I am in total darkness, it feels like I'm stuck at the bottom of the ocean, yet somehow it feels comforting and I can still breathe in this suffocating space.
I was actually reborn...
It seems I am in my mother's womb or something, I hope I won't have to wait too much as there's nothing to do in this enclosed space, except to think and maybe just think of some tunes or something.
And finally, the realization dawned on me like a sledgehammer to my heart... My title, [ill prepared arrogance]...
I AM MUSICALLY CRIPPLED!
I start thrashing about in my mother's womb kicking the wall in frustration. Wait I should probably stop that.
Every time I try to think of a melody, it feels like my brain is smudge, the thing I have been learning since I was 14 is as good as useless now. This feels extremely cruel for a mere mistake which you had to tell me about so that I could percieve it!
Days pass and I feel like crying... My only source of happiness, just taken away... But my thoughts get interrupted as I feel something pulling my leg, I thought labor was supposed to be difficult and take a long time, but I soon realized why that wasn't the case in this scenario.
I feel the fresh air rush on my body, quickly realizing I can't see nor hear, but at least I know I am alive now.
It feels kinda awkward to have my mother nurse me as a 34 year old but I can't complain as right now I feel crippled in alot more than just music, it feels like my very life is dependent on my mother to even stay alive, at least it helps that I can do most of these things instinctually despite the fact that I'm blind and deaf.
What felt like 10 days later I open my eyes.
Staring at me is a strange looking cat, and besides me are two kittens, and now I really feel like crying, and I do, but not in the way I hope.
"Meeew" NOOOOOOOO
"Meew" "Meew" "Meew" "Meew" I shout as I thrash about in shame WHY AM I A CAT!?
As I see my worried mother looking over me, I realize I look really strange and quickly stop in embarrassment.
Looking at her more closely I realize that she isn't truly a cat, but seems more like a human with glossy black fur and a cat face, but I am still a stupid kitten! How does that work?!?
...
A couple days pass as I finally come to terms with the fact that I am not not even close to human, quickly interrupted with the next worst revelation, as I learn why it always felt so weird to piss. It was not the because I have to piss and shit in a litterbox, the foreign sensation was also not because I was a cat, it was because, because....
I'M A GIRL NOOOOO!
"STUPID TOOL YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" I shout in a series of unintelligible 'mews'
I don't know why I hated the idea of being the opposite sex so much at the time, but it is probably the combination of things that robbed me of my previous identity that truly pressed my anxiety buttons.
...
A month has passed and I am really disliking my situation right now, my mother, Mislei keeps bringing these fluffy balls on strings to my face, cat toys, and I can't stop my instincts from taking a hold and attacking that stupid ball, and even when I try to suppress it, it feels like I am in caffeine withdrawal.
I'm starting to feel homesick, I am stuck in this kitten body where I have to sleep 16 hours a day, unable to do much except to observe my siblings; my cat siblings. Why do I have to have siblings that are kittens? I always wanted siblings as I was an only child, but I didn't want them under a new cat mother and to have my siblings be cats, I wanted human siblings...
I had a pretty nice home, no girlfriend though, as we just broke up a month ago, or two months if you count this life aswell. I wonder how she would react to seeing me this way, not only have I died but I'm a fucking kitten...
I can't even do the one thing I like doing which is music, as I cannot sing, have no access to an instrument, and am completely crippled musically. Nevermind the fact that I don't think cats can even percieve music, so I must be like super crippled!
Well, atleast I am not dead; it'd suck if I tripped to death and all I saw was nothingness, if I could see at all that is. Being nursed again isn't as bad as I thought it'd be, because I cannot look at my mother like she is a woman, considering she has a cat head with a hairy black body. Nevermind the 6 nipples, so it is like drinking milk out of a weird biological bottle. Nevermind the fact that I'd been instinctually doing it for 10 days before I even knew I was doing so.
...
Two months have passed and the more I live here, the more I feel like I hate this reincarnation thing, I thought at first I could become some super baby where I have so much knowledge at a young age, but here I am, on a planet that isn't even Earth!
From what little I've seen of the outside world, I've discovered that the SUN IS GIANT AND THE SKY IS ORANGE! Unless the world ended, I cannot even comprehend how this could be earth, it feels like I'm on mercury or something due to how close the sun looks, but it doesn't seem to affect the heat of the atmosphere much, so I don't really understand what is going on.
My new family seems pretty rich as I live in a big mansion, my mother tends to care for us three twins alot, my father, is a little more apprehensive, only seeing us like once a week for some reason, he is also black cat like my mother, both of them looking like panthers from Earth.
