662/Right Meow

Right Meow
Date of Scene:	27 October 2023
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	In which Hematite gives his little sister a magical cat. Unfinished.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Pyrite

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Koji is out, and the regular-sized cat that is still the size of a small car in Mamoru's heart is purring like a small car on Mamoru's bed.

There's nothing for it.

Mamoru pets her. It's been a few days but not a selfish number of days, not truly, and there's been plenty of fish in it for the ghost/demon cat, and there's been Mamoru reading his history homework to her and seeing if she reacts favorably or unfavorably and rewording things accordingly.

But now? "Himeko-chan, I was serious~~" he calls cheerfully into the otherwise-empty dorm room.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko crawls out from under the bed next to Mamoru's feet. "Yes? Did somebody call for me?" Then she gets up off the floor and turns around to see the cat. "Oh! A very lovely cat! She is what you meant then?" The ghost climbs up onto the bed tentatively to pet-pet the soft kitty. Hopefully there are no ill reactiongs to ghosts. Animals are sensitive to that sort of thing, and a bakeneko is still an animal in the end.
    ...Or is it?
    She doesn't actually know.
    "Pyrite could really use a pretty kitty like this right now..." she says solemnly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"This is a bakeneko, and I don't know her name. I'm hoping that she chooses to follow Pyrite, since Shiro left," Mamoru says with a nod, his voice quiet. (He did not jump at the ghost crawling out from under his bed. He will not. He's used to this-- he's fond of ghost nonsense.) (That is standard ghost nonsense.)

"She may speak. If she can, she hasn't chosen to speak to me. Do you think Pyrite would get along with a kitty like this? One she should not bind, one who would choose to go with her or not, but who will be there as long as she is, who can travel with her through shadows?" Ah: he's asking for an opinion on the situation before potentially disappointing Pyrite again.

There are no bad reactions to Himeko, at least. There's sniffing, and then the bakeneko looks at Himeko, scrutinizing her for a moment before allowing herself to be petted-- and then the rumbling starts again.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko pet-pet-pets and looks up. "I like her. Pyrite will like her too probably. We consolidated, so not as scattered now. But also not synchronized." She looks back to the cat and smiles a sad little smile. "That will be fixed soon." More pet pet pets, then she looks at Mamoru again. "You should go see her in our dorm room." she says seriously. That place that no one has been in yet. Not Mamoru, not the other Shitennou, not Usagi not anyone other than the ghost herself. It's almost as forbidden and mysterious as the inside of the Soryuu Shrine.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Okay," says Mamoru agreeably. "Why does fixing your synchronization make you sad?" he asks as he gets up, then goes over to the closet and crouches, rummaging for Koji's tubes of salmon paste.

The bakeneko immediately jumps off the bed to investigate, twining once around Himeko before coming over to Bother Bother Bother Mamoru for the delicious food he's obviously getting, and Mamoru laughs. "You're not hungry, you just ate. I'm bringing these to Pyrite so she has something to feed you immediately," he tells her, and then he stands and looks at Himeko again. "Most people are synchronous with themselves. I mean, there are exceptions, but generally speaking, that's because those people are unwell in some way."

Mamoru, for example.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko gives a weak little smile up at Mamoru at the question. "Perhaps not wishing to be synchronous is a further sign of my unwellness then. But it means choosing a fixed identity going forwards. I do not think that we can choose it ourselves, so it may fall upon you to do so, Onii-chan. The dead cannot change, but we may be verging on becoming something else. Perhaps, if we become a youkai, we will not even need to be brought back to life!" She follows along after Mamoru, standing nearby, and waiting.
    "I will meet you soon, neko-chan." she says to the bakeneko. Then she looks up at Mamoru. "...Do bakeneko usually talk?" She thought that was nekomata, but honestly there's a lot of overlap, and individuals can be different. Depends on the story.
    "I wonder how my story will end." she muses distractedly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I see you both as Himeko who is sometimes Pyrite, who is always someone I love very much," says Mamoru, and he makes a helpless little gesture with the tubes of salmon paste in one hand. The bakeneko's face tracks the swing of his arm and the movements of that hand.

