By night, all cats are Black

[blackcatjiji]

who ; Jiji and all the "Halo guys" (and girls and AI)
what ; The cat-proximity effect in action.
where ; The Spartan Fort Of Helmety Doom
when ; Afternoon, Jiji's first day
warning(s) ; Cats and UNSC personnel. Interacting.

Comments

[blacktwo]

Two was in a bit of a predicament. Waking up from a being under the ill effects of AI possession to a talking cat and your first order of business be-

"Hell, I gotta find my helmet before One has my ass for it."

[blackcatjiji]

Jiji was warm and comfortable in his new helmet-bed, propped up at the corner of the floor and wall, it rocked ever so slightly. The padding was intended to keep a Spartan head comfortable enough for long periods of use- but was magnificent at the much nobler calling as "cat bed".

[blacktwo]

Now Two was on all fours, crawling around the floor of the room One and herself shared. This was a particularly uncomfortable position to be in full with armor, sans helmet, of course. Dipping her head down, she inspected the space under her bunk, hopeful a helmet could have been small enough to roll under their at some point. She was wrong. But, luckily, she still found her helmet propped up against the foot of the bunk and out of immediate view, obscured by some loosely hanging sheets.

Not even considering the possibility it was occupied, the massive Spartan sprang to her feet, shaking the ground and yanking the helmet off the floor with a loud whoop of relief that One would, in fact, not be having her ass over something so trivial as a "temporarily misplaced" helmet.

[blackcatjiji]

Jiji woke with the startled horror that can only be had by being suddenly lifted many times your body-length into the air without warning. Had he been on a flat surface, he'd have spread all four legs for purchase, but in the helmet he was limited to bracing his paws against the visor. For a moment he did nothing but cling, claws piercing the padding under his rear feet for purchase. When nothing further seemed to happen, gave Two an unhappy yowl that was partly threat but mostly horror.

"Woah-oh! Oh god. Oh god, please put me down."

[evaskullface]

Well, it can't be Emile's - he never takes the damn thing off, except to shower, and as much as he needed a shower after that bloody raptor battle? The last place a cat was going to get into was a very wet bathroom.

On the other hand, when he gets out of the shower, wearing pretty much just a towel and a helmet, he does notice something out of place.

"Carter! Someone got some black shit in your helmet!"

[blackcatjiji]

Jiji raises his head and glares at Emile with his best unimpressed expression. Then he yawns, showing off his dainty little fangs and continues glaring.

"Whaaaaaaat?" He whines up at that face, blinking slowly, "More sleep, please."

[evaskullface]

Emile jumps back, not quite with a yelp, but the guy has had neither food nor sleep since his raptor battle - he's a little jumpy.

"CARTER! Why the hell is your helmet talking to me?"

Because clearly that's the only explanation for what's going on here.

[blackcatjiji]

"Stop yelling," The cat complained, getting up long enough to stree~eetch over the back edge of Carter's helmet before jumping out. The helmet responded by spinning slowly to a stop under the momentum.

"Geez, some people," He continued, grumbling loudly as he settled onto his haunches and bridged the gap between floor and bunk, lower bunk and upper bunk in two jumps before settling down on someone's pillow.

Talking cat, by the way.

1/2

[nobleleader]

Admittedly, Carter wasn't shaken by a lot of things. Aliens, gunfire, seeing his team die-- all of those things had become horrible things he'd had to live with, deal with. He'd gotten used to it, in a way; maybe not so much the latter, but the others, yes.

It's just a little bit startling, honestly, when he sees another animal that talks, and wonders just how the hell they're all getting here. He doesn't think another thing of it, until now, though.

Carter turns a corner, giving Kat a frown for her trouble, shaking his head. "This discussion is over, Kat," he starts, knowing that no, it's not really and no, she's probably gonna win the argument, but damnit, he has to try. Scooping up her helmet, he hands it to her silently, not really paying much attention to the small black lump in it.

2/2

[nobletwo]

Kat hadn't really seen the whole thing about the talking cat. She'd been fairly busy with her own projects, buried in work up to her elbows. The station was a wealth of information and electronics. Even with working herself to exhaustion she was barely scratching the surface.

She takes her helmet wordlessly, gripping it tight, but kept her eyes narrowed and trained on Carter's face. It was just another day, another argument, although they seemed to be more frequent.

"You're not even going to listen?" she asks, tipping the helmet to put it on.

