Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!
Fact: Beethoven suffered from severe hearing loss throughout his life until he was almost completely deaf. That fact alone proves that he was a genius considering that he couldn't hear but he could still imagine what hours of symphony would sound like. His lasts words were, "I shall hear in heaven." As I've said, it depends on what the individual wants, and that's what Beethoven wanted, but while he was alive, he didn't let his hearing loss keep him from doing what he loved.
all dialogue in this chapter is in sign language
Lyplora stared in the direction her cousins had run off in and then turned to Mistoffelees and asked, "so what now?"
Misto who was a little shocked about what had just happened looked to her and answered, "apparently your cousins set us up on a dinner date, we have a meal waiting for us at the front gate garbage pile."
"Oh, well, why pass up a meal you don't have to hunt yourself?" asked Lyplora with a shrug.
Misto nodded and they headed towards the front gate garbage pile where there was a tire set up with a large dead rabbit on a platter and two bowls of cream on it. They both sat down and started on the cream, Misto taking little sips as if not very interested.
Lyplora noticed this and asked him, "what's wrong? don't you like cream?"
Misto sighed and answered, "actually, I love cream, its not that, its just that I recently had to call it quits with my queenfriend."
"Sorry," replied Lyplora, doing the sign for sorry by making a fist and turning it back and fourth over her heart. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"Well, it was with a queen who lives here in the junkyard, we broke up because of our different moral values. Her favorite pass time is stealing, I just couldn't handle that. We have decided to stay friends though," explained Misto. "So how about you? Are you single?"
"Well, if you really want to know, I was engaged, but my tomfriend got run over and I haven't been in a relationship since."
There was an awkward pause in the conversation, Misto finally asked her, "how long ago was that?"
"About a year now," and she left it at that.
Trying to change the topic, Misto asked if she had any hobbies or interests.
"Oh, I enjoy pulling pranks on other cats, reading, art of all kinds, playing card games like solitar, go fish or poker, how about you? What are your hobbies?"
"Well, I like studying ancient magical cats, playing card games as well, dancing... wait, you like to pull pranks on other cats?"
"Yes Misto, like how I had the twins put ten stool softeners in your bowl of cream!"
Misto stared at her, and then looks down at the empty bowl, he looks back up at her and she had an evil look on her face.
"You're bluffing, there is no way you could get your cousins to agree to that." They stared each other down, trying to see who would be the first to crack up, after a few seconds, Lyplora starts snickering in an odd, muffled sort of way.
"I knew you were bluffing!"
"Yeah, I was bluffing, but the look on your face was worth it," then after a pause, she asked,
"so what's the deal with that mained freak from earlier?"
Misto rolled his eyes at this, "who, Tugger? He pretty much thinks he can have any queens he wants whenever he wants them."
"Yeah, I figured that, but I've never had a complete stranger put their arm around me before."
"Well, Tugger was so embarrassed after we told him you're deaf I doubt he'll try making anymore passes on you for a while."
"hopefully. So what sorts of magic do you practice?"
Misto became very bashful at this, he told her how he could shoot lightning and teleport and pull kittens out of hats, so fast you could almost say he was stammering with his hands.
"Wow, your not used to explaining your magic, do the others treat you like some sort of exhibit or something? What I meant wasn't what kind of tricks you can do, but do you model what you do after any specific field of magical practice?"
Misto was amazed at this question, it was true, the other cats were mostly entertained by what he could do. The only time he could think of where they actually appreciated his powers for what they were was when he brought back Old Deuteronomy at the ball two years before. This cat was actually asking him an intellectual question concerning his magic!
"Well, there are many different fields of non-psychic magical practice, including healing, defensive practices, transformations, making things disappear and reappear, casting spells on individuals or objects for different purposes can be divided into so many different categories its difficult to know where to start. I suppose you could say that I don't specalize, I try to cover the general fields of magical study. There are some who are forced to specalize, like those cats who are born specifically with the ability to heal, although that is a rare gift."
Lyplora was simply fascinated, "could you teach me more about magic in general? I would like to learn about its history with you because it seems like such an interesting topic."
"Alright, I'll demonstrate some right now if you like, you enjoy pulling pranks, how about we pull something on The Rum Tum Tugger?"
Lyplora looked delighted, "what do you have in mind Misto?"
"I was thinking we could sneak into his lair and I could cast a spell on him that would turn his main pink, it would of course wear off in a few days..."
Lyplora looked more and more excited as Misto explained how it would work, they planned to sneak into his den to cast the spell on him as soon as he fell asleep.
They waited until almost midnight, hiding amongst the garbage piles until the mained tom finally went into his lair which was an old chest with pieces of cardboard as room dividers. They waited until Misto heard Tugger's snoring and he magicked them inside. They silently crept into Tugger's nestroom and saw him curled up with a small toy bear under his arm. The two mischief makers barely kept from laughing until Misto got very serious and approached the nest. Lyplora watched, completely fascinated as Misto begun whispering magic words she couldn't make out by lip reading and his hands started to glow. He ran his hands all over Tugger's main and then pulled them away suddenly, turned to her and led her out of the lair.
Once they were a good distance away from Tugger's layer, Misto explained about the spell he had used, "its a spell developed by the cat witch Gwendolen, she was a notorious prankster and came up with some really good spells for embarrasments of such kinds. When Tugger wakes up tommorow his main will be a bright hot pink!"
Lyplora was cracking up at this and on the verge of tears, "I used to pull pranks on the twins when we were kittens until they got their psychic powers and could predict what was coming, oh staying here is going to be such good fun!"
They walked through the junkyard together, discussing pranks and magic and art, Misto didn't know much about art, although he did have his opinions of what was good and what wasn't. Lyplora explained things like the difference between realism and impressionism and various cats who inspired their artist owners and what not. Misto was especially interested in how appparently the Mona Lisa smile was copied from Leonardo da Vinci's cat, he had always wondered about that.
They eventually reached the great tire and sat on top of it, both looking up at the stars, sitting together and thinking for a few minutes. Lyplora wondering something about Misto's name, finally asked him what she had been thinking for a while, "Misto, when Tugger ran up to us earlier, I noticed it didn't look like he called you Mistoffelees, what did he call you?"
"He called me Quaxo, my name is Quaxo but my stage name is Mistoffelees, I'm generally called by both."
Lyplora thought about this for a moment, and then replied, "Well, I geuss I'll call you Quaxoffelees from now on then," finger spelling the name very deliberately.
"Oh no," He signed, trying to stop from laughing, "please don't call me that, I hate being called that."
"Why, it's cute?"
"Because..., its so ludicrus! Quaxoffelees, really?"
"yeah, why not? Or maybe I can call you Mistoffaxo!"
"Quaxoffelees it is," Misto pouted.
"you know Im just teasing, I wouldn't call you something you hate."
"But you'll pull pranks on other cats though."
"hey, anybody with a good sense of humor can laugh at themselves when somebody pranks them, but but I'm not going to call you something that would bother you."
After chatting a little more about the history of magical cats and cats throughout art, both the jellicles got really tired.
They walked back to the twins' lair, but when they got there the place was silent. Misto hoped this meant the twins were already asleep, so he magicked Lyplora straight into her nestroom so as not to wake them. He then teleported himself back home and curled up in his nest, thinking over everything that had happened that day.