[Open to AAA] That Darn Cat

[Deleted]

This is a guild thread that is open to all Aeryn/Apocrypha members regardless of Level or Class. Monster to be encountered:

Twin-tailed Cat
Level 20 - 25
Type: Beast, Spirit
Rank: Strong
Nature: Wary
Found in: Fields and Forests
Weakness/Resistances: Weak to fire and light, resists physical debuffs (stun, slow, poison, sleep)
Skills:
- Stealth: Passive. They are difficult to see and appear like phantasms; they also leave no tracks or scent.
- Bite: Melee. Dark elemental attack. It inflicts the target with Poison for 5 seconds.
- Scratch: Melee. Dark elemental attack. It inflicts the target with Slow for 3 seconds.
- Slumbering Mist: A 3-meter mist that can be conjured up to make targets within it fall asleep. Sleep will dispel if the sleeping target is hit by any attack, physical or otherwise.

Description: A cat is said to gain human-like reasoning when it reaches an age of 10 human years. The tail splits into two and the cat gains supernatural powers. Due to this, some people kill their cats just as they turn ten years old. The twin-tailed cat is the vengeful spirit of a cat who was killed due to this, but it retains some affectionate qualities due to memories of their former life.

555 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 100%
A strange request arrived at the guild house of Aeryn that day. It was badly written, as if some child scribbled on a piece of paper. And indeed, it was a request from a child. There was no reward indicated, only the description of what was required and the name of the person who sent it: Erik. He stated that he was born and raised at Savill Flower Grove along with a male tabby cat named Roberts. On the day before his tenth birthday, he had heard his parents talking about “getting rid” of Roberts for some reason. Now, this to any other adventurer would have seemed like a child’s musings, but Caerbannog who was an animal trainer and an adventurer who was fond of creatures great and small (except cockroaches) would not leave the request aside. It seemed like a rewardless activity and she was not even sure if it was truly a child’s sad story or just a prank, nevertheless Caerbannog made her way to Savill Flower Grove. Her little home with Kumori was nearby anyway and if it turned out to be a prank, she could just sleep in all day. But if it was the truth and this child’s cat was indeed maltreated... “You! You! Adventurer!” a brown-haired boy immediately ran up to Caerbannog as soon as she set foot in the lander’s area of Savill Flower Grove, “Did you get my request? Huh? Huh?” A brown-haired man quickly ran up to the boy, picked him up and gently put him down away from the samurai. “Hah! Please excuse my son, he’s been bothering adventurers about some request all day!” the father said while the boy, who was probably Erik, crossed his arms and pouted. Caer refrained from telling the man that she did receive a request; she had left it at the guild house with the hope that someone else would follow her to help the boy. But who would follow her all the way out in the Grove anyway? Only some other loony would pick up a rewardless request to find a missing cat. Indeed, the rest of the request detailed how Roberts suddenly went missing that morning and Erik had been trying desperately to find him. “He’s old and fat and eats so much! But he is nice and kind and I love him very much!” was the child’s reason for his request. There was some semblance of a reward at the end: “I will give you my lunch for a whole week if you find him and give him back to me!” Attached was a decent painting of the aforementioned cat: At the same time, while Caerbannog looked around the Savill Flower Grove for telltale signs of some fat tabby cat, a swirl of mana and data appeared beside a bloody sack in the Windsor Greatwoods. The contents of the sack remained unseen but even from the outside, it was obviously in the shape of a small creature that had been bludgeoned to death. As the victim in the sack turned to data and disappeared into the aether, leaving behind only the bloody sack- the creature beside it took form: a plump tabby but it was nothing like the creature described by Erik. The cat, with two puffy tails instead of one, had murder in its eyes.

[Reynard]

It was quite a while since Reynard had come back to the guild house. He had been gone for personal reasons which had just been finished. Also he was still wary of his guild as he was still under the impression that they were evil. He came back mostly to appease their guild leader and make sure they didn’t plan to send an assassin at him if they thought they he was trying to escape their clutches. Plus he hadn’t bothered purchasing a home yet so this was technically the only place he could go back to. So here he was entering the empty guild.

Things had certainly changed since he last left. It looked like some stuff had finally been cleaned and fixed around here; especially that hole from the wedding. It was while searching for someone present did Reynard happen to find the mission request on the table. This looked like it was written by a 10 year old, or Caer. The mission sounded pointless but Reynard was looking for something to do. Without anyone at the guild house, Reynard would get bored easily. Who no knows? Something informative might just appear in this simple mission. It’s how this story-changing revelations start.

---

Entering the flower grove the map request had pointed to, Reynard could make out the shape of a bunch of people, including a kid. Looked like he was once again joining a quest someone had already accepted. Not the first time but maybe there was a chance it was someone from the guild. If it was, he could probably ask them what had happened he was gone.

As he was walking towards the group, Reynard’s foot caught something causing him to almost trip. He was surprised he hadn’t seen that object as his <Battle Perception> usually alerted him to any threats. Upon checking the object which almost caused his downfall, he realized why even his early warning skill had failed to alert him of the object: a brown bloody sack which was barely visible from the surrounding greenery. Before he could speculate of this grisly scene, the sack started to deflate as if the object inside was disappearing by itself.

I hope that was not my fault

Beside the sack, aether and mana started to swirl and take shape into a creature. It started coalescing into a cat with two-tails. Reynard didn’t even need his skill to tell him the cat was dangerous. The murderous look he was receiving definitely spelled that out. Reynard slowly backed away but with one hand on his katana in case it suddenly attacked.

