[early morning cat posting]

[sevenhorrorsmods]

Who: everyone
When: July 25
Where: class 3-C
What: a few visitors!
Warnings: none!

[On Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. on the dot, the student body is awoken not by the bell, but by the sound of meowing echoing over the intercom.

[It's not just the PA system, either. Soft, gentle, and very cute mewls fill the classroom hallways; distant on floors one and two, but much louder on floor three. Intrepid explorers who follow the noise will find that one of the third floor classrooms has been overtaken by a pack of ghostly cats!]

[Each creature is the size of a normal housecat, and has the mannerisms of one. That is, they will attempt to hop into your lap for some prime cuddling time, ears and tails flicking adorably all the while. Their bodies are a pale, ghostly white, and their eyes glow a soft, gentle blue. Although they are translucent, they are still solid to the touch, and they feel just like a normal cat does. Soft fur and everything! Aren't they precious? Aren't they just so stinkin' cute??? DON'T YOU JUST WANT TO SMOOSH THEIR ROUND LI'L KITTEN FACES??]

[So long as characters are kind to the cat spirits, the Nekomata are completely harmless. They just want to play and snuggle!! Although. . .]

[Anyone who touches a cat spirit will find themselves hit with a sudden need for physical contact. This can range from something small (desiring a high five) to something bigger (needing to CUDDLE THE SHIT outta someone). Being surrounded by more than one Nekomata means the compulsion becomes stronger, too! One cat means it can probably be safely ignored, but five?? If you don't HOLD SOMEONE'S HAND RIGHT THIS SECOND you JUST MAY DIE!!]

[Oh, so you don't like cats? No problem! The Nekomata are mischievous creatures, and they WILL leap onto people's backs and shoulders without warning. Being cat spirits, they can also teleport from one place to another, so. . . you can be minding your own business one second, blink, and then be staring into the eyes of a cute cat spirit perched on your lap the next.]

[The Nekomata will be drawn towards members of Anzen more than anyone else per their target lock curse, but they are excited to shower literally anyone in a bit of cute kitty affection, regardless of their homeroom]

[Please let me know if your character is being violent and/or aggressive towards the Nekomata. Otherwise, enjoy some compulsive physical bonding with a cute ghostly flair!]

Comments

[isdf]

[He gestures at the nekomata at her inquisitive echo, letting that serve as his answer so that he doesn't interrupt her. And because it's not Mizi he's so guarded against, he doesn't lean away when their shoulders touch. Yuma is calm now, with a hint of earnest curiosity that comes with the prospect of learning.]

Did you live at sea?

[tiebroken]

[ After the first contact, it's hard not to keep leaning into him. Actually, it feels really cozy? And warm. She keeps adjusting and playing with the cat in her arms, even rubbing her face against it, all while tilting more heavily into his side as they sit. ]

Mm, I spent most of my childhood deep underwater. My Mom's species live there.

[ Because obviously, a human wouldn't survive on their own down there.. so she tacks that on for context, thinking that it's better to just circumvent the next question that might've been how? ]

[isdf]

[What he thought was happenstance soon gives way to the suspicion that the nekomata is responsible for her weight against him. It won't do to get up now if she feels even half as anxious as he does whenever he comes into contact with one of the cats, so he remains in place.]

Are you and your mother different species?

[His curiosity persists, understanding of her unspoken point running parallel to a hint of surprise at her answer. The underwater civilization must be remarkable for her, who looks like a human, to have survived in such a high-pressure environment.]

[tiebroken]

[ Maybe he'll feel it, but her shoulders seem to get a little more tense when he asks that. There's a stretch of silence before she answers, and she lifts the cat to look at it face to face. ]

Where I come from, a lot of humans are raised as pets by segyein — "alien" — guardians. So, yes.

[ Her feelings change day to day on how she should approach this, volatile and unpredictable. Much like her emotions towards her homeland, which are seemingly always in motion. Some days, she doesn't have the energy to talk about it directly, and would rather omit the truth. Right now, though? She'd rather just lay it out. Especially while there's a great metaphor right in front of her — she's like this cat to her Mom. ]

But I already know it's not like that for anyone else here... you don't have to tell me.

