Honk honk 1: Chenventure beginnings

[spinningorange]

[Action A, Morning, 458 Stone Street, housemates only] (Housemates be warned, you now have a fluffy new resident to feed! This double-tailed black cat is currently in the backyard, walking in circles as if she were uneasy, which she very much is at this point. Waking up in a tiny, cramped little house that was far from her cozy kotatsu. This was

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Action A

[nanocerancowboy]

[Have a CAST poking his head out the back porch door at the sound of talking.]

Can I help ya'll?

[He's obviously looking for a person as the source of the soliloquy, considering that he glances at Chen's cat form once in his scan of the backyard, but seems to disregard her.]

[spinningorange]

Not a hybrid. More like...a cat in human form? I can't explain it...

(She seems to huff a little.)

I'm not a beast! Just a cat...wait, your home has human-animal hybrids? People do that?

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat nods.]

There's a whole race of 'em. Organic folk genetically engineered with animal DNA.

What do they call your kinda folk back in Gensokyo?

[spinningorange]

A whole race of half people, half animals? That sounds so complicated and weird...

(Gensokyo has a strange system of technology; at first it's typical magic and alchemy, then there's nuclear reactors and giant robots. Things definitely got weird when Mountain of Faith came to be...)

I'm a nekomata! I don't remember meeting any others, but there are other cats there! Even regular ones!

[nanocerancowboy]

Nekomata ...

[Gat draws the word out a bit, as if contemplating it. After a pause, he chuckles.]

Y'know, between that an' th' name of th' place ya'll call home, I woulda mistaken ya'll for bein' from Neudaiz.

[Or from the one unnamed Japan-like country that Zoke Miyama came from ...]

[spinningorange]

Neudaiz? That's a nice name for a place. What was it like? Gensokyo had a lot of different kinds of places, so maybe there's some place like it back home?

(Kinda hard not to be diverse with locales such as mountains, forests, the moon, underground nuclear reactors. It's practically New York City in terms of variety. Reimu would be like the guys on subways asking for money.)

[nanocerancowboy]

It's a planet mostly populated by genetically engineered humans called Newmans. Th' planet ain't too densely populated, though; most folks live in Ohtoku City, which floats above a shallow sea.

Kinda makes me wish I had pictures. Them newmans in Gurhal've got a pretty distinct culture.

[spinningorange]

(Chen just seems to light up at the thought of floating islands. She couldn't recall Gensokyo having one, and she instantly got excited about seeing one.)

I wish I could see a floating city. It sounds so magical and amazing. Did you go there often?

[nanocerancowboy]

Yeah. It was th' capital of Neudaiz, so I wound up travelin' there often whenever I had a job to handle on th' planet. That an' I'd work security contracts for th' local government. Helpin' to protect th' Divine Maiden durin' festivals, or escortin' pilgrimages an th' like.

[Sounds a bit like Reimu there, doesn't it, Chen?]

[spinningorange]

(Throw in an empty donation box and a few youkai killing sprees and voila! Reimu!)

Sounds like you were really busy, guarding maidens and going on missions all the time, but I kinda know what that's like. I was guarding a village humans end up when they enter from the outside world and get lost. It gets busy there, too.

(Chen's job skills: Sleeping, being cute, detecting catnip, fending off pesky shrine maidens, witches and maids, being cute, sleeping, maybe a little cooking and being cute.)

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat tilts his head slightly.]

What's this about th' "outside world" now?

[spinningorange]

It's what everyone from Gensokyo calls everything outside of Gensokyo. There was something that happened a long time ago that made Gensokyo sealed off from the rest of the world, but Yukari sama tells me that happened long before I was born.

( Chen scratches her head with her tail to try and remember the details, but only manages to come up with Ran's fluffy tails. Quite the historian, she is. )

[nanocerancowboy]

Huh. Ya'll're like a gated community, then. Only ya can't get out.

[For a moment, though, Gat's reminded of how the Nano Transformers work, creating pockets of "warped space." That was how Gurhal defeated the first SEED invasion-and with what he learned about Mellvore ...]

Somethin' about that feels mighty familiar.

[spinningorange]

Something like that. Some youkai are able to cross the barrier easily, like Yukari sama. She likes to bring things from the outside world sometimes. Otherwise, youkai choose to not cross the barrier. I don't...at least, until Mayfield brought me here.

(Chen might've experienced warped spaces before! That depends on how one would view Yukari's gaps and her sinister use of them.)

Sorry about the delay! Thanksgiving was hectic.

[nanocerancowboy]

Well, I'm pretty sure this town ain't in any of our worlds. I've talked with a lotta folks from different times an' places. There ain't nobody who knew of a place quite like this'n back home.

[spinningorange]

So...this really is some other mysterious place? With no way to go back home?