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ㅤㅤ✞︎ㅤㅤㅤMy DMs are always open to talk
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤdon't be shy to message me anytime. :)
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𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐞. ❀
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤHi, im Violet, and I'm a Ghost. Boo.
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Hi, Im Violet, and I'm 18+, Please ask for my age in DM. Thank you ! I'm a She/Her, but I'm comfortable with any pronouns. I'm also a founder of the band called 'The Nomads' and lead singer. I am an INFP-T, My house is Slytherin, My Cabin is Cabin 5 Ares, and my Zodiac Sign is a Gemini. I am also a Semi-Literate Roleplayer, and I'm dead. lol.
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Scream, It, The Shinning, The School for Good and Evil, Heathers, Mean Girls, Wild Child, Jumanji, Sherlock Holmes, Enolma Holmes, Girl Interrupted, Twilight, Blade Runner 2049, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, All The Bright Places, The Breakfast Club...
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Heathers, Be More Chill, Harry Potter Cursed Child, Beetlejuice,...
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The Stranger, A Little Life, The Idiot, Inferno, NANA, Junji Ito, Chainsaw Man, Red Hood & The Outlaws, The New Teen Titans, Portraits of Dorian Gray, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Sherlock Holmes
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𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐬
Discord: candied.vio.lets
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Spotify: TheGhostofMyFormerSelf.
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Hii!! 💗 I have only just discovered ur account but I love it :D And I wanted to ask if u could do : "how would aot characters feel about cats?" IDK I JUST FIND THIS CUTEE 😤🤩
AOT! AND CATS ★ masterlist.
⏤ eren
likes cats, but thinks dogs are better
always tries too hard to be liked by said cat and has a million cat-related wounds on his hands and arms
eren can be heavy handed and so he’s worried cats will dislike him because he likes to play rough
likes watching cute cat reels on instagram though and makes the effort to say hi to armin’s cat when he gets the chance
⏤ armin
adores cats
his mum had a cat when he was younger and then they adopted a second cat when he got a bit older
his cat is an off-white colour with big blue eyes
armin understands the personality of cats and is perfectly content letting his cat do whatever she wants when she feels like it
is the type of cat-dad/brother who buys way too much stuff for their cat
armin could be on his last few pennies of the month and he’d still somehow end up with money to buy something stupid for his cat
⏤ mikasa
prefers cats to dogs, mostly because she gets scared when dogs jump up and bark
mikasa always tends to attract cats when she’s at somebody’s house, and has a knack for beckoning over strays she sees on the street
she is usually the receiver of the reels eren finds on instagram so she always likes watching cute cat videos too
really wants a cat of her own but she doesn’t know if she’d be a good owner
she’d worry about stepping on it or not feeding it or not giving it the love it needs or wants
⏤ jean
feels kind of awkward around cats
he doesn’t like their claws or the way they sniff you accusingly and jump around from furniture to furniture
but he tries too hard to get cats to like him and when they don’t, he acts like he doesn’t like cats anyway
he thinks that they’re cute to look at and are very soft but armin’s cat hates his guts and so he has a stick up his ass about cats
⏤ connie
likes cats a lot
does not care when they scratch him or bite him
he will baby talk to the cat, carry it like a baby, he’ll annoy it to death
probably actually allergic to cat fur but likes cats too much so he won’t confess to it
⏤ sasha
same as connie, she likes cats more than cats like her
but she’s not allowed to be around armin’s cat because she gets too excited and shares her snacks and cats aren’t allowed to eat some foods
she’s probably tried to eat cat food or cat treats before just out of curiosity
tries to communicate with the cat and swears on her life that once the cat meowed in reply
⏤ historia
has a special way with cats
looks literally regal when they’re on her lap and owns a cat herself
her cat probably eats high brand foods and is on a special diet and has the cleanest fur and a princess castle tower
gets very emotional when cats go missing in her neighbourhood
and gets quite protective of her animals
⏤ ymir
doesn’t like cats
pretends to like historia’s cat because she knows that if historia was going to pick one over the other, then she’d pick the cat
ymir has personal beef with historia’s cat and will call it names or talk shit about it when historia’s not in the room
