June catch-all [OPEN unless otherwise indicated]

[catasstrophy]

Who: Konoe & other groovy cats
When: June
Where: the far corners of our non-existent minds; also ~around~
What: things happening in June that are things and also happening
Warnings: will be added if something comes up

🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮

1. FESTIVAL PREP: decorating

Even with little to no idea what this festival is about, Konoe finds himself kind of excited for it. Much more than before, this place is starting to feel like home, and helping with the preparations for the festival feels like staking his claim on a place to belong in a more active sense, too. Besides... he really likes the decorations. The ribbons are nice; the flower wreathes are stunning. He needs to take the time to learn how to make those, at some point, but for now he'll content himself with hanging up wreathes made by other people.

... He probably spends a little too much time on it, really, studying the results of his decorating and then making them a little bit better several times over until he's satisfied. But how could he not? It's supposed to be a big festival, and the wreathes and ribbons are top quality. He wants them to come out perfectly.

🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮~🌸~🏵️~💮

2A. FETCH: basil

Konoe enjoys these random assignments a lot more than an actual steady job. He likes going all sorts of places and finding all sorts of things... even if he does get lost sometimes. It feels good, finishing a task: it makes him feel accomplished in a way that just reaching a certain time on a clock could never do.

Even so... isn't this assignment kind of dodgy? Just taking basil from a farm...

Konoe had thought nothing of it at first, rolling his eyes at all the demands of this Fuzzy person, but somehow not realizing the actual problem until he was approaching the farm. 'Don't let anyone see you' - seriously? Isn't that just theft?!

Well, he's decided to do it now, so do it, he will. If he just takes a little bit, there's no harm done, right? With the day still early, Konoe hopes that maybe no one will be around to notice what he's doing.

Or maybe he should come back after nightfall, after all...

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2B: FETCH: crystal sand

Konoe may not like getting wet, but he doesn't hate it either, so he has no problem taking on this particular quest. Sand from ponds in the Wilde that glitters rainbow in the light... He's honestly curious. Shedding all his clothes except for some underwear, he gets into those ponds, going underwater to bring up some sand.

He's stunned, when he finds it. Just as described, the sand glitters in all colors of the rainbow, and Konoe turns his hand this way and that, mesmerized by the effect that the light has on the sand.

"OW!" His fingers and toes, as it turns out, are fine in spite of the warnings to watch them. His tail, however, is proving to be a wonderful lure for hungry fish. (Must be that hooked tip.)

An instinctive swat with his tail proves predictably useless underwater, and Konoe soon gives up on the idea of chasing the fish away, instead scrambling to get out of the pond. In his rush to save his tail from further torment, he doesn't manage to bring a lot of crystal sand ashore.

Time for round 2?

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Feel free to wildcard, or poke me at sharkasm or through PMs for plotting!
Use whatever tense and format you're most comfortable with. I'll adapt.

Comments

[activatingcombatmode]

[Teach Konoe about hamburgers later, got it.]

Magic is pretty sweet, after all. I'm a little jealous.

[He takes another bite of the fruit and swallows before smiling again.

Witches are pretty impressive. All he really has for show is the horns growing in on his head and the sharp wolf claws he's got (and later in the month a wolf's tail) so when it comes to actual talents he's still only got heightened strength and endurance. And for every new transformation Zack goes through it takes pain and growth. Witches really get it easy.]

You're gonna be great at this witch thing, Konoe.

[catasstrophy]

[PLEASE DO! He needs to discover that culinary wonder.]

It's nothing special. It isn't like what the witches of the Coven can do...

[Konoe is not unhappy with his magical achievements so far, but even so, he thinks they need to be put into perspective. Where he's at is perhaps baby's first word, whereas proper witches speak several languages fluently. He's done pretty well in the time he's been here, but that still doesn't make what he can do all that impressive, in his opinion.]

Monsters got their own skills, right? That sense of scent can be handy.

[And it can be a downside, too, sure, but that goes for everything.]

[activatingcombatmode]

That's true, I guess we're all still starting out at step one, here.

[He reaches up to run a hand through his dark hair, fingers briefly brushing over the curved black horns that are starting to peek out from his skull.]

