shanmonster | We Thought He Was a Goner, But the Cat Came Back

My vampire game has been getting darker and more depressing (yes, even more so than during the French revolution, the Inquisitions, and the Crusades). I suppose it all adds up after the ennui and stress of an 800 year existence.

Margd, the goody-goody Malkavian, is not having a good time of it. Zelios, her Nosferatu friend for centuries, showed up to stay in her haven, and was killed by the werewolf attack on his first day there. This is depressing to the extreme for her. It is the second time a guest has been killed while under her protection. (It's making me sad, too, just like when a favourite character in a book or movie dies senselessly.)

Margd is also two points bloodbound to her Tzimisce longtime companion, Malicus, one point bloodbound to her Settite lover, Sarrasine, and smack dab in the middle of a horrific Camarilla/Sabbat/Werewolf kerfuffle with a blood hunt on her pending. And to top it off, her long-time Gangrel companion Koal just killed a cab driver who had heroically intervened between Margd and would-be rapists the night before. Mightily impressed by the cabby for that, and for other reasons, too, she'd been planning on ghouling, or perhaps even embracing him. Malicus had also been interested in him in this way. And for yet more icing, being partially bloodbound to Malicus is making her rather jealous, and he's been putting the moves on Margd's beautiful young Lasombra ward, Terry. This cannot bode well.

I think it's just a question of time until Elisabet, the Hyde to Margd's Jekyll, makes her long-awaited appearance.

But in the midst of it all this sorrow and angst has been some welcome comic relief in the form of a common house cat.

Margd doesn't know the cat's name. All she knows is that it belonged to her wayward childe, Magnus, and appears to have adopted, or been adopted by, Koal. (You know how some people spritz a cat with a spray bottle to punish it? Maybe it's a Gangrel thing, but Koal punishes the cat by pissing on it, and marking it as his.)

When werewolves cornered the Scourge of the Hamilton, Koal took off with the freshly-ghouled cat to rescue him. I still haven't the foggiest notion as to why he'd take the cat.

Koal rammed a Krinos-form werewolf with his car, totaling the car, but not the werewolf. The werewolf got off with a limp. But the cat was pissed off at this "dog," and started mouthing off at the werewolf, telling him how he was going to kill him.

The cheekiness of this little cat actually made the werewolf pause for a moment, and then it decided to stomp the cat. That would have been that, but the cat managed to dodge the werewolf, and ran up a tree. From its perch, it continued to chide the werewolf, until the nine-foot-tall beast started tearing the tree down. So the cat (with its single dot in potence), flung itself from the tree, landed on the werewolf's back, and managed to do a point of damage on the claw-ride down.

This made the werewolf, much to the consternation of its furry companions, tear off after the cat rather than chasing the real problem: Koal. The cat managed to lose the werewolf after running under a patio, and eventually rejoined with Koal later on.

So far, Five-pound cat : 1. 9'-tall werewolf : 0

Later on, in another car, Margd had a seat and the cat clambered in and sat on her lap. Margd absentmindedly patted the cat, but the cat didn't feel like being patted. So, again, with its potence, it clawed, doing a point of damage.

Five-pound cat : 1. 800-year-old elder vampire : 0.

The next day, the cat joined in on yet another fight against werewolves, once again emerging unscathed, while everyone else either ended up dead or very badly injured.

I've heard that cats have nine lives, but if I hadn't seen the rolls for myself, I wouldn't have believed it. How the hell is this little cat doing this shit? And how long can its good luck streak last?