Cat-eared Shenanigans

[vrepit_no]

WHO: Shiro and whomever wants to be there
WHAT: Wildcard prompts
WHERE: Inn, Shining Karaoke, Parks, Fields
WHEN: The month of August
WARNINGS: Long-healed amputation, scars, unadulterated fluff probably


Shiro wound up in the fallout of the animal mage work and is sporting large, sleek black housecat ears and tail. He's taken too it more calmly and naturally than some, and seems to have... caught??? Some cat-like mannerisms too.

I. Naps are great, though
Shiro hasn't slept well in a while, and the magical coma last month doesn't count. So if there is a patch of sunlight, there may just be a large man in one of many seemingly impossible positions, dead asleep. His watchful little draconic familiar is settled primly nearby, watching over him for inscrutable Familiar Reasons.

II. Fishing
Where there are fish, there's a cat. Man. Cat man. Crouched low at the edge, ears low and tail tip twitching behind him, Shiro watches the water with dilated eyes. Waiting. Waiting. Are you going to let him make an attempt, or use this prime opportunity for pranking?

III. Shining Karaoke
Shiro does still turn up for his shifts at the karaoke bar, same as usual. He's acquired a nice maroon dress shirt, worn with the sleeve rolled up while he mixes drinks. His reflexes seem faster than usual right now, and the sway and curl of his tail shows just how truly this job brings him happiness. What can he get you this evening?

IV. You've Got Cats In High Places
You know what's even better than naps? Heights! Rooftops, walls, trees, the occasional lamp post... When a six-foot-four cat gets the zoomies, he inevitably seems to wind up perched somewhere high up, leaning waaaaay out to snuff the breeze. No balcony is safe.

V. Wild Horses Cats Couldn't Drag Me Away
None of these strike your fancy? No problem! Where there's a will, there's a prompt. Just post one, or reach out to me on plurk: librariansheart.

Comments

I. Naptime!

[seasoflight]

Needless to day, Felih was not expecting to find his new friend sprawled out haphazardly in the sun like... well, a Sun Seeker. Nor was he expecting that same friend to have suddenly sprouted feline ears and a tail, something that makes Felih curiously crouch and stalk closer, ears perked up and forward, tail twitching with curiosity behind him as he leans over the sleeping man.

What on earth...? Was this some sort of fae spell?

He glanced over at Shiro's familiar, giving him a cheerful smile of greeting, before he slowly reached out to paw at one of Shiro's ears, light and playful.

"Shiro? Is that you?"

Re: I. Naptime!

[vrepit_no]

"Rrrrp?" Shiro trills sleepily as he wakes, ear flicking. He rolls over and catches Felih's hand a moment before consciousness catches up with him and he lets go. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm streeeeeeetch... And a yawn big enough to press his ears back for a moment. He makes absolutely no move to get up.

"Mm, h'lo Felih," he smiles. "Lookin' for a sunspot? There's plenty of good grass." His tail tip curls up and relaxes, curls up and relaxes.

[seasoflight]

Felih couldn't help but grin down at his sleepy friend, ears perked forward in blatant curiosity.

"Well, I wasn't, but I won't turn down a cozy spot with you," he purred, tail wiggling behind him. "Though, my major concern at the moment is how you seem to have gone nearly Miqo'te," he chirps, looking amused and delighted all at once. He's missing the usual markings of Miqo'te, which is the only immediate hint that he isn't one, but goodness, Shiro could have fooled less attentive folk.

[vrepit_no]

Shiro stretches again, arching and shifting and rolling up onto his hip, tail flicking flirtatiously behind him. "Oh? What a compliment! Unfortunately it's just a spell gone haywire. Some animal mage accidentally had a spell backfire and it cursed half the island with fun additions."

"Personally, I think it's an improvement. I've missed having the opportunity to experience the world through sharper senses." His smile eases mischievously into a slow grin that's practically a smirk. "If you don't want a cuddle, we could always wrestle. We're even set up with a handicap already."

[seasoflight]

Felih's eyes catch the flirtatious wiggles of Shiro's tail, and his eyes glint with mischief and intrigue. Oh? Was Shiro making a move on him? Did he even realize what his body was doing? It made Felih purr louder and grin, leaning forward to nuzzle their noses together in a Miqo'te greeting.

