Hello Kittenland

[cityship]

Welcome to Kittenland, the most adorable place in Happy Happy Fun World! If you didn't like Kittenland, you probably had no soul at all.

There was the Kitten Go Round, a Merry Go Round where everyone could ride a kitten; the Nyan Cat Coaster, a rollercoaster where the carriages were in the shape of kittens with pop tart bodies, racing along a rainbow track to the constant sound of 'nyanyanyanyan'; the Kitten Petting Corner (with real kittens!); and the Hello Kitty Teacups.

And then there was the merchandise - the Nyan Cat Coaster had a shop of it's own, as did the Hello Kitty Teacups, both with a considerable range in merchandise; there was Kitten Candy, kitten t-shirts, kitten magnets, and more. Oddly enough though, you couldn't buy actual kittens.

[ooc: Feel free to make up any other kitten related rides or merchanise if you want!]]

Comments

[encourage]

"I don't mean there," she said, rolling her eyes. It was a bad habit to get into, if oddly comfortable around Marco anymore. "Not that you can anyway. Do you know how hard it is to track down a cat that doesn't want to be found? Imagine that, only with dozens of fast, clawed animals darting every direction except the one you want them to go in."

Something he might find synonymous to anything he wanted, since she was angling off toward the petting area as she spoke.

"Pirates never fought ninjas," she tossed back over her shoulder. "I looked it up. Movies aren't real, Marco."

If she was smiling (amused, more than a little, and teasing) as she looked back in front of herself, she wasn't going to say.

[livestoannoy]

"Yes, actually. And it took us one bird and a shrew before Rachel could finally acquire that thing," Marco said. "But that still doesn't explain why you would want to."

Suddenly though, Marco had the strange feeling that Sakura was going to climb into that Petting Corner and start chasing kittens around. Which admittedly would be kinda funny.

"We're in an amusement park. Nothing here is real," Marco pointed out.

[encourage]

"Where'd you get the idea that I do?" She paused, brow furrowing in sincere confusion.

She'd just been muttering, Marco. Stop actually hearing all the things she says. It's disconcerting, all that attention!

"Half of it isn't even amusing. I want my money back."

Then she was moving again.

[livestoannoy]

"Because you have a really weird tendency to keep trying to turn normal, innocent, fun things into 'training'," Marco said. This was the girl who's first response to flying was practically 'let's do some mapping', after all.

And attention was what girls were supposed to want! What did she expect him to do, stare at some kittens instead?

"It's not your money, it's Stacy's," he said, smirking.

[encourage]

"Does that mean I have to stop wanting it back?" Shaking her head, Sakura smiled at the attendant and slipped into the front of the petting area. Kittens were in luxurious little cubicles, litter boxes, water, currently empty feeding bowls, and ridiculously inviting looking pillows in each. A supply of intriguing toys filled a center table, and separate runs led off to many sides, some occupied with various individuals and their -- "Rent a kitten for fifteen minutes?"

Curiouser and curiouser. Sakura found it ridiculous, and yet in spite of that, she was still drawn toward the nearer occupied blocks. "Training is fun. Some of the time." She couldn't bring herself to pretend it was all of the time. Training was necessary, and he has a partial clue what she put herself through to stay on top -- though for what? The last major battle she'd been running mazes, so to speak, because the ship and a psychotic computer thought her soul was about to depart for the great semi-known. Sakura could say she was more fond of the being health, whole, and hale bit than she was of the idea of spiritual severance and goodness knows what after that, but that GLaDOS...

"Hey, come here. This one reminds me of you."

[livestoannoy]

"Hey, it only works on this world. We might as well use it. Course, if you didn't insist on going to places like Kittenland we could be going to places that are, you know, actually fun instead." Marco said, walking up to look at all of the kitten cubicles with a raised eyebrow.

He tried to figure out what one she was talking about, scanning the boxes in front of her. "That black one?" he said, hazarding a guess.

