The sunshine.
A close friend, that literally presides over the rainbow, which he's never given much appreciation of.
Yet daylights always on Jaune's mind; as he usually shifts around Sanus's shiny seas to heady landscapes, during it's…
Well, time to shine. Everything happens for every reason whenever their flaming ball of fun and sunburn comes up to gaze.
And gaze like an eternal watcher-or mother-it did. Beating warmth-full rays down onto his sandy blonde hair, a glinting presence which nearly blotted his vision behind heavy sunglasses.
An item he oughta have had when first traversing the sunny Menagerie coast, like he's having his catgirls do now.
The reason for not doing so? Well, storms.
Storms and a perverse lack of very fucking basic information on what even is around him. When the air is thicker than your friends with substantial benefits, and dreary clouds cry tears of an angry God, things tend to stop being clear.
Turning more of a beautiful world into a natural hellhole in between dunes of shitty-brown sand and shiny sea.
Speaking of…
Jaune squinted into the harbor, as Sunshine kept rowing their rowboat near it's entry way, continuing with a steady pace. Good time and opportunity for seeing the many colors and trade items he once saw at Menagerie prior.
The day's shininess helped him take advantage of that. Of seeing a bustling array of bare skinned animal people occupying those dusky red tents with an almost robotic passion. In and out, sometimes with bread or circus, sometimes with both or more.
His favorites were the clothes. The robes were always shitty and scruffy, but they helped against the blazing sun for weaker people vacating the island. Him, basically.
Funny that they'd-Faunus people, that is-need much less than him, as he's not the most suitable for hot weather, even after living here for several months on end.
No sir, not Jaune. He's a milky white human man who hasn't a single ounce of Faunus genetics pumpin' in his bloodstream. Let alone the melanin to tolerate this place, or at least an ability of doing daily-activities with relative comfort, compared to much less robed animal people on the island.
"Keep this in mind, alright?" He muttered to Sunshine, getting her attention easy enough. "It's best not to worry about the locals, just do whatcha always do and listen to me, 'kay?"
Before she turned to him, Jaune added.
"In terms of, you know, womanly treatment… they're egalitarian or whatever, so it's good. You'll keep your head if you don't cover it."
She didn't understand that; slowly blinking her hardened face, processing like the super-flesh-computer she was.
He sighed.
Alphas were real smart, but if they hadn't a point of reference for things-or ideologies for that matter-anything you tell them goes over their pussified heads. That applies, neatly, to the wooden dock they're rowboating towards as well. Past the ship hands, and down the sandy road leading to a dusky red sea of commerce on both sides-
Okay, anyways-
"Don't think they'll judge you for what you are, since they're Faunus people who you're modeled off of."
He popped his lips, nodding to Menagerie, hands rubbing over the rough linen of his robes.
"Also, on that note, do not wear anything more or less than the stuff you're wearing now. You'd look like a showboating whore, and I don't know if you can understand this, but I don't like my girls showing the goods without proper due-process. As in money, for ogling you without your dresses. Capiche?"
To that, she-and Greymane, plus Tabby-were wearing their respective dresses and garbs.
The latter's a nice summer orange showing plenty of pale shoulder, yet not much else. Whilst the former's somewhat tasteless dark bikini top-though baggy linen pants with it-flaunted a good deal more skin.
Sunshine wore a garb similar to the former.
He's really not setting the bar high, man. All he asks is they don't go around naked-
"Of course, Myaster." They all intoned, in their own little hums and rumbles.
He nodded, yet Sunshine spoke up again, curious.
"I…" she frowned to herself, grunting into the next row. "I wonder about you, Myaster. You wear so much compared to us...very covered. Is it to show your purity as our Lord?"
Jaune gave her a look, his subconscious mind figuring to have him rub a hand over his linen again. The dark drown material itself an old find from his previous journeys here at Menagerie.
A treasured item, that he would've fucking burned alive ontop the rugged dunes without.
"It's…"
He smiled, hearing the waters part on their way, and the shouts of antsy townsmen merchants to one another.
"It's an emblem of a simpler time. When I got lucky under the stormy night, and ended up finding a good life in unlikely places." He paused, snorting. "And poorer places. See, the average people and guards here are based as fuck, they have their-...well, you'll see."
He nodded again, to himself more than anything, eyeing those curvy trees leading the palace way from island-end to island-beginning.
"You'll see…"
And though they didn't respond to that-other than his Tabby, who hummed-Jaune was satisfied.
Home neared him, and he it
/-/
They arrived on port without much fanfare.
His coverings gave plenty room for the Faunus imagination of the local dock workers, as good a disguise as any. Though his light skin tone was… kinda suspect?
Lots of random sailors-moving Vacuous trade barrels to and from trade ships-likely don't see his ilk often. Their curoius looks reflected this pretty much to a t. A human one.