doesn’t care for the way they scratch you for no reason sometimes
tries to drop hints that historia’s cat wants to kill her to see if historia will get rid of it (never works)
⏤ reiner
forgets that cats aren’t the same as dogs
used armin and historia’s cats as weights when they all got together one time and nearly lost an eye when armin’s cat declared war
never gets personally offended when cats don’t care about him and will always find them cute when they walk into the room
probably likes dogs more though
doesn’t know how to have fun with a cat
⏤ berthold
really loves cats but feels shy when he’s around them
is too timid to stroke them and feels anxious when they jump on him or on his lap
one time he fell asleep like a cat would and now everybody brings it up when a cat is sleeping in the same room as him
“ha looks like you bertie”
⏤ annie
does like cats but an average amount
couldn’t see herself owning any pets personally but she’ll never treat other pets differently
respects that cats need their privacy and time alone, much like she does
strokes behind their ears if they come near her but mostly she will let it wander around without fuss
⏤ levi
really likes and respects cats
he likes dogs a lot too but not for the same reason that he likes cats
he tends to be a lure for cats and they like to snuggle on his lap, mostly because he doesn’t do much to make a cat feel anxious or stressed out
he doesn’t like when cats (or dogs) leave a mess on the floor or on clothes but if its not his pet then he doesn’t care about what state they leave someone else’s room in
likes to play with the feather wand with cats because it maintains that space between the two of them
⏤ erwin
lets stray cats into his house when its cold and gets confused when they try and come back in on a later date
always looks at cats to buy online but never does
he will always love dogs that bit more but he thinks cats are very adorable
but he’s not sure if his dog will love a cat the same way
⏤ hange
is fascinated by cats
genuinely believes that cats have magical powers and 9 lives and probably talks to cats as if they can understand them
they hold them like they’re antiques or science experiments, like they needs to observe their frame
laughs when they are attacked by them
tests cats boundaries without realising that they're overdoing it
⏤ zeke
ponders life to the cat
tries to hug the cat like its a stuffed animal and when he gets attacked he takes it really personally
⏤ gabi and falco
once pulled on the tail of a cat, got attacked and are now deathly afraid
falco wants to like cats but he’s just too damn scared
⏤ other warriors
indifferent
pieck would be the best with cats out of the warriors, definitely tries to act like a cat sometimes to everybody’s discomfort
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@ace-bookworm said Button House gets a cat and I said yes and then I wrote this, enjoy.
Buttons’ House
Alison and Mike Cooper had never intended to adopt a cat. After all, Button House was already full to bursting, what with the both of them, eight ghosts living in the main house, an entire village of plague victims in the basement, and the ghost of a pesky pigeon courtesy of their neighbour’s dog. Simply put, there was not enough space to add any more family members to Button House.
So the cat had taken it upon itself to move in.
It had started one morning while Button House was going through its usual morning routine. Alison had woken up, checked the bathroom for ghosts so that Mike could use it without fear, then started the stopwatch for the Captain’s run before putting on a record for Thomas to do his morning dance to. She had filled in a few words on Robin’s crossword, set up Pong for Julian, and put on a classic football match for Pat. In the next room, she had helped Mary with her phonics work, turned to the next page in Kitty and Fanny’s book, and then done the same for Humphrey (or rather, Humphrey’s head – god only knew where his body was). She had arrived downstairs in two minutes and thirty seconds to open the door for the Captain to run in, perfectly timed.
Everything was the same as usual.
“Two minutes thirty, Cap,” Alison said, stopping the timer. “Same as always.”
“Blast,” the Captain said frustratedly. “Are you quite certain of it, Alison? I could have sworn I shaved off a second or two, I really pushed myself on that last corner.”
She shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. I’m just going by what the timer says.”
The Captain harrumphed and peered out the door, beckoning Alison to join him. She did, looking out across the driveway to where he pointed at the gate.
“That’s my problem,” he said, waggling his finger. “The terrain switches from concrete to gravel. If you could just pave over the driveway then I’m quite sure I c– hello.”
The Captain’s tone changed abruptly and Alison raised an eyebrow. “Hello?” she replied, bewildered.
“No, no, not you,” Cap replied, pointing down the driveway again. “Look, over there. It’s a cat.”
