With a slither of moonlight creeping through the gap in the star-covered blinds, Lola lounged in her dimly blue-light-lit and giant plushy-filled room, sprawled out over every inch of her bed. She found herself buried halfway into her unkempt mass of tail fur as she lazily stared at her large wall-mounted TV. Watching her cuboid character meander around their cube-like world, Lola raised a reluctant hand before she slowly swiped a thumb across her touchscreen-like controller. A satisfying rotational-sounding click repeatedly emanated from the TV, each subsequent click overlapping the prior as Lola mindlessly scrolled through her character's hot bar.
"Why is everything so hard to find right when I'm looking for it...," Lola murmured apathetically, dragging her fed-up eyes from side to side whilst looking at the TV.
(Lola is a slightly short, teenaged seraph kitsune[Yang Essence] with the appearance of a teenaged female human; she has long scruffy green hair with metalically silver hair tips, golden eyes with five-pointed-star pupils, pale white skin to the point it's faintly cyan, five large scruffy green kitsune tails with metallically silver tips, two kitsune ears with metallically silver tips, and a slightly toned body)
(Lola is wearing a pink onesie with large hollow horns on the hood and is covered in rune-like embroideries and golden slippers)
The teen resumed scrolling through the hotbar's collection, the repeated clicking ticking inside her ears like a countdown. The clicking continued to pester her, teasing and goading Lola into opening her inventory, much to her reluctance. Seeing the lack of her desired item, even with her best efforts, Lola let out a prolonged and disgruntled groan of disappointment before reluctantly opening her inventory.
However, before she could even get the smallest glance at the in-game inventory, Lola's bedroom door erupted open, swinging with a pain-inducing screech that forced Lola to curl her long ears as her expression soured at knowing who was about to interrupt her gaming session. Whilst its hinges rattled like they could shiver, the door screeched to a halt and narrowly avoided a devastating collision with the wall.
The shine from the hallway light spilled into the drab room but with an oddly shaped shadow breaking that light in two. The curator of the severed light was none other than the vibrant and objectively shining Sylvie, her ear-to-ear smile equally radiant to the light she emitted whilst she stood in the doorframe.
(Sylvie is short, teenaged spirit-bound kitsune alkorian with the appearance of a teenaged human girl; she has super long curly blonde hair with nebula-coloured-sky ends tied into large hoops, pupilless nebula-sky-coloured eyes, lightly tanned skin, golden kitsune ear-shaped alkorian horns[curved horns on the forehead with engravings that give them the illusion of being made of segmented pieces] on the top of the sides of her head, and five transparent golden mana[wavey energy] kitsune tails floating behind her)
(Sylvie is wearing an oversized open grey hoodie made of squares which match the colours on a Rubik's cube, a muted yellow t-shirt with the lower half of it cut off, and black leggings with three muted yellow rings around their ankles, and gold getas)
"Granty Loulea! Are you awake?" Sylvie asked energetically as she bounced into the barely older kitsune's bedroom and stood beside her bed. Lola slumped back into her tail even harder, burying herself so far only her controller-holding hands and feet were left exposed before a muffled groan of disappointment escaped through the folded fur.
"Can I help you, Sylvie?" Lola grumbled as she slowly resurfaced from her tails with evident disapproval that her "Me Time" was being interrupted.
"I'm bored," Sylvie stated cheerfully, not allowing a hint of her supposed boredom. Lola couldn't help but concoct a reserved chuckle at the juxtaposition of her great niece's words and tone as she lazily rolled her eyes.
"When aren't you?"Lola asked, spotting a grin full of alacrity. But in the middle of sitting up, a thought crossed Lola's mind, leading her to narrow her eyes inquisitively as Sylvie clawed her way onto her bed. With her curiosity peaked, Lola decided to ask, "Say, why are you even here?"
"We were in the area when Pops said he sensed a pack of yokai appear outside the town down the hill. So, he dropped me and Kimmi-Ka off here before heading over to deal with them," Sylvie explained off-handedly as she pressed her hand into Lola's tails, kneading them like a cat before she spun around and sat in the kneaded spot.