Milky white human, that is-
The catgirls by his did stop those curious gazes, however, as these Faunus workers just stared at them for a little bit, until whatever interest they had for cat girl fancies withered away, like their potential paychecks when caught slacking. Leaving him to stand stock still in the middle of the wooden lane, his gaggle of catgirls eyeing this island behind him.
Jaune took a lazy glance around.
"Here we are." He muttered, shuffling past the locals, a hand-reach away from some huge otter Faunus on his left. "Welcome to Menagerie, home to a shitton of Faunus people, and the semi-radical shitlord Faunus people inside its royal palace."
Luckily, either none of the sailors shifting around heard his small mumble, or just hadn't a fuck to give right then, considering the fact they're not paid for punishing stupid humans saying even stupider shit on the casual.
Both felt like better alternatives to, ya know, getting his ass jumped by the bulky ones with ship cargo up the wazoo.
It makes sense, though. Most people in Menagerie-that he's talked to, merchants and soldiers and civilians of the like-don't think much about human oppression from the western countries like Vale and Atlas.
They're more interested in the continuation of their community shits, plus the commerce surrounding that.
Which is also why they're importing some…uh, foriegn goods. Dry-wheat barrels and ice dust.
Quite good overall, yes-yes. He's just gotta get past whatever's on the way to and from the palace-
From his side, Tabby melded into him, her orangey locks meshed across his shoulder and neck. Once more, for the supremely umpteenth time of fuckall forever, she looked at him with dullness. Staying true to the innate coding bullshits Murdoch's sciencey stuff programmed in.
She purred, though, in a lowly tone. Running a finger across the linen with a needy pointer finger.
"Myaster?" She hummed then, lips in a fine line, and golden eyes faced forward. "Who're they?"
He blinked.
"Who'a what?"
She blinked.
"They."
She pointed. Somewhere, some-goddamn-how.
He gave her a look.
"Tabby, I am a human." He grumbled. "I'm essentially a naked flesh ape lacking everything but balls full of sperm and intuition. Please tell me why you're being cryptic as fuck right now. Like, right now."
"...'Sisters pointed them out."
She muttered, ears low against her mane of fuzzy orange, an expression weirdly opposite of the dull way her lips thinned out.
"They said they are staring at you."
To clarify, he sent those said 'sisters' a look. Finding them stalwart, yet solemn in their steady gaze on him. Weapons prodded at their sides.
Greymane spoke first, frowning.
"Two. Two Faunus. They're armed as well…"
Sunshine's shifting gaze clued him in on where, and he followed it. The first Alpha continued on though.
"They seem...friendly, I would guess, and armed with colorful robes. Are they enemies of you, my Lord?-"
Before he could've grunted at the statement-
He saw them. He…
Jaune felt his mouth drop, getting a heavy eyeful of two men shifting through the muck. Their baggy pants and black over-robes put on an incidentally prominent display, when he took a moment to think about it.
Plus, their familiar Jackal ears stood firm. Like the shaggy grins on their dark faces. No sadder than when they last met.
Stumbling forward past some more busy bodied workers, Jaune went to these men with abandon. Picking up a good pace; until the hundreds became dozens, and dozens became single digits.
Of feet, that is.
For the longest moment they stood there, until Jaune saw their shit-eating grins lack the ability to waver, then promptly grinned himself silly. Seeing the same exact outfit of those stupid palace guards draped over them like a protective-yet fashionably open-vice.
Then he laughed. Really fucking hard, and continued his stumbling self onto them.
"You goddamn motherfuckers." He wheezed, reaching out for touch, half-ready to smack himself across the island for hallucinating such a sight. "-Absolute fuckers you are, who gave you two high guard outfits?-"
To his further hype-and utter bafflement-the Jackal Faunus on the right embraced him, cackling great mirth to the sunny skyline above.
All Jaune saw afterwards was dark shoulder skin, and slightly darker over-robe material.
The scent of sand, rice, goat, and the goddamn earth invading his nostrils like a colonization process well over five hundred years ago being revitalized now. But in a good way. Yeah.
And you know what? Jaune's hella happy, as he's meeting dear friends again.
So he didn't move an inch for the longest time, listening to the jackal's cackles, as his catgirls surely walked along behind him.
After a long time more, the jackal pulled back, holding him by the shoulder with a grin, just like his brother besides him.
"We are promoted!" He said, his accent thicker then Kali's yummy thighs, a question in those chocolate eyes. "We are guard-ians of the queen! Where have you been, mahn?!"
Good question. He-
Greymane spoke up.
"Friends, then. Of our Lord," she nodded to the other Jackal, even toned. "We mean no aggression, but who might you two...?"
Jaune, sobering up and moving off his huggy buddy next to him, figured to speak on that first.
"These two? Well…"
Jaune gave the men a look over, pointing them out.
