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Post by Zesha on Jan 16, 2023 0:18:48 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. (June 10, 2021.) Morning. Solaris A young puff ball of light cream fur bounced off the couch and onto the floor, stretching and yawning. It was a brand new day, and she was going to go out and explore the garden again. Holding her striped tail high, she headed for the cat flap and pressed into it, pushing it open so that she was outside, the grass brushing her feet as she stepped into the yard. It was a warm day, nice enough to just lounge around in a patch of sunlight and go to sleep. But that wasn’t her thing, really—she wanted to see every nook and cranny of this garden. After a while of poking through the flower beds and sniffing around the two trees in the yard, she came across a bush. She peered under it and noticed that there was a hole in the fence right behind it. Ah-ha! She could get out that way, and see what it was like beyond her twoleg’s garden. Not wasting a single second, she shoved her way under the bush and out of the hole. It was thankfully bigger than her, so she didn’t have to squeeze through it. Rosemont’s bright blue eyes gazed upon the sight in front of her: a strip of grass beside the fence that was then cut off by some hard-looking gray stuff that twolegs called concrete. She set a paw on it, testing it, but it was solid enough for her to stand on so she set all four paws on it. Then she started looking around, trying to figure out which direction she should go in. The concrete stretched out in two directions, to her left and to her right, with a big, semi-shiny box to her right. Curious, she decided to take that path. As she approached the box, she wrinkled her nose. Yuck! It smelled awful. Yet she wanted to know what was inside. Looking up, she could see a square opening in the side of it. She scrunched up her legs, wiggled, and leaped up. Her claws met the metal container, narrowly missing the opening. She slid back down, a scraping noise coming from the contact of her claws on the metal box. As she landed next to it, she shook her head to get the sound of the scraping out of her head. It had been loud and she hadn’t particularly enjoyed it. She stared up at the thing. Maybe if she tried again… So once again, she bunched up the muscles in her young legs and wiggled, pouncing upwards. But again, she couldn’t quite reach it. She slid back down and sat, defeated, on the ground next to the big, stinky metal box. Rosemont pouted. It wasn’t fair! Why couldn’t she reach? All she wanted to do was know what was inside to make it smell so bad. She wracked her brain for ideas on how to get up there, but there was nothing nearby for her to stand on. She sighed. So far her adventure wasn’t going how she wanted it to.
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Post by Solaris on Jan 22, 2023 15:21:47 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha Em was making eir daily rounds around the compound, digging out unique twoleg scraps or fishing out the least rotten food em could find. Such a morning had been uneventful. Sure, Blade found sardines and tuna, but they tasted old. Stale. Not bad, but not fresh. As for new trinkets to add to the collection? Not much of those either. Em stuck eir head out of the bin, sighing at another unsuccessful search.
Turning the corner, Blade found a young cat clearly reaching up to the twoleg bin, but despite their efforts at bunching up their legs, they were unable to reach the top. Feeling a bit of pity to the cat, em strode over and called out, “Do you need help getting in?”
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Post by Zesha on Jan 28, 2023 20:12:31 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. | Solaris She was so busy pouting over being unable to get in the dumpster that when a voice sounded nearby, she jumped up with her fur fluffed out. Spinning around, she met the blue gaze of a one-eyed cat with gorgeous markings. Slowly her fur started to lay flat as she said, “Wow, you’re pretty,” without really thinking about what she was saying. Then eir words finally hit her. “Ah! Could you help me get up there? I want to know what’s in it,” she meowed. Her eyes sparkled with hope. Maybe she’d be able to get inside this smelly metal container after all! Whoever this cat was, em was very nice. (I'm unsure if I used the pronouns right, so please correct me if I'm wrong!)
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Post by Solaris on Feb 6, 2023 20:40:44 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha Eir one eye blinked blankly at the stranger, startled by the unexpected compliment. Em glanced around the alley for another cat, and it took a moment for the words to sink in. Politely smiling, Blade said, “Oh! You’re talking about me! Er, thank you.”
Blade followed the strangwr’s gaze to the bin, and noticed the collar around their neck. A kittypet? “Of course, I can help you. But if you’re looking for food, I should warn you that you’d most likely find crowfood. Unless… you’re looking for treasures?”
