User: Blair’s Cats

Civ: Cat People

The user is able to break him or herself down into nine small cats that can be controlled independently. The user is able to reform at any of their cat’s locations, and anybody who attempts to pursue the cats becomes afflicted with terrible luck. This luck could manifest as clumsiness, causing the user’s pursuers to unwittingly harm themselves; aggression from others; or even illness. When one of the cats is attacked, it causes 8/9ths of the damage to be reflected back, while only taking 1/9th of the damage. In this form, the user possesses an incredible defence, but when the user reforms into their normal state, they possess incredible offensive abilities. In their reformed state, the user is able to quickly attack with invisible claws that slash through the air whenever the user desires. Anything these claws slash can pull in all misfortune towards that point, causing all attacks to strike it and any damage the victim takes to become moved to that point. As such, the bad luck will cause that wound to get worse and worse with time. These claw attacks have a very short range, however.

Rocky felt something invisible claw open the front of its maw, and blood rained down on the floor. Then, not a half-second later, another claw connected—and another. Its long green snout had been sliced up by something invisible as Blair’s Cats let out a collective yowl as they began to sprint forward. We didn’t really plan for what would happen when the cats actually did reform, huh? Crocodile Rock! Dog Rocky howled, covering the wounds with rocks from the ground and diving into the earth in the process. Despite having covered the slashes and holes in its snout with rocks, Rocky could feel the wounds getting warmer while swimming through the earth, trying to find Nero. Something was pounding on the metal floor somewhere above them but not directly above. We can’t focus on these things for now . . . we need to find the doctor while we still can!

Rocky surfaced from one of the sewer pathways, thinking it had seen Nero go down this way. But the area was empty. Rocky could barely move, feeling its head grow heavier and warmer while the rest of its body felt light and frigid. The slashes were especially hot. Did the cats do something to the cuts they made? Rocky panicked, growling in instinctive fear as it saw Blair’s Cats round the corner. Dangling around its neck were nine collars, unfolded and stretched out to wrap around the beast’s throat. It was growling as it lumbered towards Rocky. Rocky’s tail sent a small pebble flying towards it, which it deftly swiped out of the air with an invisible claw. We need to figure out if this thing has damage reflection, Rocky thought, sending a few more rocks towards it, none of them hitting but all of them making the chimaera even more furious. It yowled as it charged Rocky.

Rocky barked, “Crocodile Rock!” as the metal around Rocky transformed into an armour of green limestone—an impenetrable cocoon. This thing seems easily angered. Getting it to touch one of my rocks shouldn’t be too hard.

Blair’s Cats sent a flurry of invisible swipes at the shield, only barely scratching the surface. Rocky could hear them howl and hiss from outside their cocoon, and eventually, they heard it stomp over on its paws, biting into the stone barrier. God, how could nine of you be so stupid?

Suddenly Blair’s Cats’ mouth was full of gashes and deep puncture wounds, blood flying out of its rows of teeth. Rocky didn’t feel any worse, aside from the fact that his body was slowly freezing and his face was almost on fire. Is it moving the heat in my body towards the wounds it created? Rocky mused, worried about the potential repercussions of this thing’s Civ. The cocoon suddenly exploded, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction as Rocky burst out, its wounds once again filled in with rock, strengthening the hide. Rocky turned one of its teeth into a piece of rock shell, which filled Blair’s Cats’ mouth, seeming to puncture it. No damage reflection in this form, huh?

Rocky growled and barked as it charged forward, sending up a pillar of rock before the cats could attack. They didn’t charge this time, however; it seemed they had figured out one of Rocky’s tricks. Instead, they shot around the side, preparing to dice the mutt from a safe distance. But Rocky was gone. Blair’s Cats felt the metal beneath them slowly bend and shift. Then, everything went dark.

Rocky flew up from beneath Blair’s Cats, turning them into a (rockodile) paw-sized stone as its jaws came down on the cat’s legs. Rocky watched as it hit the ground and began to roll around the ground. It was still technically alive, and it wouldn’t stay in that form for long, but regardless, this gave Rocky some time to plan. Blair’s Cats re-emerged at the bottom of the sewer basin, immediately thrashing and howling internally, attempting to swim for safety. But somehow, the water just kept going, like they weren’t making any progress despite swimming as fast as they could. This wasn’t a twist of luck or fate, however. Rocky had constructed a tunnel leading from the top of the water to the bottom and had been turning the bottom layer of the water into an easily transportable rock and turning it back into water at the surface, pulling the cats down and keeping them there long enough for them to lose consciousness.

Before they could, though, their fear and panic as they slowly suffocated took over, and they left their combined form. Rocky watched as nine terrified cats floated to the surface, gasping for air. They were now small and buoyant enough to float to the surface despite Rocky’s efforts. YES! Now we can find the doctor-guy without some horrible nightmare chasing me! And I didn’t even need to use my teeth again! Rocky reflected on this expression of gratitude as they looked at the teeth they had placed on the shore as rocks. It’s weird what we’ve become thankful for huh?

Then, Rocky’s gratitude completely faded away as the kittens arrived in the alcove, with several of them touching the rocks Rocky had placed there to puncture the beast if they escaped their trap. And now they watched in terror as 1/9th of a puncture wound struck each cat and the other 8/9ths tore through the top of Rocky’s face, turning the earlier slashes into deep puncture wounds that left their upper jaw dangling by only a few patches of skin. That was a total of eight deep stabs tearing through the roof of their mouth, sending them to the floor as blood filled their throat. Rocky could hardly breathe anymore. B-but . . . we won? Dog Rocky whimpered.

We have to burrow out of here . . . now, Croc Rocky answered as their blood leaked into the water.

We’re going to die here. Look at us. We’re missing a paw, we have eight massive holes in the top of our snout, we’re slowly freezing to death, we have a literal brain tumour . . . it’s game over. Do you know what they do to dogs who get this sick and in pain? They shoot ’em.

Look, I don’t really know what we are, but we certainly aren’t a dog. Which means nobody is going to be shooting us today. We have to find somebody who can heal us.

Where? Where would we find somebody like that? Dog Rocky whimpered and whined again. I… I don’t think I can move. Even if we plug our wounds with rocks, we still have everything else to deal with. Rocky saw that the cats, barely injured, had begun to walk away as they heard a loud bell jingle through the halls of water and iron.

Where are they going? Croc Rocky snorted.

That doctor probably has them on a pretty tight leash . . . I can recognize when an owner has something trained.

We have to get over there. He’s probably going to heal them.

He’s not going to heal us. We’re worthless to him, remember?

Who cares what he thinks! All we have to do is become his pet for a bit and then eat him. Look, I don’t know how dogs do things, but crocodiles SURVIVE. So, we need to quit feeling sorry for ourselves and survive RIGHT NOW, Croc Rocky imparted as their collective corpus slowly stood up, filling its punctures with rocks and replacing the lost blood.

We can’t follow the cats, remember? We need to take an alternate route or we’ll get cursed again. And we need to get there before any of the cats do, Dog Rocky thought, watching the cats start to run off as Rocky dove into the water, burrowing through the metal flooring in an attempt to reach Nero first.