Alison squinted and saw that the Captain was quite right. Trotting up the driveway towards the open door, mewing quietly, was a little cat. It was jet black with bright yellow eyes and looked a little tatty with its scraggly fur. As it got closer, Alison could see that its ribs jutted out from under its skin slightly. The cat looked happy enough, but it was very clearly a stray, or badly neglected at the very least.
It stopped just in front of the Captain and sat primly, looking up at him with its eyes squinted serenely.
“Can cats see ghosts?” Alison asked him.
“It would appear so,” he returned. With a painful-sounding cracking of his knees, the Captain crouched down in front of the cat and regarded it. The cat stared back, blinking happily up into the Captain’s face. It attempted to bat at the Captain’s swagger stick, which was hanging from his hands, but its paw went straight through.
“Yep,” Alison said, “it can see you.”
It didn’t appear the Captain was listening to her, because a moment later he pointed his stick at the cat and said, “Now you listen here. It is improper to try and touch a Commanding Officer’s person or belongings. Had you been a soldier – or indeed able to touch me – I should have you punished.”
“Captain, it’s a cat, it can’t understand you,” Alison told him.
He stood up again, knees creaking audibly. “Yes, well. That hardly matters – I am a senior officer and I– oh dear, good Lord, what is it doing now?”
The cat was purring, attempting to rub itself against the Captain’s legs lovingly, but simply passing right through, which only seemed to make it more determined to show the Captain its love. The Captain began to gag, reminding Alison of the ghosts’ inability to touch living things without feeling sick. Quickly, she scooped the cat into her arms and held it close – the Captain stopped his gagging, but the cat continued to purr, nuzzling at Alison’s face.
“It’s very affectionate,” she said through all the fur blocking her face.
“Quite,” returned the Captain, voice a touch more gentle than usual. “Do you think it has a home of its own?”
Alison stroked the cat and frowned. “If it does then it’s not a very good one. Look, you can see all its bones, the poor thing hasn’t eaten in ages. And look at its fur, it’s disgusting. And it stinks.” The cat stopped purring momentarily as if offended. “Sorry.”
“Well,” the Captain said, assuming his usual military-man stance, bouncing once on the balls of his feet, back straight, stick tucked under his arm. “If this creature is in need then perhaps we should provide a home for it.”
“What? No, we can’t do that. Captain, the house is more than full already, we can’t add a cat to the mix.”
“During the war we never left a soldier behind!”
“This is a cat, not a soldier. I’m sure it’ll find a home eventually, just not here.”
As she said it, the cat laid its head upon her shoulder, purring again, eyes closed. It appeared it had decided that in Alison’s arms was the perfect place to go to sleep. Alison had always been a cat person and wanted nothing more than to cuddle the cat, even though it was probably riddled with disease and it stank like rot, but she knew if she did that then the cat would start thinking that Button House was its home. It would start coming back and they couldn’t have that. So with a heavy heart, she gently placed it down on the floor.
“Sorry,” she said to it as it looked up at her sadly. “I’ll feed you just this once because you look like you need it, but that’s it. Right, Captain?”
The Captain muttered something under his breath as he often did when he felt put out, then turned on his heel and left, stretching the way he liked to after his morning run. Alison went the opposite direction, leading the cat to the kitchen to find it something to eat.
It was halfway through the plate of tuna she had laid down for it when Mike came in. He looked down at it, then to Alison, then back at the cat before saying bewilderedly, “I don’t remember getting one of those.”
“That’s because we don’t have one,” Alison told him. She watched fondly as it ate its food – it clearly hadn’t eaten in months judging by the way it wolfed the fish down. “This is a stray, it followed the Captain in this morning after his run.”
“Uh huh,” Mike said slowly, sitting down to watch the cat too. “So why is it in our kitchen?”
“I’m feeding it.”
“Yes, I can see that. Why though?”
“Because,” Alison said emphatically, picking the cat up as it wandered absently towards her, then turning it to face Mike. She held its paws in her hands and wiggled them back and forth like a bad puppeteer. “Look at it! It needed some sort of food otherwise the poor thing would probably die. It’s not like we’re going to keep it, I just wanted to make sure it lived.”
“You remember what happened to my Auntie Barbara,” Mike replied. “She accidentally adopted so many neighbourhood strays that her house was practically overrun with them. And then what happened to her? She died. Because she was allergic to cats and there was so many that it killed her.”
