Some of you in the TMA fandom will recognize this title. It is taken from Scritches for the Archivist (link to fic). In fact, it's the fanfic's core plot item! But what if you want to use it in your own TMA Cypher system game?
Here's a quick item sheet that should allow you to do just that!
Train Your Cat to Be the Best They Can Be
Level: 6
Related Entity: Spiral, possibly with a side of Flesh
Stress: 3 Stress while reading, 3 Stress each time its effects worsen.
Form: A simple training manual, with no author, no publisher, and apparently from the early '70s. It explains in detail how to care for cats and kittens, how to interpret feline body language, and so on, including eight pages about why cats should be kept indoors. The cover is blank save for the title, written in bold, black letters over a picture of a cat curled up in an armchair. The first page contains a gilded bookplate marking it as part of the library of Jurgen Leitner.
The last few pages are lined and empty save for a cheerful request, written in yellow: "Write down your progress! Experience is the best encouragement!" These pages fill themselves with whatever progress the reader goes through.
Effect: Upon reading a line or two, the reader must succeed an Intellect defense roll or find themself leafing through the book. After reading for thirty seconds, they will feel no difference, but everyone else will be unable to tell who they are. Whenever they look at the reader, they instead see a cat. Any interactions they have with the reader is interpreted as an interaction with a cat instead, such as brushing hair being replaced with brushing fur, and talking being replaced with meowing.
Anyone interacting with the reader will also forget any recent interactions with the reader, and instead remember interacting with a cat, unless they succeed in an Intellect task of difficulty 8 to fight against the effects of the book. Any particularly odd behaviour made by the "cat" counts as a singular asset (thus lowering the difficulty to 7).
Any attempt from the reader to leave messages using contemporary technology fail, as the files corrupt. Recordings made on older technology (especially supernatural older technology, such as the tape recorders) succeed upon succeeding a flat roll of difficulty 5 (15 or higher on a d20), though they seem to appear from nowhere rather than from the reader. Video recordings through VCR work in the same way, though they are distorted, and any audio is replaced with static.
Avatars of the Eye and the Spiral can see through the illusion, though the latter are not likely to point it out.
Once the book has started taking effect, it vanishes, and will reappear at a later date.
Fear (triggered when a GM intrusion is triggered around the book or its effects): The reader is slowly altered to fit with people's expectations. Each triggered transformation is gradual, and causes the reader Stress. They tend to occur during the night after having nightmares about them.
The reader's eyes change in some way. One or both eyes turn yellow. Eventually, the yellow eye(s) become vertically slit, like a cat's.
The reader's nails fall out, possibly one at a time.
The reader's hands become painful and stiff, possibly one hand at a time.
The reader's fingers shorten, possibly one finger at a time.
The reader's empty nail beds are slowly replaced with retractable claws, or the first knuckle vanishes (as though the cat had been declawed).
In order to reverse the book's primary effect, the reader must simply erase or rewrite their progress in the last few pages. If the reader's eye colour changed, that change is permanent. Once done, the illusion falls away, causing Stress for everyone who suddenly remembers who the reader is. Any injuries heal at normal speeds.
