ArchivedLogs:Perspective Reality

Perspective Reality
Dramatis Personae Arturo, Ash, Rasputin	2014-03-09 '
Location <NYC> Central Park North
Central Park North is slightly quieter than its southern counterpart, being further uptown and slightly out of the bustle of the City - insofar as one can escape the bustle of the City even here, in the acres of green and blue that make up Central Park. The reservoir is in the northern half, providing miles of jogging and biking trails along the clear water, as well as benches for people to sit and rest. It's a bright and sunny day in Central Park. It is also a Sunday, so Ash has not bothered to find work for the day. Instead, he thrusts himself upon the nature of Central park. He's forsaking the road ways and paths to walk across the large stretches of land that are normally green in the fairer months. He is wearing a heavy canvas jacket, one treated against moisture, on his shoulders, a plaid red and black shirt underneath. His legs are clad in blue jeans that have more of a dirty brown color to them than anything. There is also a large hole in one knee. His feet are shod in tan suede boots, with steel toes and bits of concrete stuck to the seam between leather and sole. He has his hands stuffed deep into his pockets and he stares down at the roots of trees as he hums and wanders. When you run faster and harder than a normal human being, jogging on the regular trails raises eyebrows. Besides, it's more challenging to run between paths, dodging obstacles and, at this time of year, divets and pot holes created by thawing earth. He's dressed to jog - in proper trail running sneakers, track pants, and a runner's jacket, purchased back in the day when he had money for proper gear. He takes a rather extreme corner coming around a cluster of bushes. The earth slips out from under his foot, and he has to flail and side-step to keep from wiping out. This also happens to put him directly in Ash's path. If someone's not quick, there might just be a collision. In New York City, stray cats aren't too much of an oddity. Stray cats wearing top hats are. Rasputin is sitting on a tree /LURKING/ in the park, though stealth isn't much of an option seeing the tiny kitty-fitted sage green felt top hat resting on hir head. The white cat's tail sways next to a branch, as Rasputin spots the incoming Ash, greeting him with hir ever so cheerful surprising voice. "Aaaash. It's been a while!" Ash is distracted, inherently to start, then more pointedly when Rasputin starts talking to him. "Oh, hey, Cat," he replies, turning to look up at the new animal speaking to him. "You know, I may call you cat even if you decide to be a bird again. I hop..." and his distraction finally has some consequences, in the form of a poor stumbling jogger running into his shoulder and back. "Whoa, whoa, hey there," he stumbles forward a bit and half turns, reaching out to hopefully steady the other person. "You okay?" Arturo slips, slides in the mud and ends up rather awkwardly grabbing Ash's shoulder to keep from falling down. There's a streak of mud on the ground where a chunk of grass slid out under his foot. "Sorry, sorry. Uh.." he stands up and staggers back. "I should know better than to take..." deep breath, "..take a corner at this time of year." He's breathing heavily. He leans forward, bracing hands on knees. So far, he hasn't noticed the talking cat. Because, well, cat. Even when people don't notice Rasputin, ze destroys that pretty quickly. Unless ze wants to be hidden, that is. And ze does not! Taking in the scent, Rasputin grins, speaking over to Arturo. "Woah. Dog person? Dog person. I like dogs myself, but they're kind of hard to get places compared to cats, most people leave cats alone, though birds are the best travel body." Rasputin laughs, the entire voice human, and hir mouth isn't even moving except for grinning. "You alright, man?" "Watch out for that one. He'll talk your ear off," Ash gestures over his shoulder at Rasputin as he looks Arturo over for any injuries. "Yeah, the ground's pretty much in transition for a while. Too much moisture to be its usual stable self, but what can you do. It'll still be there to catch you when you fall, so it's still reliable." Strong arms, hardened by construction work help get Arturo steady and release him when he's more firmly on his own two feet. No new injuries, anyway. Under his jacket, there's a bandaged shoulder from a bullet graze and a few aches. His face displays an injury that couldn't