“I never understood why she fed them and stroked them in the first place if she was so allergic,” Alison returned, to which Mike shrugged. “But it doesn’t matter anyway. We aren’t keeping it.”
“We don’t get to decide that,” Mike said, “the cat does.”
The cat, from its place nestled on Alison’s lap, meowed in agreement.
“Well, if it shows up again, we just won’t let it in. Agreed?”
“Agreed. We can’t afford another mouth to feed. It is cute though,” he admitted.
“It is, isn’t it?”
Despite how adorable the cat was, Alison let it out the front door. She watched as it obediently walked away, tail a little higher than it had been before, looking healthier and perkier. She knew she shouldn’t have been hoping it would come back, but a little part of her didn’t want to say goodbye.
Luckily, she didn’t have to. The very next morning, she opened the door to let the Captain in from his run (“Two minutes and thirty seconds, Captain, but I think you knew that already.”) and hot on his tail came the cat, smiling as obviously as a cat could.
In spite of her better judgement, Alison took the cat into the kitchen again and fed it once more. She knew she shouldn’t have been, but she was already growing very attached to it. Despite its awful smell and awful condition, she felt a soft spot for it. Absently, she wondered if she should take it to a vet, just to get it checked over and see if it had a home. But she was snapped out of her thoughts by one of the loudest things known to mankind – Lady Fanny Button.
“What on Earth is that disgusting creature doing in my house?!” she shrieked, pointing wildly at the cat, which kept eating its food just as peacefully as before.
“Relax, Fanny, I’m just feeding it,” Alison explained.
“Whyever are you doing that? That creature is clearly a stray, probably riddled with fleas, and you’ve brought it into this house like it’s nothing! It’s going to defile this beautiful house and you shall be the one to blame for it, Alison. I want it gone at once!”
“Fanny, it’s not doing anything, okay? Calm down, look, it’s just having something to eat, it needs it.”
“It is a very small step from eating to… to defecating, young lady!” Lady Button retorted. “I shall not have that thing in my house, ruining everything! Take it away.”
“I thought you liked animals,” Alison tried. “You had Dante when you were alive.”
“Dante was a well-behaved, loving, healthy, clean dog. He was not some stray we just picked up off the street one day because we felt like it!”
“Well,” Alison said, “to be fair, we haven’t picked up the cat because we feel like it, it kind of invited itself in.”
“If anything that makes it worse,” Fanny yelled, sounding appalled. “Not only does it smell ghastly and look unseemly, but it is rude as well. It clearly has no manners. I will not ask again, Alison, take the cat out of this house!”
At that moment, the cat finished eating and turned around to try and bat at the hem of Lady Button’s dress. Though it couldn’t touch it (for obvious ghostly reasons), Fanny screamed and took a few paces back. She started yelling more nonsense at Alison, something along the lines of ‘get it out’ and then ran straight through the wall, out of the kitchen.
Sighing, Alison heaved the cat into her arms, took it through the house again and let it out through the front door just like the previous day. She watched it wander away once more, though this time it stopped in the middle of the driveway to wash its leg briefly. She shut the door behind it and got on with the rest of her day.
It wasn’t until the next day, day three, that Alison realised that the cat situation was likely going to become permanent. When she opened the door for the Captain, he did not run in as usual, so she peered out of the door and saw him crouched in the middle of the driveway, attempting to pet the cat but failing miserably because each time his hand passed right through and he gagged.
She watched for a minute, stifling her laughs so that the Captain didn’t hear her and realise she was watching which would likely make him stop. Soon she was joined by someone else.
“Good morning, Alison,” Kitty said, bounding up to her, smiling as brightly as ever. “How are you today? Oh look – the Captain has made a friend!”
Alison chuckled. “He has. It looks like they’re getting on very well.”
Kitty gasped excitedly then said, “It’s a cat. That means it’s a kitty, just like me!” And without further ado, she skipped over to join the Captain and the cat. The Captain looked mildly disgruntled, their moment having been interrupted, but he smiled as soon as the cat started purring, trying to bat at his swagger stick again and jumping at the bows on Kitty’s dress.
A moment later, Mike joined Alison. He looked out at the cat, watching as it jumped and played with what would seem like nothing to him.
“Are there ghosts out there with it?” he asked Alison.