"The quiet one on the left is Alibacker, and this one?" He patted the man's shoulder, cackling along with him. "This is Mumbayo, they're the madmen who've kept me alive during my first stay here. Both when I first came, and left."
Alibacker chimed in then, more reserved, yet still beaming.
"He comes from the waves, very poor and skinny, and white. Still is!"
Jaune-choosing not to acknowledge the admittedly true jab-merely rolled his eyes.
"Oh, whatever." He egged his girls on, seeing them follow his hand without a moment's hesitation. Except for Greymane, as she spent a long moment staring at Alibacker's shiny smile and big forehead.
Deciding that it was probably okay, after a few seconds, and catching up a few seconds later after that. Taking her place at his right flank, as he turned to his old friends going down the dock with him.
"Now, you two listen to me." He quipped, wagging a finger. "I've got something good to tell ya…"
/-/
Forty five minutes of catching up later, and his old handlers gave him their most genuine looks of bafflement. As they sat on the sandy soil around a local hut, nearby a fish vendor in the heart of Menagerie Market. Noise and capital investment from merchant to customer included in spades.
They hadn't done this shocked shtick for the catgirls off to the side with them, though. All their consideration of that trio amounted to 'are they girlfriends?', in which Jaune responded with various degrees of 'no' every time they so much as insinuated that shit.
It was fine… but he could've done without the conflicted catgirl gazes as result of his flat denial, especially from Tabby.
Always from Tabby, even if it looked more like a dull frown.
Yet lucky for him, that's all their teasing amounted to, and he continued on with his grand plan.
Of getting to Kali, that is.
"You want Ka-li?" Alibacker rumbled, speaking of the angel, voice getting a higher pitch the he went with it. "She's been inside lately, all the time. Not even the queen can get her to the dinner table, mahn."
He moved his hands around in a gripping motion, jolting it in place.
"We have to feed her through the door! We wait for her to, eh, crack it a little, then we leave her tu-nah by the crack!"
"Oh yeah?" Jaune grinned, bathing in the nostalgia of his-and his brothers-amazingly funny accents. Something his catgirls hanging off to the side didn't seem to get. "You gotta do all of that?"
They're true born natives of Menagerie, for over three or four generations.
And until recently-or monthly-Jaune knew them for being casual townsmen guards from the outer ends; growing up in a large hut-house, and using their healthy bodies for fishing up their family's next meal.
They stopped this, though, and instead worked for the good of their community. Translating to picking up arms and providing themselves to the non-royal garrisons outside the palace.
A somewhat controversial affair, as most people from their sub-sect of the island refused direct servitude, and questioned their two jackal boys' very legitimate intuition.
But whatever the case? They moved up in the world, moving on from scratchy linen to shiny robes. People who've consistently saved and improved Jaune's life deserve a promotion, even if he disagreed with a lot of the palace's politics.
Meeting them was accidental… but he'd really think it better for happening rather than not, as these two-in good graces-found him by the shoreline one dreary night, and stopped him from drowning.
Told him all sorts of stuff while they're at it, too. Like fishing, and how to spear fish through the 'anahl hole'.
After that? Well, they explored, until the palace guards found him. Then they convinced those stuffy bastards to permanently leave their misbegotten human buddy in their care.
Much also thanks to Kali's last minute intervention in all the infighting, tense as that was. Yikes.
Ever since, Jaune and these based brothers fucked around Menagerie markets-and Menagerie at large-like overpowered hobos, looking for a metaphorical fix to their life-addiction.
Exchanging ideas as well as sayings, from one culture to another.
Never has Jaune enjoyed telling people about capital market economies and the effects of marginal tax rates. Yet with these brothers?
He did. A lot, as that's something only economists can care about or understand on the usual.
These guys? Well-
"Yes, mahn!"
Mumbayo budded in, on Jaune's other side, and pointed to the great building down the lane. With all its reds and whites.
They're pretty fun.
"She'd be sleeping now, yes, but we will feed her soon. The others' food doesn't get accepted, so they come to us and say 'feed her, feed her for the High-Queen', and so we do."
Jaune felt his buddy nudge his shoulder, a bellowing chuckle on the tongue. "You should feed her with us, she must miss you! My brother surely does!"
Said brother gave his own chuckle, shaved head lolling against the husky material of-what Jaune would assume is-somebody's shack house.
"He lies, mahn." The nickname once again flowed off the tongue like fresh-churned butter, a side effect of 'Jawn' being too hard to say on the regular, forcing the brothers to improvise. "My nerve is steel, stronger than the sword."
Jaune didn't doubt that for a moment, but he grinned with a fond cheekiness, shoulder bumping into the guy, and eventually his hand too, as it cupped his shaven head also like old times.
"Daw, love you too."
A smaller grin-plus a hand holding him off-was Jaune's answer to that.
