#actually i have no idea if my cat is a tortoiseshell or a calico.

[nikoisme]

Heyo!!! :D Some questions for you!

What are some of your fave parts of the Iliad and Odyssey? And then do you have a favorite by Euripides?

How long have you been drawing?

Since your "lovable little bastard" is a lil calico, does she have any neat patches/spots that are cute? Example, Teddy has a big stripe that curves across her neck, so I like imagining her having "necklace" haha. Does your lil lady have any spots that are cutely shaped? 🥺

(Good luck in school! :D Know I'm rooting for you!)

hello hello :DD this is a much needed break from studying oh god thank you.

For The Iliad,, BOOK 6, THE HECTOR, ANDROMACHE AND ASTYANAX SCENE. Book 10 also slaps obviously, night raid my beloved. The laments over Hector in book 24 too :')) It never fails to make me cry. But there's a tiny little specific part of The Iliad that is my absolute favorite - when Menelaus tells Antilochus that Patroclus was killed:

Idk man it feels so real and raw and hngngng. And Antilochus my man.

Now for The Odyssey i'm basic af but it's the reunion wih Telemachus, Penelope and Laertes :') hits right in the feels. The marriage bed story. The orchard. God fuck. Also the several little moments when Telemachus and Odysseus just,, exchange knowing smiles or glances with each other (when Odysseus is disguised as a beggar). It's just so neat i don't know why. Telemachus doesn't even know Odysseus and Odysseus doesn't know who his son is (yet!!), but they just kind of clicked together (when it came to scheming and plotting ofc. It's in their genes).

Tbh I haven't read too much of Euripides, I have quite a few plays sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. So i should probably, yknow, do that hahaa. But my favorite so far is Iphigenia at Aulis! It's just so heartbreaking and tragic and painful and ahdbagshjj. mannn.

I started drawing since I could hold a colored pencil lmaoo. i just did it sometimes as a kid, i liked it and was seen as the "art kid" in school (now that I think of it, I was actually more the "a pleasure to have in class" kid,, but hey i was the one people ran to during art projects lmaoo). It was 2020 when I really wanted to get into it - especially digital art, since I've been drawing on my phone and the family computer with a mouse in godforsaken Gimp up to that point - and I got my first drawing tablet the same year! Funnily enough I started drawing humans about... 1,5 years ago?? I was actually, lo and behold, a warrior cats artist for a few years :'DD

NOW. SHE HAS SO MANY SPOTS THAT I ABSOLUTELY ADORE. For example, all her paws are white - but only one is black with a single white toe:

And she has some incredible markings on her face if i can say so myself:

Especially since the orange marking goes in a straight line across her face, it's so neat. And her fluffy white neck/throat marking :D

And thank you for school AGJSJSDHHH. I have my last test on Monday so I should be finally free next week! The worst tests are over now, thankfully. This is hell :')

[quibbs126]

So I made these Warrior Cats designs today, mostly out of boredom and because I wanted to draw

As you can tell, I took some creative liberties. Which for the most part we’re just me making them more genetically accurate since I’m back on watching that cat genetic video playlist again. I kept losing focus on it as I drew though

Spottedleaf and Redtail were my first attempts, but they didn’t end up looking that great. They were also originally going to be full body, but then I realized I don’t know how to draw cat bodies, so they’re just neck up, like usual. I did a lot better with Sandstorm so I just stuck with her method

I’m pretty sure Spottedleaf and Redtail are actually calicos, not plain tortoiseshells, but shush I wanted to do it like that. Though the not full body means I can’t show off the idea of Redtail’s red being mostly around his hind and tail

With Sandstorm I made her a dilute tortie because of the whole “Redtail being her dad” thing. When I looked on the Wiki I saw that this appears isn’t the case anymore, but screw it, I like the idea and personally wanted to keep it. She originally had grey fur, but I changed it to fawn so that Leafpool could still be at least partially brown-ish

As for Firestar, I know that genetically he wouldn’t be red, since his mother was brown, but I mean his fur color being red is relevant so shush. Maybe Nutmeg is red in this universe, I don’t know. I also made him a mackerel, though I kind of want to make him a classic tabby now. But then I’d have to change Leafpool’s markings too, which is too much of a hassle right now

Also randomly I just want to add in for no particular reason, my favorite era of Firestar is when he’s a stressed as hell out deputy to a losing her grip on reality Bluestar. Don’t know why I wanted to add that but I do. I think I just want to read the books again

I decided to then make Squirrelflight and Leafpool because why not? And they’re both torties because I made Sandstorm one. Granted I probably could have left at least one of them solid, since they’re like, two thirds red and only one third something else. But I kind of like how they look, so shush

I’ve actually been editing Squirrelflight as I write this, since first I realized I didn’t change Squirrel’s black coloring after changing Sand and Leaf’s grey to fawn. Then I realized that I didn’t need to keep Squirrel’s red the same as Fire’s, since he’s a tabby and that’s a whole color thing (or something, I wasn’t paying too much attention), and then trying to make it so her cinnamon doesn’t clash with the new red. I think I got something good now?

Leaf doesn’t have much to talk about other than being a dilute tortie, but with more fawn than her mother

With Tigerclaw I just kept him basically the same as canon. Other than that, random thing but I half forgot that Tigerclaw not actually being evil and instead just being a grump is something that I made up and isn’t actually canon

Then I made Goldenflower so I could do Bramble and Tawny like I did Squirrel and Leaf. I think she’s a tabby in canon, but I took that out. Also she and Tigerclaw’s amber eye colors were switched originally, but the lighter amber clashed with the cream color

I know Bramble is supposed to look identical to his dad, this was a plot point, but genetically that isn’t accurate, he should be either red or cream from his mom’s side because fur color is sex linked. I think in a previous attempt at this I made him red, with the idea that it made Bramble actually resemble Fire, but this time I went with cream so that he’d look like his dad but with his mom’s colors

Tawnypelt is mostly the same. Her black fur’s because Tigerclaw’s a black tabby. And also her eyes are amber because her parents have amber eyes

I wasn’t sure who to do after, I was gonna just call it quits, but then I decided to do Lionheart since he was important to the first book. And as I checked on the Wiki he’s apparently Goldenflower’s brother. I feel like I made him look fruity, which wasn’t intentional, I was just trying to make him look like Goldenflower

Also Lionheart and Goldenflower look a lot like Daisy I’m noticing. Probably shouldn’t have done that but oh well

I might make more of these, probably first doing Dustpelt and Ravenpaw and then Cinderpelt’s family, maybe Ferncloud and Ashfur too, who knows?

[cinderella-ish]

This is a VERY SILLY idea I got earlier this week and it took over my brain so please enjoy the Fruits Basket characters as cats! (Bonus fun: see if you can guess who they are before scrolling down!)

Mabudachi Trio + Kureno

Hatori - I went back and forth with him on whether he'd be a black cat or a Siamese cat, but his eyes are so striking! It was hard to find photos of black cats with naturally blue eyes (I'm sure they exist!)

Shigure - a Russian Blue, obviously

Ayame - clearly an elegant white long-hair

Kureno - a derpy and sad-looking chocolate tortoiseshell

Yuki and the Student Council

Yuki is the silver tabby who looks like he regrets all his life choices lol

Kakeru is the very silly tabby in the top left

Machi is the shy-looking dilute tortie in the top right

Kimi is the white long-haired Persian cat

Nao is the talkative (demanding) almost-still-a-kitten tabby

Kyo, Tohru, and their families

we already know what Kyo looks like as a cat lol but Tohru is the ragdoll cat next to him in the upper right (because she's OBVIOUSLY a ragdoll!)

Kazuma is the brown-ish Maine coon. Dignified but still a cat!

Kyoko is the light ginger and white tabby (did you know female oranges are fairly rare?)

Katsuya is a handsome adult black cat

Grandpa Honda is a sweet gray tabby

Kyo & Tohru's Friends

Arisa is a calico (did you know most calicos are female? I feel like that would fit Arisa's feminism)

Hiroshi and Yusuke are twin tuxedo cats! (Right?!?!?)

Saki is a gorgeous long-haired black cat ofc, and Megumi is her miniature

Youngest Zodiacs

Haru would obviously be a black and white cat. I think he'd have a unique marking, too, like a mustache, or a spot shaped like a heart.

Momiji is a blond German Rex (which is a breed I just learned exists!)

Kisa would be a Bengal kitten because she'd definitely look like a wildcat

Hiro would be a little baby tabby

Other Zodiacs

Akito would be a slightly intimidating black and white cat

Ritsu would be a rare male calico (and an exceptionally beautiful one, too!)

Kagura would be a very cute Russian Blue

Rin would be a skittish black cat who's actually a sweetie once she gets used to you, if you're her person

Everyone Else + Bonus Cat!

Mine would be a long-haired tuxedo cat, obvs

I thought about Mayu as a dilute tabby, but I like her as a tortie tbh

Mitsuru is an anxious white and gray cat

THE CUTIE IN THE BOTTOM LEFT IS MY CAT!!! HE'S SIXTEEN AND SO SNUGGLY AND I LOVE HIM!!! HERE HE IS TOTALLY ZONKED OUT BECAUSE THE SUN WAS OUT!!!!!

[minty-sweet-art]

Minty carnival Tadc room idea

Context: minty room main game is to help her reorganize and clean up her room. Will probably add more to this list as it goes along.

Carnival au by sm-baby

Progress of oc and half spin around

Main bed is a loft bed with the staircase being one of those with book shelves.

Rugs

Bag hanger with bags

Book selves with an array of Books

Mini fridge ( water, cranberry juice, coffee, energy drink)

Perfume bottles, deodorant etc on top of a vanity. Hair brush

Art books filled with game art

Sketch book (one whole page is like a color test page)

Sticker book

A single mint plant (from Ragatha)

Art Posters

Glasses case with glasses (side quest)

Sticky notes on things and piled up together

A whole old fishing box that just full with pencils (an actually thing I have in my room due to years of saved up pencils)

Pencil cases

Alcohol Markers bag

Lava lamp

Glow in the dark star on roof

Just a whole bunch of art supplies

Sticker books

Junk journal

Plushies ( with Miku plush of each character )

Figures/ food minis

Pins board with pins and Photo picture with other characters

Acrylic charms

Photo camera

Paint brushes

Pressed flowers inside books (fantasy skin quest 8 in total) and a small box (can use to decorate sketch book, Junk journal, pin board)

Origami inside books and all over

Music records in milk box thing

Vinyl record player. (Can play in game music)

Blankets

A folder full of work like algebra homework ( doodles on the side of course)

Piles of clothes stacked on a bean bag

(Card binder) ( if their carnival body pillow their sure should be a fictional carnival card collect thing like Pokémon. (No obligation for SM- baby to make card things of course you already making body pillows anyways)

Cat tower and other cat supplies(calico tortoiseshell plushie cat. Pet/minion that messes with which the player progresses occasionally when player is cleaning room ex: knock down item just like the cat from the game “a little to the left”)

Closet for all the character skins after completing level you can access.

