Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Kittypunk Halloween Special

Kittypunk Halloween Special "This is a silly idea," I said. No, I didn't just say it, as a grown woman—stuck in the body of a babe as I may be—I was fully capable of admitting that I was whinging. Not without good reason, however. Sharp had had an idea. I really ought to congratulate her on the fact, except it was a stupid idea."It's cute," she said, as if that justified anything."It's hideous," I replied.And yet I had no real choice. At the moment, I was being cathandled by Sharp who was holding me up before a high-tech mirror-screen. On it was a reflection of myself and Sharp. It was a perfectly ordinary display, except for one glaring feature.The me in the mirror-screen was wearing a princess costume. It was pink, frilly, and overall quite the eyesore. "I don't want to be seen wearing that," I finally admitted."Oh? That's okay. I think the princess look is kind of weird too," Sharp said. "I don't know how we'd go about wearing matching outfits anyway? Unless we called you a queen and I can be your princess?"I scoffed. That brought up far too many implications vis-à-vis parental responsibilities. Besides, how would one even convey that the kitten was the queen and the girl a mere princess?"You're right, that's not a good one," Sharp said. "What would you like?""To go back home," I said."Let's try this one," Sharp continued as if she hadn't heard me at all.We were currently in one of the larger shopping mega-buildings in Fenway. The floor was a wide space, dominated by a central shaft that let people look down and up towards the dozens of other floors filled with shops. The air here was filled with a cacophony of music and jingles and just plain advertising, as well as the occasional warning from the mall itself over the loudspeakers, warning would-be thieves of the consequences of their actions.At the moment, the jingles and songs definitely had a... spooky sort of aura that they were aiming for. Lots of chilling laughter and cackling witches and whatever else some underpaid marketer discovered that screamed 'Halloween' to them.This store in particular on one of the middling floors, the space reserved for shops that were either hyper-specialized, more seasonal, or were just struggling to make enough sales to afford the no doubt insane rent prices in this mall."There!" Sharp said as she gripped me with both hands again after toying with a pop-up menu on the display. "Firefighter!"The me on the screen was wearing a firefighter's outfit. It was black and yellow, with a few numbers on the back. A large plastic helmet—all bright yellow—sat atop my head, held in place by a set of complicated straps that ran under my chin. "No," I said."Aww, okay... what about... sexy dental hygienist?" Sharp asked as she returned to scrolling through the options."Who in their right mind would want to disguise their cat as a sexy anything. And why specifically dental hygienist?"You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.Sharp shrugged. "I don't know? Maybe it's to complete a matching costume set?""Would the other half be a sexy dentist?" I asked."Did you want to try it out?" she asked, her enthusiasm mounting."No," I grumbled. "I absolutely do not.""Oh, okay. Well, what about police? No? Uh, ninja? See, there's a kunoichi option! Cyborg cop, lawyer, sexy lawyer, judge, flower pot, lamp, oh there's a fan option!" She clicked on that latter, then giggled as fan blades appeared around my neck.She then discovered the 'other animals' section, and my image switched to that of a lion, then a gazelle, then a Pomeranian before it turned into a platypus."Sharp, why are we doing this?" I asked."Because it's Halloween," Sharp said simply. "And... and this year I can afford a costume.""You couldn't previously?" I asked. Shifting a little in her grip, I managed to turn enough to spy upon her face. Sharp was looking rather seriously at nothing in particular."No," she said. "Every year, at the orphanage, we'd made some stuff out of whatever was laying around, then we'd sneak out. It wasn't really sneaking, the caretakers generally turned a blind eye. Anyway, we'd head out onto the streets and try to grab as many sweet as we could. I remember spending a lot of that time looking at people's costumes. Not ours. Ours were all cobbled together and looked kind of... stupid."I swallowed back anything rude I might have had to say. "You were looking at the costumes of the... other children?""The normal ones," Sharp said. "The ones with families. The princesses and doctors and superheroes, the pretend edgerunners and celebrities. I guess it was just jealousy? Envy, maybe. I wanted what they had, you know?""I see," I said. Sharp continued to flick through options, not really saying anything even as I gained a witch's hat, then a nurse's cap, and then a full-faced racing helmet. "I liked that ninja one," I said. "From earlier."Sharp blinked, then her eyes met mine in the display's reflection. "You did?""Ninja in fiction are horribly misrepresented and their actions exaggerated, but I did always enjoy their actual history. They understood the basics of subterfuge and assassination. Of course, the very fact that we know of them means that they were hardly all that good.""We could wear matching costumes!" Sharp said with a gasp."I suppose," I said. "Is there a wise-old-master kind of costume? You could be my ninja apprentice?""I bet we can find something to combine. There's no rules against that, right?" she asked.I nodded, and then endured her growing enthusiasm as she flicked through more and more options to search for something in particular. Two costumes for me was just a bigger waste but... it was a few dozen dollars that would make Sharp happy.I could look past the expense when it left Sharp looking this pleased with herself.