"Nice kitty"

[Deleted]

420 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 100%
"Oh, THAT fat cat?" a lander scoffed, "It's old anyway. Maybe it croaked in some ditch." Rude. Caerbannog just asked a very simple question. She asked the man if he'd seen Roberts and had shown him the drawing. But just like with everyone else that she asked, there came no clear answer; there were only snide remarks about how the cat was old. This was rather confusing to Caer. There was something weird about how they avoided the question; also, it was very rude. The samurai sat down on a bench outside a house. Maybe she was missing out on an important detail. "They don't like old cats," a little lander girl sat next to the samurai. The girl swung her legs, which barely reached the ground, as she spoke. "They say old cats become monsters," the lander looked at her swinging feet, "My mum didn't believe it but my dad threw Mister Sniffles into the river anyway. Mum left after that. She said Londinium people were crazy." The wolf-hair took out a plate of pancakes from her inventory. Upon seeing it, the lander girl's eyes widened and she whispered "magic!"; the girl seemed even happier, if that was possible, while she ate the pancakes that the adventurer gave to her. "Thanks for telling your story," Caer nodded at the girl who busily stuffed her face with food from a complete stranger. "THEY KILLED ME," hissed Evil Roberts, "THEY KILLED ME! WHY?" As the twin-tailed cat's transformation was completed, its passive Stealth took effect. The cat appeared more like a phantasm than a tabby though its general appearance could still be ascertained if one stared long enough. There were no tracks under its feet and the creature gave off no scent. It reared its head at the nearest living creature, which unfortunately in this case was the cleric Reynard. Evil Roberts had nothing but blind rage in its head, and so the first thing that on its list was to attack someone, anyone. "WHY? WHY?!" the twin-tailed cat growled. But of course, its language was still unintelligible anyone who did not have the Tongue of Nature skill. Would Reynard try to communicate and reason with this beast? As Evil Roberts lunged towards the cleric at an attempt to deliver a very nasty Bite attack, sighs point to No. Unless the cleric was just as insane as the leaders of Aeryn, he'd probably try to take down the cat or run off. Aeryn cleric versus Level 20 twin-tailed cat. Fight!

[Nisha]

As for Nisha she was sleeping... Well, had slept till she felt like getting up and waited until there was nothing else to do on the roof of the guild house. She was a pretty new member but right from the start had decided not to get a room inside the house of the guild. It just did not feel right and she did not want to ask if there were any special rooms, she would rather just sleep outside and high up without anything special added to her wishlist. It was just how she was and nothing would change that but maybe the real world. Yawning as she wandered through the guild, she noticed a request. Usually she had little interest in quests she knew nothing about, but this one seemed interesting and kind of new, maybe even special in some way. And the fact that it had been delivered here meant that maybe some of her new guild mates were already out and about to look for this cat. Smiling at the thought of ambushing them a little... ehem... surprise them with coming now, she began to run off, leaving a trail of dust as she ran full speed and skipping steps from time to time, humming a little tune all the way until she was out of breath and rolled around in the grass to get the pain out of her sides and get air into her lungs. Sighing after a few moments, she decided to stop running and did long strides instead, much better and they at least did not make her tails flail around wildly.

After all, who only had two tails in this day and age? Six tails were the way to go. Finally reaching the destination, for once having open some of the ui and not being lost, she saw someone who looked quite familiar. Pondering on it half a second, she decided that nothing risked nothing gained and started to run toward the people in front of the rustic house. Once more wondering why people were living this far out of the civilized stretches of land anyway, not that it mattered much, sooner or later anyone craved some nature, as Nisha well knew by now. Speeding up and sliding by the person, smelling pancakes now, Nisha grinned brightly at the little girl and the little girl and said: "Tadaa. One Nisha on delivery, we having a picknick? I think I brought some juice, gimme a second." Poking into the air, several packs of juice would appear in thin air, at least a dozen of them. Nisha caught with one arm and holding them out to whoever wanted one, already drinking from one such leather pack. Nisha thought she was hearing something with her heightened hearing. But then again, maybe it was just a coincidence, the woods were always full of sounds anyway.

Words: 480
Tags: @dindeen Reynard
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

Thanks to his recent solo journey, Reynard was in a better state of mind for survival than say, if he had decided to stay in the city. Being alone meant you had to quickly deploy your skills when you encountered anything. Thus in the short moment of seeing the crazy cat, Reynard had his <Battle Perception> on allowing him to see some details about the cat: Twin-tailed Cat, lvl 20. The cleric gave a mental tsk as the monster’s level was a bit higher than his. But as long as he watched it properly and anticipated its attacks he would do f- and the cat just disappeared.

Realizing the cat had some sort of stealth skill, survival reactions, honed from solo playing, immediately thought of the counterattack. Using one of his few AOE skills, <Holy Rampage>, the battle-cleric released a wave of mana in order to hit the hidden monster. Unfortunately, this caused his mana to imbalance, which felt like a mild dizziness washing over him. Thankfully, he was used to this and he could still respond physically to fight.

After his skill use, Reynard finally drew his sword and wand out. He was still sweeping his head from side to side to try and get a glimpse of the cat if it showed up. Hopefully the battle would draw the attention of the group of people as Reynard wasn’t going to risk trying to get their attention in case the stealth cat decided to attack him just then. Back-up would be useful right about now.