“Yep,” she returned, popping the ‘p’. “Cap and Kitty. They’ve really taken a shine to it.”
“Well, like I said,” Mike replied, “it is really cute, I don’t blame them. Have any of the others met it yet?”
“Only Lady B,” Alison told him. He raised an eyebrow and she continued, “She wasn’t a fan.”
Mike hummed and a silence fell between them. Alison had been thinking more frequently that they really should take it to a vet. Even though it was happy and eating properly when she fed it, getting it checked over wasn’t a bad idea. It didn’t mean they had to adopt it – it just meant that they could have peace of mind knowing it was alright.
She was just about to say this to Mike, but he got in first and said, “I think we should keep it.”
“What?” she replied, shocked. “Why? Two days ago you were worried it was going to kill you.”
“No,” he said, “I just suggested that it’s a possibility we can’t rule out. But you clearly like it, and I think it’s cute, and if the ghosts like it then maybe it’ll – I don’t know – like, placate them a little.”
“They’re not dangerous, they don’t need placating,” Alison said. “Is this just the same as when you said we should get Netflix to ‘appease’ them after they’d finished watching every DVD we own?”
“No,” he said, sounding too affronted to be telling the truth. “Plus, we won’t be caring for it on our own, will we? We’ve got eight extra pairs of eyes to keep a lookout for it. So we can all look after it, it won’t be just us.”
“Only one of those ghosts can touch anything,” Alison told him. “We’ll still have to clean up its poo and stuff like that. And you’re terrible with poo.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’ll be on poo duty.”
“No. If we’re adopting this cat then we’re sharing poo duty. That’s the price you have to pay.”
The both of them turned to watch the Captain and Kitty playing with the cat again. It jumped up to try and grab the feathers in Kitty’s hair and she giggled delightedly.
“Alison,” she called, “it’s so lovely! Come and play with us, please!”
She turned to Mike. “Okay. We’re keeping it then.”
He tore his gaze away from the cat and smiled. “Yeah. Why not? Let’s do it.”
“Great,” Alison said, clapping her hands. “I’ll call the vet, see if they can get us an appointment to make sure it’s all healthy and see if it’s microchipped. I hope it doesn’t already have a home.”
“If it does then we can just get another one,” Mike said, slipping an arm around Alison’s shoulders. “There’s a shelter not too far away.”
“I like this cat, though. I want this one.”
“Well, we’d better get that vet appointment to see if we can have it then, hm?”
And so, not four hours later, Alison and Mike made their way back to Button House from the vets, the kitten nestled comfortably in the back seat. Their appointment had gone very well – the cat was in surprisingly good health for a stray, they had got it up to date on its vaccinations, and they had determined the cat didn’t have a home. So, to the couple’s delight, it was allowed to stay at Button House.
The house was unusually quiet when they arrived back. That normally meant that all the ghosts were assembled upstairs partaking in one of Pat’s clubs or another. There was the faint sound of scattered applause as Alison walked through the front door – one of them had probably finished giving a speech.
She gently put the cat down on the floor as Mike shut the front door behind them.
“Right, missy,” she said. The vet had also confirmed that the cat was a girl and about six months old. “Welcome home!”
The cat meowed and trotted off down the hallway, seemingly in search of the source of the clapping. Alison wandered after it, and the cat led her upstairs to the common room. She found the ghosts all gathered around together, most of them on the sofa, Julian and Robin by the chess board, and Thomas in full view of all of them, bowing even though their half-hearted applause had long since ceased.
Lady Button was the first to notice the new arrival and she didn’t seem best pleased.
“Alison,” she shouted, standing up and pointing at the cat furiously. “I told you to get rid of that vermin, that vile creature, I do not want it in this house!”
“Now listen here,” interrupted the Captain, brandishing his swagger stick. “That cat happens to be in dire need of our assistance. I think it only right that Alison has brought it inside.”
“And it really is a sweetheart, too, Lady Button,” Kitty gushed.
“You’d probably think a grizzly bear was a sweetheart,” Fanny retorted.
Robin shook his head, saying, “Grizzly bear never sweetheart. Grizzly bear kill my uncle. Was very funny actually.”
“Excuse me,” interjected Thomas, “I still have four more poems I want to perform!”
