All through the month of August

[qingofcats]

Who: Da Qing and YOU
Where: All around the Clipper, especially the tree and the catwalks
When: throughout the month
Warnings: none atm, will add any if they come up

Da Qing has yo-yoed from Assistant to Patient a good few times already in the time he's been here--he's a very cute kitty, after all, but he's also cynical, snarky, mouthy, and prone to clawing up people who irritate him. Which means he never manages to stay an assistant for very long. Honestly... he's not happy here? But he's not happy at home either, and it's not such a bad life. At least he doesn't have to see Zhang Shi walking around wearing Zhao Yunlan's body like a badly fitting suit, with all the mannerisms and expressions that made Zhao Yunlan himself, and Da Qing's master and best friend, gone or badly parroted. Or go home to Lin Jing living in the apartment that he and Zhao Yunlan had shared for so long, knowing he and his mess and laziness, or Shen laoshi and his neatness and good cooking, will never be there again.

So maybe this is kind of like living in some saccharine children's show half the time, and a rabid free for all some other part of the time, but at least it's away from that. And the food's not bad, even if there's never quite enough fish. The food at home hadn't seemed like anything special without lao Li's dried fish or Shen Laoshi's exquisite cooking anyway.

None of that, of course, means he has to be nice, or well behaved... which is a big part of why he keeps bouncing back to being a Patient every time he 'graduates'. (Graduates, what a joke. He's the ten thousand year old King of Cats, and he's never graduated from anything and never needed to before this.)

He shows up at the morning singalongs just because it's an excuse to sing the song of his people at the top of his lungs and drive everyone, especially the Assistants who take it seriously, up a wall, and no one can say he isn't trying or being 'well behaved', at least at this. He's singing, isn't he?

He naps in various spots (and positions) on the great tree, as well as the catwalks and the garishly colored furniture... and in other peoples' rooms. And on other people if they sit still long enough and he either likes them or wants to irritate them (and knows they won't do something awful to him in retaliation).

He offers running commentary on other peoples' activities, no matter where they are or what they're doing, usually snarky. And loud.

And at meal times he has to (annoyingly. The WORST part of being stuck in this form is NO THUMBS, though otherwise he'd rather this than stuck on two-legs) prevail upon someone else to carry his food to a table... and then more than likely harass them for some of theirs, or simply make the rounds begging, quietly or loudly, from anyone who has something that looks interesting, or looks like they could use some harassment (either because they're an asshole or because they're not and maybe need some company). (Fork he hates that he can't even swear in his head. Or even in cat.)

And speaking of cat, he's also known to occasionally perch on the rails, or a branch of the tree, and caterwaul at the top of his lungs, running through every curse word he knows in every language he knows (which is quite a few, now that he has his memories back. He's been alive for ten thousand years of Chinese history, after all, and even if almost everything between his youth and the present is still blurry and indistinct, because Yashouren minds aren't meant to hold thousands of years of memory, he does remember bits and pieces of a lot of languages) and then yowling about how there's not a single language that the Nurse doesn't censor curse words in. And since he can't curse in any language, he rotates through an assortment of, more or less creative, insults--he's currently partial to 'stupid monkey humper' or telling people they look like the wrong end of a baboon. (And that's just almost as frequent for people he actually likes.)

[For Zhao Yunlan]

The clumsy Taylor person with the butterfly whiskers told him his stupid, thoughtless, self-sacrificing, neglectful, suicidal idiot of a Master is here somewhere, and Da Qing is going to find him. Now. And then he's going to rip his face off. And then he's going to never let him out of his sight again. Which is why he's currently running up the stairs to the catwalks above where she'd said she'd last seen him, yowling at the top of his lungs. "Zhao Yunlan! ZHAO YUNLAN! WHERE ARE YOU YOU MONKEY-FACED PIECE OF STINKY TOFU!" (Tofu is a complete waste of time and energy to fake being food, it's the worst insult he can think of right now, all right?!)

Comments

[consolidator]

The Doctor may have nabbed some Gallifreyan fish stew from the buffet for the express purposes of tempting a certain cat. He even has a smaller bowl to tip it into, which he starts to do before pausing, eyebrows arching.

"I will share this if you tell me who shed all over my wardrobe." The one that's at least half black velvet.

[qingofcats]

Da Qing blinks innocently up at him (or as innocently as he can, he doesn't really have a face for innocent as a cat... ironically, since he very much does when he wears his human form). "Do you know how many cats there are on this ship? I'd have to see the fur to be able to tell you," he answers. "Besides, do you really think I have so litter honor that I'd rat out my fellow cats?"

