shining through the dark, your eyes reflect the night like the moonlight

[witchcrap]

Characters: Avery Grey and you!
Date: The morning of May 10
Location: A Cat's Paw, the Sky Sector
Situation: Avery shows up, freaks out.
Warnings/Rating: ...thinking all your friends are dead? ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

The sunlight was what woke Avery up.

They opened their eyes slowly, not entirely cognizant of what was going on short of a weird dream about turtles. Then reality hit them like a brick and they sat bolt upright on the couch.

It couldn't be morning already! Nacht would have come by now to duel them!

"Hayes?" they croaked out, then tried again. "Hayes? Finley?" They stumbled to their feet, and too late they remembered the Rust from Nacht's bat, and how just the touch of it had sprained their ankle. "Mason?" They shouted, hobbling back to the kitchen. "Landry? Reese?"

No sign of them. Avery was really beginning to panic now. They wouldn't have just left them on their own...and Nacht wouldn't have let them wake up at all. Unless he wanted Graves's pet to suffer.

A bit more hobbling and Avery made it to the second-floor balcony. No Hayes, no Finley, no anybody. Nobody was in the third-floor apartment, either, and that place was still too much of Graves for Avery's eyes not to sting going up there. Back down the stairs to the basement, then - maybe everyone had decided to weather the storm with the cats and hide from Nacht.

But why wouldn't they have woken them up?

Nobody was in the basement, either. Avery leaned against the wall, trying to spare their ankle. Nobody'd come down here to hide with the cats.

The cats!

Avery frantically began searching for all fourteen cats that had taken refuge in the basement. "Mochi? Countess? Jam Band? Kotik? Shunsuke?"

Nothing. Not even a siren-like meow from Mochi. Avery picked up a container of dry food and rattled it, but nobody responded to the dinner bell.

They hopped back up the stairs again, tears streaming down their face, the container tucked under their arm, and once they were out in the main area, they sat on the couch and shook the container again, and again, and again, but there was never any response.

And in full view of the windows, Avery dropped the container, put their head in their hands, and started sobbing.

Comments

[tektite]

Tektite had been curious about every inch of this city and had been sniffing around, sometimes literally, just about everywhere she could. She liked the look of this cafe place but was less pleased by what she saw through the window. With a soft whine in her throat, she nudged the door open, forgetting it was polite to knock, and looked to sobbing figure on the couch.

"Hello? Are you okay?" she asked in the softest voice her damaged gem would allow. Comforting others wasn't her strong suit, but she couldn't just watch this!

[witchcrap]

Avery wipes their eyes on their sleeve at the quiet chime of the door's bell, and looks up to see who might have come in - maybe if it was one of his friends with some of the cats.

Nope. Someone else.

"Uh...I dunno," Avery said. Their ankle was still sprained, and they felt like a garbage sandwich, and they were freaking out, but...at least they weren't a Rust statue?

[tektite]

Tektite pushed her way farther inside but kept her distance for now. She knew she was not the most pleasant of sights to those unfamiliar with creatures like her and had no idea what Avery was used to. Now she was in here... What was she to do?

"Can I do anything?" Might as well just ask.

[witchcrap]

Avery shakes their head. "No, I don't think so, unless you've seen a cat, or my friends--"

And then they notice what Tektite looks like, and they jump. "Whoa!"

[tektite]

Tektite immediately lowered herself, trying to, at least, make herself not quite so big. A futile effort but she didn't want to scare the poor thing. She was here to help.

"Well... I don't know what a cat looks like but I could help find them if they're here." She was already low enough to the floor that it was easier to just lay down at this point. "I'm good at tracking things. I wouldn't hurt them."

[witchcrap]

Avery took a couple deep breaths - they didn't want to be rude, and this...person...thing...was clearly trying to help.

"Um...hold on." They get Reese's sketchbook, their stomach lurching because Reese isn't here to tell them not to touch it, and they flip to the page they'd doodled on.

Avery is not an artist.

"They look kind of like that...?"

[tektite]

Tektite squinted at the drawing. Well, she could get a basic idea from that, she had seen something similar in books in the library.

"Like so?" Avery probably didn't mean a tiger but that is what Tektite guessed so a grey and black tiger she was. She looked down at a paw and flexed it, fascinated by how the claws moved in and out of the large toes.

[witchcrap]

"Whoa!" Avery jumped at the shapeshift. Whatever they'd been expecting, it hadn't been that.

"Yeah, uh, kind of, but smaller," they said, indicating the average size of a cat with their hands. "That's so cool! How did you do that?"

[tektite]

Tektite searched her memory and was suddenly much smaller, just a tabby cat. A bizarre tabby cat with wide eyes lacking an iris and black teeth, but a housecat all the same.

"Better?" She felt small. "Oh. This is just what Gems can do. We're shapeshifters. I can't stay like this for very long but it's fun."

[witchcrap]

"Yeah, almost exactly like that," Avery said, even though the facsimile cat looked a little unsettling.

Then they blinked, a little nonplussed. "You're a rock?"

[tektite]

Tektite was looking down at her new, tiny paws, flexing them again. Even the little ones had those neat hooked claws. Wonderful!

"A rock? Yes I suppose." Tektite looked back up at Avery. "Technically a form of glass, as I am a tektite. If you mean Gems as a species, it is a bit more complicated than that. We are magical beings and our Gems serve as a focus for our forms and abilities."

Tektite sat and shrugged small cat shoulders. "We are often made with a purpose and my purpose was to hunt down others. I could find your cats, if they are here. If there is something in particular that smells like them, it will be easier."

[witchcrap]

Avery blinks at the entire explanation. Gems? Magic rocks? A tektite????

"Um...there's a big amethyst geode in the basement. Should I be worried?" They ask, and drag out a bunch of the cat toys and beds. "Here - this should be everyone. I'll have to go upstairs and get something belonging to the Countess. And, uh, what should I call you? Given that you're doing me a pretty huge favor and all."

[tektite]

Tektite laughed at the geode comment and shook her head.

"No need to worry and you can call me Tektite. I highly doubt you'll run into another here." Tektite weaved through the cat toys and beds, sniffing each one in turn. "Mmm, I have a good idea of what to track. I'll make sure any of your cats I find will be delivered safely. I wouldn't even consider a huge favor, this is just what I'm good at."

Very serious words to come out of a small tabby cat.

[witchcrap]

"Okay," Avery says, and smiles. "Thanks, Tektite."

Sure, the Gem was kind of weird-looking, but what did they know? Their boss was a Goth David Bowie and until recently their friends all spent half their time as cats.

"Still, I'd want to pay you back somehow. It wouldn't feel right otherwise. Is there anything you need?"

[tektite]

"Need?" Tektite blinked and raised a paw to tap at her chin as she thought. "Not that I can think of, I have little in the way of needs. I would like to know what sort of place this is, if you wouldn't mind saying."