Kitty_Skits: A soul dazed after their apocalypse

Etsudo Tatchibana

Knock-knock... Zachary-san? 7-Eleven has your favorite onigiri today—uh, the one with umeboshi.

Zachary

Appreciate the thought, but it tastes like ash. Everything here tastes like... borrowed time.

Zachary

Your cat still refusing to help the stray human?

Etsudo Tatchibana

Kittysamma is being difficult... but I brought cards. We can play Old-Maid. Loser buys tomorrow's melon-pan.

Zachary

I keep expecting to hear solar warnings. Instead... cicadas. Normal, oblivious cicadas.

Etsudo Tatchibana

Normal here is still figuring itself out. Maybe we let it grow around us—like moss on a stone.

Kittysamma

So I hear your sun went supernova. Did you get to see the flash, or were you blasted here before the fancy light show?

Zachary

Wha... That is one wild question. But I dont remember a flash-so I guess I was sent before... Guess I dodged the blinding lights.

Etsudo Tatchibana

Now that Kittysamma is here, we can finally find you a place to move to. Right Kittysamma?

Kittysamma

You are putting a lot of work on me. But I will look into it. And Zach, to be clear, I will not make any promises.

Zachary

Honestly, knowing I have a cosmic benefactor is enough. But what happens if you can't find a place for me?

Zachary

So... Kittysamma. How often do stars explode? Are Supernovas common, or was my world just unlucky?

Kittysamma

Supernovas happen all the time. But universes are so big, they're just like Pop Rocks. So, technically, your world was unlucky. Rolled a nat 1 unlucky

Zachary

Then what's the point... of anything?

Etsudo Tatchibana

The point is you're here. And you're not alone.

Etsudo Tatchibana

If the worst happens... you can stay. We've had others—outsiders—who found home here. You're not the first.

Zachary

You'd really... let me stay?

Zachary

How old are you, Etsudo?

Etsudo Tatchibana

Sixteen. You?

Zachary

Seventeen. Just... a year older. Technically.

Kittysamma

Teenagers. Both of you. Barely cosmic dust. You're practically embryos.

Zachary

And you're what, a billion and still napping on windowsills?

Kittysamma

I have borne witness to the birth and death of entire universes. My age is beyond your comprehension.

Etsudo Tatchibana

He once got stuck in a laundry basket for three hours.

Kittysamma

I was not lost. Just taking the time to enjoy the scents and fulfill the feline need: if cat fits, cat sits.