cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51965091

TL;DR My cat regularly traps me like this. The first time he did it, I was wearing IZOD socks, so I wrote a story about how a superhero IZOD Man was trapped by his sleeping cat. That story is posted here too. This time he got me and I was wearing plain White Sox, so that became the superheroes mild mannered disguise.

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In our previous story, our hero Izod Man had been trapped. On a couch. By a cat.

As the saga continues, we find him in a similar state, but something has changed…

The world recalls, as legends can,
the noble deeds of Izod Man.

A hero bold. A soul refined.
A champion of humankind.

Yet fame is hard. The burden weighs.
One cannot save the world always.

And so, when all the work is done,
a hero’s second life’s begun.

He sheds the symbols of his brand.
No logo marks his noble stand.

No mighty crest is there to spy.

He’s now just merely White Socks Guy.

A fellow plain and mild of speech.
A man who keeps the remote within reach.

He sits upon an ordinary chair.
No sign of greatness lingers there.

He thinks himself concealed from sight.

The disguise appears quite airtight.

Yet hidden deep within the room
there stirs a watcher through the gloom.

Two ears arise.

One nose will twitch.

The cat detects the subtle switch.

For while the world may pass him by,
she knows he’s not just White Socks Guy.

She knows the truth. She always can.

White Socks Guy is Izod Man.

And so she springs with practiced grace
directly to her chosen place.

She settles in.

She starts to purr.

The trap is set.

The end for her—

or rather him.

The hero sighs.

The cat half-opens sleepy eyes.

One snowy paw comes drifting down
upon his leg without a sound.

No force is used.

No threat is made.

No villain’s scheme need be displayed.

The message needs no spoken plan:

“I know exactly who you am.”

The hero freezes where he sits.
The cat continues all her bits

of sleeping, stretching, breathing deep,
and looking very much asleep.

Yet White Socks Guy knows better than
to test the laws that govern Man.

For countless times throughout the years
he’s learned the truth all captives hear:

The world may think that cats are small.

The world is wrong.

That’s really all.

And thus the secret still survives,
preserved through quiet household lives.

By day he’s just some ordinary guy.

By night he’s still unable to stand up and get a drink because there’s a cat sleeping on him.

Such is the fate, since time began,

of White Socks Guy—

and Izod Man.

🐾