12421/Captain Cat!

Captain Cat!
Date of Scene:	07 November 2020
Location:	American Museum Nat. His.
Synopsis:	A day in the mueum makes Cap 20 buck poorer... and the museum that muh richer.
Cast of Characters:	Captain America, Ivory

---

Captain America has posed:
Steve is taking a rare day off today, taking the subway here and walking to the museum with a simple napsack slung over his shoulder, wearing a New York Giants sweatshirt with a USA baseball cap on his blonde head. He lingers on the big dinosaur out front, remembering a few times he's crossed paths with such things himself and he wonders that the life of a simple kid from Brooklyn ever got so wild.

He moves to one of the side exhibits, away from the of crowds, slipping into the Nature of America exhibit that he came to see, showing off many of the native flora and fauna of the New World.

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory is visiting the museum to clear the head. Not from work, that goes rather smoothly, but from other things. Walking down the halls with the few people in them, they just didn't pay too much attention to things, not the other visitors, not the exhibits. It was a place to get out of the bad fall weather, to walk through long hallways with a nice echo and have the ears swivel after sounds somewhere. Yes, ears swivel, because they had decided to keep their cat ears out, the pair of them just jumping after the footsteps around them, just like the fluffy tail did sway and balance their steps.

Captain America has posed:
Most people might not hear those padding feet, but Steve Rogers isn't most men. He turns at the approach of the cat-woman, the ears and tails taking him off-guard until he puts them properly in context. He's lingering in front of a large display of forest life, with a raccon, deer, and even a skunk all taxidermied in different poses. "Ivory, wasn't it?" he asks, "Good to see you again, miss."

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory spun around at the notification of their name, chuckling at the use of the female. "Oh my oh my! That's Mr. Rogers, right? Didn't I meet you at the birthday party of Miss Danvers?" they ask, feet steering them closer. "Lucky you to recognize me after... a year or such? I mean, we only spent a few hours at that party and not even exchanged many words... What brings you to the museum?"

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers smiles, "I have have a good memory for faces. And you are rather distinctive, for that matter. I try to keep track of the people I meet. Most of them know me by sight, it's only polite that I try to return the favor as best I can," he says.

"Just getting a little bit of culture. And I would like to take a trip out in nature, perhaps, but I need to stay close to home base, so I thought a bit of natural history would at least do the trick."

Ivory has posed:
    "Not as distinctive as you think. I mean, I could hide my ears and wonder oh wonder, just some days ago I had a date with a lovely girl that had just as white hair as I!" Musing, Ivory eyed over the exhibit he stood in front. "Skunks, really? We should eradicate those. Stinky little pests."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers smiles, "You still have a lovely and recognizable face, I promise," he says. At her words, he shakes his head, "Nonsense. Skunks serve a vital role in the ecosystem. Simply because we find them repellant - and they only do so because they are afraid and defending themselves - doesn't mean they don't belong. They live in harmony with their environs better than we do and we pollute far more than their glands ever could."

Ivory has posed:
Ivory says, "Do they? Well, they are a pest to me. I mean, I had only one encounter with one and that was bad. They are huge and stinky and their claws are nasty." Ivory's description might only make sense if one knew that it happened to their cat shape.

    "What you think is so recognizeable about my face? I mean, if I went around that corner there... and then my twin brother came down the hallway, do you think you'd mistake him for me?" Oh, THAT was a tease, right?"

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers ponders, "I don't know. You make a fair point, perhaps you wouldn't be different. I take it for granted that you might have a twin. I suppose that would be egg on my face, so to speak, but I would apologize for the mistake. Nothing wrong with making mistakes. We all do."

"And yes, skunks are huge and stinky and their claws are nasty. But they are as they were made and they have no malice, just instinct."

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory chuckles some. "Mr. Rogers, Skunks were not 'made', they evolved! I mean, Darvin lived like, some hundred years or such ago! The'd only be made if some magican did invent Skunks as a punishment for poor cats."

    "You want to bet if I got a twin? No wait, that would be unfair, I *know* the answer, you don't. So it wouldn't be a fair bet."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers laughs, "I didn't say anything about the method. Even if you don't believe a conscious hand guided them, they have been shaped by their environment, their world, their fellow animals. I appreciate that your feline sympathies may not be tilted in their direction, though," he says.

