Paper

[baechu]

Baechu purred quietly to himself, his fingers flicking quickly over a small square of paper. He'd been at this for hours, a collection of frogs and cranes set to one side. Normally, he'd have been sitting in a tree, feeling quite vulnerable on the ground. Today, however, the air was thick and provided enough cover for the cat to feel secure, though he was concerned he may catch a cold from the damp weather. However, he relaxed near the bank of a small river anyway, humming to himself, making his paper art.

He'd actually forgotten his reason for coming to the mountain in the first place. It was probably part of some grand scheme.. Or maybe it wasn't.. Baechu actually preferred to lurk in human towns and villages, haunting rich houses, watching their owners flee in fright. He found it to be quite fun to watch, and would then help himself to whatever they owned. It seemed almost a crime for these rich to have so much when the poor had so little. The mountain was much different, with hardly any humans about. That's what it was! A kappa! Baechu remembered he really wanted to see one. He glanced up and down the river, and saw nothing more than just water and rocks.

Baechu sighed and continued to hum, his tail swaying side to side like a sleepy serpent. He had watched a man make a paper Kappa, and Baechu wanted to make one, too. He'd attempted it a few times, but they always seemed a bit..odd. He thought that if he saw one, he could fix whatever was wrong with it.

He continued on what he was doing before, it didn't take long for the paper in his hands to become more than just a simple square. It was now a little animal form sitting in a curious position, balanced in its hind legs. A rabbit The cat smiled to himself, and breathed over the paper creature. The rabbit shuddered and twitched, hopping from his hand to the ground, enjoying its sudden animation. It behaved naturally, hopping back and fourth, ears twitching. Baechu smiled at his creation, but his grin faded as the rabbit's movements became stiff and it finally fell over, as lifeless as it began.

Baechu stretched and picked up the poor thing. It really was a shame how short they lived. Maybe the cat's knack for this wasn't as great as he liked to think.- Or maybe it was just the fact that it was a rabbit? He looked over at his other paper creatures, wondering if they would live longer than the rabbit. He figured it was worth a small try and picked up a frog. He breathed on it, the frog animating much like the rabbit. It hopped a few times, pausing here and there, then finally hopping into the creek. Baechu made a grab for it, in hopes of catching it before it hit the water, but missed.

He watched the paper slowly melt as the frog kicked itself apart, struggling to swim. Baechu flicked his tail and made a small noise in defeat as the paper animal dissolved away. "That's a shame..."

[Kitten4u]

Nitori was taking a break from her latest project. She was currently stuck and becoming very frustrated, so she decided to take a swim in one of the nearby creeks. As usual she was completely invisible to anyone that might see her, so if she saw someone she could always observe them without having to worry about being seen.

She had considered not bothering to bring her cloaking device since no one ever comes this way, but when she noticed someone Nitori was very glad that she did decide to bring it. From this distence Nitori couldn't tell what that person was or what it was doing, so she quietly swam closer. The water wasn't very deep, but it was deep enough for Nitori to stay completely underwater, so she was able to swim while making next to no noise.

Once she was right behind the person she sat on the bottom of the creek and peeked above the water. Nitori continued to move slowly, so that her noises would be disguised by the noises the creek made. Now that she was closer Nitori could see the person clearly. It looked like a kitty. Nitori was very interested to see what she was doing, it was rare for nekomata to come this close to water, so she had never actually gotten to observe one from up close.

Nitori silently watched as he made paper crafts, and leaned in closer with intrest when he brought one to life. Now, she was actually resting her chin on the bank of the river only a few feet from the nekomata. She continued to inch closer to get a better look. She felt that she didn't have to worry too much as long as she couldn't be seen. However, she might have been a little too bold.

When the little paper frog started jumping towads the water it nearly hit her in the face. Shocked, Nitori let out a rather loud, "Whaa~~" and fell backwards into the water, making a rather loud splash.

Worse than the sheer amount of noise she made, Nitori's back also fell against the bottom of the shallow creek. She could litterally hear her cloaking device snap. This was bad, not only was she extremly loud just now, but she was visable as well. Unsure of what to do, she just darted off downstream. That was clearly the wrong way to go. Not long after she started to run away the creek started to get thinner and thinner, until it was too thin for her to continue swimming, and too thin for her to turn around without standing. Since there was nothing else she could do, Nitori stood up so she could turn around.

