Chapter 1: Desertion

A blue-pointed ragdoll not-cat trotted through the woods. Her silk-blue fur flew in the breeze that flowed between the trees. To the creature's right, was a bunny. A small, baby bunny hopping beside the she. They both were adventuring, trying to find a place to call home. With all the grapevine deer, trapdoor spiders, and leaf dragons nearby, it was almost impossible to find any safe campsite or any other not-cats nearby. Bunny, the ragdoll, turned towards her pet.

"Do you think we'll find anyone?" She mewed. Rain looked down and squeaked. Rain couldnt talk, but she was very good at expressions. It was obvious the bunny was saying "I'm not sure."

Bunny sighed. It had been months since they had found a place to stay, a place to finally feel comfortable. Ever since the great war, Bunny and Rain have been out looking for a new village.

"Hey! You!!!"

A voice called from the distance. 11-o'-clock was a cinnamon tabby male with his tail arched and ready to attack.

"Who are you!?" The aggressive not-cat hissed. "We are just travelers, let us pass through your land, please." Bunnys words were like silk. The sentence danced through the wind like a ballerina, yet, it didnt phase the male.
"If you dont leave MY territory RIGHT NOW, I'll ki// you and your scrumptious little bunny friend!!" Those words sparked a fire in Bunny's eyes. Both creatures now crouched down to fight, they growled fiercely.

"Your land? Syr, are you calling yourself the leader?"

Another voice came from the bushes. Coming out was a black and white fluffy maine **** girl with darker spots on the black patches. She had a strong voice and was VERY VERY buff.

"Sorry Snail..." Syr scoffed.

Snail? What a name- that doesnt match her at all!!! Bunny thought.
"Syr, you really need to think before you act. You can smell the ash emitting from their fur, its obvious they come from the West. Don't worry, we have others here who are also running from The Western War." Syr didnt look to happy that Snail being nice to Bunny, he didnt even look like he liked Snail!!

"Follow us to camp, we'll take care of you, promise." Snail mewed and turned to the bushes before Syr jumped in. "Yeah but you'll have to pay us with that little rabbit of yours!" Bunny growled as Rain cowered behind her. "Her NAME is Rain you disrespectful-" Without thinking, Bunny jumped into Syr, wrestling him to the ground.

Snail watched the fight from the side, Rain now sitting next to her. "Maybe this girl can teach him a lesson." Snail whispered to herself. Bunny and Syr rolled around before Bunny succesfully pinned him to the ground, biting at his ears. Syr kicked his legs at Bunny but it didnt phase her. She was choking the male out, almost to the point of passing out. "Take it back! TAKE IT BACK!!!!" Bunny screamed.

Snail jumped in and shoved Bunny off of Syr. "Let's calm down, shall we?" Bunny relaxed and apologized to Syr. Syr, on the other hand, scoffed and left. He looked embarrassed to be beaten by such a fat-looking she.

Snail started walking the way Syr went. "Don't worry, he just doesn't like being beaten. C'mon, let's go to camp, I'm sure everyone here is going to just adore you." Then, the two trotted off to said camp.

Most of this confirmed by squid!!

They've(meaning notcats) been making do by making things up about their new surroundings since. For example, on the world map we have stories mentioned such as:
- The magical cats made of clouds that live at the top of cloudnap mountains
- The dragon kitties that live in dragonbreath isle, where they curl up in little pools of lava and the smoke coming out of the mountains is the purring of litters of beans

Nestor is the only magical jesus moose, other meese are just normal meese.

Games: They have so many games! Many of their games circulate around a set of wooden tiles with symbols of the winds and aspects painted on them (a typical set has 4 copies of each). Think of it like the cat version of a deck of cards, there are infinite games you can play.

They've also got a ton of active games, for example there is a leather ball with a feather tail that they usually paint a "star" on and hit it back and forth with their hands (called Star Ball!!) It's customary to play this game in the autumn with the prizes being first choice from the decorative gourd pile.

Another favorite game is rock stacking competitions, which requires great balance. These competitions can get incredibly tense as the stacks get higher, with the whole village crowding around and holding their breaths to try to avoid any moment which could knock the towers.

Not-Cats are also known to be fond of pole vaulting (as well as the slightly more dangerous "stick throwing", in which they yeet a stick as far as they can).


Holidays: Rather than a bunch of little holidays, the not-cats prefer to have one very BIG holiday each season. The four seasonal ones all last a solid week (in-real world time, in game it's more like three weeks), and it doesn't leave much time for other small celebrations!

