The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 13 - Raining cats and dogs

           The Ocean Queen left the small claims court, having sufficiently enjoyed the drama from the two court cases in a row. She noticed Mayor Lizzie glaring at her, though, which she thought was kind of unfair. It wasn't like she did anything wrong at all. But at any rate, the two of them had gotten off of the wrong foot and she figured that it was time to fix that. She leaned over, plucked up the cat, and set her on her shoulder. 

           "What is going on?!" Lizzie yelped, flailing around madly, her tail slapping against the Ocean Queen's hand. "Don't worry, future me, we're just going to have some therapy and get to know each other." "Since when were we a therapist ever?" "Eh, maybe never, I don't really remember." 

           Both Joels watched the Lizzies walk off into the distance. "Should we be worried?" King Joel asked, just as Mayor Lizzie made some very audible distressed cat noises. "Nah, they'll be fine. What's the worse that could happen?" 

           The Lizzies managed to make it all the way to Animalia before anything majorly bad happened. They made it into the office and the Ocean Queen was somehow able to fit inside. Mayor Lizzie quickly sat down at her office table and tried to look like she was in charge of whatever was happening. The other Lizzie sat down too, trying not to crush the chair with her weight. 

           "I understand you're the mayor of Animalia, right?" She asked, and the cat Lizzie nodded, scowling. "This is a nice office." "Of course it's a nice office, would you expect less from a mayor? But what in the world is going on, you just randomly pick me up and put me on your shoulder and not tell me anything the whole way here?!" "Isn't that something you would do if you were ten feet tall?" "Well, maybe, but I'm not ten feet tall so I can't." "At any rate, we should probably get to the point before either of us goes off on a completely random tangent." Mayor Lizzie thought for a second. "Good point," She begrudgingly admitted. 

           "Well, to begin therapy, has there been anyone bothering you nearly to the point of insanity recently?" The Ocean Queen asked, adopting a formal voice for the occasion. Mayor Lizzie stared at her. "Yes, you, and Joel, because-" "And why have they been causing you migraines?" "Because I thought you and Joel were-" "And how do those people make you feel?" "Are you going to stop interrupting me anytime soon, and why are you talking like you're not the other Lizzie?" "Hush, dear, I'm the one who asks questions here, this is frozen speech style we're using. Now, you have mentioned that you thought that the other Lizzie and Joel were doing a thing. You explicitly mentioned 'thought' even though you were serious enough to sue them for it. Why?" 

           Mayor Lizzie thought for a second. "Okay, I admit that maybe I was overreacting." "It was noticed that you had shrieked a lot during the court case. Were there any buried resentments you let out? From what I gathered about you so far, which is not much, you don't normally make that much of a fuss." There was a pause as the Lizzies looked at each other. There was a soft sigh as the cat finally broke the silence. "I don't know why, but ever since you other emperors got here I've been feeling... off, I guess. But that's not really an excuse." The Ocean Queen furiously scribbled some notes on a clipboard that she had gotten from somewhere. 

           "Has anything happened recently that could have ticked you off?" She asked, fidgeting with the quill. "Other than the other Lizzie and Joel." The cat thought for a bit, tail twitching. "Well, there was Joey claiming he could rule me, but that's it, I think, or wait, maybe I felt kind of weird when I found out everyone already knew I was a cat before I tried to do a dramatic secret reveal. Like, if they were okay with it enough to accept me despite my never trusting them enough to tell them before that, how did none of them feel the need to inform me of it?!" The Ocean Queen hummed to herself as she jotted down some more notes. "How do you feel after talking about your feelings?" She queried. "Aren't you supposed to ask that question much, much later?" "Eh, I'm new to this therapy stuff, at least I think so."