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Post by DesperateDark on Aug 11, 2009 15:34:09 GMT -5
For some reason or another, Caleb always felt sleepy when midday rolled around. When noon came along, he always found himself yawning and thinking of nothing but his bed and how he needed sleep. Maybe it stemmed back to, when he was a young child, his mother would always make him take naps in the afternoon to keep his energy up. Or maybe it was his own need to replenish his energy as often as he could.
Either or, he found himself suddenly feeling very drowsy as he did some simple, easy exploring across a large meadow and the boarders of the woods just that framed it. He had tried many times before to kick his need for a nap in the afternoon, but with very little success. The exploring he was doing right now didn't require much effort; he had badly busted up his knee two weeks ago with Melissa and, though he was now off the crutches, he still limped and decided to keep taking it easy for a while.
Deciding that this time, it was probably just wiser to give in to the need for sleep. He hadn't gotten that much sleep last night anyways, and most of last week had been very restless. Caleb's black and grey eyes swept over the area, searching for a place where he could curl up. He was feeling too lazy or tired to start heading home right now, and he still wanted to poke around after he woke up.
Spotting a tree that was near the end of the meadow, Caleb trotted over to it and figured it was a good of a spot as any. It was shady so he wouldn't wake up with a horrible sunburn, but still speckled with sun so he would stay warm. The spring had just begun, so the weather was unpredictable at times.
So he sat under the shady tree and scrunched up his backpack so it would be at least somewhat comfortable as a pillow. Curling up and resting his head on the makeshift pillow, it was almost instantaneous that he drifted off into sleep.
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Aug 17, 2009 12:48:54 GMT -5
In a way, having a cold was something of a godsend. Nobody wanted you around for fear of your snotting on them, nobody bothered you with missions because it was fairly obvious your sneeze would give you away, and best of all, you were all but ordered to go home and sleep it off. Which was technically a mission anyway, as far as Onji was concerned, and you got paid extra for missions. She was fairly sure the Elders would quibble about that, but she'd always been good at bullshitting her way out of trouble and into more money. It ran in the blood.
Currently she lay sprawled in an undignified puddle of happy, comatose bliss in the branches of a welcoming tree, her tail twitching slightly in her sleep and a perfectly content expression on her face. This was a good spot. She ought to make it her official nap spot, to be defended against all comers. Maybe she could rig it out with some turrets and booby trap the trunk. She snuffled slightly. A little bubble appeared on her nose for a few moments before it popped.
A normal binturong could have rubbed its nose in its sleep without losing its balance. Her talisman could have had it been in full possession of its wits. But they were both a little worn out and neither of them was feeling particularly on top of things. And so it was that the still-asleep Onji toppled out of the tree and straight down onto the unsuspecting human below.
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Post by DesperateDark on Aug 19, 2009 15:22:22 GMT -5
Caleb was blissfully asleep for maybe an hour, maybe half. It was nice and warm without the risk of getting a sunburn, but he might wake up with a sore neck or back because of his makeshift pillow.
So, being asleep, he didn’t notice the binturong the size of a large cat asleep in the braches of the tree just above him. He also didn’t notice when the binturong took a wipe at its nose, lost its balance and suddenly went tumbling down right on top of him.
It landed on his face and he was jarred awake by the impact. All he saw when he opened his eyes was black fur and, oddly, the smell of buttered popcorn or cornbread. First thing he thought: big, hairy black spider that smelled like cornbread and buttered popcorn. Caleb was petrified of spiders. He screamed.
Caleb’s shrill shriek rang out and echoed in the meadow as he grabbed the ‘spider’ and chucked it as far as he could. He wasn’t able to throw it very far because of his weak arms, but he had already bolted and hid behind the tree before the animal hit the ground.
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Aug 19, 2009 20:37:44 GMT -5
There was a faint thump as the binturong crashed into a bush. Its tail reached out instinctively, preventing it from toppling out of the bush and onto the ground. There was a moment of silence, and then Onji settled further into the bush, a happy grunt escaping its mouth before it virtually disappeared from sight. Only the tip of its tail was visible in the foliage, twitching slightly as the snores began again.
Neither Caleb's shriek nor its fall seemed to have affected it adversely in any way.
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Post by DesperateDark on Aug 20, 2009 10:22:04 GMT -5
Caleb heard a faint thump sound, then everything was quiet once again. After another good fifteen minutes of hiding behind the tree, he cautiously peeked around the corner, trying to locate where the 'spider' had gone. All he saw, however, was what looked like the tip of a tail coming from a bush.
With a deep breath, me brought up all his courage and slowly approached it, picking up a stick along the way. When he got close enough to the tail thing, he poked it with the stick a few times. When there was no reaction, he came closer and parted the branches a little.
It wasn't a spider, Caleb breathed a sigh of relief. But he was a bit worried by the fact that it sort of looked like an oversized black cat. Did he just throw a cat into a bush? He loved cats, so he hoped he really didn't, though he couldn't identify this strange animal. Caleb leaned closer and poked it with his finger this time on the cheek.
"Hello?" Poke. Poke. Was there a vet in this little town?
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Aug 20, 2009 11:53:37 GMT -5
There was another faint grunt and a snort. Onji opened one bleary eye and twitched her tail at him, butting his finger with her head. Then she settled her head back down on her front paws, still watching him warily out of one eye.
"Mmmmppprrrhhhhbbbbllllll," she said, and snuggled deeper into the bushes.
