The SSSS Scriptorium

[Lallicat]

A naturalist-type note...

While water buffalo are now found in some parts of Africa, they are of Asian origin, are frequently domesticated, and to  this day are a major draft animal for many Asian farmers.

The animal native to Africa is the Cape buffalo. It is ranked among the most dangerous game animals, because it (gasp!) has the nerve to resent being attacked, and will not only fight back, but attack the would-be hunter preemptively, given any chance.

Ahh I see. Whoops! I'll fix that.

[Keep Looking]

It was great reading your contribution to the Human-Kitty au, Looney, as well as Lallicat's new additions! While I definitely wasn't around for the 100-prompt challenge, I have read them, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Róisín]

I rather like the idea of a number of us writing to the same prompt, especially since that is something we often do in the writers group at our local library. The group is very diverse, ranging from a couple of nonagenarians, one a poet and one an historian who have both had many books published, through a middle-aged writer and illustrator of children’s books, a biographer who trained as an opera singer and is now a farmer and prison guard, to a teenager who has never had anything published and wants to write horror (I reckon he might be good enough to make a go of it). The results are fascinating when we all write to the same theme.

[Mirasol]

When I finally presented her to the rest of the crew, I was rewarded with gasps of delight from Tuuri and Emil, a look that wasn't a glare from Lalli, a "Good job" and a pat on the shoulder from Mikkel, and the best gift of all from Sigrun. A "Well look at that Braidy, you helped!"

All I can say to this:



I am too new to remember that 100 Prompt NaNoWriMo challenge, but looks like I´ll have to check it out.

Meanwhile I wrote some Human!Kitty-bathing-shenanigans too:

Spoiler: Part 2 • show

“We can´t just call her “Kitten”, can we? That´s a dumb name.” As she said that, Sigrun stirred around in her food with a look as if it was poisonous.
“She is not named  “Kitten”. That was just a nickname her mother gave her. Her name is Misse.” Mikkel ignored Sigruns disgusted gestures towards dinner.  The little girl had eaten with a glow in her eyes he had rarely ever seen on anyone who got to experience his cooking before. He was flattered that she enjoyed it. Sigrun couldn´t ruin that for him.
“Same difference.” The captain shrugged.
The younglings were already done with eating. Lalli had just headed out to scout out their next stop. Because of Misse, the crew had remained where they were for longer than planned and everyone was starting to get nervous. But the kid´s family had needed a proper burial. That was the least they could have done for them. On the day of Misse´s finding, everyone had been in favor of staying where they were. Even Sigrun, who was usually the first person trying to convince the crew to move on.
“Hey, Kitten, get out of the tree!”, the captain suddenly shouted across their current camping-spot, throwing Mikkel out of his thoughts. A dumb name, huh?
Tuuri and Emil had been attempting to give the kid a bath. Unsuccessfully, it seemed. The only thing wet was the Swede´s hair and instead of in the tub, the little girl was sitting on a branch just out of reach of the two smallest crewmembers and hissed. Maybe Misse´s mother had had a point with calling her daughter Kitty. It had rained the entire day before, so the kid had escaped her fate so far. She appeared to be escaping for a little while longer.
Mikkel heard Emil murmur something that was certainly not too nice while he was trying to dry himself with a small towel. Tuuri´s voice started to get the chirpy tone it had whenever she tried to persuade Lalli into sparing a cookie for her. Mikkel couldn´t make out what she was saying, she seemed to be switching between languages to see what worked best. From the look of it, none of it did. At least it succeeded in distracting the kid long enough for Reynir to sneak up from behind and grab her out of the tree.
The following battle was quite entertaining to watch. After a while, baiting Misse with the good smell of Emil´s shampoo worked, but the girl would grab onto Reynir´s braid and not let go for the entire bath.
“Give the kid a break, she nearly drowned two days ago!”, Sigrun shouted and leaned back on her chair with a pleased smile, enjoying the show. She had been offering such and similarly helpful advice throughout the entire bathing-shenanigans. The younglings hadn´t exactly appreciated it. Mikkel had known what was good for him and not said a word.
After the deed was finally done, the sun had fully gone down. Emil, Reynir, Tuuri and Misse were all sitting around the small fireplace with towels on their heads and facial expressions as if they had just won a very long, very hard war. Instead of the girl´s ragged old clothes, she was now wearing a spare shirt of Tuuri and spare pants of Emil held together with a belt. In her hands, that were hidden under her much too long sleeves, she was holding a bowl of warm tuna. It was her reward for daring to take a bath. Almost exactly upon finishing with her last bite she fell asleep, tipping over and landing on Reynir.
“I think that´s our cue to go to bed”, Sigrun whispered with a little smile. Nobody objected.
On the next morning, they found Misse sleeping while holding onto Reynir´s braid.