Since her level is her bedroom her extra room is actually just a living room, kitchen and a small laundry area where litter box is stored. Despite her level her extra room is more clean meant to show how after the player helped her clean up her room she cleaned her own kitchen and living room by herself. After the game closed she prefers to remain in her room in order to keep the kitchen clean for as long as possible. Despite this it always somehow end up being a bit of a mess except for cat items like litter box in with it always clean no matter what. After game shut down the collars resets for both room will go back to original status dispute being cleaned or not.

(Show: Fionna and cake)

You can probably think the messy level of the room like Fiona room. not the same aesthetic of course (not sure it would be like this after or before gaining sentence)

(more oc lore but after the game shut down and her the sentience she would jump from interest to interest to distract herself while she locks herself in her room.)

[trustfallverse]

Yo where did you get the ideas for the names of your trustfallverse characters

// i cant answer for all the characters because there are far too many so i will just answer for the 8 that currently have references!

pepper - i dont know. i thought it was cute. pepper, ink, two words that remind me of tortoiseshell cats or calico cats!!

nyx - actually went looking on a website for "evil dark names" LOL but nyx is actually also the name of the goddess of the night in greek mythology so! and she is born of chaos and yknow nyx is an error variant so uh ;))) accidental connections my beloved

haven - i wanted my dream to have a name that gives a similar warm vibe. like a vibe that makes you feel safe and secure. but may also make you wonder why? or if its really safe? and the word haven can be used in different contexts, sooo why not

raven - aside from the fact that it rhymes with haven (which is adorable btw), i am a big fan of corvids. and when i think of the name raven, i dont think of someone who is an evil mastermind. i think mysterious, sure, maybe a little morally dubious, but still a lot deeper under the surface

ripper - thought it sounded badass also jack the ripper. i think jack wouldve been a sick name for him too but names that sound too regular are not allowed here

crucis - honestly !!!! i thought "whats another word for cross" and looked at a thesaurus online. then i realized the potential his name has ;)

frost - i thought it sounded cute too... and like, it sounds nicer than dust imo. also monster dust is white and frost is white. so theres that connection

creep - this one goes WAY back but i thought it was cute, creep's sibling is named snap so i thought 'snap n creep' would be a cool name combo... like oo theyre Creepin up on u... a stick on the ground Snaps behind u.... who could it be... its snap n creep!!!

usually i just choose words that i could connect to the characters, whether that be their personality, appearance, a specific quirk or ability they have, or their lore/backstory/a future event thatll happen to them !

[warriorsbutnotreally]

Sandstorm Is Tigerstar's Daughter AU

So, to preface this

a lot of changes had to be made to canon

but in the end it came to a result that made me happy

and to add - this isn't super long

I don't even span the full first arc

Self edit before this is even posted; I got carried away and this is longer than I expected

this was a fun idea and [admittedly] I almost ignored it - cause I was worried I would have no ideas - until a bunch of cool ideas hit me at once and then I got excited about it

There's also changes to some relationships for very obvious reasons!

Sandkit is born alongside her brothers Swiftkit and Lynxkit [who are not Patchpelt's kits. You cannot convince me they're Patchpelt's. I have a lot of negative emotions towards the retconned family relationships in Warriors]. They are born about six moons before Rusty / Firepaw joins, meaning Swift and Lynx are older than they are in canon.

Sandkit is very proud of her heritage, as is her brothers and the three are close. Lynxkit is the most level-headed as his brother and sister can be stubborn and hot-headed.

When they're apprenticed, Tigerclaw goes out of his way to have his kits apprenticed to cats he considers his friends by convincing Bluestar and Redtail that it's a good idea. Sandpaw goes to Whitestorm, Swiftpaw goes to Longtail, and Lynxpaw goes to Darkstripe.

When Firepaw joins ThunderClan, Tigerclaw is quick to make sure his kits do not like and do not trust this kittypet and allows them to openly antagonize Firepaw. This gets so bad that apprentices den is split into two factions; the group who likes Firepaw; Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw and the group who wants him gone; Sandpaw, Swiftpaw, Dustpaw, and Lynxpaw.

However, after their first patrol together, Lynxpaw is the first to change his mind about Firepaw. He becomes more welcoming, but expresses to Firepaw in private that he doesn't want his siblings to turn against him. Firepaw and Lynxpaw bond quietly behind Sandpaw and Swiftpaw's backs.

Sandpaw sticks close to her father or her mentor most days and as Bluestar's mental health starts to slowly decline, Tigerclaw is planting the seeds of disloyalty into her head. This only gets worse when she learns that Lynxpaw and Firepaw are friends and she lashes out at her brother

Swiftpaw is still on Sandpaw's side, however, and refuses to budge, though he's unsure about being angry at their brother.

When Fireheart and Graystripe become warriors, Sandpaw is even more outraged and - with some prompting from her father - starts making plans to make Fireheart's life just a little worse every day

Sandpaw sticks with Tigerclaw and it's thank to him that Bluestar finally gives her and her brothers their warrior names while Fireheart and Graystripe are out saving WindClan; Sandstorm, Swiftfang, and Lynxclaw.

When Tigerclaw tries to clear Bluestar on the Thunderpath, Sandstorm does manage to stop Cinderpaw from going as she knows the apprentice isn't the target.

After Bluestar fails to show, however, Sandstorm and Tigerclaw start up a different plan. Sandstorm openly blames Fireheart for the fact she didn't show, despite her being sick with greencough.

They do try to drag Swiftfang into their plans, but he expresses concern. He only agrees after Sandstorm peerpressures him into it, but it's clear that he believe they're going too far.

When Bramblekit and Tawnykit are born, Sandstorm becomes like a guardian older sister who spends time with them. This has her thinking of starting a family, but she wants to wait until she finds a proper mate - she is considering Dustpelt - and when her father is finally Tigerstar

Swiftfang does eventually tattle on them before the rogues attack and turns Sandstorm and Tigerclaw in as traitors, as he finds himself unable to just sit back and let them kill Bluestar and Fireheart, especially as he believes Lynxclaw loves the former kittypet.

Sandstorm is outraged as she and her father are exiled from the Clan. She tries to get Dustpelt to join, and for a moment she thinks he will until he reveals he'll never be able to stand beside someone who willingly walked with Redtail's killer.

After joining ShadowClan, Sandstorm assists her father in working hard, though she dislikes ShadowClan's territory. She starts considering having kits, not for a family, but for strong warriors that are loyal to her and her father.

When he becomes Tigerstar, he makes Blackfoot his deputy and Sandstorm is irritated but decides that gives her time to work out her own plan.

She starts carefully deciding which cat is the strongest in ShadowClan and, after being rejected by Blackfoot, settles on Boulder to sire her kits.

While she's courting Boulder, she learns of BloodClan and tells Tigerstar. The three go and meet Scourge and her plans change as she starts talking with Bone.

She's early into expecting Bone's kits when Scourge kills Tigerstar and she lashes out at the BloodClan cats. She isn't killed and ShadowClan ends up exiling her after she refuses to renounce her father's crimes.

When Scourge and Bone are killed, Sandstorm sneaks into the ranks and quickly earns favor with BloodClan as they know who she is and she reveals that the kits she's close to having are the proper heirs of BloodClan.

Cats try to challenge her, but Sandstorm allows herself to be brutal and relentless, which soon catches the eye of a certain one-eyed molly.

Fury becomes co-leader as she teaches Sandstorm the shaky customs of BloodClan and the two become close by the time the kits are born.

There are four kits born to Sandstorm; a dark calico tabby she-cat named Omen, a pale ginger and white tom named Talon, a mostly black tom named Bane, and a dark tabby with white patches named Tiger

Sandstorm instantly favors Tiger more than any other of her kits and is determined that he'll take over BloodClan when the time comes.

As the kits grow older, Fury and Sandstorm grow closer and eventually the two becomes mates and work together to help BloodClan grow better and stronger.

Sandstorm starts spying on the Clans again and learns, angrily, that Firestar and Lynxclaw are mates now and that the two have had a litter of kits together; Squrrielkit, Leafkit, and Spottedkit [Squirrel is dark ginger, Leaf and Spotted are both tortoiseshells] [how is also up for interpretation]

Sandstorm starts making plans again to take down ThunderClan and Fury is more than happy to help.

This comes together in an idea to steal the kits and hold them hostage until Firestar comes to get them.

The first attempt doesn't go well and many BloodClan cats are wounded in trying, but that doesn't stop either leader and they try once more. This time they manage to steal two of the kits; Squirrelkit and her brother Spottedkit.

While watching the two kits, Sandstorm is overtaken by rage at her brother becoming mates with 'the enemy' and for a brief moment she actually considers killing one of the kits. She actually almost kills Squirrelkit before she is stopped by Bane [he and the others being the age of older apprentices].

Bane becomes the watcher of the kits and he bonds well with his cousins and feels pity for them. When he learns his mothers' plans, he convinces Omen to help him carry them back home before any needless death happens. Omen is hesitant at first, but agrees and the two carry the kits back to ThunderClan.

When she learns about this, Sandstorm is outraged and she considers a regular punishment until Fury insists that Bane needs to be made an example of.

Sandstorm allows Fury to publicly kill their son and Omen feels like she's the only one truly horrified at this. Talon seems openly interested in the violence and Tiger was never easy for her to understand, as they are rather withdrawn and never talked to her or their brothers as they were being trained to take over BloodClan.

Sandstorm goes on to not allow Omen to be alone and Omen has a guard with her at all times.

Eventually Omen escapes her guard and flees to the Clans, being taken in by ThunderClan, who promise to protect her.

There she meets her cousins again, plus Leafkit, and gets to know her uncles, Lynxclaw and Brambleheart. She is treated with love and welcoming for the first time in her life and she finds herself about to cry.

She chooses to join ThunderClan after a moon of thought as well, as she fears what will happen if she ever encounters her mothers again. She is given the name Lightpaw.

Eventually Sandstorm does attack again and Lightpaw tries to hide, only to be found by her brother Talon and attacked. He almost kills her only to be killed by Firestar.