[ Which she murmurs afterward, hoping it'll keep the worst of any outburst or protest at bay. ]

[isdf]

[Being what he is, he notices. He glances between her and the cat . . . then, when she explains, confusion blooms in both his heart and his expression as his gaze snaps back to her.]

Humans as pets . . . ?

[He echoes the words in disbelief, simply because it goes against everything he believes when it comes to mankind. What he feels is not outrage at the ethical injustice of it all, but bafflement. And that feeling begins to fuel his curiosity again after the initial shock of conceptualizing humans on the same level as that of a cat, prompting him to give what he thinks is the common-sense reply.]

As I do not know what it is like for everyone here, it would be irresponsible of me to make such a claim.

[Perhaps she's correct, though, and she's the only one where humans are regarded as pets in her world. They certainly aren't in his. He doesn't understand, but that just means he wants to, so that he can make sense of it.]

However . . . your guardian is your mother, yes? Then she must be important to you.

[tiebroken]

[ Her eyes flick to the side to meet his, setting the cat back down on the floor. ]

...Yes, she is.

[ Her feelings on the matter are complicated. There's an un-crossable distance between herself and her guardian, there will always be a power dynamic of owner and pet. At the same time, Shine and her relatives are the only aliens that ever showed Mizi any kind of love or kindness. It hadn't been their decision to put her on the stage. Patronizing and misguided as her care was at times, all she had wanted was for Mizi to live happily.

For the first time, she wonders if Shine is looking for her, or if she has a new pet already. ]

That's not how it is for everyone, though. I'm lucky.

[isdf]

[Thoroughly overstimulated, the cat skitters back to its pack, where it stretches its back for a good several seconds before lazily settling on the floor in a corner.

An uncomfortable weight makes itself known in Yuma's chest, muted feelings of guilt and grief carrying over through the curse. At the same time, there's an utter lack of comprehension: He knows what mothers are and what roles they're meant to play in human society, but they're nothing more than fleeting glimpses and concepts to him. Consequently, he meets her eyes with no particular look despite his quiet interest and heartache.]

What is it like?

[tiebroken]

[ Having had Shiawase's curse more or less explained to her, the feelings that come through via him are enlightening. She doesn't mind; if anything, it gives her some insight to what he's really thinking. The utter lack of comprehension, she chalks up to how everyone must be feeling listening to her, and it does nothing to make her feel less alienated.

At the question, she lets out a short, cut-off huff, turning her face away from him. ]

How would you describe where you came from, your life up until now, in a few words?

[ The question is a rhetorical one, but one she asks to try to communicate to him what a broad and impossible to answer question that is. At least to answer succinctly. Rather than give him the space to answer, she goes on, dipping her head forward so the curtain of her long hair obscures her face. ]

There are plenty of humans that aren't even pets. Some are bred to be used for experiments... others for other kinds of enjoyment. [ She won't elaborate. ] Even then, a lot of pets don't have any fondness for their guardian... nor the other way around.

[isdf]

[The rhetorical question elicits a nonverbal answer, though his mind would have come up with other succinct words as instructed. What he considers normal is a stifling mixture of isolation and desperation that rises at the stimulus of memory, pulling a corner of his lips into a wry, bitter smile when she isn't looking.

His emotions don't change at her mention of experiments. If anything, the addition of enjoyment is what gives them pause, because that's what's alien to him. It pulls him back to the present, where he stares at her veiled profile.]

. . . In that sense, it does sound like you were lucky.

[This is the truth as painted by her. He can only agree that her circumstances must have been better than others in similar positions.]

[tiebroken]

[ She was. She was lucky. Shine had let her go to Anakt because it was what she had wanted to do, not because Shine wanted a pet to garner fame and status for her. She wasn't beaten into submission like Till, or dragged around like Sua.

— Sua, Sua, Sua.