Chapter Twenty-Four — Gym Ra— Gym Cat

Chapter Twenty-Four — Gym Ra— Gym Cat We had a lot to think about on the way back to the Bloody Bat, but I still insisted that we take a small detour. The girls wouldn't be showing up at the bar tonight, which meant that Sharp had a few hours after her shift with nothing on her figurative plate.It would be a shame to waste those hours, so before returning to the Bat, we rose up three floors above the bar and stopped at a relatively large member's-only gym. Sharp stuttered her way through asking for a membership with the rather fit young woman behind the counter, and then we paid in cash.We were now the proud owners of a gym membership, and while Sharp wasn't terribly enthused about it, I was.I'd finally be able to put her through her paces... later. Sharp's highest-ranked skill was still Anima, but she had Body and Protagonist tied for second. I still didn't know how to raise Protagonist, so Body would have to be our focus for the moment.The nice thing about it was that exercise in a gym might help her rank up Body, Reflex and maybe even Combat. I'd noticed some flyers for weekend self-defence courses for women, as well as some for jiu-jitsu and karate. It would be a pain to work those into Sharp's already loaded schedule, but if we could, then the rewards might well be worth it.In any case, we made it back to the bar a little early, and Sharp was quick to get changed and run back out.In the meantime... I napped. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get away with being in the gym, but if I couldn't, then I'd still want to get as much exercise in as I could later. For the moment, however, I could feel a deep weariness in my bones. I laid down on our shared bed, made myself comfortable by pressing my paws into it, then circled around a few times before laying down for a snooze. I was out almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.I awoke to a nice little gift some hours later.Cat Has Levelled Up!Cat 2 3From the nap? Well, I wouldn't say no to that. Sharp was in our room, getting changed out of her uniform and into some old shorts and a loose t-shirt. "We need to buy you some clothes," I said.She jumped a little, then looked my way with a rather sheepish expression on. "You're awake? When I came in you were sleeping really hard. It was kind of cute. Did you know that you snore?""I do not," I assured her. Sharp grinned. "Sure you don't! What was that about clothes?""Clothes and I suppose gear. We have the money to buy some, and it wouldn't be a wasteful expense. We could start with better gym clothes to begin with. Then better casual wear. Your clothes still scream 'vagabond' to anyone who looks your way.""We could get you some clothes too," Sharp said.I considered it for a moment before nodding. "Certainly.""Wait, really? I thought most cats hate wearing clothes.""I'm hardly most cats. I'll have you know that I didn't go around naked as a human. Not wearing clothes is stranger than the opposite to me.""Huh, I guess that's fair." Sharp smiled and plucked me off the bed. "We're hitting the gym then the shower?""That's the plan. How tired are you?" She'd just worked through a whole day across two jobs, and while being a waitress wasn't the most tiring of work, it was still a lot of moving around."I'm strong enough to take anything on!" Sharp said. She raised her other arm and flexed, showing off... nothing. There was no big muscle to show off.We'd be working on that.Sharp left the Bloody Bat from a service corridor at the rear, and then we made our way up to the gym. She insisted on taking the stairs, and by the time we reached the gym, she was already sweating. Not that I was in a much better condition as I'd decided to walk alongside her up the stairs as well. One or two hops was easy. A few dozen in a row? That was pushing it.The gym was predictably empty at this hour, which made the lively music blasting through the place feel off putting more than anything. There was a woman half-asleep behind the counter, mostly staring at her phone, and an old grey-haired man by the dumbbells adjusting the weights.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement."Where do we start?" Sharp asked."Since we just did stairs, let's see if you can't learn how to box a little? There are some bags at the back over there. And... turn on one of those treadmills for me, would you? I'll give you instructions while I run."As it turned out, Sharp didn't know how to throw a punch. She almost broke her thumb on the first strike before I corrected her on how to make a fist. Her swings were still wild, and more like random flailing than proper boxing, but a few more instructions had her punching... more or less straight.I, in the meantime, ran along atop the treadmill at a decent pace. It was good that I didn't need to breathe to talk, because I was soon panting. I'd almost forgotten what hard exercise felt like. The burning in my muscles, the painful stitches, the way my heartbeat drowned out almost everything else.Exercise sucked.Sharp switched to an elliptical machine, and I discovered a laser-jump rope machine nearby. It had holographic lights that shifted from right to left that someone using the machine was meant to jump over. It was great practice for springing up and over something. Eventually Sharp bought some overpriced water by the