Cat

 

“Mrgmgrm…”

My grumbling either goes unnoticed or ignored by the ‘visitor’ sitting at the other end of the table with a teacup in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Her snake lips(?) are ever so slightly curled upwards into an amused smirk. I’ve been sitting here reading Gourmet Deviled Egg, the book Fox got for me, trying to take my mind off the snake person making herself very much at home in our home, but she has this aura to her that’s just impossible to ignore…

“How far into that little novel are you, darling?”

My tail sticks out into a straight line as I’m caught peering over the pages of my book, pulling it back up over my face so Niamh can’t read the waning shock on my face.

“...Not too far in. Just a few chapters. Haven’t had too much time to read unfortunately.”

Lowering the book so I can look at her as I speak, I see her face lighting up with an intrigued smile. The snake woman places her paper down on the table and takes another sip of her tea before putting that down too.

“Oh, I cannot wait to see your reaction to the later chapters~” 

I swear, if she spoils anything for me--

“Likewise I am particularly fond of the dimension hopper, quite the clever and fun one he is~. Though, you’ll not come to see him in action for some time~.”

“Thanks for the spoiler warning, chief." I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Really had to do that just to try and make self aggrandizing parallels or something, huh?”

Niamh chuckles in amusement, picking up her newspaper and unfurling it. “I’m allowed to appreciate myself. I believe you said it yourself, didn’t you? ‘You’re allowed to be happy with yourself~’ ”

I huff at her and slide my bookmark between the pages, putting my book down and crossing my arms at the serpent.

“I believe the context of that situation is quite different from your own.”

“Is it, though?”

My head tilts at her with confusion and, dare I admit it, curiosity. “Just what are you getting on about?”

Again, she laughs, continuing to skim through her paper as she elaborates. “You and I are not so different, you know.”

Blink. “Are you trying to sound like a cheesy villain or would you care to explain what you mean?”

This woman just can’t stop laughing, so amused by just about everything that comes her way. Such seems to be her nature…

“Mayhaps~ Or perhaps you are simply too fun to play with~” 

I plant my cheek in my palm, held up against the table as I grumble ever more at this lady’s antics. 

“Oh, don’t be such a sourpuss. It’s all in good fun! If you really want an answer that bad, I’ll tell you this: Yombroila has had much the same effect on me as she has you and Fox~”

I blink again. What? “...Are you implying you’re Ascended? Aren’t you Radiant though?”

“Oh, don’t let me confuse you that much dearie!” 

It’d certainly help if you stopped being so flippant and confusing then. 

“No no, I am very much Radiant, and not at all Ascended. We’re not even sure she could offer ascension to a Radiant. Nay, we are more alike in a much simpler way~”

...Ohhhhhh. 

“...You used to be different then? Physically anyways? How does that even work for Radiants?”

“Well, to take a step back for a moment,” I don’t think there’s anything I fear more right now than Niamh having even more control over this conversation, but she’s already been leading me on this whole time… “the reason we believe Radiants cannot accept ascension, or similar forms of such a gift, is because we already are, in a sense, our ‘true selves’. Almost. It’s more of a self perception kind of thing, and why various mythological figures have appeared in various forms throughout history. We have to find ourselves just as Yom’s gift helps to guide you to yourself. It was she who helped me to see myself as I am now, moving me past the image I once held so long ago. T’was not ascension, but my girl has that kind of effect on people~”

“I see you and ‘Yom’ both love to drop exposition like it’s a bomb off a plane.” 

Niamh chuckles again, her palm hovering just in front of her snout. Okay maybe it’s somewhat endearing, but it’s gonna take more than that to get me on her side.

“We’re probably the most knowledgeable people you know, dearie. You simply needs be a slight bit more persistent to get much out of me~”

A slight bit, huh.

 

I pick up my book and our time together continues as it did before, albeit with less grumbling on my part as I find myself glancing at the snake woman before me. I just can’t help but be suspicious of her… Her connection to both Waywright and Yombroila, her flippant, apparently frivolous nature… Something just isn’t right.

