nepetaleijon | > Nepeta: Host Midsw33p's Vigil.

> Nepeta: Host Midsw33p's Vigil.

The path up to Nepeta's cave has been carefully shoveled free of snow.

(Okay, not so much "carefully shoveled" as "joyfully blasted". If there's one thing laser claws are good for that isn't fighting, it's carving through annoying stuff that's in your way. There are a few vitrified and/or half-melted fragments of rock lining the path. Don't worry; none of them are still steaming.)

Up close to the cave mouth, two huge cats have been sculpted out of snow in guarding positions, one on either side of the path such that any visitors will have to pass between them. They look incredibly ~~adorable~~ menacing.

Invited guests are welcome! Uninvited guests will probably be warned off before the cave's automatic defense systems kick in.

Probably.

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Alyx considers a moment, then: "Sure, I'll give it a shot."

Smiling, Kanaya twists in her seat to call to Nepeta across the room.

"Nepeta! I'm Going To Teach Alyx Paraswarm! Are You In?"

From across the room comes a squeeing noise, and then a hurtling Nepeta.

"Yay! I think I might even have a Purraswarm deck somewhere in my sylladex ..."

"That reminds me--Kanaya, I still need your help working those... pocket things you got me," says Alyx. "It can wait, though."

"I Can Help You With That Later On, Sure. For Now, Though..."

There's the usual carding though her sylladex before Kanaya pulls out her card set. She sets aside her usual deck, and begins looking though the remainder to put together a deck for Alyx.

"Nepeta? I Know Equius Favoured A Mechanical Deck, Do You Have Any Spares?"

"Let me s33 ..."

Some unexpected things are piling up as Nepeta goes through her sylladex: a bag of cholerbear jerky, a set of colored chalk, a half-turtle half-cat plushie, and a length of extra string. Finally a deck of cards pops out, and she grabs it with a cry of triumph before handing it over to Kanaya.

There's a murmur of thanks, and Kanaya takes the cards and thrusts the game board at her.

"Why Don't You Start Explaining Things While I Put A Deck Together For Her?"

Nepeta happily gathers the cards together, and starts explaining: identifying the types of cards, their relative strengths, the ways they can be brought to bear against each other, and the very extensive conditional modifiers.

Alyx listens attentively, occasionally asking a pertinent question.

Okay, let's be honest: Constantly asking pertinent questions.

During this time, Kanaya manages to cobble together a playing deck for Alyx to use, working with speed born of one being well acquainted with the game and customizing decks.

Once she finishes, she hands the deck over to Alyx for inspection.

Hm. It looks pretty well-balanced, as far as Alyx can tell... but then, she's only half-convinced she understands any of the rules of Paraswarm. She supposes the only thing to do is jump in with both feet and learn as she goes along.

"Okay, let's go."

"Okay!"

Nepeta starts slapping down her cards. Speed is of the essence!

"Woah, wait, hold on, I need to see what your cards are--"

Well, maybe speed isn't the key, considering the slow deliberation Kanaya takes to set out her few cards.

"It's Okay. Nepeta Always Rushes To Set Up, You'll See What She's Played In A Moment."

Speaking of which, the game board takes this moment to flicker to life.

Within the board, representations of the cards swiftly resolve into three-dimensional shapes, translucent but sharply defined.

Nepeta points. "S33, there's my swarm, and there's Kanaya's ..."

Alyx blinks at Kanaya's swarm. "...are those zombie mosquitoes??"

She smiles a little too cheerfully.

"Yes! I Was Lucky To Draw That So Early."

She cants a few more cards to activate them, a desert landscape appearing on her third of her board, and a few more creatures appearing.

Nepeta, meanwhile, is busily arranging her ant-lions and fanged kittypedes, and humming a little.

"Who gets first go?"

"Wait, I still gotta set up." Alyx gives her hand another once-over and starts laying out cards. "I'll play Bright Marshlands, with two Monoextreme Vanguards, annnnnnd a Sinister Duck."

"Don't Forget You Have To Cant Them To Activate Them On The Field."

Beat

"As For Turns...Fire, Water, Sand?"

Nepeta cants one more card, and her side of the board resolves into mountainous territory.

"We could," she says judiciously, "but the fighting would purrobably wake up the babies."

(Standard Alternian practice when playing Fire, Water, Sand -- a game roughly akin to Rock, Paper, Scissors -- is to throw moves all together, and then spend as much time as necessary fighting violently over who's won.)

Meanwhile, Alyx cants her cards, bringing up a flat, reedy swamp patrolled by slow but heavily armored arachidnas and faster but more vulnerable platypods.

Also, one tiny, fluffy yellow duckling, looking extremely out of place.

"True," she agrees, side-eyeing Alyx for a moment because the woman is scary when she wants to be. "How About We Just Let Her Go First?"

"That works fur me!" Nepeta says agreeably.

Alyx nods. "Okay... I'll start by playing the Demicorona Maneuver card with my arachidnas." She lays down a card and the spiky beasts shift into a semicircular configuration, prominently displaying their spines.

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> Nepeta: Host Midsw33p's Vigil.

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