"Course, you're no stranger to mayhem and new experiences yourself, the way I hear it," Slim said. "Flik told me all about you, the things you shared with him. About how this isn't the first time you've been shrunk down from human size, or traveled through time."
Kiara nodded. "Although the first time it happened, I was a lot more panicked about the whole thing. I mean, not that I'm not worried about Chipendale, but I feel like I'm at least able to tread water this time."
"Chipendale, he's from that first big adventure you had, right? When you were shrunk to the size of a mouse?"
"Yeah. He used to be Ratigan's crony-for-hire, but now he's got it out for me. I guess because I convinced Ratigan to switch sides and he lost his employer and reputation all in one go."
"He used to work for Ratigan?" His brow lifted high. "But I… well, I mean to say, didn't I hear that those rodents you befriended became your adoptive godfathers?"
"Yeah, Ratigan and Basil both. Ratigan used to be a criminal, and Basil is a detective who spent a long time trying to arrest Ratigan. It's sort of a wild story, but Ratigan was the one who invented the time machine after surviving his fall from Big Ben. While he was traveling around to different eras, he came upon my era, where the story of him and Basil had been made into a movie. He overheard me call him my 'favorite' once, and he kinda mistook that as me having a crush on him, so then he started crushing really hard on me in return."
"And then what happened?" Slim had turned to her fully, antennae perked.
"He… spirited me away to his timeline in the dead of night?" She laughed at Slim's expression. "Don't worry, it all turned out okay, he didn't actually do anything to me. In the end it all got cleared up, and he isn't in love with me anymore, especially since Basil is my favorite from that movie too."
"So… rather than, ah, marrying you, he contented himself with being your godfather?"
"Yeah. I mean, they're too old to be my boyfriends anyways, so it made more sense for them to be my godfathers."
There was something in Slim's expression that Kiara couldn't interpret, but it passed. "So that was your first adventure. Did you ever visit any other times that you initially saw as a 'movie?' Met more favorites?"
"Nah, I never visited any other eras before this one. And honestly, thank God for that. My feelings for Ratigan were platonic, but that definitely wasn't the case for other people who were my favorites, from other movies and TV shows." She picked at the skin on a slice of seed. "A lot of them were also the unsavory type. The type who probably would've taken my interest as 'permission' to do more than they should. To take advantage of me."
"Who are these other characters that you're so fond of? What are they like?"
She counted them off on her fingers. "Let's see, there's Thraxx from Osmosis Jones, Jack O. Lantern from The Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy, he's probably my most favorite even compared to other characters. Pitch from Rise of the Guardians. I had a Clockwork Orange phase at one point too, but uh, let's not talk about that." She turned away slightly as her cheeks flushed. "I know they're all villains in their stories, but I can't help but feel for them. A lot of them have such sad tales, or they want such simple, relatable things."
"You seem to be very caring," he said kindly. "Say, these favorites of yours, they wouldn't all happen to be... older men, would they?"
"Yeah. Some of them are immortals who've been alive for thousands of years."
"Ah-huh." He leaned back, and cupped his hand under his mouth, nodding. "Yes, I think I'm starting to get it now. I'm developing a hypothesis."
Kiara narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"