[baechu]

Baechu let out a startled cry and jumped backwards away from the screaming water. His arm was raised in a defensive posture, ready to fend off anything that may have jumped out of the creek. No such thing came out and attacked him and he looked up "What in the world - ?" His ears twitched and swiveled about, trying to pick up anything odd. He moved back to the bank, in a crouched posture, glancing quickly up and down the surface of the creek. The cat was trying to figure out what exactly had just happened, what had caused it, anything...Was it a fish? ..An..aggressive fish? ..Surely he didn't simply hallucinate something like that. He swatted at the water making a small splash, he wasn't going crazy, was he?

Baechu dried his hand on his clothes and straightened up so he could look farther down the creek. He noticed something darting through the shallows and wondered if that's what had started him. He swished his tail from side to side in a canine-like movement, and slowly walked toward it, pausing every now and then to watch it. It looked to be stuck for a minute, right under the moving water, like it was trying to decide what to do. Baechu quickened his pace, not wanting it to escape before being close enough to see it.

Then- it surfaced, facing the other way for a moment then turning. It was just what Baechu had come looking for! There was his Kappa! He purred to himself and crouched by the bank. He was eager to get closer, but there was no way he was going for a swim today. "Heeey~" Baechu called sweetly and made a beckoning posture, trying to get the kappa to come to him.

[Kitten4u]

Oh no, her lovely little display back there got her spotted. At least he didn't look too aggresive. However, Nitori was still completely unsure what to do. Around people she knew she could be reasonably socialble, but around strangers talking was very difficult. Heck, she was shy enough to not want to be seen at all, now that she had been spotted she was in a fairly awkward situation.

Nitori just stood there for a moment with a bewildered look on her face as she looked around. She might be able to swim away, but since this kitty already knew where she was that would probably be useless. So, for now at least, she would basically do what the kitty wanted her to do. Nitori inched forward very slowly, still not completely sure what to make of the situation. She didn't go right to the edge of the bank. Honestly, she didn't want to be pounced or attacked by paper.

"Um...Hello..." she said after standing for a moment. Her voice was fairly quiet, but loud enough to be easily heard over the babble of the creek.

[baechu]

Baechu wriggled in place, his tail swishing back and fourth lightly brushing the ground. He had no intent on harming the little Kappa, he just wanted a closer look, was all. Though, to come right out and ask someone if you could look them over would be a bit creepy, and rude. Especially if that someone was the quiet or shy type. This kappa didn't seem to have the most outgoing personality..Well this would just take a quite some time.

The cat rested on his knees and bent forward over the water. He smiled at the poor, shy thing. She didn't seem to want to get any closer than where she stood, inching over little by little. Was she scared of him? Perhaps, it was normal to be cautious around strangers, and for there to be some sense of suspicion about any sort of motives. Though Baechu didn't think he had an intimidating face, and had nothing evil on the mind. He just wanted a good model for his paper craft.

"Hello~" The cat purred a cheerful greeting, a soft smile on his face. "How are you today?" He reached into a pocket for a piece of paper and began folding it, he didn't really have anything particular in mind, but it was keeping his hands busy. The Kappa seemed awkward, and probably wouldn't say much, or move any closer, so Baechu took to keeping himself occupied.

[Kitten4u]

Nitori didn't find the kitty particularly frightening or threatening. She was just expecting to have a quiet swim under the protection of her cloaking device, and was rather shaken when things didn't go as planned. In general, she planned her actions in advance and almost always panicked when things didn't go right. On top of all that she suddenly had to interact with someone she didn't know. All that combined made her a very nervous kappa.

How was her day? Well, other than having to deal with a rather obnoxious and uncooperative hell raven that happened to eat a god and obtain that god's power everything was going great. Nitori knew that raven was a gift from the gods of the mountain, but it would have been nice if they picked a raven that was a little easier to tame. It was her frustration towards said raven that made Nitori decide to swim for a bit and let the other kappa deal with it for awhile. However, this nekomata didn't really need to know about all that, at least not yet. Once they could harness that power and use it to power Gensokyo then everyone in the world could know about.

"I'm okay...I guess..." Nitori said quietly. After a moment of awkward scilence she added, "And you?"

Sometimes her nervousness around people would make her forget her manners. Nitori felt bad about that most of the time, and this time was no exception. She wouldn't look at the kitty until he spoke out of embarassment. Though, occasionally she would peek at his hands simply because she was curious about what he was doing.