“Might I help you, dear?”

Shoot. Spotted me again. Though, this time, before I’ve even pulled my nose out of my book, Niamh is the one who puts down her reading material, taking one last sip of tea before placing her cup down and her hands in her lap.

“You know, I truly mean no harm or discomfort. If you’d like me to leave, just say so and I’ll be on my way.”

...And despite all of my suspicions, I can’t bring myself to kick her out. What is with this woman?!

“I can tell you’re conflicted, honey. Tell me…”

Before I have a chance to ask about what she has in mind, she’s already uncoiled herself from her chair. She slithers over to my side and rests her hands upon my shoulders. The unexpected contact makes me tense up at first, but she simply perches her palms gently atop me. 

“...Yes…?” I look to my side and find her leaning forward, her face close to mine. 

“...what I can do to fully earn your trust. And I’m serious about this.” 

Her hands leave my shoulders and she lifts herself up higher on her tail before sitting down on the edge of the table. Thankfully, she’s apparently much lighter than she looks. 

“We might have only known each other for a few days by this point, but it has been millenia since I felt as alive as I did fighting you, watching you, helping you. I want more of that. But only if you’ll allow me.”

Dang, she is serious. That, or a really good actress. The problem lies within her question though… What can she do to earn my trust? She said it herself, I’m conflicted, stuck even, not between a rock and a hard place, more like… a rock and a pulsating void of undetermined nothingness. Not the Azathoth kind, thankfully, I shudder at the thought… I don’t know why I’m conflicted, let alone how she could remedy that.

“...Perhaaaps, I could be to you as Yombroila is to Fox!”

As usual, she confuses me right off the bat.

“...And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, think about it. Fox has had a great deal of difficulty sorting out her own identity, which is exactly what dear Yom is best at helping with.” The snake woman leans down, our noses almost touching as she looks at me with a curious and playful look. “Meanwhile, you, on the other hand… I would bet that you need to sort out your emotions more than your sense of self. You remind me a lot of Yom in that sense~”

Hmm. Don’t like that. As if pinpointing the crux of my arc wasn’t bad enough, comparing me to that…okay, maybe calling Yombroila a witch is taking it a bit far, Fox did seem to change the goddess’ tune somewhat last night. But still, I don’t want to be compared to her!

“You’re not making a very good case for yourself, Niamh,” I tell her, crossing my arms with a huff.

She shrugs, of course. “I’ve never been quite as good at convincing people with my words as I am making them feel things with them. Lots of things~”

I’m not blushing you’re blushing. Gah! I shake my head and press a finger to Niamh’s snoot, pushing her back to a more comfortable distance.

“You’re doing a much better job of scrambling my emotions as opposed to sorting them, I gotta say!”

“Well, you did just get a girlfriend.” 

Oh, god, I did, didn’t I. 

“So perhaps I should go a bit easier on you. By the way, open relationship, yay/nay?”

“Pending. Fox and I have a lot going on, so keep your twitchy tail to yourself ‘til we figure those things out.”

My stern words only seem to amuse her more, the snake woman chuckling at me as she slides off the table and slithers towards the door.

“You’re fun, Kitten. That is the whole reason I’m here, afterall~” She stops and looks back at me, her forked tongue flickering out of her snout. “Well, I’ll leave you to yourself, then. Unless…~”

“Unless…?”

“Unless you’d like to join me for a fly about Monorise~”

I can’t help but snort at her. The usually haughty and confident lady crosses her arms and puffs her cheeks out at me.

“I’m being serious.”

“I know! Yes, I know, but do you really expect me to trust you to carry me around however many miles above the ground?”

Her pouty face returns to its usual sly, flirty smirk. A shame, she looked kinda cute for a second there. “And yet you trust Yom to give you orders each night despite holding more reservations about her than you do me? I can sense that kind of thing, Kitten. That girl is not the kind of person to elicit trust as easily as she thinks she does.”

