Application for Tu Shanshu

[icanhasshiny]

Player Information:
Name: Pen
Age: 25
Contact: talkingsoup
Game Cast: Rin Okumura

Character Information:
Name: Kaiyss Shydath Murroe
Canon: Original
Canon Point: Kaiyss and his friends are experiencing some downtime after an attack from William. The attack was somewhat devastating and left the whole crew injured, and was also the first time that the Wolf Queen inside North woke up. Her waking up is the only thing that saved them, but it has left North with something of an existential crisis. Everyone is kind of tense and things are very awkward. Kaiyss and Jaereiper are passing the time with petty crime in the upper class districts of the city, and Kaiyss has just stolen a priceless ruby necklace from some dowager.

Age: approx 330. appears to be in his early 20s.
Reference: Camille’s app for Singularity

Setting:

The TL;DR version is that this is literally Camille’s world, but about 80 years in the past.

Tree of Life and the Planes: The world consists of four tiers—four planes—of existence. The four planes are connected by the Life Tree, which is a gigantic tree that is the source of all life. Think Yggdrasil. The Tree is the only passageway between the four planes, although some have discovered other means of travel.
The first plane exists at the roots of the Tree, and is known as the Underworld—this is where people go when they die and where, if they lived a decent life, they are eventually absorbed into the Tree and return to the cycle of life. This is also where Plague originates. Plague is a noxious purple-black gas that has been leaking into the Whodden through Plague vents for about fifty years. No one knows how it can pass between the planes or why it exists or even what it really is. Plague tends to kill all who come into contact with it, though it also causes mutations and diseases. Plague has not yet managed to enter the Mortal Plane.

The second plane is the Mortal Plane, commonly called Gaea, and this is where humans reside. It exists at the trunk of the Tree of Life. It looks generally like the real world—mountains, rivers, cities, lots of people. The world is not Earth, however, and Dark is currently living in Corrant City, in the country of Moorath. In recent years, more and more Folk have been coming to live in Gaea due to the Plague vents in the Whodden.

The third plane is the Spirit Plane, called the Whodden, and this is where most Folk reside. This Plane sits in the canopy of the Tree. No one is quite sure how big the Whodden is, as its size and shape change almost constantly, as does the landscape. Maps are impossible but also unneeded, since Folk tend to instinctively know their way. The Whodden is currently divided into the Four Quarters, and each Quarter is ruled over by a particular family of Folk. The Northern Quarter is ruled over by the wolf spirits; the Eastern Quarter by tiger spirits; the Southern Quarter by djinni; and the Western Quarter by horse spirits. Power tends to change hands with some frequency. Currently there is an ongoing war between the Northern Quarter and the Western Quarter. The current ruler of the Northern Quarter has been driving for swift and bloody unification. The wolves already have control of the Southern Quarter and only the Eastern Quarter remains as yet untouched.

The Northern Quarter used to be ruled by a wolf called Gaija, but she was overthrown some decades ago by her brother, Sarif. Sarif, also known as the White Wolf, has ruled the Quarter ever since and has been pushing for unification in an attempt to control the entire Whodden. Gaija, defeated and almost killed, managed to escape to the Mortal Plane with the last shred of her energy. Her dying spirit reached out to a human family who had dealings with the Whodden wolves, and they offered to aid her. Gaija’s spirit took up residence in one of the females of the family and went into a deep sleep in order to recuperate. Gaija has been passed down from mother to daughter ever since, until about twenty years ago. Sarif had been trying to locate Gaija all that time, and when he found the human family he had them slaughtered. The woman whose newborn daughter was the current vessel for Gaija managed to run, though she was wounded and died on the steps of an orphanage.

Gaija currently resides in the body of North Stonewall, and is starting to wake up. The people of the Whodden await the time when their Wolf Queen will return.
The fourth plane has no name other than the Fourth Plane, and this is the realm of mystery. It resides at the very top of the Tree, and no one living knows anything about it. There are many theories about what exists in the Fourth Plane, but no one knows for certain.

