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In the beginning, there is only warmth and dark, one’s body wrapped snugly around oneself and around that, the mysterious forces that make one exist. Then there is pain, as the mysterious forces decide their task is complete. On a level that no one is cognizant of, a checklist is run down, the contents of which are a mystery, but an unnecessary one. The pain becomes greater, but your bones are mostly flexible cartilage and can withstand the pressure. There is only one way to go, and the pain pushes you inexorably that way. You have no words for any of these things, but this is the most exertion you have ever done, and it is exhausting. Your first sensation is cold, and suddenly there is very little pressure at all. The tiny bundles of still-growing nerves on either side of your head pick up something like a sharp cry as the pressure lets up, and you immediately miss that warmth and comfort, which you will instinctively seek for the rest of your life. Something warm nudges you, then a loving rasp of a tongue shreds the last veil between you and the cold of the world you have just been born into. The shock of the cold is painful, and you open your mouth and take your first breath. You do not know where you are, or who you are, but that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the warmth you just escaped, and returning as close to it as possible, but your limbs are weak and flimsy, barely enough to propel yourself, and you are exhausted from what you have just been through. In a moment, you feel warm air against your tiny belly and a slight sharp pain that will be soon forgotten. What is important is that something very similar to the warmth you were just in is right next to you, and you manage to drag yourself to it. You are blind and deaf, but you can feel vibration, and you can smell something that your brain recognizes as food.  Before you make it to the food, the raspy tongue is back, washing your entire body, the warm puffs of air helping to dry your wispy fur and the vibration soothing your confusion and alarm. You cry out, wanting to know what this is, what’s going on, what everything is, but you only feel the vibrations of the tongue and something tickly, whiskers. “Rrrt, rrrt” except it suffuses your entire body with reassurance and comfort; you felt this vibration before, as your body grew in the darkness, and it's deeply soothing. The air is no longer as cold, and you’ve dried nicely, so you wiggle in next to the other warm bodies, latch on, and try to eat. Occasionally you are pushed off your chosen spot by someone else, but there are enough to go around. At a couple of points, the warm surface you’re latched onto moves sharply, and at least once moves away entirely for a few moments before landing not far away. Before long, after another couple of sharp cries, there are bodies on either side of you, all vying for this mysterious sustenance that is currently the most important thing in the world to you. But getting to this point has been exhausting, and you fall asleep frequently, only to wake and seek out food again. Welcome to We Have Always Been Wild, aka the "You are a cat" CYOA (which is completely and wholly unaffiliated with anything else titled such). This is entirely homebrew because I don’t have the attention span to read things like sourcebooks. However, if you do want to do pre-reading to have some idea what’s going on, I strongly recommend “The Secret Language of Cats” by Susanne Schötz, Sarah Hartwell’s Messy Beast site at http://messybeast.com/catarchive.htm, Tumblrs such as Greer Stother’s Pangur and Grim (http://pangur-and-grim.tumblr.com/faq), Bluebell (http://followthebluebell.tumblr.com/), and Why Animals Do The Thing (https://www.whyanimalsdothething.com/), and I will likely throw other resources on the pile as I find them. Who am I? My username should be tip-off enough, but: I’ve loved cats since I was 4, and got my first one at age 12. I’m deeply interested in biology and especially animal behavior, whether that be animal-to-human or animal-to-animal. Piles and piles of research have been done involving animal-to-human relations across a wide range of species, but animal-to-animal research is much more difficult; for example, if an animal knows they are being watched, they may behave in ways that do not reflect their natural, unobserved behavior. It is also difficult to gather hard data; as Schötz mentions in her book, things such as linguistics are extremely hard to gather data for because animals behave much differently in clinical situations than they do in their home habitats. I am a strong advocate for animal welfare, and the use of Trap-Neuter-Return in managing populations of nuisance species. I am not an advocate for PETA, Humane Society of the United States, and other “animal rights” groups. I actually got my start with TNR through a program funded by Best Friends Animal Society, which is a good group and I recommend giving them love either by volunteering or donating (you can read more about their position statements here: https://bestfriends.org/about-best-friends/position-statements). I used to foster and socialize feral kittens when I volunteered with the TNR program initiated by Best Friends in my area until my health became too poor to continue. Right now, I’m observing and occasionally recording interaction and dynamics between housecats of very different ages and origins, namely my three beautiful jerks. Their behaviors will inform how I write this cyoa to some extent, but because they are not feral, I will also be drawing on past experience with feral cats and potentially scoping out places to sit and observe feral and semi-feral cats in my apartment complex. I also draw on what humans have learned about wild cat interaction in the field; many members of the Felidae family have similar behaviors, which is why we get hilarious videos like big cats in boxes and snow leopards spooking themselves. Anyway, the game: similar to Paradise Lost, I’ll present lettered options and also a write-in option. However, even when one option wins, the number of votes for other options will be considered while writing