"If she isn't here with you right now... does that mean Kimmi-Ka is currently searching the house for...?" Lola grumbled disparagingly. Not even finishing her sentence, Lola heard a deafening and wood-shattering crash ripple right outside her room with chunks of wood flying into the room through the open door.
"Mr Vivo! Kokou and Soleo are trying to take my honey before the guests again!" Miya exclaimed, her voice functionally identical to Lola's, albeit sounding like a younger version of the kitsune's.
"What did Soleo do?" Soleo whined deflatedly, their voice coated in a thin watery audio effect
"Sorry, force of habit," Miya murmured repugnantly just out of sight from Lola's bedroom.
"I have half a mind to ask Zalmino to revamp the floors into something less forgiving," Zalina whined, causing the trio to freeze. And, before they could say their prayers, a large mass of faint pink fur with pale cyan and magenta ends flooded the hallway, clutching the trio in its loose yet unbreakable grasp. With the house bashers subdued, Zalina pulled back her tails, easily carrying the troublemakers in them through the hallway until it cleared the view of Lola's room. Briefly poking her head out of her room, Lola blankly watched the last strands of Zalina's tail fur slink down the far reaches of the hallway and out of view around a corner.
With a light sigh, Lola slumped back into her room, carefully closing her door with a tail so to not alert Zalina with a loud noise.
"Guess not then," Lola uttered in relief before turning her head as the clicking of her hot bar being cycled through caught her ear.
"Woah, her birthday was only last Xinday and she's already got steel," Sylvie exclaimed excitedly while pointing to the steel ingot in Lola's hot bar on the TV.
"Hmnp, I would've gotten it in half a day without any mishaps," Kimmi-Ka stated smugly, her pride evident by her miruku tendrils rattling like festive maraca shakers.
"Well duh, you helped Granny Minia make Voxel Valley. So, obviously, you'd get through it faster "
"I, Kimmi-Ka, would never make the same mistake twice," Kimmi-Ka stated sternly while clutching a small bottle of red nuela honey, a glowing honey which slowly shifts between an opaque and transparent appearance.
(Kimmi-Ka is a slightly tall, kid-sized, teenaged wu-ling, miruku/kitsune, and an acolyte/alkorian hybrid with the appearance of a seven-year-old female human; she has long woolly hair[half snow white(left) and half blond(right)] all with lime hair tips, her hair is styled into six large hoops, a pure gold right eye with a pink/lime gradient pupil and multiple concentric white stars over it, a glistening deep blue left eye, fair skin, nine large and long[tripple her height] blond to snow white gradient coloured fluffy fur miruku-tendril[usually plated mouthed tendrils that sprout from the back of the person's head] tails with lime coloured tips, glowing fingertips, and slightly curved upwards glowing ram-like horns on the sides of her head)
(Kimmi-Ka is wearing a super long fuzzy white scarf with a scale texture and covered in golden and red poker dots, sunglasses made from pure black gelatin with glowing white dots all over it, a black sports bra, and the lower half of rainbow-gradient rabbit-themed onesie repurposed to be trousers with fluffy black fur around its waistline)
"But, Kiwi, didn't you keep putting in the wrong pin at the store?" Sylvie asked as she puzzledly tilted her head to a perfect ninety-degree angle, pooling all her cognitive capability to ponder how Kimmi-Ka could forget something from an hour ago. Kimmi-Ka's miruku tendrils snapped to a standstill, releasing a faint rattle as Kimmi-Ka turned a mild shade of red.
"It-t's not my fault all my bank cards look identical," Kimmi-Ka stuttered, averting her gaze from the other girls as she covered her blushing with her furry miruku tendrils. Lola scoffed, rolling her eyes at the child of royalty's absurd comment. But, her eye roll stopped mid-way, the emergence of a familiar presence outside snagging her attention as she donned a sinisterly indulgent smile.