[Deleted]

500 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 100%
The little lander girl thoroughly enjoyed the pancakes that was given to her by the stranger, and the little adventurer girl thanked the lander for the information. Some distance away, obscured by the trees of the Greatwoods, a member of Aeryn was in peril but the samurai Caerbannog remained oblivious to Reynard’s plight. Maybe if he screamed like a girl, she would notice the damsel in distress but otherwise he was just a shadow in the woods, something that could easily be ignored. Yet here was something, or someone, that could not be easily ignored: the foxtail samurai Nisha had just walked into the scene. The wolf-hair had not seen her fellow fluffball in a while, and the first thing that Caer noticed was the ever-poofy collection of tails. Caerbannog stood up and faced Nisha. The wolf-hair put down the juice that was offered to her, and then she took the other samurai’s hands into her hands. The samurai focused and stared into the other’s eyes, and with all her might she screamed: “YOU’RE SO FLUFFY! I’M GONNA DIE!” The landers who had been walking about as they minded their own business actually turned to look at the two adventuring samurai. Three little girls on a bench and one had pancakes all over her face, while the other two were hand in hand. It was like an awkward scene from a shoujo manga. Older people just shook their heads at what they saw especially since Caer still held Nisha’s hands tightly. It seemed that she had forgotten why she was there, up until the little lander girl held up the crude handwritten request that the samurai dropped somewhere at her feet. Using an area of effect attack was a crafty way to go around the situation. Evil Roberts flinched when the cleric’s attack hit it out of the blue, and so it was unable to Bite the adventurer out right. But two can play at that game! The twin-tailed cat stared daggers at the cleric and for a moment, his phantasmic appearance was slightly visible between two trees to the adventurer’s right side. But whether it was an illusion or the real thing, that was uncertain and will remain uncertain until the end of this thread. What mattered now was that the twin-tailed cat, in all its anger and rage, let out a very strong and pungent fart. One might think it rude, but that was the cat’s method of using its Slumbering Mist skill. Roberts, when he was still alive as a common household pet, was known for his horrible burps and farts. It seemed that Evil Roberts retained that trait but now it was a more useful release. As the cloud spread quickly and covered the small area, anything and anyone caught in it, save for Evil Roberts itself, almost instantly fell into a deep slumber. If the cleric showed any signs of drowsiness, Evil Roberts would not miss the chance to Bite Reynard’s arm; specifically, his arm that held his wand.

[Nisha]

Nisha´s ears were ringing as she suddenly was under the full duress of the little samurai´s voice. So far Nish had seen many different things from Neun, had seen her rip apart a golem, had seen her converse with monsters and had seen her crafting. But always she had at most talked normally. Usually whispered and more than often had barely spoken up, but here she was, suddenly screaming at the top of her lungs right into Nisha´s face and absolutely surprising her. It was definitely something to behold and a story she would definitely tell hiro and tobin the next time they were drinking. But really, she had been surprised from the moment Caerhad suddenly taken her hands into hers, there Nisha had stood, blinking confused at the smaller girl, blinking several time as if the situation would resolve itself before Nisha could take a clear thought again. But lo and behold suddenly there came the scream and thus this came to be. A blush spread across Nisha´s cheeks as she noticed the stares of the other people, but was quickly gone again, remembering who she was and what she was doing. There was no need for such a thing as she concluded and instead decided that even though there was ringing in her ears multiplied by her skill and pounding her brain and eardrums, she was indeed happy.

So happy, she moved her and Caer´s hands up and down as she twirled a little as if dancing. Waiting for the noise to calm down a little and hear her own words again before she spouted something garbled. Feeling confident enough in her speech center again, she exclaimed: "Don´t you die on me now before you feel how fluffy they really are. Then you can melt away from them." Laughing a little, she looked around and wondered who the little girl was who held up some message or another which now that Nisha had a quick glance looked somewhat familiar. There was a reason she had come here, but it had taken a backseat now that she had reunited together with the cute samurai girl. It was really weird how they met up usually, every time they had stories to tell afterwards, be it the creation of a hybrid weapon or them both seeing someone foolhardily charging and getting into danger and with sheer luck getting out alive, but this time seemed a bit different, as if there was more to it and yet a very clear goal. With her tails wagging, she could not hold herself back anymore and hugged the girl in front of her before letting go and asking: "It´s awesome to meet you again caer, you got even cuter from before, guess newlyweds get that. What were we supposed to do again?" Nisha had chuckled a little in the middle since she could barely imagine caer being married to someone. But then again, she definitely seemed like someone who would get someone to like her enough to marry her. "Ah, now I blew it, first thing I wanted to say when we met again was: 'damnit someone stole you before I could'."

Words: 527
Tags: @dindeen Reynard
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

Fighting inside the forest was not helping matters at all. It just provided the cat better hiding places. At least the AOE attack managed to stop it for now as well as giving Reynard vision of the creature for a split second. His perception skill did allow him to spot it easily when it became visible as even the Name and HP bar appeared automatically. They helped tracked cat but unfortunately when the cat decided to hide, the UI also disappeared. Determining that he was at further disadvantage by staying among the trees, the cleric decided to escape the battlefield and head to the open area. The fact that there were people there than could help him, if they bothered to acknowledge his presence.

As he was running away from the spot he last saw the monster, Reynard suddenly felt tired. It was a bit odd that he would feel winded by such a short run. He was fitter than that when he last remembered. Unknowingly, the fox tail had been hit by the mist and was starting to feel drowsy. His arms and legs felt like lead while his ears and tail were drooping. Before he could realize what had happened to him, his sudden exhaustion disappeared when a pain shoot through his wand arm. The force of whatever hit his arm cause as well as his lazy run cause him to lose his balance and fall forward.

Groaning in pain, Reynard felt a bit worse and decided to check his status bar right away unlike before. He mentally cursed as he saw a poison icon beside his reduced HP bar. Trying to get up, Reynard planted his sword to the ground for some leverage. He casted a <Reactive Heal> on himself to try and mitigate the next damage. The cleric searched around for any signs of shimmering light to find out where the cat was. It was a bad move to turn his back to the cat but at least he was nearer the group of people.