[encourage]

"Mmm," she nodded, agreeing. That they meant two different kittens entirely didn't occur to her. "Can you guess why?"

[livestoannoy]

"Obviously because he's an incredibly intelligent and attractive kitten," Marco said, grinning.

[encourage]

Sakura let her raised eyebrow say all she needed to say on that account.

For approximately thirty seconds. "It's more the edge of, 'I'm watching you," paired with the chip he's got on his furry little shoulders." The munchkin had tiny legs, and his tromping over his pillow had a deliberateness to it that seemed almost defiant. Take that, he seemed to say. Whatever you think, whatever you say, you can't keep me from doing what I want.

He didn't even mew once he conquered the pillow, sitting his fluffy butt down and staring out the front of his miniature flat defiantly, stubby tail twitching every so often.

"In fact, I'm absolutely sure it has very little to do with his intelligence, and I don't think I've ever been qualified to judge a kitten as attractive."

Egoist.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Marco?" She feigned wide eyed sincerity. Such concern for the (ridiculous) things he said, regardless of the fact that she could, and had, been concerned on his account before. She'd been like that with several people on the ship, and now, with the new awakenings, she was in different ways. Some more pointedly dangerous than others.

Not to mention the compiling dangers of the elements they were fighting both for and against. Sakura looked away, frowning as her thoughts turned back to what had been haunting her since she'd been back in the general public.

[livestoannoy]

Well, the black kitten did have that kind of look about it. Like it was suspicious of everything they were doing. Figures, that it would be the paranoid kitten that reminded people of him.

"You've got 'special ninja skills', I'm sure you could find a way," Marco replied flippantly, ignoring her later comments.

[encourage]

"Is that an invitation?" She stepped forward, using one of those ridiculous world-specific tokens to activate the door opening mechanism for the kitten she'd been talking about. Quick hands scooped up the black ball of fur with relatively minor damage.

The kitten finally mewled, sounding fairly cross with the sudden nature of his freeing. Then he was wiggling like mad to get away.

[livestoannoy]

Marco stared. The kitten she'd grabbed had not been the kitten Marco had thought she was referring to.

"That's not the black kitten!" Marco said, conveniently ignoring the fact that it was actually a black kitten. Just not the one he'd been thinking of. "It's a midget! That thing looks like it's legs gave up on growing halfway though. That's the one that you decided reminds me of you?!"

[encourage]

"I'll take that as a, 'No, Sakura, that wasn't.'" She brought the kitten up close to her chest, nestling him under her chin. Considering he was still wiggling, it made for an interesting nestling.

"He's a little shorter than the other kittens. So?"

[livestoannoy]

"Right, so you just go and think, 'oh, that kittens short, he must be like Marco' then?" Marco said, crossing his arms.

Okay, so maybe he was a little annoyed at being compared to the short cat. just a little.

[encourage]

"You do realize the only one who thinks you're short here is you, right?"

They stood eye to eye, if she was wearing flat shoes, or neither of them were in shoes. She'd never call him tall, but he hit about average from her point of view.

She brought the kitten away from her chest just long enough to plant a small kiss on his furry forehead. He seemed unsure of what to make of that, eyes narrowing.

Then he purred.

"See?" Just like you.

[livestoannoy]

Sakura was a girl - what was normal for her was short for a guy like Marco. He glared, first at her and then that kitten.

"I like the other one better," he said stubbornly.

[encourage]

"We always want what we can't have." Her response was half lost as she placed the purring, not quite sold on the whole experience kitten back in his space. When he settled on the pillow again, she gingerly ran one finger over his skull and down along his spine. He was bony, in the way of the young and growing.

They're so fragile at this age. Fathoming how people, sentients, whatever thought it was appropriate to not keep close watch on such young animals. Too easy for them to get hurt, and she hadn't seen anyone (or anything) near-by who looked like a medical officer.

[livestoannoy]

Marco narrowed his eyes. Wants what he can't have, does he? Well, who was she to tell him he couldn't?

