Library Cat

Books and Yun had never really been on the greatest terms with each other. They tended to be flammable and he tended to get bored of them. He understood their purpose, certainly, and had some appreciation for their usefulness, but still. He wasn't a book nerd and he didn't really read for pleasure.

He'd also never been in a real library before, just his father's handler's private one (which he wasn't usually allowed in thanks to the whole fire tail + child intersection), and this one was kind of intimidating.

Intimidating enough that he had agreed to having his tail temporarily enchanted against flame transfer, told the people with actual hands what it was he was looking for, and then waited meekly on a table until a couple of books had been delivered to him. He wasn't sure any of them would be much good, considering he couldn't access his magic any more than he could shift - or that he was only trained to any extent in one particular type of healing magic - but he needed to do something. He needed some kind of progress.

The fire-tailed black cat was at least strong enough to flip open old hardcover books with his paws, and so he got to read in relative peace. There were a lot of people in the library right now, and any random movement had him twitching and checking it out. It was too public and too new a place to him. He didn't know who was regular, or what sort of sounds and movements were simply part of the library. He couldn't check any books out, though, given his size, so he was stuck reading here.

Even if it made him want to groom himself until his hair started falling out. He tried to focus on his first book, a manual meant to introduce students of magic to the basics of curse-removal.

@"Maximum_Fatalis"

Of all the possible people to bother him, it had to be another ****ing black cat. A plain old house cat too. With intact shifting abilities, and partial shifting abilities as well.

Yun had 'actively irritated' added onto his stress pile well before the other cat actually said anything. What did the library think this was, the cat table? Sheesh. He'd said he wanted privacy, not to be mocked by some bratty furball.

He tried to ignore the domestic cat. He really did. But he couldn't concentrate on the book in front of him - it had been hard enough to keep his place and his attention before - and finally he growled.

"My tail is more useful than yours," he snapped, resting a front paw on the book and leaning forward just a bit. His tail lashed with irritation. "Unlike you, I'm not some domestic cat who happens to be able to play around with other shapes and skills."

Yeah yeah yeah fine he had been paying a ton of attention to all the little things the other cat could do. So what. So what if he couldn't do anything that required a thumb, or spreadable fingers, or human-level strength, or anything else like that. His tail was still better than the boring furstick across the table.

Yun set his jaw and forced the hair along his spine to settled down. The brat cat was super immature. Fine. He could best that. He could be the adult. It was hardly hard in comparison. With a few breaths, he almost believed it too..

The threat he took more seriously - rather too seriously, in all honesty, but then he had no real protections or guardians here, or even friends and companions. He was alone, and had only himself in this form to protect himself. He had no intention of showing that vulnerability to this brat, though, so he simply turned his head back to his book.

"Kids should go play outside," he said snidely, dragging a page to the other side even though he hadn't actually finished reading it. "This is a work space."

@"Maximum_Fatalis"