Mossie doesn't know how long she'd been hibernating. She's probably missed like, all the cool forbidden knowledge, but look. Sometimes you're a dumb kid who met a really fucked up horse, caught a hint of a slippery slope and then flung yourself off it screaming, and only realized hey wait I want to get back on the ground when you're about to hit a rock. In such times there's only one thing to do, and that's take a nice nap. Naps fix everything.

But she's ready and raring to go now. She's got gods to serve, people to recruit, hallucinatory substances to experiment with, lives to create, all that jazz. She's been spending most of her time since awakening spreading the word to everyone she's run into about the Shadow, and while she's fairly certain most of them think she's bonkers badonkers at least a few of em gotta be curious, right? They'll show up eventually.

So she sets herself by the foot of her carefully-dug out throne, and waits.

Speaking of recruits.

V-Opal-One had slept too, for a little while, and had awoken to a world that hadn't changed all that much in her absence. The feelings this had provoked in her had washed over into a dull, prodding boredom that produced little more than trouble.

And, fuck it, it'd do anything to get rid of that feeling. So hey, let's patrol Canis with the family you don't talk to! What a sweet deal! (The sarcasm wasn't exactly earned here, and it knew that. Zoey was nice enough and Lab was, well... Trying its best.)

But, while we're at it... let's sneak out to Orion again, to meet that weird sad-looking cat. What was her name? Moose? Sure, that sounds right enough.

He kind of owed her. She'd done a lot for him, in the past. Taught him the fun words, been generally interesting in a cave that bored the shit (thanks Moose) out of him. So when talk of serving a Shadow hit his small, round and stationary ears, he was MORALLY obligated to check it out.

"WHAT is UP kitty. Cicero reporting for duty." It trotted in, second torso held high.

It didn't remember all that much from the last time they talked. It'd pick it up as they went along.

@Mossie

Mossie honestly wasn't expecting anyone to show up so soon--let alone anyone familiar. In her excitement, her tail flies up, and she bounds over to Cicero. It's been so long, she can't quite remember how their interaction went, but she does remember finding them entertaining.

"Hello, hello!" She chirps. "Good to see you again! You're all grown up now, huh? Moving up in the world. Would you mind helping me track down a Lesser? The Shadow requires one life every time I summon it."
@V-Opal-One

It remembers, vaguely, a time where it was not greeted so warmly by this particular cat. It is glad they are passed those times - and that it didn't accidentally terrify the smaller animal with its tendency to Appear Suddenly.

He grinned. "If you mean moving up physically - yes, correct. I am STILL not supposed to be here." Hopefully the Canis patrols would change that, soon, and he'd be able to work for the Shadow full time.

"And if you mean track down, as in find- sure, I can do that. Would you prepared to handle the uh, dirty bit? I'm not so great with... Moving, generally." Unless it was hunting her too. That way she wouldn't have to chase it down. But that came along with other, more immediate challenges.

@Mossie