“Oh, so she is shady then?”

“Misguided, perhaps. Goddess or not, she’s just as broken as you and I. I’ll see if I can’t talk some sense into her, if she’ll even let me~” 

Hmm. Maybe there is hope for these two after all, Niamh and Yombroila. I’ll just have to… ugh… put my faith in the serpent woman for now, said lady now unfurling one of her large wings from around her waist as if to stretch it. 

“Now, if you’re going to come with me, come now. If you need any more confidence in my ability to fly, I’ll have you know I was born with these wings~”

I look around at the whole lotta nothing there is to do before rolling my eyes at the serpent. I suppose I’ve done plenty of reading today already…

“Fine, I’ll humour you.” 

Niamh gets a giddy grin on her face before her other wing unfurls as well, somehow having the dexterity to open the front door. 

“But if this ain’t worth my time, you’d better hope you have the cash to buy me a meal from the city.”

Another chuckle from her, and she ushers me outside, swiftly sweeping me off my feet as her tail closes the door.

“Does nobody here know how to carry anybody in any way besides bridal style?” I snark before the feeling of quickly gaining altitude leaves any facetiousness behind on the ground.

“How are you feeling, darling? My magic should be protecting you from any danger you normally deal with rising this high and fast, but are you comfortable?”

It’s only as she asks that I realize I’ve been clinging to her with my arms around the back of her neck. I immediately let go and allow the snake to carry my weight in full, putting on a huffy face and crossing my arms.

“I’m fine. Just do your flying thingy.”

I’m not about to give her the satisfaction of my enjoyment, though her laughter tells me she’s going to get it regardless of how I act. I’ve never had a problem with heights before thankfully, so looking down, I can see just how high above Railsent we are. I can already see the entire town clear as day, or as clear as I can from this height. It’s then I notice just how powerful each flap of Niamh’s wings are, feeling it every time we rise, my body being pushed up into the air as it grows chillier by the moment. It doesn’t take long before we reach the clouds, and a sudden…magic hits me. Not Niamh’s magic, duh, rather… the ‘we just breached the freaking clouds’ kind of magic. Clearly this is evident on my face as the snake woman’s tail comes up and cradles my cheek, causing me to blush.

“Girlfriend,” I mutter sternly and Niamh takes her tail back almost immediately.

“Right, right, sorry. That kind of face is the one kind that brings me back to the World of Shade time and time again, it’s hard not to want to treasure it.” There’s a whimsy to her voice as she explains herself, and it’s the most honest she’s ever been since meeting her.

“You really did follow us, just because you find us interesting, huh?”

She nods, her wings adjusting as she leans forward and sends us gliding towards Monorise. “My kind are all very interesting in ways both physical and emotional, but they lack a certain…adventurousness to them. A curiosity, a whimsy, something I’ve only been able to spark in human-kind, or in this case, Ascended-kind.”

Niamh offers me a wink, and… Dang it, it’s hard not to find her charming. Stupid sexy snake. Some time passes in the skies before we find ourselves over Monorise, and…yes, my arms found their way back around her neck over that time, shut up. Feeling the wind gliding across my fur, seeing the world so small, everything about this makes me feel something. It’s amazing. Fox and I have looked down at the city from atop some of its tallest buildings before, but this is completely different.

“Already worth it, hmm~?” the serpent teases, eliciting another sigh from me. “I might just have to take you out for lunch regardless, I think~”

Why is she like this. It’s about now I feel us beginning to descend, the span of her huge wings providing us with a slow and gentle fall until we stop atop one of the many skyscrapers strewn about Monorise.

Niamh lets me back down to my feet and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to stay where I was a moment ago. 

“Alright, you’ve brought me to the top of some random building. Now what?”

“Now what? Did I not just say I would have to take you out to lunch~?”

Oh, right.