He wants that stew, but he's not about to fess up, after all. He's pretty sure there's some kind of cat code about that. Come to think of it, he's the ten thousand year old King of Cats, after all, so if he says there's a cat code against ratting each other out then there is!

[dragonwithagirltattoo]

"Rawr rawr rawr rawr!" Louise shouts, grabbing Da Qing up from behind and using his little claws to slice at the air in front of her.

She loves him, really. Wants a talking bastard cat of her own someday. But she's also nine and a little out of control at the moment.

[qingofcats]

"Hey hey hey!" Da Qing protests as he squirms in her grip. "This isn't how you treat the King of Cats, kid!" He doesn't... dislike her? But the last kid he had anything to do with brainwashed him into attacking someone, and before that it was Zhao Yunlan, and he figures he's done his parenting duty! Still, he doesn't claw her. Or even hiss. Because kid.

[dragonwithagirltattoo]

"I can if I'm the empress of cats!" Says Louise, and settles him up onto her head, balancing Da Qing cautiously, wobbling but managing to keep herself and him aloft.

"BEHOLD! My crown!"

[wildguardian]

"Da Qing?"

Zhao Yunlan had been sprawled out on a couch on the lowest level next to the tree trunk, chewing vengefully on a lollipop stick and thinking unkind thoughts about -- well, actually, everything, including himself.

At the sound of his cat's screech, he sits bolt upright and starts scanning the area. It couldn't be. Could it?

[qingofcats]

He hears that voice. Hears it and recognizes it, right down to his cynical, snarky, increasingly bitter soul, and he runs faster than probably anyone's seen him move in a thousand years or more, sprinting along the walkway until he spots him, sitting on a couch. Looking like himself.

He howls as he launches himself at Zhao Yunlan's chest, claws out as all of his not inconsiderable weight hits him like a furry cannonball, knocking him back on the couch so he can stand on him and rake his claws across one cheek and then the other. "YOU LEFT ME, YOU STUPID, RECKLESS, THOUGHTLESS ASHHOLE! YOU ABANDONED ME WITH THAT CREEPY BODY SNATCHER WEARING YOU LIKE A BAD SUIT!" It's just as well that cats can't cry, because that would be entirely too undignified for the King of Cats.

[wildguardian]

"Hey! Ow!" Zhao Yunlan yells, going down under Da Qing's impact and taking blows to both sides of the face -- he's definitely bleeding on the right, not sure about the left. "There weren't a lot of choices!"

He reaches up, trying to grab Da Qing by the scruff just so he can pull him into a hug. There's a lot of questions he needs to ask, and none of them are going to be improved by a raging cat trying to claw his beard off his face while he asks them.

[everythinglost]

"It's Da Qing, right?" Fitz says, having managed to make it through another singalong without falling over just going to sleep on the ground. The terrible singing, not just from the cat, helps keep him somewhat alert. Sort of.

He has no issue, and and displays no awkwardness, at just talking directly to a cat, with (almost) certainty that it'll respond.

[qingofcats]

Da Qing pauses in his grooming, lowering his leg so he can look up at the human (he thinks he's human, it's hard to be sure in this place, but he smells human), staring directly up at him for a moment before answering. "Yeah. You're one of the bulk rate newbies, right?" he asks, whiskers twitching.

[everythinglost]

"That's me, always at a discount. Zhao Yunlan said I should say hello." He rubs his face, trying to wake up a little more. "No time but still manages to be too early..." That mostly just to himself.

[packhound]

Mikodez has been brought up properly - alright, there's some debate over that, from multiple sources, but he doesn't go around just grabbing animals. Even if he really wants to because he likes cats and a talking one might be easier to get hold of than more 'normal' ones who don't always love his inability to keep still.

But he knows how to be polite.

And he happily takes an excuse to try to climb up the tree. To say hello. It's only polite and definitely not reckless or dangerous.

[qingofcats]

Da Qing lifts his head to look down at the little face peering up at him. Another one of the kittens that seem to run rampant around here... he has no idea what the Nurse is thinking with them, but they're mostly not a problem. For him. They're generally good for ear skritches and treats, at least, and this one's pretty polite, even if he's squirmy. Kittens are supposed to be squirmy.

"If you fall out of the tree it's absolutely not my fault," is his oh so polite greeting.

[packhound]

"I wouldn't fall." Alright, there had been that one time, but it hadn't been his fault, really.

"But if I did, it wouldn't be your fault." It would be unfair to say it was. And go against Mikodez's pride. "There's a whole lot of new people here, huh."

Hello! If this is alright...?