This outrages Sandstorm even more.

She attacks Firestar and takes away one of his lives, but before she can do more harm, she is attacked by Lightpaw.

Lightpaw fights her mother off and Sandstorm swears that she'll have her revenge and that ThunderClan will never be forgiven

Lightpaw tries to reason with her sibling, Tiger, but they push her away and lash out, angry that she let their brother die She tries to reason more, but it's useless

She watches as they leave

.

BloodClan does return in the form of Tiger, eventually, but my brain didn't plan that far, but Sandstorm eventually does pass away and Tiger kills Fury in a silent retaliation against her as they never forgive her for killing Bane.

She and Fury do also end up with another litter; a ginger tabby she-cat named Wrath, and an albino tom named Wisp.

Lightpaw eventually earns the name Lightstep and she's the one chosen to represent ThunderClan in the Great Journey.

Spottedkit/paw ends up being killed by BloodClan in a random, aggravated attack and Squirrelflight almost dies in the same attack, but survives, unlike her brother

Squirrelflight eventually becomes mates with Shrewpaw/heart, who survives in this AU and they have a very happy and healthy relationship

Lightstep originally is crushing on Feathertail, but she passes away. Later she actually becomes mates with Daisy and the two are very happy and comfortable wives to help take care of kits who need help raising.

Swiftfang leaves ThunderClan and ends up joining WindClan to get away from all the drama involving his family. He never takes a mate or has kits and he's perfectly happy just living a nice life.

[mallowstep]

Genetics ask! I know that male torties/torbies are very rare and caused by a genetic mutation, but with those who do exist, are there any prerequisites with their parents? I’m assuming they’d have to carry the red gene since tortoiseshell is one red, one not-red, but I barely know anything. And based on this, is it better to just headcanon cats like Redtail as biologically female?

alright! hello, anon.

since i had to do more research than usual for this one, reminder that:

i am not an expert. i can and will be wrong. you can find my self-corrections under #corrections, but those are only things i or others have noticed, and that i've had the time to write a correction to and explain.

disclaimers out of the way, let's talk about tortie toms. (and torbie toms, and calico toms, it's all the same deal.)

if you know how ginger works, you can skip the next few paragraphs.

orange (ginger, red, etc.) is sex-linked in cats. what this means is that the gene that causes orange cats is on the x chromosome. it is also codominant, which means that having an orange x chromosome (Xo) and a non-orange x chromosome (X) is not black or orange, but both.

basically:

X or XX: black

Xo or XoXo: orange

XXo: tortoiseshell

yeah?

now, for the rest of this post, i'm going to be writing O and o instead of Xo and X because it's one less character and i don't run the risk of putting three x chromosomes together.

okay. so because torties need two x chromosomes, they're typically female. the way tortie itself works is basically, cells activate one of the genes (O or o) at random, creating patches. so you need two copies.

wikipedia says about a third of male torties have klinefelter's, which is the XXY karyotype. while this does have physical changes associated with it, the only way to confirm (humans have) klinefelter's is to test it genetically.

luckily, cats are very helpful about demonstrating it. what with them being tortie and all.

(we're also lumping in the variations of klinefelter's here. you can get XXYY, etc., and they all fit into the same broad idea.)

anyway, the extra x chromosome can come from either the mother or the father. this makes tortie toms...not quite easier, since the prereqs are the same, but y'know. if mom is Oo, dad doesn't matter. if mom is OO, dad has to be o, and if mom is oo, dad has to be O. same rules as usual.

XXY toms are going to be...not sterile, but pretty infertile. using human stats, about 50% can produce sperm, although the likelihood of them having kits is still low. humans with klinefelter's are also taller than average, so keep that in mind.

again, and this might be a correction on my part, i can't remember, but tortie toms aren't strictly going to be visibly different than other toms.

okay, so most people stop at klinefelter's, but there are two other ways to get tortie toms: mosiacism and chimerism. these are often confused/combined, but because i strive for generally being accurate, i'll go over them both.

mosaic cats carry multiple genetic lines, because of a mutation. this can either be somatic (happens in the body, is not hereditary), or germline (happens in reproductive cells of parents, is hereditary).

this is not always a gain of a line, you can lose a chromosome as well. the difference between somatic and germline and how it affects torties goes over my head, so i'm not going to speak to it, other than i'm pretty sure we're talking about somatic mosaicism. i think. again, not a biologist or geneticist, just a hobbyist with an internet connection.

right, so what happens is basically, some cells lose their extra x chromosome, giving you a cat with karyotype XXY/XY. these cats are more likely to be fertile and generally have less effects of klinefelter's. i'm not entirely sure how this affects tortie presentation, if at all, but it does happen.

i suppose you could also have some kind of mutation that gives you an extra x spontaneously, but that would be unlikely to cause torties, because it would also have to mutate into the other O allele.

again, i really want to stress that while i'm not bullshitting, i'm also not speaking definitively here.

last up is chimerism, where two embryos fuse in the womb, creating mixed genes.

i'm using a picture of a dog, here, because this is what goes through my head when i think of chimeras. you'll have to take my word for it, but while this would be a normal tortie cat, it can't really happen in dogs without some kind of mutation. and chimerism, given the extent of the patching, is pretty likely.

right! chimera torties are going to be, afaik, normal levels of fertile, although it's likely that they can pass on either black or red, not both.

(while i'm here, before we move on, there are a lot of types of chimeras. this type is called tetragametic chimerism, and it's rare in humans but more common in other animals. it's hard to know how common it is, because the differences are often very subtle, and hard to test. it's also not mutually exclusive with mosaics or klinefelter's, just to really muddy the waters.)

i don't have statistics for how common mosaics and chimeras are, and there's always, "a different type of mutation that doesn't fall into this category"

for mosaics and chimeras, the rules for inheritance seem to be the same as for klinefelter's. there's the added note that, because there can be multiple sires within one litter, a ginger queen could have kits with a ginger tom, and get a tortie son, as long as she also...ahem...with a black(/brown, etc.) tom. (or vice versa, with all brown and a ginger.)

okay! so that's basically how it happens.

as for the second part of this question, well. "is it better?" is a matter of opinion. i don't think anyone is wrong for having tortie toms. i don't care. (a) it is possible, and (b) we're all just having fun.

i, personally, do not think redtail is karyotype XX, because i like him being sandstorm's father with brindleface. idk. i like brindleface. yes, i know this raises huge genetic problems, and it's not very canon. i don't really care. i read that redtail fic where he thinks about sand&brindle as he's dying and it hasn't left me.

that said, i'm still a sucker for trans redtail. love it. idk, this is kind of hard to explain. like? it's not my headcanon, but i still appreciate it.

anyway! to the point: if you care about statistics and likelihoods and how many tortie toms you've had in the clan, yes, you're probably better off saving your chromosome anomalies for when they need to have kits, and using XX karyotype for the rest.

(under the cut: matthew rambles about trans cats and gender identity for a while)

i'm pretty sure cats don't have the western concept of gender. i don't think they have a human concept of gender, either, but at some point i need to be able to pin down something, and i think a third/fourth gender is closer to what they have.

i've been thinking about this a lot lately, because i decided i wasn't satisfied with my old approach to trans cats. i can do better than that. i decided cats don't have gendered pronouns, so why should the solution be, "trans cats don't really get to do anything about it"

no. i am dissatisfied with that.

at the same time, for specific reasons: i also don't think cats are trans in the western sense of the word.

because if for nothing else, remember that cat sexual dimorphism has a bigger effect on their life than in humans.

like, queens are going to be uncomfortable around male cats they don't hella trust and their kits. that doesn't go away if said male cat isn't a tom. y'know?

i'm in a constant state of tweaks with this, because i basically: form opinion, test opinion, refine opinion. my initial opinion was too harsh. and!

part of what's changed is i decided i wanted fernsong to be able to raise his kits in the nursery instead of ivypool. so i had to adjust how i think the nursery and queens work, slightly, to permit for that. now, i can turn back to gender and think about it some more.

i'm not going to coin any new terms, because i'm not in that kind of mood, but i think there is some idea of a female cat who is not a she-cat. i don't think the cats would call them a tom, but i'm not sure what they would say or how they would describe it.

i think they would just, on some level, get it.

actually okay you know what! i do need some lingo here. queens = cats who are raising kits in the nursery. she-cats = XX karyotype, considers self female (cis, if you will). toms = XY karyotype, considers self male (cis, again). and uh...we'll go with...

god i hate. i don't want anything i say in this ramble to be considered "words i am going to now use consistently" because i literally just need some way to describe this for my own sanity. with that in mind, let us use molly for XY karyotype, but not a tom, and...how about gib for XX karyotype, not a she-cat.

again, i don't want that to be considered permanent, i'm just fishing at words people use to describe cats so i can have something to work with.

right so, i don't think cats think gib and tom are equivalent, but i also don't think they (as a society) care about that.

like, okay, let's say redtail is XX, but not a she-cat. there's nothing to really be done (heck, if he wants to be a queen, that's still fine), cats don't have gendered pronouns or names, but at the same time, there's an intuitive understanding of what that means.

this kind of ties into the matriarchy, kind of? like, hm, queens are an important part of the matriarchy, but at the same time, she-cats inherit family lines. not that cats inherit much, but still.

i'm getting very abstract here. take, uh, like let's say a hypothetical trans mothwing. i think a lot of people have that headcanon?

and i think, like, mothwing would not be considered a tom. if cats had a concept of sexuality, leafpool would not be straight, because she likes mothwing, and mothwing is not a tom.

but! i would still think willowshine probably is the first line for nursery visits, at least when the kits are very young.

and i don't think anyone there would be unhappy with that deal.

right. i just kept rambling for a while, because i've been thinking about this and obviously it's semi-tied to the question.

tl/dr: cats don't care about gender, because they are cats meowing at each other in the woods. if a cat says they're not agab, everyone is just cool with that.

[fencesandfrogs]

cloudtail’s daughter — worldbuilding & logistical things

so i've been working on an au re. dovewing being the direct child of cloudtail and brightheart. check out my cloudtail's daughter tag for more info, because i'm basically just jumping in this time with minimal context.

that said, i think this is relatively self-contained. it's mostly thoughts about the world of warriors, lumped in with specific changes for the au purposes.