For some reason, even as a cat we seem to be omnivorous. Our mother did not exclusively nurse us for long, but we only just started eating normal food, or whatever the cat equivalent of it was, such as lots and lots of fish with even vegetables on the side, which surprisingly I really enjoy, but the worst of all was the dried meat sticks that were supposed to help our teeth or something, which I was forced into eating when they realised I was reluctant.
My siblings are a pain in the ass, they keep trying to play with me, when I don't want anything to do with them! I'm not a kitten! Even if I look like one and act like one, and meow like one, I am not one.
Anyways, my name is Simile (Pronounced: Sim-Eel) and my two twin siblings, one brother and one sister's names are Emilis(Eh-mi-lis) and Ismile (Ism-Eel). It seems like my parents aren't very original with their naming sense.
I sometimes fear for my life when one of my siblings comes to attack me, or as my mother would call it "play with me" but these idiots actually hurt me! Though I cannot say I haven't had a couple too-strong bites or clawing as well, but at least I learn from my mistakes!
To be honest, I still can't get used to the sight of my mother or the maids and butlers, as they are all all bipedal, human-like cats. We have a grey, tabby [Maid] take care of us called Amor, who seems, to be appreciative of my maturity at least. Yes yes, I'm not like the other kittens.
But it seems my siblings aren't as stupid as the typical housecat from earth, as they seem to understand basic words like I do, and somehow better than me! Which is unfair, as I have lived far longer than them and should be far wiser!
We are now 6 months old, still unable to speak due to our cat heritage, I have no clue how the adults can speak in their strange bodies, but I shouldn't worry about that now, as I am in a moral dilemma, a real serious one!
Our usually inattentive father, [Baron] Amir Garner came at the day of our 6 months birthday, if you can call it that, and took us outside. While being outside is not something we do very rarely, I strangely enjoy it much more than when I was human, especially since the strange, old looking architecture and technology in this world is pretty interesting to look at.
This time though, I cannot enjoy it in the slightest bit. My dad takes us to a warehouse building around 10 kilometers away from our home, and he tells us curious three; words I never wanted to hear, and was afraid to hear ever since I learned I was some sort of cat creature.
"Hunt"
This seems to be some sort of facility to help kittens learn to hunt at a young age. They put us into really uncomfortable leg clothing of blue, pink, and green, me wearing the green clothing. Standing before us are 3 mice wearing corresponding colors to our outfits, which all three of us could assume we were meant to hunt our correspondant.
Despite us having parents that look like panthers, we are no more competent than the average Earth housecat, and in this case, I can only assume I am less competent than one.
My siblings immediately dash towards their targets, running through the wooden obstacle course thing, while I sit there looking at my dad, hoping that he'll spare me with tears in my eyes.
"Go on Simile, you can do it!" He says with a smile on his face, but all I can think is that this is not who I am.
I've never killed an animal before! Maybe an insect once in a while. I may not be vegan, but I'm not some sort of killer!
But soon my dad turns his smile upside down and starts growling. I'll go! I'll go!
It seems starting was the only problem, because as soon as I had started looking for the long-gone mouse, my instincts overtook my sense of reason or morality.
I quickly found the mouse and tried to pounce on it, feeling like I have completely lost my sanity at this point, but I fail miserably at catching it.
This goes on for like 10 minutes before I finally catch the mouse, only to realize that it can also fight back! Dad! I am a mere kitten, why must I battle?!
Then, when I finally manage to take down this shitty mouse that was far more fun to hunt than my mental concience allows, a blue screen pops up in front of my face, startling me immensely and causing me to comically jump back, hearing the laughter of my giant dad looking over us on this small field. So damn embarrassing...
[You defeated a level 20 (Rashmere Mouse{F}) Awarded 20 experience to your race!]
[Congratulations Simile! Your race (Rashmere Panther - Kitten{E}) is now level 1! +1 Dexterity +1 Perception +1 Intelligence]
Am I a pokemon!?
I look at the screen, genuinely baffled, taking a moment to calm myself as I remember the message the Tool left me before I left for this world. 『you can only be born into a world with a [System].』I can only assume system being something similar to a computer system, but to actually level up like a pokemon... what am I, my parent's battle slave? I shudder a the thought, looking at my father's smiling face a little differently.
At least now I know why we were hunting these mice.
"C̵̳͛o̴͓͝m̵̡̒ē̸̜ ̷̜͘ơ̶̻ń̶͔,̸̀ ̷͛͜ Simile, are you not Ğ̵̘o̴͇̚i̶͔̇n̸̮̐ḡ̴̮ ̸͙̑t̶̖̒ȍ̶̠ eat your prey?" My dad asks me, while I didn't understand everything he said, I understood enough. I look in horror at my prey with my newfound post-hunt clarity, ugh, I did that?
