Oct-Nov Skire Promot 2023: Wisp and Whispers

Fish never really had a home of her own before.

They would often wander around and sleep outside for the most part, tucked in small spaces between rocks or corners or under benches, and sometimes, very rarely finding a brief home with someone kind! But returning to the city of Uto had her stumbling to an address scribbled on a paper, up some apartment stairs and slipping the metal key into the door and falling inside the room with a thump and a click of the door behind her.

A home for Fish!

Fish set her bag down as she looked around, tail flicking as she quietly wandered the small apartment home.

'Miami keeps his home messy', Fish thought with a smile.

Lots of empty containers and bags and snack cases lying around along with some shiny objects that caught her eye. Picking up some of them to mess with before that snowballed into Fish starting to shuffle things around.

One corner. Trinkets! Shiny ones and various objects that seemed important to Fish... which consisted of, to viewers outside of Fish's concepts: Various rocks found which could have been tracked inside from the crooks clothing or fur or from the pads of his feet, old food containers that were clean and unused and looked interesting to her (versus the styrofoam containers quickly thrown to the garbage corner), five coins stacked on top of each other found trapped in the old wood of the floorboards promptly clawed out and The next corner had snacks! Vans found buried under trash stacked as high as Fish could go, bags of chips and pretzels and then various smaller unfinished foods Fish found edible even in their hardened biscuit and granola bar like quality.

And the second to last corner had junk and garbage. Very far away from the kitchen and where Fish would sleep, anything too dirty was thrown into the sink and buried under water but empty snack containers and take out dishes were closed up and stacked as far as possible.

Though what would be clear to outside viewers was the fact the apartment was really one square room. Barely enough for the long crook to comfortably curl into a corner within but just a right amount of small for the medium sized cccat. A singular sink along one wall shared with the garbage and trinket corners, also where the main water lines ran through. It's faucet rusted over and leaking with steady drips, beside it on the floor a mini fridge glowing and humming faintly with runes and electricity.

Opposite to it being where the food corner stood along with a singular foggy window and the final corner. Truly opposite and far from the garbage where pillows and blankets sat bundled up. Various thicknesses, textures, warmth levels, the few pillows light and airy,

A cave! A place to sleep. Fish noticing how Miami kept his blankets and pillows stacked up in a pillow fort kind of way (something Prisma liked to do a lot!) so she copied that!

And it was so comfy and so warm! Fish was happy. Curled up halfway inside the cave before her crown twitched. Glancing at the spot the note was left and reaching for it, paws stretching and claws emerging, catching the edge of the paper and sliding it back towards Fish.

Fish carefully slid in place, letting them get a good look at the paper again. Reading the words over, turning it around and- Ah!

Fish missed something! The even handwriting changed into something curvy and colorful, glitter pens and highlighter that made her tail swish.

'Be sure to decorate!! It's going to be the Long Night by the time you get back so I packed you some stuff to help!! Be sure to hang the lights, it'll stay dark for a bit! Love- Prisma.'

Oh right! Her bag. Fish emerging out of the blanket cave, stretching wide once before stepping to where the bag was left. Right in front of the door!

Opening it up. Skipping past the trinkets and items that were nothing more than dots and blobs, things Fish would go back for later but not right now! Pulling out a big bundled bag that burned much brighter, turning it upside down and opening it.

And out fell various small candles and other items! Fish squinting at them before they realized they had writing on them.

'Party'

'Private'

'Help'

Fish's tail swishing as she wondered briefly before leaving behind two except the private candle. Gingerly sliding it on the window edge, then carefully lighting it with a lighter that had a long mouth that was in the bag. Remembering that Fish was shown how to use it, crowns twitching at the memory of Lazuli commenting Fish would burn the apartments down.

But Fish didn't!

Tail swishing as she set the lighter down quickly and watched the flame grow for a while. Sparking from white to a soft red and then slowly growing into a soft pink color. Ears perking up before moving away from it with a small bounce.

Gathering the rest of the items to organize in the corners, mostly the unused candles in the trinket corner and the smaller items gifted in the food and inside the den before standing up to move towards the door with the rest bundled in one arm.

Opening it and standing on her tiptoes to press some sticky putty as high on the door as possible, as Fish wouldn't be able to reach the frame before pressing some light strings!

Going in a zigzag pattern before it finished out and fiddling with the magic infused string before poking at one of the little bulbs. Seeing a spark from where she poked, before pressing harder till a crack made Fish's ear twitched.

Ears perked high as Fish watched the string light up steadying from the broken one at the bottom all the way up through the rest of the bulbs to the very top. A warm yellow, like an uncolored flame.

Fish simply sat and watched it for a long moment before slipping back inside, letting the door close behind her and looking around her home again.

The cccat huffing in satisfaction as she slipped inside her den and curled up to sleep off the rest of the night, the room illuminated by the faint and calm pink of the candle, oblivious to the muffled thunk of the string lights collapsing into a pile outside her door.