Solo The Glass Cat

[Kanri]

28th Day of Winter, 512 AV
After Dark, 20th Bell 33rd Chime
Outside of Kanri's Home

Kanri walked dazedly through the streets. After a really late night the previous night, helping her mother with things, Kanri had slept in until the 12th bell. She still hated sleeping in, as One Of The Things Teenagers Do, but she would only have woken up sooner if someone else had come to wake her up. Maybe if she got one of those wonderful birds that woke you up consistently at the eighth bell, when they wanted to be fed, she would get up on time. She had some friends that complained of that. But she did not have as much talent with birds as some people. The bird would be more likely to fly away than to wake her up. There was nothing she could do about her odd-keeping of hours.

Now, she returned to her home after getting dinner, which was basically her lunch. She came to her front door and noticed there was a grey cat sitting on her doorstep. It was odd. While she had seen cats around the city, she did not think any of her neighbors had a cat. Maybe it was a new one. Or maybe a stray. It looked too clean to be stray yet still a little scruffy. Maybe they simply had a negligent owner who had finally let them out.

"Hey cat, you all alone?" Kanri asked, as though it might talk back. She kneeled down and held out her hand. It sniffed her then nuzzled her hand, immediately looking for more attention. Kanri giggled, moved herself into a more comfortable position, and began to stroke the cats' medium length fur.

The cat was evenly colored grey, almost blue. Its ears were very soft and foldable, but Kanri only did that once because the cat seemed to glare at her when she did. It had light blue eyes, the color of the sky. Kanri thought she had heard that kittens had blue eyes when they were born. So maybe the cat was very young. Or maybe that was human children? She didn't remember.

"Where's your master?" Kanri asked, as though the cat had answered her last question.

The cat gave her a look that suggested it was its own master. Kanri laughed lightly. It was like the cat could talk to her.

"Is that right, scruffy?" Kanri went on, scratching her hand under its chin. The cat purred.

They sat there a few minutes together. Then, as if on a schedule, the cat stood up, stretched, and began to walk away.

It was beautiful, its fluid, boneless motions and graceful arch to its back. Kanri ran her hand across it, analyzing it hard in her mind so she could remember. The cat stood there as she ran her hand down its back several times. But, as its schedule seemed to be its priority, perhaps a meal time it would be missing, it eventually trotted away, without asking Kanri.

Kanri felt tingling in edges of her hands, as though she had just touched something divine. She brushed off the few loose strands of fur from her hands and briskly walked to the Glass Reverie.

[Kanri]

Kanri put on gloves, retrieved her blowpipe, and went to work at a bench, instead of the usual marver. She had discovered early on that she needed a free hand to shape the cat and the bench was just the place to achieve that. Kanri, sweating in the heat of the furnace, dipped in her blow pipe and retrieve a small slug of glass. She returned to her bench and immediately began.

Using a flat bar, she pressed it against the slug as she spun it, lengthening it from a round sphere to a pill-like shape. She remembered that arch to the cat's back. She let the hot glass drop off just a little, forming a slight arch. She didn't know how well that would turn out but she had to just believe that it would work. Kanri then took tongs to try to spin a head. She pinched about a third of the way down the slug, spun it slowly, and then tried to lift the head so it was "looking up". What was next? Those cute, foldable ears. Kanri used the same tongs and tugged lightly at the places where she imagined the cat's ears to be. They did not really look like ears but they were closer than anything else Kanri had managed so far. She tried to pinch out and flatten them a little more. There! That made look more like ears.

Kanri went back to the smaller furnace to reheat the glass, as it had cooled beyond the point where she could work with it. She worried she would over melt it, and watched it carefully, despite the scalding heat. The ears and head had lost a little bit of their definition by the time she thought it would be okay to pull it out. But it was overall in good shape to continue.

Kanri returned to the bench and set her blowpipe across the block there and began to work the little cat once again. She pinched off the neck a little more and flattened the ears a bit. Now what? A muzzle of the cat sounded way to hard. In her recent memory, the cat's muzzle was not pronounced enough to really need her to form one. Plus, she would not have the skill to try to contours. Better just keep it stylized and simple. She moved on to the feet, dragging out four, large pinches of glass to a reasonable length so they resembled legs. She set the cat flat on the block then to flatten the feet evenly, so they could support the cat. She was very proud of her work.

Now, how to do her tail? And how to disconnect the piece? Could she try to use gravity to just the tail drop down naturally? That sounded very precarious but Kanri already saw that, the angle she had approached the cat, there was no other way to do it without melting down the whole piece. She lifted up her blowpipe with the glass cat and tilted it so that cat began to drop down by a tail of glass. Kanri decided she would not go for acuracy on the tail and simply worry about the safety of the piece. After all, if the tail disconnected, the cat would shatter and hot glass would fall all over the bench and Kanri herself.

When the glass was thin enough, Kanri eagerly pinched it off, set the blowpipe aside, and put the cat on its feet on the block. The tail looked very straight. Using her tongs, she managed to bend it a little so it curved, though admittedly it looked a little awkward. She didn't dare correct it, for fear of ruining the piece. It wasn't perfect. In fact, Kanri would have been tentative to call the piece "good". But it was good enough to sell along side the glass sphere she had made last season. She had tried this so many countless times and it had never come out quite right. Maybe this was a sign of better things to come!

Kanri smiled. Rough as it was, Kanri had finally made her glass cat.

[Kanri]

Kanri proudly placed her Glass Cat in the annealer to cool. She felt tingles running through her, she was so excited and proud of her work. She did not really know much about trading things though. She might get ripped off very easily. Well, then she would have to use it as a learning experience. There was no avoiding it, since it was the first time she would be trading something on her own. Maybe, even if it was not the same value, she could still manage to get something she wanted.