[3.8k words, 14 min read. section headers, very long paragraphs. paragraphs in parathesis and italics are sidebars that can be skipped. a lot of spelling mistakes because my grammer checker cuts me off after like 2k words. sorry.]

section one: po3

so i've said before i want to minimize the changes made specifically in po3 for the purposes of this au. a) because that means i only have to keep track of 6 books worth of content (i've given myself through bramblestar's storm to get to the point where it could mostly fit into canon, but for reasons that are obvious re. my dovewing/tigerheart take, tigerheart's shadow would be a little weird, but not out of canon. anyway we don't get any tigerheart pov in this so who knows what he's thinking.)

anyway, hollyleaf plays a significant role in the ending three books of the rewrite, getting her own pov in book 4 the forgotten warrior. so she can't go exactly the same way it happens in po3. i need her back in thunderclan by book 2 for beavers, not book 5. also, she still needs to end up mates with fallen leaves. because changing that would count as a major series change that could have an impact on the future continuity and this series rewrite is intended to be fairly self contained.

right. so hollyleaf has her shit a bit more together, but she still kills ashfur and goes into the tunnels. the difference is we're ignoring the entire hollyleaf's story novella. don't get me wrong, it was a really good novella, but she doesn't have that much time. i'm not interested in figuring out the details of what happens, but she returns to the clans either before book one or in book one, i haven't decided. she continues to see fallen leaves fairly regularly, though, including spending irregular nights with him. everyone just kind of...accepts hollyleaf's ghost boyfriend, because no one wants to upset hollyleaf again.

lionblaze's personality is not entirely nonexistant in po3, contrary to popular opinion, but he does have to support an entire book in this rewrite, and it's the weakest book in the arc, so he's gotta have something. i've nudged him to be a bit gregarious and open. you know, big and friendly and warm. terrifying in battle though.

jayfeather ends on much better terms with brightheart. i know he doesn't really end on a bad note with her, but this is also to help story flow a bit.

other changes will, i'm sure, crop up here and there, but those are the three major ones. i've got tonnes of changes i'd like to make, but i'm keeping it minor. (notably, if it were up to me, jayfeather would do his back in time sequence once, not twice, and it would be in omen of the stars. hollyleaf's ghost boyfriend would add more solid ground to it, and that would be established in book 2, but as i've decreed the rules, it is not up to me.

also, dovekit and jaykit would be siblings, and dovepaw would become the medicine cat dovefeather, and jaypaw would be the warrior jaywing. that's a bigger change though for a different au.)

section two: family dynamics & a bit of genetics

so one thing i really like in omen of the stars is how close dove/ivy/white are. it's really cute. cloudtail and dovekit are super close in the first book, and brightheart, dovekit, and ivykit are going to stay close throughout their lives. (cloudtail will also stay close with his daughters, but dovewing and ivypool consistently look to whitewing for support, and brightheart is good for that too.)

i have whitewing as still existing because age wise, i think it makes sense for brightheart to have her younger litter at dovekit and ivykit, than for them to be her first litter and for amber/dew/snow continue to exist. (in my hypothetical jaywing/dovefeather au, this is reversed.)

i'm not keen on her being close with her younger sisters. i do think, for future story purposes, whitewing and birchfall would have amber/snow/dew. this is a super unimportant change because the only part of that litter that matters is that lilykit is fostered so that lilyheart can then foster twigkit and violetkit, and there's 0 reason that whitewing can't be responsible for that.

(be honest, did you even remember that chain of events? did you even remember who raised lilykit? did you even remember sorreltail was her birth mother who died? yeah, that's what i thought.)

anyway, i've danced around the specific genetics of how we get a grey dovekit from a white cloudtail and a red brightheart, and you may think, "matthew, one paragraph isn't dancing around it," and that's because you have no idea how much i care about this and how much i have to say about this. if you don't want to read 1.3k words about cat genetics, skip to the next section. the last two paragraphs is the only part that's even kind of important.

so. i've put a whole lot of thought into this. because obviously dovekit is responsible for being grey to make the whole bit work about her, you know, being dovekit, and dovekit must be dovekit for dove's gentle wings to work. so this is important.

i'm going to walk through the two options: tortie brightheart and tortie dovewing. (*technically, calico brightheart and either for dovewing, but i'm keeping it brief.)

(an aside that's totally skipable: so there is a gene on the extension locus E/e which causes cats born black to turn to amber, which definitely could be brightheart, but it's pretty rare, so i'm sticking with my calico assumptions. that said, in brightheart's official art, there is a black ring around her nose, implying a very specific silver tabby to amber deal. given her kit coat isn't described anywhere i can find it, i'd say it's actually the best description of brightheart. that said, best description is not the most likely. anyway, if this were the case, i wouldn't need all of this write up. so know that there's an easy solution, but i'm choosing to ignore it because of its rarity and because i don't want to check if brightheart could have inherited the silver genes she would have had to for this to work. it's definitely possible, given that frostfur has the same deal as cloudtail, see below, and lionheart could be golden --- as in the formal word for a cat with certain genes, a color linked to silver, but, well, i just can't find it likely. i'll add a short description of how it would work at the very end of this though.)

in either case, cloudtail is the same, so i'll address him first.

so, cats have four genes on the white allele, Wd, Ws, w, and wg. Wd is dominant white, and it could be what cloudtail has, but since he has blue eyes, it would be likely for him to be deaf, and, because it's dominant, there's a low chance that neither dovekit nor ivykit inherit it. is what i would be saying if whitewing wasn't his first daughter. she is also solid white with blue eyes, so to me, that makes me thing he has Wd- (as in, any other gene.)

the other option, Ws, requires him to be WsWs to be fully white, and brightheart to be either WsWs or Ws- for whitewing to inherit WsWs. given that ambermoon and dewnose are not fully white, it seems that brightheart is Ws- and cloudtails is Wdw (or Wdwg) in order for their theoretical image to be correct.

(an aside of even less importance: ambermoon's father was not cloudtail. the short explanation is that she shares one X chromosome with princess, who was XX --- see my discussion of tortoiseshells below, we know princess wasn't one, so she can't be XXo --- and one with brightheart, who's XXo or XoXo. therefore, ambermoon and princess cannot both have accurate canon descriptions because one of them needs to be a tortie. i think it's more likely she was sired by a red tom. yes, it is possible for kits in the same litter to have different sires, and yes, that is necessary, because no one else has dominant white in thunderclan AFAIK. this means making her birchfall and whitewing's gives a bit more wiggle room in all this. a bit. she could also have the same thing covered on brightheart in the above slide, but that's complicated for other reasons.)

brightheart is almost certainly Wsw or Wswg. they're not both wgwg because that leaves no options for ambermoon, who i'm interpretting as not having any white. cloudtail inherits from princess wg because of birman gloving demonstrating on her white paws (there are other ways, but given her description, which fits it almost identically, i'm going with that.) so for white, we have Wdwg for cloudtail and Wsw for brightheart.

ivypool inherits Wswg so she can have her inconsistent white, and dovewing inherits wwg.

now, we don't know anything about cloudtail's father, except that he's white too (or cloudtail couldn't be white.) princess is light brown tabby, which is something i'm having a hard time deciding her genetics for, so we'll work back to that (neither of the obvious options leads to a cat that looks like princess, because of how tabbies work, the combination is likely not to be obvious anyway) if i decide we need her genetics.

right so for dovewing to be solid grey, two things must be true: cloudtail and brightheart must be either Dd or dd (dilution). brightheart, i don't believe, is dilute, because i've seen cream on cats and it's far closer to sandstorm's color than brightheart, so i'm calling her Dd. cloudtail can be either.

dovewing is dd, and so is ivypool. that's how you get light grey.

now, either cloudtail or brightheart have to have a B- black phenotype. (special case included, if you read the aside) and i think it's more likely to be cloudtail. then, brightheart can be blbl, which is cinnamon, and would help hide her tortie-ness. (we're covering that later.)

at this point, dovewing is more or less settled. if you're comfortable with this type of genetics, you can probably work it out. dovekit inherits B-/dd/wwg, and she's everything we need. the fact that she's not a tabby does kind of matter, but not really, because the nonagouti gene is recessive so even if cloudtail was a masked tabby, he can still be Aa and brighheart can be Aa, so she won't show. that makes dovewing B-/dd/wwg/aa, for those following along at home.

ivypool is a tabby, so she'd be B-/bb/Ws-/A-.

okay, we have the core of them settled down. there's a lot more that goes into types of tabbies, but that doesn't really matter here. the last bit that matters is the tortie issue.

as is a somewhat commonly known fact, tortie cats are almost always female, because the phaeomelanin (red pigment) gene in cats is sex linked to Xo (vs X for eumelanin, the black gene). this is expressed as O/o when discussing the specific gene, but since we only care if its dominant, the XO/Xo distinction is slightly faster to type if X means black and Xo means orange.

anyway, these are codominant, if a cat has two, they'll be expressed at random. that's how tortie cats exist. since for the vast majority of cases, only female cats have two X chromosomes, only female cats can be XXo.

(as an aside, that's another reason for the clans to find sol strange. i know the clans have a lot of male calicos, but sol was the most distinctive one, since redtail died in the prologue and i can't recall any others off the top of my head.)

anyway, dovewing needs to inherit XX to be fully black (grey), so brightheart needs to be tortie to pass on one to her and remain orange. alternatively, brightheart is XoXo and dovewing is a tortie. i'm sticking with brightheart tortie because that's actually how i pictured her, so i like it better, but it doesn't really matter, since the cream on dilute torties is actually rather subtle.

ivypool is the same as dovewing, although she could be a tortie if dovewing isn't and brightheart is, something i quite like the idea of.

now, for option 3, the cryptic option in the aside. basically, to summarize, you can get black cats who turn orange over time. the end result is a cat who looks very much like brightheart if they start silver tabbies (like ivypool could be), up to the black ring around her nose in the official art. that makes it the best way to describe brightheart.

however, it's pretty rare, so i chose to ignore it for my analysis. if brightheart did have this gene, then nothing would change about dovekit and ivykit from their canon descriptions, nor would her's change, except for her apprentice art, which would need to be updated as spreading orange over silver.

this is also the only option that gives us fully red ivykit, something i have decreed adorable.

over 1k words about cat colors later, here's my take: dovewing and ivypool with somewhat mirrored tortie spots (they'll never be perfectly mirrored, both because ivypool has white and because its entirely random) is cute and adds something extra to all of that art where they're mirrored.

i'd rather have straight red brightheart because she's got so much art very clearly not calico, and i'd rather have the two sisters match each other for cinematic drama than change brightheart. the accurate thing to do would be calico brightheart because it could be easily hidden by the right genes on the B locus, but i don't want to do that. so. i hope this was illustrative.