Folk: Kai’s world is populated by Folk, which is the collective name given to spirits, mythological beasts, and so on. There are four major groups of Folk:

Sidhe: These are commonly called The Fair Folk or the Fae. The group consists of fairies, elves, sprites, and various other creatures, some of whom are actually servants of the fairies. For the most part they are human-shaped, though many don’t look all that human. They are very clever and devious, and are known for their beauty and their affinity for Nature.

Legendaries: This is the second largest group of Folk, and consists of every creature that is basically seen as “legendary” to humans. Dragons, wyverns, sphinxes, djinni, shedu, bunyips, thunderbirds, kitsune, and so on and so forth; all the mythical beasts from Earth legends fall into this category. Legendaries have a high degree of magic, and are usually very intelligent and enigmatic.

Animal Spirits: This is by far the largest group of Folk there is. Basically, for every animal or insect that exists in the human world, there is a spiritual counterpart in the Whodden. They have the form of animals, though they can transform into human, can speak, and tend to be pretty intelligent. Some of them have certain magicks or powers. They are characterized by whatever characterizes the actual animals in the human world; dog-spirits are loyal and carefree, cat-spirits are aloof and clever, and so on. Kaiyss himself is half cat-spirit. Unlike humans and other Folk, animal spirits are born with their souls on the outside, in the form of small glowing orbs like marbles, usually called their “light.” The light is typically carried in the mouth, stomach or behind the eye. Animal spirits can only die when the light is destroyed.

Insubstantials: This is a smaller group of Folk, and essentially consists of sentient and semi-sentient spirits. Elementals, house spirits, location spirits, and nature spirits all make up this group. Being half lightning elemental, Kai partially falls into this group. Insubstantials tend to be untalkative and rather mysterious, and don’t really get involved in the overall Whodden community. They just do whatever they do and keep to themselves.

Very rarely will two different Folk come together and bear children. These hybrid offspring are generally shunned and looked down on.

Currently Kai is staying with North Stonewall, the human vessel of the Wolf Queen, and is trying to keep her protected, alongside several others. They are in Corrant City, and the time period is comparable to that of the Twenties.

Personality: Kai’s defining characteristic is energy. He is absurdly energetic in all senses of the word. He’s hyperactive and excitable, and prides himself on being very easily amused. He’s not only talkative but he’s also a very fast talker, and has a tendency to switch topics in the middle of a sentence. He doesn’t even sleep for very long, usually for only about four hours at a time. He has a hard time focusing or paying attention to any one thing for very long, though he is able to focus on things if he puts actual effort into it. He likes for everything to be fast and moving and he really hates waiting. Despite that he can actually be pretty patient, but again he has to put some effort into it. He’s patient with his mate, his friends, and his search for his light, but other than that he prefers for everything to happen quickly. He’s a very animated person; not only does he talk fast, but he gestures, paces and zips around while he’s at it. He has a flair for drama that reaches cartoonish proportions and he loves making theatrical announcements and making everything appear much more awesome than they really are. He generally acts like he is constantly putting on a show even when he’s alone, so he also talks to himself a lot. In a way he sort of is putting on a show. He loves to have an audience and loves entertaining people. He believes that people should be happy and having fun, and if they’re not, then clearly he just needs to make them laugh. He has literally stated that one of his goals in life is to get every serious person in the world to lighten up. Almost his entire life is framed around the concept of fun. He steals because it’s fun, and he is with Jaereiper because she’s fun to be around. If he’s not having fun, then whatever it is probably isn’t worth doing in his opinion.

Kaiyss is fiercely optimistic, loyal, and generally very trusting. These have their limits, however. Living as a thief for almost two of his three hundred years has made him practical and realistic when it comes to more real life issues. He knows how important it is to keep himself and Jaereiper safe, to never get captured, and to never stay in one place for long enough to garner suspicion. His heists and capers always have an element of whimsy and ridiculousness to them, but he is very careful and plans things down to minute details. He has a pretty big ego, mostly due to the fact that he has a several-century reputation as a master thief who has never been caught. When he does catch himself being cocky, he shuts it down, stops, and takes things slower and with more caution. If he doesn’t catch himself, Jaereiper does, and she is nothing if not blunt. He’s loyal to Jaereiper and to his friends, but he tends not to stick his neck out for strangers. He doesn’t put his life on the line for anyone but Jaereiper; he’s definitely not the type to rush into a burning building to save someone, unless he was sure he could be in and out fast enough. He would never outright betray anyone, but he would abandon them if it was a matter of survival.