[hisblueskies]

Da Qing may well be familiar with Alfredo's case - arrived as an Assistant, demoted to Patient after getting more familiar with the Nurse's modus operandi, not particularly keen on graduating, if for reasons that the boy doesn't often try to explain...

He also reads frequently, and therefore has a lap that's often available regardless of time of day. And isn't particularly forward in pushing certain visitors off his lap, so long as the pages don't take claw-damage.

All the chaos with the new arrivals hasn't disrupted this aspect of his character too much.

Absolutely! How old is he?

[qingofcats]

Da Qing finds the boy in his usual seat on one of the ludicrously bright sofas and leaps lightly up onto the seat next to him before insinuating himself under the book in his lap and sprawling inelegantly in its place. He's just finished lunch and, even if it wasn't up to his very high standards, he's comfortably full and it's time for a nap.

Oldest he *can* be is 13; 12 is more likely.

[hisblueskies]

Under the book is better than over for all involved, in this case; Alfredo doesn't quibble.

Granted, the boy himself may have tried to skip lunch again - certain habits from home die hard, he supposes - but there's nothing happening now to indicate that.

A moment or two after Da Qing settles in, Alfredo flips another page before letting one hand drift to the cat king's side.

Not the belly, though. That's the sort of mistake he'll only let himself make once.

[skitter]

Taylor also naps on the garish common room furniture a great deal. She's found a big ugly beanbag chair tucked mostly behind another sofa, and that's usually her spot. She doesn't sleep deeply - she has to keep an ear out and make sure the room doesn't empty out on her.

[qingofcats]

When he spots butterfly whiskers Da Qing hops, without warning, directly onto her stomach, sits down, sticks his face in hers, and says, "Thanks for telling me my dumb master's here. I found him."

[fork_off]

There is a cat. In one of the trees. Screaming something that sounds more like human language than a usual cat's screech. He approaches, carefully.

"Er. Hello. Who are you?"

[qingofcats]

He stops his yowling with a harumph and a flick of his tail as he looks down at at the strange new human.

"I'm the ten thousand year old King of Cats," he tells him with a great show of dignity. "But since I'm feeling magnanimous you can call me Da Qing instead of Your Majesty. Even if it was rude of you to just come up and demand my name without introducing yourself."

[summonshadows]

Kirigan has never come even close to graduating in the years that he's been on board the Clipper; he is more or less present, depending on the Assistant he's paired with at any given time and how capable they feel of managing him. He spends a lot of that time sedated in one way or another, and cycles between being too egregiously violent for anyone to approach and calmly, formally polite and social if still every bit as unwilling to play nice.

And he never plays nice with Assistants, only with other Patients. Those, though, he can be perhaps shockingly friendly towards given the givens. He sits with them at meal times and singalongs although he has never once chosen to actually sing; if his mind is clear, he'll interact with them between mandatory appointments as well. He likes speaking with others. He's interested in their lives.

All of which is to say: Kirigan and Da Qing have met. They've fought, and Kirigan has carried trays and shared food before, and he anticipates they'll continue to do so for some time yet to come. At present he is both blessedly free of the Nurse's sedatives and, for the first time in over a year, back in the black garments he prefers courtesy of his newest assigned pairing - and that means he is in a particularly magnanimous mood.

"Don't even think it, you overly precocious hearth rug," he offers, amused, from where he's sitting in a common area trying to read and catches sight of the feline making designs on his lap.

[qingofcats]

"Think what?" he asks disdainfully as he changes direction mid-step to jump up on the table next to him instead of into his lap, pretending very hard that that was what he'd meant to do all along. "You think I'd do you the honor of sitting in your lap, you overgrown angsty teenager? Too bony." He snorts and curls his tail around his front paws.

[worthallthis]

B's cats have not ever been particularly deferential to Da Qing, though C does keep trying to groom him. B, being aware that Da Qing is actually a fully intelligent being rather than actually a cat, has always just been polite.

So when Da Qing comes meandering up that morning, searching for scents, he says, "Hi. Come to let C lick your ears again? She's over by the bookshelf, if you're looking."

[qingofcats]

He huffs, and the tip of his tail twitches as he pads directly up to B and begins to sniff industriously around his ankles.

"I can take care of my ears fine on my own," he points out, slightly grumpy. "And she's not a very good conversationalist." Not that most cats are, which isn't something he ever holds against them; it's in their nature, after all, and they're still his tribe after a fashion, even if they're not his People.

"Hold still, I need to see if you smell like a goopy, disgusting plague," he mutters as he pops up to brace his forepaws against B's knees.