Properly satisfied with such; Jaune nodded off into the noisy crowds kicking up dust all around them, then pointed at the palace building with his pointer finger.
"So, you'll take me?"
He muttered, nice and gentle, sorta stressed for getting his hopes up.
"It's nearly been a year since we last hung out like this, and you'll still help me see my friend?"
Mumbayo answered that one, a loaf of bread in his lap, and a healthy portion of it haphazardly getting chewed up in his mouth.
"-Yes!" He piped up, gesturing his meaty fingers all about, like bulky worms. "I remembahr when I was young. I had many girl friends back then, most of them older..."
Oh God, he's giggling. Jaune's gonna start giggling too.
"Brother, brother, do you remembahr?'
Annoyed, Alibacker rolled his head around with a groan.
"I wish I didn't. You'd make Mama scared half to death! Coming back home in the mi-ddle of the night like that, what's the matter with you?"
"Wo-man, brother, wo-man!"
Yep. He's giggling now. Goddammit-
"Bah. Don't let Tamela hear that! She'd cook you tonight."
After that, the two brothers spiralled into a completely necessary debate. An action in their foreign tongue, though the time he's spent with them translated a teeny bit of it.
Something about 'a-nahl leeking'-
It humored him so, yet not his catgirls, who starred on in muted confusion. The Alphas did at least, as Tabby…well, he hadn't a fucking clue.
She just starred, dull as ever.
Standing up, he let the brothers jabber on for a moment, calling to the girls.
"What? You don't like them?"
To his semi surprise, they all shared a look, then turned back to him. Greymane speaking up first.
"They are very joyful, and my lord seems to like them, so I have no complaints." She crossed her arms over her bountiful breasts, turning to the others. "Have you any, sisters?"
"..." Sunshine paused for a moment, then beamed at the two squabbling Faunus. Tabby still kept her silent stare on him, for God knows what reason. Maybe her biology?
"No, I like them too."
Their compliance chilled him out, so he ignored their weird sisterhood gang and dusted himself off.
A clearer goal-for his personal and or catgirl endeavours-now set in place, looking exactly like that grandiose palace down the lane. Reigning high over the sparse clouds draped across Menegerie's skylines.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful and good. He can already see his Kali now.
Excited for the day's opportunities, Jaune strutted on. Yelling both to his observant followers, and the cooky brothers arguing the sandy surface floor
As these...uh, identities were vital in getting him past-and away from-royal officals trying to fuck him over with their conventional rules and regulations.
So that this expenditure back into unknown lnds had a purpose, besides stupid intirgue.
A resulting crux of his second visit to Menagerie.
That, in scuffed essence, he's hoping to leave with Kali Belladonna on his rented rowboat and back towards civilization.
Back to Vale, or Atlas, or anywhere he could go whilst getting needed business stuff done and entertain his valued comrades with both his cat friend and non-Jacques Schnee compadre.
With the grand plan flowing through his burning-literally, he's humid as fuck right now-veins, Jaune kept his yell short and sweet.
"C'mon!" He said, smiling to himself, his dusty cowl draped atop his messy blonde locks. "Let's feed that pussy cat!"
/-/
Well...sneaking around the palace-especially this one, for food and stuff-wasn't foreign to him, the actual subject matter was.
Jaune had learned the layout somewhat well. Daily use of the dinner table and basic toiletries-plus the stuff already mentioned that're not connected to Kali's own-required as much.
He hadn't explored the entire palace he's fucked around in, though, and only knows the barest info.
That's the reason why taking a secret latch under it-in which only palace guards and Sienna herself usually used-was new for him. Let alone his catgirls, too, who lagged behind him and the boys with cautious intrigue.
It's a walk-through tunnel, narrow and dark for hundreds of feet on end, only the faintest glimmer of life on the brighter side they didn't squeeze into.
So far away, yet as they traversed the moist and sandy soil underneath them, Jaune felt the exit way reach closer and closer. His shifty vision-up and down as it goes-of the semi-heavenly tunnel end likely withstanding.
Mumbayo, who's ahead of him a small bit, fortunately kept them informed.
"Close. We are very close." Even in the dark, his outline made itself real apparent, a pitch black figure's long arm pointing forward. "This leads to behind the palace, we can go past most guards this way."
He took his word for it, like usual, and kept a good pace behind-
Suddenly, Tabby came behind him, or besides him. Her body flushed against his once more, from the covered chest up.
Her gentle humming makes an almost morbid sound in the dark, as if she's some crazy assassin bitch with knives in her moderate cleavage.
...Huh. Actually, there might be something to that. He hasn't checked in awhile-
Those eyes, though, shone with that weird obsessiveness pretty quick, as they stared deep into his own. Demanding something for whatever the fuck crazy catgirl reason she'd confide of, in this mini dungeon they've walked for the past...say, twenty minutes?