He is absolutely not a fighter. He can fight and is okay at it, mostly because he’s so fast, but he never likes having to fight and would always choose to run or hide if he could. He finds it amusing when people do try to fight him and entertains himself by dodging and dancing around them. But the moment it turns into an actual fight is the moment he flees. He’s trusting as well, mostly because he prefers to believe the best about people, but he’s not naïve and he’s always aware that everyone has a hidden agenda. He’ll only trust people so far, and he never lets strangers get physically close to him. His years as a captive living battery taught him both that people are capable of terrible things and that freedom is the most important thing in the world. He is absolutely terrified of being captured again, which is why he never allows himself to get caught. The few times that he has come close to capture have been traumatic, and have been the only real times that his post-traumatic stress about his captivity has reared its head. He has very occasional nightmares about being trapped or stuck in a small space, and he has pretty intense claustrophobia. He hates being underground, islands make him nervous, and when he’s indoors or in a car he tends to like having all the windows open. He despises boats, but that’s more to do with the fact that he gets violently seasick and hates water.

Kaiyss takes his thieving very seriously, and it’s one of the few things he does take seriously. He considers it an art and a proper trade, not just a hobby or a way to make ends meet. Thieving is all he really knows, and he honestly doesn’t think he could stop if he tried. He has a lot of principles about thieving, mostly concerning who he steals from and what he steals. He doesn’t steal from individual people on the street, and he only pickpockets from people who are very obviously rich. He doesn’t steal food, medicine or anything that people might need to survive. He rarely steals from homes, and when he does he targets mansions he takes cash and valuables and he makes sure not to leave a mess. Primarily he steals from museums or palaces, and what he steals are jewels, art, precious metals, royal icons and other valuable materials. He only steals things that have real monetary value. He tries not to steal anything that has particular sentimental significance, and he never steals enough from anyone to ruin them financially. In the past hundred years or so he has also taken to leaving a calling card—a simple white card with a cat pawprint on it—and in the past fifty years he has started warning people beforehand. He likes the amount of theatricality it brings, and he likes matching wits with police and other authorities.

Kaiyss is also a cat, which means he has certain catlike personality quirks. When he does sleep he prefers to do it in patches of sunlight. For all that he prefers to constantly be on the move, he does enjoy his naps, and he likes taking the occasional few minutes to just relax. He loves heights, open spaces, climbing up things, and running around in the dark. He loves seafood, poultry and stalking and killing assorted small animals, though he’s at least nice enough not to play with them. These days as a civilized animal spirit he gets most of his food at the market, but the old instincts still take over when he sees a mouse or a moth. He likes warm places and will sometimes start kneading soft things, especially pillows and blankets. He can also purr, even in human form. He’s affectionate and compassionate, kind to everyone he meets and a bit physically clingy, liking to hug and cuddle and sleep on people, mostly Jaereiper.

Finally, Kaiyss has a deep and abiding love of technology, especially electronics. He likes sampling new electrical currents as they run through new technologies, as each different current has a sort of taste to him. When new technology gets invented he’ll stop at nothing to get his hands on it, whether it’s a radio or a combustion engine. Once he does he’ll take it apart to find out how it works, and then see if he can put it back together. When he has spare time he’ll turn into pure energy and duck inside a building’s electrical system just to hang out with the current there. He has loved watching the advancement of technology throughout history, and it’s one of the major reasons why he actually really likes humans. So long as they’re not abusing Folk, he loves the technology they create. He just especially loves taking it apart and hanging out inside it. He’s a product of his time, however, which means that the most recent technology has been cars, radios and phonographs. He’s totally unfamiliar with modern technology and hasn’t even seen his first moving picture yet. This also means that his manner of speech is somewhat archaic. He has a hard time keeping up with slang and usually use words that are outdated by several years.

