I enjoyed this story, and got an outcome I was happy with! It had some very good descriptions of cats. With their fur so soft and their paws so nice.
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I think I will reset this one. It seems there was a way to make everyone happy but… after I had read the forum thread!
[quote=Shadowcthuhlu]Do you mean the ones related here?
https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type6070b.html#wildecat[/quote]
Yeah. I was slightly surprised that the Tabby didn’t become King of the Cats or turn out to have been the old King of the Cats.
I really enjoyed this one. I’ve been feeling low since all the IRL nastiness kicked off but this gave a moment of happiness, so thank you.
I chose to accept the King’s gift but also managed to make everyone else happy - the kittens ended up at the court and I chose to grant the champion’s wish, having (somewhat naively) taken her word at what the Prince’s request was. Turns out they both wanted the same thing anyway.
The ending I got for this was the second time FL has made me actually cry, the first being HOJOTOHO!, so I think I have to give it a 10/10 based on that.
Thank you again.
I really liked the implied explanation about why Cats in the Neath can talk that’s beyond “Judgement Law was the only thing stopping them.” Stone created the Neath’s sapient Tigers to combat the Fingerkings, and so she also created Cats to do the same. But Cats are more like spies, while Tigers are warriors. That also explains their affinity for secrets.
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Do we know why Stone is against the Fingerkings yet?
Don’t think there’s a coherent reason given, although her being half-Judgement and the whole threat of the Solonacean Conjunction i.e. the precursor to the Liberation of Night created by another Fingerking is probably part of it. I seem to remember there’s some earlier lore about how the Fingerkings want to reach Stone but never can and in Seas one says it will willingly die and "meet the Skin of the Sun" in exchange for drinking some of your captain’s future so you can keep the space it leaves behind in a box (which protects against sunlight when colonising Aestival.
But as far as I know, we don’t really know Stone’s full motivations for fighting the Fingerkings.
edited by Hattington on 4/1/2020
2 Likes
I loved this story, though there was one thing I wish I’d handled differently.
It was very bittersweet for me, since I have a nineteen-year-old cat. (He is much less reprehensible than the Tabby, though he has his moments, mainly where the dog is concerned.) In the end, even though the Tabby had what I felt was the best possible ending for him, I burst into tears – and then went and picked up my cat and held him until he told me this was nice and all but that he required a lift to the kitchen table to lie in the sun.
It must be hard for Neath cats, not being able to sleep in a puddle of sunshine.
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Oh, but it’s kittens to cakes they all have a toasty little place somewhere on the furnaces in the Brass Embassy. And the Duchess has surely arranged a little something on Aestival, or maybe at Lamentation Lock!
This story was an absolute delight. Great characters, an exciting adventure to a new and strange place, danger, mysteries, and of course cats, cats, and more cats. The ending (at least the one I got) was truly exceptional. Like some others here I’m a little confused about the anatomy of Neathy tigers as depicted in the story, but I’ll chalk it up to Parabolan weirdness.
Hats off to the writer, editor, and artist for all their hard work on this story!
I am a sucker for a good redemption arc, and this ES was fully satisfying, in a sad bittersweet way. Also I am fond of animals and animal-related stories, so I’ll love whatever has cats, rats, etc in it - had the story been exactly the same but with humans, I don’t think I would have cared half as much (and no, I don’t love animals more than humans IRL, in case you’re wondering; I just think they make for wonderful characters.)
My fave ES is still the Valkyrie one, and by this point I doubt it will ever be topped, but this one’s up there with my other favourites. Some stories are funnier when you fail (like Fine Dining, that everybody hated but I enjoyed immensely), but with this one I’d have been heartbroken, had I not managed to make all the cats happy. Can you tell I really loved it?
Um, I much prefer lurking to posting, but I’ve just reached the point where they want the Tabby to babysit the ship’s kittens, and the situation is playing whack-a-mole on my nerves. I want to say yes, really, but he’s not very reliable, and the kittens are so small, and we’re so far out to sea…
Please, I just want to know if trusting him would end badly. Do I at least get to step in before something goes wrong?
[quote=alpherae]Um, I much prefer lurking to posting, but I’ve just reached the point where they want the Tabby to babysit the ship’s kittens, and the situation is playing whack-a-mole on my nerves. I want to say yes, really, but he’s not very reliable, and the kittens are so small, and we’re so far out to sea…
Please, I just want to know if trusting him would end badly. Do I at least get to step in before something goes wrong?[/quote]
This is not a kitten-murdering kind of story. They will be fine.
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[quote=MidnightVoyager]
This is not a kitten-murdering kind of story. They will be fine.[/quote]
Thank you so much. I know it’s silly, and I love the story up to this point, it just… hit a few buttons. Thanks for the reassurance.
I must’ve picked the absolute worst options for this one, because my version of the story… basically had nothing happen.
Happy ending for the Tabby, alright ending for the kittens, the champion and prince disappeared from the story. I thought ignoring their requests would do something, at least. :(
Late, but maybe it will help!
Last minutes to unlock this story if you haven’t!
[quote=Daisy MacRae]I loved this story, though there was one thing I wish I’d handled differently.
It was very bittersweet for me, since I have a nineteen-year-old cat. (He is much less reprehensible than the Tabby, though he has his moments, mainly where the dog is concerned.) In the end, even though the Tabby had what I felt was the best possible ending for him, I burst into tears – and then went and picked up my cat and held him until he told me this was nice and all but that he required a lift to the kitchen table to lie in the sun.
It must be hard for Neath cats, not being able to sleep in a puddle of sunshine.[/quote]
I feel for you. I had a wonderful old tabby who lived to be 21; it’s been 6 years now, since she passed, but I still remember how her last days wrung my heart, and I still miss her despite having opened my home to a wonderful Maine Coon tom.
I suspect that the desire for sleeping in sunshine is one reason the cats of the Neath have chosen to prowl Parabola–it is an approximation of where most cats would probably like to live. It is probably why the Tabby wanted his Parabolan form back.
Apologies for reviving a long-dead thread, but I’m only now playing this story. Rarely do Exceptional Stories move me to tears or feel so much of the physical over the emotional, but this story has. That’s why I wanted to ask how to proceed, as I’m hoping to find the best ending for these characters. If anyone would be willing, could you explain how?
I am currently with the Banded Prince, and I have the option to either accept the Prince’s petition or to accept his offer at a price, which will presumably help the mother cat’s kittens. Would anyone mind informing me how to proceed with this choice, or any others to come?
[quote=Sir Joseph Marlen]Apologies for reviving a long-dead thread, but I’m only now playing this story. Rarely do Exceptional Stories move me to tears or feel so much of the physical over the emotional, but this story has. That’s why I wanted to ask how to proceed, as I’m hoping to find the best ending for these characters. If anyone would be willing, could you explain how?
I am currently with the Banded Prince, and I have the option to either accept the Prince’s petition or to accept his offer at a price, which will presumably help the mother cat’s kittens. Would anyone mind informing me how to proceed with this choice, or any others to come?
At the risk of spoiling you on what is indeed quite a good story, and on the off-chance you haven’t already made your decision: I would only suggest that finding gainful employment for the mother cat’s kittens with the Prince could be mutually benefitial. That while the Prince’s champion may not be entirely what she seems, she has a good wish to grant…so to speak. And that the Turbulent Tabby has more to live for than he may at first think.