“Tell me what you want, dear.”

Uhh. I’ve rarely gotten the chance to eat out here before, so… Oh!

“Pizza. I want a meaty freaking pizza slice,” I blurt out, my stomach thinking before my brain. “Wait, how are you gonna even get food like that? I figured you’d have me do the ordering or something.”

“Oh, I have my ways, worry not~”

I am worrying.

Before I have a chance to worry any more, however, Niamh throws herself off the edge of the building, prompting me to peer over the edge and find her snout booped against mine.

“Boop~”

“SHUT UP AND GET ME MY DAMN PIZZA!!”

Niamh chortles and lets herself fall further, seeming to poof into a small group of clouds as I push myself back and away from the building’s edge. This serpent is going to be the end of me, but at least I can spend some time alone with my thoughts while she’s out and about.

I lay back and bask in the wonder of the sky, gazing up with my hands behind my head. Has she earned my trust that easily? No, she’s proven she’s more than just a flirt, but I wouldn’t say she’s proven herself yet. I feel almost mean thinking that, but… I’m just looking out for Fox and I. I don’t want her doing something that could hurt us, even if she did save us from an eternity of nothingness. Sigh. Maybe I should lighten up…

 

“Pizza time~”

Of course she would. Floating on a cloud just above me, the snake woman has reappeared, handing me a cardboard tray with a few slices of pizza on it, each decked with pepperoni, sausage, bacon bits. Ooh, I’m drooling just looking at it, let alone smelling it. My reaction does not go unnoticed as I sit up and Niamh begins to wave the pizza from side to side, my head almost following before I shake my head and glare up at the now chuckling serpent.

“Oh, don’t be a sourpuss, we’re just having fun~”

I snatch the tray from her hands and immediately begin munching away at this heavenly, bliss inducing slice of pizza oh my god. My ears droop down as I chew away. God, this is…really good. I’m not gonna let the smirking snake ruin this moment for me. I’m eating pizza and I’m happy. Which makes a question pop into my head as I look to Niamh eating her own deluxe pizza slice.

“So, do all Radiants eat like you do? Seems odd to think of people like Ares or the dolls and bug folk gathering around a table and sharing a meal.” 

Frick, is that racist? Am I being a Radiant Racist?

Niamh must sense my discomfort, chuckling and putting her food down for a moment. “Don’t worry, dear, you’re on the right track. Radiants are people, I can assure you that, but we are very different from anything the World of Shade has to offer. Thinking of us as just another race is flattering in a way, but in some instances, you do have to think of us almost as…alien, unlike Ascended who are, indeed, still human in a sense. I haven’t seen any actual aliens in millennia, though, so don’t worry about them.”

“H-hold up, aliens are real--”

“Anyways! It varies greatly, but some Radiant feed just as humans and animals from this world do, others feed off of unorthodox sources of material food, and some feed off of things like emotions and other bizarre concepts, if they have a need to eat at all. Myself? A mix of the first and last. Think of it like the difference between drinking and eating. I need physical sustenance, just as I need to feed off the positive emotions of others. It’s not as though I try to make people happy out of a need to feed, however, don’t get me wrong, it simply gives me a whole new appreciation for it~”

Okay, y’know, that makes sense. Lots of media has explored similar concepts, and Radiants have inspired much of mythology, so yeah. It makes sense.

“Jeez, just how much is there to know about you…” I mumble to myself, mouth half full of pizza.

“Quite a bit~ Perhaps we’ll have to dedicate an entire chapter to that at some point--”

“No no no no no! No, we don’t need that. Just keep bringing me pizza, and we’ll be good, okay?”

Niamh chuckles at me, finishing off her meal at the same time I do. She dabs a tiny cloud in her palm around her mouth, tossing it over the edge before taking both of our cardboard trays to the recycling bin atop this roof. She then turns to me with her hands on her hips.

“You ever been held in someone’s wings before~?”

“Girlfriend, Niamh.”