[Róisín]

Here is my take on human Kitty.

KITTY

Mikkel, like the others, had taken to calling the catgirl Kitty. Each of them called her so in their own language. His understanding was that she had been at least partly raised by the mother cat, among the previous and current litters of kittens, and certainly her attempts to suckle from Tuuri, Sigrun and himself would suggest that that was likely.

However, she could also, as he discovered, catch and eat her own mice, rats, voles and the occasional rabbit. The first time he had seen her do this, stalking and catching a vole through the long grasses of a riverbank where they were resupplying their water reservoirs, he had felt somewhere between appalled and delighted - appalled that any human child should be reduced to such exigencies of survival, yet delighted because now he knew that if the rest of them were to die on this insane expedition, Kitty might still have a chance at surviving without them.

A few days later she decided that she needed to teach Mikkel how to hunt. When she presented him with a large, still struggling, unRashed rat, released it in front of him and gestured in a way that suggested that she wanted him to catch it, he was startled, then when he realised her meaning, leaped on the rat and crushed its head with his heavy boot. She patted him on the head and gave him an approving purr, but then hissed again when he began to skin and gut the animal.

When he was done with the task he laid the carcass on the hot stones by the fire to cook, being unwilling to eat raw rat even for Kitty. As it cooked she circled the fire, sniffing at the cooking meat with fascinated interest, then when Mikkel took it from the fire and tore it roughly in half, handing her the larger piece, she settled by his side and ate it with every appearance of pleasure. He was relieved. If she could be persuaded that cooking meat was worth the trouble, many nasty zoonoses might be avoided. He was sure that she already carried the load of parasites common for all wild predators, and he had every intention of fixing that problem as soon as possible.

[Lallicat]

Róisín, I love your interpretation of Kitty! She must reach those irresponsible adults to hunt, otherwise how would they survive?

This chapter ended up being more about Reynir than Kitty, but oh well.

Spoiler: Kitty Part 5: Danger • show

Kitty ran around the Cat Tank, her feet tracking mud on the freshly cleaned floor. (Much to Mikkel's chagrin.) She was bored. Sigrun and Emil had gone somewhere, and Lalli wasn't available. All he did was sleep. She would have been worried, but she trusted that the adults would know if something was wrong. Mikkel was cleaning and Reynir was helping him clean. That left Tuuri. But before she could go ask her to play, Mikkel grabbed her hand, and said, "C'mon Kitten-girl. We're going for a walk. That didn't appeal to Kitty. Before she could protest, he staryed arguing witb Tuuri. Something about immune people and guards. She took the opportunity to wriggle out of his grasp and hide. When she was sure he was gone, she came out of her hiding spot and tugged at the bottom of Tuuri's tunic. Now they could play!