When he arrives on Tu Vishan and is told that he’s between life and death, his initial thought will be that he has somehow ascended to the Fourth Plane. The thing about his world is that the afterlife isn’t really a mystery. The fact that the dead descend into the Underworld to incorporate themselves with the Life Tree itself is basically common knowledge among both humans and Folk. No one living has technically seen the Underworld, but people who have had near-death experience report having seen the roots of the Tree and the staircase. Kaiyss therefore won’t think he’s dead or anything like that. He’ll think at first that he’s somehow in the Fourth Plane, but that will fade very quickly and he’ll essentially just be left very confused. Before he even talks to anyone he’ll probably fly around and discover that he’s on what appears to be an island, which will make him pretty nervous. He really doesn’t like islands, at least not when he has to think about the fact that they’re tiny and surrounded by water. Once he finds out that it’s a turtle he’ll conversely both relax a little and get even more nervous, since a turtle is a lot less reliable a thing to live on than actual land. There are giant turtles in his world, however, so it won’t be too much of a shock, and the sheer size of it will be enough to convince him that he’s in another dimension entirely. It’ll probably take him awhile to wrap his head around the idea of completely different worlds, since the concept of life on other planets is a relatively new one. And lastly, he will never ever ever ever ever accept the idea that he is permanently stuck on Tu Vishan. He’ll forever hold onto the belief that eventually get home, because the alternative—being stuck on a turtle that’s literally whole worlds away from his mate Jaereiper—is simply unacceptable.

Background: Kaiyss was born in the Whodden, to a male cat-spirit and a female lightning elemental. Relationships between two such different species was and still is very rare, and his parents didn’t stay together for longer than a few months. Kaiyss never met his mother and doesn’t ever expect to, as lightning elementals are both nomadic and elusive. His father raised him through his early childhood, but parent-child relationships among animal spirits pretty much mirror parent-child relationships between normal animals, so after only a few years they went their separate ways. Kaiyss hasn’t seen his father since.

After separating from his father, Kaiyss promptly left the Whodden. Hybrids like himself are generally disdained among the Folk, so Kaiyss had no friends and nothing tying him to the Whodden. He wanted to travel, and he wanted to do it in the Mortal Plane. So he descended the Tree with a whole lot of naïve optimism and set out across the Mortal Plane. He had no idea what he was doing and sort of bummed around for quite awhile, traveling around the Eastern Hemisphere. Eventually, word that a Folk with all the power of a lightning elemental but also with a physical body—a creature that therefore could be captured and tamed—reached the country of Greyn. Greyn was, at the time, a rising star in terms of geopolitical power, and wanted a way to get an edge on the rest of the world. So one day when Kaiyss was traveling through Greyn, some government officials knocked him out and dragged him away.

He awakened alone in the middle of a small room, attached to dozens of wires and cables. The Greynians, it turned out, had been waiting for him and had set up essentially a power plant that would use Kaiyss himself as a power source. Kaiyss was weakened as his electrical power was continually drained through magical and technological means. He would remain alive, since a lightning elemental constantly produces an electric charge, but too weak to even move. His light—a marble-like item that is the literal soul of an animal-spirit—had also been taken away and was being held hostage. If he tried to escape, his keepers would smash his light, which would effectively kill him. Kaiyss was trapped. Outside his room, Greyn became the first country to utilize electricity, at a time when the rest of the world was still having difficulty traversing oceans. Greyn became a literal superpower almost overnight.

Kaiyss acted as little more than a battery for Greyn for about fifty years after that, and during that time Greyn ruled the world, Spain-style. Of course that also meant that Greyn garnered a lot of enemies, and a lot of people were suspicious about how in the world Greyn had attained such power. One person who was particularly interested was Kinsley Aldricht Merriweather Hrootspring IV, a jackal-spirit who ran a small traveling circus. His circus was in reality a very accomplished thieving ring, and their current goal was to find and steal the source of Greyn’s power. After a lot of planning and general criminal activity, Kins found his way to Kaiyss’s room and was surprised to find a fellow Folk there. All the same, he “stole” Kaiyss and set him free. Kaiyss, having nowhere else to go, joined Kins’s circus and together they all fled the country while Greyn’s economy and society crumbled. In the confusion, Kaiyss never managed to track down his light.

