed to talk to Viktor."

Ivy huffs, crossing her arms over her chest as she purses her lips, trying to figure out what this could mean. Had they been kidnapped by rival bootleggers? Whoever had chased down her and Rocky could have knocked Ivy out, but that didn't explain how Calvin had ended up here.

[Matthew had the impressive tendency to forever be exploring the plaza around the time newcomers showed up. It was something he just liked to do.

Though he paused at this one, stepping closer and grinning.]

Excuse me! I have a question.

[You have a question? Ivy has a question. Actually, Ivy has a ton of questions. She's about to burst with them all, and thus is probably not the best person to field any herself. Still, she turns toward the voice automatically.

And stares.

What is that.]

[Calvin was sitting right next to Ivy, staring around the place as if this were all some kind of hallucination.

Suddenly this fella walks up, and is definitely some kinda hallucination.

Questions are questions, though, hallucination or not. Calvin's just going to remain silent, unless Ivy doesn't want to do much talking.]

[...okay.

OKAY THEN. He can work with this.

He just props his hands on his hips and grins.]

Are you both really talking cats?

Well what else would we be?

[Ivy tilts her head as she looks at the strange furless person talking to them, seemingly unconcerned with his hairlessness. Ivy's never seen anyone so baldly naked; sure, plenty of cats lose patches of fur for various reasons, but she's never seen anything like this before. Is he really sick? Is that something this place does?]

Where's your fur?

Uh... Yeah. Yeah, we are.

[Calvin looked over to Ivy to make sure he's not the only confused one in this situation, then quickly back to Matthew]

Ivy, I don't think he's a cat. Or, he's definitely not one from the city...

[He chuckles at that, shaking his head and pausing.]

Oh good. I'm glad I'm not hallucinating then.

I'm a human, so I don't have fur. Good thing too; looks like a pain to me.

In the days since his arrival, Fox had taken to sticking around the plaza as much as possible. To be on the lookout for anyone else from his...what would you even call it, system? Dimension? It was a predictably unsuccessful endeavor, so far, but it wasn't like there was anything else to do.

After watching the seemingly limitless variety of newcomers come through, he'd started to assume that the system didn't do much revisiting. So at this point, it surprised him to see not one but two familiar looking characters show up at once. Fox began to step out to make himself known, but then he realized that maybe they weren't as familiar as he hoped. Those clothes were unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Well. Up close, anyway...

It's a bit of a relief to spot this new guy, at least at first. To Ivy's eye he at least looks less...well, odd, to be polite, but to Ivy's thinking less wrong...than some of the creatures they've seen around this area so far. He at least had proper fur, though the shape of his face was certainly not the most familiar to her. Still, it was as close to a friendly face as Ivy had seen yet (barring Calvin of course) so she lifts an arm and waves to the figure in the really odd clothes, hoping for a chance for some clarity.

"Excuse me! Could you lend a hand here? We're a little balled up."

This stranger caught Calvin's eye too, though by the way he's dressed, Calvin's going to assume he's from a different country perhaps... Some place he's never heard of, that's for certain. And of course Ivy's going to just go ahead and invite the potential-assailant over.

"Don't you want to see what kind of people are living here first? What if he's not exactly the nicest guy?"

Not that it wasn't comforting to see a somewhat similar face. It's simply a matter of safety first, and all. Or it could just be the recent incident at the Lackadaisy that's still got his defenses up.

Too late, looks like they spotted him anyway.

Balled up?

Whatever it meant, it was probably an understatement. It was funny, for all his plans of waiting for someone he might no here, Fox had no idea where to really begin when it came to explaining this place. There was no easy way into it.

He approached the cats, "Sure. You've gotta be lost right now." That definitely wasn't the way to ease into the subject though, was it. "Where are you from?" he asked quickly.

"Really, really lost." Ivy glances over at Calvin as the newcomer approaches, whispering out of the corner of her mouth in the hopes that this guy won't realize they're suspicious of his motives.

"He looks friendly enough; besides, if he tries anything funny, I'm sure you can handle it." She adds a bright smile to this, all confidence; he'd taken out three well-armed and ornery pig farmers on his own last night--or tonight, in his mind--so why should one guy not carrying any guns present a problem? "Besides, he might not be a bad guy and we could use some answers."

"We're from St. Louis! Any idea how far away that is?" It would give them an idea on how to plan to get back home.

"What she said. I couldn't even tell you how we got here." Calvin nodded at Fox, leaning towards Ivy a bit more. "What do you mean I can handle it? I don't fight." He shrunk into his collar, not quite certain why she'd invest so much into him. Sure he's not that bad with a gun, but he's unarmed right now and isn't exactly in crazy mode either. "Fine.

He tried to loosen up, letting Ivy do most of the talking now.

Not exactly.

He'd never heard of a place named St. Louis. Planet, system, city, or otherwise. So much for whatever was left of the possibility that they were all from the same whatever.

They looked nervous--who wouldn't be? So Fox left some distance between them, "It's not really that it's far, it's...maybe you want to sit down. Are you feeling okay?

Ivy looks uncertainly at Calvin, once again marveling that someone so nervous-looking could have single-handedly dispatched raving gun-totting pig farmers. He sure didn't look the part, but maybe that was to his advantage.

Ivy suddenly vehemently wished she were dry. Whenever someone said you should sit down, it meant bad news was coming. And it would be so much easier to face if she were dry.

"We're okay, it's just...we don't know where we are." They couldn't even seem to agree on what they last remembered.

"Yeah, we're good. Just kind of soaked."

Calvin hushed up even more, waiting for whatever unusual news was coming. As Ivy spoke, Calvin stared all around then up at the sky... er... That is the sky, right? It's blue but-... Are those fish? The curiosity overwhelms the cat, and he finds himself staring blankly at this ceiling above them.

What a way to calm someone down. Still, Fox just had the impression that they weren't going to take the news well. Heck, maybe no one did, he was still new at this.

For instance, he hadn't even realized that he hadn't really told them where they were yet. That, of course, was a place to start, "The city's called Vatheon."

He followed the orange one's look, "It's, uh. Underwater."

[Cats

Cats cats cats cats cats cats

Cats that are standing upright like humans

Mrs. Brisby can't even move, she's so terrified.]

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♣ 01 ♣

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