***

"He... was supposed to take cat-girl with him, wasn't he?" Reynir realized suddenly. Moments later, he was walking besides Tuuri, cat-girl clutching his hand while giving him a reproachful glare. It was clear that she wasn't pleased with the arrangement. It made him uneasy, as if she disapproved of him not following Mikkel's instructions. He forced himself to look away.
"You know, I think cat-girl is a mage," he told Tuuri. She gave him a skeptical look.
"What makes you say that?" He shuffled his feet.
"Well, mages are supposed to be able to sense trolls, right? Cat-girl managed to point Sigrun to the troll after it bit her."
"It could just mean she saw where it went." Tuuri pointed out.
"Well, yes, but right before we encountered those trolls, her hair got all poofy. It's weird. Almost like she could sense them." Tuuri frowned.
"I don't know of any mage whose hair poofs when there's a troll nearby. It's probably just a fluke. You can ask Lalli when he wakes up, if you really want to. Oh look, there's Mikkel!" She waves her arm energetically. "Mikkel!" They presented him with cat-girl. Please don't kill me... thought Reynir desperately. "It was Reynir's idea, I tried to stop him!"
"Y-yup! My idea!" He stammered.
"I will never not be a babysitter." sighed Mikkel.
"Oh you don't have to babysit us," assured Tuuri. "We'll just follow you around! Guilt gnawed at Reynir.
"He did get angry. Now I feel bad."
"It's okay!" Tuuri assured him. "He didn't tell at us. That mean we didn't cross the line." Still, the guilt stayed with him for the whole trip. And the ghosts didn't help either. He clutched cat-girl's hand tighter. He felt that trouble was brewing.

[Mirasol]

Aww, Róisín, your take on Kitty is adorable! Such incompetent humans. Good that she´s around now!

I might be getting way too into this now too...

Spoiler: part 3 • show

Of all the people it could have chosen to open up to (like, for example, one that spoke a language she would probably understand), the cat-child chose the plus one. Just until yesterday, she didn´t let anyone closer to her than an arm´s length, and there she was, happily sitting on Reynir´s lap, wrapped in a blanket and trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue. Maybe it was his hair. No, it definitely was his hair, the kitten was still holding onto it.
“Looks like you´re good for something after all, braid-guy!” Sigrun friendly-punched his shoulder while walking past. Reynir gave her a smile in response that looked more like he was in pain, as the kid pulled on the braid to show its owner the big snowflake she just caught.
Sigrun´s right-hand-warrior´s shampoo had completely fluffed up the kid´s now shining red hair. Every streak was of a slightly different length, (probably never saw proper scissors in its life), so the ponytail the Icelander forced it to behave in shared quite a bit of resemblance to the furry tail of a cat. Most of the brown tips had turned out to be dirt, only the fuzz around her face remained in a significantly darker coloring, as well as the furthest down ends of her hair. It brought out the almost unhealthily pale skin of the kid. If the sun was shining, it would probably reflect it. They really needed to make sure the kid would eat enough, maybe that could give her some color back. Easier said than done when the cook´s preferred serving was death in a bowl.
But enough staring at the strange new crew-member. Breakfast was served. If you could call it that. This slime shared more similarities with…
“MIKKEL!!! Did you melt candles into this sludge?”
“Surely I would never!”, came the answer from within the tank.
“What did he say?”, Emil asked while filling two bowls with the stuff. Looked like the little scout-guy was back.
“That he didn´t.” Sigrun shrugged. As soon as Emil was gone, she inspected the insides of the pot more suspiciously. Looking around, she saw that Tuuri was eating it, while chit-chattering with Reynir about whatever Lalli was doing with a skull in a tree. Or so much she assumed, the pipsqueak´s name dropped a couple of times. The Icelander and the cat-child were already done. None of them seemed to be dropping dead on the spot, so she concluded the food would at least not kill her. She still made sure Mikkel would see how much she didn´t like it when he came outside. Unfortunately, the Dane didn´t react at all. Oh well…
“Oy, little puffy-hair!”
“That´s… me?”, Tuuri squeaked like a startled mouse.
“Call the elderly folks and let them know that we´re heading way far out today! Got to keep them in the loop too.”
“Right away!”
Looked like they were going to be back on the road. Good, she was just starting to get a little jumpy. In the Silent World it was better to not stay in one place for longer than necessary. And the weather was perfect, awesome and great! Snowfall, ideal for safe travels. It would be a good day.

