#katkanji

[xenized-kitsune]

Forest Angel

A little something for @puppychomp starring Angel Aura Quartz.

I’ll admit, it took me longer than it probably should have, but I had to scrap a dozen different ideas before I found one that worked well enough to be a good gift. (Plus I’m not that fast in general)

Hopefully I wrote Angel right, and I hope you enjoy!

The woods have always been beautiful to Betty, a young woman in her teens. She can’t count how many days she’s spent wandering between the massive trees, listening to the wind weaving through the canopy, hearing critters of all sizes call out to be heard through the foliage. Of course, she had never wandered far enough to lose sight of her home town. Enjoying the woods didn’t mean getting lost in the woods. However, the line between those two things blurred heavily when there’s a sharp blade pressed against your throat.

A large man, easily in his 30s or 40s, held Betty close with his right arm pressed against her chest as he dragged her backwards deeper and deeper into the forest. A chef’s knife, already stained in blood that wasn’t hers, refused to move more than an inch away from Betty’s neck, silencing any physical protest she could possibly muster. She had no idea who this man was, or why he wanted her so far away from town, but terror kept her from asking any questions. All she wanted right now was to live. That SOMETHING would hear the two of them and set her free. Something more than the brambles her captor always seemed to back into.

One such bramble hid a small clearing, where a handful of trees had fallen over years ago. Rot and moss ate away at all of them in eerily similar patterns, as though they were carved and coaxed to grow on purpose. These details were lost on the two humans who forced their way through the bramble covering. The moment they were clear, the large man gripped Betty’s right arm and yanked her all the way around him, throwing her behind her captor, deeper into the clearing. The sudden jerk sent her careening forward into one of the fallen tree trunks. It crumbled the moment the teen fell face-first on top of it, instantly breaking into glittery fragments of wood and grime. Ancient wood scraped at Betty’s cheeks, threatening to choke her with-- Wait, glittery? When was the last time a moss-covered log glittered? The young woman lifted her head from the wooden refuse and noticed quickly there was more than just splinters and slime in the pile beneath her. Something shined like sequins within the mess, the source camouflaged by the remains of the downed tree. Time could be spent to find it, but time was a luxury Betty didn’t have, especially when the armed man behind her began to shout.

“I did as you asked, Iblisite!” The man’s voice wavered slightly, either due to fear or excitement. The way one may speak if faced with an idol, or a god. “I found the one you marked, and brought her to your temple! Are you not proud of your chosen one?” Betty rolled over, refusing to give the man her back. He was standing still, staring up at the canopy of the forest, a smile stretched across his face, far too wide to be natural. Nothing answered his cry for attention but the wind. Not a twig cracked, not a bird chirped. An eerie silence fell over the clearing as both humans waited quietly. Seconds passed, and the man’s smile faded gradually, warping into a look of confusion. He was expecting something, something that didn’t happen. With increasingly frantic fervor, the man’s gaze bounced around the clearing, desperately searching for a sign, an answer, anything he could use. His distraught attitude vanished the moment his sight fell upon the edge of the clearing far behind Betty. “You had me worried, Shaydaan. You never refused my call before, but now I see clearly; You wanted to see the marked one with your own two--” He froze mid-sentence. Terror overcame his face instantly. Betty’s mind told her to use this chance to escape, while the man was stunned. Her heart and fear had other plans, and forced her to look over her shoulder at whatever had terrified her kidnapper.

Two pairs of turquoise eyes, one slightly bigger and just above of the other, pierced through the shadows. There was something almost calming about them, a feeling that was negated when their gaze drifted from the armed man to Betty. Her breath stopped cold in her throat, not daring to move so long as those eyes can see her. Something in the back of Betty’s mind wondered what the hell those eyes could belong to. The same voice cursed its own curiosity when the owner of the four eyes stepped into the light.

