A Cat on the Town
23st of January 2007 A.D.
J did not fit in Pauline's kitchen, pastel, prim and... pasteurized. This was the kind of place you did book clubs in, the only thing he would be able to bring to book club would be the wine. If he was being honest it would probably be the cheap box wine that tasted like the scrapings off an aquarium too. There were a lot of up sides to being a DJ, the money wasn't one of them.
One of said upsides took that moment of hesitation to speak up, bright as a spring day of the kind that sometimes felt like they would never come in the depths of a Chicago winter: "Hey, my name is Bùshì Tùzǐ, you can call me Tùzǐ and I am a shapeshifter." The last word has four syllables and as many transformations from woman to cat and back to woman back to miniature leopard and finally back to human holding a clear plastic casserole full of dumplings —store-bought since Tùzǐ shared his terrible cooking skill— and took another deep breath, can lungs were smaller than human lungs so she always had to take a deep breath when she changed. "I am a spirit, guardian of the dead, keeper of thresholds, you have a good one here by the way and this guy's girlfriend, I think that is the one without funny connotations, not that I have something against funny connotations you understand, but I thought I would let you guys get to know us first. Point is I am a spirit, he's a spirit talker and..." she lowered her voice to a kind of hushed half purr. "He talks real good."
The sporadic giggles that burst past the social dam of first meetings did not do much for J's confidence at least not until he heard someone in the back mutter. "If there's half-cat people I'm out."
"Oh there is technically..."
"Ahem," the older woman to Pauline's right side barely made a pretense of clearing her throat to interrupt, though she seemed more amused than annoyed to have whatever her introduction was derailed. "Welcome both of you, I'm glad you could find the time to speak with us. I'm Anna Ash..."
Tùzǐ raised her hand slowly, fingers slightly curled in. "For the record that is a very weird expression. I know what it means, but just the idea that you can lose time is kind of terrifying in implication, like you control time."
"Well if it's our time that makes sense doesn't it?" Anna said, taking the casserole, eyes daring to the sticker Tùzǐ hadn't done a very good job taking off.
"There, you did it again," Tùzǐ cut in. "Owning shards of time. I knew a hakutaku once who said the trouble with mortals started when you got it into your heads that you could own land, but I can kind of see the claim to that. A city is not like any other kind of place between heaven and earth for good or ill, dreamed by mortal minds, raised by mortal hands, good for you. On the other side of things though cutting up time into little pieces and thinking you own the part of
it just because you happen to be standing in it? I'm sorry, but that is just silly. Maybe if you invent one of those time machines from the movies, only I guess you are not allowed to anymore since... oops. Did I say too much again?"
"Well," J said with the kind of sigh that was fooling absolutely no one. "You implied time travel used to be a thing and that it used to be allowed within less than a minute of meeting these people."
"Oh I don't think there were machines, I was just talking about swiming against the currents of time in general," she explained brightly.
"Well then I'm sure that's a relief for everyone." J waved at the room and said. "Hello, my name is J and I am a DJ because whenever I try dancing she runs me into the ground."
That got another, even bigger laugh.
"So about these wards," Tuzi tapped her foot against the screen door. "Have you considered binding them all together."
"Oh we don't live around here," a younger woman who had introduced herself as Maria said, more than a little bewildered.
"Didn't you hear what I said about a city being man's place?" Tùzǐ echoed her tone. "Why should you trip over a little bit of distance now?"
The conversation took a turn to the arcane from there.
OOC: This was fun. Hope you guys enjoy too. I know we are slowing down a little, but I did not want to take away from the conversation on alchemy since this is part of the level up I know those are your abilities going forward.