possibly be from slipping a little. There's a purple bruise on his left cheekbone and a little crusting of blood around the corner of his mouth, along with a few small splinter-cuts. That's what happens when you get smacked in the face with a pool cue so hard it shatters. "Yeah, I'm..." and then her turns, blinks, and his eyes widen upon seeing the cat. Something instinctual makes his stomach flip and he unconsciously bares his fangs for a brief moment. Then his human side gets control and he shakes his head. "A cat. With a top hat. Hello, New York." "I doubt I'm the /only/ talking cat us mutants are weird." Rasputin's still grinning, hir tail doing a sort of motion in the 'us', pointing at all three of them before returning to state. "Top hat was a gift from my BFF for..like two days, how I miss thee, Ronaldo, the world's greatest snowcat. And man when everything was all weird colored I was like literally the chesire cat it was great!" "I'm Rasputin, nice to meetcha." "Kid -- Cat, you should probably know that that W word is bad for us humans. I almost died because of it, so it's best if you don't say it." Ash draws in a deep breath then exhales, his hands stuffing deeply in his pockets. "Looks like you've had it rough for a while, sir. Can kind of understand a displeased reaction. You want me to go ahead and leave you alone, or would you rather some company?" "God, please don't call me 'sir'," says Arturo with a rough laugh. "You're going to make me feel ancient and respectable." He swallows a few more mouthfuls of air, then comes to rest leaning on a convenient rock. He winces as he shifts his shoulder. He chuckles a little at Rasputin's rambling. "Are you on catnip, buddy?" Rasputin stops grinning when Ash warns hir, a slow nod. "Sorry it's kind of..difficult this whole thing was pretty stressful." When Arturo asks if Rasputin's on catnip, Rasputin grins again. "I wish! But man, have you been living under a rock, the whole c- NYC has experienced this, walking snowmen, technicolor madness, chocolate rain, treeeees." Rasputin's leaping off hir branch to another one, changing angles, grin still present. "But if you're offering I'll totally take some." "Stress, Cat? Those things are a whole hell of a lot less stressful than the death that preceded." Ash shakes his head and keeps where he is for the time being. "Apologies. Just, trying to be polite. you can't be that much older than me, right? Then again, people are always telling me I look younger than I am. I figure age isn't really all that important. It's just a means to get birthday parties and limit the number of people consuming alcohol. Not that it works." His eyes narrow at the wince, but he doesn't remark on it. "I'll leave my age up to your imagination," says Arturo with a little grin. He's not being so careful and his pointed canines are visible. He unhooks a small water bottle off his belt and swallows a mouthful. "I try to stay under a rock where unexplainable weirdness is concerned," he says to Rasputin. "Like you. I'll try reaaallly hard to imagine you away over a quart of gin." His wry tone suggests he's kidding. "Oh, I was /talking/ about the death I think you misunderstood me! I was talking about the trigger words and the incident and everything I actually love all this cheerfulness it's /fantastic/ but I hated what happened before it that was not fantastic" Rasputin's voice slows down after this run on sentence, grin fading completely. "I'm sorry if I seemed inconsiderate or anything." "That's not very nice, I'm a person too!" Rasputin growls, though..it's also kidding, more or less. Ze seems to change tone pretty fast. "It... takes more than a quart of gin to imagine him away. And if you try, he seems to find you and makes it harder." Ash reaches up and scratches at the back of his head, his hair parting funny over cranial scars as his fingernails run across them. "Relax, kid," he tells Rasputin at length. "Telling people you're normal and there's sure to be a billion of you around isn't exactly helpful. See - you keep posing this reality that you have, which is most definitely a valid reality to you, to other people, it's not, and telling them that they're wrong and your reality is the only one that is correct is a recipe for people doubting their reality. Which makes them feel crazy." He looks over at Arturo. "I had to get my head checked after I met him. He's definitely real and all, but I had brain surgery, so I needed to be sure there weren't complications with that, you