The mouse's neck is snapped with blood gushing out if it. Eat that? Seeing my hesitation my dad growls again. Okay, okay, geez peer pressurer.
I slowly crawl my way towards my target, once near, I take a bite, Ew quickly spitting out what I managed to take, I realized it was just a bunch of fur and skin. No wonder it tasted so bad.
Trying my shot again at the bloody hole I just bit out, I finally try out the disgusting innards of the creature, and I was frankly shocked. So good~
Well, 'so good' may not be the best description, considering the food at the mansion was better, but I am surprised I don't dislike the taste of the raw meat that much, never mind to enjoy it.
A few bad bites came out of the whole deal like when I bit into it's intestine, never wanna do that again, and when I forgot that it was wearing green clothing on it's tail. But I soon left the rat bones and other bad parts, and went back to the entrance of this experiment chamber or whatever else you would call it, I may as well be a lab rat in this facility.
It seems like I was the first of my siblings in completing this, even though I was late, though that was only for a minute. My dad quickly picks me up in his colossal hands, me having already gotten used to this situation over 6 months of being tiny. I am a bit bigger now though!
If there is one thing I don't mind being a kitten over, it is being pet. It feels so good! Though that may be just temporary due to it being a new experience, I don't mind it when my dad strokes my head.
"Good job Simile, you'll be a great [Lady] when you're older, maybe even a [Baroness]!" He says with a smile. I don't know why he is suddenly nicer today to me, but I don't really mind. I'd rather not have a bad father.
About three minutes later and me hearing constant coercion from my dad about how they should deal with the mouse, Ismile comes back from the hunt and one minute after that, Emilis does too. Dad for some reason doesn't congratulate them, so I decide to do it in his place, but they took it as an attempt to play, so I quickly ran away.
After this happened, once a week from now on, our dad took us to hunt pre-made prey.
About a year has passed and I feel horrible.
Aside from my and my siblings' pokemon battles with our dad, my mother and our caretaker [Maid] have started taking us through ẽ̴͔͔v̸̝̼̂o̸͚̫͑l̴̯͂̓ȗ̷̩̪͝ẗ̶̼́̏͜i̴̢̕͠o̷̧̫̎̃n̵̢̝͘ training.
I don't know what that is, but my mother kindly explained to us that it was to make us grow up to look like my parents and the servants.
At least I won't be some pokemon for all my life, but the ẽ̴͔͔v̸̝̼̂o̸͚̫͑l̴̯͂̓ȗ̷̩̪͝ẗ̶̼́̏͜i̴̢̕͠o̷̧̫̎̃n̵̢̝͘ training is a serious pain in the ass, they make us do stuff like try to stand on two legs, try to use simple tools with our shitty paws, sleep less which is really difficult and we are constantly tired because we need like 13 hours of sleep, and worst of all, they force us to look at toys or small animals, and don't allow us to play with them!
I've never been tortured, but I cannot imagine it being worse than this. I'd rather be a kitten for the rest of my life than to continue being subject to this mental pain!
I hate this new life; I never had to train when I was a baby, I don't even remember when I was a baby! Though I suppose it is not something a kitten can't do.
We only do this for about 2 hours a day, with the rest of the time spent playing, shitting or sleeping. While it may not be much it still sucks as I get tired easily in this body, maybe I should have spent some points on agility while I could, but it's too late to regret that now.
Currently, I am riding a carriage for the first time ever. With me being a kitten and all, every single movement seems to grab my attention, and everything around is moving along with the carriage. It feels like a dream being able to look outside a window and seeing so many moving things, even though there is arguably more boring scenery than looking through a car window in my old world.
A servant is driving the carriage in the rain, with my siblings, mother and father sitting with me on the carriage. all 3 of us stand side by side with our front paws on the edge of the window looking out. I honestly don't really feel ashamed anymore with these actions, as it can be rationalized pretty easily. When I was human I did a bunch of stupid shit for fun which I doubt I'd find fun in this body. Like swimming.
We had to bathe every week, which for some reason I absolutely hate in this life. Our mother insists that we groom ourselves, which I would think was enough, yet we still have to the death pit that is the bath tub. I honestly prefer grooming myself, despite the hairs getting in my mouth, it feels instinctual and natural enough that it doesn't become a problem. But the water is straight up demonspawn, existing only to torture my poor kitten soul.
After a while, and falling a sleep, I wake up to see that we have come by what looks to be a mansion. Lots of carriages were here, but not that many people were outside, I assume most have gone inside or something. My mother picks me up along with my siblings and covers us up with a blanket, not allowing us to see anything outside.