section three: clan culture

this here has no impact on plot but i've read a lot of worldbuilding stuff developing distinct cultures for the clans and honestly, that's why i'm so sad book 6 takes place with two shadowclan narrators. unfortunately, dovewing and ivypool are, like, crucial to the success of the clan cats, so they need to be there.

that said, were i to write this, i would certain write novellas for lionblaze and jayfeather.

anyway, i'm going to take what we've come to see as "standard clan culture" as thunderclan culture. they have a good deal of contact not with twolegs but with kittypets (compared to the opposite for riverclan) in the old terretory, so it makes sense they developed a more rigid, militeristic life, less free and less spiritual than the other clans necessarily. they're trying to be tough in front of the kittypets.

riverclan is just kinda...chill. they like flowers and shiny things. they copy twolegs because its fun (cats irl do this because they want to be like you --- being like you seems safe to them, but these kitties do it because its fun.)

so they make, not flower crowns because, no thumbs, but certainly weave flowers into den walls and leave petals places. (to everyone who keeps putting things on cats heads, please try doing that with the most patient domestic cat you know, and then i'll let you quietly correct yourself. i mean, continue doing it for fun, but if you seriously think that's possible...)

i do like the idea of them making wreathes its just, like, no opposable thumbs guys. maybe the medicine cats do it for religious holidays.

anyway, they have patrols far less regularly than thunderclan. they're also the most true to real cat schedules: most active at dawn and dusk. that's when fish are active.

so they're not lazy, sleeping all day, they get up earlier than all but the earliest risers in thunderclan and shadowclan. (windclan wakes up early too, we're getting to them.)

they also make shrines, but they don't really have a ton of weight to them. they're copying what they see.

when cats die, however, the trinkets lining their nests are dispersed to their loved ones, and one or two are added to a collective pile/arrangement somewhere. riverclan has been pretty clear their nests float (although i can't tell you why, considering they just evacuate when that happens and have to rebuild), so the most useful thin i can think of is to preserve the trinkets.

they also are one of the two clans to celebrate proper holidays. there's not a good sense of order to them, but when a celebration is needed, a celebration is had.

that said, unlike thunderclan, the warrior vigil does remain strong in riverclan. this is because twolegs are far more common in their territory, and so learning to be quiet when necessary is important, and the vigil reinforces that. riverclan cats are also really good at sitting still: you have to, to be able to catch fish.

shadowclan is pretty serious, but unlike thunderclan, they're serious about religion. being a medicine cat in shadowclan is a pretty serious deal. they tend to die young. (i'm stealing this mostly/entirely from warrior cats redux because i can't get it out of my head.)

they retain bringing apprentices to the moonpool in the new territory. it was always an important deal for them, whereas in thunderclan it's kind of like "oh yeah make sure that happens," like a mastery project in high school or a first year seminar in university.

they also care a lot about their ancestors. i believe blackstar is the one who called the names of the fallen during every gathering? yeah. that's because remembering the dead is really important in shadowclan.

they've got a lot of nursery tales about ghosts who grew vengeful once their names were forgotten, fading from starclan but not allowed to fully die. so. when everyone dies real fast like that, carving their names into everyone's memory is super important.

(if it wasn't blackstar who did that it is in this au.)

anyway, they've got a good amount of order to their life, like thunderclan, and the camp is also a lot quieter. in thunderclan, kits are under a good amount of danger from badgers and foxes and hawks, oh my!, but pine forests are a bit safer, since foxes are the only serious predetor.

i mean, it's complicated, and i can't really figure out what biome to base this analysis on, but i'm sticking with "foxes are all shadowclan really has to worry about" because it works for me. so shadowclan kits are allowed (suprivised) out of camp much earlier.

i know this contradicts tigerheart's shadow, and my choice was either "shadowclan: militant about protecting kits" or "shadowclan: dgaf" and i'm going with "after brokenstar, they did get real protective of their kits, which is when tigerkit was born and raised, but over time, they've relaxed back to their natural state of chill"

anyway, they're probably the most similar to thunderclan, but dovewing vibes there so much better because there's a real sense of order for purpose, not just because. so there's less shouting about who is going on patrol and who's hunting. the dawn patrol is leaving because if you're up at dawn, you need to secure the territory. etc.

and while she's part of a prophecy, shadowclan revers the prophecy itself, not dovewing. dovewing is not special for being a part of it, she's just doing her role for clan life. her role happens to be different than the usual, but so what? she's just a cat.'

also, they have holidays. namely, the new moon is a big celebration night, but they also celebrate the seasons, and new life. this is part of why tigerheart gets so homesick: even dovewing, his wife, doesn't share this part of life with him, and he misses it.

finally, windclan. i don't know honestly what to do with them. they're supposed to be the most spiritual but that's not reflected in how they're written, even in like tallstar's revenge, so i don't know. i think they're the calm riverclan crossed with the more focused on protocol of clan life thunderclan.

they rise early because rabbits, and their hunting patrols are smaller and less organized. based on the books, they just run full wild after rabbits most of the time, which means they scare off the other ones for a while, so it makes sense to have a mentor and apprentice go out every hour or so during the waking day to grab a bunny or bird than for a bunch of cats to feed the clan for a day.

they do have a lot of respect for medicine cats and leaders. starclan isn't seen as something the average cat has any connection at all with. i have a hard time keeping track of who complains about what in the broken code and avos, but i feel like windclan gets angry at some point about shadowsight's visiosn.

anyway, so a cat like jayfeather is like "oh he real cool" and that's fun for jayfeather. everyone expects great things from him. because, you know, medicine cat and in a prophecy? can you imagine i mean shame he came to be via crowfeather and leafpool but you'd be a fool not to admit he's a credit to his parent's names.

they're also pretty proud. and private. very private. no one knows at all what goes on in windclan. i'd not put it past them to have a secondary camp to move to if they get uncomfortable with so many people knowing where their camp is.

i mean, how else do you explain them keeping the tunnlers secret for so long? i mean, like completely secret, no one else knew about them secret, we found out about them in a super edition secret for so long?

section four: medicine cat shit

this is a short section, but i want there to be the idea, especially in shadowclan and windclan, that medicine cats are really important to the integrity of a clan, so they need to be spiritually pure. this doesn't mean they can't have been warriors, but they can't break the code.

that's why thunderclan and riverclan medicine cats share herbs so much more than the others: if windclan and shadowclan leadrs say no, medicine cats are risking a lot by disobeying.

this is also part of why leafpool steps down when the truth comes out. what she did is bad enough, but it will be far worse for crowfeather if she doesn't step down, and shadowclan and windclan will come for her head.

nightcloud and breezepelt are also angry because not only did crowfeather have kits out of clan, but it was with a medicine cat. that's like having sex out of wedlock with a nun.

and that's pretty much all i have for this. most of it was taken up by cat genetics, because integrity matters to me.

[warriorsredux]

Dullard Reads TNP #10

The big 1-0! We’re starting on the third book now.

The two WindClan cats that meet the traveling party are remarkably apathetic, if not outright hostile, towards Crowpaw as he’s returned home. I guess I could understand if their thought process has been stressed out by what’s happening to the Clans, but it also makes me smile thinking that absolutely no one cares about Crowpaw and everyone was happy he was gone.

Leafpaw recognizes “tortoiseshell-splashed fur” and decides that cat must be Brightheart. The thing is, Brightheart is ginger-and-white, not tortoiseshell. I have no idea how these mistakes keep being made when the allegiances are right there.

Seriously, it’s been two chapters. Just go to the beginning again and look!

And right after that, Sorreltail, the calico, is described as having ginger-and-white fur. I just…

Stormfur asks to go with Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw to ThunderClan so that he can speak with his dad and let him know about Feathertail, which is fair. But I expected a little more than “Hi dad. Feathertail died. Bye!”. He doesn’t even elaborate on what happened beyond “she died like a warrior”, which is what everyone says when anybody dies in this fucking series, so it’s worthless!

It only now has occurred to me to note that some of the phrases used to describe humans between different cat cultures are a little odd. “Twoleg” makes sense, giving the feeling of finding something so foreign and bizarre that all you can use to describe it is two words slammed together. But “housefolk” feels strange. “Folk”, as a word, is not used among cats of any society, so to pair it with “house” or “work” (which is another weird thing, because the cats seem to know what the concept of work is when applied to humans but not anywhere else) for the sole purpose of defining humans feels…redundant, I suppose, as well as odd. You could just call humans “folk” as a general term, or even just cut out the middle man and call them “humans”, since every other animal is referred to as their real name. Why wouldn’t that word be known to begin with? Why would domestic animals refer to their owners as “housefolk” when they’re more familiar with them than anyone else?

Brambleclaw mentions that Firestar “has to obey the will of the Clan”, even though later books say that the leader’s word is law, and even in the first series there were some worries that Bluestar would force the Clan into battle, with a cat or two even saying that they couldn’t disobey her for the sheer fact that she was their leader. Just something to note.

Brambleclaw also greets Tawnypelt at the private meeting set up for the leaders, and for some reason Firestar growls angrily about it. Firestar – the guy who kept sneaking out to see his sister as a warrior, who has said multiple times that family is family no matter who or where you are. Why would he now, of all times, be upset that siblings from other Clans are happy to see each other?

Also Blackstar is described as having a black pelt at this meeting. Which… God, I wish he was just a black cat.

Somehow, Hawkfrost was made deputy in Mistyfoot’s absence. The hostile, asshole cat who acts like Tigerstar 2.0, makes no secret of his desire to own all of the territories, actively talked against Mistyfoot and Leopardstar, AND hasn’t even had an apprentice at this point – THAT’S the cat Leopardstar thinks is a good idea to make deputy. Why do people like her so much again? She’s just as stupid as Blackstar.

WindClan is suffering the most out of all of the Clans, and yet for some reason it doesn’t occur to them that Barley’s farm is right next to them and still has plenty of mice to go around. Barley probably wouldn’t even care if they came over regularly, and Ravenpaw would only be too happy to share with other warriors. Is that the script again? It’s getting caught in the wind now! Come back, script!

(Hums that one Steam song as Greystripe is carted away, not to be seen again for the entire rest of the arc. Thank fucking God.)

Firestar greets Leafpaw after her rescue, and it’s written that “a purr throbbed in his throat”. That is a really weird sentence and a confusing mental image. Purrs vibrate, don’t they?

I’m reading everyone grieving for Greystripe and I’m just smiling, because the fact that anyone would be sad he’s gone is a hilarious concept to me.