Of course, it wasn’t certain that group manage to notice him. Despite being attacked, Reynard barely made any sounds to attract attention. Plus it had to look a bit comical as with the cat being invisible, it looked like the fox tail just took a clumsy nose dive to the ground. For now Reynard would just be on guard with his sword, constantly checking his surroundings and praying that someone noticed him soon.

[Deleted]

500 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 100%
Caerbannog twirled and danced and giggled with Nisha, up until the little lander girl so politely interrupted their reunion. It was then that the other samurai asked why they were at the Grove, and so the wolf-hair looked up at the sky to search for the thoughts that fluttered into the clouds. Pancakes and juice and reunions were too nice to out aside for- oh a person fell over. The landers began to make a ruckus when some derp tripped over his own shoe laces. Caer was about to sigh and wave it off, but then she actually recognized the cleric Reynard who had fallen over. One hand broke free from the hand-lock with Nisha as she pointed so rudely at the cleric who struggled to get up. "Oh! I know him!" the wolf-hair exclaimed, "He's the foxtail cleric who brought his foxtail cleric girlfriend to Ryuu-nii's wedding!" Her other hand still in Nisha's own hand, Caer, very slowly, made her way to Reynard and would only stop if her fellow samurai did not tag along. The cleric had fallen but he seemed just fine, from her point of view that is. He was being quite the weirdo with his weapons out but of course that's what happens when you run into a raging invisible cat. Caerbannog pulled up her interface to check the cleric's profile... not that she forgot his name or anything! Either way, that worked to the young man's advantage because the wolf-hair actually noticed that his health had dropped. Fall damage? "Are you okay, Healer-kun?" Caer called over to the cleric as she waved over to him with her free hand. Meanwhile, Evil Roberts was right on Reynard's tail. He was going to completely wreck that adventurer's face! But why? Well, for no good reason, of course! Who in their right mind would even question the motivations of a raging invisible cat? Or any cat in general? The kind and gentle Roberts had been lost to the aether and the only left was a malevolent beast that was fuel by vengeance- at least that's what most people are inclined to think. Maybe somewhere in Evil Roberts, there remained memories of his happy life with the lander family. Up until the parents gave in to peer pressure and killed the innocent old cat by bludgeoning it to death, no less. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" the twin-tailed cat hissed as it lunged towards the cleric Reynard. The samurai Caerbannog sensed a disturbance in the Force. No, wait, that was just Evil Roberts baring his claws as he jumped at Reynard's face for a Scratch attack. As the cat moved through the air, its phantasmic appearance created ripples in the empty space in front of the cleric. Its unsheathed claws glimmered momentarily under the sunlight; such shiny nails.While the cat was almost completely invisible, its meows and hisses could still be heard by those who were nearby. "Is that a cat poltergeist?" the wolf-hair samurai tilted her head to one side, "A nyannyangeist?"

[Nisha]

Really happy to have found a friend once again in this world that seemed to grow and sadly enough grow more distant with every day, Nisha fully enjoyed the little swirling and twirling, dancing and joy. Who knew how long it woud take to meet again... actually since they were in a guild they would most likely meet each other much more often now, maybe she should invite caer to a pajama party on top of the roof with some other people once she found out how many more girls were in the guild. Some tea and cookies, a death threat toward all the guys. It would be fun. Even if they had to do that alone, but if Nisha had Caer in mind correctly she had more than enough friends to fill a roof or two. Suddenly though the dancing stopped as someone started to make a ruckus, Nisha had heard weird sounds since some time before that sounded like fighting but since it was of no concern to her she had not cared about them all that much or rather not at all. But now that she saw someone on the ground and Caer´s recognition of him even though he was on the ground, he seemed to become a bit more important and she remembered the sounds, wondering if he had been attacked by pkers or something since they were this close to a village.

Tilting her head a little, she was pulled along toward the cleric who seemed like he could use some help. Until she heard caer´s exclaimation about some ghost to which she needed to laugh out loud and finally knew that something more was afoot. Still laughing at the nyannyangeist as Caer had dubbed it, she moved near automatically, feeling this was her place to shine and a good space to try out a skill she got weirdly little use out of before. Also, it allowed her to not break contact with Caer. "Divinity bubble." Nisha called out as she pressed her hand on the ground, sure she had tried it out before, but it had never really come in handy before and just like any of her skills she had renamed it herself into something she thought of as appropriate. And a bubble it was. Spreading feet five in any direction and shimmering and glittering with holy symbols, a light show to behold. And the best of all it pushed and forced the cat away from attacking, throwing it out as if it had jumped against a bouncy castle. Making it crash into a nearby tree hopefully. Staying in a crouched position, a bit too tall for the bubble to cover her head as well, she looked at the person Caer knew. "You alright? Need a heal or something? Also Caer your naming sense is as fantabulous as ever." Chuckling a little still at the outburst of the name Caer had had, she listened real hard if she could hear the cat, since it seemed to become invisible too easily and they had to take whatever sense they had instead to make use of. "I just hope the nyangeist" short snigger "does not attack the villagers, that would be a shame. Anyone got a good idea? The bubble lasts only a minute or so." Nisha said with a grin on her face, not being able to help it sicne the situation was too good to not be happy. Also, if the cleric would ask for a heal, she would use the spell on him. Too bad she could not see his status, but at least she would try to help.

Words: 607
Tags: @dindeen Reynard
Skills: Holy Banishment
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

Good news: people finally noticed him and came over to help out. Bad news: it was Caer, the guildmate who was more likely to kill him than help him. At least that was Reynard’s opinion on his fellow guildmaster and it had nothing to do with his paranoia with the guild. Speaking of guildmembers, it seemed there was another one here that Reynard wasn’t familiar yet: another fox-tail named Nisha. Which begged the question on how two guildmates, who had arrived earlier, failed to encounter the demon cat before Reynard did. Maybe he was just unlucky.