Yeah, my sense of smell is still one of the strongest things that's happened to me so far. Plus I almost broke a door handle the other day by opening it a little too enthusiastically?

[Translation: He's strong.]

Back home, I'm used to strength enhancements but everything is a lot more natural with me now.

[catasstrophy]

[Yeaaaah, horns are... still not Konoe's favorite, for personal reasons, but he has at least grown to see them as more than a strictly demon characteristic. He doesn't hate them anymore, but they still kind of make him look a bit, where other animal features generally don't.

It's fine. He knows it's a personal problem, and would never hold it against anyone horny.]

That sounds pretty strong...

[He's... a little jealous? No - that's not really the right word for it. But it's a trait he can admire in a person, anyway!]

... "Strength enhancements"?

[activatingcombatmode]

[Hopefully Konoe won't hold it against him for being horny. He won't like looking like a demon either but that's what he gets for being a chimera spliced with a wolf and a ram. And later hawk wings... The chimera struggle will be real.

He can't help but grin a little warmer, proud as he crosses his arms over his chest. He's always been proud of his own body, to be honest.]

Yeah, I'm a soldier in my world. [Or technically... He was.] We're enhanced through an energy called mako to make us as as strong as we can be. No mako, no extra strength here, though. So I guess I got lucky in that department that my monster strength is just as, if not, better.

[He can't wait to see what else he can do with his bare hands.]

[catasstrophy]

[Zack will be beautiful, and Konoe will feel so too. In many ways, fully changed monsters are easier to deal with, visually: they just are the way they are. Their look leading up to that isn't the most important thing, but the instability of it all makes it uncomfortable. Which changes will get more extreme? Which changes will follow at some point? It's the one thing Konoe decidedly doesn't envy the monsters of this place, a sympathy that he doesn't quite know how to channel, leaving him just feeling awkward.

He listens attentively to the information about Zack's home world, trying to create an image of it in his mind. That's easier said than done, but the important thing is trying, he thinks.]

Try not to break anything else.

[It's only a playful "reprimand", though. Since he can't just outright admire someone's monster strength or much anything else, this is his way of acknowledging Zack's talent - and showing his own friendship, in a way.]

[activatingcombatmode]

[That has him smiling warmly, again.]

I'll just have to ask you to conjure me up more door handles.

[New friendships are good, and he finds that he appreciates how they've fallen into that fairly quickly. He still has more questions about Konoe (those cat ears still) but it's nice to forget about other circumstances and just get to know someone. And at least he knows he's not alone in his new feelings of going through strange new transformations, being a witch or a monster.]

[catasstrophy]

[Konoe's barely-suppressed smile widens at that, enough to almost make him laugh.]

It'll cost you!

[Of course he wouldn't actually charge Zack money, let alone for something so (relatively) simple, but that doesn't mean that he won't threaten to.]

[activatingcombatmode]

[He barks with an amused laugh and his smile widens.]

What?! You'd charge me?! What kind of cost? Saving you from angry farmers isn't enough?

[Heavy lifting? Moneys? Work? Zack's amused at the joke.]

[catasstrophy]

Who did you save me from?! I didn't see a single angry farmer.

[Honestly, Konoe doesn't know what he'd charge Zack, mostly because he's not planning on charging him anything at all. But it's fun to tease and prod a little.]

[activatingcombatmode]

I was still keeping watch! For hypothetical angry farmers?! Who knows what they would have done to you!

[He nudges Konoe's shoulder with another casual laugh.]

[catasstrophy]

[Konoe breathes a laugh, himself; he just can't not. Maybe it's partly the pressure of stealing basil falling off of him with the mission a success, but he's also just having a good time, being ridiculous with Zack in general.]

They couldn't have caught me anyway.

[... That's probably true, too. Even so, he only says it to continue their banter.]

[activatingcombatmode]

Yeah, is that true? Are you able to leap and climb and run like a cat too?

[He's grinning still! Just how much like a cat is he?]

[catasstrophy]

Obviously. I am a cat.

[Konoe doesn't know just how he compares to the tiny cats of this world, having only seen a little of them (and not of the best behaved ones, either...), but he's still a cat himself, so he can say this much with confidence. Only after that confident assertion does he try to give a more serious answer.]

I'm no worse than humans at those things, anyway.