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 Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:10 pm
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 3:14 am
Entry Two - Hey, Kat? I kinda brought home this Nekomata... Can we keep her 'til she pops?
Skye ditched me as soon as she ushered Corgan and I into the room that the nekomama was in. Yes, nekomama - she IS a mother, after all! heart I'm just being specific. Anyway, I suspect that Skye had her hands full... From what she told me, the nekomama was one of four that had came to her office. According to her, there was also a gypsy, djinn, and a banshee. The dragoness... Is going to have her talons full - I'm glad that I can help with this one, even if she is just a cat. Hopefully, I can get ahold of the contact numbers of the others and see how they're doing... Mostly to satisfy my own curiosity, though. biggrin ... wait. Curiosity killed the cat... And if I'm looking after a cat... Hm. I guess I better be satisfied since that'll bring her back. <_<
AHEM.
BACK TO WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT.
As soon as Corgan and I were inside and the bones were placed upon a handy table, it... Reformed... And began dancing. Typical nekomata. Corgan was intrigued by it and began poking it while I looked around for the mother. It wasn't too hard to find her -- she was lounging in the sun with an indulgent, maddening Cheshire grin on her face. What was I supposed to say? "Hi, my name's Maru and I'm here to adopt you so c'mere kitty kitty?" Pssh. I'm not that stupid!
Me: "...You know how hard it is to dance without music?"
Neko: "You're a very observant fox."
Me: "Why thank you."
Corgan: "How does this thing work? Is it dangerous?"
Neko: "No, it's perfectly harmless. For now. I'd be careful when it starts doing the hustle."
Corgan: "Why?"
Neko: "It hates glittery disco lights."
Corgan: "..."
Me: "Did you name it?"
Neko: "I call it Nemo."
Corgan: "Nemo?"
Neko: "No, Nemo!"
Corgan: "That's what I said!"
Neko: "Nooo~ You didn't pronounce the silent 'k'!"
Corgan: "..."
Me: "Isn't there a movie out about a fish named Nemo which means "nobody"?"
Neko: "Well, he's nobody now after I ate'im for lunch~"
Well, I suppose that sort of counts as starting out correctly. I still don't know her name, and she doesn't know mine - she calls me "fox" and I call her "cat" in return. I don't mind - she really likes Corgan and praised him for slipping the papers into my work and getting me to blindly fill them out! Rrrgh! Meanie.
The trip back was uneventful. Corgan had to remain in the room with her while I went out and searched stores for a backpack that was big enough to put Knemo in. Y'know, "Knemo" looks weird, so I'm going to spell it with the "k" silent: Nemo. There we go. Anyway, so I had to find a bag for Nemo... It took me less than an hour to find it, even though it felt like ten minutes. Both the cat and Corgan ribbed me about it as I packed Nemo! UNFAIR TACTICS!!!
So, with Corgan carrying the skeleton-bag (he insisted), we set back to the 'Observatory on foot. I flew there on Corgan, and I wasn't really expecting to come home with a pregnant mother...
Luckily, at the edge of town, Dra'seiya was there with a wagon for us. He wasn't in the traces, though - Corgan's the one who did that, since Dra'seiya was too big to fit into the traces comfortably. On top of that, even though Dra'seiya has dragon blood in him, Corgan's stronger than him. Appearances are, after all, deceiving~
We passed the time with idle conversation. It was probably an ample time to pry into my charge's past - but I didn't plan ahead or even think about it until now. We chatted about the weather, and the two Sarnins were more than happy to describe her temporary new home to her. From the look on her face... I can just hope that it'll be to her satisfaction. It is out in the middle of "nowhere," and I need to get a wizard or summit to set up a warp-point from there to town so that we can quickly get things we need without having to take forever to fly there!
Inside... She wasn't impressed with our lounge area with its mass amounts of pillows. We still need to fix the area up~ (c.c) Not only that, but also remove that one gunpowder stain... Ahem. I showed her the room she was going to stay in, and deposited Nemo in there for her to reassemble (with the flick of her tail, no doubt) and settle in.
I... I just hope that Kat doesn't mind! I didn't even tell her that we'd have someone new living here for a bit, and considering Kat's unpredictableness... Ohman, I hope they'll get off on the right foot! Please excuse me while I go fret for a bit, worry, then tackle the growing pile of paper on my desk. Where the hell does all this paperwork come from, anyway?!
~ Maru
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:39 am
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:07 am
She had been nervous, yes, although nervousness was not an intrinsic part of her nature; she had harbored no small amount of resentment, especially in the fact that Marushii did not seem to take her unvoiced concerns quite as seriously as she should. (It never once occurred to her that perhaps Marushii couldn't, since Kat had, quite uncharacteristically, not breathed a word of them.)
