Fizz
he/him || silver mackerel tabby with blue eyes

Fizz was bored. Fizz was always bored. Being inside was boring. Being outside was boring. He wanted to have fun. He wanted to play a game. But he had no one to play with. How unfortunate. A single-player game would have to suffice. Fizz stood up from his designated moping area in the garden and stared around for a moment. It was a beautiful day. It would've been more beautiful if Jesper was here, but he wasn't, so whatever.

Fizz was mad at Jesper for moving away. Of course he'd had no choice in the matter, but now Fizz was lonely and it was harder to have fun when he was lonely, and that made him mad. But he didn't want to think about that, so he settled for chasing a butterfly and ignoring his feelings. This was how most days went. On the bright side, he'd eaten a lot of butterflies.

[ @57Mistyflower925 is sock ]

Fizz whipped around to face the other cat, startled at their sudden appearance. He thought about the question while his prickly fur smoothed back down, and finally answered with a shrug and a goofy grin. "I dunno. Felt like it," he said, plopping down into a sitting position. "So who're you? I'm Fizz." He was still grinning pretty broadly, and he was pretty sure he looked mildly insane. Eh, whatever, maybe it made him look more interesting. Maybe this cat would want to play a game! Oh, that would be fun if they did. But if they didn't...

Well, Fizz preferred to focus on the here and now. No point dwelling on times past or yet to come.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz tilted his head. "Few houses down, ay?" he mewed, ignoring the nervous tone of her voice. Then she started to smile, which he took as a good sign. He stood up, approaching Phoebe and padding in a circle around her. After he was satisfied with whatever he was doing (personally, he had no damn clue), he returned to his spot across the yard. After a moment of silence, "Do you like to play games?" he blurted, a mischievous glint dancing in his eyes.

Fizz
he/him

Somehow, his grin grew wider. Finally, another player! He leaped to his paws again, prancing in a circle. "Hooray, hooray!" he said, approaching Phoebe once more. "What game would you like to play?" he asked, circling the she-cat like a shark.

Fizz
he/him

His Cheshire grin parted to let out a bubbly laugh. He quickly glanced around in order to locate anything he could use in a game, such as a ball, a toy mouse, some kind of twoleg object... aha! Fizz's eyes landed on one of the giant green balls that belonged to the dog the Twolegs had very unceremoniously plagued the house with. "Here we are! Let us play 'keep away!'" The little bell on his collar jingled as he raced towards the large object, which was almost half his size.

Fizz brought the ball back to Phoebe by batting at it with his paws -- it was too large to fit in his mouth -- and plopped back down next to it to explain the rules. "I will start with the ball, and you must retrieve it from me. We will play until you decide to end the game," he explained with practiced ease. He and Jesper had played this game many times before, and Jesper had a notoriously terrible memory. "How does that sound?" he purred.

Fizz
he/him

He laughed again at her expression as she sniffed the ball. "Yes, it belongs to the dog who lives in my nest," he explained. Before he'd even finished the sentence, Phoebe had flung herself toward him, and he let out a sort of war cry/startled yelp. He placed one paw near the bottom of the ball and launched it into the air, sending it forward at high speeds. "Catch me if you can!" he cried, grinning as the ball landed back in the grass while he sprinted across the garden to reach it.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz caught Phoebe's infectious laughter as he watched her roll across the garden, muddying herself in the process. He wondered how her Housefolk would react to seeing her all dirty. And just like that she was back on her paws, shooting towards him at terminal velocity, merely a blur in his vision. Of course that was hyperbole, she wasn't all too fast, but Fizz had the right to imagine whatever the hell he wanted. The little tabby waited till the very last second to bat the neon ball to the left, hoping to send Phoebe crashing into the wall of his Twoleg nest.

