a willing participant

Mulder watched in a vague curiosity as the cat reacted to him. He seemed to be getting irritated... for what, he had no idea. Maybe sarcasm ground his gears the wrong way. It would be a stretch to say that Mulder gave a shit, though. It was how he was, he lived for dry humor and sarcasm. He wouldn't tone it down in front of this cat just because it was bothersome. Perhaps the cat would leave him alone now... though, really, Mulder didn't much mind the company, no matter how strange it was. Little did he know that the company was about to get stranger. A smell of someone else waved through the air, though the Asian Golden decided to ignore it. There were always smells like that around here. Cats, dogs, predators, prey, it didn't matter. He figured it was inconsequential who was here, anyway.

The cat spoke again, and Mulder couldn't help but let out a snort at it. His ear twitched a little and he shook his head. "It'd probably be best that you didn't take much of what I say seriously, bud," he said. Oh, great. He said "bud." Would that set this kid on another tangent about how they barely knew each other or something? His tail curled around his paws as he sat down. He was obviously gonna be here a while. There was no way he would be trying to explain the ins and outs of sarcastic humor to someone who didn't seem to get it. Was there some sort of disconnect? Well... perhaps this cat was a bit obsessive-compulsive... vampires were, too. They exhibited the same behaviors... No, no, he wasn't a vampire. It didn't matter much if he was in the sunlight or not, Mulder knew that by now. Vampires weren't weak to sunlight. They weren't weak to garlic or crosses really, either... all of that was bunk. There were some things that were true of them, though, like how they had to untie things and pick up scattered sticks if they fell... that was a good way to hold them up. His eyes traveled to a tree, seeing a few nuts hanging from its leaves. If he had to make a quick getaway, he could always use those through kicking the tree. Then this cat, if he so happened to enjoy sucking blood in his spare time, would have to sort them.

The scent he had caught earlier grew stronger, and Mulder looked over his shoulder to see a bumbling black cat slink out of the shadows. Something about fish... Great, he was surrounded with nutcases. For once, he was at a complete loss for words. He stared at the cat for a few moments, speechless. Finally, he was able to formulate a response. "Since when were we talkin' about fish? And since when can fish kill?" Maybe he meant something like a shark. Who knows. Either way, it didn't make much sense to him.