As happened far too often to be endearing anymore, the ghosts all started yelling over each other, some insisting they get rid of the cat, some insisting it stayed, and Thomas insisting he be allowed to finish his recital. Alison watched them fight, the cat sat at her feet, watching bemusedly too, before finally stepping in after Julian and Thomas started squaring up to one another.
“Alright, alright, enough!” she shouted.
Shouting only worked about half the time, sometimes the ghosts’ arguing would be so loud that Alison couldn’t even hear herself over it – luckily, this time around the ghosts fell silent and looked towards her expectantly.
“Okay,” she said, “everyone just listen to me. Mike and I decided that we’re going to adopt this cat–”
“Outrageous,” interrupted Lady Button. Alison ignored her.
“We’ve taken her to the vets. She’s in perfectly good shape and she doesn’t seem to have a home, so we’re taking her in. She might need a little TLC before she starts looking…”
“Less like a toilet brush?” suggested Julian, eyeing the cat.
Alison frowned. “Before she starts looking herself. But we’re keeping her, no objections. Okay? She really is lovely, I promise you all.”
“No, no, no,” shrieked Mary, standing up and joining Lady Button as far away from the cat as they could get. “Al’son, you can’t keeps the pussycat.”
“Why is that, Mary?” Alison asked, trying not to sigh.
“Because you’ll’s be branded a witch!” Mary explained, sounding as if it should have been obvious. “If a woman have a cat then she be a witch! They’ll burns you at the stake! I’d know.”
“Mary, lots of people have cats now and they don’t get burned to death. Alright? And you know I’m not a witch.”
“Oh,” Mary said. “Right. Okay then.”
Without further hesitation she crouched down and smiled at the little cat. It purred and tried to bat at her apron. But it appeared Mary took that as an attempt at attack, so she yelped and ran, hiding behind Kitty.
“You can keeps the pussycat, Al’son, but please keeps it aways from me.”
“If you’re quite finished with the witchcraft nonsense,” said the Captain, stepping forward, “then might I ask if this cat has a name?”
“Oh,” Alison said, “well, Mike and I were going to brainstorm later this evening–”
“That seems hardly fair,” Cap returned. “We all live here, we should all name it.”
“Yes,” said Kitty, bouncing up and down. “I think we should call her Princess Snuggles.”
The Captain laughed. “No, thank you, Katherine, that’s a silly name. I was thinking something more like Major Fuzzyboots.”
“And how, pray tell, is that any less silly than Princess Snuggles?” asked Thomas flatly.
“Well, I don’t see what’s wrong with any classic cat names,” Pat said, peering down at the cat. He stretched his hand out to scratch her head, then looked as if he had to hold back vomit, and withdrew his hand. “Something like Luna or Shadow. Something simple, like.”
“Boring,” Robin remarked. “Should call it Cat. Save trouble.”
“No offense, guys, but I think I’m just going to talk it over with Mike,” Alison decided – the ‘all these names are terrible’ wasn’t spoken aloud but was heavily implied and she was sure they got the picture. “We’ll come up with something. Come on, missy.”
Alison hoisted the cat into her arms and was about to head back downstairs with her, when Julian’s voice piped up from behind and said, “Why not call her Buttons?”
The other ghosts made noises of agreement, which was rare.
“Buttons?” Alison said, looking at the cat. “Well, I suppose she does look like a Buttons. And it’s like Button House! Oh, I love it, nice one, Julian.”
He straightened his tie and suit jacket. “Yes, well, if anyone was going to be the one to solve this – uh – cat naming crisis, well then, I suppose it only makes sense that it were me. It’s not the first crisis I’ve solved, not by any stretch of the imagination. Did I ever tell you all about the time, back in eighty-three, when I…”
Alison didn’t stick around to hear the rest of whatever godawful story Julian was planning on telling. She left the room and headed back downstairs to get Buttons some food and tell Mike they’d decided on a name.
Over the next few weeks, Buttons’ presence in Button House seemed to be almost completely accepted by everyone living there. There had been a few unfortunate incidents and teething problems, but nothing that wasn’t fixable.
The first real problem came two days after Buttons’ adoption. Nobody had been able to find Humphrey’s head, which was predictably detached from his body. Kitty remembered placing it down on the kitchen table, but all they found there was Buttons. Everyone had been searching the house (including Mike, though he couldn’t see Humphrey, and Humphrey’s body, which couldn’t see anything at all) but it hadn’t been until Alison had picked Buttons up that the head had been discovered.
