storkies prompt storage

[nindroidzane]

alas I couldn't think of a fancy name

Contents
Tangerine
Faunal
Old System
-P4
-P1
-P2
New System
- 4

[nindroidzane]

Name a time you witnessed this magic at work in the natural world.

Tangerine had always been fascinated by nature.

Specifically the wildlife of it all. Sure, she found trees and flowers pretty, and they provided her with shelter and everything. But could a tree fly up into the clouds, or make honey from flower dust? No, of course not - trees were boring!

And animals were fascinating. Tangerine often found herself watching them from a distance when she didn't have anything pressing to do (which was most of the time). It was unfortunate she couldn't get too close, though - prey animals only ran in fear, and she could imagine well enough how the predators would react.

But she was content to watch from afar, if that was how it needed to be. She was able to see some of them up close, whenever she had to hunt. She did try to limit her hunting, though - honey and berries were very tasty, and dead squirrels and birds at her paws made her heart ache, even if they did taste good.

It wasn't until one particular day that her fascination felt anything more than just a hobby. She'd been peeking into flowers for honeybees (which she loved to watch, since they didn't seem to particularly mind her presence) when she spotted something else hovering around the flowers - a hummingbird.

She didn't notice it, at first, with her nose buried so deep into flowers it turned her fur yellow. She hardly noticed until they were practically face to face; it probably could have perched on her face.

She stilled, astonished. She'd never seen a hummingbird this close before, not even through hunting. And, of course, she expected it to fly away as soon as it saw her.

But it didn't - not until it had zipped closer to tap its small, delicate beak against her powdery nose. When it did leave, it seemed more out of annoyance that she hadn't been a flower, than out of fear.

It was an eye-opening experience, almost magical, and hummingbirds had quickly become her favourite animal - after that day, it wasn't unusual to see her creeping around flower fields, nose dusted in yellow.

[nindroidzane]

What was a time you witnessed another cat using this magic, and how did it affect you?

It had just been an ordinary day. Tangerine had been watching a small gathering of birds from within a bush, as she often did, when a chipmunk ran down the branch the birds were chirping on. Startled, they'd all flown off in a burst of feathers (which Tangerine would later collect from the grass around the tree roots).

The chipmunk, looking pretty pleased with itself for a chipmunk, had gotten comfortable right where the birds had been perched and started cracking open a walnut. And while Tangerine was mildly tiffed that it'd scared away the birds she was watching, she couldn't help but stay put and watch the little creature eat its nut.

And, in hindsight, she was glad she did. Because as soon as the chipmunk was finished with its meal and it had scampered down the tree, it transformed into… a cat.

Which was, quite frankly, terrifying. She'd almost recoiled in fear and bolted right out of the bush to run anywhere where that thing wasn't.

But it was also interesting. She didn't know anybody could do that. And she was temporarily rooted to the spot in fear, anyway, so she figured she'd stay in the bush and figure out what their deal was.

She watched as the cat trotted over to the tree to pick at the walnut shells they'd dropped. When they'd been… a chipmunk.

Thinking about it, and watching them pick at the nut, Tangerine got pretty miffed again. That hadn't been just some chipmunk scaring off her birds, that had been another cat - they'd probably done it on purpose!

But when she'd finally built up the courage to step out and confront them about it, they were gone. Weird - she hadn't even seen them leave.

[nindroidzane]

You're starting to get the first sparks of your magic- what does this look like, and what do you do?

In the weeks following her encounter with the strange chipmunk cat, Tangerine had felt even more drawn to the wildlife around her than before. Not because of the strange cat, per se - she now had a healthy fear of whatever animal she was quietly observing suddenly morphing into a cat before her eyes. No, this felt more… natural. As if the sighting had triggered something in her mind. Which certainly wasn't, "I want to see that again!" or, "I hope I run into that guy again sometime!"

She found that she was really connecting with birds, in particular. She loved watching them soar through the sky, peck at worms on the ground where they felt so close, and even just watch them hang out up in the branches of trees. She did wonder if perhaps she'd always liked birds the best, given how mad she'd been over that stranger scaring away the ones she'd been watching. But her admiration certainly felt stronger now.

And then following that discovery, on one of her regular visits to the flower fields, she found out that it was more specifically hummingbirds that were her absolute most favourite animal. Maybe they had been since that first encounter. It was entirely plausible, but this was still… this was still very much different.

That particular day, she'd practically been entranced with the hummingbird she'd stumbled upon (a pretty orange one; hummingbirds always let her get so close now that she could clearly make out their feathers).

She'd been so absorbed in the hummingbirds pretty feathers, in fact, that she hadn't even noticed the feeling of feathers brushing against her own pelt.

[nindroidzane]

What Magic was your parents/caretaker/family born with? Did they teach you anything about their magic?

Tangerine's mother, despite her own magical abilities, had hated magic for almost as long as her daughter could remember. Like herself, her mother had been faunal, though she'd been much more experienced with it. The rare times she did use her magic, though... Tangerine remembered it being amazing.

But still, it was rare. She only used it when she absolutely had to - when predators found their nest, when they were starving on cold winter nights, and the like.

Her parents had separated when she was only a kitten, but she could still remember her father vaguely, and through snippets she'd dragged out of her mother the image was almost clear. He'd been a big, grey cat, with deep blue eyes - his water magic. And if there was one thing she could remember on her own, it was his water magic.

She and her sister had used to play and swim together, and of course with their father. He'd been very skilled with his magic, and he'd splash them around, or help them swim to the deepest depths of the lake. It had been great fun, for two little kittens to splash around rivers and creeks on hot summer days. Especially when one of them had water magic herself.

But ultimately, it was what had torn her family apart.

Tangerine's sister hadn't made it out of the lake alive that day. She could still remember that clearly, if nothing else. They'd gone down together; she'd gone back up to get help. It was the last time she'd ever seen her alive.

Her mother blamed her father. How could he let such young kits go down so deep? Why hadn't he been supervising close enough?

At the time, their fighting had been scary. Now, it was still upsetting to think about - but she understood where her mother was coming from a bit more. If she could remember more clearly herself… maybe she wouldn't be so easy on her father.

But she missed him. Or, at least, the image she'd crafted of him in her mind. Surely he would've helped her learn her magic, even though hers was faunal like her mother? And if not, maybe her mother would have been more willing to let her try any sort of magic, if her sister hadn't been lost that day?

Tangerine wasn't sure why her mother wouldn't use her magic, exactly. She'd always figured it was because of the accident - some distrust in magic, the same way she distrusted her mate. But she couldn't recall her mother using it much in her kittenhood, either. Had it just been small, showing off less than her flashy mate? Was it just too long ago, and her mind was more focused on clinging to memories of her father?

She wished she knew, and she wished her mother would tell her. At the very least, she wished her mother had taught her anything about her magic while she'd been growing up. She felt so inexperienced. Nature called to her, and she just didn't know how to answer.

She wanted that feeling back - the feeling of magic. The feeling of splashing around the lake with her family on a hot summer day. Of her mother being happy, her family being whole.

If only her family had ever been whole.