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CRITTERRRR — (FT) Chapter 4: Dissolve

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Published: 2018-09-16 00:43:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 1980; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 0
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Description This chapter is in the form of a written story! The events will have a whole lot of impact on the RP, so be sure to read it! There will also be a group RP following the events of this chapter, which will take place in our Discord server! More info on joining and roleplaying will be added below ^^
Sta.sh file if that's easier for some to read: chapter 4: dissolve

    Naomi Highborne was the empress of the western side of Katana Lake.

    But, in this moment, she certainly didn’t feel like it.

    Opposed to popular belief, Naomi did not grow up pampered by the luxuries offered to a princess such as herself. She did not grow up with a servant at one paw nursing her every whim and need and another primping her fur and discussing which jewels would match her eyes. She did not dine on steaming Frystagel eel bathed in lemon juice and cashews or sip crème brûlée with whipped topping alongside her equally snobbish brothers and sisters. These were just the dreamy, rose-tinted images painted by her mother- and Queen at the time- to remind her subjects of her power, wealth, and security.

    In truth, Queen Charlotte was not a very kind cat, nor a patient one; in general, not someone fit to be raising five kittens. So, at the ripe age of one year old, Naomi Highborne and her siblings were divided and scattered as far from the palace as they could get, pushed onto various orphanages and semi-willing distant relatives.

    Naomi was lucky to have ended up with her uncle, Indulf, who had no interest in crowns or jewels or any of the grandness that accompanied being the Queen’s brother and potential heir to the throne. He lived in a cozy little one-story house in Outbridge. He had no servants and no riches, he worked all day and on her first night there he served Naomi a raw rat on a bed of lettuce.

    Immediately, she loved her uncle.

    Suddenly, Naomi wasn’t a Highborne anymore. She was just Naomi. When she was young, she had taken that fact for granted.

    However, for the most part, she lived a normal childhood. She went to school and sobbed over her math homework because she couldn’t figure out multiplication, and sometimes she made sugar cookies with her uncle. She learned that not everything was fair the day that a nasty little firecat stole her lunch from her backpack, and that same day she learned that her actions had consequences when she was sent to the office for putting a bubble around his head until his cheeks turned blue. She learned that life had more to offer than math homework and sugar cookies the first time she got in a fight at sixteen.

    The world of street gangs and fistfights and defacing ‘Do Not Enter’ signs was a dangerous one, but the high it gave Naomi was addicting. She lived for the nighttime meetups lit only by dim street lamps, the breathless hoots and hollers of triumphant friends evading capture, the moment you choose fight over flight. Naomi was a criminal, and she loved it.

    Her uncle would not love it, however, if he found out. So he didn’t. Indulf was not an easy cat to read; Naomi wasn’t sure if her secrecy was for his sake or her own. She lived a double life; one in the streets under the cover of night, another watering the flowers and reading the newspaper on lazy afternoons. Indulf would point out some article about a warehouse being broken into or a cat gone missing and wonder what the story was behind that, and Naomi would offer him a detached shrug.  She knew her uncle was becoming suspicious; she’d come home late brandishing new bruises and scratches on too many occasions for him not to notice.

    Naomi knew the truth would have to come out soon. She resolved she would tell him, eventually, when the time was right.

    She never had the chance before the news arrived in the form of a neatly folded letter with an official-looking scarlet seal that Queen Charlotte was dead, and there was only one Highborne heir left standing, and that was Naomi. In that moment, Naomi’s world flipped upside down- as did her stomach, because after reading the letter over a second time, she threw up all over the front step.

    Naomi’s life became a blur after that, a hurricane of doe-eyed maids and judgmental advisors awaiting her imminent downfall, tight-fitting gowns and tiaras pouring with sparkling jewels, coronations and official meetings, an appointed husband and a wave of unwanted heirs. Naomi’s life was no longer her own; it was handed off to her subjects, the cats who would now see her for the cardboard cutout others made her out to be.

    She was no longer Naomi, who baked sugar cookies. Or Naomi, who was bad at math. Or Naomi, the street thug.

    She was a Highborne again.

    In a sort of poetic, cruel way, this reminded Naomi of the cats whose lives she had fed to the forest, what must have been close to a year ago now. She couldn’t even remember all of their names, but their faces were etched into her memory. That dragonblood gym teacher. The medium with the creepy eyes. The naturecat stoner. And her son, Lei, for the Ice Dragon’s sake, what kind of Queen- what kind of mother- sends her own son on a suicide mission?