She had been nervous, yes, but she hadn't said a thing, mostly because she couldn't think of the words, or enough clever reasons; and she had expressed this new high-pitched note of agitation by insisting on preparing each and every luncheon dish painstakingly by hand, making up for a lack of knowledge with sheer enthusiasm. (One young draconic had been perfectly happy to stand beneath the dancer and snap up the morsels dropped inevitably from a flighty grasp.)
Now, however, the young ballerina is nothing but gleaming effervescence, bounding into the room and twirling in Marushii's wake, while dishes and saucers and shallow bowls clatter against each other and slide dangerously from side to side with each dip and twist of movement. Once the kitsune has backed away from the table, the dancer dives in to settle down her own burden, with another careless clack and clink of abused porcelain; and then she flips herself into a deep and reverent bow, a gesture so very violent in its painful sincerity that her floppy hat flops right off her head entirely.
Up Kat lunges in a mad scramble to catch the hat before it slumps to the ground; there is the briefest flash of wild orange hair, and then the ballerina crams her hat back onto her head, momentarily obscuring her vision and replacing her eyes with two large, fat buttons. "Neko-san!" Kat squeaks, reeling off a hasty salute that begins valiantly and ends somewhere in the region of her left temple. "I'm sure you have another name than Neko-san, Neko-san! You must excuse Marushii; she's a very nice person overall (except that she overworks me but we won't get into that), but not very informed in the ways of cats.
"Please accept my heartfelt apology on her behalf!"
With these words, Kat dips low into another reverence, this time clutching her hat -- nevermind that a feather twists from somewhere in the curling ends of her hair, fluttering anonymously to the floor. "Now that's done," Kat murmurs briskly, straightening and dusting off the paint-spattered skirt of her tutu, "the pleasure's mine, dearie. I wasn't sure what you'd like for lunch," she indicates the platter, and the plates and saucers stacked upon it, "so I made you what I'd like, if I was in your..." She pauses, casting about for an appropriate word, "position," Kat decides, as the least offensive of terms.
"I'm sure it's kinda creepy. The Observatory is," she confides. "Very creepy, really. Maru didn't tell me much about you, but I already admire you, being able to put up with this violent of change." Enthusiastically, the young dancer bobs her head, crossing her wrists behind her back. "But'm sure you don't wanna talk about all that, so, uh. Lunchtime!" And Kat flings herself down before the table, apparently without need of a cushion in the least, humming cheerfully to herself as she stirs sugar into her tea.
A moment passes.
And then another.
And then Kat starts as though startled, and titters, fluttering a hand to her mouth in the perfect image of demure apology (never mind the packet of sugar that gets snuck and hidden behind her ear with the gesture). "Oh dear, I'm sorry, hon! I didn't even tell you -- I mean, I'm sure you know already, being part of the culture and all, but... I tried making you sushi for lunch!" Beaming, the young woman begins pointing out the different sorts, beginning with bits of fish tied with lengths of seaweed to small heaps of rice ("Nigirizushi, the cookbook said"), and moving on to the less fish-riddled rice balls, and the most typical (and abundant) sorts: the bits of fish and chicken rolled in rice and wrapped, again, with seaweed.
"AND THEN," Kat declares, spreading her arms triumphantly and sending a spoon twirling end over end into her lap, "I also made roasted meat stuff that I found in the fridge," she indicates a platter of various anonymous meats, seemingly heavy in turkey and chicken and entirely devoid of skin (is that a suspicious speck of grease beside the corner of Kat's mouth?), "in case you didn't like sushi or fish or sommat. I mean, I do, and most cats do, so I figured it was a safe bet, but... just in case, it's best to be safer than sorry!" And, with that, she settles down to drink her tea, seeming not at all to notice the rogue packet of sugar that tumbles out from somewhere in her hair.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:31 pm
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:45 am
Only now does Kat allow herself to entertain even the slightest trace of nervousness. It's the eyes, she decides distantly, as she frantically stirs her tea; those slitted, feline eyes, coupled with that curving smile that suggests its owner knows far more than she should. But Kat maintains her deceptively light tone, as is her way, and she lifts to the nekomata only an amused, emerald regard, bright with interest and easy laughter.
"I'm nothing more than a woman whose tongue's too tied to pronounce her full name on a daily basis," she replies, and then clarifies helpfully, "it's Katarina, in any case. See? So bulky. Kat's so much neater, and I can't say that I don't wish I was a cat sometimes..." Her voice fades to amiable consideration, and she taps her spoon briskly against the side of her teacup as the nekomata speaks of foxes and falsities. Pausing, her cup lifted to her lips, Kat agreeably glances over her shoulder --
-- and chokes.
