WHAT: Catra destroys a Vallo City Christmas Tree display, Scorpia is DOING HER BEST but they both get apprehended and all of this is now on the internet WHERE: Some Vallo City Plaza WHEN: This evening WARNINGS: RIP Christmas Tree STATUS: Complete
Scorpia, as it turned out, loved this time of year. There was nothing like it back on Etheria - or if there was, she had never experienced it - but that didn’t matter. She loved the decorations, she loved how cheerful everyone was, she’d absolute adored the entire Serendipity Hills experience, even if it had been a little weird to wake up on Sunday to realize that she’d spent the last four days simultaneously being herself and not herself. She’d been able to get her claws on recordings of those four days, and was determined to watch everyone else’s stories before the end of the year.
She even liked the way she could see her breath plume in front of her face in the crisp December evening.
It wasn’t late, exactly, but the sun went down so early these days, which had the possibility of being depressing, except for the way all the coloured, twinkling lights lit up once the cover of night fell.
“Oh, isn’t it pretty?” Scorpia asked Catra, looking up at the string of lights that had been wrapped around a street post. She’d dragged Catra out shopping with her today, partly because Catra knew everyone who Scorpia wanted to buy gifts for better and longer than Scorpia did, and could hopefully steer her away from any gifts they might not like that much, and partly because she just liked being able to spend time with Catra doing something innocent like shopping instead of trying to conquer Etheria. She had a few large shopping bags in one claw, and had a still-steaming paper cup of peppermint mocha in the other, and a nice warm winter jacket, trimmed in pink faux fur. “I just love all of this, don’t you? It’s so festive. Do you think they have celebrations like this back on Etheria?”
She waited for an answer, and only when one didn’t come and she looked down did she realize she’d lost Catra somewhere. She turned around, looking for her.
Catra could do this. Or so she thought.
Last year she didn’t really get to do much for the holiday season - not that she’d know what to do, or would have wanted to participate in anything. She and Adora had popped up right at the end of December, plucked from two separate timelines not far from another at all and it wasn’t until Christmas Eve that they had met up to talk and figure shit out. From her recollection there had been bright lights, shiny trees decorated with shiny balls that had made her twitchy but they weren’t up too long for it to really get under her skin.
She was a capable adult, however. Capable of things like self-control, and she had been looking forward to this day with Scorpia because it was - strangely normal, for the two of them? Catra had gotten the hang of doing completely boring, monotonous things during her stay here but to do them with Scorpia was a change of pace, something she actually appreciated considering their history. Apologies had been exchanged and now it was her responsibility to prove to her that she wasn’t some raging ball of claws and teeth anymore.
Turns out a lack of war worked miracles in improving her mood so that actually wasn’t too difficult.
Vallo City was decked out, and they had been going shop to shop looking and eventually buying - there was a list, they’d check it twice, all that good stuff. Some of the decor had gotten her a little restless, though. Twitchy ears and tail, sometimes she’d stare at an ornament a bit too long but overall her behavior wasn’t anything abnormal.
Until she saw it. This glorious display of a massive tree, dead-center in a plaza that was just lit up with a rainbow of lights and gleaming ornaments. Huge ones, sparkly ones, shiny ones, and it was the ultimate beacon of Whatever The Fuck Christmas was supposed to represent. And, just like that, she was entranced. Black pupils eclipsed the bright, mismatched colors of her eyes and that control vanished.
Which was probably why she didn’t hear what Scorpia was saying, nor did she really hear the blaring honks of several cars that screeched to a stop as Catra decided to walk across a busy street without even sparing a look both ways. Some had to swerve out of the way to avoid even hitting her.
She had one goal.
Her goal was that tree.
“Catra, no!” Scorpia yelled as she watched Catra step onto the busy street, and when Catra’s ears didn’t even so much as twitch toward her, Scorpia went running after her, managing to get between Catra and the oncoming traffic; she was much larger and therefore more visible than Catra.
“Catra, what are you -” Scorpia started, but was cut off as the bumper of a nice looking car crumpled around her outstretched pincer. Her coffee cup crumpled in her claw, and she looked at it mournfully even as the driver stepped out of the car to yell at her for stepping into the middle of the street.
