ORIGIN

It had been ages since Shade had had any fun with anyone. I mean, he was a cat, so I don’t know what anyone was expecting, but it felt odd that he hadn’t interacted with anyone in so long. Where was everyone? Even a cat got lonely sometimes, apparently. He wandered the streets of Orion, chasing bits of old cloth or climbing buildings as he saw fit. But what he really needed was someone to ignore.

What? He was a cat. Cats didn’t love you by giving you attention. They loved you by ignoring you. But if there was no one around to ignore… well, that was a horrible existence. He continued wandering, hoping someone would come around so that he could show them he liked them by pretending he didn’t notice them.

Well… no one was around, which irritated Shade. He’d wandered around Orion for quite some time before giving up on finding anyone to ignore, so he decided he’d alleviate his boredom some other way. It’d been a while since he’d hunted at all, and his stomach growled uncomfortably, so he went into “stealth mode” and began stalking the streets, sniffing about for any hint of prey nearby. He scented a trail after a bit, but it was old and musty and clearly there was no point in following it because whatever tiny creature had been here had obviously moved on by now. He sighed. He’d have to try again.

The next trail he went down also led him to nothing, and now he was starting to wonder if he should even bother. If he was this bad at tracking prey, maybe he should just eat plants instead. He flopped down onto his side and began to groom himself to relax for a bit before trying again. He wouldn’t give up. He was too arrogant for that. He just had to calm his nerves, that was all. That was what was wrong. Yeah. If he just calmed down, he’d get it eventually. If not, he’d have to ignore his stomach and do something more fun for a while.

Welp. This last attempt had been his worst yet, and he couldn’t find anything. So now he decided he could just punish himself by being hungry for a while and instead he would find a nice place to climb. Cats loved climbing. They loved to be up high. He wandered around a bit more, realizing that this was probably the most of Orion that he’d ever seen. Most of the time before this, he’d spent sleeping and doing… not much of anything, really.

Ooo… What was that, over there? Shade ran over to the Cliffs, staring upwards. The walls here were so tall that they seemed… endless. Maybe he could try climbing these? It seemed dangerous, but he didn’t care. He was bored.

Shade began to climb, or thought he was going to, but realized that there were no good holds in this section of the wall. He groaned in irritation, pacing back and forth along the wall, trying to begin his climb. Nothing was going right for him today, was it? He muttered to himself angrily, though the worlds were incoherent and not really words. By the Cave Gods, he was going to get this climb right if it was the last thing he ever did! He had to. His life depended on it! Okay, that was him being dramatic, but whatever!

This time, when he still couldn’t find any good claw-holds, he simply jumped up and tried snagging onto something. But he only ended up sliding uselessly back down to the ground. He sat there wanting to bang his head into the cliff for a while, becoming angrier and angrier. Why wasn’t anything in his life working right now? He felt like he was going crazy! First, no one showed up for him to talk to (ignore) and then his hunt failed, and now his attempt at climbing was failing too. Did he just suck at being a cat? Was that even possible? What was he supposed to do now?

Angrily, Shade turned around and jumped again at the wall, absolutely determined to climb it now.

And miraculously… it worked! Somehow, he got ahold of part of the wall with his claws, and he was quick to make his way up a bit more. Finally! Something was going right in his life today! He grinned happily to himself. Maybe when he was done with his, he could try hunting again… if his luck held. That would be a big part of it. He shook his head, trying to stay positive. He could do this! He would do this! He looked around for another hold.

Another failure, then. He couldn’t seem to find anywhere to climb up from here. He reached here and there but came up empty-pawed, literally. He gave himself a break, deciding he would try again in a second. If he was really going to climb this, he’d have to pace himself or he’d get tired quickly. He’d also have to watch out for his claws, being sure not to accidentally rip them out climbing up rocks. He could still do this.

This was becoming more and more hopeless and Shade was now very tired of holding onto the side of a cliff. He sighed in frustration. After that one success he’d had a few minutes ago, it seemed his luck had run dry again. What was he going to do now? If he was this bad at getting up the cliff face, imagine how bad he’d be getting down. He yowled in anger at himself, but now there was really nothing else for it. He’d have to keep going. It was either up or down… Up!

Finally, he was making some more progress. He’d found another place to move up, but it just wasn’t as much as he’d hoped it would be. He needed a bigger movement. If he was making tiny improvements like this, it would take him all day to climb the wall. He scanned the cliff, looking for his next move. At the very least, this was giving him some much needed exercise. He supposed that was a good thing.