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[whattail]

Characters: Konoe and you
Date: May 1st
Location: Dreaming Bridge, randomly around the city
Situation: There's a very lost and confused catboy who's arrived in the city. This place is too strange for him to handle
Warnings/Rating: None yet, except for possible catscratches


~A~

The city of Aifaran and the Dreamfolk that now inhabited it were probably used to a variety of strange sights, and todays was a young man with cat ears and a crooked tail despairingly clawing at a wooden post. A shopkeeper had been breaking down his stall, only to find Konoe attached to the last piece he needed to take care of. He knew how to deal with mungas attacking people's ankles, but a person sized animal? No one was sure how to react.

Konoe himself was just sinking his claws into the wood trying to calm the anxiety of all the strange bright lights and sounds around him, his tail swaying nervously back and forth.

~B~

The next thing Konoe knew was that he was being accosted by some human-like looking creatures. He understood they were probably after money, but the only money he had was the stipend that was paid to newcomers. Konoe knew in cities like this not having money was a bad idea but his pride also didn't allow him to back down.

His fur was standing up and eyes narrowed into slits. "I said I had no business with you and to not bother me."
He was drawing his sword at this point, and the would-be muggers looked less than friendly. Maybe now would be a good time to step in for everyone's sake.

~C~--Closed to Zephyr--

This was exhausting. Konoe, thanks to the kindness of some Kin'nal and Dreamfolk, finally managed to find his way to the Dreaming Bridge where he supposedly had a room to stay. It was better than nothing, he musing, sniffing around the rest of the room and finding it surprisingly familiar like he was back in Bardo's inn. He only allowed himself a little bit of homesickness before picking one of the beds that didn't have a person's scent on it and curling up under the blankets.

He started grooming his fur, but the bed was so soft and comfortable that he soon fell asleep as a lump beneath the blankets, the tip of his tail slightly peeking out from under the sheets.

~D~
Wildcard? You have your own plan? Go for it.

Comments

B!

[bestofthevein]

One would think that death would present an adequate means of teaching a guy to stop sticking his nose in trouble. One would probably be wrong.

"There a problem here?"

The dwarf that steps into the middle of the brewing conflict looks like he wears friendliness as his armour, but that doesn't stop him from resting his hand on the haft of a fairly impressive-looking war axe that sure isn't decorative. (He's not going to kill anybody today, but the muggers in question don't need to know that.)

He glances from the weird-looking kid with funny ears, then back to the muggers. "It's two against one, salroka," he says to one of them, smiling a smile that's all teeth.

"No, it's not," the mugger snorts, glances at his companion--only to find himself staring at the guy's back as he beats a hasty retreat in the opposite direction. Stunned, he looks back to both Kit, and the one with the sword.

Kit raises both eyebrows at him. "Now it is."

[whattail]

Konoe was giving Kit a look too-though it was more one of confusion. This was honestly the first time he'd ever seen a male shorter than he was-looking like a ribika with no ears and tail to boot-and his ears twitched back in annoyance. That smile was a predator thing.

"I don't need your help," he said, drawing his sword fully. "They wouldn't leave me alone."

[bestofthevein]

Oh shit, the ears were actually attached? Huh. "Yeah, muggers are stubborn like that."

This one at least seemed to be reconsidering his choice of marks, given he was very slowly backing up away from the sight of two heavily armed Dreamfolk. Kit takes a few advancing steps on him and lunges forward, which has the desired effect of causing the stranger to scamper off like a spooked nug. "That's right, sod off," he grunts after him, then glances Konoe's way.

He eyes the ears. He eyes the tail. His eyebrows raise high towards his hairline.

"So is this, uh," he points in the general direction of Konoe's ears, "some kind of elf thing?" He seems kind of elf-y.

[whattail]

Konoe really didn't like the fact this man with an axe was somehow more intimidating than he was, but the question about being an elf just...made him stop. "What's an elf? Is it anything like a Two Cane?"

That he could understand and almost be a little impressed since cats were descended from them, but he'd never heard this elf term before. The sword wasn't going away, but Konoe no longer looked on the attack.

[bestofthevein]

“‘What’s an elf’?” Kit repeats back at Konoe in some disbelief, but he’s smiling crookedly as he says so. “They’re, y’know. People,” he adds lamely, moving one hand up to scratch at the crown of his head as he says so. “Pointed ears, generally get bossed around by humans for no damn reason. What’s a Two Cane?”

B.

[shivvymetimbers]

"Now, now! What's all this about?"

While Aifaran is quite a lovely backdrop, all of its beauty can't conceal some of the ugliness that lies underneath. Unlike most, Bastien finds the ugly seediness of this city to be relatively refreshing. He grew up in Singapore after all. His mother wasn't well off and the back alleys were his home for a long while before Madame Ching adopted him. He spent most of his life with the dregs of society. Cutthroats and outlaws alike were his neighbors and his only means of income was piracy. So Bastien knows a thing or two about desperate men who corner defenseless victims in alleyways. However, that defenseless victim doesn't seem so defenseless.

