Nekko-astrocat - The Astral Cat Tavern

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last week to get Gracie 🖤

Reblog to bonk your mutuals on the head every time they start thinking negatively about themselves

An Ork wrote this post

if thou art not of mechanical origin, SPEAK

else face The Hammer of Doom

769...773...777...781...

No 779. Where was it? 776, and 782. Not across the street. 785, not out of order either.

Adelon lifted the tag on the backpack towards the streetlamp to check the address again.

779 Cherry Street, Honesty Washington. A neatly written address on a tag telling any who found the backpack to return it to its owner, the Astral Cat Tavern.

How a tavern had lost a backpack on the other side of the country was beyond Adelon. All he knew was he had been on this crusade of curiosity too long to give up now.

Turning back to the houses. 777, then 781. Not just that, but this was the middle of a street in the suburbs. Every house eerily similar in appearance with its neighbors. One would think a tavern here would be easier to see than a flare over the open sea on a calm night.

Adelon stood and stared into the darkness between the houses for a time, until the moon peeked from behind the clouds to see what he was staring at.

A sparkle of silver drew Adelon's focus back to the tag. Where the moonlight touched it, a set of silver symbols was beginning to appear.

Adelon placed the tag further within the grasp of the moon, revealing the secret writing. As Adalon tried to understand the strange symbols a bubble of odd and twisting energy built up inside his chest. Then it floated up his throat and burst, releasing an unspeakable word of an unknowable realm from his lips.

A soft yellow glow joins the midnight lighting. Adelon turned to look, to see which house awoke. As his eyes began to search the newly lit window for life a sign flickered with beckoning light. Neon blue creating a circular pattern in the window, then one by one as if each had to be lit with its own switch neon red numbers came to life. 7...7...9.

Leaving the street lamp behind Adelon shouldered the bag and made his way across the moonlit street to the darkened doorway that stood at the end of his crusade.

The door was heavy and wooden. An icon of a cat sat in faded paint upon it, watching Adelon's approach. It had two pure white eyes and what appeared to be a pale four pointed star on its forehead. Its tail, wrapped around its feet, a twin-split appendage.

No handle was present on the door, and the stare of the icon warned one against the rapping of knuckles upon its head. Instead, once more, the alien word writhed and floated up through Adelon's chest. As if a password to a hidden world beyond. No sooner had the word wrenched itself from him again, the door opened, granting Adelon entry to the building.

Beyond the open portal was a room with a scattering of empty tables and an unmanned bar. An array of strangely colored bottles and liquid resting on shelves and in tubes.

"Hello?"

A hesitant greeting paired with the creaking of wooden floorboards announced Adelon's entry.

He weaved through the tables and chairs as he looked around for any signs of life.

"We're not open yet."

Adelon whirled to spot the owner of the rumbling voice but saw only a purple cat sat upon the bar. Its tails wrapped around its feet as it stared at Adelon with shimmering yellow eyes.

Adelon stared at the living icon from the door. Then called out once more into the hostless bar as he closed the distance to the cat.

"I found your bag!"

Adelon shifted the bag from his shoulder to the bar-top as the cat-like creature stared at him unblinking. No sign of the person who had spoken before.

Adelon stared back into the yellow orbs and blinked when he realized the black pupils were four-pointed stars. As he blinked and backed away a little, those eyes shifted to the backpack and narrowed into crosshairs.

Then it moved, and as it moved it rumbled, and is it rumbled the voice spoke again.

"Thank you. It took more time to come back then usual."

Adelon stood frozen for a moment as he realized the rumbling voice came from the cat-thing.

It sniffed the bag, satisfying its own curiosity.

"Seems you've traveled a fair distance, there and back again," the cat addressed the bag.

Adelon stabbed at the opportunity to regain his grasp on the moment.

"I found it under a bench at a bus station on the other side of the country."

The pale gaze returned to him briefly before a nod acknowledged his addition. Then the twin-tail dipped below the bar and returned with a silver bell in its grasp.

"I didn't open it," Adelon added trying to chop at the silence, "it doesn't really have a zipper so I couldn't even if I had wanted to... so..."

Adelon was unsure of how to speak with the animalistic creature.

The cat nodded, again.

The tails flicked toward the backpack. The bell, when rung reverberated and echoed, it's metallic tone seeming to travel through time more than space. It started low then rose to a high-pitched 'ting-ting' before returning to its lower pitch as if a temporal doppler had carried it to this specific moment.

As the sound struck across time-space, the bag began to twist and writhe before unzipping in a burst of motion at the height of the bells ring.

Bone white marionette pieces flew from the backpack onto the floor, and their shadow gave aggressive chase as they clattered between the chairs. The shadow zipped over them, gathering them up within it's darkness.

As it tumbled to a stop with all its parts recovered, the shadow turned and hissed at the two observers. A panther-like face providing a maw for the radio static roar to emerge from.

The tails flicked the bell again, causing the ting-ting to echo back across time into this new moment.

The shadow-creature pulled away from the sound, then up into a standing position. The clicking sounds of marionette pieces being fitted together accompanying the shift from predator to person.

A woman with ebony skin and hair like black sheep's wool wore the darkness like a velvet dress and silken shawl.

"Naut." She referred to the cat.

"Lucy Bell." it purred the name in reply.

"Sorry for running away for so long. I just wanted to get out and see some places."

A pause between the shadow's speaking and the rumbling replies.

"Good places can be just as soothing for the soul as good people." The cat rose to walk across the bar again and gave Adelon a side eye as it spoke.

Lucy Bell's steps clacked as she rushed to take her place behind the bar. Her hair sinched into a bun with a pull of black ribbons, her dress sewing itself into a suit-vest, shirt, and pants as she took her position on Naut's right hand.

"Take a seat, stranger."

The twin-tails swept in the direction of a stool before wrapping around the feet of the cat once more.

Adelon sat.

Naut smelled his hands.

"You smell faintly of squid, boy. Squid and blood."

The crosshairs focused on him for a moment before expanding into stars.

"Have you ever tried unicorn's blood?"

The tails slithered away, as Adelon shook his head slowly. A third tail appeared to assist with carrying a bottle into the hands of Lucy Bell.

An ice-filled glass settled on the bar-top and a metallic pink liquid shimmering with glitter filled it. A graceful hand placed a garnish of blue butterfly wings in the place of an umbrella.

A tail pushed the drink to Adelon.

"As thanks for a good deed done. Welcome to the Astral Cat Tavern, friend."