"Besides, Loutia and Kusana are outside with Kara and Destiny right now," Kimmi-Ka added boldly, kicking her feet against Lola's bed which inadvertently knocked her centre of balance over its edge before she flopped headfirst onto the carpeted floor with a muted thud. A faint rustle emanated from beneath Lola's bed, the being within the shadowy realm under it stirred from their sleep as a wobbly yawn escaped from them.
"Is it my turn now?" Yumi spluttered out as she poked her gelatin head free from under Lola's bed, followed by her large pom-pom-like pigtails springing out beside her head. Squinting her eyes in defence of the mild light that littered the bedroom, Yumi scoured the room, displeased with the light levels she found herself in and didn't sign up for, "Why is so bright?".
(Yumi is a kid-sized, teenaged artificial sliminoid with the appearance of a human female child made of opaque light pink slime/gelatin; she has neck-low opaque light pink gelatin hair, two large pom-pom-like pigtails larger than her head with flower-shaped extensions at their ends, maroon red eyes with super pale pink eye scleras, and morphed her body to look like she's wearing a hoodless hoodie)
Moments prior, in the flowery meadow that surrounded the quaint, cobbled-marble and wooden cottage that Lola called home, Loutia and Kusana sat opposed to Kara and Destiny as the four of them sat around a chibi-cat-themed shogi board. With a tranquil breeze blowing through the surrounding flowers and flinging any loose-fitting petals into the air, the four girls sat in silence, casting each other wiry glances as they held their shoji pieces close to their chests.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"So, this is a modified game from the place the otherworlders call Japan?" Kusana asked emotionlessly, bringing a cat-themed king piece to her face and giving it a scheming glare before placing it on the board.
(Kusana is a slightly short kid-sized, teenaged seraph/elf hybrid with the appearance of a female human kid; she has spikey ankle-low glowing super pale cyan hair styled into wave-like curves, glowing pale teal eyes with large pupils and slightly glowing white scleras, slightly glowing tanned skin, slightly wide thighs, and super pointy elf ears)
(Kusana is wearing a super oversized orange crocodile-themed hoodie that's covered in scale-looking stitching)
"Sure is, and I even got Mrs Minia to make a custom Candy Catz-themed board and pieces," Destiny exclaimed excitedly, her child-like glee spilling out of her in a wave of pink keither[dense particle-like energy] that washed over the nearby flowers and distorting them into stylized chibi cat heads of various ocupations.
(Destiny is a super tall, teenaged acolyte and wu-ling hybrid with the appearance of a teenaged human female; she has shoulder-low snow-white sheep-like woolly hair with bright magic particles flaking out of it and tied behind her head into one large high hair bun, flowing rainbow eyes with pupils in the shape of a five-pointed star, pale white skin, and a snow-white sheep tail and ears)
(Destiny is wearing an open oversized white fur hoodie covered in muted lavender rings on its arms and lower half, a black fur scalf with flame-shaped metal spots all over it, fuzzy black fur leggings with flame-shaped metal spots all over it, and white fur slippers)
"As much as I'd like to play, why would I wanna play against someone who can read minds?" Loutia remarked condescendingly, playing up the snark and contention in her tone as she side-eyed Kara.
(Loutia is a slightly short, teenaged seraph kitsune[Yin Essence] with the appearance of a teenaged human female and visually identical to Lola aside from some of her features' colours; she has elbow-low metalically silver hair with deep lavender hair tips, golden eyes with five-pointed-star pupils, pale white skin to the point it's faintly cyan, five large scruffy metalically silver kitsune tails with deep lavender tips, and kitsune ears that match her tails in colouration)
(Loutia is wearing a black short-sleeved shirt with a cute chibi cat head on the back, pitch-black sunglasses, fuzzy silver leggings covered in black claw-like stitching, and purple getas)
"For the record, One isn't reading minds. One simply knows the collective knowledge of anyone in their vicinity. Meaning by deducing what you'll most likely do, One can counterattack with zero effort," Kara explained effortlessly. Taking a piece from her hand with one of her antenne, she flicked the piece at the board to strike one of Destiny's pieces, followed by all of Destiny's other active pieces to rocket off the board.