What came out of the brush was unlike anything either of the humans had seen before. It was a nine or ten foot tall quadrupedal creature covered in thick lavender fur that sparkled like glitter. Its underbelly, chest, and throat had a lighter tone of fur, closer to a lilac.The colour of the fur wasn’t even the beginning of the weird parts, as the rest of the creature didn’t even try to stick to a single type of natural animal. The front two legs ended in canine-like paws, with small claws permanently extended beneath the fur, while the back two legs resembled that of a feline, much more subtle and sleek. A long, fuzzy tail extended out from behind the creature, easily doubling its length. The fur at the base of the tail and the second half was disheveled, fluffed up significantly more than necessary, while the middle of the tail looked as though it had been groomed very carefully to work out every unruly tuft of fur. To top the oddity off, the head of this creature refused to even relate to anything previously known. The general shape may be called “bird-like” in silhouette, with a thick beak built for crushing nuts, although the “beak” was a thick muzzle, covered in the same fur as the rest of the body. Three more things set it apart from birds, starting with the ears. A pair of ears similar to that of a fennec fox’s perched on top of the chimera’s head, once again matching the fur of the rest of the body. The turquoise eyes from the shadows all belonged to the chimera, both pairs resting right where they belong. Two small tusks rose from either side of the creature’s mouth, both of them a bright sparkling white.

Before either human could begin to fathom what the hell this thing was, it added a few more oddities to consider when it opened its mouth. A row of sharp teeth like that of a crocodile’s lined the chimera’s mouth, overshadowed only by the stripped pale turquoise tongue that rolled out. The tongue itself was quite long, the tip falling all the way to the creature’s chest. Saliva dripped silently from it, pale turquoise drops soaking into the forest floor below.

An eerie silence fell over the clearing as all three creatures stared at each other. The first to break the silence was the kidnapper. “NO!” Swiftly, he lunged for Betty, grabbed the back of her shirt, and yanked her to her feet. The knife he held tightly found its old resting spot right against the young woman’s neck as the man glared defiantly at the chimera. “You are not an agent of the daimonas,” he hissed, “and you will NOT claim what is rightfully theirs!”

At first, there was no reaction. The chimera withdrew its tongue back into its mouth and continued to stare at the two humans. Seconds dragged on as both parties refused to look away from each other. The fingers gripping the chef’s knife drummed on the handle, seeking a better grip, as they waited. Finally, the creature opened its mouth and spoke. “If you did not want me to claim what you offer, why did you come at all?” Its voice was gentle, flowing like the wind crossing a rolling meadow. Homesickness stabbed Betty as she subconsciously wished her own mother sounded like whatever this thing was. Her captor didn’t share her sentiment, too preoccupied with the question proposed to him. The chimera continued. “This is my home you have wandered into. One of many resting places I made for myself, specifically. Usually, I prefer being without company, but you seem to be here for a purpose. So tell me, human, why did you come to a place where only I resided?”

The man’s grip on the knife loosened slightly, but only for a brief moment. He tightened his fist around the knife’s handle, and barked at the creature before him. “No, they wouldn’t dare--!” The chimera interrupted him quickly. “Lie to you? Betray you? I can’t speak for them, but I can say that whatever you believe doesn’t change reality. You were sent here, and the only being here is me. So you must ask yourself: Were you sent here for them? Or me? Which answer would you prefer?” Silence fell over the clearing once more.

“I... I don’t know...” All the anger and defiance from the man’s voice had vanished entirely. It wavered, as though restraining sorrow, or fear. “Every one of their voices said I had to bring a sacrifice to this part of the woods. They all said I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t be saved, not until I brought virgin blood to them.” It took a considerable amount of willpower for Betty to avoid refuting the ‘virgin’ part. There’s a time and place for everything, and neither are right to claim to have had sex before. Oblivious to his victim’s annoyance, the man continued. “They were right. They always have been right. What would an angel want with a horrible wretch like me?”

“An angel?” The chimera’s face seemed to light up. Maybe. It was hard to read such a foreign creature. “Perhaps an angel would want nothing with a human who stole a child away. However, another angel--” It raised its front left paw up to its chest, emphasizing itself, “Angel Aura Quartz, is very interested in someone seeking release.” Angel lowered her paw to the ground, a bit closer to the pair than before. The man opened his mouth to speak, but the chimera continued. “I have always looked after this forest, like a mother watching over their young.” She takes another step towards two of them. “I tend to the needs of the creatures here, whether that means protecting them...” Another step. “...or resolving their suffering.” She continues to advance as she coos. “And here you are, another creature in dire need of attention. So desperate for nurturing that you’re willing to reduce an innocent female to a bargaining chip.”

Such a massive creature didn’t need very many steps to close the distance. Perhaps it was her soothing voice, or maybe her brain didn’t want to register whatever this forest dragon-thing really was, but Betty didn’t realize how close Angel was until she loomed over the man with the knife. The subtle scent of mint and a fresh spring breeze washed over both humans. The man took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. His grip loosened considerably, but Betty dared not move. Very carefully, the chimera raised one of their front paws, and rested their first claw upon the chef’s knife. “A very unnecessary chip.” He didn’t even bother resisting, allowing the large knife to slip out of his fingers and plunge into the forest floor at their feet. Angel smiled gently, and her gaze was fixed on the kidnapper. “There we go. You didn’t need her at all. We don’t need her to end your suffering.”