Kins took Kaiyss under his wing, giving him a place in the circus and the appropriately ridiculous circus name of “Showtime.” Kaiyss was billed as an acrobat and a clown and had enormous amounts of fun entertaining the crowds. Eventually Kins also realized Kaiyss’s value as a thief and began teaching Kaiyss everything he knew. Before long Kaiyss was an intrinsic member of the thieving ring and was close friends with Kins and the other ten “circus performers.” Kaiyss also began building up a reputation for stealing objects that were particularly difficult to obtain. This was when he started getting nicknames like “The Lightning Cat,” “The Lightning Thief” and the “Thief Prince.”

Kaiyss stayed with Kins and the circus for about sixty years, but eventually he had attained so much infamy and renown that he became a hazard to the circus itself. Kaiyss had become an expert at never getting caught, having vowed never to let himself get captured again, but Kins and Kaiyss both worried that his infamy would eventually track authorities to the circus. Kaiyss also wanted to try and make his own way in the world. He had to somehow track down his light, and his plan was to amass such a great fortune that, if necessary, he would be able to buy it back when he found it. So Kaiyss left the circus and struck out on his own. His first decade on his own was a bit rough, but he continued to build a reputation as an uncatchable thief. He also started searching the world for his light, starting with Greyn. He didn’t find it there, and his travels took him all over the world. He left the continent for the first time, crossed oceans and saw places that even the circus had never seen. But he never found his light. Still he continued to build up his fortune, hiding money and valuables in safehouses and caches all over the world.

Eventually his travels took him to the southern deserts, where he set his gaze on some jewelry belonging to a very rich sheik. Unbeknownst to him, another thief of middling infamy was in the area and also had her sights set on the sheik. When Kaiyss managed to steal the sheik’s jewels, the other thief followed him into the desert. Kaiyss confronted her, and the thief demanded that he turn over the sheik’s jewels. They had a very brief fight, but it turned out that the mystery thief had power over sand, and the fight ended with Kaiyss buried up to his neck in sand. It was the first time in his entire thieving career that Kaiyss had ever been bested. He fell in love instantly.

The thief’s name was Jaereiper Madley, a sand cat-spirit. She would have left Kaiyss to die, but Kaiyss convinced her that they should team up briefly. “Briefly” turned into several years, and then several decades. Jaereiper had trust issues and constantly expected Kaiyss to betray her, but he never did, and they made such a good team that she eventually began to trust him. They became mates soon after that and have been together ever since.

In the past hundred and fifty years, Kaiyss and Jaereiper have been traveling and thieving all over the world, and have both become world-famous uncatchable thieves. All that time Kaiyss was searching for his light. Recently a Hound of the Wild Hunt named William approached Kaiyss and told him that he knew where Kaiyss’s light was. William would exchange his information for Kaiyss and Jaereiper’s services. The thing that William wanted them to steal, however, turned out to be a person—a young human woman named North Stonewall. North was apparently an unassuming human who acted as a veterinarian and Folk doctor in Corrant City.

Kaiyss and Jaereiper were both incredibly uncomfortable with the idea, but Kaiyss’s light was too important to both of them. They agreed and kidnapped North. When North’s friend Dark came to rescue her, Kaiyss and Jaereiper both realized what North was. It turned out that North was the human vessel of the Wolf Queen’s spirit, and that William was working for the White Wolf, who wanted North and the Wolf Queen dead. Kaiyss and Jaereiper, not wanting to get caught up in the political turmoil of the Whodden, backed out of their deal with William and let North go—but in that moment, William and his Hunt (dog pack) attacked. In the chaos, North escaped and Kaiyss and Jaereiper fled. Jaereiper was gravely injured, however. Panicked and not knowing where else to go, Kaiyss carried Jaereiper to North’s place and begged her to save his mate. North did so, and for that both Kaiyss and Jaereiper pledged their lives to North’s cause. Since then it has been an uphill battle to protect North from her enemies and to ensure the survival of the Wolf Queen’s spirit inside her. Kaiyss and Jaereiper continue to work alongside several others to protect North, in the hopes that someday the Wolf Queen will be restored to the throne.