(Kara is a two-year-old-sized, young-adult half-angel/half-mothion with the appearance of a female human kid; she has ankle-low pale lavender hair with clumps of snow-white wool at the base and end of her antennae, deep Lavender eyes with a red open book-shaped right iris and two small deep lavender compound eyes under her human eyes, super pale skin, four large twenty feet long fuzzy lavender moth wings, has pale lavender fur[on her entire arms, her shoulder blades, hip section, and the entirety of legs] and fuzzy black insect antennae)
(Kara is wearing a snow-white wool dress that looks like clumps of sheep wool, snow-white slippers that look like clumps of sheep wool, and a pale pink metal headband with two small red LED demon horns)
"Huh?" Destiny uttered as she watched the shogi pieces land on her chest fur. She briefly lowered her gaze before her eyes widened in a pout-filled dread at the realization that all of her shogi pieces were excommunicated from the board.
"Looks like your out again, Tini," Kara stated proudly, clicking her fingertips together in reserved glee as she gradually hopped her butt around the board until bumping into Destiny.
"At this rate, Destiny's going to be bald," Loutia whispered to Kusana, despite the distance from the other two nullifying the effectiveness of whispering. In spite of its uselessness, Kusana ever-so-slightly leaned towards Loutia with an unmoving expression on the half-elf's face.
"Indeed, Kara's headband doesn't need to tell us what she's thinking," Kusana stated swiftly, causing Kara to flinch as her LED horns flashed like strobe lights in time with the blush forming on her face.
"Hmnp, One is not thinking of something that cruel," Kara murmured, allowing her antennae to loll and slap the sides of her head in shame. Seeing Kara's response, a sinister smirk crept across Loutia's face as a thought crossed her mind. However, before the kitsune could voice her thoughts Kara cut her off with a loud ahem and exclaimed, "No, I don't have any lewd intentions you menace to society.".
"Dang... she referred to herself in the first person," Providence stated, his tone a mix of jest and genuine surprise as he and Yokuza watched the shogi girls from the sole grassy path, leading from Lola's family home and dividing the flower field.
(Providence is an extremely tall, almost ten-foot-tall, adult acolyte with the appearance of a forty-year-old human male; he has spikey pure white hair with a golden hook-shaped ahoge and a silver bell tied to the end of his ahoge, a golden left eye, a golden right eye with a glowing pure white pupil and a sclera that slowly cycles through every colour, both his pupils are shaped like ten-pointed-stars, fair skin, a rainbow-coloured mark covering his right arm, a pale rainbow-coloured mark around his right eye, and glowing fingertips)
(Providence is wearing black reading glasses with a glowing golden feather attached to its right arm, a golden wool short-sleeved knitted sweater, a slightly transparent H-shaped golden threaded cloak that reached down to his knees, black trousers with three golden rings on the sides of each of his legs, and golden fur boots)
"Should a man of your position and authority be speaking in such a manner, your Majesty?" Yokuza asked with his dual-gendered voice as he peered up at the taller man beside him, feeling a hint of unease at the king acting so casually.
(Yokuza is a tall, teenaged artificial avia ice/wind elemental with the appearance of a male human teenager; he has ear-low pale cyan hair with an icy texture layered over it, crystally ocean blue, pale skin, large wings made from snow, and super pale cyan bull horns with an icy texture layered over them)
(Yokuza is wearing a cyan onesie with kitsune ears on its hood and ocean-blue fur boots)
"Come now, young Zulcrestus. Can you honestly take someone seriously if they're always serious?" Providence asked amusedly, speaking with a layer of flared-up nobility to tease the avian elemental.
"I suppose not, Sir," Yokuza replied calmly with the female echo copying his words dying down slightly. Briefly glancing up, Yokuza couldn't help letting out a muffled snicker, finding mild mirth from the mere presence of the bell attached to Providence's hair that jingled every time the guy made even the slightest movement.