up the next post. I may occasionally use Orokos for situations that involve a high degree of luck, and when I do, I’ll link the outcome in the post for transparency. Edit: a not-insignificant contingent of cyoa readers advocate for approval voting, so here you go: Approval voting is now active. Please try to be orderly about it. Rules: -If you’re just here for mayhem and/or to crash the cyoa into the ground, please go somewhere else. Not only is it really difficult for me to finish things I start and discourages me from trying again, but animal death is hosed up and no one reasonable wants to read it. If you persistently vote for the most dangerous or self-destructive votes, I’ll just put you on my ignore list and not count your votes at all. Further bullshit after this will result in a discussion with Ettin and probable report. This is non-negotiable. -Unfortunately, cats are obligate carnivores and sometimes must kill smaller animals. If this comes up, I will put up content warnings and probably put the entire post behind spoiler tags. If you whine about sensitive snowflakes being easily triggered, you will be put on my ignore list, and as with rule 1, further shenanigans will result in me consulting with Ettin. This too is non-negotiable. -All the main characters of this cyoa will be cats. Cats do not need anthropomorphizing to be cute or compelling. However, I am fallible, and you are welcome to bring it up if I slip up in my depiction, and we can work out in the Discord server how to improve it and edit it. If something comes up that is wrong, voting will be temporarily suspended until it is resolved, and all who voted before the fix are welcome to change their votes. -Please feel free to bring in your own sources, whether formally published and funded or your own observations. Be advised that other readers/players will likely peer-review your source. I’m a big fan of player engagement and discussion, so come on down to the CYOA Discord! If you are not able to use Discord for any reason, there exists a bridge between the IRC and Discord channels for Diogenes’ Paradise Lost, a truly epic CYOA that’s been running for almost 6 years and could desperately use some rightvoters. Due to some bullshit with spammers, there is no permanent Discord link, but ask in thread and you shall receive. IRC, meanwhile, can be found at irc.synirc.net, and the channel is #madgod. WITH THE PRELIMINARIES DONE… Where did your mother build her birthing nest? A: A small copse of trees in a suburb. Humans refer to places like these as “greenspace”; pockets of unused and undeveloped land surrounded by developed areas. Wildlife diversity is often limited by barriers such as highways and fencing so it can be difficult finding enough prey for the whole colony, but if you’re lucky, someone will notice cats hanging around and leave food out for you. B: A shallow dirt hollow underneath a shed in the backyard of a house. Sheds don’t tend to be moved once they are in place, and can provide shelter for a wide range of creatures, including some edible ones. However, humans occasionally intrude on their own mysterious business, and tend to dislike what they consider “property damage”. There is also a risk of owned-but-outside cats claiming the shed as part of their territory, and dogs which are larger, stronger, and tend to have a higher prey drive, thus making them more dangerous. Such places tend to be more isolated from the safety of the colony. C: An abandoned house. These can provide many kinds of cover, attract edible creatures, and offer shelter from the elements; however, they also attract sick humans who behave in unpredictable ways, and humans upset about “property values”. If the house is big enough, you can fit your entire colony in it! D: An inhabited house. Maybe they had a dog door, maybe someone left a window without a screen open, whatever the opportunity, your mother was desperate and went for it. Very high risk, but potentially very high reward. Your mother’s mother may have been a stray or lost housecat long ago who could teach her kittens that humans aren’t completely and entirely dangerous. However, this tends to be isolated from the rest of the colony and you run the risk of being abducted into the world of humans. E: An unused stall in a barn. On one hand, a human familiar with animals comes by daily, even if they don’t notice the nest, and there’s always edible creatures around. On the other hand, there are also creatures larger and stronger than humans and the edible creatures attract other predators. Life as a barn cat is fraught with danger, but at least it’s generally the same humans every day so you can learn their patterns and get used to them. Your contact with other cats may be limited, though. F. Write-in option! I'll tack on subvotes to this if there are other suggestions; it'll look something like Fa, Fb, Fc, etc. Welcome to the world, babycat! cat_herder fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Apr 1, 2019 |
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Apr 1, 2019 05:58
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B pretty safe, pretty good for winter, human-adjacent which is more a boon than a curse
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Apr 1, 2019 06:39
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E probably easy access to delicious live food and some wild space to call our own!
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Apr 1, 2019 06:51
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B
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Apr 1, 2019 06:53
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B also institute approval voting!
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Apr 1, 2019 07:30
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Magnusth posted:B also institute approval voting!  I've yet to see a cyoa last very long with approval voting, and keeping track of different hierarchies of choices feels massively overwhelming, but as long as someone else is willing to count, fine. Approval voting is open, try not to confuse me too much please. If you've already voted, you are welcome to add whatever other options.
