Some paper models of two kinds of shops-and-apartment insulas.
Monday, July 13, 2015
The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6 environments in Rome 1
A street view from above between two insulas. There's a cut-out here to show the street below but between the houses, resting on the arches over the street, are a street roof very similar to the one playing an important role in the story so far.
A street view from a human perspective. You can see a dog but all cats are busy either resting from saving the world or actually saving the world (or at least the pity humans).
A street view from a slightly wider street. The kind humans have placed stones across the streets here and there so that cats can make short effortless jumps to get over the streets on rainy days without having to wade in unpleasant water.
Cut-through off a maze-like insula with only a very small inner court.
Another insula
A smaller house like Grå's and Gast's burdens (lesser senators) and a larger one (but not the biggest kind).
A = Atrium (small inner court with artificial pond in the middle. Main rooms are around this area.
C = Cubiculum (sleeping room or similar)
H = Hortus (small walled garden at the back of the house)
P = Peristyl (pillar garden)
T = Tablinum (The Master of the House's study and workroom)
X = Ala (wing, small side-part of the house)
The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4c
When they search for Trubbklo they hear cats say the same thing as about Trubbklo as about Stortass, that he since a while has kept to being indoors - even become something of a sissy. They call for Trubbklo but Trubbklo just says something about being busy and disappears indoors.
Some cats appear to think that Skarpöra is cool cat, a little harsh but fair (but that mostly cats without real territories, mostly cats with small apartment territories within bigger territories). They seem to think that there were a lot fussin' and yappin' before but that's gone now. Some seems to have come to an agreement with Skarpöra, to Skarpöra's benefit. None of them are especially willing to discuss Skarpöra in details although both Tryggtass and Grå tries to get them do exactly that.
Gast sneaks back home since he knows that it's food time although he knows that he's not so welcome at home since the "accident" with the master's important box. As he comes back he catches the last part of a quarrel between two of the slaves over whether Gast should have some fresh fish or not. After a short while one of them returns quickly and puts a small dish with a small fresh fish filet with some garum in Gast's hideout and then he returns with the usual plate at the usual place but with unusually old and crappy meat-something. Gast pretends to eat a little, messes a little with the food as a cover-up for not eating. Gast notice which slave it was and sneaks into his hideout and enjoys the delicacy and then decides to go out to complement with a freshly killed mouse. Before he is finished master and mistress of the house appears and sits down at the small bench at the other end of the very small garden (but still a garden).
Gast pricks up his ears. They're talking quite low for being humans and seem very serious and concerned and maybe not totally agreed upon some important matter. It shows to be The Big Debt that the husband has kept secret for his wife. She is hurt that he didn't tell him. They usually share all important parts of private and official business, both her doings and his doings, and sometime help each other. He is sad and tries to convince her that he was going to fix it and she never needed to know about it. Gast don't think he sounds very convincing and his wife doesn't seem to really buy it either. "It was just this thing..." he tries. "I'll fix it" he says and his wife look at him with mixed feelings and beliefs showing in her face. It's like either he didn't tell about something important, the debt, or he didn't tell about something important, the resources that can solve this. Gast thinks that he should stop trying to dig himself out of the hole he's in. The mistress of the house turns to her husband and ends the discussion with "...and don't try anything stupid like your cousin who burnt the debt paper, there's another copy at the lender's place". Now the master of the house gets hurt and almost a little angry "My dropped behind a wagon cousin?!? You think I would do something like him?!?" Gast thinks that maybe, maybe if both copies burned, maybe everything would be solved... The pair returns inside for lunch. Gast walks out to the old food so that mistress of the house notice him and the old food. She looks at him with mixed emotions, a little like if she's angry for the broken ornamented box but on the other hand, hadn't the box broke she wouldn't have known that they risk having to sell the house and move to, gasp, an apartment. Gast returns to a comfortably sunny spot on the street roof.
Some cats appear to think that Skarpöra is cool cat, a little harsh but fair (but that mostly cats without real territories, mostly cats with small apartment territories within bigger territories). They seem to think that there were a lot fussin' and yappin' before but that's gone now. Some seems to have come to an agreement with Skarpöra, to Skarpöra's benefit. None of them are especially willing to discuss Skarpöra in details although both Tryggtass and Grå tries to get them do exactly that.
Gast sneaks back home since he knows that it's food time although he knows that he's not so welcome at home since the "accident" with the master's important box. As he comes back he catches the last part of a quarrel between two of the slaves over whether Gast should have some fresh fish or not. After a short while one of them returns quickly and puts a small dish with a small fresh fish filet with some garum in Gast's hideout and then he returns with the usual plate at the usual place but with unusually old and crappy meat-something. Gast pretends to eat a little, messes a little with the food as a cover-up for not eating. Gast notice which slave it was and sneaks into his hideout and enjoys the delicacy and then decides to go out to complement with a freshly killed mouse. Before he is finished master and mistress of the house appears and sits down at the small bench at the other end of the very small garden (but still a garden).