Em could barely hide the excitement hitching at eir throat.. Could this mean another future treasure hunter? Em moved to the bin and knelt to the young cat’s level. They didn’t look too heavy. “Get on my back and then I’ll stand up so that you can reach the top.”
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Post by Zesha on Feb 12, 2023 22:11:08 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 7 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. Morning. Solaris Rosemont gave a wide smile once the other cat realized she had been talking about em. Did ey not get many compliments? If Rosemont were around, she imagined she’d give them out as often as her twoleg gave her treats—which was at least once a day. “I have food at home,” she said, tilting her head slightly. Did other cats get food out of these things? What was crowfood? It didn’t sound good, whatever it was. Then the other cat mentioned treasures and her ears perked up. “Oooh, there could be all sorts of things in there!” she said, bouncing on her paws. “Thank you, you’re very nice, um… what’s your name?” she asked as she climbed on top of the other cat. When ey stood up, she was able to reach her paws up and hook them over the edge of the square frame, pulling herself up and over. There was so much stuff she felt slightly overwhelmed. “There’s so much in here!” she gasped, walking around. There were cans like the one her cat food came in, and pieces of cardboard, and some plastic bags. And something… shiny. She pawed at it. It was a gold circle with a clear stone attached to it. “Hey! I think I found something. Can you come up and see if you know what it is?”
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Post by Solaris on Feb 25, 2023 14:14:22 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha “So you must eat twoleg food then?” Blade asked, indulging in eir curiosity with arched brows. Em would never admit this to eir father, but em had tried twoleg food before. They were these hard pebbles poured into a round-shaped object. The pebbles were dry and crunchy, and overall, bland. But if it came between crowfood or twoleg food, em would choose the latter any day.
Seeing the kittypet jumping up and down eagerly sent a surging thrill through Blade. At last, someone who was as excited about trash as em was! “Yes! I found a toy mouse around here once. It was real soft, and it squeaked if you squished it with your paw. I still carry it around sometimes for comfort.”
Blade winced at the added weight upon eir shoulders as the kittypet climbed up. But at least, their claws were sheathed. Once they landed inside the bin—em could hear the movement of objects being pushed around—em called out, “My name is Blade! What is yours?” “Well, you know, the twolegs store their dirt in these bins. They have so much of it to get rid of! But you find all sorts of these in here,” em said. Em stretched out eir front paws, extending out as far to the lip of the bin as em could. Then, pressing eir hind legs to propel emself up, em leaped into the bin. Indeed, there was a lot of flimsy brown boxes, clear and translucent bag, metal cylinders, and all of the typical items. Eir eye caught a dark brown bag and tore straight through it, reaching for the remains of a mushy meal. It tasted good, even if Blade would never see it again.
“What did you want me to take a look at?” em asked, until the glimmer of a shiny, golden object shone at the corner of eir eye. Em leaned in, sniffing it suspiciously. It smelled faintly of a dense, foggy scent, as if it were imitating the scent of flowers. It was distinctly twoleg scent. But despite that knowledge, Blade still wasn’t sure what the object… was. It was so small, surely it couldn’t be used as a toy? “Hmm, well it’s a twoleg item for certain. Not sure what its purpose is, but twolegs are odd like that.”
Em continued to dig through the contents of the bin, losing interest in the ring. There were bigger treasures to find.