The ballerina squeaks, dropping her hand in alarm as her hat goes flying away from her head, and there is the briefest little sparkle of pain as a drop of scalding tea gleefully strikes her wrist; and then she has safely placed down her cup again, gaping back at the animated skeleton with not fear, but fascination. "Is that," Kat starts incredulously, but she politely snaps her words to silence as Gin's soft, riddlesome words begin again.
She is unresisting of the nekomata's touch, and her eyes willingly meet Gin's, bright with ill-veiled curiosity -- although her mouth falls open at the other's seemingly random deduction. Her lips moving silently, Kat flails wildly for words, only to find that they have all left her... for the moment.
But a moment is all it takes to expose the deceptions of another.
"Of course," Kat sputters as the nekomata gracefully steps away, "of course we're related," and there is no shortage of words now. "My mother, uhm, my mother knew her, uhm, second aunt, twice removed. She was her, uhm, her -- midwife. Her butcher. No! Not butcher! Her, her maid! My family's been bound to Maru's in servility for generations!" Knuckles pale with exertion, Kat grips the edge of the low table, leaning across the gleaming surface to stare desperately at Gin.
"Yes, yes, all right, fine, it's no use trying to lie to you, obviously -- she's my sister! Please, please don't tell her. I've been carrying this on for months now, no one else knows, I'll do anything. Anything! I'll, I'll keep your golem polished. Your, your skeleton. Genius piece of work, by the way," Kat adds, and her voice dips briefly from its wild imploration to sincere admiration. "How do you get it to stay up like that? Magic, right? Please don't tell Maru," another squeak of sheer panic, and Kat falls back on her very last resort:
She dips the lowest reverence that she can manage, pressing her forehead against the surface of the table and planting both palms to either side of her. (As though on an after-thought, her hat slips merrily off her head.) "Please, please don't tell Marushii who I really am, Neko-san! I beg of you!"
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:13 pm
When Kat begins to spin a complicated family line that is rivaled only by other families that appear on daily sitcom television shows, Gin arcs an eyebrow and raises it with each claim. The eyebrow slides back into place as a knowing smirk replaces her expression of wry amusement as the truth comes trumpeting forth. "I will gain nothing by revealing you," Gin purrs, eyes narrowing into slits as the skeleton begins brushing her hair with a piece of bone it removed from its ribcage. It looks like... Several fishbones wielded together, actually. "Therefor, your... secret holds more entertainment value to me than fox knowing. In all honesty, I'm surprised at how clueless the fox is. But enough of that - she will return soon, yes?"
Gin sighs blissfully as Knemo continues to brush her hair. "We cats," she begins, "Can animate the dead. I prefer skeletons - they're more pleasant to be around, since they don't smell as bad as corpses. Corpses, on the other hand, are the perfect -" she manages to successfully avoid the feline 'purr' before the "fect" - "Tool to be used to frighten those who offend you. However, they are harder to hide than skeletons, and now a'days there are people running around shooting them until they're more lead than rotted flesh..." She trails off, shrugging. "Knemo is nothing more than a puppet, really. As to what he is... he used to be a he." Her smile melts into one of mysterious proportions, allowing Kat to guess at what exactly he is.
Knemo, after all, does look like what a human skeleton would look like, however. Nevermind that the area under his ribs looks like a place where people threw their bones away. Look, there's the skull of some small creature, a spare spine, some fingers, and... Is that a toe? Apparently, it looks as though Knemo is more than your average skeleton. Nevermind the fact that the eye sockets aren't circular, and those teeth of his are a bit sharp -- was he even human to begin with, but had modifications?
"I'm back!" Marushii announces, carefully opening the door as best as she can with two pillows under her arms. She turns, one foot holding the door open for Corgan. The Sarnin walks slowly and carefully into the room, wings raised slightly and clasped to his sides to hold onto a few more pillows that are balanced upon his back. "Sorry it took me so long. The pillows were all over the place, and Corgan offered to volunteer," the kitsune explains, leaving the door to deposit the pillows around the table and one behind Kat. "Of course, that was before I knew how long he'd take."
Corgan huffs at this remark and flops down, off to one side in the room. "Well, excuse moi for trying to be chivalrous!" He retorts, striking a pose of Wounded Dignity. He quickly tosses this look aside and scrambles to his paws, nearly tripping over them to reach Gin's side and assist her in sitting down.
"Did I miss anything?" Marushii asks, waiting for Gin to take the choice pieces of food for herself before heaping her own plate with poultry.