So, feeling contrary he stepped over to the other back kitten's cage and use one of his own tokens to pop open the door. Without any real ceremony he grabbed the kitten and dumped it on the table. The kitten mewed angrily, not too happy about being disturbed.

"There. And mine could totally take yours on in a fight," Marco said.

[encourage]

Sakura shifted to shoot Marco a glare -- not for having decided to take out Kitten McWonderfur the Tall and Magnificently Intelligent and Attractive (In Marco's Humblest Projected Opinion), but for the fact Kitten McWonderful the Tall and Magnificently Intelligent and Attractive (In Marco's Humblest Projected Opinion) had been disturbed enough to complain. She might not be a big animal person, but she was definitely enough of one to not appreciate tiny mewls of angry complaint.

"At this age, they call that playing I'm pretty sure. Besides, I was just putting--" she was going to say she was putting her kitten back, but he chose that moment to launch out of his cage to hit the table with his four stubby legs and his rounded belly. An umph and a shake of his head later, he plopped his butt down and started grooming his toes. "--this one away."

Sakura frowned down at him in consternation. "Maybe it's not the individuals that remind me of you. Maybe it's the whole species."

[livestoannoy]

Kitten McWonderful stared at Shorty for a moment, as if wondering what this other kitten was doing on his table. Then he seemed to decide the invader wasn't worth his time, and just turned his head to stare off in the other direction.

At Sakura, Marco raised an eyebrow. Cats weren't really the kind of animal that most people would decide reminded them of him. "I'm not really a cat person," he said. "I don't even have a cat morph."

[encourage]

Shorty seemed to take that as an admission of -- actually, challenge. Kitty politics were a strange thing. He let his paw come back down to the table, then stalked after the other kitten. When McWonderful looked back at Shorty, he gathered himself for a pounce. Sakura leaned forward and nabbed him out of the air.

"Do you only morph the things you like?" She held her kitten close again, shifting her weight and turning back toward the cage. She remembered back in the art hall, where memories had been played out in sculpture and paint. The creature she'd never seen before, and the cobra.

She remembered snakes larger than the room they were in, rearing back and striking out, intending to kill. She remembered being frozen with fear, incapacitated by a killing aura...

Orochimaru.

[livestoannoy]

"I wish I only morphed things I like. Believe me, no one wants to morph cockroach," Marco said, wrinkling his nose a little. "But I've never needed a cat morph. They don't exactly have much use, unless you need to impersonate a specific cat."

McWonderful almost seemed to smirk, before getting up to stroll casually around the tables. Clearly the fact that the other kitten had been removed was proof of his superiority and right to the table.

Meanwhile, Sakura seemed to have zoned out. "Hello, earth to Barbie?" he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

[encourage]

She heard his response, making a noise to let him know she'd heard. She had to shake herself out of her own thoughts, bringing her own shortlegged little kitten friend back up and apologizing.

"I need to put you away." He squirmed again as she held him at eye level, pausing for a moment when she smiled and blew on his nose. The distraction was enough for her to set him back on his pillow, then definitively close the door.

Things I shouldn't have time for. Just what those things included, she didn't presently want to say.

"What about Earth?" she asked as she turned back toward Marco.

[livestoannoy]

Marco scowled at the kitten one last time. Stupid little fur-ball. (And how come it was getting all the attention here?)

"You'd left it," Marco said dryly. Then he tilted his head slight. "...or you would have. You know, if Earth still existed and we were actually on it."

[encourage]

Because it was infinitely cuter, obviously. Sakura lifted an eyebrow, about to deny that she hadn't been paying attention. Then again, it was fairly obvious she hadn't been. "Never did sound like my kind of place anyway." She looked for the kitten still walking the tables, nodding her head toward him.

"You say that one reminds you of you. Why not acquire him? Can't hurt to think ahead. I'm sure there's some situation where a cute little kitten would be strategically advantageous." Like maybe a five year old slumber party.

She'd seen those on the media library screens.