While Caer was more concerned with naming the Demon Cat properly, Nisha had the sense to provide some actual action by setting up a defensive bubble preventing the cat from landing another hit the poor Cleric. It gave some breathing room for him and more time to prepare against the enemy. Trying to keep an eye on the shimmering, the only sign of the demon cat when invisible, Reynard addressed his guildmates’ questions.

“I am fin-ugh.” Reynard stumbled a bit as a sickly feeling came over him. A quick peek to his status bar determined what was causing this sensation.

“I guess I am not fine. Poisoned and some of my HP has been removed. I do not have a debuff spell yet so if one of you has one please use it.”

With his left hand, Reynard accessed the his UI and “pressed” on the forms of two guildmates two invite them into a party. While Reynard could possible handle it, it would be a lot faster with back-up.

“Trivia, the monster is called ‘<Twin-tailed Cat>’ and can become invisible. I am requesting some assistance if you do not mind.”

Whether or not the two would help, Reynard cast an <Anima Sphere> to get ready when the bubble went down and the cat undoubtedly attacked once more.

[Deleted]

505 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 95%
The people of the land, curious as they were, gathered nearby to see what the adventurers were up to. To them, it seemed to be some weird show with a foxtail that tumbled and another foxtail with her little sister. Caerbannog heard a bit of the meowing and hissing though, so she toggled on her Tongue of Nature skill. And what did she hear? "- you will pay for this!" the cat hissed even as he bounced off of the 'Divinity Bubble', unable to get close to the cleric, "YOU'LL PAY!" While that was already a rather vague part of Evil Roberts' tirade, the wolf-hair spun it around in her head some more and came up with a convoluted theory about what was happening to Reynard. "Healer-kun, I think you owe him moneys..." Caer shook her head; resorting to debtors was never a good idea, and it was obviously one of the worst ideas to owe a raging invisible cat any sum of moneys. The heal and bubble from Nisha protected Reynard for a moment as they leisurely chatted, but it was not going to last for long. And obviously, the cleric had gotten most of Evil Roberts' Hate so he'd be at the receiving end of the cat's attacks. But it was a good thing that the young man lured the nyannyangeist out to the open fields for the light and the winds gave away the figure of the attacking beast. As some gusts swept down through the Grove, the grass leaned towards the right side of Reynard and Nisha; at this point, Caerbannog had taken to turning around in place so let's not bother to position the target in relation to her. "You're dead!" Evil Roberts hissed again as the bubble began to dissipate; the cat aimed for the cleric's legs. As Caer finished her turn-around game, she put her index and middle fingers together and then she pulled the 'trigger'. "BANG!" the samurai exclaimed. Wind Bullet shot from her fingertips towards Evil Roberts whose figure was noticeable due to the leaning grass. Because she had been turning around for no good reason though, Caer was slightly disoriented and so the Bullet attack only grazed the cat. It made the nyannyangeist flinch, but after a brief moment he pressed on and attempted to land another Bite attack at the cleric. Something else made the cat stop and turn around though. "Roberts!" the little boy yelled as he appeared from behind one of the house, "You're here! I heard you! Roberts!" The young lander called out, having heard the hisses and meows of Evil Roberts. But no sooner than the boy had walked close to the fight, his father came along running and he picked the boy up. "Roberts is dead! He's dead! He's not coming back!" the man yelled as he ran away with the flailing boy on his shoulders. "But I heard him! I swear I did!" the little lander cried, "Roberts! Roberts! I'll give you a lot of milk and fish! Please come back!"
OOC: So... good ending (reunion with cat) or bad ending (double dead cat)?

[Nisha]

Nisha stared at the invite of the person in front of her asking for assisstance and sounding pretty old fashioned. Maybe he was in too deep? There were those, people who got so absorbed into the game that they forgot it was a game and then the next level where they even forgot who they really were and started to use the lingo of the npc, she had lost more than one person to that and wondered if this guy would be one of those fallen ones. Well, fallen in the sense that no one came close to them anymore and usually vacated the area when they were around, playing with that thought, she wondered if she should accept the invite in fear of being roped into little larping scenarios and what not. In the end, her sense of curiosity won out and she accepted after healing him and having cast the bubble already. Sighing, she looked over to caer who had come up with a funny little quib already and wa wondering if this person was actually owing a cat money. Still chuckling from the name bit, she put her hand in front of her mouth to muffle the sounds of laughter and wiped away an imagenary tear before saying: "Yeah, better give the ghost back it´s money, or it might just haunt you forever. And would that nyat be a nyaternity of trouble?" Being unable to do much else in the time the bubble lasted from how she was breathless and on the ground, as if stricken with a curse, but denying any detrimental effects if asked about it, she finally regained herself as the bubble was slowly dissipating and Caer shooting a bullet of wind in an, what normally would be quite threatening motion but because caer was the one doing it, adorable and cute fashion.

The cat was blown back and even though Nisha did not get what it was saying, she could at least somewhat understand what was going on as a lander boy ran over to them and called out for a cat. She did not know if it had always been this aggressive or only after it died, but it did not matter really, she was not someone to stand in between someone and their pet and hated it when parents were taking such matters into their own hand. Standing up abruptedly, she felt the stings of air malnurition and laughing too much and saw red splots for a second before she walked over in long strides and picked the little boy from the mans shoulder like an apple from a neighbors garden and instead of saying anything began to run in the direction she heard the cat hissing and meowing. If anything could bring these two together again it would have to be the full work of this child. Nothing else would work. "Listen here boy, this is no favor for you and if this does not work we will take care of the cat, so scream out and make your pet understand what you are saying. Make it come back." Nisha did not know if the others would be on board, but she looked over to them, her intent to at least try written on her face, but also the full preparedness of killing the cat if it came to it. Nisha was not above hurting a single child´s feelings if it was that or her own life, but she had already jumped over her shadow by trying to stand up to the boys parents. From whom she had felt a slight hint of not guilt but at least that they were somehow involved and responsible for this mess. "What´s your name boy?" Nisha asked the boy on her shoulders and started to run off into the woods, hoping to find and maybe corner the cat so it had to make the decision.

