The Actress

"Elastico, I don't mean to be rude but, you do know he didn't mean physically strong right?" Miss Kitty asks. "But thank you, Elastico." Miss Kitty blushes a bit more.

(ooc: Hope no one minds me joining in!)

A small spotted dog jumped up and down and all over the place, landing sometimes in a tussock or in a puddle. Her paws were muddy, but she didn't mind, just giggled and continued her jumping forward, humming an unmusical tune she came up with while humming. She had woken up happily, and somehow the happiness jolted in her everytime she thought 'why?'. It was just one of those days.

Penelope sat down and scracthed her ear, and when the disturbing itch was gone, she panted a little because of all her jumping.
Now when she remained silent for a moment, she heard a silent voice talking close by. No... Many voices?
She thought for a moment, and thought, and thought... Until a flickering light of an idea formed in her mind.
There was someone, and she couldn't hear a mean tone in their voices, so why not she wouldn't join them, who ever there was?
The happy dalmatian jumped onto her feet and followed the voices.

She stopped when she was near the others, suddenly she felt a little shy. What if the others didn't want her to be with them? What if she wouldn't fit in? ...What... What if they were... villains? She tilted her head to her right a little then barked a silent "Hi".

Elastico turned at the sight of the young dalmatian. Was she new here? Of course, Elastico had seen many of the spotted dogs since arriving in the war.

The bright green experiment smiled back at the dalmatian girl and greeted her. "Hai there." he waved at her. Was she here to join the Heroes? Or was she one of those nasty villains?

Patches turned around when he registered that someone had barked a little greeting. Lo and behold, there was another of his family members! His grin stretched across his face and his tail wagged. "Hey there! Guess you're here to join up with the rest of us?" Patches asked. If he was being perfectly honest, he couldn't place a name to Penelope's face. He'd no doubt seen her around the farm a few times, but names were difficult to stick to faces in a vast sea of black and white. Often times faces tended to blend together. That was why it became important to put voices to memory around the farm. Faces, if they were distinguishable enough, were also helpful.

"Miss Kitty, this is one of my sisters. I... can't remember her name right off, though." Patches said. He gestured a paw in Penelope's direction to show who he was talking about, though that probably wasn't necessary. They were the only spotted dogs present at the moment, after all. Who else could he have been talking about?

Rafiki nodded. His eyes moved over to the strange little green creature. He was new to this world, a stranger to the Circle of Life, yet it accepted him. The Spirits, unseen by others, could be swirling around these strange new animals. They weren't from this world, these Experiments, but they were home here. He gave a small little chuckle. "Ah, Catherine, I meant both."

He pointed at her chest. "Strength dere is strength everywhere. De heart influence de body more than you tink."

His eyes traveled to the dalmation pups and his spirit fell. This family had seen so much heartache. Love wanted, love lost, love not returned. He gave a small sigh. Some of them weren't even related, but they still were a family. ANd that family was pulling apart as the war raged on. He put on a small grin. "Come on over child, we be friendly."

Miss Kitty ponders what Rafiki said. Her thinking was interrupted when the new dalmatian pup arrived. "Hello there. No need to be shy," Miss Kitty says to the pup.

"My name is Catherine but most people call me by my stage name, Miss Kitty Mouse. What is your name?" Miss Kitty asks the puppy.

Penelope looked shyly at the green... thing, that greeted her with a smile. She had never seen such a sight before. But however, she decided that what she didn't know wasn't necessarily going to hurt her; she couldn't know until she would get to know the creature better, would she?
The dalmatian was about to answer the experiment, when she heard someone else talking. Penelope turned her head to see who it was, and a huge smile appeared on her face. Somewhat familiar face there. The dalmatian puppy was definitely family! And what he said convinced Penelope that she had found one of her brothers.

At the time she heard Rafiki talking, Penelope realized, she hadn't said anything yet. When the mandrill encouraged her to come closer, the puppy joyfully walked closer, with her little white tail wagging hesitantly. She turned her eyes to meet another new friendly face, who introduced herself as Catherine - or Miss Kitty Mouse, as she said. Kitty? What an odd name for a mouse, she tought, but then, wouldn't it be weird if her name was 'Mouse'? Besides, this Miss Kitty could have a heart of a lion.

Finally, Penelope decided to speak. "My name is Penelope", she said and turned to see the other dalmatian. "Don't worry, I can't remember everyone's names either. There's so many of us... Eh, and truth to be told, I can't quite recall your name right now, sorry", she chuckled and turned to see each and everyone. "Nice to meet you, all", she said politely and smiled.

"Penelope. Got it. I'll totally remember that." Patches promised. He didn't quite know how he was going to remember, but he would. Maybe he could find some distinguishing spots on her fur that would be easy to recognize. That could wait, though. For the moment he was keen to just get to know her better. "I'm Patches, by the way. See? 'Cause I have these patch markings on my face." Patches said. He made his eyes look upward so that they could be the focus for a bit when he referred to his eye markings. "Kind of like Patch, except he's not here. He's... elsewhere." he said. He remembered seeing Patches that one day in late May when that big, pointy-headed Experiment thing had shown up and attacked Vitani and Angel, but where he had gone after that was a mystery.

"So... I guess things got a little lonely around the farm with so many of us disappearing, huh Penelope?" Patches asked. It would make sense. Start out with 101 dalmatians and slowly make them trickle away, hoping for no one to notice, and someone was bound to miss one or two of them. Especially when the two adults had disappeared as well and Roger along with them. He wondered how Anita and Nanny were holding up. They're probably fine. Patches reassured himself.