He couldn't tell. The sunlight killed his scroll phone hours ago-
"Myaster...we're going to see her, right?" Another breath, it kissed the ears. "The Great Mother, my original and supreme."
A hint of learning breathiness was there, from either random excitement or exhaustion at going down a sand tunnel...and Jaune could probably assume the former.
For whatever reason that is? Jaune's listenin' to find out.
"Yeah, why?" The echo rebounding his voice across tube walls didn't faze him, or Tabby for that matter, her eyes keeping that hardness. "You, uh, excited to see the 'great mother?'"
Grey mane and Sunshine rumbled their own intrigue, yet Tabby sighed, leaning into him some more.
"Tips. Myaster."
"...?"
"I want tips for your pleasure, Myaster. The great mother is…-"
And just like that, Tabby stopped talking, more interested in physically hampering him then anything productive to the situation.
For once again unsaid reasons, for an already quiet and secretive cat flesh-light he's fucked on occasion.
He found the action pretty dumb, considering all the stuff going on, but pushed it to the side with a shoulder shrug. Looking ahead with the rest of the merry band, a determined frown on his face, and cat girl snuggled in next to it.
He had a waifu to collect, after all. Especially since it's an older one.
/-/
They made it out the tunnel.
Black robes-not the brothers' own-shifted down the pale-red hallway corridor, beholding a group of unhappy bird Faunus with pointy spears and ruffled feathers. Raking their intense-and pretty accurately-hawkish eyes on the lot their fellow guard lorded over.
Jaune's buddies also kept their lead and distance; between the catgirl gang and, well, Faunus guards.
Goddammit. The super secret tunnel didn't work and now they're gonna have to fuck up privledged bird people standing in their way.
Menacing gazes of poopy-shit brown glaring their suspicion for whatever-the-hell Jaune called this group of two guardsmen and weaponized catgirls.
He felt his moist buttcheeks squelch togother, as the realization they're caught red handed-or at least, the brothers were-whilst trying to complete the mission, filled his bowels with an unprecedented dread.
The only reason why Jaune didn't express this anguish, is because no one else did. Which instead gave him pause more than anything, and consideration for the Sienna cronies blocking their path to victory.
He squinted.
It...was a group of three. All sharing that stern gaze, yet the center one spoke first.
"Prisoners?"
Mumbayo nodded, grabbing the hooded human on his left, grinning.
"Yes! They are very special prisoners, as well. We were told by Ka-li that they must be brought to her presence immedi-ately after their capture, as they have much meaning to her."
In his other bulky arm, Kali's 'usual' kitty bowl resided, chock full of a mushy protein Jaune assumed was a fishy substance called tuna, as that's what the dust fridge they nabbed the shit out of said.
Canned? Maybe, he didn't fucking know, it looked like raw brain matter and was found in a bowl-
"She act-ually talked to us earlier, and told us to deliver them to her!"
The bird Faunus were skeptical for a long moment, squawking gibberish amongst themselves, mentioning 'feline' here and 'unlikely' there. So absorbed were they that it took their center birdie-boy's scorn to rewind the tape back to reality, done by an abrupt squawk of defusal.
"Silence!"
Center birdie boy mightily squawked, spear thunking against the nicely refurbished and gold-lined carpet floor.
"This action of yours...I do believe Sienna should know of it. Does she not?"
"No!" The brothers said, in complete unison, with their own little dark grins on their faces. Looking innocent as can be in these trying times, and cat girls at their backs.
"..."
A sigh.
"You two…"
The center bird looked over Jaune's shoulder, to which the Alphas filed in together.
"They even have weapons! Is Kali so irresponsible in her procedures, that she would have her rabid mutts forget basic prisoner ettique?!-"
The center bird's eyes-and basically everything else of his-paused, then began lingering on Jaune's whole visage for a while.
Enough to worry Mumbayo, as he kept his steady grip, though that wasn't curing the moisture buildup in both Jaune's linen covered loins and uncovered face, without those semi trendy sunglasses he kept in a back pocket.
Too late for that now. Shit.
He had hoped the hood would've-
Center bird spoke up, pointing his spear out.
"You...You're that-"
Mumbayo grunted, gently shifting Jaune along with him past the center birdie. Forcefully, as he made sure his other shoulder rammed the bird brain's scrawnier side like a high school bully on steroids.
And even better? The rest of the cat girl and brother crew followed along, paying the baffled birds no mind in their endeavours, though Jaune knew that's probably not the grandest idea, considering that they've got access to the head honcho here-
But things change. Like perception, and the potential of Jaune and friends not coming out of this place in a semi bloodbath.
The latter seemed more likely now, as center birde's eyes dilated in the spookiest of ways. His birdie buddies doing the same thing to some degree.