"Easy, easy! Put the swords and knives down, folks." The pirate weaves in with a look of mild alarm. He can see this going badly, very badly. Someone might actually lose a limb or two at this rate.

"Come now, didn't your mothers teacher you not to yank a tiger's tail?" He poses this question towards the muggers before glancing over at the cat boy. "...Those ears certainly look more ridiculous in person."

[whattail]

Konoe would never stop being offended by the assumption he was a normal defenseless cat, but he also wasn't paying attention to the strange fishy (literally) human who walked up to him. He smelled like water and fish, and an almost salty something Konoe couldn't put his finger on; but his attention was grabbed by the ear comment.

"Yours look stranger. You don't even have a tail," Konoe pointed out, distracted from the one thug who saw a chance to try and rush the cat with a knife, only for him to leap backwards, growling.

[shivvymetimbers]

Bastien turns and shouts. "There's nothin' strange about my ears! They're normal lookin' unlike those stupid lookin' furballs on your head." So easily distracted by that little quip, Bastien doesn't notice the muggers attacking until last second. Unlike his feline companion, Bastien whips out his pistol quickly from his belt and aims it at the bloke's head. He was going to try to resolve this situation nicely but everyone wants to do things the hard way.

"Lunge for the kitty again and lose a head, mate." The pirate threatens as he holds the man's gaze. While the firearm in question looks ancient as hell, that old flintlock pistol certainly packs a punch. The muggers seem to settle down for a spell, clearly not interested in getting shot full of lead.

"Go on, get out of here." Bastien waves his gun flippantly as he tries to shoo them off. "This is the part where you go running, gents. Might want to get to it." He sure hopes the gunpowder isn't still wet.

[whattail]

To the muggers, the pistol was clearly an ancient design, and they eyed it dubiously. Konoe however froze at the strange device being thrown out, confused as to what this person was trying to do waving a piece of metal around. "Your ears are missing, how is that not strange? And I don't need your help; I can take care of myself."

Konoe was right now, not picking up nearly as much bloodlust and anger as he normally did with fighting cats, but he could see that could change very quickly and continued to growl, his tail puffed out.

[shivvymetimbers]

A groan escapes the pirate once the cat speaks. "Shut up already, will ya?!" Bastien shouts at the top of his lungs. "I'm workin' here! Workin' to save you from a bruising---" Before he could even finish, one of the muggers charges forward. Without thinking, Bastien pulls the trigger but the gunpowder doesn't ignite.

"Uh oh...?!" Always fast on his feet, Bastien hurriedly smacks the mugger across the face with the butt of his gun. A sickening crack echos throughout the alleyway once bone gives to centuries of steel and fortified wood. A stray tooth falls to the ground once the man falls.

"Eep..." A nervous chuckle escapes Bastien. "I think I killed him."

C

[spiralpatterns]

Okay, well, there definitely hadn't been a lump on the bed when Zephyr left that morning.

He wasn't completely surprised -- he hadn't expected to be left without a roommate for very long, since free space had to be at a premium -- but the lump was not what he'd expected.

And was that a tail? Had someone been, left their pet here, and gone again? Hunh.

Zephyr edged a little closer, leaned over -- at an angle to allow to lunge back if he needed, because he was not completely stupid -- and nudged the lump.

[whattail]

Konoe was a pretty light sleeper and was used to living alert; plus, the new environment was unnerving and kept him restless. So it was easy to see why, when Zephyr leaned down and poked the lump, a hand suddenly came out to rake very sharp claws across his if he wasn't quick enough.

The tail was all puffed up and twitching now too.

[spiralpatterns]

Oh, a cat.

That explained a lot. Zephyr jerked back, but not quite fast enough, and the glancing glow raised beads of red across the back of his hand. He shook it out, wincing, and studied the puffed-up tail.

Big cat. "All right, then, who do you belong to," he said aloud, airing the idle wondering, and reached this time for the blankets instead of the lump, to tug them back and see what kind of angry kitty his roommate had brought with.

[whattail]

Well comparitively Konoe was rather small for his species, but he wasn't the one counting here. He heard the other person speak, and as the blanket was pulled off his head, Konoe's ears were flattened against his head and was ready to strike again.

"Belong to?! I'm supposed to be living here!"

[spiralpatterns]

Whoops. Not cat, cat person.

Zephyr stepped back, hands raised palms-out, as not-threat as he knew how to be. "Whoa, sorry. I didn't realize you were--"

I didn't think you were a person sounded pretty crappy, actually.

"--my new roommate," he finished lamely, dropping his injured hand to blot the blood on his pants. It'll heal. "I thought you were a cat."