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Post by DesperateDark on Aug 23, 2009 12:14:01 GMT -5
The cat-thing butted his finger with it's head, then settled down to continue it's nap. It also made this weird noise before it fell back into it's sleep, and it sounded absolutely nothing like a cat... Or if it did, it sounded like a very sick cat. But Caleb had a very, very, very limited knowledge of biology, so he didn't know what else it could be but a cat.
"Hello... Uh..." What was the English word for kuroneko? He sifted through his small vocabulary of English words for names of animals and he finally came up with something close to plausible. "Hello kitty."
A few more pokes. Why wasn't it moving? Caleb bit his lip, thinking that maybe the cat was hurt by the throw.
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Aug 23, 2009 14:39:51 GMT -5
"Mphbl," said Onji mildly, one paw reaching up to rub her visible eye. What was he poking her for? Couldn't he see how lovely and comfortable this bush was? It wasn't like it was his bush, either, and even if it was, she wasn't moving. She had claimed it for the Republic of Onji. It was her territory. That meant she was justified in defending it.
...too bad that would require effort.
"Hello kitty," said the man, and she almost choked.
Not a kitty, she said emphatically, before realizing he wouldn't be able to understand her anyway. She reached out and batted his hand lightly when he tried to poke her again.
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Post by DesperateDark on Sept 14, 2009 19:22:43 GMT -5
The vaguely cat-like creature made a vaguely cat-like sound from it's throat, and Caleb couldn't help but smile. It must be a cat, especially since it began to bat at his hand like that. The young man always wanted a cat, but the closest shelter was a few towns over and the strays had managed to successfully scare the crap out of him.
So Caleb picked the cat-like animal up and hugged it close. It was so freakin' cute, and maybe he should find it a name and feed it. He didn't particularly know what cats were supposed to eat though; fish was one, and meat. There had to be more then that, but he couldn't think of it right now. He had a bit of food on his bag, but he guessed it might be okay to offer.
Plopping the cat on his lap, he dug thorough his bag until he found a small bag, of all things he had in there, pretzels. He sometimes brought food with him when he went out. So Caleb opened up the bag and held a pretzel out to the cat.
"Kitty?"
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Sept 17, 2009 14:23:34 GMT -5
Onji grunted in vague surprise when she found herself abruptly picked up and squeezed by an absolute stranger. Violation of privacy was bad. She didn't like it. She would have succumbed to her instinctive urge to rip his face off, except her front paws were currently pinned in the hug, and the--guy (she didn't have an actual epithet to ascribe to him quite yet, as the usual ones like "loserface" and "butt monkey" and "asswipe" didn't appear to apply. Although he was wandering awfully close to "pervert" right about now)--was stronger than he looked.
He plopped her on his lap (okay, yeah, definitely waltzing over the line to "pervert" now), but his rifling through his bag distracted her from making an immediate escape. Who knew? Maybe she'd find out where his wallet was. Adorable little animal making off with some perv's cash, hah, that would make an excellent story--oh. Ooohhh. Pretzels.
So he wanted to feed her. That was all right then. Let him think she was a cat. Dignity held no meaning in the face of a free dinner.
"Mrrow," she said obligingly, and crunched through the pretzel.
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Post by DesperateDark on Sept 21, 2009 19:09:43 GMT -5
The cat finally seemed to make another sound, more cat-like this time, and it sounded like a meow. It snatched up the pretzel from his hand and quickly devoured it. Caleb gave a tiny, delighted squeak and pet the animal. It didn't look skinny, and it was fairly well groomed, so it might've been a recent stray. Never mind the fact that it was one huge cat by most standards, and it's tail was really too long and it's eyes really wouldn't fit on any feline.
It might not have been a good idea to bring it home though. Caleb thought about this as he picked up and huggled the feline again. He had a pet goldfish, a little panda moor in it's own bowl, and he had named it Cow. As the breed colouration suggested, it looked like a normal moor except it was black and white.
"Meet Cow? Be nice." Caleb waited patiently with the newly found cat in his arms. He was more or less expecting an answer.
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Post by Fulong|Clara on Sept 21, 2009 22:15:55 GMT -5
Cows? Onji didn't want to meet any cows. She wanted more pretzels. Cows tasted all right, but bringing one down by herself would be impractical, and judging from the "Be nice," the harmless idiot (because "perv" probably didn't fit after all) wouldn't be helping her with the hunt.
But maybe there were more pretzels where the cows were. In any case, feeding her seemed to be a source of some delight for him, and she had no real problems with that.
"Prr," she said mildly, wriggled out of his arms, and clambered onto his shoulder, tucking her tail firmly but not too tightly round his neck to keep herself steady.
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Post by DesperateDark on Sept 22, 2009 18:14:13 GMT -5
The cat had wriggled out of his arms and clambered over his shoulder. It wrapped it’s unusually long and fluffy tail around his neck as it sat there, seemingly to keep itself steady. What had he just found? A parrot-cat hybrid? A prat? I carrot? Caleb grinned; this was going to be so much fun! He had no idea what Canadian technology was up to these days, but he wanted to keep this newly found parrot-cat thing.
So, with his newly found pet-friend in tow, he walked towards home. Caleb was, as a given, slightly confused by the stares he got from the people as he walked down the sidewalk. It was as if they’d never seen a cat before, and some of them whom he knew even owned cats. Cats didn’t often sit on your shoulder, but it wasn’t too weird, right?
Right?
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