"Fools!" The center bird called out, waving his spear around. "You've shown such casual disgrace for the last time, Mumbayo and Alibacker! And now you've returned with your banished charge?! The queen shall know of this-"
Alibacker-on Jaune's other side, as they neared the next corner-spoke up, rumbling his agitation.
"The queen shall respect Ka-li, as her will is strong."
That ended the conversation, since whatever the bird men squawked afterwards went over Jaune's head and damn near outta his sweaty asshole.
The threat of Sienna's wrath hanging behind his head every step closer to Kali, in this empty hallway nobody but those bird guards must've kept watch over, felt damn near suffocating to all seven billion senses.
Weird how things don't always go as planned, eh? First they come trying to sneak in, now Jaune and his band of weirdos are currently on the clock to nab their prize in good enough time so as to not meet bitch tiger again.
Making good pace, too.
Her room's no more then two corridors down the hall, Jaune remembered their location up to this point now and felt that bit o' understanding settle his stomach.
It also let him keep up with Mumbayo's pace better, for all that's worth.
Jaune couldn't thank his based bros-and their irrational sense of helping him-enough. They'd have had to destroy the entire guard population preemptively to near where they are now otherwise.
And that's only if Sienna wouldn't have joined those theoretical loyalists in the crazy infighting.
Tabby-who caught up to his side, even at Mumbayo's hardy pace-whispered as much in his ear.
"Things are looking good. We can make it." She droned, turning the corner with it. " My sisters are strong. You as well…"
He nodded, seeing the situation for what it was, and continued on.
/-/
Kali's door was closed.
Why? Don't know, but really fucking cared.
Mumbayo tried to squeeze the tuna tray through it's shut surface, to no avail besides sloshing some pinkish bits across the dry wood. Very perplexed, he left the bowl there for a moment, getting off his hands and knees with a grunt, hands on his hips.
"She usually cracks it…" he mumbled, turning to them. "She must be asleep! We have to open the door!"
They did. Any minute now, an annoying brigade of Eagle Faunus-which is what they were, according to Alibacker-would become Menagerie Palace's entire fleet of Faunus fuckers readying for their nondescript demise. Auras and semblances surely included.
Yet the brothers were floored, scratching their heads in thought, staring at the large door with all the confusion and frustration Jaune's expecting from straightforward tribe bros such as them.
It made him sigh his own grievances, then ready to rumble.
Cutting through the silence, Jaune stepped up, kicking the tuna bowl completely away from the door, much to Mumbayo's silent dismay.
He didn't hesitate to rap his tightened knuckle on it's heavy surface either; or question whether what he's doing actually works, for that matter.
Focusing himself, Jaune spoke.
"Hey."
…Silence...
"It's...uh, me." He took another deep breath. "I know it's been some time now, and that's shitty of me...but…"
Another long pause, as he finalized his thoughts, thankful his group respectfully kept their quiet during it.
"I wanted to bring you with me, Kali. I-I uhm...I wanted to show you my progress so far."
He swallowed, hand now curled against the door.
"I always thought about it, and now? You deserve to see all I've made for myself, for you, and everyone I love and value and cherish and all...uh, all that stuff.
...
...
"So, uhm, yeah. I'm sorry it took so long and-"
The door opened.
Well, it's more accurate to say flew damn near off its hinges, yet stopped halfway. Giving Jaune ample opportunity to see a sight for certainly not sore eyes blending her beauty with the darkness around her.
Though at first hard to see, Jaune took several blinks, and felt his breath go to the shadow realm she came out of.
In her usual robes, inside the shady room near pitch black, with dusky skin and golden eyes richer than any monetary reward known to man, his Kali Belladonna appeared before him. Her breath slightly hampered, with those intense eyes all on him, searching his every crevasse like a math-nerd.
Except this isn't math, and she's a MILF with above average intelligence and sensory skills.
She and him locked gazes for a moment-
Until he felt one hundred and fifty five-yes, he remembered-pounds of pure MILF meat come onto him. Wrapping her wonderfully slender arms across his back and up his neck; smelling of many good things he's honestly forgotten about, over the course of leaving Menagerie.
She smelt of fish, high quality candles, and that musk of a mother who does hard-working shit for hours on end. It set his nostril ablaze with sniffles into her perfectly ruffled and frizzy ravenette locks cascading all over him.
A little fuzzy island in this scary world of Faunus guardsmen and cat girl production.
He damn near tripped over himself due to the satisfaction, which she noticed, and expertly hoisted him up. Managing to snuggly entwine her arms around him, smushing their bodies, and rocking them back and forth.
His head on hers, and her head on his chest, doing that slow shimmy they always did whenever Sienna came by with her chain whip, evil intent a putrid stink all over her.
The kind of bad things psychopaths and warlords wielded, where the chastity and quality of his cock and balls are questioned and threatened mercilessly.