I would like to remind all of you about to protest against my ragging on Greystripe that, at the point of this book’s publication, we had absolutely no idea of what he actually did as deputy. There was no SkyClan book, no Greystripe’s Vow, nothing. Our timeline was him being a complete douche for six books and then three books of him just following Firestar around and then getting kidnapped like a moron. He has done nothing to earn any grief on the part of the reader. Just something to keep in mind.

That being said, Ferncloud’s mourning of her dying kits is something to be sad about, and Cody sympathizing with her is a nice addition to the story. I do like that the second series wasn’t afraid to kill off kits and apprentices, or just warriors in general, which is desperately needed in the newer arcs.\

And that’s that for now! I’ve got the second half ready to post for tomorrow or the weekend. So look forward to that shit, I guess.

[dragofelid]

I’ve been meaning to make this for a while, but never had the motivation to do it until now.

A huge pet peeve of mine is when people would headcanon Calico/Tortoiseshell Male cats as Chimera or Infertile cis Male cats all the time.

whenever I have drawn male calicos/tortis many people have asked if they were the rare 0.03% male calico or a chimera cat.

I make all my Calico/Torti male cats Trans male because it makes more sense than the other two ideas, and I wish more people would do this as well.

There are more trans people in the world than 0.03%. And the Venus ‘Chimera’ cat that everyone copies to make male calicos isn’t actually a chimera at all.

LETS MAKE MORE TRANS CALICO TOM CATS, MORE TRANS HEADCANONS PLEASE!!

Paris is an OC of mine for a book I’m writing

[op is a trans person]

[neooyokio1]

siamese, calico, tortoiseshell, claws, sphinx?? ^^

siamese- any tattoos/piercings? (if so: which? if not: which would you get?)

no tattoos but i have my ears pierced! i want more ear piercings and maybe a bridge piercing... i might want tattoos but i’m not sure what

calico- what’s your favorite app on your phone?

HMM i have no idea. picsart is cool for making things fast and costar is fun!

tortoiseshell- if your house was on fire, what one object would you grab? (your pets and family are safe and chilling on the front lawn)

my saxophone..

claws- what are your biggest pet peeves?

i think. hm. i get blamed for stuff a lot that i didn’t do (like stuff my brother did) and that gets very tiring

sphynx- if you could change one thing about yourself? what would it be?

i wish i had more motivation to actually do the things i want to do... i think i’m working on it though!

cat themed asks

[mysticalfriends]

Anon Asks: RFA reacting to an MC with a fuck ton of cats

Hey there y’all. The excitement is great, almost 100 followers. We’re planning on doing something for the big event, and there will be a poll posted sometime on Saturday with a couple options for y’all to choose from. We’re all really happy that someone likes our writing (like wow, we never expected this~) and we’re so honored that y’all decided to join us in our fun. Anyways, have another head canon, y’all~

<3 Mod Vem

Yoosung -When he finds out that you have cats he’s excited to meet them -Until MC asks him to come over and meet them -MC starts listing off names while pointing out which is which -Yoosung knows that cats are social animals, they like having friends -but for the apartment where MC is living, this is too many furry friends -Yoosung finally just asks how many cats you have -6? That’s...a lot of cats. But momma cat had 5 kittens, and if you can’t find homes for them you’re certainly not going to kick them out on the streets -Yoosung knows the feeling, you can’t just abandon them. They’re a family. -Once he gets to see the cats together, chilling out and not acting stressed he settles down -He becomes a cat whisperer, spending time over at MC’s place is really helping him learn about feline behavior -It takes him a while, but he does learn all their names, even though he always gets Tootsie and Footsie mixed up.

Zen -Nope -No -Why did you think this was a good idea again? -He loves you, very very much, and he’s willing to try for you. He’s not going to ask ‘me or them’, he’s afraid of what the answer might be -He doses himself with allergy meds and braves the fray, and knocks on your door -He braces himself for the sneezing -MC greets him and he walks into the living room -and screams -It was a very manly scream, and he would like you to know he heroically jumped in front of MC to defend his lady from the demons -Wow Zen, I’ve never heard anyone call my cats a shriveled pack of goblins before -With their big floppy ears and bald wrinkly faces they do look like goblins, or bats -They are the ugliest things he has ever seen. But he’s not going to tell MC that. -And it just so happens that they’re hypoallergenic. Zen’s allergies don’t act up around them. -He refuses to admit that he likes them though. He’d never hear the end of it from Jumin. -Jaehee, however, does have a photo of Zen sleeping on the couch with Fizzles sleeping in the crook of his arm, courtesy of MC

Jaehee -Jaehee knows you have cats, she’s seen the traces of fur on your clothes -But she doesn’t expect there to be so many of them -She stops and stares in shock at the 4 kittens chasing each other around the coffee table -and what is apparently their mother cleaning another 2 in a fluffy cat bed -And the biggest, meanest looking cat she’s ever seen lounging across the back of the couch in a patch of sunlight -Before she works herself up into righteous indignation MC heads her off -I know you don’t care for cats, but only Victoria belongs to me. The rest of them are foster cats from the shelter, here to be socialized for future homes -Now Jaehee appreciates community service. It’s important to help out causes that are important to you -But did it really have to be cats? -So long as Jaehee isn’t responsible for their care (and MC is very practiced at handling their charges) she doesn’t mind that much -And it obviously makes MC happy -And they both cry when it’s time to send the batch of kittens off to their new homes

Jumin -Unfortunately, Jumin had to be away on business -MC was kind enough to offer to take care of Elizabeth the 3rd -He hated leaving them both all alone -So it was a suitable arrangement -Especially when MC told him they had cats of their own -He worried about Elizabeth the 3rd. How would she handle meeting the other cats? -But he trusted MC to know how to properly handle the situation -When he got back he went directly to MC’s apartment, he wanted to surprise them -But he certainly didn’t expect that -Elizabeth the 3rd was cuddled up with a beautiful orange male, they were grooming each other, as a tortoiseshell looked on jealously -Instant protectiveness -After MC greeted him, they opened up a can of cat food and another 3 sets of eyes magically appeared around corners, before they slunk around the edges of the room to their dishes, one of them looking painfully round -MC was more than happy to explain that they had a business breeding calico and tortoiseshell cats -They really knew a lot about their cats. While he knew about Elizabeth the 3rd, there was a lot he didn’t know about cats in general. -He was more than happy to support them, and in return MC was more than happy to let her pets test out any of his feline products -They had a system, and it worked

Seven -For a while MC wouldn’t even let Seven over -He knew she had cats -They said that they couldn’t handle a lot of stress -And that’s okay, not every cat wants to play all the time -But eventually MC relented -but he had to promise to leave them alone -He was just so excited when he drove over -Until he got in and saw them -They were all so old, or thin, or sick -MC had a deal with the local shelter, they called MC’s apartment the ‘Hospice for Hopeless Cats’ -He was so proud of her, taking care of all these lost causes -It still didn’t stop him from tossing around a few toys to the energetic ones -and when Sir Purrcival decided to chase his headphone wires -That just made his week

Saeran -He didn’t understand why people wanted pets -She certainly never allowed them -So when MC offered to introduce him he was wary -He wanted to get away from Saeyoung though -He was feeling smothered -After MC reassured Saeyoung that there wouldn’t be any problems, he was released with an embrace -He stared at MC. He didn’t know what to say. Was he supposed to apologize? How do you even say “I’m sorry for kidnapping you?” -MC just smiled at him, and led him into the living room. Apparently he’s not supposed to say anything. -They handed him a ziploc bag full of green...what sort of spice was this? It didn’t smell like oregano... -There was a rush of bodies low to the ground at the door -He shrunk back into the couch, and went completely still -The bodies resolved to be cats, and they were very interested in the bag he was holding -It was a swarm, and they weren’t particularly picky over where they were standing. -One of them thrust their face inside and almost knocked it out of his hands before MC took pity on him -“Tiberius, don’t be rude to our guest!” They pulled the tall, obnoxious cat away. “Feel free to push them away if they get too nosy, they know their manners. They just forget them when they get excited sometimes.” -Well doesn’t that sound familiar. Despite himself, Saeran felt a grin on his face. -After a while of letting the cats investigate him and the bag of catnip they wandered off -All except for the small one half-perched between his shoulder and the back of the couch cushion -“Oh don’t mind Nugget. She likes to be tall.” He stuck out a hand and let her sniff it in introduction -Nugget then pressed against his hand so forcefully she fell over and slid down into his lap -Where she proceeded to make herself comfy, and started up the cutest purr -And her fur was so soft he couldn’t stop petting her -It was comforting

V -He...doesn’t actually realize that MC has more than one cat -They just never seemed to appear in the same room at the same time -so when he told MC that he really liked how friendly their cat was -MC was all, “I don’t know, I think Andromeda can be kind of rude. Chiron is the nice one.” -“What do you mean the nice one? I thought you only had 1 cat?” -He could just hear MC’s incredulous not-laughter -“I’ve got 5 cats, but they’re siblings, so they’re all pretty identical” -And MC went and collected the cats one by one -Everytime they brought out another cat his jaw dropped lower and lower -And they were pretty identical -He has never felt more embarrassed -How is it that in 3 years no more than 1 of these cats has ever been in the same room as him at a time?

[squirenonny]

Cat colors anon: Okay since Lance being a calico was intentional ignore my other asks. Also, I didn't know that cats could have vitiligo. Is that why the patches of black pigment are deep brown and not black? ...heck, I'm going to spend an hour looking this up now.

Okay, I looked up cat vitligo and apparently it is a loss of pigment (causing white fur) that normally happens on a cat’s face and feet. It has nothing to do with brown fur. Also, I’m loving your Light and Dark story so far- your worldbuilding is phenomenal, as always. I want to ask, though, why a crow for Keith and cat for Lance, and how do you know about cat genetics?          

Cats/cat pigmentation are fascinating, tbh, and I could talk about them forever. But I’ll restrain myself and just give a quick overview for those who are curious about cat colors.

This is a tortoiseshell cat:

[Source]

Tortoiseshell cats (torties) have two colors of fur, mottled or in patches. Typically if you ask someone they’ll say black and orange, but the gene involved distiguishes “orange” from “not orange,” so there’s quite a bit of variation in the exact coloring. The orange patches could be yellow or red, and the black patches can be brown, blue (kind of a slate gray color–look up Egyptian Blue Cats), or even tabby (tabby torties are called torbies, and they’re adorable. Go here for pictures of a bunch of tortie and torbie varieties.) The orange/not-orange gene is X-linked (meaning XY cats can only have one color or the other, not both), and the pattern develops because of X-inactivation (only one X-chromosome is active in any given cell, so you have patches where the orange allele is active and patches where the not-orange allele is active.)