They do sometimes celebrate the day their village was founded as "founding day" and have an extra special luncheon, and there are celebratory parties for birthdays and such, but generally they save all their energy for the big seasonal festivities.

Snowmelt: The first day all the snow melts away marks the beginning of the new year and is a big time for celebration. The next week is full of the celebratory planting of flowers, flower-themed decorations, and it's traditionally the best time for new relationships, friendships, and starting families.

Not-cats will send each other decorative letters, candies, bouquets of flowers, and so on to make sure everyone in their lives knows how appreciated they are. It's really about celebrating what you have and looking forward to the next year!

The entire week will be full of flower-themed activities such as flower-crown making events, village-wise dances held nearly every night, and a huge array of seasonal cookies and candies.

Midsummer: The fourth week of summer is dedicated to tournaments and competitions. This event is less about celebration and more about friendly competition. There are dozens of athletic events that not-cats will compete in, and the winners will all get fancy little prizes. There are even special kitten competitions so that the babies can participate as well!

Since it's such a big deal, a lot of not-cats will go full energy into working out in the first couple of weeks of midsummer preparing. Typical events include various races, hurdles, jumping and climbing competitions, pole vaulting, wrestling matches, stick throwing, swimming, rowing, and more.

For the less athletically-minded cats, there are also some more finessed competitive events, such as crossbow archery, balance beam, and rock stacking. Even if not-cats don't participate, they often delight in watching.

This event often stretches beyond the immediate village and region-wide competitions are common, which means the region-wide competition locations are also crowded with entrepreneurial not-cats hoping to sell special goods, treats, and more. The tournament grounds are very often surrounded in a vast open market of buying and selling.

Leaf Day: Kind of counterintuitive, but Leaf Day is not just one day and in fact an entire week. This is a harvest festival, and happens the fifth week of autumn. Not-cats collect and celebrate the bountiful fruits and vegetables of the season with gourd-carving, feasts, and (much like Snowmelt) seasonal treats and nightly dance parties. Leaf Day also comes with traditional friendly games of star ball, as explained in an earlier post, as well as lots of fun jumping and playing in leaf piles.

This celebration heavily mimics the Spring one in structure and types of events, but from another angle. While Snowmelt is celebrating the year to come, Leaf Day celebrates the year that passed. It's not uncommon to see not-cats expressing thanks for all the things they enjoyed that year and appreciating what they have accomplished.

Candlelight Festival: This event is pretty heavily contrasted with the other three. While the others are loud and energetic and celebratory, candlelight is quiet and reflective. In the fourth week of Winter (the height of the season), not-cats decorate their villages with glittering silk ribbons in blue and purple and light candles across every surface they're able to. This is the time of the year where they quietly reflect and meditate, and also honor the not-cats that have passed.

It's not all somber though. The lighting of all the candles and the placing of little treats around the village draws the Winter Ghosts out of hiding, and the not-cats spend much time engaging in gift exchanges with said ghosts. Not-cats will leave little coins and treats and, after looking away or leaving them unsupervised, they'll find shimmering wrapped gifts from the ghosts in their place.

Now, to clarify, the "ghosts" in this sense are not malicious, nor were they ever not-cats. They're simply invisible presences that live in the forest and prefer the cold and still and foggy. The not-cats do not know who they are, only that they exist, are somehow tied to the Aspects, and deserve to be honored.

Another common activity during this week is to celebrate Nestor and Ascension in general. Ascended cats will get special gifts and kittens will often dress up with fake antlers and eyes as if they too were ascended.

Now for the not-seasonal questions!

Treasured Items - Not-Cats LOOOOOOOOOVE Pinecones. They just adore them. It's like their favorite thing. Acorns are equally good, but nothing compares to a good pinecone.

As for trinkets, each cat often prefers to have a 'treasured item' that is like their emotional support belonging. They carry their trinket with them everywhere and hate to let it out of their sight. Common trinket choices include special sticks, leaves, acorns, and rocks, and some cats even choose a book that they really enjoy. How these are found is a bit of a mystery... one day a not-cat is wandering the woods, the next they see a really neat rock that they have an emotional connection with and decide to keep with them always (or until they find a new trinket to keep instead).

There are two moons, both the not-moons are smaller than earth's moon, and one of them is very much smaller. This means longer days, brighter nights, and much more extreme tides.

Their names would be the equivalent of Not-Moon and Moonbean (because the second one is seen as not-moon's baby moon.)

