Vallo was… okay, it was weird. It seemed like a normal city, so long as you didn’t look to closely at the dwarves and fairies and unicorns walking down the street, at the people doing actual magic in the course of their day-to-day lives but it was hard no to look closely at them. At least, it was hard considering the fact that Peter had never seen anything like it. Maybe with time, it would just be part of the scenery. For now though, it was something new and exciting.
The pixie at The Friendly Pixie was anything but, but Peter didn’t mind too much. The coffee was good, and if he was completely honest, the pixie reminded him a little of MJ. Maybe a little angrier than MJ, but not that far off. Which was probably why he thought, at first, that the woman with cat ears and a tail who walked into the shop just as Peter was sitting down was MJ.
He paused, then blinked, and then – there was no other word for it – he stared. No, the girl with the cat ears and tail was MJ. Or, at least, looked exactly like what MJ would look like if she was, well, a cat girl. He probably should have stopped staring, except he couldn’t. Not when she approached the counter. Not when she made her order. Not even when she grabbed her order from the counter.
He stopped staring after she turned to look directly at him, and even then it took him a moment to realize that he should probably look away from those mismatched eyes before she got the wrong idea. Not that he really knew what the right idea was in this case.
Catra could sus out when she had eyes on her.
It was that feeling that made her hackles rise, ears swiveling at the sound of voices and movement around her. Her nose twitched a little extra, taking note of scents to see if she could hone in on any distinctly suspicious ones. On Etheria, she’d take being watched as a potential threat and play the game - make whatever or whoever some little prey of hers to toy with before ultimately pouncing.
Vallo was only threatening sometimes, and not ever while she was in line awaiting her daily dose of caffeine. A yoga mat was rolled under her arm - she was fresh out of a class, dressed in leggings and an off-the-shoulder shirt with her hair up. Catra was minding her business, which was the usual when a weird occurrence happened to her. Maybe it’s the weirdo that keeps trying to recruit me to do porn, she internally mused.
But when her eyes made contact at who was staring her down, the mild irateness melted away into surprise.
She knew of this person. Kinda. Fresh meat on the network, new Sanctum resident apparently - at least from what she’s vaguely heard from Adora and Scorpia since they were chummy with Stephen and Wanda. She didn’t pay much attention. Just - what the fuck was he doing looking at her like that?
Fortunately for her - and awkwardly for him - she was bold enough to ask. “You’re creeping me out,” Catra said once she approached him, narrowing her eyes. “Are you broken or something?”
Peter started when she spoke to him, exclaiming when he sloshed coffee over his hand. At least she didn’t sound like MJ, though hearing a different voice coming out of her mouth was weird, especially when he could picture MJ saying some iteration of those words.
He started sopping up the coffee with some napkins. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to… It’s just…” He took a moment, letting his thoughts fall into order before he tried speaking again. “I didn’t mean to stare, you just… look like someone I used to know.”
A little less, now that he saw her closer. The curve of her nose, the shape of her cheekbones, the angle of her jaw, those were all the same. Little bits and pieces so seared into his brain that he was sure he’d never forget them. But MJ didn’t have the splash of freckles across her nose, and the mismatched eyes were different from MJ’s brown, as strange as the cat ears and tail were.
“Her ears were normal. Human, I mean, not normal, I’m sure your ears are normal where you come from.” Wow, he was really making a mess of things. “I’m going to stop talking now.”
Catra watched the disaster unfold. Okay - maybe not a total disaster but entertaining like one, anyway. Her dead cocked to the side a smidge and her ears did a little twitch here and there, watching him do his thing and clean up the spilt coffee. And while he explained, she took an exaggerated slurp of her frozen (and way too sweet) coffee.
“So - a face twin thing?” she inquired, squinting her eyes at him. Leon’s had like two of them show up before and it was hilarious. Never did she think something like that would happen to her, mostly because they would also (presumably) have the same feline-traits. It didn’t occur to her there was someone who looked like her out there in the universe without them.
Sounded kinda interesting though.
It was why she plopped her happy ass down on the chair across from him, grinning impishly. “Was she a bad guy or a good guy? You stared like it could be either or.”
“Face… Yeah, like a face twin thing,” Peter answered, nodding to himself. That was a good term for it.
He smiled to himself at her question. “She’s the best guy,” he said. “She’s smart, and she’s funny, but in this kind of dry way? Like, if you didn’t know her, you might not realize she’s making a joke, but once you get to know her… And she doesn’t get all caught up in what other people think, you know? She’ll just do her own thing, and do what she thinks is right, even if it’s unpopular, or if it’ll get her into trouble. And if she thinks what you’re doing isn’t right, then she’ll tell you. She…”
It suddenly occurred to him that he’d met this girl about five seconds ago, and just because she looked like MJ didn’t necessarily mean that she wanted ot listen to him monologue about her.
“Sorry. Does this face twin thing happen a lot?”
It took Catra a whole two fucking seconds to figure out that this kid was smitten with whoever he ‘used to know.’ No one went on and on like that about someone even platonically. The whole thing was… sweet. (What? Marriage softened her off a little, screw the hell off already.)
Maybe a little sad too, because obviously he missed her.
“It’s okay,” she assured with a light shrug, fangs biting into her straw. “And - sometimes? I have a friend that had two completely dudes come in with literally the same face. It was funny. Funny because it wasn’t happening to me, I guess. If I knew whoever this chick you’re describing was I’d probably be weirded out too.”
He did say she wasn’t catlike, and trying to imagine what she looked like without any of her more distinguishing traits had her make a face. “Anyway. I’m Catra. My friend works at the tea shop Dr. Oddball owns. He stole my takeout once.”
It was an accident, but. A fun story.
“I’m Peter,” Peter said, offering a hand. She probably already knew that, actually, if she’d seen his post on the Network, but it was already out there before he thought about that. “I still haven’t had a chance to go check the teashop out yet, but I’ve heard it’s interesting.” Alice in Wonderland inspired, which actually sounded pretty cool, as far as teashops went. “Stephen stole your takeout? You’d think that a doctor could get his own.”
Catra did know that. Kind of. Maybe not when she saw his face - his name might have slipped - but it all came back to her eventually. His hand was shaken in return. She wasn’t that rude, you know. (At least not anymore.)
“It was a mixup - he’s fine, for a wizard,” she gestured vaguely with a shrug. Her grudge on magic wasn’t as strong as it used to be. It was whatever. “I’ll probably see you around and about but, uh, try not to stare too hard? I have a wife, and she might get the wrong impression.”
It was a joke. That was why she was smirking. Adora would be fine and act rationally. Probably.
Peter raised a hand like he was taking an oath. “I promise that I’ll not stare too hard next time I see you, though if I do, you’re wife’s allowed to yell at me.” He shot her a smile. “Thanks for not, you know, taking it the wrong way or anything.”
Catra had considered it weird being stared down like that but, nah - hard to take any offense to it now that she knew why. “It’s cool, I just have one of those faces,” she scoffed and did a dramatic hair flip. Somewhere, Double Trouble was proud of her. Then she stood up and adjusted her yoga bag since she did need to get going. “But who knows, your friend could pop up one day so you can go back to staring at her instead.”
Maybe she could get a glimpse of what she’d look like all human too. That was a weird thought. “See you around, Petey.”
“Yeah, see you around, Catra,” Peter said, lips quirking. It was weird, but at least he knew that MJ would never call him Petey. If the cat ears and the voice hadn’t already convince him that she wasn’t MJ, then that certainly would.
He was going to have a lot to adjust to here, apparently.