Fizz let out a very childish squeal when Phoebe began to sprint towards the ball. He quickly sprung into action, leaping towards Phoebe and the ball -- but he was too late! Phoebe was in possession of the ball! Without missing a beat he twisted around, flying across the garden toward the other kittypet, his collar jingling obnoxiously every time his paws landed.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz scoffed when Phoebe launched the ball upwards. Stealing his technique! Bah! He and Phoebe leaped in unison, but the she-cat succeeded in swiping the ball out of his reach. He fell back to the ground, landing gracefully on his paws and turning around to find where Phoebe landed. "We'll see about that!" he retorted, grinning. This was so much fun! Almost as fun as it was with Jesper. Almost.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz bounded towards the ball, flying across the garden as fast as he could. At some point he tripped, momentum took over, and his graceful sprint became a tumbling mass of cat determined to keep himself upright. However, it was working fairly well, and he managed to almost regain his balance, but-

"Uff-!"

-he'd tripped over his own paws and landed smack on his jaw. Unwilling to pause the game, he got right back up as if there wasn't a throbbing pain in his skull. Before Phoebe could even react -- in fact, he wasn't quite sure if she'd even noticed him fall -- he said, "I'm fine!" and continued to pursue the ball.

Fizz
he/him

He was so focused on winning the game that he hadn't noticed Phoebe slowing down. The ball was right there, he almost had it! Just a few more steps! One more leap! Fizz leaped into the air, paws outstretched towards the ball. He landed right next to the ball, and triumphantly placed one paw on top of it. Panting and grinning, he turned back to face Phoebe. Who was... pretty far away, actually. She'd been running so fast earlier, why was she all the way back there? Whatever, he'd won, who cared!? The rush of victory, however, didn't distract him from the little fists that seemed to be banging on his head at the moment. But he didn't want to stop playing...! He wanted to stay out here forever! When he was playing, he could focus all of his thoughts and energy on that. He didn't have to think about pain, sadness, anger, Jesper- Fizz shook his head (bad idea) and looked back at Phoebe.

(bahaha i love drama)

Fizz
he/him

Fizz frowned, darting his tongue out to lick his lips. He was met with a coppery, metallic taste: blood. Well, great. Now Phoebe would be all over him, and he would have to stop playing his game. He huffed indignantly, plopping down into a sitting position. "I told you, I'm fine," he said firmly, tail flicking in the grass behind him. There, he said he was fine. So he was. Now they could play again, right? For lack of anything else to do, he stood up and paced back and forth in front of the ball, watching his paws.

Fizz
he/him

Ugh, he did say that, didn't he! Fizz stared angrily at the bright ball behind him, swiping his tongue along his lips again. He was fine, couldn't she see? He just wanted to play. Well... Phoebe had said they could play after this. Fizz's blue hues turned back to face the she-cat. He was silent for a moment, and hadn't even noticed that he'd stopped pacing. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any way out of this except for talking to Phoebe, so... she won. "Fffffffine," he said indignantly, sitting down again and curling his tail over his paws.

Fizz
he/him

If he told the truth, she wouldn't let him play. He knew that. Besides, he was fine. He'd told her. He'd told himself. He'd told Jesper. "It's fine, fine. Fine." Fizz meowed, staring at Phoebe with an unfocused, deadpan expression which was very unlike his usual Cheshire grin. His tail flopped erratically behind him. He wanted this to be over quickly. He wanted to get back to the game.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz nodded, brightening up when Phoebe told him they would get back to the game soon. "Okay!" he meowed happily, bringing a paw to his mouth in order to groom himself.

Fizz
he/him

Fizz rubbed his paw gingerly against his jaw until his fur picked up no more blood. Feeling quite proud of himself, he looked up expecting to see Phoebe sitting there, staring at him like she'd been before -- but she'd disappeared. He frowned, a quizzical expression crossing his face. Wait a minute... She'd told him that the game would resume once he'd finished grooming himself. His confused frown turning into an ear-to-ear grin as he spun round towards where he'd left the ball; and sure enough, there was Phoebe, creeping up on it with feather-light steps. The game had begun!