Appearance: Kaiyss is half lightning elemental and half cat-spirit, but for the most part, he looks like a pretty normal human. He’s short, wiry and very flexible, able to perform pretty ridiculous stunts when he wants to. He’s fair-skinned but tan since he spends a lot of time outside. His eyes are a somewhat unnatural shade of bottle green, very catlike—sometimes when he’s stressed or excited his pupils will stretch into vertical slits. His hair is blonde and when it’s not matted down by a hat it tends to stick out in all directions. He has a penchant for stupid hats, and will usually wear one specific hat every day for years and years until it falls apart. His current hat is an off-white bucket hat with a purple flower painted on the front. He also wears an absurdly large off-white and well-used coat with about a zillion pockets.

In cat form, Kaiyss looks like an unassuming but unusual cat. He’s a very pale yellow tabby, sort of a peaches-and-cream coloration, with white socks, a pink nose and long, crinkled whiskers. His fur is soft but oddly curly, like a Rex breed. It tends to stick up, and his tail has a habit of puffing up even when he’s not scared or upset.

Occasionally Kaiyss will step it up a notch when he really wants to dig into his elemental powers, which means that his appearance shifts toward something more amorphous. He retains the general cat shape and outline, but he glows blue-white and loses most definition. In this form he is more elemental than cat, and can therefore utilize electricity and electrical properties much better. It also allows him to hide inside electrical systems as pure electricity.

Abilities: The common ability of a lot of Folk is very basic shapeshifting, which allows a Folk to change their appearance. Most Folk with this ability have only one alternate form, and this is typically used to blend in with a dominant species. This tends to be the appearance of a human, as many Folk find it easier to move around in the Mortal Plane if they look mostly human. Kaiyss’s base form is that of a somewhat unusual-looking housecat, but he spends a good deal of his time looking purely human, and some of his time in his pure elemental form. These are the only two forms that Kai can shift into, and shifting is smooth and almost instantaneous.

Kaiyss’s other abilities come from his status as both a cat-spirit and an elemental. His cat-related abilities include hunting prowess, the ability to move silently, heightened senses and reflexes and good balance. He’s also quite flexible and tends to land on his feet most of the time. He can also see in the dark, and even in human form his eyes have a cat-like glow. He does have a tendency to be clumsier without his tail for balance, however. Being a cat also means he has assorted cat-like weaknesses, however. For the most part he can only eat meat, he can’t swim, catnip is essentially a drug to him, and grabbing him by the scruff of his neck will immobilize him.

His elemental abilities are more powerful. Being part lightning-elemental means he can channel and direct electricity in large or miniscule amounts, allowing him to electrocute enemies or manipulate electrical equipment through touch. He can’t shoot lightning out of his hands or anything like that, however. It’s easier for him to be in physical contact with something in order to manipulate its electricity or conduct anything, but it’s not necessary. He can manipulate electronics from across the room by utilizing natural static electricity in the air. He can summon lightning, but only during thunderstorms and only in the correct circumstances. For instance, if he was at ground level and summoned lightning, the lightning would still strike the highest object; lightning itself isn’t something he can control beyond what’s scientifically possible. It does, however, mean that he can ionize himself and essentially become a lightning rod, and getting shocked or struck by lightning leaves him completely unharmed (though rather energetic afterwards). He also has the ability to fly and can move at impossible speeds, often literally at the speed of lightning (about 230,000 mph). Flying creates an electromagnetic field between himself and the ground. This would interfere with electronics, but since most electronics haven’t been invented yet in his time he’s not actually aware of this fact. He also has a certain degree of influence on magnetics, though certainly not to the point of someone like Magneto. It’s mostly just that he can attract metal to himself when he wants to. It’s not something he really bothers to do that often.