"meeew" "meew" my siblings rightfully complained, but my mother immediately told them to shut up. "You are not p̸͙̃r̶̳̓e̸̫͠s̸̙͒ḛ̸̆n̵̄͜ṯ̵̛a̸̙͌b̸͈͋ľ̶̩e̷̛̫ enough at your age." I don't understand what word she said, but I take it she doesn't want anyone to see us for some reason.
When we finally our blankets off we are in a small room with a servant and our parents.
"You will stay with the servants and other children while we attend the c̵̹̒ḙ̴́r̷̺̽e̷̹͘m̴̹̈́o̶͍͋ń̶̩y̵̹̚" Says dad, and mother nods with a smile.
"Don't worry, it won't take long." And she adds "And play with the other children Simile." Hey, you don't have to tell me that!
Though I probably won't, after the cries of my siblings at being seperated from our parents in a foreign place, we get taken by our personal [Maid] to a living room with a bunch of foreign kittens.
Surprisingly, they are all panthers like us. Personally, I haven't seen a single cat outside of our servants and the servants in the room that are not panthers. The servants all seem to be the same species aswell, they just tend to be different colours of tabby.
Anyways, I just got thrown into a hellpit of 20 kittens. If I was a human this would be like a dream, but these damned cats are intelligent and I am not a human anymore so don't blame me for hating these pests! My siblings are little monsters that attack me in the act of "play" when I have done nothing to offend them...
When I get taken into the room along with my siblings a bunch of random kittens got curious and mobbed us, well, they just checked our smell and then left, but I swear it is mobbing!
As soon as they left I went to go to sleep on the sofa despite my instincts' insistence on making me play, as I just slept for what felt like 8 hours. Though, it seems I can't do anything I want to as I immediately get attacked by another kitten forcing me to play with them.
Now, the problem is, that it doesn't stop. It's been two hours, and I want to run away, I do not have infinite energy, mental energy that is, because I could probably go on for another two hours, but all we're doing is biting and jumping on each other, such mindless things are only rectified by my instincts, but even they have limits.
I start hissing at it to stop but it doesn't, I start running away, but now it thinks it should chase me, this goes on for 10 minutes, essentially just extending the play time except that I am not having fun at all. I really want to get away from this kitten and I've finally got the master plan.
"Meeew" I cry at a servant while clawing at his feet in my panic while pointing my paw at my attacker. Before the servant can respond the damn child attacks me again, I seriously can't take this shit.
I start growling louder and the damn thing finally realizes it should back off, and the servant finally helps me too. "Young master Sebastian, leave the child alone." The servant says while putting his hand in between us, finally stopping the fiend.
I had a genius idea right now, thanks to my high intelligence, I shall sleep next to the servant! Then noone will bother me. And I had a nice nap finally.
About a year and a half has passed now since my birth, for some reason we are still kittens and still look and act like kittens.
Anyways, I still don't know what the hell these levels are, I by now have gotten to level 17, level 1 apparently costed 10 experience, and every level since then costs 10 more experience than the previous one, It was especially great as we started to be given different, stronger prey like lizards, that often gave more than 50 experience.
I thought it would have bothered me to not be able to speak at all during this time, but I don't feel very socially compulsed, except to be around my parents and siblings, so I never had any compulsion to speak even when I wanted to ask something.
But things like that can be talked about later because today is our birthday! well, not really by earth standards, it's called "day of the hunt" and apparently it is just counted every year after our first hunting trip, seems stupid honestly, but we're cats, so who cares.
To commemorate the occasion, our dad made us fight a M̸̖̀͝ȧ̵̛͚ṋ̵̖̃a̵͋ͅ Beast. He told us it is much stronger than normal animals, as it uses the energy of the world to grow, but that is too confusing for my brain so I'll just refer to it as "big bad animal".
Now that I think about it; I'm too stupid! I put all those points in intelligence, but where did they go?! I feel like I've just become dumber ever since I was reborn, I was supposer to be the next Einstein goddamn in!
I start crying. Well, I would have if cats could cry, stupid, stupid body! But I should probably focus in front of me, as what I am looking at right now, I can only describe as a horned rat. It is a bit bigger than us siblings, and I feel extremely afraid when looking at it, which is the exact reason I looked away from it and hoped it would dissappear a second ago.
At least dad allowed us to work with each other, but I am unsure how much that'll help considering my siblings are literally kittens, but at least I'm not fighting something like this alone.
"Go on, attack the damned thing before it attacks you!" Our dad finally shouts, and our cowering bodies are thrust into action.