She lets out another sound, this one more choked and wounded, feeling an ache in her chest so deep that it feels she's being torn apart. Maybe she "had it easy." But she's still in pain. It still hurts so much and feels so lonely, being here and opening this wound again and again so others can understand. ]

... Yeah. "Must be nice," right?

[ she parrots the phrase she'd heard a few times bitterly, raising a hand to scrub at her eyes. Not for the first time since getting here, she feels completely out of control emotionally, volatile and capable of bursting into tears at the slightest reminder of everything that came before. Usually, she keeps these outbursts contained to her room, crying as silently as she can so the others in Yakuyoke don't hear.

Still, she finds she doesn't want to leave his side. Right now, the contact between them is the only thing that's grounding, a tether to something outside the maelstrom of her own feelings. A calmness that she can't imagine feeling herself. ]

It didn't change anything in the end. So it doesn't matter.

[isdf]

[His expression shifts at the strange sound, his brow furrowing slightly. Too many details have been omitted. He has no idea what she's saying or how any of that is supposed to be "nice," but it's evident even to him that she's in distress.]

Does it not?

[His question is without judgment. In some ways, Yuma is simple-minded due to his rigorous yet straightforward education. When he asks, it's always in want of a genuine answer; hence, his prevailing feeling through the curse, greater than the run-of-the-mill confusion, is interest in knowing Mizi.]

I do not understand how a stroke of luck in this context could be considered nice; however, is love not a feeling to cherish, no matter the circumstances?

[tiebroken]

[ His obliviousness isn't as grating or insulting as it might be to some others — if anything, it's reminiscent of how kids at Anakt Garden could be, blind to everything except the world their owner had shown them. At least through it all she can still sense an undercurrent of genuine desire to understand more, and moreover, there isn't malice or pity there.

Both hands raise to keep the heels of her palms pressed over her eyes, trying to stop the flow of tears. She wishes he hadn't said that — it makes them flow hotter and more frequently, her body shaking with the effort to withhold any errant sobs that might escape. It takes her clenching her core muscles and constricting her throat, but she chokes any sound to death before it can make its way out, every muscle in her body tense with the energy it takes. ]

Love can hurt, too. More than anything.

[isdf]

[She looks extremely stressed. Yuma doesn't know what to do about it.

More accurately, he has never had to handle a crying person like this before. Is the appropriate response to hold her by the shoulders as Mark had done for him? But she's responsive, and . . . ah, has she been feeling his emotions this whole time? It's difficult to tell.

Either way, a hint of understanding pokes its head in, past his uncertainties, at her answer. If nothing else, he can believe that nothing has wounded him as gravely as the notion of love.]

. . . So it can.

[His emotions well—a simmering complication of remorse and anxiety—before he refocuses on Mizi. This has nothing to do with that. Unversed as he is, he softens his tone as he leans forward by a margin.]

You appear stressed. Is there something I can do to ease the strain?

[tiebroken]

[ It's a small comfort, that tiny bit of understanding, but it's one she clings to, nonetheless. Followed by his feelings of remorse, which she, too, feels crushed under the weight of. Love and remorse are inextricably intertwined in her psyche, tangled up in each other in a self-flagellating barb. Her body sags as he leans forward, until her pink locks completely obscure her face, the only motion beneath it that's visible being her wiping her face. ]

...No. No, there's nothing.

[ Rather dramatically, she thinks that there is no one who might understand the depth of her pain and sorrow. She keeps it suffocated and choked in as much as she can when she's around the other inhabitants at their school — this conversation just happened to poke at her the wrong way, letting some of it escape. She's always had a hard time controlling her emotions or hiding them — inwardly, she feels a little pathetic having such a poor first impression.

When she lifts her head again, her eyes are tired and red rimmed, but she's successfully stopped the tears from continuing to fall. The lingering urges from the nekomata haven't left, and they combine with her innocent desire to feel the surety of another person's body, to feel embraced, which has always been a comfort. She's past the point of feeling embarrassed or ashamed for wanting something so human as connection. Very loosely, she wraps her arms around him in a hug. ]

Thanks for asking, though.