    Naomi wondered where they were now. Most likely killed. Perhaps by the cat that stood before her now, his yellow eyes piercing against an overcast sky, dark silhouette demanding the attention of the cats below.

    He- whoever he was- stood where the long marble staircase pooled into a platform at the base of the hill, Naomi’s palace a ghostly shape piercing the clouds overhead. The landing pooled out into a few more steps before it met the spiraling cobblestone patterns of the plaza, where cats were beginning to draw their attention to this stranger, this alien. He radiated an almost tangible, smoke energy that predicted no good. His voice was a thunderclap; of what Naomi heard as she entered its range, he spoke clearly and with confidence.

    “…With this in mind, cats of the New Kingdom, I implore you all to accept me as your new ruler! This is what your ancestors would have wanted- honor the Great Ice Dragon, and bring balance to the lake once more!” He looked over his captivated audience like a cat who had just given a very convincing speech, and was awaiting the positive feedback. All he received was an onslaught of stunned looks and disbelieving murmurs. Someone near the back shouted something that Naomi didn’t quite catch through the fabric of her hood.

    She’d started wearing a hooded cloak when going out in public; it made the outside world more tolerable, when she wasn’t constantly barraged with curious and, although well-meaning, irritating cats. And perhaps her disguise was proving to be useful, as this strange outsider had yet to recognize her as an authority figure. Naomi found herself teetering between revealing her identity, protecting her throne, and remaining idle, remaining… safe.

    She knew the easy answer, and the right one. Of all the reasons to choose the path she did, her stupid nostalgia was the most prominent. It chimed in her head, whispered sweetly about who she was without the title, how she never would have backed down from a fight against a stunted little creep like this. She swallowed the foreboding and imagined the world away.

    So, Naomi threw down her disguise and stepped forward on paws that shook and a heart that thundered with lust for a battle. “What a disgusting display of cowardice and trickery,” she called in a controlled voice. She was a viper; she would slide around the body of this arrogant outsider and taste all of his secrets and fears. “If for any reason you thought your little presentation here would rally you up any willing allies, you were poorly mistaken. I assume this is some kind of jest, and if not, I’m honestly embarrassed for you.”

    “The Queen herself, I presume…” the dark cat drawled, and it occurred to Naomi that he was a snake, too. She could smell his venom. “I am delighted that you could make an appearance.” He turned, delicately descending by one step but always keeping his eyes on Naomi. Staring into his eyes was like being sucked into thick, hot tar; she was entranced, captured, slipping into his cold black pupils.

    “The tail…” Someone gasped close by, and a symphony of surprise emerged from the gathering crowd. Naomi blinked and she finally noticed this cat’s one abnormality; whereas other cats had a tail that declared their elemental abilities, this one did not. His tail was long and covered in the same chestnut brown fur as the rest of him, it moved with him. Eerily it resembled a perfect match, while still being completely different, unnaturally so.

    “Who are you?” Naomi snapped, a little unnerved. “What are you?”

    “I suppose I have yet to introduce myself…” the outsider pondered. He turned his attention to his enchanted audience, scanning the crowd. The power of his stare made cats flinch away. “My name is Isaac Highborn, original King of this Kingdom, before it was so cruelly taken away from me.” He slammed his paw against the cold marble, filling the air with an echo. “How so can be detailed later… once I’m returned the throne that is rightfully mine.”

    Naomi blanched. That was impossible. How could an outsider, an alien know anything about the Kingdom’s royal line? And, if what he said was true, how could he be alive? Immortality? Some deep, unsavory magic?

    Maybe I’m looking too deep into this, Naomi thought, trying to corral her frantic thoughts. Isaac was clearly enjoying the range of emotions that flashed across his listener’s faces, moving smoothly, like a serpent, down the steps so he was level with them. His eyes were on Naomi, awaiting her next move. The dying trees placed their bets in hushed whispers.

    “Even if the ludicrous claims you make are true,” Naomi stammered, struggling to keep her composure when a drumming heart threatened to send her running. She could practically taste the uncertainty and fear of the gathered cats, wondering what their Queen would do, praying for her to save them. I never asked for this job. “Why would I submit with such ease? Do you expect me to lie down on my back with my tail between my legs and allow you to walk right over me?”

    Her gaze grew serious, and she knew she loathed this cat. She would love to dig her claws into his face. “Because you’re a fucking idiot if you think so.”

