CATNIP!

[Persephone]

Well, Jeshickah had given Persephone permission to go out alone for some horrible reason to be certain, but Persephone, having never left Midnight since she was brought there many years prior, couldn't believe her ears when she was told. She was supposed to go and re-affirm herself with the world, and Jeshickah was confident Persephone would return as instructed (which she would; and why not? Jeshickah was perfect.)

Unfortunately for Persephone, the only place she knew or remembered how to get to was Hellcat's Hollow, and it didn't actually occur to her that she might not be welcome since her previous audiance there of the tiger-Triste Ash was alongside Jeshickah and Ian, neither of whom he seemed to care for. Persephone didn't have time to stop and wonder if she was welcome or if anyone liked her - Jeshickah and Ian's opnions were all that mattered to her, and so long as they were content, she, too, was.

Persephone had chosen simple clothing for her outing - jeans, boots (begrudgingly) and a black tanktop. Her hair was growng some, finally, brushing her shoulders in waves - she had let it dry wet, and she couldn't manage to brush the curl out. Her bangs were swept to the side slightly, as best she could to keep them from her eyes. She -looked- normal, if you ignored the black choker she wore (fashionable to some, a collar to her) and pearl-coloured scars all over what exposed flesh she had that wasn't on her face.

She stopped outside the door as an intoxicating scent caught her nose, pulling her from her mission to 'explore and learn social skills'. It was that green stuff, that wicked herb that Ian had used to taunt her. She closed her eyes and smelled her way around until she found the culprit - an abandoned cat toy in the form of a small ball with a bell on the inside. It was laced with catnip!

She forgot all about the building she was standing next to, and leaned on the wall just next to the door, concentrating on rubbing the little 'ting ting'ing fabric orb in her hands, and on her chin, and against her nose. Her eyes were that charicteristic shade of chartreuse, pupils dialated like ink blots as she busied herself with the ball.

What a treasure! she thought to herself. Someone sure is stupid for dropping this! Oh well, it's mine now. Minemineminemine.

[Darren Liten]

Usually, Darren was far more aware of his surroundings than he currently was as he busted out the front door of Hellcat's Hollow, but it was hardly his fault that he'd been joking rather loudly with Dave (who was taking the next shift behind the bar) and that he'd just gotten pelted with the balled-up specials page from the lunch menu.  He hadn't known Persephone was out there, and in fact didn't notice until he ran right into her, having been paying attention to the werewolf shouting something after him.

"Oh, whoa, sorry about that!" he apologized quickly, reaching out reflexively to ensure that he hadn't knocked her off-balance or anything, and only noticed the ball in her hands in passing.  It was actually her eyes, and her scent, which caught his attention first.  Feline.

She had eyes quite like his, actually.  Too green to really be human, compliments, more than likely, of spending far too much time in their second form.  That was what his mother had always warned him about as he grew up, and his eyes had gotten rather vivid over the years, so he believed her.  It wasn't terribly shocking to find another shapeshifter right outside the Hollow, but he was interested nonetheless.  

[Persephone]

Persephone was thrust forward a few feet, shoving the ball right into her nose at an awkward angle. She didn't react to Darren right away, instead sneezing for a moment and suddenly becoming aware of herself. And something else. That sneeze had cleared her head up, but that smell.. it was so... She cupped her hands and rubbed her nose sort of like a squirrel might, trying to make sure it wasn't that catnip messing with her head.

She turned though, finally acknowledging that she'd even been bumped, as the man stood, waiting for a confirmation that she was fine (it had only been about four seconds since the initial run-down). She opened her mouth to say something, but then that smell hit her again. Head tilted to the side and her mouth hung like that, slightly parted, as though she was confused.

His EYES! Persephone had never seen another cat with eyes like that, like hers. It came from being forced to stay in her natural form for so long, so much that Persephone was practically feral with the ability to walk in shoes (barely) and comprehend conversation. She blinked rapidly, and then reached out to catch his arm before he had a chance to run off. It wasn't a hold so tight he couldn't move out of it, she just... didn't want him to go yet.

