#vrusti

Then they opened a comm line to Ghuma. “They’re on the way,” Vrusti said. “Acknowledged,” Ghuma said. “Head for my location as quickly as you can.”

Oh no, Vrusti!Crow.

Is still cute, but man oh man are we in Trouble. There is a plan afoot.

Vrusti sat on the roof of one of the hangars, their cat form abandoned in favor of a large local bird that was just as black as the cat. ... Vrusti had watched from a distance, not quite trusting themselves to fool the human on their first outing in this form.

Birb!Vrusti ^_^

All I can think about is some random birder seeing Vrusti getting used to the form doing approximations of bird shit that actually look more like what a pigeon would do than a crow or raven, and just lighting up so many forums about this one weird corvid0 they saw at this military base and while half the threads are like "WHY IS THERE A MILITARY BASE THERE SUDDENLY, IS THAT CAR IN THE BACK MELTING?" all the other birders are like "That IS unusual behaviour for that bird, is this a discovery of new behaviours or is this just one bird being a funky little dude?"

And despite best efforts the birders are outpacing the conspiracy theorists by a mile and refusing to engage with anything in the photos that isn't the one weird ass fucking black bird.

Anyways on that wild tangent I leave you! Here ends chapter 15, back tomorrow with chapter 16.

Be good to yourselves folks.

Vrusti watched from the side of the road as the Army truck approached and waited patiently.

Vrusti!Cat

Excitement over a kitty cat is not the correct response to watching an enemy agent infiltrate our hero's base leveling out any advantage our heroes just gained in finding the Char base on the map, I know that. Really, I do.

But, nothing in the passage suggested Vrusti wasn't in their kitty form at least for the initial run to the truck so...

Vrusti!Cat ^_^

“Sorry, kid. This is war. I like you, but if it’s a choice between you or me, or you or Birat, I’m going to pick me and Birat every time.” “Well, at least I know where I stand,” Vrusti said. “That’s better than you’ll get with most of the Char,” Ghuma said. “Yeah,” Vrusti said. “I’ve noticed that.”

I am loving the whole "couple that slays together stays together" vibe that Ghuma and Birat have going on.

Gotta say though, they aren't exactly selling the Char as the good choice for the dominant gadan society. Perhaps they are also jaded and tired out by all the fighting and have decided to just deal with it by narrowing their world down to theirs and Birat's continued survival and partnership?

Also, kid? That could still put Vrusti at a couple of thousand years old considering well *gestures distractedly at everything we know about the gadan so far* and could also just mean they are new to the whole secret op or whatever this unit is supposed to be on Earth. However given that they were introduced in the form of a cat I am deciding that Vrusti is the promising but green recruit of team Char, part of the latest generation to hit service age, and also the resident smol regardless of any actual height comparisons that may come later.

Once the transformation was complete, they reached up and pulled on their seatbelt.

I realise it's probably mostly to avoid attracting unnecessary attention with a minor traffic violation but I do like that Vrusti is practicing basic road safety. Good now human shaped kitty.

The black box started shifting in front of them, quickly morphing from a simple box into a small black cat. Before either of them could do anything to stop it, the cat kicked free of Gomez’s grip, and shot off into the bushes.

Bye Vrusti!!!

Listen. This impulse may fade after a few more chapters but for now... What if Vrusti got captured and was injured in some way and was basically just sorta stuck as a cat with juuuust enough control to give himself a vocal apparatus capable of human speech.

Just Vrusti as TMOP's version of Salem Saberhagen.

I invite you all to think on that until the next chapter, which will be tomorrow as we have reached the end of chapter 6. Be good to yourselves folks.

The humans were all too busy to see a small black cat rush under a car.

BLACK CAT VRUSTI!

Look they are probably gonna cause a metric fuckload of problems BUT consider: They just a li'l kitty cat. Just a little meowser with a job.

Imagine an alien disguised as a cute but unfairly stereotyped against little black cat observing and being observed by humans as like a Pixar short.

That mental image is so adorable and contextually hilarious that I can almost ignore the weird taste in my mouth from typing the words "little meowser".

Vrusti watched as Ghuma and Birat pulled away from the human law enforcement outpost.

Oh no.

Another also bad third option.

By Talos this can't be happening.