[Grade E cat]

Nice Human Kitty AUs. I really hope we're not driving people crazy with those. Yes, I did say "we":

Spoiler: show

Prologue

In another life, in another world, they had been asked to build an outpost in the yard of an Old World school. Those meant to occupy it on a more permanent basis never came. They had kept time as best as they could. According to their estimates, said occupants should have shown up ten years ago. Some had tried returning to the place from which the occupants were supposed to come, and never come back. Others had died from various causes, all predictable consequences of being a small group of people stranded in the Silent World. As their numbers had dwindled, jokes about the last one of them alive needing to douse the fire had become more frequent. Five years after they had been abandoned, there had been only two people left: her and Henrik. They had both known that it was not if, but when. Without anyone else to stop them, they had allowed themselves things that they had avoided due to other people being around to remind them that they were sill members of the Danish military. The number of people living in their small shelter had become three again. The little girl had stayed as silent as the world she had been born in well past the age at which she was supposed to be able to speak. But it seemed like some greater power had taken her voice away in exchange for another gift: almost as soon as she was able to move on her own, she would go hide if there were any trolls or beasts nearby. As the little girl grew, she and Henrik had managed to teach her to point to where the creature was coming from, so one of them could take care of it permanently. One day, Henrik had cracked a joke: “Did you give birth to a girl or to a cat?” After that, the name they had delayed giving her for so long came to them: it would definitely have to be something starting with “Kat”. They had decided to keep it simple, just in case there was something more to her muteness that would only really show if she lived to be much older. When Henrik had died, she had gotten a grim reminder that Katja’s strange gift had given all of them extra time, but that the extra time wouldn’t last forever. They had wanted to wait for Katja to be just a little older before they attempted to use her gift to get themselves to Øresund bridge in one piece. The warmer part of the year had still been young when Henrik had died. The rest of it was used to prepare for a long walk that would start in the early winter. It hadn’t been easy, but she had managed. She and Katja had left the confines of the outpost, only to be ambushed by a dog beast before they had even gotten past the school’s ruins. Too many of her skills had atrophied over the years. She now knew she was dying, and the beast was still alive and well. As good as Katja was at hiding, it had probably found her now. Even if it hadn’t, she wasn’t going to be able to last on her own for very long anyway. Unless someone turned out to have chosen now, of all times, to check out the outpost.

[Vulpes]

What wonderful takes on Human!Kitty. I'm enjoying them all, and getting them a bit mixed up in my tired end-of-day brain. I'll have to read each person's contribution(s) separately to get them straight.

I'm new enough to have missed the 100 prompts thing, sounds like quite the challenge. And I'm totally on board for shared prompts during the next chapter break (long, looooong in the future I trust).

[LooNEY_DAC]

This will definitely be expanded, but for now...

...BEHOLD MY INSANITY!!!!!ELEVENTY!!!

Spoiler: Bastet out of Isis • show

Lalli burst into the Cat-Tank, his grandmother’s rifle ready. One shot was all he needed to kill the troll Kitty was clawing and biting with all her feline fury.

Lalli exhaled and glanced around the room. Behind the shut door leading to the other compartment, Tuuri and Reynir pressed their faces against the glass, their expressions a mix of confusion, worry, and utter horror.

A moment later, Lalli felt something grab on to his leg…

*
SOME WEEKS EARLIER…
*

Mikkel was busily going through the chores attendant on maintaining their little campsite with the dubious assistance of Reynir when he heard the scream.

“MIKKEL!” The shout brought the medic running back in from outside; he almost ran right over Tuuri as she backed away from the basket they’d left the kitten in. He grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from backing into him, and she wheeled around to face him, shock and not a little fear writ large on her features.

“Se on vauva! Kissa muuttui vauvaksi!” Unfortunately, Tuuri had been so startled that she was speaking in Finnish. After Mikkel gave her a very gentle but very firm shake, she calmed down enough to repeat herself, but in Swedish this time. “It’s a baby! The cat transformed into a baby!”

Now she was using words he understood individually, but which made no sense in context. Mikkel opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a sound distinctly resembling the gurgle of an infant came from where the basket lay. Tuuri pointed determinedly, without saying more; the shaking of her finger said quite a bit regardless.

Mikkel cautiously approached the basket. Before he was halfway there, however, a familiar and totally feline head popped out of the nest of cloth with a plaintive, “Miu?”

*

Reynir opened his eyes and knew that he was dreaming again. Well, that was OK, as long as those ghosts weren’t about to show up again, too.