Finally, and on a less superpowered note, Kaiyss is a master thief and has all the appropriate skills to go along with this. He can pick locks, pockets and can deactivate many alarm systems, both electronic and magical (but again, only at a 20’s level of technology). He’s stealthy when he wants to be and is excellent at breaking and entering, to the point where people often don’t realize he’s been there until they notice something missing. He’s absurdly good at sleight of hand, mostly because he moves so fast and also because of what he learned during his time with the circus. He’s a good liar as well, though not nearly to the point that he’d make a good conman.

Inventory: Just what’s in his pockets, which is actually quite a bit. He has a small bag of middling carat diamonds, a ruby necklace, a half-empty bag of fish-shaped gummy candy, a sepia photo of himself and Jaereiper, a wallet with some Moorathian bills, a key to North’s apartment, several old-fashioned mousey toys, a bag of catnip, assorted working parts of a radio he took apart, and a quartz pocket watch.

Suite: Metal, because Kai is extremely fast-paced, forward thinking and obsessed with technology. He’s high energy in a way that suits the very city-like feeling of the Metal Sector—not so much the cold, business side of it, but the never sleep, never stop mentality.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person: He found himself on the third floor of the museum about two minutes after he had left Jaereiper and landed in a stairwell. There were a lot of guards here; the museum had at least done that right. Kaiyss peeked around the corner to see a guard with a flashlight walking through the darkened Green Room, a reconfiguration of the Palace’s original Green Room. The beam passed over each relic and priceless pretty, bouncing off the glass case that surrounded Kaiyss’s target.

Kaiyss smiled to himself, listening, scenting the air, making sure the lone guard was the only one nearby. He could smell others in adjacent rooms, but they would be no problem.

Now the fun begins.

Kaiyss raised a finger, keeping his eyes on the guard, who was now walking Kaiyss’s way. He thought about the flashlight, about the way the electricity passed from the batteries into the light bulb’s filament to give it light. He could almost see it, if he looked hard enough—the current, the invisible power that changed and became visible light. Electricity: deadly, wild, and oh so much fun.

His finger dropped and he sent out a thread of his own current into the flashlight bulb and further, into the batteries. The flashlight glowed bright and then went out. The guard stopped and cursed, slapping the flashlight, shaking it in an attempt to make it work. Kaiyss transformed to cat as the guard was preoccupied and slipped past him, padding across the Green Room to the glass case in the center. By the time he was hidden safely behind the table on which it sat, the guard was walking past the stairwell, going to get new batteries. Kaiyss stifled a laugh. He looked around again, ears flicking every-which-way for the sound of approach. Then he transformed to human again and looked over the glass case.

A wide grin spread across his face and he almost giggled with excitement. There, on a display platform draped with white cloth, sat a necklace—four green diamonds on a thin silver chain. Owned by Rosalind IV, each diamond was upwards of two million dollars. The necklace itself was beyond price.

“Shh,” Kaiyss whispered to the necklace. “I’m here to rescue you. Sit tight for a moment, pretty, and I’ll set you free.”

Network: Well butter my biscuit, it’s really working, isn’t it, sending images right on through the air, radio but with proper pictures it is! Well, so they say, anyway, saying it’s a fancy-like telly-phone, letting a body talk to his friends halfway ‘round the world and whatnot? Oh but that was nice, they started putting those up everywhere, little damn booths on every street corner, them big old beauteous windy-wheels and the pretty brass numbers. Where was I? Begs the question, then, I suppose, so, is there anyone out there on the waves, giving this cat a listen? Because, concerning questions, I got a fair few of them I’d say, getting dragged out of the ocean, ew, and me now on an island a hop skip and jump from anywhere I’m familiar with! Can’t fly off, either, all that damn water. Cripes!

So anyway, docking the tail on a long talk here, my point being—hello, Tu Vishan, as you call yourself! Can anyone hear me? Can you good and proper see me?