"What's with the bell?" Yokuza asked swiftly while coughing up a small icy mist from his mouth at the speed of his question.
"Fate said Trinity and Ninia attached a bunch of them to me in my sleep during their sleepover last night and it appears I missed one," Providence replied cheerfully as the image of the two young girls tying an ungodly amount of bells to his hair flicker through his mind. Yokuza gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to the king's reply, finding a strange sense of envy in his chest at how easily the guy could relax given his role as king.
"For someone so fixated on maintaining a professional demeanour, your attire sure isn't helping your case," Loutia whispered loudly as she obnoxiously wagged the tip of her tails in the elemental's direction. Snapping his gaze in the girl's direction, A mix of annoyance and agitation fuelled Yokuza's expression, morphing it into a disapproving frown of disapproval as he stared down the instigating perpetrator.
"You have some nerves talking like you and Lola weren't the ones who put me in this thing," Yokuza barked back as his wings shot up into their full wingspan while his cheeks gained a faint cyan shade. The silver-haired kitsune took great pleasure in getting a rise out of the snowy elemental, playing her initial sinister cackle on repeat in her mind, and rolled back into her tails.
"Oh yeahhhhh, I did. Didn't I~," Loutia murmured slyly. The ferocity in Yokuza's eyes exploded to new heights, reaching an intensity of such magnitude that the very ground beneath his feet turned to solid opaque white ice as his qi[particle-like energy], kai[liquidy energy], and magical energy[spikey energy] escaped his body.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't act like you and Lola were the same person," Yokuza hissed with venom in his voice. Loutia giggled like a maniac, flailing her legs back and forth in an oddly cute manner at hearing the guy's objectively incorrect statement.
"Oh-ho, but you of all people should know me and her are one in the same. After all you-.". Fully cyan in the face from his peaking embarrassment, Yokuza threw his hand up and flicked a small ball of white icy mist off his finger. The mist whipped through the air, swerving behind the cackling kitsune and sticking her in the back of the neck.
Like the mist, Loutia froze on the spot, cutting herself off in the middle of her comment. Her face contorted with discomfort as a wobble of a smile accompanied it. As the cold coursed down her spine, Loutia arched her back, turning herself into an upside-down U before her tails ballooned to the size of a small elephant in an instant like a pufferfish and launching her into the air.
"What's with that reaction, Yakuza Knight?" Destiny asked while Kara sneakily relocated herself onto Destiny's lap, her movements were small and slow as not to draw attention to herself.
"She was certainly going to say something utterly deranged," Yokuza stated sternly, abruptly swiping his wings back behind himself into their cape-like formation. While the others were preoccupied, Kusana sighed emotionlessly and dispassionately. Kusana popped in and out of existence, seemingly teleporting within a teal and lime flicker of light in an instant before the area around the shogi board was covered by Loutia's tails.
"Aren't you, Son of Zuno, being a bit...," Kusana stated, her tone going from confident to a mere murmur as she recalled who the subject of Yokuza's dismay was, "... never mind.".
Destiny and Kara emerged from beneath Loutia's mass of tail fur, grunting with exertion as they struggled to pull themselves free. Yokuza shook his head dismissively, unable to find the words for the chaos unfolding before him. But, before he could even begin to gather his thoughts, a speeding sphere of green smashed into his side with a booming bang that resembled the striking of a dodgeball.
"Yozuuuu~ you weren't trying to hide from me were you~?" Lola vocalized, her voice oddly mature sounding as she inadvertently pinned Yokuza to the path when grabbing his shoulders. Not waiting for a response, Lola sprung back to her feet with glee before spinning on her heel while wrapping her tails around Yokuza. Dragging Yokuza through the air with her tails, Lola booked it for the marble-tiled arena along the path back to the house while leaving the others at a loss for words.
"It's hard to tell when a kitsune is flirting or just wants to fight someone," Kusana murmured enviously, despite her tone suggesting indifference.