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Apr 1, 2019 09:15
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Adding C to my vote
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Apr 1, 2019 11:52
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Voting E
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Apr 1, 2019 13:38
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C, an abandoned house! Maybe there'll be weird items to drag around!
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Apr 1, 2019 13:52
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D
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Apr 1, 2019 15:21
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E
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Apr 1, 2019 16:21
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C
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Apr 1, 2019 20:57
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DE
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Apr 1, 2019 21:22
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E
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Apr 1, 2019 22:16
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E
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Apr 1, 2019 22:23
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AC I'll do most of the vote counting since cat_herder is easily overwhelmed these days.
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Apr 2, 2019 01:08
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Voting closes when I wake up tomorrow, which will be roughly 11am or 12pm MDT, or 5pm/1700 UTC in order for LZR to tally up the votes before he goes to work. Edit: as of 13:29MDT voting is now closed, I'll start working on the next post tonight or tomorrow cat_herder fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 11:24
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Time passes in darkness and not-quite silence for you, but you can feel and smell. Life so far is a cycle of eating and sleeping, punctuated by occasionally having to seek out that warmth and food and sometimes being washed thoroughly. The source of washing and the source of food smell the same, and so are probably the same entity. Though, granted, your entire family right now smells the same, since everyone gets washed with the same tongue. Eating is the most difficult thing in your life right now; you are constantly surrounded by others like you, you can feel their fur when your paw pushes them away, and none seem larger or more adept at this whole living business than yourself. Keeping latched onto the food-spot is difficult when you only have gums and your siblings are trying to push you away. This is inevitably messy, and your baths are usually right after you eat, when your belly is full and you’re sleepy. When you cry out in your tiny, faint voice to protest, you are met with a soothing rumble. Over time, the rasp of the tongue becomes a little less intense, as your coat starts to become thicker and longer. Then unexpectedly, you yawn after eating yourself into a food coma at some point and there's a pop, and suddenly all the faint muffled noises are clear; your siblings suckling, your mother's deep and comforting purr, and other things too; other things rustling their bedding, an occasional snort, and sometimes something loud that makes a lot of noise and warbles at the other creatures here. That loud creature who chatters constantly makes your mother shush you and your siblings, her purr faint as she tries to hide your presence, something she generally doesn't do with the other noises. After a while, the loud thing leaves, and your mother relaxes and breathes out a sigh full of fear and pulls you and your siblings closer. Siblings? Yes! You have three siblings, in this litter anyway. Right now you only know them by feel and sound, as you each mewl at each other and your mother. It's not too much longer before you wake up after a nice sleep and  It’s so bright, so blindingly bright, so incomprehensibly bright. Your eye is only open about a third of the way, and everything is bright and dark, and vague shapes of such. It is wildly disorienting, and you yell in surprise, before one of those shapes… turns? Then moves closer and you feel the shape begin washing you, purring reassuringly. That breath! That tongue! Those whiskers! It is in this way that you see your mother for the first time, and when you escape from her comfort-bathing to seek food, you confirm that they do indeed belong to the same entity. You discover there's a light and dark cycle; sometimes it's bright, and sometimes it's very dark. The brightness becomes less painful with time, and as your eyes open fully. You still can't focus them, but you see shapes of various colors, anyway. You can start to recognize your siblings by more than smell, and see where you are. Something soft and kind of crinkly composes your nest, and the limit of where you can go appears to be solid and not-living, and smells entirely unlike your family but for the recent signature of your mother's scent. But right now staying too far away from your mother is dangerous, and she always brings you back to the nest. One day, while lazing around after eating, you realize that you can see your siblings well enough to tell their coat patterns, but you can't help but wonder what your own are… What does our coat look like? This may impact your life someday! A comprehensive resource on cat colors can be found at Messy Beast's site I'm so sorry about falling off the face of the planet, there. But I returned instead of abandoning it out of shame, right? Edit: fixing the link, this is what I get for phone posting. cat_herder fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Apr 25, 2019 |
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Apr 24, 2019 03:42
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CATPOST CATPOST CATPOST We're black and white fur
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Apr 24, 2019 06:20
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Apr 24, 2019 06:32
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Apr 24, 2019 08:28
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Apr 24, 2019 10:18
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 Tortoiseshell okay? Edit to say: I may be a smidgen biased. This is my baby Pekoe. 
Brawnfire fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Apr 25, 2019 |
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Apr 25, 2019 20:26
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Brawnfire posted:
+1
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Apr 25, 2019 21:44
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Apr 25, 2019 22:32
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Apr 25, 2019 22:50
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/step_4-disease-59b9b6a9d963ac0011faca31-59bae508396e5a0010365c5b.jpg)
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Apr 25, 2019 23:30
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Orange/white tuxedo!
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Apr 26, 2019 01:23
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+1
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Apr 26, 2019 13:50
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All cattes are good just start the game already.
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Apr 26, 2019 13:58
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