As if on cue, Betty could feel the man’s grip on her shirt vanish, freeing her from the human. A part of her mind didn’t trust this fluffy dragon, but that part was overruled by her body tearing her away from the horrors that flanked her. She bolted for the edge of the clearing, knowing damn well the faster she can get away from this place, the better. And yet... Betty turned around right as she felt the bramble wall. Once again, she regretted every looking back.

The kidnapper stood in a trance-like state, a smile filled with bliss stretched across his face, as he stared into Angel’s gaping maw. Her tongue had unfurled to dangle over the human, the same pale turquoise saliva that stained it dripping onto his face. He didn’t care. He was being saved. He didn’t care when the mouth full of sharp teeth grew wider and drew closer. The one innocent bystander, on the other hand, did care. Right up until there was a sickening CRUNCH. And the world went black.

[xenized-kitsune]

Persona Ref Sheet

Below the cut is a character designed to represent me, for comic/art and writing purposes. Some parts of her don’t quite translate directly, representing aspects I wish I possessed, physically or figuratively. Not sure if she’ll count as a fursona, considering how limited the obvious animal parts of her are.

Name: Tanukitty [TAH-noo-kit-ee] (Shortened to Kitty)

Height and Weight: 5′3″ , 120 lbs

General Appearance:

-Overall, Kitty has light olive skin and a thin, petite frame, often finding sleeves and pant legs slightly loose on her limbs. Her breasts may be considered an exception to her petite build, boasting a 32-C. Her hair continues to emphasis her feminine physique, being dark blonde and straight, falling to just below her shoulders.

-Tanukitty sports a few unique features, specifically a tail, pointy animal ears on top of her head instead of human ears, sharp green eyes, and a mask at all times. Her tail is similar to that of a red fox’s, large and fluffy, with an orange coloration. The tip of the tail, the last foot, quickly fades to a powdery off-white color until the end. It’s of average length, almost touching the ground if pointed straight down. Kitty’s ears are of similar make, again featuring orange fur, structure, and head-to-ear ratio similar to that of the ears of a red fox. Most of the fur on her ears sport the orange pigment, while only the very tips of both, the last half inch, are black.

-If someone gets close enough to Tanukitty’s mask, they can see sharp emerald-coloured eyes behind the thin parts of her mask. No other parts of her face can be seen, and even the eyes require being hugging distance. The rest of her face, from just above her hairline to just below her jaw, is always covered by a mask.

-While she has a “default” mask, (detailed below) Tanukitty has an extensive collection of masks for every situation, every one of them covering her face entirely. Her collection of clothes aren’t as vast, though she tries to match her outfit with her mask where applicable, preferring short sleeves and skirts.

Fine Details:

-Every outfit Kitty has exposes either her shoulders, the base of her neck (often with some cleavage), or both. The outfits that expose her sternum reveal a small cluster of freckles towards the top of it.

-The mask Tanukitty wears in most situations is a porcelain-white fox mask without ears. Several features are painted on the mask in a crimson red: two thick, exaggerated whiskers along the cheeks on both sides, extending to the edge of the mask, large winged eyeliner around both eyes of the mask, and a heart-like pattern on the forehead, shaped with two question marks, with one of them backwards.

-Swapping out masks borrows from cartoon logic: The mask Kitty wants on is just under the one she has right now. All she has to do is take the first mask off to reveal the next one. (A good example is a 1971 TV special “Cat in the Hat” when the Cat in the Hat swaps his signature hat for one of a different country’s towards the end)

-Kitty’s tail and ears are expressive, very similar to cat ears and tails. If startled or angered, her tail bushes up along the whole length. When bushy, the white tip reveals black fur underneath the white, giving the whole tip a “TV static” or salt-and-pepper look.

Personality:

-Tanukitty comes off as carefree, often cracking jokes and teasing her friends playfully. When the situation is just right, she can get quite sultry, teasing those around her with her words and body. If someone she cares about is upset or injured, Kitty very quickly adopts a more motherly stance and tries her best to help them.