A high-pitched squealing noise caught Reynir’s attention. He peered ahead in confusion, as the sheep were blocking his view. Once he could see past them, he saw that his dog was exuberantly trying to lick a small child to death, its tail wagging furiously as it did so. The child—a little girl of indeterminate age, Reynir noticed—was giggling and trying to fend off his dog’s affectionate attack. “Silly Reynir!” she said through her giggles.

*

Emil came to a halt next to Mikkel. “Oh, by the way, Mikkel—I noticed my spare shirt has gone missing. Did I really do it enough damage that you had to retire it, or is this another of your jokes?”

Mikkel frowned, but before he could reply, Tuuri piped up with, “I’m missing a pair of pants, too! Maybe we left them behind when we had to break camp because of the ghosts?”

Emil looked sheepish and admitted, “I hadn’t thought of that. We did leave in an awful hurry, whatever the reason.” He was obviously still not convinced that the ghosts that Reynir claimed were still stalking them even existed.

*

Neither Tuuri nor Reynir could see anything in the utter darkness of the Cat-Tank, but they could certainly hear the muffled sounds of the battle raging outside; until, that is, Kitty jumped out of Reynir’s lap and began making louder and louder cries of distress.

“Come ON, guys! You have to get out of here NOW!” The voice was exasperated and not unfamiliar. “A grossling’s about to break through the floor here! Get to the other compartment!”

Even through their surprise, the two non-immunes obeyed, and just in time.

Lalli burst into the Cat-Tank, his grandmother’s rifle ready. One shot was all he needed to kill the troll Kitty was clawing and biting with all her feline fury.

Lalli exhaled and glanced around the room. Behind the shut door leading to the other compartment, Tuuri and Reynir pressed their faces against the glass, their expressions a mix of confusion, worry, and utter horror.

A moment later, Lalli felt something grab on to his leg, but instead of setting off his combat reflexes, it stirred something else in him. He looked down. A small child dressed in what looked like the crew’s castoffs had wrapped her arms and legs around one of his legs in a grip of steel. She looked up… and he knew that this was their Kitty.

Spoiler: Notes • show

The title is a reference to the Star Trek TOS episode "Assignment: Earth".

[Róisín]

All these child-kitty stories are great fun!

[Buteo]

All these child-kitty stories are great fun!

Agreed! I'm having a fantastic time reading them all!

[Keep Looking]

All these child-kitty stories are great fun!

I'll second (third?) that as well! I'm really enjoying this.

[Mirasol]

Good to hear that we´re not annoying everyone. :'D

Grade E cat, nice, Kitty-backstory! I really like where this is going!

And LooNEY_DAC, that´s again a different story, isn´t it? With Kitty completely transforming from cat to human, that´s an interesting possibility! And gets rid of the aging-difference-problem.

I have another chapter to share:

Spoiler: part 4 • show

This day was terrible! It had snowed so much that they had to turn back, Mikkel had decided to wash Lalli´s clothing that was full of beast-blood directly next to him, and then after a really venturesome driving maneuver everything spilled on him. He would die. Mikkel assured him he wouldn´t, but he added “to the best of my knowledge” afterwards. And now Reynir was scared, miserable, wet, cold, possibly on the verge of dying and Lalli just fell unconscious in the back of the tank, which was frankly even more worrying.
At least Kisa had let go of his hair by now. Her name was Kisa, right? Or something Danish… He had forgotten what Kisa meant in Danish. But it seemed to be similar enough, the little girl responded to it when he called her that name. He tried not to think about the reason she let go. It was his braid being soaked in a mixture of dirt, water and troll-goo, which smelled disgusting and was probably fatal.
The little girl had jumped closer to Mikkel just in time to not get hit with the troll-water, unlike the much less lucky Emil and himself. Now she was sitting on one of the bunks and curiously watched Mikkel and the Swede trying to patch up Lalli.
The tank was moving again. The scout had given Tuuri a description of a place to stay before fainting. Unfortunately, the way there seemed to go right through the scary tunnel with the flesh-blobs.
As soon as they went in, Kisa got nervous. Like a small animal, on all fours, she jumped back to Reynir and grabbed his arm. All of her hair suddenly sticked out as if she just got an electric shock, and she hissed again. Was she scared of the dark? No, probably she thought all the blobs were still alive.
“Don´t worry Kisa, Lalli checked those, they are dead.” He wriggled his arm out of the child´s grip and put it around her to signal that she was safe.
“I know, it´s really scary!”, he whispered. “But the adults will protect you!”
As Tuuri drove them out of the tunnel, the girl stopped hissing. Her hair went back to normal. Good, looked like it really just were the weird flesh-blobs. It was funny, he had been scared too, but somehow, reassuring Kisa made him bolder. Like he had to be brave to protect her. He knew that was silly, he would be absolutely helpless in any sort of battle-situation. Most likely Kisa would know more about what to do than he. But he still felt that way.
After a while, the girl started yawning. Not soon after, she fell asleep leaning on him while he was stroking her fluffy cat-hair. Mikkel, who was done taking care of Lalli, helped Reynir put a blanket around the curled-up child. The sound she made when snuggling into it almost sounded like she was purring. The medic also finally handed Reynir a towel for his hair.
“You´re not about to die. I am 100 percent sure of it”, Mikkel told him in his most authoritative voice. “The virus can´t survive for long without a host. And the soap killed everything that was left.”
This time Reynir believed him.
“We´ll be there in an hour or two!”, Tuuri announced from the driving seat.