"How fun! I'm so very out of the loop lately when it comes to news. I keep getting wrapped up in my scientific endeavors," he chirps, laughing softly, before Shiro's offer for a wrestle (and accompanied with that smirk-!) makes Felih's cheeks go dark and his eyes go wide.

"No, no need to wrestle," Felih laughs, a bit breathless from being caught off-guard. "I'd lose, with your strength and size. But I'll happily cuddle now that I know what's going on," he chirps, before draping himself over the other man playfully, becoming dead weight against him.

IV. High Places

[doctorintern]

Shiro might suddenly catch the sound of barking while he's minding his own business, as a dog is perched beneath and barking up at him, jumping up a few times despite obviously not being able to reach him.

And after a moment or two, an exasperated Fenton comes along and tries to pull the dog away from the tree. "No, Atom, quit it!"

Re: IV. High Places

[vrepit_no]

Shiro's ears are perked forward, more amused than frightened, tail dangling and twitching and curling. He grins and settles on haunches just out of reach.

"I didn't know you had a dog, Fenton. Handsome little guy."

[doctorintern]

Finally looking up, Fenton blinks in surprise before smiling. "Oh hey, Shiro! I didn't see you up there." Then he pauses, noting a few of the...additional features Shiro's sporting that he's pretty sure are new. "You look...different."

[vrepit_no]

There's a burst of deep purring and Shiro chuckles. "They're not original to the source matter, but I've had this sort of thing happen to me before, so it's kind of nostalgic."

He tips his head, smile becoming a little less playfully sharp. "Is it 'Atom', with a T, or 'Adam', with a D?"

[doctorintern]

"I see." He can't help a little grin. "It's not a bad look for you, honestly." While he's gotten used to humans for the most part, he has to admit that some of the animal features that some have been showing recently help make things feel a little more comfortable and familiar.

As the dog beside him starts barking again, Fenton places his hand on his head to quiet him down. "With a 'T'. He was the smallest dog among a group that had been following me around, so it seemed fitting."

II. Fishing

[tempredmental]

Oh... this was too easy. But, Keith was also part cat at the moment, and cats were jerks good at pushing things off of other things. Sorry, Shiro, but it was too hard to resist.

Keith gave him a good shove, right into the water. Thankfully, it was shallow enough that, regardless of Shiro's ability to swim sans one arm, he'd still be okay. But, darn... all those fish just panicked and fled.

Re: II. Fishing

[vrepit_no]

Shiro's yowl was abruptly cut off by the influx of water. Seconds later, however, he burst out and made a grab for Keith. He's not going to be the only wet one here!

[tempredmental]

Keith yelped in response, his cat-like curiosity having gotten the best of him as he had leaned over to look in to see Shiro's reaction. He flailed mightily, but nothing kept him from falling in!

Oops... now he was also soaking wet and standing not quite chest deep in the water. His ears flattened out to the sides and that overgrown mop of black hair dripping in his face, Keith shook his hands like that was going to help or something.

"Jerk," he said, but started laughing as he pushed the wet bangs from his eyes. "You're supposed to just fall in, not take me with you!"

[vrepit_no]

Shiro attempted in vain to flick his forelock out of his eyes, ears shedding water. "Says the one who pushed me!" he laughed. He gave up and raked the hair out of his face with his fingers instead. "There were fish in here a minute ago."

Another day he might have stayed in the river and horsed around, but right now he had water in his boots, and that must be corrected. So he hauled himself up onto the bank, shaking each leg in turn, making a face, and then sat down to pick apart the swollen boot laces.

"Were you looking for me, or just innocent victims," he grins.

[tempredmental]

Keith wasn't far behind at pulling himself out of the water as well, quietly laughing the whole time.

"Nope... just an innocent victim. It was too good a chance to pass up. Sorry, Shiro."

Well, sorry-not-sorry.

Keith settled down to also work some of the water out of his clothes, his tail tip lazily flicking up and down on the ground next to him.

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh no. That's adorable. Matt finds Shiro napping under a tree, and smiles fondly at him. He sits down next to him, and pulls out a book, and just stays there for a while, reading and watching Shiro sleep.

This is... more comfortable than he's been in a while.