Words: 652
Tags: Reynard @dindeen
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

The monster was still hissing at him, circling the temporary barrier that it was unable to enter. It would be a matter of time before it went all crazy on him again. At least he had some help with him now. Between him and these over-leveled guildmates, the cat was as good as dead.

"Healer-kun, I think you owe him moneys..."

On second thought, Reynard was as good as dead. He couldn’t even fathom at the moment how the wolf-hair managed to jump to that conclusion nor why she was spinning like a top. If he wasn’t in a battle right now, palm would have met face by now. To make matters worse, the bubble was starting to dissipate allowing the cat to attack. Reynard barely registered some sort of movement to the side when Caer suddenly shouted ‘Bang’ and somehow shot something with her bare hands. In hindsight, it probably should have been obvious to him that she used a skill to attack.

At least thanks to the attack, Reynard had a vague idea were the cat was and could use the displacement of the environment around it to determine its location. Judging by the movement going towards him, the cat was going to attack until it stopped when a boy started calling towards it. Things were going to be bad if the cat suddenly targeted the helpless boy. It was going to be a scene that had no way of ending well. Thankfully, one of the other landers had enough sense to remove the boy from the danger zone.

Unfortunately, the other member of the party did not have enough sense and proceeded to pluck the boy from lander and decided bring the helpless boy closer to the demon cat. Scratch that, this was apparently a demon-zombie-ghost cat. Reynard was about to reprimand Nisha for her decision but she sent him a look which somehow explained what she wanted to do. Curse Reynard’s weakness to cute female faces.

“I hope this will do something.” Reynard whispered to himself.

The cleric readied his weapons while the Anima Sphere he summoned floated lazily beside him. If the boy’s words had no effect on the monsters, the only choice would be to kill the undead monster… again.

[Deleted]

535 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 95%
The nyannyangeist was stunned for a moment as his life flashed before his eyes. Apparently, the lander boy was connected to his past; to all good memories of his past. His voice sounded familiar and his face was in Evil Roberts' memories too, but it took a while for the truth to be sorted out. It was fortunate that Nisha turned around to bring the boy to the cat, otherwise the creature would have gone after the landers. Evil Roberts' attention was all on his memories now and the foxtail cleric Reynard was mostly safe. "I'm Erik!" the boy replied to Nisha, "And that's our old cat, Roberts!" Erik pointed at Evil Roberts who, while lost in his thoughts, phased in and out of view every few seconds. "I just wanted to sleep... sleep..." the phantom cat began to meow, "I was on the window sill with Mister Froggy." Evil Roberts looked down as the ground, and then his head shot up as his eyes stared straight at the lander boy. "Where's Mister Froggy?!" the cat demanded. Unfortunately, the twin-tailed cat's language was still that of a beast and so only someone with Tongue of Nature could understand what it was saying. The samurai glanced over to Erik's father who had turned around to try and get his son back, but the presence of Evil Roberts kept him away. A bright green stringy leg dangled from his pocket, and the wolf-hair dashed over to the man's side right away. She pulled the leg, which was still attached to its body fortunately, and put the frog toy up for the world to see. "Froggy!" the adventurer yelled and immediately, Evil Roberts ran around her legs. "Oh oh! My best buddy!" the twin-tailed cat meowed and purred as if it was back to what it once was. "A monster! Monster!" Erik's dad yelled as he noticed the phantasm which blinked in and out of view every once in a while, "I killed you! I already killed you dead!" All at once, a murmur swept the crowd. There were looks of disgust or disbelief; one would think that Erik's father had been insane enough to randomly kill their house cat. "Oh, get off it!" the girl who had eaten Caerbannog's pancakes exclaimed, "You old people here have that stupid superstition about cats that turn to monsters so you get rid of them!" Evil Roberts then ran towards Nisha and brushed against the foxtail's legs. "I remember that boy! Kind of!" the twin-tailed cat purred and then he went back to Caerbannog who still held the frog toy, "Give me my Mister Froggy and we'll run away from here!" Sensibility dictated that the wolf-hair samurai should explain what was going on, so sensible little Caerbannog did what sensible little Caerbannogs should do. She shrugged without a word and tossed the frog toy to the cat. "Yay! Froggy!" Evil Roberts purred as he picked up the toy by its scruff and ran towards the woods with it. He turned and shot one last angry look at Erik's father and at the cleric Reynard, and then the cat vanished into the Greatwoods of Windsor. "What's going on? Where's Roberts going?" Erik cried.

[Nisha]

And suddenly all seemed resolved. The cat had come close and not attacked, Nisha had not even felt resistance as it rubbed up against her leg and wondered what was going on, but in the end, everything seemed resolved, a monster was allowed to live, a child would be hurt and several adults would be shunned from now on. But who ever said that endings had to be happy. This way everyone was equally unhappy, the cat was dead, the child had lost it´s friend, the parents being had been dragged to light and the only ones who gained from it were Nisha, caer and that dude that had looked at her weirdly as if she was crazy. All in all, she wondered if she should ask for his name, having barely any hud open sometimes helped stay ignorant as well. But really, this all seemed so easy, too easy, so easy that something just had to go wrong at some point. Not right now, but maybe another time, another time they would have to intervene or find a village raided by spirit beasts. Just another quest in the masses where the lander would be the only one to suffer and give the adventurers power. But it was none of Nisha´s concern for now, as she looked at the cat vanishing into the trees with the toy that Caer had thrown at it, most likely the only thing that had really kept the cat here.