"I may be projecting, since I'm always Mamoru, even when I'm wearing Hematite or Darien Shields. That's thanks to you, by the way." He shuts the closet door, then moves toward the room's door, pocketing the paste tubes. "Some bakeneko talk, according to the books I've been reading? The most important is that they change shape. Maybe it depends on how old they are?"

He holds the door open for cat and girl alike. "It would be interesting if you were to become youkai. Would you still like me?" A beat. If Himeko comes out, he closes the door behind all of them. "I hope your story ends in a manner of your choosing, whenever and wherever that time comes. I hope the same for me."

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko follows out into the hallway. Then she says, "Hm! I meant not a figurative story, but the literal story of 'for reals' as the kids say. When I was trying to make a story to live in. Youkai live on their stories and the belief placed into them. So if a story continues to be perpetuated, I could exist forever, even if I were to be brought back or die or anything else. It must be convenient to be a youkai. As long as someone remembers you, there is a chance of being able to return. As a ghost, it is the opposite. I can only stay for as long as I do not remember. If I realize who I am, as I have been, the time I have left becomes limited."
    She shakes her head. "Whatever happens, it should happen soon. Otherwise, the choice may no longer be up to any of us." She shrugs as she looks up at Mamoru with those bright red eyes of hers. "I do not know how youkai feel about others. Perhaps it depends on their story. So just keep telling my story the way it actually is, and I can be your imouto forever." A smile, and then a wave. "I'll see you soon."
    Ghost vanish.
    Okay.
    Time to visit Pyrite.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Okay," whispers Mamoru to the hallway, and then holds out his arms to the bakeneko.

The bakeneko considers him for a moment, then a longer moment, and then jumps up into his arms and scrambles, with claws, to balance on his shoulder for a second. Then she flops and he has to hold his head forward to make room for her, and he laughs.

On the way to Pyrite's dorm's floor, Mamoru passes a few people who are very amused to see Darien Shields with a cat shedding on him.

When he gets to Pyrite's dorm room, he knocks cheerfully on the door and calls out, "Py-tan! It's me, I have a friend for you to meet now!"

Pyrite has posed:
    One of the reasons why no one approaches Pyrite's dorm room is that a sense of dread and imminent disaster seems to radiate from the door even at a distance of two meters. The closer one gets, the more instincts seem to be saying, 'Run! Run! Run!' At least for most people. Mamoru is not most people. The waves of black needles that line the door in its frame, straining outwards constantly, tracking his movements, as if waiting for a chance to launch themselves at him, is probably part of the dread that people feel.
    There are fear needles aimed at them, looking at them, following them, threatening them. Even if they never strike, the certainty that they will is what inspires fear in those who cannot see ghosts or spirits. It's not magic, so even those who can perceive magic are blind to it. They just feel that dread, like there is someone or something about to strike.
    She stopped staying in her dorm when accidents started to happen. Some girl almost impaled herself through the throat with an umbrella when she fell down some stairs. A prior school nurse quit after narrowly avoiding being on the elevator when cables snapped and it freefell 8 floors from the roof and crashed at the bottom of the shaft. Depression and nightmares are also high whenever Pyrite is in residence. Another reason to stay at her Shrine. Existing among the living is an inconvenience and a threat, and that could draw attention to Mamoru, and he had ordered her way back then not to draw attention, so what other choice did she have?
    But she's back now. The fear needles slowly retract into a globby layer of black like that which sometimes runs from Pyrite's eyes instead of tears. A liquid like water stained with soot, rather than oil.
    There is the sound of a lock clicking, and the door pops open just a little bit, creaking as it slowly gives a first peek into the darkness on the other side.
    What a show off.