The Inglorious Adventures of Catster

[monstrueux]

Characters: Gilles de Rais (Caster) & OPEN
Setting: Throughout the Tower
Format: As you like it!
Summary: Gilles is an idiot. He gets cursed by fairies. Now he's a cat. Catster.
Warnings: Gilles is a gross cat. So, blood, killing, playing with prey, and being unhygienic. Also, Gilles is a cat who controls tentacle monsters, so that could potentially happen.


He's a strange looking cat, with eyes set far apart and a stump of a tail. The impressive ruff of fur at his throat all but completely hides his little violet collar. It's startling at first, to be so small when he's used to being so large, to look up and find everything huge and imposing. He tries to speak, but nothing comes out but a high-pitched yowl. So he yowls for a while: a discordant, pained, heartfelt sound. But Gilles is resilient in his way, and easily distracted. Eventually, he gets tired of yowling and moves on, looking for something to do. He might as well make the best of this new predicament! Perhaps he deserves to be cursed, to be an animal indeed, as he is in his heart...

Meadow Floor (25):
[Gilles remembers himself, but he also has the instincts and urges of a feline. (Are they solely a cat's, though?) Pouncing is fun. Killing things is fun. It's not so bad, being a cat! Gilles has discovered the joy of hunting bullfairies. They're small and weak, and they wail in pain, especially when he tears at their wings. He likes that. So he bats them around playfully, occasionally jumping down on them for a killing blow as he scampers through the flowers.]

Storage Floor (40):
[You know what's cool? Boxes. Yeah, and that's where Gilles is, happily jumping from box to box. This floor is also inexplicably full of bugs today. It seems someone has been bringing them in from the floor above. Someone who is currently chasing bugs around and knocking over boxes.]

Music Floor (28):
[It's one of his favorite floors, because he loves making noise. He has a hard time playing most instruments in his current form, but he's not too worried, because he can jump on pianos. And xylophones. And drums. And cymbals... As one can imagine, he's making a racket. There are more than a few broken drums and fallen instruments around, as Gilles runs fiercely across the keyboard of a piano in proper cat style.]

The Cafeteria:
[Gilles doesn't need to eat, so the cafeteria is particularly boring for him, especially now that there's nothing to eat but nutrition bars! Who likes that? Nobody! So clearly no one's going to mind if he jumps up on the tables and stalks around, without much care about what he steps on. Nutrition bars, candy canes, people... He might be a bit dirty and bloody at this point.]

The Dorms:
[It's inconvenient, having a cat who can phase through walls, because he might show up anywhere. Even in your bed. And he might scratch up your sheets. Or deposit a present on your pillow in the form of dismembered dead bullfairy. Really, where does he keep getting them from?]

Floor 100:
[For once, cat Gilles is sitting very still, gazing at the illusion that fills this floor. He sees it once again: the golden light in the cathedral where Charles was crowned king of France. If a cat can be said to look sorrowful, then it's sorrow that makes Gilles' whiskers droop now. After a few minutes, he starts to wail, heartbrokenly.]

Comments

[glassceiling]

[Seeing as how both her arms are curse appendages that are sealed behind bandages engraved with sealing spells, perhaps he will be able to smell or sense something strange about them. Otherwise, they carry no special scent except for the mint smell of the candy cane.]

[monstrueux]

[He can sense some magic, and that there's some kind of spell going on, but as the worst Caster on record, in the form of a cat, that tells him just about nothing. He can tell her arms aren't normal, though. Could they be evil arms? That would be cool! He butts her hand with his head, for all the world like a cat who doesn't know anything.]

[glassceiling]

Do you...want me to pet you?

[It's good to know that the cat isn't freaked out. Slowly, carefully, she rubs a palm against the fur of its head.]

[monstrueux]

[Yes, he likes to be petted! Even though he is really a grown man in the body of a cat, he doesn't think there's anything strange about that. It's so pleasant, people accept him and show him affection. As if he weren't a monster!

He nuzzles her hand in response, purring.

[glassceiling]

[She pats him more, rubbing from his head to his back and then starting over again.]

Your fur is so rough...who feeds you?

[monstrueux]

[No one feeds him, so he gives a sad mew, even though he doesn't need to eat. Someone should feed him, shouldn't they? His fur is largely rough because he's a failure of a cat.]

[glassceiling]

You have no owner to feed you?

[Her expression becomes sad.]

I guess...I'll feed and bathe you. You shouldn't be neglected.

[She'll do it in the spirit of Charity, if nothing else.]

[monstrueux]

[No, he has nothing like that, unless you count Ryuunosuke or Jeanne, but they're not here, so Gilles mews sadly, as if he hasn't a friend in the world.