Penelope smiled at her brother and sat down, examining the pup's face carefully to remember him. She tilted her head a little when she heard that her brother, Patch, was 'elsewhere'. Where could he be? Penelope hoped he was alright, it was such a long time since she'd last seen him - like it was as long time since she'd seen so many other of the dalmatians - and the worry for her litter mate was understandable. She decided to worry about her other siblings, adopted or not, later, and get to know this brother better.

"Well, a little... I was wondering, what had happened to some of our siblings... And, well, I wasn't there long enough to realize how many of us really were gone... I got lost, you see", Penelope said answering her brother's question, looking at her white toes, ashamed. She should've stayed home, she knew. What would've mom said if she knew Penelope had just wondered off alone? She was sure mom wouldn't be pleased.
"It was my own fault, really. How silly I was, thinking that I'd be able to find my way back home... But nope", she suddenly laughed. "I guess it's better this way. I'll need to grow up and face the world sooner or later, so I think this was bound to happen. Written in the stars, or something." she blabbered meaninglessly and then chuckled a little. "I'm sorry for this nonsense, Patches", she said and then smiled brightly. "How's the life here been for you?" While asking this, Penelope had no idea of the cruelty of the war, the reality.

"I don't think I should interrupt their reunion," Miss Kitty thinks. She turns to Rafiki and asks, "What do you mean by that I have a strong heart?" Miss Kitty thought about it but she didn't get what Rafiki meant. She hopes that he can clarify what he said.

Rafiki grinned. He gave a small poke in her chest. "Yes. Dese old eyes don't lie. Your love, your bravery, and your kindness. Dey be de makings of greatness. And de makings of greatness always come wit a strong heart."

He looked up into the blue sky as clouds started to roll away from the sun. He gave a small sigh. "But dis old baboon wonder. How did you come ta have a strong heart?"

"To add on to what I said before I...," Miss Kitty pauses for a moment then continues, "I used to work for one of the Animal Villains, a rat named Ratigan who is supposedly dead but I know he is part of Scar's army, before the war." Miss Kitty decided to leave out the part that she is defecting from the Animal Villains and hope Rafiki doesn't know she isn't telling everything. "While being a singer and showgirl at the tavern did pay well it was barley enough for my sisters and I to get by. So I took his offer to join his gang so my family and I would be better but I eventually found out he was completely evil so I came to join the Heroes."

Patches' usual grin seemed to disappear as Penelope spoke about her reason for coming. She'd wanted to know what had happened to the others. Awkwardly, Patches sat down and began to scratch at his ear as if he were trying to relax himself before speaking again. It would be awkward, he realized, to explain what had happened in the past few months. At length, his scratching stopped and he let his paw drop to the ground. He realized his ear probably was covered in mud from scratching it with a muddy paw, but he didn't really care that much. He liked mud, and it did help make him feel a little more relaxed.

"A lot's happened, Penelope." Patches said. Well, that was a rather broad way of putting it. He decided to try again, but wanted to use a less broad description. "I wasn't here when it happened, but we lost Penny pretty early on. Annabelle was next, and just in the past couple of months we lost Lucky, a little pup named Rebecca, and... dad." Patches' expression turned unusually somber as his gaze shifted to the ground. So much death in so short a time. Patches hadn't even gone into complete detail about what had happened.

Penelope tilted her head with a slight sense of curiosity in her when silently Patches scratched his ear. Why was her brother suddenly silent? She became thinking, that something must've happened. Maybe the rest weren't here at all, maybe they went back to the farm, she thought and heard Patches begin his talk.

"A lot's happened, Penelope."
When she heard this, unexplained anxiety formed a lump into the bottom of her stomach. This can't be good.
And it wasn't good, at all.
When she heard about Penny, she stared at Patches in horror. Her sister, which she remembered pretty well, of course being Penelope's litter mate made Penny very memorable, was dead. Why and how?, she thought with anger and sorrow. ...More importantly, who?
And there was no stopping now. A puppy she didn't quite remember, Annabelle, was dead too. The lump of fear and grief in her stomach crawled up to her throat and she felt like she was suffocating. Another name came up, Penelope felt tears on her cheeks and remembered a puppy with a horseshoe pattern on his back, a puppy who always stood in front of the television when they had watched Thunderbolt back in London... Lucky. The little rascal Lucky.
Penelope shook her head in denial as the list went on to a puppy she didn't remember at all, someone named Rebecca. And when she thought it just couldn't go any worse, Patches mentioned Pongo.
"...Dad?", she managed to stutter amongst her silent sobs. "...Dad too?" The words were nothing louder than a whisper. "...Oh... Oh no... N-no, that... T-that c-can't be... true...", she whimpered and lowered her eyes to meet the ground and her shaky feet.

Patches could only nod sadly in response to what Penelope had said. It was true, all of it. He wasn't the type to really try lying, even if Wizzer had tried to get him to when he'd been hanging out with Mooch's gang on occasion. "It's true. Mom saw it happen herself. She's... pretty shaken up about it." Patches said. Even still their adoptive mother had seemed shaken by what happened. Who could blame her? Pongo had been their adoptive father and her mate. Losing someone so dear would hurt anyone pretty badly. "I'm sorry, Penelope. I wish I could have done something to try and stop any of what happened from happening." he said.