She leaned forward on her toes, smelling him. Luckily dusk in New York City brought many passerbys, and nobody actually stopped to -react- to a girl smelling a boy on the sidewalk. He smelled like warm and fuzzy and things she hadn't been around in at least twenty years. He smelt like something good that she couldn't remember.

Jeshickah letting Persephone out may not have been a good idea, just yet.

[Darren Liten]

He didn't have the slightest clue what that ball she had was, but he'd seen her drop it right after he bumped her, so the first thing he did was pick it up for her.  It was a damn good thing that he didn't bother to take a whiff of it, considering what was inside the damn ball.  He just offered it back to her...and stared.

She was sniffing him.  Of all the things he might have expected her to do, sniffing him wasn't one of them.  He'd met other shifters, and he'd recently discovered that, somehow, his boss was now one.  He'd never had one sniff him like this before, though.  "Er, hi.  You dropped your ball," he prompted her, lifting it somewhat to remind her.

[Persephone]

It was like a Disney cartoon - Persephone was engrossed in his scent, it was something she could drench herself in. She'd never, ever felt that way before, and she didn't understand it, but it was exciting - and not exciting like beating someone to death, but exciting... she didn't know!

And then the ball was right in front of her, and she crossed her eyes, and then looked up at him, and reached up to close her hand over his and the ball, pushing it towards his face. The little noisemaker on the inside could be heard sliding around, making 'ting ting' noises as she did so, though the motions were very fluid.

"Play?" she asked. She tilted her head from right to left, and oh, how she smelled of that catnip. She was still spinning from it, she felt all heavy and euphoric. Man, that was some good shit.

[Darren Liten]

It was good shit, and he realized it all at once when she shoved it back towards him.  There was a sharp intake of breath as he tried to jerk his head back to avoid getting bopped in the face with it, and that was all he needed to become very interested in that ball.  

There was a reason he'd never been exposed to this stuff except in a 'don't touch it' sort of way, and this was that reason.  Once he'd recovered from his initial reaction of pulling his head away from her hand, he leaned right back towards the ball, sniffing first at it, then at her hands.  His eyes, which were already kitty-cat green, had changed to a more feline-esque pupil by the time they flicked from the ball to her.

He nodded, leaning even closer to her and invading her space in much the same way she'd done to his, sniffing at her.  Jaguar.  Not so different from his leopard, but enough that he could easily tell.

[Persephone]

The level of closeness that cats seemed to attain even for brief moments was so utterly strange to watch that it was a wonder someone hadn't stopped. As Darren leaned in, Persephone tilted her head and rolled onto the tips of her toes again, burying her nose at the crease of his shoulder by his neck. When she pulled back, she rubbed her cheek along his, and a soft rumbling sound came from her throat.

Persephone was purring.

She held the ball back, because, well, this was the game of BALL!!!! and the ball was hers, and so right now, she was winning. She didn't understand anything else about it, but she sure was glad she didn't have to go through it alone again.

Her chartreuse eyes still remained dialated for the most part, 'til she finally, reluctantly, pulled away from the other cat. A leopard. He was so similiar she almost didn't realize he wasn't a jaguar, but the Azteka had a way of... being their own, and there was a distinct flavour of difference once you noticed.

She didn't know if she should throw it or not; technically someone else was supposed to throw it, bcause she couldn't throw it for HIM to chase and then they'd both go after it, could she? Blast, she needed Hades around; he had a good arm.

[Darren Liten]

Persephone wasn't the only one purring, and he went right along with it when she rubbed her cheek against his, still breathing in her scent and that of the catnip.  He was done for.

She didn't need to throw it, since he understood on a very primal, animalistic level what was going on.  This was Ball.  She had the ball, and he was supposed to get it from her so that she could steal it back until they got tired of it.  So, when she backed off, he understood the rules and gave her a moment to realize that he was on the same page while he eyed it.  Then, he pounced.

The game was on, and his backpack lay on the ground where he'd been, temporarily forgotten.