"I would bet that you don't, merely because I think you're playing with me. Which is fine. I make a good ball of yarn."

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory chuckles as he acknowledges evolution and that skunks were a threat for cats. "Don't you believe that the true apex predator is cat, as cat shaped man as their perfect servant?"

"Daring me for a bet, hmm? How about twenty bucks for the museum if my twin shows up after I rounded that corner there?"

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers smiles, "Ah, see, your certainty tells me that I might have made an incorrect bet. But...will it truly be your twin? Or do you possess a fluidity that I couldn't have imagined in my own youth, but I'm coming to see rising in this new generation. It's as astounding as watching Thor at work, but I think just as good for us all."

"Perhaps you are right about humans serving cats. I've never been able to keep a pet, I'm home too infrequently to make sure they're cared for. But I have always enjoyed them."

Ivory has posed:
    "Well, you got me on the clothing style, I do so in a way that is so fluid. So I take it the betting on that is off?" Ivory asks teasing, one eyebrow raising.

    "Ahw, you can't *keep* a cat. You cohabit with cats. Share your house with them, but you don't own them. Maybe you should talk about that with Tigra. Or if you ever can manage to catch the Cheetah, ask her. I mean, they surely will vouch for the fact that cats can't be owned."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers nods, "Fair enough. Still, most -ordinary- cats require the care of a human to be able to survive successfully in a New York City apartment, unless it is overcome by rodents and has a leak problem which, thankfully, none of my apartments have had," he says.

"I will make the bet if you and your twin stand next to one another."

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory chuckles as they raise a finger, tapping their own nose. "That's a good conditional. How about... over there?" they muse, gestureing to a hallway that has a large glass window.

    "But true, in New York, the average cat needs its human servant, either to provide food or be the food. But statistically, there are more cats that don't need a human to survive than do. Barncats, strays, wildcats, large felidae, panthera... oh, and Acynonyx Jubatus. Not the one stealing Amazonian statues."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers considers, "What if neither of us are servants? What if we are friends, exchanging help to one another? Two species who found lives together, shared, rather than separated by their differences? Wouldn't that be nice?"

He watches where Ivory gestures and nods, "As you wish."

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory chuckles and nods. "Cohabitation, Coexistance. That's a nice thought. But I still believe cat was never domesticated, Humans were at best cattesticated. After all, dogs were remade from wolves, ats stayed cats, no matter what humans did to them."

    Leading away to the window, they stop in front of it, waving to their own mirror image before winking at Steve. "See? A twin of me." Spinning around, there's a tiny ripple running over the exposed flesh, and as they return to face Steve, there's some very tiny thing that changed. Sublte. Almost unobserveable unless one knows what to look for. Yes, they just jumed the gender wall in a moment. "My twin and me..." they note, gesturing to the window, then themselves. "20 bucks for the museum."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers nods, "I can see the argument. I'll agree that they were never domesticated, but perhaps they were, just a little bit, civilized. Or maybe we civilized one another. Built it together."

At the shift, his head cocks and he smiles, "An impressive talent. Luckily, I have no compunctions about giving a donation," he says, reaching into his pocket and drawing out the twenty. "Should I put it in the bucket or would you prefer I let you do the honors?"

Ivory has posed:
    Ivory chuckles as she just gestures to the donation bucket. "Your donation, your honors. Do your part." They nod, brushing through their hair, sorting the ponytail a little.

    "Cats can be very civilized. More so than humans I think. Well, often. I mean, they'd never fight over something silly like nationality. Only over necessities and property."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers puts the money in the bucket nearby and nods, "I concur. Humans have invented a lot of terrible ways and bad reasons to hurt one another. But we have also created art, literature, beautiful buildings, museums. We have made amazing scientific achievements and cured diseases that ravaged the world. We are imperfect things, all of us, but we are trying. Most of us anyway. I don't count Nazis."

Ivory has posed:
    "And built a whole city in the honor of cats. You forgot that crucial bit showing the highest heights of human civilisation." Ivory doesn't mention Wakanda, mostly because, who ever rememebrs Wakanda? It's Bubastis they speak of. The city of Bast, Tell Basta, built in Egypt some 3000 years ago and standing proud, even being the residence of the pharaoh before it started to fade around 500 BC, but still kept strong well into the time of roman emperor Hadrian before people left it.