Not here, though. In the now, they've come to each other, happy again.
Pulling her off, Jaune got another stare into those joyful golden eyes.
Thinking about something right to stay here, even as the world kept moving it's damn train of events second to second. Jaune wanted to remembahr seeing his Kali again, as it's real fucking historical in his mind that-
She leaned up, placing a heavy kiss against his lips. Deepening it when he followed suit. Growling her pleasure, when he cupped her fleshy Bella booty the loose robe up, knowing by instinct how to pleasure his friend in every way she'd like, including some honest acknowledgment of damn good genetics.
As those digits indented onto that tight flesh, he heard a small gasp, then chuckle grace his ears. Full of warmth and fervour once lost to obligatory distance, a wistfulness with it too.
He imagined that voice in his dreams, yet now his Kali-his truest pussy overall-has come onto him with excitement. Curling her thicc thighs around his robed leg, and slithering her tongue across a scruffy jawline.
Life was good. His buddies were cackling behind him and life was good-
Kali leaned down a bit more, raking that pointy claw nail across his tensed up neck. Her eyes never leaving his own, an understanding in them that Tabby-or any other catgirl really-had within their coding.
Probably because Kali didn't have coding. Not handmade from God, that is-
"Hey yourself, love~" she breathed, hands scraping the linen around his chest, an opening not found yet still searched for. "You've come back for me?"
"Y-Yeah."
"For good?" An excitement in her voice, a longing he couldn't say was unshared. "You'll bring me with you?"
She's the one pulling back now, eyeing him like the Bird Faunus did not ten minutes ago, only without the aggression and clear lack of humility.
Kali was humble, which is why he took that steady gaze with the complete seriousness it so deserves.
Jaune nodded to his cherished friend, pulling her hands down and together across his chest. Bundled up like a tray of fridge tuna in kitty bowls, on a breezy midday Tuesday. As he assumed today was.
"We've got company," he pointed out, glancing at his band of followers standing off to the side. "Not just Mumbayo and Alibacker, but…"
She, as she leaned into their union, noticed then the unoriginal cat girls, as they did the same for her.
Greymane was the first to act, bowing deeply from her standing position, which Sunshine mimicked a moment later. They greeted her in unison, though.
"The Great Mother...we give our praise…"
Whilst Kali-blinking confusion, and tilting her head-interpreted that little verbose, Tabby walked closer. Basically face to face with her originator, as she turned her dull eyes on the least dullest person In this room.
"...Great Mother…" Tabby muttered, head down. "Most praise. Nyah…"
Kail gave him a look-
He shrugged, wrapping his arms a little over her midsection. To, uh, make up for the weirdness that was his life.
Figuring also to explain that, Jaune leaned into her, planting a kiss to her ear she readily accepted, and whispering in her non-cat ears.
"I...finalized my dream, Kali. I made things with the power of scientific advancement. I made…"
He's a bit nervous, but the fact she hadn't stopped leaning into their hold gave him social strength.
"I made something in honor of the way you make me feel, Kali. They're all clones of you. My progress made manifest and stuff."
She hummed, surely sending Tabby a curious look, who absolutely fuckall froze in place like a popsicle inside a dust freezer. As the sound of that humm was uncanny, and familiar to them both.
And honestly? He liked Kali's humm a lot better. She was energized where Tabby was dull, as the duplication process dictated.
"...Clones…?"
He nodded, and rubbed circles into her back.
"Yeah. I kept a bit of your hair from last time, gave it some good use and...uhm, kinda hired a mad scientist to make me something that can clone you. I-I hope I don't sound too crazy here, but... it's ended up making me an adventure capitalist, a catgirl capitalist."
He must've been crazy sounding to the brothers, as they walked away from the later group right after he said this. Conspiratorially-in their own funny way-eyeballing the reverent cat girls from a distance.
Yet surprisingly...Kali just blinked again, then smiled her beautiful smile. Dusky features heightened by the plentiful lighting of the hallway corridor. She also ran her long nails through his messy blonde locks, caring for him in ways he'd consider motherly...and a little bit more.
"Jaune?"
He looked down, frowning at her smile, not knowing what to do.
"They look lovely, Jaune." She looked then at 'they', or her cat girl clones, with a gentleness she probably gave her own daughter all those years ago. "All of them, in their own ways…beautiful creatures. What are their names?"
Jaune thought on that, saw his cat girls keep their reverence, and took a deep breath.
"The grey one is, uh, Greymane."
Said catgirl bowed a little deeper.
"The yellow one is Sunshine."
She smiled at Kali, who readily smiled back.
"And the-"
Tabby inches a bit closer, already from her really close postion, and actually fucking sniffed her original. Getting a good whiff of whatever cat pheromones his MILF must've covered herself with, since Tabby looked pretty enthused with her existence.