He's not sure he likes the mention of a bath, but the food is intriguing. In this form, he wants to eat more than before. More delicious meat. And bugs.]

does this seem like a good spot to have Nyx come in?

[glassceiling]

[She moves her hands to try and scoop the cat up.]

Let's go.

Yes, definitely!

[monstrueux]

[Gilles allows himself to be scooped up, although it's a novel feeling, and he's a little startled. He's much too big to be picked up ordinarily, and no one wants to do it, besides! He puts his dirty paws on her shoulder and meows.]

belatedly wanders in

[sicharia]

[When Claudia finds Assassin, she isn't expecting to see her cradling a cat, and yet here they are.]

—Ah, Assassin, what are you doing with that?

Re: belatedly wanders in

[glassceiling]

Shoosh...

[Assassin holds the cat in one hand and pets it with the other.]

Ah, Claudia.

[She turns to face her Master.]

I found this cat here. It seems to have been abandoned. No one is feeding or cleaning it.

[She looks a little sad as she says this.]

[monstrueux]

[Gilles turns to Claudia as she approaches, blinking mournfully. When Assassin describes him in that way, it really does sound sad.

Abandoned...

He meows again, although he has no problem with the pets, and he remains mostly still in Assassin's arms.]

[sicharia]

Abandoned?

[Her brow furrows at that. That seems odd to her. She's never really seen a stray animal in the Tower, or at least not one like a common house cat... She has to wonder if maybe animals can be brought here like normal people. Do animals have souls...?]

[In any case, she reaches out to scritch the poor thing behind its ears when she draws near enough, doing so almost without thought.]

Are you sure it doesn't belong to someone? It might have gotten lost...

[glassceiling]

I do not know. I searched for its owner here, and I could find no one.

[monstrueux]

[Yes, he's an animal with a soul! Isn't that all men are, thinking beasts? That's what Gilles would say if he could talk, but he can't, so instead he gives a melancholy mew, looking from Assassin to Claudia and back again.

He belongs to no one! It's a tragedy!

Also, he vaguely wonders who they are, because he has no idea.]

[sicharia]

It's just that I don't think I've ever seen an animal without an owner here. [She can't shake the thought that it's odd from her mind, but it seems most reasonable to her to assume it's simply gotten away from the person it belongs to, so that's what she does. She gives it one final rub behind the ears before drawing her hand back again.] But if it's by itself, it can't hurt to look after it until someone claims it.

[She scowls a little more.]

It's too bad there's nothing it could eat in the cafeteria now... We'll have to catch something for it, if you mean to feed it.

[glassceiling]

[She smiles and nods.]

Yes, care for it until its owner comes. Is there any way to ask many of the residents of the Tower if they own this cat? Perhaps those...computers?

[She has seen many gather in one place due a message that had been put there, anyways.]

And if I am catching something for it, do you wish for me to hunt enough meat to feed you as well?

[monstrueux]

[He purrs when Claudia scratches him. If she knew the truth, she might not be very pleased by his true identity, but Gilles is not about to inform her.

The promise of food and affection aside, Gilles finds it frustrating that conversations are going on without him, since he likes to talk. He bats at Assassin's face with his paw. He keeps his claws carefully sheathed, but his paws are sticky with blood, bugs, dirt, and candy cane.]

[unhealing]

Mm, that'd probably be the best way to ask. [She couples her response with a quick nod.] If you want to address a lot of people at once, that's the way to do it.

Oh, well, I... If you catch something large enough to feed me as well, it probably shouldn't go to waste, but I—

[And then the cat bats Assassin's face. For a moment, Claudia seems taken aback, but as the action doesn't seem to have hurt her Servant, she can't help the small giggle that bubbles up at that sight.]

Ah—pff—

[She tries to stifle it, but she only has so much luck.]

[glassceiling]

Huh?

[The batting from the cat leaves one of Assassin's cheeks smeared with blood and mud.]

Oh, the cat...

[She looks down at Gilles, shifting her hold on him.]

Do you...wish to hold him?

[The cat is so warm and fuzzy that she doesn't want to give him up. But she would have to in order to hunt, wouldn't she?]

[monstrueux]

[Gilles blinks in surprise. These lovely ladies are gently laughing, and because of him! They don't think he's a monster, and they like him. He feels--happy. He purrs, looking from Assassin to Claudia expectantly.]

[unhealing]

Ah, well...

[Claudia looks to the cat as well, as though gauging something. When she looks back to Assassin, she asks somewhat embarrassedly:]

Is... Is he heavy?

[She isn't strong, like Assassin is!]