Etc.
I don't think Etcetera gets enough credit, so I decided to create a back story. My first piece, enjoy… By the way, everyone is saying it now so even though it's painfully obvious and probably unneeded I don't own Cats, shocker.
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"Mommy! I want that one, the little white one in the back!!" yelled the anxious child as she jumped up and down in front of a cage with a litter of barely 6 week old kittens. At the pound cats tended to be a dime a dozen, but the small curled up kitten soon to be known as Etcetera caught the eye of an owner who would take her into a world that would change her life.
Her home name became Mitzi, because the little girl who chose Etcetera pointed out that her paws looked like mittens, which is common in cats unbeknownst to the youngster. The kitten was put in a fairly nice suburban home with the child, whom I should probably tell you is named Ann, and her two very busy work-at-home parents. Ann was in kindergarten so from the hours of 8:30a.m. – 3:30p.m. Mitzi was left in the back yard with one small bowl filled of water and another with cat food.
The kitten wasn't a very good climber and she feared the outside world so she didn't dare try to leave the safety of the fenced in backyard. Full of energy the kit found herself tumbling around the yard, swatting her small paws at any passing butterflies and practicing her balance on the picnic table (which always somehow ended in a lot of scratches and sore limbs) , but weeks and weeks of practice paid off.
One day Mitzi, bored with the picnic table, settled down next to a half empty water dish counting the hours until she could play with Ann. She stretched out her arms with a purr and recoiled feeling her muscles become less tense, but once back in a sitting position something completely out of the ordinary happened.
The sound was… well something like this.
CRASH…. Tumble thump… "OUCH!"
Mitzi not being the brightest of kittens decided to investigate, she quickly headed to the source behind a large toppled over trash can. She came face to face with another kitten, only slightly larger than she, in a mound of trash. Now this came as a revelation to the kitten, she was convinced (keep in mind she was not very bright) that she was the only one of, well whatever she was in the world.
Two scraggly ears popped out, followed by a head, and a smile. "Hi!" The other Kitten chirped, his fur was colored similarly to Mitzi's.
Now, still fairly young soon-to-be Etcetera wasn't sure how to handle the situation, she backed up. "Are you a…" now what had Ann called them, "A monster?"
The other kitten looked at her and cocked his head "I don't think so…I'm a cat!" he beamed.
Mitzi still wasn't convinced, "Who's your Ann?" she asked, meaning his owner.
"My what?" the other kitten answered now even more confused.
"The Human that lives in your house?" Mitzi squeaked as she sat up and examined the filthy kit.
"I don't have one! I'm a stray tom cat!" He replied with a cheeky grin.
Mitzi wanted to ask more questions but decided not to throw anymore confusion into the conversation. Instead she changed the subject, "What're you doing here?"
"Well…" He started, he was now sitting as well with his chest thrust out in an attempt to impress the cute girl kitten. "I was out and about exploring when a pack of rabid dogs came chasing after me teeth bared! I tried to fight them off but I'm only one cat and there were too many, so I ran and ran and ran ran ran ran until I saw your fence, so I hopped in to seek refuge!" a grand lie.
Now the female kitten knew what a dog was, and hated them with a passion at that, but the story didn't seem plausible so she called him out. "Funny, I didn't hear any dog's yapping before the crash." She said suppressing a giggle.
"Eh, uh" the male kitten lightly blushed. "Well you wouldn't understand anyway! You're just a silly little kitten and I" He picked his paws up and sat only on his hind feet. "Am a Jellicle Cat!" He quickly thereafter fell flat on his face.
"But you're only a little bigger than me! You're a kitten too!" Mitzi pointed a paw and furrowed her brow as the male kitten sat back up.
"Am not."
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
He gave in, "Fine but I'm still an honored Jellicle cat…kitten!" Mitzi had no idea what this meant so she decided to take a more friendly approach and once again change the subject, it would be nice to have a playmate after all.
"Well my name's Mitzi!" She said lifting her head high and proud of the name her Ann had given her.
The other kit giggled, "Well that's a silly name, My name's Pouncival!" he emphasized his name and tried to hold his head higher. Mitzi decided not to start another fight but instead frowned at his statement.
"Well would you like to play tag?" Her face lit up a bit,
"Eh sure, why not…" he said as apathetically as he could, but it was clear after a few minutes that Pouncival had been dying for her to ask, after all he had come to the yard before but had never had the courage to ask her to play himself.
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The meetings between Mitzi and Pouncival continued for a few weeks, He would visit he would visit the yard while Ann was away and the two kittens would roll around and play, or teach each other new tricks, until one day the two lie next to each other on the porch, exhausted from a game of tag.
"Mit…" Pouncival started looking at the female kitten, "Remember how I said I was a Jellicle… do you want to be one too?" The great thing about youth no matter what species is they're straight and to the point.
"Hmm? Yeah it sounds like fun…" The half asleep kitten answered still not even knowing what Jellicle meant. Pouncival tried to explain it a few times but she had always tackled him and started another wrestling match or game of tag, not letting him finish the thought.
Pouncival's eyes lit up. As far as being in the tribe of Jellicles Pouncival was fairly new himself, he just had a habit of exaggerating things, but it was a great thing that happened to him, and he really liked this Mitzi girl and from what he knew he thought she would make a great addition.
"Really?! I mean, of course, I'll go ask right now!" And with that the Kitten fled off towards the junkyard, tripping and falling off the fence, but that didn't stop him!
Mitzi lifted her head and watched the eager Pouncival run off. For some reason she felt excited, even though she had no idea what was going on, but before she thought any further a mouse ran by, and Mitzi, ran after it.
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Eh so I'm having some trouble with the formatting so bear with me, Im also fairly new to fan fiction writing and so on and so forth. Feel free to rate, review, worship, send me messages, I have no life so If it isn't too awful I'll update soon! My writing style is also a bit blunt and might be odd at first but hopefully you'll get used to it. I've been reading allot of Lemony Snicket lately...
And these are my artistic interpretations yadda yadda ya, I hope I don't offend you or anything It's just the way I think Etcetera may have had her start and may act, rather than the annoyance I find most people portray her to be.
By the way I know It's a bit weird hearing Etcetera called Mitzi, and It might be hard to keep up with... it shouldn't be, but it might, so that will change soon once she is given a second name because no animal should ever have to be called Mitzi. Erm so yeah, I'm a bit awkward... I'll stop talking now.