-Generally, Kitty’s voice sounds young and feminine, with a very subtle Southern accent, thanks to her speaking style. She talks fast, and uses slang and apostrophes liberally in her speech. (“You guys ready to hit the gym?” is pronounced ”Y’all rea’y t’ hit th’ gym?”, discarding unnecessary sounds)

[xenized-kitsune]

A while back, I had picked up an MMORPG that my friend had recommended called Dungeon Fighter Online. We played together for a while, and I very quickly fell in love with the Thief class, specifically the Shadow Dancer subclass. She felt brutally satisfying, with every attack looking and feeling deadly. I had found a set of moves I could use that flowed from one into the next one seemlessly, so much so that, if I used basic attacks to space things out, I could achieve an infinite combo on an enemy. For a long time, I wanted to write up a short story involving this combo, and tonight I have done it. This is a dramatization of the combo, so it won’t translate perfectly to the game mechanics, and it is missing one of the moves I couldn’t fit in without making it seem out of place, but I still feel it captures the essence of just how screwed an enemy of the Shadow Dancer is.

Rumors back home spoke of a woman with an uncanny affinity for murder. Some say she single-handedly slayed an entire army with nothing but a combat knife she stole from one of the soldiers. Others claim Hell itself refuses to accept her, fearing that she would empty it in a day. What none of them dare mention is her name, or what she looks like, as though a mere whisper of either would summon her, bloodied knife and all. As with all ‘monsters of legend’, there are non-believers, and those that claim to be stronger than the myth. Four friends fell into both categories, laughing at any notion of a being that can take all of them on in a fight. After being chastised for tempting fate, they all decided to find this unnamed woman and bring her back to town, dead or in chains, to prove that all the fearful rumors were for naught.

The four of them trained for weeks, searching endlessly for the woman, confident that they were prepared for anything one person can throw at them. They found her standing in a field, facing away from them, and immediately realized one thing they weren’t prepared for: disappointment. The woman seemed barely old enough to be an adult, shorter than all four of them, with a petite, feminine frame. Any other day, they would have kept traveling, looking for someone who could possibly pose a challenge for the four of them. Today, the studious one refused to let the other three move on, convinced that the tiny lady was the one they were looking for.

As they approached the woman, the largest friend called out to her, challenging her to turn and face the four of them. She ignored him. He called out again, advancing upon her faster. Again, she ignored him. The largest one started to get frustrated, and demanded the woman to turn around. She didn’t get a chance to reply before the youngest friend mentioned that something felt wrong. Not wrong about what they were doing, but wrong about her. The other three shrugged off the concern and closed with the woman. Ten meters away, an intense sense of dread washed over all four of them, halting their advance instantly. Even the quick one couldn’t manage a single step, their breathing quickening audibly. Finally, the woman turned to face her four challengers, a psychotic smile stretched across her face.

The woman rushed towards the four friends, brandishing a knife as she sprinted. Realizing the battle had begun, the four of them tried to push their fear aside and draw their own weapons. Too late, of course, as the largest one had just unsheathed his sword when the woman thrusted her knife deep into his abdomen. Pain surged through his body for a moment, and again when the woman yanked her knife out. The blade was covered in dark red blood, dripping beyond the tip. Odd how dark it is, considering it’s fresh. None of them had time to consider this fact, for the woman slid around her target and latched onto his back, faster than any of them could comprehend. A second knife appeared in her other hand, from seemingly nowhere, also dripping with dark blood. None of them had time to examine the knife before the woman plunged both deep into the largest friend’s shoulders. Just as the knives slid into his flesh, the other three felt a weight on their backs a split second before they too felt knives digging into their shoulders. It was only then that the studious one understood why no one dared chance a meeting with this woman; She doesn’t just kill someone and moves on to the next one. She kills everyone at once.

The woman didn’t let any of her four attackers have a moment to assess what was going on. She leaped backwards, using her target’s waist as a springboard. At the same time, she tore both of her knives out of his back. Blood exploded from the wounds, showering her with crimson ichor. An unnatural force coating the knives gripped to the largest friend’s wounds, violently launching his whole body high into the air in response to the knives’ movements. Shadowy figures resting on the backs of the other three assailants copied the woman’s movements exactly, though without the same result in upward movement. Pain forced the three grounded friends to take a moment to cling desperately to consciousness. The youngest one regained their senses first by a few milliseconds, though that was long enough witness one of many reasons why all of them were way out of their league.