know?" He pauses. Then, he sighs. "Now, I'm talking too much." Arturo grins at them both. He seems rather amused by the whole situation. "Dear diary, today I met two very interesting individuals..." He pretends to air-write, using his hand at the pad. He looks up at Rasputin. "Sorry. I'm not much of a cat person. I didn't mean to offend." He rolls his shoulders and closes his eyes. "Change of subject. Hey, isn't it great that spring is on the way?" "Woah, woah, I'm not in my own reality or anything this all actually happened. Like, the stars, I actually hunted a few with some people when they were scattered. Though, you're right, there's probably like not that many people that can do what I can do. And I'm not normal, I'm just..me." Rasputin stops grinning for this. And then, subject change, grin returns. "Oh man, spring. I love spring...except mating season. It's..not that great." "Ay, Dios. Everyone is in their own reality. I have seen things that only I have seen. It doesn't make them less real." Ash grumps a little and stuffs his hands in his pockets and shakes his head, letting the conversation shift. "It is great," he offers eventually. "I'll get more work now that the weather is warming. Smaller construction jobs - plus, soon I'll be able to sleep on the roof again. Just love being outside." "It's good to be outdoors. I don't know about sleeping in the open air in New York City, though. The smog alone..." Arturo shakes his head. He's happy that the conversation seems to be veering away from realities and perceptions of realities. Conversations like that can make a man go mad. He looks down at his mud-covered sneakers and rubs some off on the edge of a rock. He looks over at Rasputin, and he can't quite help himself. "What, you're not fixed?" "But I-." Rasputin just drops it now. "Nope. Body's a stray. And, I'm not very comfortable with getting fixed. It's my body, my rules." Another grin. "Oh, uh, the C word. Don't say the C word. Bad word." Rasputin nods vehemently. Ash just chokes on laughter when Arturo mentions Rasputin getting fixed. "Man. You should listen to Bob Barker. That man knows what he's talking about." Arturo pushes off the rock and wobbles a little. Seems he wrenched his ankle more than he realized. "Ah, fantastic. I guess I'll be Igor-ing it home." "What does he talk about?" Rasputin twerks hir head, a wave of the tail, hat still on firm. "He's..the Price is Right guy, yeah?" "He encourages the spaying and neutering of pets and strays to reduce the population of animals living without care." Ash shrugs and rubs his hand over his mouth to disguise his laughter. "As long as you're okay getting home. I'm a pretty solid shoulder to lean on, if you need it," he tells Arturo. "Or if you don't want me walking you home, I can at least get you to a cab." "What he said," says Arturo as he nods towards Rasputin with another toothy grin. THen to Ash, "That's very kind, but I should be okay. It's not /that/ bad." He tries putting full weight on it and winces a little bit. "See? Old man. Getting injured easily. Ancient, I am." He chuckles roughly. "Hey, hey, /I/ live with care. I have a home and everything. And it belongs to me I'm not like a squatter or anything." Rasputin grins again, tail waving. "Man I get injured often too but that's probably because birds are fragile little things I've had to drop a few bodies before because they keep..breaking things I don't know how birds work." "Bah. I was thinking that you were just more used to more posh running surfaces." Ash gives a grin and waves to Arturo before looking over at Rasputin once more. "Barker also said to spay your pets because they can get out and impregnate others. Do you know what your cat body is doing while you're off being a bird?" Arturo lets out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, more posh. I'm very posh." He lifts a wave to the pair of them. "Be a good cat, cat. And, thanks," the last to Ash. He hobbles off, heading towards the proper path. "My cat body's in a safe place, trust me. I've never..impregnated anyone, at least since I claimed the body." Rasputin is 100% positive hir body isn't off being frisky when it's not hosted. At Arturo's departure, Rasputin grins. "I gotta get back too. My ride's probably waiting." Rasputin's then pouncing off the tree, making sure hir hat doesn't fall off, being running off. Ash raises a hand and waves to the cat when ze takes off as well, turning and stuffing his hands deeper in his pockets as he walks on.