It turned out that Buttons had taken quite a liking to Humphrey and decided to sit on him. The problems arose when Buttons obviously couldn’t sit on Humphrey and instead ended up in him, which obscured the head from view completely. And it didn’t help that Humphrey was allergic, something that apparently hadn’t changed in death. His face was red and his eyes were watering when Alison finally picked up Buttons and freed him.
“Oh, thank goodness for that,” Humphrey breathed. “I’ve been shouting for hours, couldn’t anyone hear me?”
“You must’ve been muffled by Buttons’ fur,” Alison suggested. “Sorry Humphrey, I’ll try to stop that from happening again.”
“Oh, don’t trouble yourself, Alison. It’s alright, really. Well, apart from the allergy, and the sick feeling from having something living touch me. But really, no need to go out of your way.”
Another issue was that Robin just didn’t seem to get on with Buttons. She loved him, clearly – in fact, Buttons seemed to adore everyone in Button House (except Mike, for reasons unknown to anybody) – but one day Alison had walked into the common room to see Robin yelling at the cat.
“Oh, you think you so big, so clever. I kill mammoth. I can easy kill little cat!”
“Woah, hey,” Alison said, approaching the two. Buttons was stood on the chess table, gazing up at Robin with nothing short of adoration in her eyes. “Why are you threatening to kill my cat?”
“Ruin chess game,” Robin huffed, jabbing a finger in Buttons’ direction. She tried to pat it and he grumbled, “Go away.”
“She’s just a cat, I’m sure she didn’t mean to.”
“She did. She jump on table and hit all pieces off. Little guy and horsey on floor, me no pick them up!”
Alison did it for him, picking up the chess pieces and placing them on the squares Robin instructed her to. Buttons quickly lost interest, hopped off the table and left the room.
“And stay out!” Robin called after her.
Thomas didn’t seem to be the cat’s biggest fan either. Alison had a sneaking suspicion that his hatred towards her stemmed from the fact that he had been trying to recite yet another unwarranted love poem to Alison but she’d not been paying attention, instead playing with Buttons. She had caught him seeking his revenge later that day, leaning over Buttons as she slept on the sofa, and whispering what sounded like a demand for her to duel him. Alison had decided to avoid that situation altogether and quickly backed out the room.
The only other ghost who wasn’t totally enamoured with Buttons was Julian, who seemed very indifferent on the whole subject. Though Alison did once catch him practising one of his speeches on the cat, who seemed surprisingly attentive.
But for the most part, Buttons was adored. Many a time, Alison came across the Captain or Pat pretending to stroke her or sitting by her as she slept. Kitty and Mary would play with her (though Mary was still a little wary and periodically asked Buttons if she was a witch in disguise). Even the plague ghosts adored her – she had managed to sneak down to the basement when Mike left the door open once, and the ghosts had tried their hardest to adopt her for themselves. They were happy with the agreement they reached with Alison though, that she would let Buttons down there once a week to visit them all.
The biggest surprise of all came one lazy evening when Alison had been on her way to bed, a sleepy Mike in tow. They had passed through the common room where a fire was dwindling in the fireplace. Buttons was curled up in front of it, sleeping soundly, and watching her with a fond expression on her face was Fanny.
Alison smiled and cleared her throat. Fanny looked round, looking a little startled and embarrassed to be caught gazing at the cat she had been so against.
“Alison,” she said, but didn’t seem to have any words to follow it up with.
“Is she growing on you, then, Fanny?” Alison asked, stifling a yawn.
Fanny turned away, facing Buttons again, and said, “Well. She’s certainly no Dante. But I can admit now that she is rather sweet. I suppose it’s alright that she stays here.”
Alison watched as a small smile grew on Fanny’s face, watching the gentle rise and fall of Buttons’ chest.
“Goodnight, Lady B,” she said.
“Goodnight, Alison.”
From then on, all the residents of Button House treated Buttons as if she were all that mattered, even Robin and Thomas, whose grudges quickly wore off. It seemed that despite the fact that Button House was already full to the brim, adding little Buttons made the house a home.
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