[blackcatjiji]

Jiji was woken up by the tipping helmet and responded in the only logical fashion possible; he screeched like the cat he was, spread all twenty claws on all four feet and clung to the nearest surface he could reach. These were survival instincts finely honed by a life spent on the handle of a wildly careening broomstick.

Unfortunately, the only available surface was Kat's scalp.

I'M NOT SORRY. 1/2

[nobleleader]

"Don't I always?" Carter asked wryly, knowing it was a weak point of his, maybe, even if he tried to justify it to himself as a strong point that he took in their opinions and weighed them heavily on this.

Sighing faintly, he prepared to knock his knuckles against her shoulder, not quite playful, but almost, only to realize that there was something black and furry in her helmet, something that screeched.

Without thinking, he jerked his hand forward and up and caught Jiji with one hand, awkwardly, the other coming up to his back legs so he didn't claw Kat's face, realizing a moment later just how close he had to get to her to catch him. "--it's a cat," Carter said, ever the epitome of intelligence when around Kat and cats, frowning at Jiji. "From the network, earlier."

[huragokwhistler]

Rookie, unfortunately, tends to wear his helmet all the time. And he would let Jiji use O'Brien's, but he figures his fellow Helljumper is pissed enough at him. However, Jiji is certainly welcome to his shoulder or his lap, as he's currently splayed on a couple chairs, reading a worn, yellowed copy of some western novel.

[blackcatjiji]

It's quiet, and Jiji is....well, not exactly bored, but antsy. It's subtle, the sound of a cat moving across a hard surface. They're quiet creatures, even when they're not trying to be. Jiji makes the back of Rookie's footrest chair in one leap, padding comfortably out along the uneven bridge his legs make to sli~ide under his book and get all up in his face.

Staring. Directly. Into. Visor.

This is perhaps a message. It is a mystery for the ages.

YOU'RE A KITTY \o/

[huragokwhistler]

While Rook misses the sound of feet on the floor, he does catch the movement on the back of his footrest, and preemptively notes the page he's on before Jiji worms up from under the book to stare at him.

He tilts his helmet a little as he stares right back.

Unfortunately, he isn't psychic unless you're a teammate in distress. "Hey there."

[blackcatjiji]

"Rookie, why are all the humans here so enormous?"

No, you don't get a preamble. Or an explanation. Or a respite from the big cat-eyes dominating your field of vision. Jiji draws back just a little to sit back on his haunches and wrap his tail around him, but you are still carrying a cat on your chest.

[chttrbox_recon]

After consuming enough oatmeal and booze to fuel a small nation, Jun retires to his room. He absently leaves the door open as he collapses into his desk chair, half setting/half dropping his helmet onto the floor as he tries to gather himself through the mixed buzz and lingering horror.

He wasn't sure how else to cope with what he'd seen, or how to get that image out of his head. For a while he just sat there, numb.

[blackcatjiji]

It would be a strange day in the world when a cat could see a left-ajar door and not go exploring. At first he had only poked at the door because it was open, and then because there was a light inside the room beyond. It was a dim light, just at cat-height, and ended up belonging to some tiny indicator on the inside of Jun's helmet. Yellow.

Silently padding across the floor, he dipped a foot into the helmet experimentally, stretching out his neck to examine the light in closer detail. That was when he heard Jun's breathing and looked up.

He was just...sitting there. Not doing anything.

The sound his feet made as he lit from the floor to the desk was quiet, hollow, but far too loud in the relative silence. He edged over to the side and gave Jun his best, most plaintive, wide-eyed attempt at feline cheer.

"Mrow?"

The was a pause.

"...Are you okay?"

[chttrbox_recon]

Jun startles at that, and then lets out a ragged sigh when he realizes it is just a cat and not a dinosaur come to eat him again. He rubs his hand over his face, slurring out a reply,

"M'fine."

Then he pauses, and glances at Jiji through his fingers. "I'm talkin' to a cat. I must not be as fine as I thought." But of course it's Jun, he talks to everything. Heaving a stronger sigh and leaning back in his chair, still looking dark and distant, "Cats have nine lives, right? How many have you used so far?"

[blackcatjiji]

"Yeah, but nobody believes that," Jiji murmurs, considering Jun carefully, then settles on his haunches on the desk.

"I'm still working on this one," He drawls; a tiny, thin shadow of a creature, looking up at the armored shadow of a warrior, "But I once talked to someone who told me she'd died three times, and had six left."