[Persephone]

Persephone was Pounced, and went crashing to the ground, shielding the ball -- HER BALL -- from the new cat. She rolled onto her stomach and wiggled loose, and then ran straight into the Hollow. She caught her arm on the door as she ran, and the ball she was cradling popped up and sprang free.

It went loose in the bar.

Persephone could hear it, and jumped on top of a table, crouching as her arms hung free at her sides, listening, listening for the 'ting ting' as the ball rolled to a stop. She finally zeroed in on it, and lept off of the table -at- the ball, intending to destroy it.

A noise to her left though, something normal but awkward to her, caught her mid-leap, and she froze, landing on her feet several yards from her target. Like a typical cat, she had the most confused expression, a kink in her human-tail (human tales? humans don't have tails, they have big, big bottoms and walk around in bad shorts going HI HELEN!).

When she realized she'd wasted precious seconds and the new cat might get HER ball, she just dove at it, chairs and tables in her way or not.

[Darren Liten]

He was after her the instant she moved, headed right back into the Hollow as though there wasn't a werewolf in there just waiting for him to do something stupid like this.  He tore after Persephone, his movements barely human at all by that point, and he had the advantage of not being distracted by the sounds in the building.  He was accustomed to them by that point.  Thus, he landed on the ball with just enough time to savor the victory before she was on him.

He didn't take notice of the blond man behind the bar staring at them, who'd just begun to laugh like hell.  The man was headed for the phone, and neither of the cats cared.

Dave, for his own part, had been about as shocked as he got when Liten busted back into the bar after some girl with a little ball, but he'd figured out that they were 'playing' rather quickly.  He just didn't realize initially that there was catnip involved for sure, though he had his suspicions.  If Liten was acting like such a doofus, there had to be something going on.  He had a phonecall to make before he did anything about it, though.

"Hey, girlie, I have a favor to ask you.  Are you free?" he asked the girl once she'd answered, his eyes on the two cats.  "Your boyfriend is acting retarded, and I think he's going to need a ride home.  No, there's nothing wrong with him, but he's....probably not going to be driving.  See you soon?"  Of course she'd come.  It wasn't like she'd just leave the guy there, even if Dave hadn't explained things fully.  He didn't have time for a long conversation.

He had a pitcher of water to go fetch.

[Persephone]

The funny thing was, Persephone acted like a cat in human form, and that meant she wrapped up around Darren and started doing the 'kick bite' thing cats do when they want something to go their way and it's not happening. Of course, she wasn't doing it hard, or barely even at all considering she wouldn't have had to have hit him hard - she was evenly matched in shifter terms, sure, but Persephone had been raised to -eat people- so she might hit slightly more aggressively.

She jumped up suddenly, and just took a lucky swipe of her foot, trying to kick the ball out of his hands like it was a golf ball on a tee. And LUCKY* she was, because it flew up in the air again. Persephone actually might have left marks when she took off after it, colliding with a table. It didn't matter, though, because she had the ball! She curled it under her chin and rolled around on the floor with it.