"Kat wished to know more about Knemo," Gin says, holding the chopsticks in one hand and using them with a lifetime's worth of experience to pick up a roll of sushi and maneuver it into her mouth.
"Ah! I see," Marushii replies, letting the silence last for one minute. "Kat? Don't get any ideas. The plushies were bad enough."
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:50 am
It is all Kat can do not to sigh out her lungs in relief upon revelation of Gin's intentions -- or, in this particular case, lack thereof. "Thank you, Neko-san," the ballerina breathes, lifting her face from the table and plucking up her hat to rearrange it hastily atop her head, tucking stray strands of flame beneath the velvety fabric. "The fox... er, Maru. She's pretty... y'know, unobservant, but you're right."
And that, as far as Kat is concerned, is that.
As she listens with rapt attention to Gin's words, the young woman resumes stirring her tea, sipping only occasionally to gauge the level of sweetness and whether or not it is quite enough... once, she looks up, nodding knowledgeably to the nekomata. "Oh, oh yes. Zombies, right? The corpses? I can imagine they'd be really troublesome to keep around -- whereas... Knemo, was it?" She effortlessly pronounces the silent k the first time around -- perhaps Kat has had trouble with silent letters in her time?
"Whereas Knemo seems to be pretty low-maintenance." Kat leans her chin into one hand, observing closely as the skeleton continues to brush his mistress's hair. "I mean, get tired of having him around, just stuff him in a closet, right? Ha! Ha ha. Wow, that was a really bad joke, I'm sorry." Her wrist swivels to allow her hand to politely conceal her mouth, as Kat regains her composure following her slip of soft hilarity. Bad jokes ahoy!
That amusement fades at once to determined interest, however, once Gin's expression opens to allow free guesses. The ballerina's eyes narrow, and she leans slightly across the low table, examining the skeletal structure as closely as she can from this distance... "I'd say an orc of some sort," Kat muses, rubbing her chin, "except that he's not nearly big enough. Maybe a half-orc...? But the shoulders are all wrong; the pelvis should be set back further..."
And then Knemo's apparent trash heap of discarded bones attracts her focus, and Kat squints again, grinning.
"Definitely a carnivore, though. Unless..." She glances slyly to Gin, liking this mysterious feline more and more with each passing moment. "...that little compartment's an added modification? Do each of those little bones have a function, like your comb, or are they just... spare parts, I guess...?"
Never mind that their enthusiastic game of Questions & (Enigmatic, Charmingly Evasive) Answers is interrupted by the appearance of one kitsune. Kat huffs a sigh, throwing herself back onto her calves and smoothing her skirts with another derisive snort. "Took you long enough," the ballerina snaps, hardly before her boss has time to explain herself. "What were you doing, more paperwork? Marushii, I swear, that's an addiction! And don't tell me you can stop any time you want; I know you can't. I've seen you."
Kat chances a grinning glance, meanwhile, to Gin; to those uninformed, it communicates nothing more than a certain feline camaraderie from which any ordinary individual should run in screaming terror, but truthfully...
...well.
Lunch commences, and the ballerina sits back, arms akimbo, to eagerly observe the faces of the diners. "Well? Well?" she prompts impatiently, after only a few moments. "Does everyone like? It's my first attempt at sushi, though I see MARU is being COWARDLY. Come on, try something new~!" She jabs her spoon in the general direction of the kitsune... before, at least, that awkward silence descends, following the nekomata's casual summary of their discussion.
"...You're no fun," Kat sniffs, once Marushii has weaved her warning. "Come on, imagine it -- undead plushies! Nothing could kill 'em, since they'd already be dead! And because they're plushies... they wouldn't rot, being made of fabric 'n floof 'n stoof, so we wouldn't have to worry about the smell..."
Oh, no. The gears have begun to turn.
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 4:41 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 5:18 pm
But Kat tongues are troublesome beasts, none too easy to snare. There is only the slightest hesitation, as the young woman processes Gin's innocent enough inquiry; and then she grins -- a raucous, boisterous expression that goes blustering its enthusiasm all across her face. "Naw," Kat answers, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Most people have got at least one in their closet. Some have whole generations!"
She nods appreciatively as the nekomata speaks of her travels; and if Kat notices the other's slight pause as thoughts of homesickness begin to creep in, she gives no outward indication. "Wow! That's really inventive of you, making enhancements like that. Was it difficult? And that's a good idea, keeping spare parts... and others," she adds, with a meaningful glance at Gin's vague gesture, "so close at hand."