This is a calico cat:

[Source]

Calicos are basically the same as Tortoiseshells except the white-spotting gene is active, creating patches without any pigmentation. (Actually, in some places calicos are called tortoiseshell-and-white.) Their pigmentation stays pretty much the same throughout life. (i.e. calico kittens still show all three colors.)

[Source]

Cats can also have vitiligo:

[Source]

This is a black cat with vitiligo named Scrappy. If you click the link to the source you can read a little about Scrappy and see more pictures, but the important thing to note is that he was born with all black fur and began to develop white spots when he was 7. More spots developed over the next several years, and then progression slowed.

Vitiligo (both in cats and in humans) can progress differently. I’m not sure if hte categorization is the same for cats, but in humans there are two types of vitiligo, segmental (one side of the body, maybe even just one body part, e.g. only the right arm) and non-segmental (both sides of the body). Segmental tends to develop early, progress for a year or so, and then slow down/stop. Non-segmental tends to continue to progress throughout a person’s life, often in cycles of rapid change followed by periods of very little change. There are also subtypes (localized, generalized, universal) based on how much of the body loses pigmentation. Lance in the fic has localized segmental vitiligo that primarily affects one arm and shoulder.

Anyway, as to the rest of your ask:

Lance being a cat and Keith being a crow was part of the the initial concept @seamarmot had when she commissioned this fic. She had the premise and character sketches already, and we worked out some more details (like the prophecy) together before I started writing. But I think the animals fit them. Lance is a little bit of a diva and sometimes prickly, but he’s also cuddly, and I’m sure he absolutely adores fuzzy blankets and scritches. And I really like the idea of Keith as a bird–and crows are very intelligent and great problem-solvers. They can be solitary, but can also gather in groups (called murders) that exhibit mobbing behavior (ganging up on predators–which let’s be honest, that is such a Keith thing. “Here’s someone who wants me dead. I’m going to attack them.”)

And I know about cat genetics because I majored in biology in college. (I actually wrote a research paper on the domestication of cats, which is another fascinating topic.) Genetics have always been a little bit of a special interest, and I work out the genetics of most of my magic systems (even in cases where it’s not going to become relevant to the story.)

[isisprosser]

Animals

First XCOM-related thing I’ve written and it’s literally just a non-canon thing of silliness because I was depressed at the time.

Thought someone might enjoy it anyway.

With how ADVENT was bound and determined to eliminate all animals from the Earth, she supposed it was only natural there’d be people doing everything they could to preserve as many of Mother Nature’s beloved, albeit extraordinarily destructive children as possible. She knew, deep down, what an admirable goal this was.

Even so, as a small corgi puppy decided pulling on her pantleg was a splendid idea, XCOM Commander Takashi Lund mostly thought about how much she loathed animals.

“You can stop now,” Takashi glared down at the corgi, gritting her teeth as the golden ball of fluff slobbered all over her boot. It kept pulling on the navy blue fabric, growling like a vehicle engine. Takashi clenched her fists. “Listen here, Fido, if you don’t stop whatever the hell this is, I swear, I am going to…”

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Takashi resisted the overwhelming desire to just scream and probably throw up as the woman dashed into view, covered head to toe in birds and lemurs. The woman smiled nervously. “We’ve been really busy, as I’m sure you’re aware, but Dr. Moreau –don’t ask me about that name- will be able to see you shortly! Again, I’m so sorry.”

“If you could refrain from stepping any closer, that’d be great,” Takashi seethed, and the woman stepped back. “Thank you, perfect, just stay there if you aren’t actually going to go away. Oh, if you’d be so kind, can you get this damn mutt off me?”

The woman blinked, and then looked down at the corgi right as it tore a chunk of fabric away, exposing part of Takashi’s ankle. It let out a bark of victory, keeping the soaked fabric in its mouth. Takashi’s eyes flashed with anger, and the woman’s grew wide with terror. “O-Oh! Bad dog, bad! That’s not very nice! Go play somewhere else!”

The corgi hopped away in triumph, carrying its prize as the woman chased it down the hall. Takashi’s rage didn’t cool in the slightest, and she looked at her ruined pantleg and drenched boot. Some of the corgi’s saliva even made contact with her skin!

Absolutely disgusting.

“I think you’ve made a spiritual connection with that corgi,” Bradford commented, and didn’t even flinch when Takashi whirled around to glare at him. “It’s just a puppy, Takashi. It doesn’t know any better. God, you look like it just murdered everything you love. Lighten up a little, will ya?”

“Don’t call me Takashi,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and holding her head up high as if she was above everything. “We’ve been over this. Hundreds of times.”

“Whatever you say, sunshine.”

Takashi hardened her glare and clenched her fists, shaking like an explosive just waiting to go off. Instead of erupting into incoherent rage and copious amounts of swearing, she stood upright and took in a deep breath to calm herself. The glare melted away, but her default expression of looking ticked off about something or another remained. She turned her back to Bradford, staring down the hall and waiting for Dr. Moreau. She couldn’t wait to give the doctor a piece of her mind.

And then she heard it.

A high-pitched mewl, nothing more than a little squeak at best. It sounded like an angel, one that was begging for help, for salvation, for simple affection. The voice of a pitiful creature in desperate need of love in a world so cold and cruel.

Takashi looked down and saw a snow white kitten with bright blue eyes. At least, she thought it was a kitten, as it looked more like a tiny white blob with stubby legs, a pointy tail, and huge eyes. Must’ve been a newborn, she reasoned, one that had just learned how to walk and beg strangers for food and cuddles.

This might’ve worked on weaker people, in fact Takashi thought she heard Bradford let out a disgustingly delighted noise at the kitten. But it didn’t work on her.

“Go bug someone else,” Takashi raised her left foot and gingerly nudged the kitten with it, pushing the mewling feline across the floor and away from her. “Go chase some mice, go puke up a million furballs, I don’t give a damn, just do it away from me.”

The kitten latched onto Takashi’s boot with its tiny, yet sharp claws, getting pulled along the floor when Takashi moved her foot back. Once the movement ended, the kitten whined again and pulled itself on top of the boot, pawing at Takashi’s leg.

“Get off of me,” Takashi growled, wanting desperately to launch the kitten into the air. She kept that desire bottled up, well aware Dr. Moreau would have choice words to say if she so much as misplaced a hair on one of his precious animals. What kind of guy calls himself Dr. Moreau when his goal is to preserve animal life, anyway?

Undaunted, the kitten hooked its claws into the fabric of Takashi’s pants, almost reaching her skin. It looked up at her and let out a shrill squeak, beginning the treacherous journey of climbing up Takashi’s pantleg.

“Central, would you do me a favour and remove this thing before it does something we’ll all regret?” Takashi hissed through clenched teeth, her body frozen and unable to grab the kitten to pull it away. Silence greeted her. “Central? The cat, please. Get rid of it. I don’t care what you do with it. Marry it if you want, just get it away from me. Central, are you even listening-“

Takashi turned around to see Bradford covering his mouth, trying very hard to keep himself from laughing. Judging by the way his body was shaking and the mischievous glint in his eyes, his attempts were ending in complete failure. She narrowed her eyes, and that only made him shake more.

“Useless,” Takashi huffed, turning away and then letting out a yelp of surprise and pain when the kitten’s claws poked her stomach. She glared at the furry menace, biting back another yelp with each passing second as the kitten continued to climb. “Okay, I’ll admit, your claws are actually pretty sharp. That’s great for you, now would you stop digging into me already?”

The kitten responded with a pitiful meow, and continued its daring climb to whatever. Takashi’s left eye twitched when she saw the kitten getting too close to her face. Ignoring the mental cries of disgust, she moved one hand behind the kitten, holding it up while her free hand gingerly grabbed its tiny paws and yanked them from her shirt. “Yeah, no. Your journey ends here.”

Takashi froze at the feeling of the kitten’s soft, warm fur on her skin, and a tingling sensation went through her bones. The kitten reached a delicate paw out, touching Takashi’s chest and feeling her heartbeat against the pads of its paw. It placed its other paw over her heart and started kneading with both, and she stood there staring at it, her brain unable to process what her eyes were seeing.

“You have been blessed,” Bradford said, and Takashi didn’t bother to turn and look at him. “That kitten has chosen you. I’m not sure why, I’m pretty sure it could do better, but it could also do a lot worse. Rejoice.”

But Takashi continued to stand there like a statue, holding the kitten in her hands while it kneaded her chest. Her mind had crashed, her heartbeat had synced itself with the kitten’s, time had ceased to move, and all that existed was the warmth of the kitten against her cold heart of stone.

“Blessed, huh…” Takashi whispered, regaining a bit of control over her own mind.

She smiled, letting the kitten’s warmth melt away the ice coating her heart. She felt like a brand new person, and in that moment, she knew exactly what she needed to do.

What she should’ve done at the beginning.

“Then how about you get blessed by this damn thing?” Takashi snarled, whipping around and thrusting the kitten into Bradford’s arms and ignoring its confused meows. “Take it! I don’t have time for this nonsense.”

“Hey, careful!” Bradford grumbled, rubbing the kitten’s head with his thumb to calm it down. “This baby is fragile.”

“Whatever. Just keep it away from me.”

Before Bradford could protest, Takashi stormed down the hall in search of Dr. Moreau. Once she disappeared from sight, he shrugged and looked down at the kitten, smiling as it reached its paw out to touch his chin. “Aww…”

And then he felt a weight on his boots and the bottoms of his pantlegs. He looked down, seeing a black kitten with green eyes climbing up his right leg while a black and white kitten with blue eyes rested on his boot. On his left leg, a calico kitten with copper eyes made its journey while a tortoiseshell kitten waited for its turn. All around him, other kittens sat and looked at him, patiently waiting to begin the climb of destiny.

Bradford blinked. “Oh my god. It’s the cat mafia.”

-

i have no explanation for this

none at all

[jessicamdawn]

It’s totally possible that Milo is actually a girl. (and also probably hungry, he’s very small compared to the other cats) But one of the kittens looks pretty tortoiseshell to me, which means Kida’s probably the mom (as the only tortoiseshell I’ve seen), and tortoiseshell and calico cats are typically female, so we assumed Kida was the mom and Milo the dad, since he was in the bushes with the kittens. (which, uh, means Vinny is also probably a girl but you know, whatever, we just found the kittens so they can be renamed or whatever) and I haven’t seen any other kittens popping up.