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Post by Zesha on Mar 8, 2023 21:10:41 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. (June 10, 2021.) Morning. Solaris Rosemont assumed that twoleg was another name for her housefolk, since she walked on two legs. “Yeah, I eat what my housefolk gives me.” Her twoleg gave her both the strange brown pellets of food and the yummy wet food that came in the metal cans. She certainly enjoyed the food from the metal cans more, but the pellets were still edible and better than nothing. Her eyes grew bigger as the stranger told her about the toy mouse eir had found. She could imagine it in her mind, even the little squeak it made when it squished. “That sounds amazing! You must find all sorts of things,” she said. Once she was inside the metal container, she heard the cat outside of it call up that eir name was Blade. “I’m Rosemont!” she called back. “But sometimes I’m just called Rose.” And sometimes her housefolk called her Rosie, but she felt that was a bit personal to be telling essentially a stranger. Rosemont felt a little disappointed that Blade didn’t know what the shiny circular thing was. She pawed at it a moment and it slipped in between some garbage, leaving it hidden from her. Oh well. She began looking through the bin to see what other treasures she could find in there. There were a couple of cans of what looked like the wet food her housefolk fed her, but they were open and empty. She wasn’t hungry anyway, though, so it didn’t bother her much. Pawing at a cardboard box, she managed to pull it up and find a crocheted blanket underneath. It was blue and yellow, and she rubbed her face against it. It was made with a silky soft material. “Why would someone put this in here?” she asked out loud, confused. This could be used to snuggle up to. It didn’t smell great anymore, but that wasn’t a problem to her. Carefully, she used her teeth to drag it free of the debris. It was an infant blanket, so it wasn’t super big, but she didn’t know what that was. She just knew it was a soft blanket and that she liked the texture of the yarn that it was made out of.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 28, 2023 2:18:47 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha “Indeed! I’ve found all sorts o’ odd things here and there,” Blade grinned and tried recalling eir previous adventures of digging around twoleg scraps for treasure. Eir favorite find was a stuffed mouse that em liked tossing it up in the air with (and sometimes sleeping with it. But of course, after moons dedicated to the hobby, Blade had also amassed a hoard of collected trinkets such as glassware, rugs, rubber balls, fabrics, and more. By this point, the pile of trinkets was too cumbersome to manage, and em needed some way to reduce the size without ridding all of it… “You’re free to look at my collection, if you’d like! Maybe take something, see if anything strikes your fancy?”
Em nodded at Rose and tilted eir head with an easygoing grin. “Nice to meet you Rose!”
After introductions, Blade slipped back into the usual pattern of scavenging for goods—surveying, then nosing about, and then pullings items out. But really, the bin was like any other. Not too many unique items, aside from the odd, shiny gold object. From the corner of eir eye, Rose seemed to have found something though.
“A blanket! Aye, now those would be nice to have around for when you’re sleeping,” said Blade. “Though, I wouldn’t know why twolegs dump out perfectly good objects in their bins. These scraps are like dirt to them! Well, I suppose the more they toss things out, the more they leave behind for us.”
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Post by Zesha on Apr 3, 2023 4:26:37 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. (June 10, 2021.) Morning. Solaris “I bet you find loads of amazing things,” she said, imagining what it must be like. Sure, it didn’t smell great in here, but eventually the items would probably take on a different scent, right? That’s what she was going to tell herself, anyway. Then the other cat said she could look at eir collection and maybe even take something? Her eyes widened, surprised but giddy, and she purred when she said, “Really? I’d love to see your collection!”So far, she liked this Blade cat. Em was nice, had helped her into this weird metal box with all the stuff in it, had come up to see the weird gold ring thing she found even though it wasn’t anything important after all—by the end of the day, she might even be able to call em ‘friend.’ Rosemont tugged on the blanket until it came out from under the other rubbish, and she decided she’d leave it near her fence until she went back home later. “Twolegs are weird sometimes,” she said, looking around at all the stuff within the bin. Sure, a lot of it was garbage, but some of it was nice stuff. Shaking her head, she said, “I’ll leave this blanket by my fence. I can take it inside later, after I see that collection of yours.” She was eager now to see what Blade had amassed over time from these dumpsters. What treasures had em uncovered?
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Post by Solaris on Apr 8, 2023 3:36:29 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha Eir teeth poked out of eir lips in a big ol’ grin. “You got that right! Treasure-hunting is a skill, see. After a while, you get good at tracking things, using your nose, your ears, your sight to identify a good scrap. If it’s got an unusual taste or an unusual texture, that’s one hint of something you should keep. Shiny things are always a plus, but they’ve gotta be big enough for your jaws to carry.”
Blade’s heart melted, seeing the shared excitement from Rosemont about collecting twoleg dirt. It was the first time em found another cat who was as interested in the hobby as em was, outside of eir father. Eir shoulders drooped at the thought of eir late father, missing the trilling chirp he made whenever he saw a bin full of treasures. He was gone now, somewhere in the skies above. One day, Blade reassured eirself, em would see him again.
Em nodded in approval at Rosemont’s plan to put the blanket near the fence. “Always make sure to keep it somewhere safe. You don’t want any thieves taking your findings. I’ve had a few run-ins or so with cats who were nosy enough to look for your stuff. Most times they only want food, but you can never be too safe.”
Em pressed a flank against the scrapbin’s wall. “You can jump off my back to get out, and I’ll show you the way to my collection.”