MAN she was HIGH.

~~~
Sorry for slight power-play, let me know if I need to edit it.

[Mars Lang-Vida]

As Mars had taken her own car that day, she wasn't the least bit inconvenienced when Dave had phoned her in. Stopped at the intersection just a few blocks away from the Hollow, Mars figured that it wouldn't hurt to drop by and pick up the boyfriend anyhow. She had rarely had a daytime kill, but today was one of those days, an unfortunate undead ending up being gutted and eventually slain at a dumpster behind her bank. Mars had stopped in to cash a check, and had emerged with the bad sensation that she was being tailed.

She glanced at the black leather seat of her Audi TT before slamming the door, locking it, and walking into the bar. It had been early evening, just before Darren's shift expired, and the slim girl walked in to a rather... bizarre scene.

Her significant other was entangled with a tall brunette, and even without stepping any closer than the threshold of the doorway, Mars immediately sensed the feline blood pumping through the girl. Ahh, so that explained it. She knew of only one substance that could drive Darren as insane as he looked at the moment, and couldn't stifle the laughter.

"Poor guy must've caught a whiff of the catnip in that," she nudged her head towards the ball, deciding to wait a few moments before approaching the two struggling shifters in order to retrieve the damn thing. Dave didn't question the bruise that was quickly forming on her left cheek, though as soon as it began to form it began fading, and Mars was left in her grecian sandals, khaki shorts, and a voluminous, white blouse. Very Banana Republic. It was a shame that her left sleeve had been visibly torn in her previous scuffle.

[Darren Liten]

He was going to be positively humiliated when he realized what was going on, but for the moment all that mattered was the Ball.  He had it for a short moment before she attacked him for it once more, and she got that lucky shot in that pitched it in the air for her to catch.  He was right after her, though, pouncing at her and using the weight advantage he currently had in an attempt to keep her from getting at him with her feet again, and he bit her shoulder just hard enough to have her attention, but not to leave any lasting marks before he rolled her.

Dave had come up alongside Mars when she walked in, and he just gave her a nice big grin, the full pitcher in hand.  "Must have.  He's never living this one down," the wolf assured her, watching and just waiting for the two to get close enough that he'd only need one pitcher of water to get at both of them.  

"You get the damn ball, and I'll be right behind you to keep them from going after you for it," he told her, and then Darren pounced at the catgirl again.  By the time Liten had rolled her over, Dave was there with the water, dumping it upside-down on the two of them.  The wolf was pleased to see the leopard freeze mid-movement.

Darren actually flinched at the sudden introduction of water to the game and would have bolted if he'd stayed in cat mode.  It was the fact that he was shocked back to reality by the cold water that kept him frozen in place, and he turned wide green eyes from Persephone to Dave and finally to Mars.

Even as the witch snapped up the ball, he shot away from Persephone and across the floor a few feet, certain that he was going to be in a load of trouble.  Not to mention, he ddn't need any of that starting up again.  "Aw, hell," he muttered.

[Persephone]

Persephone may have been splashed with water, but the difference between the two was that Persephone had been twisted way too long to realize that water was a bad thing, one, and two? Jaguars like to swim. Most of them spend, like the tiger, a lot of time lazing around in water to escape from the heat of their environment... and since Persephone was already getting hot from rolling around, the water was while surprising somewhat... refreshing.

She didn't react quite like she should have, not like Darren did anyways, and instead sat, crouched on the floor. The scene looked fairly bad, but Persephone had eyes only for that ball, and so she waited, patiently, soppping wet, though Darren had gotten hit with most of it. Mars had the ball, and now she needed to throw it.

Unlike human reason, Persephone fell back into kitty reason most of the time, and now was play time, and the ball was in play, AND it was not a cat who had it, which meant that she could stop throwing it around herself, and someone ELSE could throw it. So...

"Throw?" she asked hopefully.

She reguarded the witch carefully, curiously, and with wide, exited eyes. Oh yeah, and she was still kind of high with that catnip.

[Mars Lang-Vida]

Amber eyes shot towards Darren, still recovering from his little foray into catnip land, and feigned an impatient 'tut' with her lips. Mars crossed her arms. Though the sight of Darren entangled with another female wasn't exactly the most welcome, she did have to admit that for what it was worth, the scene was hilarious. In fact, she would've taken the rather cruel route and thrown the ball back into play, had she not already given it a good squeeze and felt the slightly crunchy texture of the catnip inside. Dry stuff. Potent.

Quickly, she assessed the other shifter. The fact that the cold water had shaken Darren out of his leopard mode didn't surprise her - what was surprising was the lack of change in the female's behavior. She hadn't looked a bit fazed when the droplets struck her, which struck Mars as terribly suspicious. The only encounters she had ever had with people who seemed unable to shake their shifter modes were... pets. With a slight furrow of her eyebrow, she chucked the ball a good fifty feet towards the door.

If Darren had half a mind to run after it, he'd be out of luck. By his time, Mars had already hooked three of her slender fingers around the back of the man's collar.