Well, of no concern to her until she was asked to kill the cat by the parents, which would happen sooner rather than later. Poor boy, he had yet to get it and Nisha, who was not that good with children lifted him off her shoulders and handed him to his mother whose only concern was to get out of the eyes of the public as soon as possible. Ah, what a sad day, Nisha thought as she began to smile again. "Well, that was quite something, I guess you understood what it said Caer? Just like with your little bunny back then? Seems all is resolved then. Guess asking for a reward would be somewhat callous, huh?" The boy was most likely crying and was the only one after a bit of thought who would have given the quest. Seems like today they worked for nothing, literally. Humming a funny little tune, she walked over to Caer and asked: "So, how about it, want to get something to drink or some food? I ran all the way over and am feeling quite famished and thirsty, you... want to come with as well?" Nisha had looked over to the third in the group and wondered if he would come with them. More company was always good but he did not seem like the sociable sort from how little she had seen, maybe he would surprise her in the end. As they say, any end is an end and that is what counts, stories needed an end to be told to the next people and this one was worthy being told if only for how quickly seemingly complicated situations could be resolved with the right kind of intuition and the right kind of skills. "Oh and you have to tell me everything about your wedding, only got some snipets from other people and you know how that can be, getting the wrong kind of info or garbled, ah, wish there were still screenshots." It made her wonder if she would be blown off just like back when they had first met and fought together, where caer had walked off with scoria in tow.

Words: 607
Tags: @dindeen Reynard
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

To the cleric’s great surprise, it looked like the boy’s words were having an effect on the monster cat. What effect, Reynard had no idea as he could only hear evil sounding meowing and/or hissing coming from the animal. Unfortunately, the fox-tail had no skills to know what the monster wanted. If he remembered correctly, Caer did have one so maybe she could explain what the thing wanted. Hopefully soon as his Anima Sphere was going to go off soon and might trigger aggro from the cat.

It seemed that @dindeen did understand what the thing wanted, which somehow involved a toy frog from the boy Nisha was holding. Nothing made sense as the cat started to calm down and actually look like a common household cat, except for the two tails it still sported. Reynard felt he was missing something, he just knew it. He didn’t have to wonder long as some Lander conveniently explained the superstition about cats turning into monsters.

“That is a thing?!” Reynard exclaimed form sheer bewilderment as his Anima Sphere healed him.

If you were supposed to kill the cat to prevent it from being a monster, that method obviously not working as it apparently brought back the cat with even worse powers. Who even comes up with these superstitions? Sounded like something a parent would say as an excuse to a child to explain why their cat was “gone”. This kind of story probably spiraled out of control once the child disseminated the information to other children. Amazing how a simple lie can spawn a literal monster.

Whatever thoughts of Reynard about the cat’s origins didn’t matter as the cat left without any fuss as soon as Caer gave the frog. Reynard swore the cat gave him a look before disappearing. While he was relieved the monster cat was gone from the presence of the landers, Reynard was still a gamer at heart and briefly realized that there were no rewards to be gotten from fighting the cat. No exp, loot or reward at all; major disappointment. Even Nisha had the same idea.

Reynard didn’t like the idea of leaving monster with cloaking capabilities inside the woods. That would definitely cause some incident at some point in the future. But with the cat’s stealth skills, they would need a tracker to be able to chase the thing. While it would be pointless to bother hunting the monster, Reynard wanted to get out of the awkward scene they were in. A crying child, ashamed parent, scolding lander and adventurers with no quest, things were definitely bothersome.

It was to his relief then that Nishi offered him an invitation even if Reynard rarely went to these kind of things. He wasn’t anti-social per se, he was just too lazy to go out sometimes. Reynatd answered with a nod while the two girls started chatting.

[Deleted]

510 words HP 100%		Pet: none MP 100%
Boy, things went from zero to awkward. Erik flailed and cried out for Roberts but the cat was long gone, and the boy's father could only pick up his son before he ran home as quickly as his legs could carry him. In the middle of it all were adventurers who got nothing but aches and bruises from the ordeal. The cleric Reynard probably suffered the worst; his guild members even thought he was just being an idiot earlier. Caerbannog stared at the landers who stared at them; it became a staring contest and eventually, the samurai won. After a short while, Nisha brought up the idea of snacks and drinks. Brilliant! "Fluffy-chwan, this is Reynard," the wolf-hair suddenly pointed at the cleric; and then she pointed at the other samurai, "Healer-kun, this is Nisha." Ah, great introductions. Always save the best for last! Speaking of which, Caerbannog did have some good food on her. And so without another word, the wolf-hair samurai took out a black yukata from her inventory and then she dropped it on the ground. It looked like some rag sprawled all over the grassy area. Caer sat down beside it and then she began to take out the foods and drinks which were in her inventory. Since there was apparently no item limit in Elder Tale, or perhaps it was a ridiculously high number, the wolf-hair had accumulated so many things. "Mushroom and carrot soup," Caer said as she put down a bowl of sliced mushrooms and carrots that floated in a clear broth. A plate of fried breaded meat, shaped oddly like little dinosaurs and letters of the alphabet, was then brought out and put on the yukata: "Questionable nuggets". The wolf-hair placed a saucer of what she called "honeyed raspberry on carrot" beside the nuggets. The small items were exactly that: fresh raspberries which had been coated in wild honey and placed on crisp, thinly-sliced carrots. After the samurai said "chili potato soup", she put down a bowl of cooked potatoes in a soup of thyme and chili peppers. A bottle labeled "grape mogu-mogu" was set down somewhere on the yukata; it was a concoction of cold grape juice with some kind of jelly cubes. Another bottle of cool drink was "iced mint tea". Her serving of pancakes had already been eaten by the lander girl, unfortunately, so no more pancakes. Instead, Caerbannog brought out some rolls which seemed rather plain until bitten into, at which point it would be revealed that they were hamburger rolls with perfectly cooked beef inside. A small bottle of inferno sauce, some super-spicy thing that Caerbannog once made for the guardian Oxford, was placed near the hamburger rolls. The wolf-hair had so many desserts in her inventory so she picked one that could be shared with her guildmates: Dwarven Apple Pie. Oh, she would love to slice through that familiar face on the pie. "Itadakimasu!" Caerbannog exclaimed as she took out her kama Freki and used it to rudely slice across the Dwarf's face... on the apple pie.