“You need to slow down,” Scorpia yelled at him. “You almost hit - Catra!” Because Catra was still just steadily making her way across the street. The driver was already forgotten. She abandoned her leaking coffee cup on the hood of his car and went running after her to make sure she didn’t get hurt, and only then did she realize that Catra was headed toward the giant, magnificently decorated tree in the middle of the plaza.
“Really, Catra,” Scorpia lectured as they made their way to the opposite sidewalk, “It is a really nice tree and of course I don’t mind getting a closer look at it, but you can’t just walk into traffic. You have to look both ways! Or, or get me to carry you or something.”
Not that she thought Catra would appreciate being carried. She was aware of that enough to not have gone scooping her up in the middle of the road, even if maybe Catra might have deserved it this time.
Catra was more or less oblivious of the traffic catastrophe she had caused by happily marching her scrawny ass across the street. Was someone talking to her? Scorpia. Probably Scorpia. Scorpia talked a lot. She’d ask what about later - she was purring like an overactive motorboat, and her tail was lashing, and then when she approached the tree she began to crouch on all fours and moved around like she was prowling.
People looked at her oddly, and then backed away out of caution. The lights of the tree could be reflected in her eyes, her pupils were that blown. And then. And then -
Her butt did a little wiggle. It was the cutest little butt wiggle - right before she pounced.
Or more accurately, latched on with her claws and climbed. Catra was this fluffy blur scrabbling up and suddenly ornaments started falling off. One broke on someone’s head. Another person screamed, dodging a particularly large one that shattered once it hit the cement. It was raining ornaments because she was batting them off, letting out these chirrups and funny mreoooowls and at one point her leg got tangled up in one of the lights, so she hung upside down as she continued to paw and claw at things.
Children around them cried because THERE’S A CAT KILLING CHRISTMAS.
Scorpia… really wasn’t sure what to do. She’d never seen Catra act like this before, and it was a little concerning. Cute, but concerning. Cute enough that when Catra gave a little butt wiggle and pounced, Scorpia held her pincers to her mouth and let out a brief “Awwwww,” and concerning enough that when the ornaments started flying, Scorpia very quickly turned to “Oh no.”
Still, she could fix this. She could definitely still fix this. First, she had to set up a perimeter, and she did, ushering people away with a “Nothing to see here, folks,” and a “Wow, these birds really are active tonight, aren’t they?” followed by a nervous chuckle, and when children started screaming about cats killing Christmas, she laughed nervously and said “Cats? No, it’s just the birds. Birds spreading Christmas cheer!”
Another large ornament shattered behind her and she winced.
Still, so long as no one else got hurt, she was pretty sure this would be okay. She just had to keep people away, and other than a fauna girl who had her phone pointed up to the branches of the tree, Scorpia wasn’t having any trouble making sure people just stayed away.
Catra would have her fun, and then she’d climb down and they could go on their way, no questions asked.
Except, from far across the plaza, she could see a woman clutching the hand of a sobbing child, talking to two uniformed police officers and pointing in their direction, and she did not look happy.
“Oh no,” Scorpia said again, and then turned toward the tree. “Catra? Catra, we need to go now!”
Hm, what?
Catra vaguely heard the sound of someone (urgently) calling her name. By now her chaos had progressed to the point that several lights had unspooled from the tree, she was even tangled up in them, and there were pieces of evergreen and tinsel stuck to her hair. Did she recognize the consequences of her actions though? Absolutely not.
The goal of the tree had been reached. Now, she had a new goal - and it was the star that anointed the very tip. Its brightness was magnificent. She wanted it.
It took some finagling to get there. Catra had to twist her body, climb, then got herself distracted by ornaments that she insisted on pawing at over and over (then would eventually fall to the ground and shatetr so she’d move on to the next). The tree wobbled - she didn’t notice. “Scorpia - I’m working, okay? I’ll be right back!”
None of that even made sense but it sounded right. The higher she climbed, the more the tree tilted to the side and people screeched and - wait, why were people screaming?
Catra blinked and spared a glance below. The tree leaned more.
“Uh-oh,” she breathed.
Scorpia eyed the tree warily once it started swaying, and once it started to come down she nearly panicked. There was very little space to grab onto the tree that wasn’t covered in large, prickly branches, and so she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around the trunk to keep it upright, as though she were giving the tree some sort of bear hug. Her knees were bent.
“Catra? You’re coming down now, right?” she called up the trunk, hoping that Catra wasn’t still frolicking up in its branches.