She started towards the exit of the Glass Reverie. She caught sight of the man who, while trying to kill her, had also helped her with her Glass working. He had taught her how to evenly distribute glass. He even decided she was harmless. She still had no idea who had wanted him to kill her, though. It was really quite strange. At the same time, she was afraid to ask. She was not, however, against the idea of telling him of her accomplishment.

She would be criticized. She would be furious with his arrogant attitude. Did she really want to deal with that right then? But just to hear him say "That's not terrible" would be a wonderful compliment. She wanted to try to hear that. She walked around to the other side of his marver and faced him. He ignored her at first, keeping his eyes on his work. It was a beautiful wine glass, Kanri thought. Even though he still seemed to be in early stages, it already looked so beautiful. Finally, finished with this round of worked, he looked up at her with his eagle-sharp eyes.

"I made a glass cat," Kanri said, a little nervously.

He didn't smile, but one of his eyebrows raised, just a little. As if he might be a bit amused. "Is it any good?" he asked simply.

Kanri couldn't help but smile a little. "Yes, I think it is. it is the best I can do right now. And I know I'll get even better if I keep working!"

He nodded. "If it's your best work, then it must not be too spectacular," he said evenly. Kanri felt herself deflate. There went the compliment out the window. Then, he smiled ever so slightly. "Do you have something else to say or are you just standing there, wasting my time?"

"I really was hoping you'd say something nice..." Kanri admitted sheepishly, scared he would lash out at her.

But he wasn't the type to lash out for something like that, she realized. He was too level headed. If she insulted him, then he would. But she had just asked for praise and he appeared bemused, as opposed to annoyed.

He thought for a moment. "I am sure it is not unbearable," he decided. Without waiting for further conversation, he turned off and walked away, a sort of grace to his gait.

Kanri smiled after him. For a "friendly" assassin, that was quite the compliment.

[Kanri]

Kanri went to the communal kitchen, filled her water skin with a little bit of milk, only about of a fourth of the way due to the rarity of milk in Wind Reach, and returned to her house to thank the source of her inspiration. She would probably regret filling her water skin with milk later but she did not care right then. She spilled while trying to fill her water skin too but she did not care a whole lot about that either. She did not see the Cat immediately, but she had not expected it to be there. She sat, with her back to her door, and opened her water skin.

"To the cat of fur and the cat of glass!" Kanri toasted to no one. She felt like celebrating, even though it was a little depressing to be alone. She took a long drink of the milk. It tasted smooth on her tongue and throat. She liked milk. Maybe someday, she could travel outside of Wind Reach and drink milk every single day.

"Meow!"

The little gray cat came Pat-Pat-patting toward her, as though sensing she had food. But at the last second, it suddenly seemed disinterested and began to walk away again. Perhaps, cats were like toddlers: When they wanted something out of reach, they would pretend they did not want it. Kanri chuckled to herself and called to the cat.

"Here kitty!" she crooned quietly. The cat ignored her. So, she tried something that was more Direct. "Mrrow!"

The cat was cleaning itself, even though it looked fairly clean for a stray, wild cat. It stopped and looked at Kanri.

"Meow!"

It Pat-Pat-Patted over to Kanri at last. Kanri tipped her waterskin carefully and tried to pour a little for the cat on the street, so it could lap it up. The cat, overly eager, got splashed a little and jumped back. Kanri stopped pouring and finished the rest herself. There was a puddle on the ground about the size of her hand spread out all the way. The cat eagerly lapped up the milk, not leaving a drop. Then, the cat looked to Kanri for more.

"Sorry, Mr. Cat," Kanri told it, holding the waterskin upside-down to demonstrate. The cat seemed to be okay with this and made a place for itself in Kanri's lap.

Kanri began to talk to the cat, just sitting there, being satisfied with herself and her work for a change. She let her consciousness stream out and the cat didn't seem to mind. In fact, at certain points, it would cock its ears or yawn, as if expressing its opinions through those simple little actions.

"Mr. Cat, you must know something: I made a glass model of you. I think you might like it. You gave me the inspiration, did you know that? You inspired me. I once heard that the gods are the ones that give us inspiration. It really felt divine, that excitement I got when I decided to make you. But I think we, as mortals, as Inartas, as humans, or even as cats, I think we give the gods too much credit. We do so much for ourselves, why do we just give the gods credit when we achieve something out of our own willpower and stubbornness? I am not trying to be disrespectful or anything, especially if you are a god in disguise, Mr. Cat. But I think the gods can be a bit stuck up and take too much credit. Considering the power of those heavenly beings, it is a surprise that we mortals succeed to do anything at all. Do you worship a god, Mr. Cat? Is there a Cat-god or goddess that you patronize? I know I would worship a cat-god, if there was one. Cats are complex creatures, aren't they? Yeah, I can tell by that look; you think you are a god. Haha! What an arrogant little cat you are. Well, I am sure blessed to have you grace me with your time!"

[Phoenix]

Kanri

Award

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	3
Socialization	2
Rhetoric	2
Glassworking	5

•	Lores Earned
•	Sleeping late!
•	A new friend: Gray Cat
•	Glassworking: Cat Model
•	Glassworking: Keeping the glass hot
•	Glassworking: The challenges of a cat tail
•	Proud of ones work
•	Meeting an old enemy
•	“Friendly” assassin
•	Cats are like Toddlers
•	Thanking ones inspiration

The Order of the Phoenix

A great solo, Kanri! I loved reading it, and I love the sort of innocence that she portrays, so much so that she would go up to her former enemy and look for approval and praise. It's very unique! I gave some socialization and rhetoric for their interaction.

I gave Observation for her interaction with the cat, and the gathered inspiration she received from it. Beautiful work

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.