A red-tinted shadow enveloped the woman for a moment, and she lunged at her suspended target, seemingly hopping off an invisible springboard. Her hands wrapped around the large one’s ankles, and the shadow crawled up to his legs in the blink of an eye. Without a moment to spare, the pair plummeted to the ground, and the large friend slammed into the ground. The shadow around his legs burst, sending a dark energy in all directions. The dark energy knocked the quick one off their feet, and sent a new wave of pain throughout all four friends. None of them had a moment to breathe before the psychotic woman continued her assault. She pounced onto the prone form of the large friend, brandishing her blood-soaked knives and sinking them deep into his back. As with her first strike, shadowy figures appeared behind the other three, driving equally large knives into their respective bodies. All at once, the woman and her shadow clones wrenched their knives out of the fresh wounds, tearing open their victims and spraying a thick layer of blood onto the ground. Without missing a beat, the psycho slid backward, off the large one’s body, dug the sharp part of her knife into the dirt, and slashed at her prone victim, popping up onto her feet as she did so. The blood that had just been shed followed the knife in its upward slash, dragging the large one to his feet. As if to keep with the theme, the shadow clones followed suit, forcing each one of the four to their feet. All four friends stood aghast, drenched in their own blood, unable to fathom the last two minutes. Their shock had given their murderer plenty of time to collect herself for the final strike. She was enveloped in shadows once more, and dashed backwards. Her three clones dashed in the same fashion, but this time all converging on the original’s place. A thick, shadowy mist engulfed the woman, and she smiled with unchecked bliss at what comes next. The mist swallowed her and charged through all four friends at blinding speed. A cold feeling washed over them, and the woman seemed to step out of the mist in front of them, her back facing her victims. As the dark mist faded, each one of the four felt sharp pain extending from their left shoulder to their right hip. And then their right shoulder to their left hip. And then they didn’t feel anything as the pain became a gash spanning the length of their bodies. Each one of the four fell to the ground in pieces.

The woman didn’t bother turning around to admire her handiwork. She knew what she had done, and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Her laughter grew as she walked away, growing louder and more psychotic as she went. Those four idiots thought themselves as equals to her. The only way she could teach them of their proper place was to show them what it was: mere meat, good only for slaughter and staining the ground she walks on.

[xenized-kitsune]

Proof of a WIP

Since I know I work pretty slowly, I wanted to post an excerpt from a story I’m working on, a little something to prove that I didn’t forget what I had promised.

@puppychomp I hope you recognize this work, cause it’s for you and all about a certain glittery chimera/dragon of the forest~

Two pairs of turquoise eyes, one slightly bigger and just above of the other, pierced through the shadows. There was something almost calming about them, a feeling that was negated when their gaze drifted from the armed man to Betty. Her breath stopped cold in her throat, not daring to move so long as those eyes can see her. Something in the back of Betty’s mind wondered what the hell those eyes could belong to. The same voice cursed its own curiosity when the owner of the four eyes stepped into the light.

What came out of the brush was unlike anything either of the humans had seen before. It was a nine or ten foot tall quadrupedal creature covered in thick lavender fur that sparkled like glitter. Its underbelly, chest, and throat had a lighter tone of fur, closer to a lilac.The colour of the fur wasn’t even the beginning of the weird parts, as the rest of the creature didn’t even try to stick to a single type of natural animal. The front two legs ended in canine-like paws, with small claws permanently extended beneath the fur, while the back two legs resembled that of a feline, much more subtle and sleek. A long, fuzzy tail extended out from behind the creature, easily doubling its length. The fur at the base of the tail and the second half was disheveled, fluffed up significantly more than necessary, while the middle of the tail looked as though it had been groomed very carefully to work out every unruly tuft of fur. To top the oddity off, the head of this creature refused to even relate to anything previously known. The general shape may be called “bird-like” in silhouette, with a thick beak built for crushing nuts, although the “beak” was a thick muzzle, covered in the same fur as the rest of the body. Three more things set it apart from birds, starting with the ears. A pair of ears similar to that of a fennec fox’s perched on top of the chimera’s head, once again matching the fur of the rest of the body. The turquoise eyes from the shadows all belonged to the chimera, both pairs resting right where they belong. Two small tusks rose from either side of the creature’s mouth, both of them a bright sparkling white.

Before either human could begin to fathom what the hell this thing was, it added a few more oddities to consider when it opened its mouth. A row of sharp teeth like that of a crocodile’s lined the chimera’s mouth, overshadowed only by the stripped pale turquoise tongue that rolled out. The tongue itself was quite long, the tip falling all the way to the creature’s chest. Saliva dripped silently from it, pale turquoise drops soaking into the forest floor below.