[Nisha]

Nisha had actually thought about heading somewhere to eat, but suddenly the table was filled by a seemingly endless supply of food from caer´s inventory that just... did not end and was quite bottomless. But what had surprised her before that was that caer was even sticking around, the guy had nodded to show his consent and from what she had seen so far, caer did not really seem to care much about him. Reynard, was it? But maybe this was more complicated than it appeared at first. Caer definitely was a class for herself with how she handled herself and the people around her, but Nisha was not gonna give in this easily and be this much outdone. But really, if she had just said what she wanted, Nisha could have pulled out some rag or blanket to sit on, seemed a little bit wasted to use clothing, well, whatever the reason behind it, there they were anyway. Time to party a bit everyone not getting what they wanted and yet having a full day. Positive. "Uhh, this looks delicious." Nisha said and stepped closer to the treasure trove that was laid out in front of her, wondering what she should do about it. Jump into it and claim it all for herself or slowly eat from the outer parts and work her way inwards. Tilting her head in thought, she said with a somewhat absent minded voice: "Nice to meet you rey, I am fluffy-chwan." Okay, she was basically not even conscious anymore overwhelmed with the situation as she was until she decided to just take something and eat it. Right there and then.

Closing her eyes, she knelt in front of the food and randomly grabbed something, biting into it and savoring the taste as it exploded in her mouth and she basically melted into a seating position. "Hwaaaaaah, so tashhhhtilishhhhioush." She exclaimed with a full mouth and felt as if she had ascended, even if this should not be the best food it was friggin delicious. Honey that was about to drip from her fingers got licked off by her tongue doing quick work with the rebellious pieces of honeyed fruit. Opening her eyes again, she quickly took another and got to eating while she wondered what she should offer that would even fit this table. Before she had thought she could maybe get something nice, but in comparison it faded now. In the end, she decided on something she had paid a pretty penny for. Bags of hard chocolate candy in all kinds of shapes and another bag with nuts coated with crystalized sugar. A girl had got to have her sweets on the ready after all and this seemed the only thing she could bring to the table that was not already there and overbearing as it was it would serve as a nice dessert once they finished this. Since Nisha´s new objective was: "Let´s conquer this heap of food and drink until we pop!" She had even stood up and was pointing her finger at the food like a conqueror with a wagging tail and hunger in her eyes. "Oh, right." Nearly she had forgotten the booze, a long flask a feet in length filled with delicious wine from a quest a while back where she had herself plucked this in backbreaking work. She had had two of those, but she had already finished the other before. "Itadakimasu, ah, with this company it´s gonna taste ten times better even." Laughing she tried the super spicy stuff and felt her tongue burn right from the moment it impacted, but the aftertaste was heavenly before she took a drink from the wine jug and gave it to the next person.

Words: 619
Tags: Reynard @dindeen
Weapon: Nishan(Scar)
Armor: Nishanat (Daybreak)
Accessoires: Nishani (Keepsake)

[Reynard]

@dindeen, in her infinite wisdom, realized she could introduce the two unfamiliar members to each other. Nisha, or known as “Fluffy-chawn”, was almost as tall as him and looked like she had a black over-all color scheme. Reynard was debating if he should refer to her a fluffy-chawn as even Nisha had refer to herself as that. At least Reynard remained “Rey” instead of “Healer-kun” as that was to generic for him to get behind.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance as well.” He greeted back

When Nisha offered to eat, Reynard expected to get back to the guildhall and eat there. Instead, Caer brought out one of her clothing and created an impromptu picnic right there and then. It still amused Reynard on how the item system here still acted like a game as Caer was able to bring out multiple foods out from a small pouch still fresh. At least, Reynard hoped they were still fresh. He hadn’t checked if food stayed fresh inside the bag. Then again he never had to hoard the same amount of food Caer was bringing out.

Following their lead, Reynard politely took a sit at one side, making sure to wrap his tail properly. While the location of their impromptu picnic left much to be desired, Reynard wasn’t going to turn down free food anytime soon. Especially if they were cooked by an adventurer. Home cooking had been scarce on his journey. True enough, the food was outstanding and Reynard was a bit disappointed he could put more eloquent description to his food. He was more of a good food and bad food kind of person.

“This is excellent food.”

Aside from the food, there was also the wine Nisha was offering. Needing something to wash away the bad mood from the monster, Reynard happily took it and drank a good amount. He instantly regretted it as the spicy flavor made itself known causing his face to redden and his mouth to burn, ears to tense and tail to straighten abruptly. Using an old and tested method to remove spicy flavors, Reynard quickly stuffed his mouth with the strongest flavor food.

“Is there any water available?” Reynard asked when his mouth was no longer mourning the death of its taste-buds