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Post by Zesha on Apr 8, 2023 22:52:47 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. Morning. Solaris Blade seemed to really enjoy this treasure-hunting business, and Rosemont couldn’t say she blamed em. Just this first adventure into the strange metal bin had been so insightful and invigorating! “Wow, I hope I’m able to find scraps as good as you can one day,” she meowed, looking at em in awe. She was so glad that the first cat she had met outside of her nest was both friendly and cool. She picked up the blanket and headed over to em. Rosemont used eir back to jump down, trying to make sure she didn’t expose her claws. The last thing she wanted to do was scratch her new friend! Once she was on the ground, she waved her tail for Blade to wait a moment as she scurried back to her fence. She stuffed the blanket through the hole in the fence and pushed it behind a shrub in the garden, so that her housefolk wouldn’t accidentally take it. Finished, she squeezed back through the hole and rejoined Blade. Her tail was high in the air as she said, “I can’t wait to see your stuff! How long have you been doing this?” Her eyes were full of wonder and curiosity, even though both of them now stank of twoleg trash. She didn’t seem to mind.
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Post by Solaris on Apr 10, 2023 16:50:30 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha Eir tail rested on Rosemont’s shoulder in a mixture of encouragement and reassurance. There was a future treasure-hunter here in the making, that was evidently transparent to Blade. Smiling, em said, “I know you’ll be good someday too.”
After Rosemont climbed outside, Blade stepped onto a soggy cardboard box, with what looked like oily stains on its sides, and then leaped out of the bin. Em landed on the ground with a practiced grace which seemed nearly effortless. Em waited as Rosemont skittered off to her fence and disappeared through a hole. A monster hissed passed the alleyway’s entrance, momentarily blocking the view of the twolegplace streets. Then the world went quiet again, as mornings often were.
The young, silver tabby emerged from the fence, and rushed over to rejoin eir. Blade’s ears perked up at her appearance. Once she reached eir, em started to pad out of the alleyway and to the streets, which were relatively empty save a twoleg running down the pavement—but not from any predator, it seemed. Em waited until the coast was completely clear before turning to the right and heading down the street.
“Hmm, well… I’ve been collecting trinkets and treasures since I was about your age. Maybe younger,” said Blade, pointing a tail at Rosemont. “But I wasn’t serious about it until after my father died.”
The pain from eir father’s death still stung like an open wound, but eir expression didn’t show it, instead eir face was only full of vivid fondness. “He was a real treasure collector, I’ll have you that. He was the one who started the hoard, and when he passed, he left the hoard to me, but I wasn’t able to keep most of it around or anything. Scavengers and rival gangs took that stuff, ‘cause it was there territory and all.”
Em stopped by the alleyway where eir den lay. At the far end was a big pile of twoleg scraps, trinkets, and treasures.
“Here’s a tip for you, kiddie: don’t mess with the strays on the streets. They’ve got a nasty bite. I lost an eye in a fight with one of them over territory, and I wasn’t even trying to take their territory away from them! You be careful out here, and don’t stay out of your twoleg den for too long, kittypet. You’ll be safest at home.”
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Post by Zesha on Apr 13, 2023 19:51:54 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. Morning. Solaris Rosemont smiled, hoping that Blade was right. And as she began to explore more of twolegplace, who knew what she would find! Plus once she got bigger she wouldn’t need another cat to help lift her up into the bins that held all the wonderful treasure. She was still in her garden when the monster hissed by, busy hiding her blanket so that her housefolk wouldn’t take it. While she didn’t know why her housefolk would take it, since some other one had thrown away the blanket she was worried that her own might do the same, and she wanted to keep it. By the time she re-emerged, the monster was gone and she was none the wiser of their existence. The lynx point cat trotted along beside Blade. The street was quiet; no monsters roamed the thunderpath. Rosemont stared at the twoleg that was running briefly, then looked away when she didn’t see anything chasing it. She had no idea what the twoleg was doing since there didn’t seem to be any danger, but maybe it was a danger she couldn’t see. Either way, she focused on keeping up with her new friend. There was a word she didn’t understand: died. She tried listening to understand its context, but there was a fondness in Blade’s voice. Did that mean death was a happy thing? She needed to know. “Um, Blade?” she asked quietly. “What does ‘died’ mean?” It was plain as the stripes on her fur that she was still young and naive, feeling the world wasn’t a big scary place with lots of sadness and darkness. The saddest thing that had happened to her so far was being taken away from her mother and siblings, but she had bounced back rather quickly from that. Rosemont stopped at the alleyway, peering down it and seeing a pile of stuff. She wasn’t able to tell what it all was from here. Her eyes went wide as Blade told her that em lost an eye to another cat. “How could they do such a thing to you?” she gasped. To her it seemed nonsensical to fight, but then again she had a home and a twoleg to go back to. The cats out here didn’t, and had to make due on their own. She didn’t quite understand how harsh such a life was yet, though.