There were people running. People staring. At - her? Catra didn’t seem to able to process what that really meant, and Scorpia was there saying more stuff to her (a question) but the way she saw it was this: Scorpia was being a friend, helping her by making sure the tree didn’t fall over so she could finally reach her prize.
Man, what a great pal. She needed to buy her coffee at some point.
But she was almost there. Close - so close to the top, she couldn’t stop now. Her tail lashed, and her rear did another wriggle to prepare herself for a pounce that would leap her body up to the very top of the tree. It… kind of worked.
Honestly, it would have worked better if she hadn’t been tangled up in lights in all these weird ways that restrained her, and she reached the top just barely with her claws scrabbling at the star. Then they kept scrabbling, and clawing, and then she was flailing because she couldn’t quite reach it. “I almost got it!” she yelled, the color of her eyes gone - there was just the dark void of her pupils left reflecting light.
Why was Catra still going for the star? Could she not hear Scorpia telling her they needed to leave?
The cops had stopped when the tree had started falling, and then had hesitated even more when they saw that one of the people they were going to apprehend was lifting the massive tree by herself, but they were making a cautious approach again.
“I’m sorry about this, Wildcat,” Scorpia said to herself. And then she hauled the tree up, and started vigorously shaking it. The ornaments that Catra hadn’t knocked off fell to the ground, shattering like so much discordant music. The bright lights flickered and died. Catra, tangled in strings of light and tinsel fell from the tree, and Scorpia tossed the tree aside, gathered up their shopping bags under and arm, and ran for her. She snipped what tinsel and lights were still attached to the tree with her pincer but didn’t bother untangling Catra before she scooped her up under her other arm, like a catgirl shaped football, and made a run for the nearest Waypoint.
If she could just get them to Darla, then everything would be okay and this whole thing would just blow over.
Catra got it! She got the star! Her claws snagged it, and she had it in her grip, and then -
The tree shook. Things shattered; she heard them with such clarity now and it was startling. Next came the heartbreaking part - the dying lights, hello darkness my old friend. The tree dimmed, pupils shrunk and suddenly the ground was coming at her really fast.
“What is - oof!” Oh god. Oh no. What had she done. Her hands held the star, no longer illuminated and she was stuck in stuff and suddenly Scorpia rolled her up under her arm and the horror of the situation was beginning to dawn on her, fast. Plus, like. The shame. So much shame. If Adora found out about this, she’d kill her. “Shit shit shit! RUN!”
Except there was a set of people in uniform - one a towering centaur with a stern and disappointed look - that intercepted them before they could make it to the Waypoint. Weirdly reminiscent of Netossa, a net was shot out to capture the two of them. It was successful and it sucked.
Catra flailed wildly and hissed and accidentally smacked Scorpia with the tree topper.
“You’re both under arrest! For -” There was a pause as he thought that over. “Destruction of public property, interrupting the flow of traffic and now…” He pointed at them accusingly. “Fleeing the scene of a crime!”
For a brief, mad moment, Scorpia thought of just bulldozing through the line of cops. She could take them, probably, even the minotaur. And then the net shot out, wrapping all around her and Catra, and she stumbled and fell, doing her best to crush neither the presents that were tucked under her left arm or Catra, who was tucked under her left arm.
Somehow, with flailing and getting further tangled in the net, Scorpia managed to sit on her knees, and, realizing she was beat, raised her pincers in surrender.
Catra had gotten away with a lot of things in her life. Like, war crimes and stuff (according to the rest of Etheria, anyway - by Horde standards she’d been crushing it).
But according to Vallo law and its perception of public decency, she couldn’t get away with obliterating a giant Christmas tree. It finally sunk in that it was what she’d done, and after a cautious glance over her shoulder to witness the aftermath of her destruction thanks to the shiny fixation that possessed her - yep, she did that. And was getting arrested for it.
Adora was probably (definitely) gonna kill her.
Sparing Scorpia and apologetic glance, she raised the tree topper star up through the netting they were caught in as her own way of surrendering. “Uhhhh - you guys want this back, by the way? I don’t want it anymore.”
Yes, all that determination for her to end up being disinterested in the star after it lost its literal luster.
“Hey!” waved a citizen a few feet away, grinning widely and obviously not one of the ones traumatized by the atrocity that happened to the tree. They pointed at the phone. “I caught it all on video! The internet loves cats doing shit like this!”