[vrepit_no]

Shiro has a soft, squeaky snore going on. After a while, his fingers twitch. The tip of his tail flicks. A few minutes later, there's a bigger twitch. Hand, stomach, thighs, tail. It's quickly followed by a few more accompanied by a growl-whine mostly muffled by not actually leaving the inside of his mouth. His ears flicker in minute movements. Then all at once he jolts and wakes himself up, half sitting up before he's actually awake.

He blinks, looking around as he sinks back onto his elbow. Tick, tick, tick, tick... ding! "Matt?" A soft, deep purr starts up in his chest immediately. "When did you get here? Ev'rything okay?"

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh. That's... pretty darn adorable, Matt thinks while he watches Shiro's twitching, then realizes it's probably not a very good dream, and he's about to reach out to wake him up, when Shiro sits up.

Matt smiles fondly, a teeny blush crossing his cheeks as Shiro starts actually purring. "I've been here for a while. A few chapters, even. Everything's fine. You just looked so comfortable that I thought I'd sit here with you for a while. I didn't think you'd mind."

[vrepit_no]

"No, no, not at all," Shiro reassures him quickly. He flops back on the grass so he can rub the sleep sand from him eyes. "I'm glad you did. 'S nice."

He streeeeetches, arching high enough that his tee shirt creeps up past his navel and his tail vibrates. When he relaxes again, it's to roll onto his side and curl up around Matt's knees. (Shinryu shakes his little head and flits off up into the tree canopy and out of sight.)

"How're you doing?" Shiro asks softly, ears attentively pitched forward.

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh. Matt blushes even more when Shiro curls up around him. It's getting super hard to resist just reaching over and scritching him behind the ears. However, Matt keeps his hands to himself for now. It's so hard, though.

"I'm fine. Saw a red-haired girl on the network earlier that I almost thought was Pidge." He shrugs. "Still going to school, still learning things."

II

[writtendestiny]

She almost walks right past him. Poison's been hit by this curse too and she hasn't been handling it well, but she's at least managed to not dissolve completely into internal chaos. She's walking down the street with her hands clasped tightly around her upper arms and a pair of large black wings tucked close in to her back, an she spots someone she recognises lingering at the water's edge.

Is that..?

The young woman stops. Her grip on her arms relaxes and the tight pose of her wings drops slightly. That's... kind of cute.

She walks up behind him quietly, using the wings to balance as she leans over one of his shoulders and whispers--

"... What are you doing."

Re: II

[vrepit_no]

She startles him, and several things happen in rapid succession:
1. All of the fur on his tail, and all of his hair fluffs out to enormous Ghibli-like proportions.
2. He pushes off the ground with all four limbs up and sideways, gaining a good 3 feet of air.
3. Every fish flees in both directions.
and 4. Shiro shoots up the nearest tree, yowling, and crouches fifteen feet up huffing and warbling his alarm.

In the space of five seconds, the riverbank has transformed from peaceful to pandemonium. Huge, black eyes stare down from Shiro's perch and a moment later he coughs. The growling warble stops.

"Poison???"

[writtendestiny]

And Poison, of course, has her own animal instinct responses to what he does. Every feather across the tops of her wings puffs up, but she doesn't quite resort to fleeing in the same way that Shiro does. Any concerns she might have had are immediately banished by the sound of his voice coming from the tree.

Then she laughs. She laughs so hard she ends up doubled over with one hand curled around her stomach, the muscles there nearly in pain with the repeated spasms.

That was just too funny.

[vrepit_no]

His fluffy ears flick back and then up and forward as his shoulders slump with a mix of relief and chagrin. Settling himself cross-legged on the branch - do not ask how this occurs, he has cat balance - he rubs a curled left hand vigorously across the back of his ear, though he doesn't quite go so far as to lick his hand first.

....a minute or so later, he mutters, "Okay, it was funny, but maybe not that funny." Shiro pouts a little.

[writtendestiny]

After about a minute she has managed to contain at least some of her amusement at the whole situation, but she's still occasionally bursting into little fits of giggles that have her holding her stomach as it twinges at the muscles.

"No, it... it was."

It was definitely that funny.

"Oh, spirits--" Poison rubs her face, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to um... scare you?"