Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was an alley much like any other, dark and quiet, and currently empty of anything more nefarious than a large cardboard box and the back half of a ginger cat. Tomlin’s front half was inside the box, scrabbling optimistically through the contents for what he hoped was a good meal. All the trashcans he’d passed on tonight’s youma patrol had the lids screwed on tight, but he could smell something promising, and more importantly, accessible here. Under his weight, the box tipped gently onto its side, spilling packing pellets and old snackfood wrappers into the gutter.

It only took a little more searching to find the source of the aroma. Someone had tossed the better half of a burger into the box, in preference to the bins beside it. Triumphant, Tomlin dragged it out and took a bite. It tasted of cold wet sponge, and very faintly of barbeque sauce.

“Damn,” he said aloud, sniffing as he sat back on his haunches. The age-old question: how hungry did he need to be to eat a tofu burger? He wasn’t a fussy cat, but in this case he had some concern that his find could be classified as food at all. The foam packing pellets might almost be a better bet.

“Yeah, not hungry enough,” he concluded.

He nosed the alleged ‘burger’ to the side with a sigh. It would do in a pinch, but maybe he’d be lucky and there’d be some chips or something further down. He pushed deeper into the box in search of better pickings, until only the twitching tip of his orange tail gave away his presence.

Tomlin froze in his scavenging, just for a moment, and then his tail began to twitch with a different kind of agitation. He felt the aura first, then heard the heavy footfalls at the quiet end of the alley. Sounded like… boots? Not a youma, then. Lieutenant, he guessed instead, but that left him wondering what he’d done to attract the Negaverse agent down here.

The cat made a tight u-turn inside the box, tail disappearing out of sight as he realigned himself to face the possible threat. And make sure he had a clear run if he needed to bolt. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped in a box with an agent nearby. Even if it did only feel like a lieutenant, they could still be dangerous.

He crawled forward cautiously, belly against the cardboard to sneak a look without giving himself away. He’d barely poked his whiskers out when a sharp metallic sound rang out. He jerked back as a silvery projectile bounced off the box and skittered back along the gutter.

Just a soda can, not a weapon. Though with lieutenants, it could be hard to tell.

He breathed again, annoyed with himself for startling. He was too on-edge. It wasn’t a good idea to let his alley-cat instincts override his Mauvian common sense. If they already knew he was here, he might as well find out what they were going to do about him.

“Watch it! That’s littering!” he complained loudly, as the soda can came to rest amid the rubbish he’d already kicked out into the alley.