And then her sister has returned, and Kat can't help but huff at the scathing remarks dealt to her, quite unfairly. "I needed something," she mutters, "and the pillows weren't usin' 'em at the time! How was I supposed to know anyone'd want them later?" As soon as the kitsune turns away her attention, the ballerina lolls out her tongue in derision. "Nyuu~ I knew it! Get you a man with a really huge... pen, and you'll be set."
Her smile sharpens briefly, with a suggestive wriggle of her eyebrows, and then Kat dissolves into helpless laughter, very nearly snorting on her tea.
At least, until conversation has turned once more to things that are too lofty to be mocked. Kat sobers noticeably -- although something like a smile still twitches around the corners of her mouth, as restlessly ambitious as the flipping tail of an intrigued (but still languorous) cat.
"Zombies aren't innocent," the ballerina sniffs, sipping again at her tea as she collects her thoughts. "Neko-san said so. Good for terrorizing your enemies, she said, but with all the loonies shootin' 'em up, not much else. And hey!" Incensed, Kat leans forward, glaring knives at Marushii. "I helped out their business! They passed the health inspection after that! Would've gone down the tubes if it weren't for me."
Satisfied, she sits back again...
...until Gin poses her intrigue.
"Well," Kat starts thoughtfully, "I can animate plushies. And some other inanimate objects, but plushies are easiest to modify on the fly -- I made myself a golem, until a bunch of well-meaning idio-- bystanders," she coughs politely, with a pointed glance to one kitsune. "A bunch of well-meaning bystanders went and burned it down. It was this huge, stuffed dinosaur, right... but then it laid plastic eggs, and they hatched into these adorable little tiny plushies, and then they sorta...
"...took over the Observatory. But they could be bargained with!" she adds, desperately humorous. "So now they're out in the forest somewhere. I think. Probably. Maru's never let me live it down. The golem, on the other hand," Kat muses, almost mournfully, "it was great. I miss it... maybe I'll make myself another..."
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:05 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:01 pm
"All's fair in love and innuendo," Kat giggles, and that is that.
But the conversation continues ever onward. The dancer leans eagerly across the table, absently folding her hands around the warm porcelain of her teacup. "You go to that pizza place, Neko-san? I can get you coupons! All the other workers, the rest of them that weren't moaning and undead, they keep giving me free pizza and coupons and such, since I helped them pass their health inspection. Who would've thought? I'd be happy to share with you, if you wanted~!"
Her enthusiasm, however, fades to curious delight upon notice of the nekomata's reaction to her work -- which she has never honestly thought of as anything more than a hobby with which to ease her workload and annoy her sister. "I did, and I guess now you have -- although I don't really consider myself much of a sorceress," Kat laughs, and it's obvious that her gratification knows no bounds -- one might even be able to say that she's been tickled pink by Gin's unspoken praise!
"I can make them out of anything," says Kat, attempting to keep her overwhelmingly good cheer in check. "The cotton fabric I used to sew them together -- that's just all we had around," and she glares pointedly at the kitsune, clearing her throat. "All we had around was pink cotton. I can make something for you," Kat offers, "if you'd like -- just let me know what, and what type of fabric, and poof!"
The ballerina might be a little too eager to serve this nekomata -- but hey, who's counting?
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:39 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:43 pm
There is simply no end to Kat's delight.
She sits back from the table with a soft, wordless noise of immense satisfaction, bringing together her hands in a sort of silent clap. "Oh, that's wonderful, Neko-san!" the dancer exclaims, as she returns enthusiastically to her teacup. "I'll have to go looking for them -- they're all somewhere in my desk, I dunno -- but I'll pass you some coupons, just in case. I don't think they'll expire for another couple of years, soooo..."
To her sister, meanwhile, the ballerina snorts derisively, lifting her cup to her lips and taking a dainty sip before deigning to reply. "Of course I checked the storerooms. That's where I found the pink cotton, actually, and I thought, well, Maru's gone, I'll just help myself -- as for moths," Kat cuts off abruptly, "I bet So-chan could take care of 'em. Keep him down there for a little while, ignore the crashings and bangings, BAM, no more moths.
"...No more walls, either," she adds, staring contemplatively into the dregs of her tea. "But that's a mere technicality! ...Right?"
And then, her interest piqued, Kat leans conspiratorially across the low table, grinning a Cheshire grin -- never mind the fact that Marushii sits right there, not so much deaf as merely preoccupied with analogies. "A cat?" Kat repeats thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "Sure thing; slice of pie, really. D'you have any... color preferences? Fabric? D'you want it sentient, able to multiply, or just kinda... a little brainless movin' plushie?"
Best to get the details before those gears start turning, after all.
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:10 am
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