entrance and she shared some with me. "Any gains?" I asked."Nothing yet," Sharp said. She rubbed at her face with a small towel. "But... I think I can feel it coming. Another day like this and I'm sure to hit Body four!""Good!" I said. I wasn't sure if I could feel progress the same way, but it was due to arrive eventually. Our rate of growth was a little slow for my tastes, but in the grand scheme of things, it was probably very reasonable."Hey, is that a cat?" another gym goer asked."Uh," Sharp said. "It's an emotional support animal?"We scampered out of there a few minutes later, before anyone could raise a fuss. By the time we made it back to the Bloody Bat, Sharp was yawning and looked ready to crash into bed. Which was why it was quite irritating to discover Paris waiting around for us in the back. "Ah, you're back." she said."I am," Sharp said. "Is something wrong? I was just about to hit the shower."Paris eyed her. Sharp's clothes were clinging to her, and she looked a little bedraggled. She didn't smell all that great either, and that came from someone currently riding on her shoulder, within sniffing distance of her armpits. "There's a person here to see you.""Me?" Sharp asked. "Wait, is it someone I know?"Paris shrugged. "That young lady who was here a few days ago for you. Short, yellow jacket?""Jenny?" Sharped asked. That was the only person it could be, probably. No one else I knew fit that description. "She wasn't supposed to be here today.""Well, she is. You might want to go see her, because she looks quite distraught. And I have a bar to run, so go on," Paris made a shooing gesture. Sharp glanced at me, and I gave her the best kitty shrug I could manage. I didn't have any more ideas than she did. There would only be one way to tell what was going on.We found Jenny by the lower floor bar, sitting on a stool with her legs bouncing nervously. She looked like a mess. Her brown hair was all tangled up and she looked ready to chew anyone that looked at her too much like a rabid dog tearing into a small critter."Jenny?" Sharp asked."Oh thank fuck, it's about time you show up.""What is it?" Sharp asked."We don't have time. I can explain on the way," Jenny said as she hopped down from the stool."On the way to where? I'm not ready to go anywhere right now, it's an hour shy of midnight.""Who cares?" Jenny asked with a frown. "Look, it doesn't matter what time it is. Alyssa needs us.""She does?" Sharp asked. "What happened?"Jenny swallowed. "We were spying on the cult with some of her magic when it all went wrong. She just... walked right into their building, and nothing I did could stop her. They took her in, and basically threw me out. We need to save her."

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Chapter Twenty-Five — Beggars and Choosers

Chapter Twenty-Five — Beggars and Choosers "This really doesn't sound like something we should get involved in," I said.Sharp reached up and casually scritched me under the chin. She couldn't exactly talk to me when we were out in public but I felt like she was trying to tell me to calm down. Jenny was quite distraught still. Now that I was looking for it, it was easy to tell that she was anxious. Her hair was a mess and her coat was covered in stains as if she'd been rolling in the dirt for a while."Alright," Sharp said. "When did this happen?""Just... like, a few hours ago. I didn't come here first," Jenny said. She ran her hand through her hair, as though trying to straighten it out; it didn't help any. "I went to our base. We have friends there, but they're all a bunch of filthy cowards. They didn't lift a finger when I told them, just told me to wait, that the police would be taking care of that cult of fuckfaces. Or the gangs. It doesn't matter, it all comes down to them saying they won't fucking help. No one will."Sharp moved closer and was soon rubbing circles on Jenny's back. "Hey, it's okay," she said."She sounds like she's a step away from losing it," I said. "And not to belittle the point, but her... friends were probably right. Mounting a rescue into a well-guarded compound is a terrible idea.""Okay," Sharp said calmly. "I need more information though. We can't just run in there and expect them to hand Alyssa over without any fuss."Jenny scoffed. "So you're the same as all the rest? Dammit, I should have figured.""Hey now," Sharp said. She continued to massage Jenny's back. "It'll be okay? I do want to help, but I can't if you don't tell me more. Which building was she taken to? Why were you around there in the first place? Do you, ah, have a plan to save her?"Jenny tugged at her hair, grit her teeth, then kicked the stool she'd just jumped off of. It rattled from side to side, and Paris gave her the stink-eye from behind the bar."No, I... fuck. Okay, so, there was a contract out for information. That's what we sent you out for. But we didn't think you'd get anything too spicy, just like, rumours and a general vibe-check on how the Mutes think about the cult.""Okay, I'm with you so far," Sharp said. She carefully pulled Jenny back to the bar, but further in. The end where the lighting wasn't as strong and where no one was sitting at the moment, then she encouraged Jenny to sit. "So, what did you and Alyssa do?"Jenny worked her jaw. "We scouted around the area. Took the bus, then drove around too. Got some pics of some