Also, Milo looks pretty much the same in all of the pics I’ve got of him. Granted, I don’t have the originals of all the pics anymore so I don’t know the time span of them all...

Point is: Maybe Milo is a girl. I don’t actually KNOW the gender of any of them except Seraph. Allison and Kida are probably female due to their breed but that’s still just supposition. So you might be right. But if Milo is female, either I’ve never seen her kittens or Kida’s a dude and these three new babies are still the kids of Milo and Kida.

The hunger thing is also pretty probable. We have no idea if anyone takes care of these cats. They have to be getting food from somewhere because they’re still alive, obviously, but I don’t know that anyone is actually caring for them. My friends and family all think I feed the cats because they hang out around my house, but I don’t. They just, I don’t know, flock to my house. (it’s probably all the plants)

Thomas used to be so thin I was worried he might starve and I almost tried to catch and bring him inside, but he looks much better now. He also didn’t used to meow, I thought he was physically incapable, but in the past two months he’s become just as whiny as Sebastian. They both approach me every morning I leave for work and most afternoons when I get home and pretty much any time I’m outside (or sometimes they meow at me to try and get me to come out anyway) so they can rub on me and I’ll pet them.

And I’m not even going to get into all the things that are VISIBLY, clearly wrong with Mr. Bigglesworth. You can see some of it in this picture, but if you ever saw him in real life, woo.

There are 12 cats currently living outside my house/in my neighborhood.

Allison, the calico:

Keith, fluffy but rare to appear:

Mr. Bigglesworth, who always looks upset, is tiny, and has something seriously wrong with his feet:

Pidge, slim and elusive but possibly the best groomed of them all:

Sebastian, with a Hitler mustache, my needy cry-baby who loves getting scritches:

Seraph, previously Serafina until we realized it was definitely a boy:

Thomas O’Malley, sweet ginger, also a cry-baby who loves getting scritches:

Milo, skinny and always looks terrified:

Kida, tortoiseshell and possible lover of Milo, who appeared with THREE KITTENS:

Kitten #1 is Vicenzo, dark little demolition man:

Kittens #2 and #3 are Audrey and Mole, the fighter and the dirt lover:

[mischiefmakingmuses]

Trouble Magnet Gambit Ch1

~Chapter 1: Idyll Romp~

The Yokai had decided to take this day to visit Springdale in celebration that it had been a year since they had been reunited. Though he wasn’t part of the original friend circle, Jizo also came along to make sure everything was A-OK.

While in Shopper’s Row, Urien bounced happily in front of a mirror that was staring down at him: a Yokai in disguise. Urien’s energy was a bit much for the Yokai to handle and it quickly became exasperated, but soon enough Urien had taken off to pursue a soba delivery boy on a bike to snag a bit of free lunch.

Jizo sat down at the river side and watched the fish swimming peacefully in the currents. He almost nodded off a few times, but managed to keep himself awake. He had a job to do and he needed to stay alert.

Netalina twirled about near the bridge leading over to Blossom Heights and watched stray cats walk along the sidewalk below. Calicos, tortoiseshells, and tabbies. If there were less humans in the area, she would pick one up and pet it.

Smile was the odd one out. He had decided to pull a bit of mischief over in Flower Road, by putting wasabi in sushi at Sushi Springdale. While the owner and customers were in a panic at how this possibly could’ve happened, Smile snagged a few pieces of maguro sushi to give to Urien, unaware that he was currently attempting to get some soba.

“I’m glad you thought of me,” Urien told Smile, holding two boxes of soba, “but I got lunch already.”

“Well...I have an idea. Let’s wait for Jizo to meet up with us and I’ll give you the sushi in exchange for the soba. You can give the other box to Jizo.”

“We can do that. What about Nettles?”

“We’ll be going to Blossom Heights, so we can buy some candy. Or, if she’d prefer, we could go to the cafe in Downtown.”

“Ooh! Yes! I want to go to the cafe, rina!” Netalina cried out as she approached the two. “Why are we going to Blossom Heights first, rina?”

“Jizo wants to do something,” Smile responded.

“Oh, I see, rina...Uri, where’d you get those boxes?”

“I saw a noodle delivery boy who had like a million boxes and I decided to trip him up a bit to get a box or two!” Urien seemed quite proud of this.

“Just don’t cause too much trouble, OK? Kyuu,” Jizo had finally shown up and they had all regrouped.

“Smile got me some sushi, so would you be fine with taking this soba, Jizo?” Urien held out a box to the Batan Q. He seemed to become a bit nervous but quickly calmed down and took the box.

“That’s fine, kyuu! Thank kyuu!”

“If you really want some soba, I can share with you. It’s not that common to find around here, so...”

“Ah, thanks!” Urien piped up.

After they had eaten lunch, Jizo brought them over to his old home. It turned out he had wanted to gather a few things he left behind so he could bring them back home. Most of them were bags of tea, which he decided to give to Netalina since she was the resident tea maker.

Once that had been done, they visited Shoten Temple and saw that Walter had been visiting Boomer today. They decided to form a team to go through Infinite Inferno, as Urien thought it would be a good idea to visit Ayatori-sama for the first time ever.

“I can’t believe it’s so easy to make it through here with you and Jizo in the party,” Smile breathed. In no time flat, they had gotten to the very bottom of Infinite Inferno where the once again sleeping Wobblewok lied. None of them made a sound as they approached the monstrous Yokai. Finally, they had found the glowing thread that Smile reported from the first time he entered the Inferno.

Climbing up the thread quietly led them to Amida Paradise, where the air was cool and the light above was slightly obscured by yellow clouds. As they moved forward, they met a Tengu named Kazuo who stopped to chat with Boomer about their fans and a Kirin named Kirinci who had a noble air to him.

On the way up, the light from above grew brighter and brighter as the clouds parted, until they made it to a platform with a final thread leading up and a giant shadow over it all.

“Oh, are you going up there?” Kazuo asked, seeming unsure of himself. There’s a big boss up there, you know that, right?”

“Besides, we usually just stay down here, kiri,” Kirinci added. “Ignore Kazuo, though. The boss is actually very nice. We hear he likes cat’s cradle.”

“I know that, kyuu,” Jizo responded, twiddling his fingers. “I work for him, kyuu.”

The two newcomer Yokai gasped in surprise, while the others were more or less unaffected. Walter seemed surprised for a split second, but afterwards he figured that it wasn’t that huge a deal.

“Well, well, well! Look at you, big guy!” Kazuo laughed, grinning ear to ear. “In that case, go right on ahead. But we’ll be staying here.”

“It was really nice meeting you, though!” Urien quipped. In no time flat, he was already climbing the thread upwards. The others said their farewells and climbed up the thread as well, soon reaching a bright place with the sun shining brightly, yellow clouds littering the area, and blue shining strings to boot.

In the middle of it all was Ayatori-sama, busying himself with his cat’s cradle. He didn’t even seem to notice the group of Yokai as he played. The eyes on his headdress were looking about in every direction possible, though they hardly seemed focused on any one thing.

“Wow...” Urien breathed. “He’s so big...but...he’s not looking at us. Why isn’t he looking at us?”

“That’s an easy one, kyuu,” Jizo answered. “He’s busy playing cat’s cradle while spacing out, kyuu.”

“He seemed much more focused in my dream,” Smile uttered.

“Unfortunately, this is very common with him. Most of the time he doesn’t notice me arriving, kyuu.”

Urien ended up running up to Ayatori-sama, feeling much like an ant in front of a monstrous spider.

“Hey! Ayatori-sama! Merry Christmas!” he yelled up at the spider deity. The most reaction he got out of Ayatori-sama was his three eyes looking down at him, though they practically seemed glazed over. It would be more accurate to say they were staring through Urien or past him instead of at him.

“Well, it’s almost Christmas for once,” Smile muttered. “Try again, Urien!”

“...would it be easier if I burned his cat’s cradle?” Boomer ended up asking.

“You don’t even know what that would entail,” Walter responded.

“Not much, kyuu,” Jizo answered yet again. “See all this string? He’d just make a new one, kyuu.”

“What does he even do here, rina?” Netalina asked, looking at Jizo.

“Control the strings of fate, kyuu. But, I admit, half the time I wonder if he’s actually working, kyuu.”

“He’s spacing out real hard!” Urien cried out. “Hey! If you’re exploring space right now, tell me if you find my parents!”

Ayatori-sama stopped fiddling around with his cat’s cradle and actually looked at Urien. Despite this, he still seemed to be not all entirely there.

“I said ‘Merry Christmas’,” Urien repeated.

“...I don’t believe I’ve ever properly celebrated it,” came the deity’s gentle voice. “But, Merry Christmas to you as well~ My, my...how long have you all been there~? I’m so very sorry for making you wait...”

“It’s fine,” Smile responded, a bit embarrassed. “We mostly came to see if we could make it. But, er...I guess it’s nice finally meeting you in person.”

“He seems very elegant, rina,” Netalina said. “Albeit a bit scatterbrained, rina...”

“When you’ve known him about as long as I have, you find out he’s about as elegant as a can opener without a can to open, kyuu,” Jizo muttered. “Oh, I’m sorry, that was out of line, kyuu...”

“Fufufu...I’m very sorry about, Jizo~ Cat’s cradle is very wonderful, I find it very easy to let my mind wander as I play~”

“...you take insults very well, don’t you?” Boomer asked.

“Ah~ It’s simply a bit of criticism~” Ayatori-sama replied, going back to his cat’s cradle. “Besides, I don’t find it very productive to stay hung up over such things~ It’s better to stay positive~ I believe everyone in this world to have at least a tiny bit of good inside them~”

“I suppose that’s a good way of going about it,” Walter said. He wasn’t entirely sure whether or not everyone in the world had at least some good in them, but he decided he’d mull it over later.

“Ayatori-sama does give good advice, as worldly as he is, kyuu...that is, when he’s lucid, kyuu...anyway, next time we’ll bring Nobita and Doraemon, kyuu!”

“Fufufu, I’d love that~ Are you about to head out again~?”

“Yeah, we gotta get to Downtown before the cafe closes,” Urien responded. “Next time we come, I wanna see if you found my parents or not, OK?!”

The spider deity simply gave a confused smile in response before nodding once. This seemed to satisfy Urien, although Ayatori-sama didn’t have the slightest clue what he meant.

The group said their farewells as Ayatori-sama returned to his game of cat’s cradle and was once again lost to his thoughts.