    Isaac’s gaze suddenly darkened, and Naomi tilted her head up in success. She had tasted his weakness, his delicious insecurity. Suddenly this cat, despite the unusual aura he carried, was nothing more than that; a very strange cat. His fury made him swell up like a venomous viper and beady yellow eyes pinpointed Naomi with a ferocity she was surprised could be contained in such a tiny body.

    “I challenge you to a duel, prideful Queen,” Isaac hissed. “Fight me, and the cat left standing takes this Kingdom.”

    “So be it. When, and where, do you propose such an event take place?” Naomi responded before his words had sunken in. Consequence had left her mind. Her vision arrowed in on her opponent hungrily.

    “Here,” said Isaac. “Now.” 

    The wind picked up around Naomi, or perhaps it was her surging through it. Crescent claws reached out for Isaac, who now appeared smug despite the angry lines that were sketched across his muzzle. She anticipated the moment where her teeth met his flesh, when he would cry out in pain and his life would spill out onto the cobblestone underfoot. She was sixteen again. She was Naomi.

    And then very abruptly she was not.

    Her claws did not meet Isaac as she had intended them to, and instead and landed on hard cobblestone in a wisp of smoke. Naomi turned, scanning her surroundings. It was as if Isaac had literally vanished into thin air. Suspicion and confusion flared, warning bells went off.

    Then a ball of what she immediately assumed to be smoke slammed into her, or rather passed right through her, semi-tangible like a vengeful spirit. Naomi stumbled, the supernatural attack leaving her feeling dazed and unreal. Her ears buzzed with static.

    When her vision cleared she realized the smoke was gathering around her, however Naomi was beginning to realize it was unlike any elemental smoke she had ever encountered. This energy was black- blacker than any night sky or ink blot, it absorbed the light around it and when Naomi looked at it for too long it left her with a sinking-in-quicksand feeling.

    Isaac appeared nearby, a hazy vision through the darkness. His yellow eyes carved a glowing path before him, the same wispy shadow-smoke curling around his paws, from the corners of his mouth and eyes, from even the depths of his dark pelt. His low, rumble of laughter complimented the horror that surrounded Naomi. Naomi expected some kind of villainous speech, but Isaac said nothing as he began to circle her. Naomi turned and matched her steps to his, always keeping him in her sight, never losing focus on those horrible yellow eyes.

    Without warning, Isaac sidestepped and took a flying leap towards Naomi. Shadows kissed his features and lifted in wisps off of his outstretched claws. Naomi hissed and reeled back, but when Isaac crashed into her, claws raking across her face, she collapsed, feeling the familiar, cool cobblestone below.

    The marks that Isaac’s cursed claws left on her face burned fiercely. It was as if a firecat were thrusting scorching tongues of flame into her wounds, digging around and trying to rip open her face, burning her fur, burning behind her eyes and in her throat where a yowl of agony swelled and burst. Blinded by thick shadows, suffocating in her own pain, Naomi couldn’t see Isaac as he glared triumphantly down at her, the sick son of a bitch.

    She could feel a twisted sinking feeling in her chest and all around her, as if she were sucked into the earth by hot tar, bubbling around her, taking rapid mouthfuls from her fur and body. Naomi’s fear bubbled out of her maw in incomprehensible cries and pleas. Was this what it felt like to die? Am I going to die?

    “Wrathful King,” Naomi choked out, forcing back her panic, feeling black pour into her mouth, black soaking into her chest. “…Fuck you.”



    Unlike chapters before this, Dissolve will leave an immediate impact on all Kingdom cats (don't worry Forgottens, you'll get your chance later on!). So, if you come join our Faulty Task Discord server , you can participate in a group roleplay which takes place just moments after the events of the short story! Anyone is allowed to join and more info on RP etiquette will be elaborated on in the server!

    If you're not a fan of big group roleplays, or are unable to join the Discord server, that's alright! You can participate in an RP prompt by writing a short story or RP starter or drawing yours and other's Kingdom characters responding to the strange newcomer and the events that transpired. Have their loyalties changed?
    As usual, participating in an RP prompt automatically gifts you with 5 coins, but you can earn more by following this chart .

JOIN THE RP: faultytask.deviantart.com/
FAULTY TASK DISCORD: discord.gg/BNNx3Qt

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Comments: 2

Lunar-Snows [2018-09-23 18:29:08 +0000 UTC]

Stop looking at me with them big ol eyes

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

TheRoyalBreacrumbs [2018-09-16 01:21:35 +0000 UTC]

The Prideful Queen; the Wrathful King.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0