Nursery Rhymes: They do have nursery rhymes! They also love to sing little kitty songs... One of their favorite songs is about the magic and wonder of a pinecone.

There's also a cute little song about the winds where the kittens nyoom to the right pretending to be blown by the north wind, and then nyoom to the left pretending to be blown by the south wind, and then spin in circles (thanks to the trade wind) before falling over when the winds all stop (null wind).

Transportation: They have sailboats and rowboats, and a particularly bold not-cat might attempt to tame and ride atop a great beast, but otherwise no. Sometimes they do persuade monsters to pull carts, but there aren't really currently any larger domesticated creatures to serve as a more reliable steed or carriage-puller.

Communal Activities: Almost all of a village's activities are communal! Luncheon is the obvious one, but gardens, construction of buildings, living in buildings, hunting, saying hi to Nestor, and more are all done together in groups.

During the mid-day, it's very common for the not-cats to take naps in a big warm pile, and village-wide storytime around the fire is an important midnight activity.

Not-cats don't actually die. They just get stronger until they can ascend, at which the 'not' part of 'not-cats' becomes apparent, since they can gain wings, antlers, and extra eyes.


Nestor can shed his antlers

Rain, the little white rabbit, was riding on Bunny's back as they entered the village. There were beautiful blue monarchs flying all around, up and down, and in some of the cat's faces. "There's a legend about these butterflies. They only stay around our village for some reason, which is why the legend is believed by half of the not-cats here. The butterflies are said to be the guardians of this part of the forest, if the butterflies don't like you, you are sentenced to "a life in the river"... Good thing they seem to like you!!"
"haha... yeah..."

It was a simple village. A bonfire in the middle of "town square" which is what Snail called it, a sign pointing in a few directions for those who get lost, and a huge rock with symbols on it... wait what?

"That rock... what does it say??" Bunny asked Snail as she walked up to it. Snail explained.

"Each symbol is the name of those who live here! We got this idea from a human book- I think it was about a maze... Anyway, let me continue. When a cat joins or comes of Kitten age, they make up this little doodle and write it here on this rock with the bl00d of their first kill, kind of like a signature!!

"And what about that rock?"
Bunny pointed at another rock, it was directly behind the direction sign. "That's the leader's rock! Leaders get their own special rock to write on! The erased on the bigger rock are moved to the leader's rock and the crossed-out are... you know..." Snail's ears flattened as she sat down, mourning the losses.

Bunny sat with Snail. "I'm sorry..."

"Lets continue with the tour, shall we?" Snail tried changing the subject, which Bunny was happy to do. "Yes please." On the tour, Snail and Bunny bonded well, so when Snail asked Bunny and Rain to stay with them, they happily agreed.

After Snail finished showing Bunny and Rain around the village, Snail told Bunny to go wait in the town square. In town square, a pretty she introduced herself.
"I've heard your Bunny right? I'm Sun, short for Sunflower." Her relaxed voice matched the muted colors of her pelt. "Thats right, mhm! This is Rain." The rabbit poked it's head out from behind the ragdoll. Sun seemed... uncomfortable. "Oh... nice to eat- MEAT- MEET you Rain... I'm sorry, we don't have a cook yet so we are all kind of... starving... I guess..."

Bunny moved Rain to the ground and wrapped her tail around her. "I understand, it's ok! Don't get any ideas tho, because I'd smite thee!" Bunny sounded like she was joking but the expression she made was off the charts scary, which made Sun laugh uncomfortably as a response.


"Everyone gather around the Bonfire for a village meeting!!!"


Snail shouted through the trees. She jumped down from a large oak as cats started to gather from all sides. Syr moved to Snails right as if he were some guard... or second in command.

"We will be homing a new not-cat to our village, let me introduce to you, Bunny!"
"Stand!" Sun whispered, and Bunny did. All eyes were on Bunny, which made her very uncomfortable.

"I have also established a new rule: DO NOT EAT RAIN!!! If you eat Rain, Bunny's pet, you will be judged by the butterflies." Syr looked angry until Snail told everyone the punishment, then, he was in great terror.

Whats going on with this butterfly thing???

All butterflies turned to Bunny the second she thought that. "Wait!!! She's just confused, please, don't!" Sun jumped in front of Bunny, defending her from... the butterflies... "What the heatwave is going on?? Butterflies, deciding our fate???" Bunny was raging on the inside.


Syr stood. "These butterflies are the spirits of the dead stupid!!!"

(lore uwu)