locals, some cult guards. I sent those to a friend that's good at info-gathering, and they drew up a profile of them. It gave us something to work with, but not much.""And that's when they grabbed Alyssa?" Sharp asked.Jenny winced. "No. No, she had an idea. A ritual, using her moth shit. We set up in one of the smaller buildings across the street. Aly covered the floor in magic crap and burned through a bunch of incense and chanted some crap. Then she started screaming.""Ask her what the ritual was supposed to do, exactly," I said."That ritual," Sharp began. "What was it supposed to do?" She reached over and laid a hand on Jenny's.The girl frowned. "I didn't get all the details. Magic's not my thing. I'm a lead and fists kind of girl. But uh, it was meant to let Aly insert herself into the building, somehow? Like, some sort of astral projection shit though a moth avatar thing. I saw it moving around at the start of the ritual, then it flew out, right through a window and towards the cult fucks.""And then Aly started screaming?" Sharp asked softly."Yeah. Then she started screaming. I pulled her out, smacked her face a few times and tried to snap her out of it, but nothing worked. Usually it's pretty easy to pull her out of a trance or whatever, but this time it just didn't work. I was about to start making calls when the doors smashed in and some cult freaks showed up."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere."They took her?""Not before I shot a few of them up. It was weird. There were just more of them. They grabbed her, shoved me off, then ran. I ran out of bullets before they ran out of glassy-eye freaks.""Oh," Sharp said. She shifted on her stool. "Okay, that is bad. Do you know where they brought her?""Yeah, more or less," Jenny said. She wiped at her face with a sleeve then took a deep breath through her nose. "Aly's got a tracker on her. So that I know where she is. She gets lost a lot. Don't let her know it, but... yeah. I can pinpoint the floor she's on, at least.""That's something," Sharp said. "Actually, that's really good. I don't know how we'll be able to save her even knowing that, though.""I just need someone to grab a second gun and fuck them up with me," Jenny said. "I'll... I'll find enough ammo somewhere, I swear.""You're going to attack the entire building?" Sharp asked. "That's... a lot of cultists."Yeah? So what? You think I can't take them on? I'll show then LMG-chan and they'll regret ever laying a finger on Alyssa," Jenny said. Her voice was getting a little elevated, though not so much that it carried far over the music filling the bar and its surroundings.Sharp leaned back some, her hand slipping off of Jenny's. I took the opportunity to hop over to sit on the bar itself, my tail wagging slightly behind me. "She's being emotional, which is a great way to turn a bad situation into an outright disaster. How attached are you to Jenny and the mage? Because any help we render will cost us a lot."Sharp swallowed. "A... little?""A little, hmm. Were it a lot, I'd say that we could spend that money you have on mercenaries. There's a good number of them in this bar alone that would love to jump in for a quick hour or two long battle. A few thousand each and they'll gladly gun down the cultists they can reach. But given that we mostly want to help a little...""I can do more than take them on just a little," Jenny said. "They're just a bunch of grunts. I'll mow the fuckers down, I swear.""A little help..." I walked a small circle before them while I thought. A small amount of help was... acceptable. If it didn't put Sharp in any great amount of risk, then it would mostly be fine. We didn't owe either of these girls anything, so life-risking efforts were too much. Still, helping them now would secure a favour, at the very least. And Sharp seemed to be seeing them as friends, as misguided as that might be. "Offer to help Jenny scout the location. I think I can walk into the location without arousing too much suspicion and without being seen. If we can buy just a bit of equipment to help, then we'll be able to keep in touch as well.""That's... okay," Sharp said. "Jenny, I'll help."Jenny sat up straighter. "You will? I mean, yeah, good! You know how to use a rifle?""Not that way," Sharp said. "And no, I don't know how to use a gun. Well, besides point and pull on the trigger."Jenny and I both winced at the vague 'pew-pew' gestures Sharp was making. "So, how can you help, then? Wanna drive the getaway car?""I was thinking more... spying?" Sharp asked. "Uh, I'm going to need to buy a few things real quick, but if you just give me a few hours, I can get Queen Violence von Kittybutt right next to Alyssa. She can bring her something small, maybe? And let us know what's going on.""Your cat," Jenny said. She turned to look at me with a critical eye. "That mangy-ass thing." She reached a hand out to poke at me. "This thing couldn't fight its way out of a paper ba—ouch!" She snapped her hand back and into her mouth. Her finger had accidentally found its way into my claws.Sharp swallowed, then locked eyes with Jenny. "You're just... going to have to trust me. Trust us. We can definitely help, I'm sure of it.""Fuck," Jenny said. "This is some real beggars and choosers shit, you know? But fine, I'll take whatever help I can."

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