[Lallicat]

More Kitty shenanigans!

Spoiler: Kitty Part 6: Ghosts • show

Emil was worried about Lalli. He'd been sleeping for days. He was angry that nobody was worried about the scout. "Mrr." Kitten Girl was curled up next to Lalli, snuggled under the blanket. She was repeatedly poking his cheek, a sad expression on her face. "Well at least I'm not the only one who's worried," Emil grumbled. Kitten Girl sighed, and closed her eyes. She was fast asleep within minutes.

***

Lalli shivered. There! Spirits. They didn't look friendly. No matter. They can't break into his dreamspace. Until one did. He jumped to his feet. There must be trouble in the waking world. He'd hold them back for as long as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a flickering figure. He felt it add its power to his shield. For a moment, he let himself hope that they would be able to vanquish the ghosts. Then the figure trembled, and disappeared. He was on his own once more.

***

"Nh. Ynh... Phh! Grkh!" Emil leaned over to Lalli's side. "See?! Now he's choking! Would someone who knows what to do please get over here?" he fretted. "Rkh! Kh-" Silence. Then,
"IIIAAAAAAAAAH!" Kitten-Girl woke up with a start at the sound of the scream.
"Hey! Shake the guy awake!" Sigrun yelled. "We can't have a blasting siren like that!"
"I'm trying!" Emil panicked. "He won't wake up!"
"Well try har- der..." Sigrun clutched her head, and collapsed on the floor, followed by Mikkel.
"Mi-" Kitten-Girl's hair shot out like she had been electrocuted. "mriiIIIIIII!!!" she yelled. "MRIIIII!!!"


The next few minutes were hectic. Tuuri slamming the gas, Lalli pulling Emil's hair whilst screaming, and Reynir praying with Kitten-girl freaking out and looking like she had just stuck a fork in a toaster. Then, a quickly as it had started, it was over. Sigrun and Mikkel regained consciousness, and Tuuri slowed the Cat Tank down a bit.
"Keep driving. We need to get out of the city now!" Ordered Sigrun.
"Seems to me like you added the wrong person to your list of mutineers." remarked the Dane.
"Shut up Mikkel! Do something useful!" Kitten-Girl whimpered and clutched Mikkel's leg. He passed a protective arm around her.
"I don't understand what's going on!"
"Shut up Emil, no one else does either!" yelled Sigrun. "Are you ready to bash some monster skull if I need you to?"
"Uh yeah. S-sure." Emil stuttered. He really just wanted to go to bed, but that wasn't an option at this point. The Cat Tank slowed to a halt. A giant mass of tentacles barred the way.
"No turning back." ordered Sigrun. "Mikkel and I will clear the way. Emil, you keep guard. Tuuri, be ready to drive away quickly. Reynir, uhh... Reynir, you take care of Kitten. Everyone understand? Let's go."