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Post by Solaris on Apr 14, 2023 3:21:26 GMT
Prey 1, 2021 | Zesha Em stopped in eir tracks at Rosemont’s innocuous question. Well, this was an odd spot to be in! Worse than getting stuck in a stinkhole… Em wasn’t sure how to respond, didn’t want to linger on the grave concept, wanted to shield her from the grim realities of the world, which stalked about in shaded alleyways. But Blade couldn’t do that. Looking at her eyes, em sighed.
“I’m not the best cat to tell you,” Blade started tentatively. Em closed eir eyes, trying to remember what eir father’s words were when he told eir what death was. Gradually, snippets of his gentle voice came flowed back to eir head. “But dead means that you’re gone. Forever and truly gone, and no amount of wishing will ever bring you back. You’ve gone to somewhere else, that’s where. And all cats, every single one of us, and yes—including you—we all have to leave the world sometime or another. It’s sad, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Em continued down to the end of alleyway, shaking off the somberness that hung in the atmosphere, though Rosemont was oblivious to it. Blade envied her naïveté. What em wouldn’t give to live in a world wher the only issues em faced was trying to jump to inside a tall bin em couldn’t reach…
At Rosemont’s widened eyes, Blade responded, “Some cats are nasty like that. Nothing you can do about it then.”
Em leaped to the top of the pile and lashed eir tail against the top, sending some of the trinkets rolling down the sides of the mini-hill. Em flashed a grin, pushing aside the earlier awkwardness and discomfort over such dark topics. “Now, are you gonna look through the big ol’ hoard, or are you gonna wait at the bottom like a sitting duck? Come on up here! Or well, actually, I’d be careful about where you put your paws and all—in case you don’t want to tumble back to the ground.”
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Post by Zesha on Apr 15, 2023 19:47:05 GMT
rosemont • she/her • 6 moons • kittypet • bioPrey Moon, Day 1. Morning. Solaris Rosemont hadn’t meant to cause such a somberness in the air, but she truly had no concept of death yet. All of her siblings had lived, and her parents as far as she knew were still alive (and they were, as they were healthy show cats), and there had been no other cats she had met yet besides Blade, who definitely was not dead. So the concept was foreign to her until Blade spoke and em told her about the reality of life. “So… you can’t walk or talk with them anymore,” she murmured, not fully understanding the weight of the topic but gleaning enough from it to realize that it was a very sad thing. One day she would experience this death, and then she would truly know the pain of losing another. Whether or not that day would come soon or in the far future was yet to be seen, but it was something that, inevitably, she would deal with one day. She followed quietly as they padded down the alley, not sure what to say after that. She was still taking it all in, wondering where dead cats go when they die. That was a question she’d refrain from asking, though. It seemed a heavy subject for Blade, so she didn’t want to drag them down further with her talk of dying and death. She could always ask another cat some other time, or perhaps ask Blade another time when things were a bit less… cheerful, seeing as they were going to see eir hoard. When Blade told her some cats were just nasty like that, she couldn’t help but wonder why they were. There was no reason for it, as far as she could tell. But it seemed that Blade didn’t know why they were the way they were either, so she didn’t bother asking. Perhaps some cats didn’t have good personalities. Maybe they were born like that. Perhaps one day she would find out, but she hoped if she did it wasn’t because one of them was chasing her down. Suddenly they came to the end of the alley and an enormous hoard of things lay in front of them. Her eyes widened at the sight of everything: from shiny things to intricate things to practical things, there were just a lot of things in the pile. “Whoa!” she said as she began climbing up to sit next to Blade, carefully positioning her paws so she wouldn’t cause something to crumble and collapse under her. Once she got to the top she looked down and admired all that there was. “This is amazing! How long did it take you to collect all this?”
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