"...Tabby. That's Tabby."
Kali stared at the weird one, who hummed and rubbed up on her, all while keeping that constant look of dull consideration she's never not hadf. It made him cringe, and yet… Kali hummed again.
She even rubbed back, curling her claws behind her orangey ears.
"Well, aren't you just lovely~?" She muttered, in a lowly voice, seperating from him a bit. "So beautiful too...I love your dress, it reminds me of when Blake was little. She loved dresses back then…"
Tabby froze up again, but Kali moved on already, looking up at him.
"Jaune...you invaded the palace, yes?…And didn't destroy Sienna's forces?"
He nodded-after a long pause-nodded.
She bit at her lip, using one hand to gently prod his Tabby, and another to nibble on her nail-end. Probably rationalizing all the stupid shit he's done up at this point, and in such a calm way to, considering that...you know…
He cloned her, invaded Faunus island, and wants to take her on a joyride across the fucking world in more ways than one.
"I-I see...well."
Kali straightened up, adopting that carefree smile she's always had during the old days. Her strut brushed past him with a gentle push of his chest to the side, and ended up in the middle of their meshed up group.
When the brothers-who stopped bickering-looked her over, faces showcasing their embarrassment, Kali considered them.
Considered them all, actually.
"I suppose we must escape Menagire then."
She mused, her claws reflexively retracting in and out, a dark purple Aura bubbling its influence.
"Including you two. I've appreciated the constant meals during my weakness, which still plagues me somewhat..."
Those true-born golden eyes looked at him this time, a smile tinged with sadness also given.
"Life without my Jaune has been rough, after all. More than that...meaningless."
They oogled their thicc mommy for a little while longer, until both Jaune and the brothers shook their heads and set into action. Tabby and the cat girls still digesting Kali's last words in earnest.
As Jaune pulled his sword out, the brothers pulled their spears out, and the cat girls did the same-
Also, Tabby did have knives in between her titties. She had at least two, with curved edges and something watery on its end points.
The sneaky little bitch-
That's just the extra details, though. He oughta be focusing on his cherished friend standing calm besides him, giving him a funny look for rushing about.
She didn't say anything else, so he thought to wrap this reunion up, with Crocea Mors raised towards the ceiling above.
"O-kay everyone!"
He turned to them all, grinning. His Aura surged body hopefully good enough for a literal royal escape. At the very least feeling it's white-gold power coursing through his veins and under his slightly less chaffed linen robes.
He saw the brother's own grins, the catgirl's deication, and Kali's lovely smile, and felt himself pretty fucking empowered.
Running a corporate oligarchy was soul crushing...yet this? This was soul making, and the type of stuff legitimizing all crazy shit he's done and will ever do. A reason for revolutionizing the process, and replacing regular labor with cat girl labor whenever and wherever possible.
Seeing these people dedicated to him, Jaune boomed with newfound confidence. For both his capitalist adventures on high, and social stuffs down low.
From Menagire's palace grounds, to Vale's semi-annual Vtyal Festival.
He was fucking hyped, and expressed as much.
"We're headin' out!"
Notes:
*I'm pushing the RWBY/ Kali meeting a chapter back due to this one, as I figured to explain Jaune's like of Faunus things. Either way, we'll be getting some Ironwood and Schnee/Belladonna/whatever the fuck/Jaune confrontation really soon. Hopefully next chapter, if I don't wanna write some smut or something as character development. Idk. Expect more time skips either way. We'll finish this story up soon.
*The fox twins in regular RWBY are fucking gay and stupid. I don't like them and I like my Jackal boys a lot more. Don't expect them to show up much, though, as they're extras I though oddly fitting for a quick Menagire setting.
*Headcannon: Kali's family lineage comes from Mistral, beucase why not.
*I think we're gonna do some Weiss/Jaune/Kali action. Fuck, what's the term for that? The Dualitly of Man?
Unrelated side notes:
I'm back from D.C! We left several hours early cuz Arlington and like two other places closed down on us the last day.
And I gotta say, since I've got nowhere else to really say it: I learned more about people than I did actual shit about history.
Sure, I remember cool stuff about Gettysburg and war soldiers who helped each other, but I also realized that all the stuff that's considered 'special' or 'sacred' is literally just a building that clumps of people can take pictures of themselves with.
We also went through everything on adderal and could only either eat, sleep, take massive shits, sit in bus, or buy merchandise in our little mini groups ALSO inbetween taking pictures for internet points.
That's it. Just the funny pictures of you and your buddies consuming product. That's the greatest reward from all this, as 'it's what you make of it', which so many big brain existentialists like to wheeze.
Also, I didn't get corona virus! Even though my school is closed down until April 13th due to it. Very epic indeed.
Anyways, no more rambling from now on, just wanted to share that.
Cheers.