Template:Featured Articles/9-2025

Moment of Awesome - Sharon Smith/Catseye: Sharon meets Quentin Quire. Let the world tremble. "Was indicated to me you were a telepath only. This is inaccurate?" The words were mumbled around the Churu wrapper; the girl's yellow eyes hadn't left the fruit. The tip of her tail twitched avidly as she tracked their rotation. Quentin smirked and flicked his wrist, directing the fruits into a more complicated dance. "You were lied to. These two powers very commonly come hand-in-hand." Sharon's tail began to flick more quickly. Sharon crouched, Churu falling from her mouth. "Psionics," she remarked, working her claws against the no-slip concrete, "this is useful, but not so interesting. No obvious physical adaptations. Easy to hide." The girl's skin flowed beneath her dark jumpsuit, and suddenly she was a human-sized hybrid cat, head down, hips in the air, and ready to pounce. "Is a cheater power," Sharon declared, and leapt for the apple. "To my great chagrin, I have not yet mutated to a giant floating brain." Nonplussed by the transformation, Quentin pulled the fruits out of her reach, then playfully booped her snout with the banana. "But maybe next time I die, that's the physical construct I can build for myself." Sharon didn't hesitate. The great cat grabbed the banana in both paws and rolled playfully onto her back. "This is literal, or hyperbole?" she asked, words slightly muffled as she mouthed delicately at the peel with one outsized canine. "To reconfigure one's body to need, this is interesting. I have met only Kevin Sydney with this power. Jessie also, to a lesser extent. Disappointing. Standard human physiology is uncreative. Inefficient also." "Literal, mostly." Quentin plucked the pear from its erratic orbit and bit into it. "Got possessed, killed myself, psyche saved by some other telepaths, then I took over a vessel of ectoplasm that turned into real matter except for a few months ago when David Haller had his freakout that he made everyone else's problem. You know how it is here." Something between a leonine rumble and a contemplative "hmm" issued from Sharon's throat. "Physical reconstruction as collaborative effort? This I shall remember. Previous judgement is retracted: your body is of sufficient interest. I look forward to any reconfigurations that occur as a result of future resurrections." She regarded Quentin through slitted eyes as she rubbed her whiskered cheek against the banana. "I am content as I am. Already I am superior." "Rarely do women find my body interesting," he quipped through another mouthful of pear. "And of course you're superior. You're a mutant. It's in the damn name." "I am Cat. I am superior in yet more ways." Sharon's tail flicked again, thoughtful now. "You do not insist on sapien conformity. This is refreshing."