Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!
Fact: the snake, turtle, housefly, and starfish are all deaf.
They immediately went inside the twins' lair and showed Lyplora where she would be staying,
it would of course be temporary, the plan was that once she was an accepted member of the tribe,
she would find a lair of her own.
After a lunch of mouse cakes, it was decided to go ask Old Deuteronomy if she could stay, he was pretty fair about letting new members in, as long as they weren't known henchcats or didn't try to stay there secretly, cats of any kind could live in the junkyard.
They walked out into the bright sunlight, blinking from just coming out of the dimly lit den, when suddenly, the cat Misto least wanted to see at that moments approached.
The Rum Tum Tugger was a handsome main coon with a thick lion's mane and a way with the queens.
He was the sexiest tom in the junkyard, and he knew it; flirting with multiple queens at once as well as going from relationship to relationship, if you could even call them that. At first Misto tried to get them to walk in the opposite direction so Tugger wouldn't notice the new queen, but it was too late.
"Quaxo, twins!" yelled Tugger as he ran to catch up with them, "who is this gorgeous queen you have with you?"
Misto said, "she's new here, if you don't mind we need to go see Old Deuteronomy,"
trying to hurry and get away, knowing what was coming.
"Well what's the hurry, surely because she's new she would want to try and make some new friends," said Tugger, with more than friendship on his mind.
So Misto and Tugger started arguing, Misto claiming that he needed to get her to Old D quickly so all the formalities would be behind them, Tugger just being Tugger.
Lyplora stood there watching them talk, she could tell by lip reading that they were talking about her,
she really hated being referred to in the third person (err, felinson), she started to look irritated.
Tugger noticed this and turned to her and put his arm around her, pulling her uncomfortably close.
She looked away and didn't say anything, so Tugger asked, "what's the matter, human got your tongue?"
Misto was yelling at Tugger to leave her alone and the twins were trying to use some of their mind tricks to distract him, but Tugger was completely focused on this luscious new queen.
Lyplora tried not to look at Tugger and finally got one of her arms free and started signing to Mistoffelees,
"nice way to introduce me to the other cats, interpreter."
She pulled away from Tugger and signed, "can we please hurry and get me signed up for the tribe or whatever we where doing before this joker interrupted us?"
Tugger watched, upset he was being ignored, and confused. "I'm sorry, what's going on?" he asked.
"Tugger, this is Lyplora, what you saw her doing was sign language, she's deaf.
Her humans dumped her"-"She is our cousin," said the twins.
Tugger turned back to the queen and said, "oh, u, sorry. I guess I better go,
but then you don't even realize what I'm telling you... so yeah". Tugger just ran, literally sprinting away.
Lyplora smirked and signed,"typical," rolling her eyes.
What she didn't show was that she hated being talked to like that. She could lip read, although it was difficult, and signing was easier, but she had had confrontations like that before, and was fully aware that other cats wouldn't be comfortable at first.
Tantomile suggested that to avoid further confrontation, Misto put an invisibility spell on them, Misto was reluctant, because he hadn't used magic for days, but finally agreed. Once invisible, they reached the great tire without further delay.
They slunk behind a pile of garbage as it wore off, so they wouldn't just appear out of nowhere.
Misto approahed Old Deuteronomy and asked if it was alright to speak with him, and the old cat conceded and Misto brought up Lyplora and the twins.
The twins explained the whole situation, inturrupting each other multiple times. Deuteronomy sat and listened patiently, Munkustrap came up and listened as well, sitting close to his father and looking very important.
"So what you must remember is that when you speak to her, actually speak to her and not Mistoffelees"
-"because he is simply interpreting."
Old Deuteronomy nodded his head and said facing Lyplora, "Lyplora, it would be an honor having you stay here with us as a member of our tribe," Mistoffelees interpreting into sign language as the old jellicle spoke.
Munkustrap stood up and asked with concern, "do you need for us to call everyone together and explain to them how they are to treat you?"
Lyplora looked to Misto who signed everything, smiled but shook her head no, and signed,
"I'd rather get to know everyone normally, thanks though." Munkustrap looked to Misto, and then nodded.
They said goodbye and then got down off the tire and showed Lyplora around the junkyard,
not being bothered by other cats because the twins sent subconscious signals to the other cats that they didn't want to be bothered. They showed her all the best places to hunt and the only non-polluted water hole,
the best places to sun or take a catnap, and the hidden area between two garbage piles where they and Misto practiced magic.
It eventually got dark and Misto asked the casual question of what they wanted to do for dinner (meaning rats or mice.)
At that the twins raced off leaving Misto with Lyplora, and sent the message to Misto's mind, "we set up a meal for you at the front gate garbage pile, goodnight."