D. Dreaming Bridge

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne had managed to make friends with Anani, after some trial and error of finding out what sort of toys and treats the feline preferred. Luckily, it was relatively easy to make or find objects that a cat would find engaging to play with. A decently long length of string and a collection of feathers he found made for a well-received toy that was both easy to fix and to replace.

Trahearne kept the toy tucked into the leaves at his waist as he went about his business around the Bridge, but though he kept an eye out, his new furry friend had proved to be elusive today. Or so he thought, up until he stepped into a hallway and caught sight of a tail disappearing around the corner ahead of him. Something didn't seem quite right about the color and size, but what else could it possibly be?

Stepping forward, Trahearne tossed the bundle of feathers around the corner before holding a fist up to his mouth, managing a muted whistle that could only be truly be mistaken for a bird call if one didn't have sensitive hearing. It had worked well enough as a signal in the field before.

[whattail]

Konoe, if asked, would've said that he was exploring the other areas of the Bridge. (He did not get lost again, thank you very much!!) A lot of the hallways looked the same, and while he was childishly fascinated with some of the wonders this city held, he was getting overwhelmed by the current of emotions and sounds around him.

A sudden movement at the end of the hallway caused him to freeze, his eyes narrowing to slits and focusing on the movement. Once seen, his pupils grew bigger as he felt the inescapable urge to pounce. He couldn't....control it....but he had to! There was a person on the other side of the hallway!!

But one of his ears twitched at the sound of the bird whistle and he was off like a rocket, pouncing on the innocent bundle of feathers with his claws, unintentionally yanking on the string hard in the process.

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne could hear a thud from around the corner right before the string was pulled from his grip entirely. That was certainly alarming - what if he had just tripped someone with it? - so he rounded the corner in a hurry, only to stop short at the sight of a... cat-person.

While Trahearne did come from a world with a race of feline people, the man in front of him didn't resemble a charr in the slightest. The charr had features that were only vaguely reminiscent of wild cats, for one thing - but this person had triangle-shaped ears just like a housecat, and that was perhaps making Trahearne stare more than the tail was. Aside from the fact that he was also savaging a toy meant for Anani, of course.

"I seem to have made a mistake," Trahearne said in a near-mutter, sounding a little dazed.

[whattail]

Konoe has made a definite mistake too, and as he stared up at Trahearne with the bunch of feathers torn apart in his hands (and teeth). Never had he wanted to die and disappear more than in that one moment. Konoe couldn't even question why the person standing over him looked like he was being eaten alive by plants, he just felt his face getting redder as his tail and ears shrunk up against his body.

"I-I-" Konoe tried to say something, but for some reason he couldn't think of anything to say. Also he had to spit out a couple feathers. Konoe held the plant person's gaze for a couple more seconds before he decided to get out of the situation by bolting down the hallway.

[necrocabbage]

That body language was unmistakable, as strange as it was to see it on a person that might've otherwise looked human without it. Still, Trahearne hadn't quite anticipated that the cat-person would flat out turn tail and start running for it.

"Wait!" Trahearne took off running after him, in one of the rare occasions that he followed his first instinct, however tempered it was by experience. He was just sure that if he let this cat-person get away, that he'd disappear like a mirage or a figment of his imagination. Surely he hadn't been so feline deprived that his mind had conjured up something like this.

A.

[amaskofmyownface]

Jack was busy networking around the city, and one of them was with a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was going on and on about thugs asking him for protection money, to the point he even accused Jack's security systems as being the same thing.

"No, I get why you'd be confused, I just mean -- no, it doesn't mean robots are gonna hold your stuff hostage, what are you, an idiot? That's --"

As the shopkeeper finished up, they both squinted at the... thing attached to one of the boards. "Hold up. Is that a person?"

[whattail]

Konoe wasn't paying attention to the arguement, too focused on being anxious and trying to drive out all the excess emotions and noise. However, when both of their ire focused on him, he winced. It wasn't just annoyance, it was also...surprise. Confusion. But Konoe stopped digging his claws into the wooden board, twisting his head quickly to look at Jack directly in the eyes.

He didn't really do anything else, just stare at him with huge eyes. "I'm....."

Nope. No explanation.

[amaskofmyownface]

Jack squinted at him back. He looked a bit like one of those sexy anime catboys teens liked on the ECHOnet, but they usually wore less clothes. Did he just talk?

"You're... what?" He grinned. Having no tact, he continued. "Hey, are you, like, feral? Or one of those sexy cat people? You know the kinds!"

[whattail]

Well, anything even remotely non-insulting Konoe was going to say or do just flew directly out the window. His eyes narrowed and he glared at the tall man, completely ignoring the shopkeeper. "I'm just a cat. I was dragged here like everyone else. What do you even want??"

[amaskofmyownface]

"Oh, so you can talk! You know real cats can't talk, right? Is this a fetish thing, or do you really think you're a cat?"

The shopkeep looked between the two of them. Jack rolled his eyes. "Would you mind getting down from this man's board?"