Gast pricks up his ears. They're talking quite low for being humans and seem very serious and concerned and maybe not totally agreed upon some important matter. It shows to be The Big Debt that the husband has kept secret for his wife. She is hurt that he didn't tell him. They usually share all important parts of private and official business, both her doings and his doings, and sometime help each other. He is sad and tries to convince her that he was going to fix it and she never needed to know about it. Gast don't think he sounds very convincing and his wife doesn't seem to really buy it either. "It was just this thing..." he tries. "I'll fix it" he says and his wife look at him with mixed feelings and beliefs showing in her face. It's like either he didn't tell about something important, the debt, or he didn't tell about something important, the resources that can solve this. Gast thinks that he should stop trying to dig himself out of the hole he's in. The mistress of the house turns to her husband and ends the discussion with "...and don't try anything stupid like your cousin who burnt the debt paper, there's another copy at the lender's place". Now the master of the house gets hurt and almost a little angry "My dropped behind a wagon cousin?!? You think I would do something like him?!?" Gast thinks that maybe, maybe if both copies burned, maybe everything would be solved... The pair returns inside for lunch. Gast walks out to the old food so that mistress of the house notice him and the old food. She looks at him with mixed emotions, a little like if she's angry for the broken ornamented box but on the other hand, hadn't the box broke she wouldn't have known that they risk having to sell the house and move to, gasp, an apartment. Gast returns to a comfortably sunny spot on the street roof.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4b
Two days and a night until the senate meeting.
The cats are laying around at the street roof having a discussion regarding whether Tryggtass should represent herself or not and if it's good or bad for her case that they have discovered that Skarpöra is cooperating with two other cats to dominate the streets. Svansglidaren tells Tryggtass that he has talked to Kattmyntetunga (Catnip Tongue) who will help out with the hearing if they wish so. Svansglidaren, Tryggtass and Grå decide to see her while Gast stays at the street roof
They saunters along on top of the estate walls to get a better view, look cooler and to avoid the humans that run along everywhere.
While Gast is half asleep Skarpöra appears and actively ignores Gast like he was air and goes to for Tryggtass favourite spot. She sniffs and looks to carefully place her as exactly on that spot as she can. She rubs herself on the concrete to be sure to leave some scent after her. After a short while Gast hear a human curse by some unknown entity and something swish through the air and crash into the wall a little uncomforably close to Gast. Gast keeps it cool and looks up as Skarpöra does. Someone has thrown a pies of charcoal from the building across the street which hit the wall and broke on Gast's and Skarpöra's side. Someone shouts from across the street (from Grå's insula), curses some more and shouts to Skarpöra to leave which Skarpöra ignores. This seems to make the human furious who with much hatred throws another piece of coal towards Skarpöra and escalates by throwing a few as (copper coin) directly at her and hunts her off.
Svansglidaren et al arrives at the domus (city house) of the burden of Kattmyntetunga and Svansglidaren jumps up on the garden wall and calls for her. Shortly a cat with nifty appearance shows up. A slim cat without scars that cares for her appearance. Her kind of cat doesn't have fur tips on top of the ears but it's almost like someone has patted her fur to almost form tips anyway. She greets them and Svansglidaren presents his friends and the case. Tryggtass and Svansglidaren starts to describe details but Kattmyntetunga stops them politely and suggests that they go to park not far away where they can talk without humans running around and between the lines without other cats listening. Kattmyntetunga leads the way a few blocks away into a smaller park where she stops under a tree that gives some shade but not totally blocks the sun. She seems to signal to magpie who flies to somewhere near the top to, from what it looks, keep a lookout.
They discuss the matter and Tryggtass tells what has happened and also the history of Tryggtass territory and that there are no real territory connections between this street or street roof and Skarpöra's real territory. Kattmyntetunga takes a quite aristotelean stance and try to get Tryggtas and the others to tell as much as they can themselves and tries to get Tryggtass to suggest her stance in the hearing herself.
Kattmyntetunga asks about which witnesses there are and learns about Gast who aren't there now. All events seem to have several witnesses on both sides; Tryggtass, Grå, Gast, Svansglidaren, Skarpöra, Högertass and a third cat that Tryggtass can identify on sight and scent but doesn't know the name of.
According to normal praxis Kattmyntetunga finds several issues with how Skarpöra is claiming the street and the street roof.
* It's a strange way to get to the territory in question. There has been no real territory fights over the territories (or parts thereof) between Skarpöra's and Grå's or tryggtass'.
* The duel seemed less duelesque than wished for. Högertass seemed very keen on joing in to help Skarpöra in what rather looked like a regular fight than a territory duel.
* Skarpöra seems to have quite a non-proper attitude to the whole thing.
* The provocations in themselves are especially problematic but since Skarpöra so very much homed in on Tryggtass she sort of jumped over Grå's part of the street/street roof and directly to Tryggtass which doesn't give her a fully connected territory even if that area could actually be called a territory.
* She didn't do a formal challenge.
As a counter-gesture for the help Kattmyntetunga wants Svansglidaren to get her a hemina (~0.25 kg) of catnip (kattmynta) which Svansglidaren agrees to but for himself thinks that that's gonna be somewhat of an effort to gather. They leave to try to find out something more about Skarpöra's personal quality, find it as low as possible. They all agree on meeting again in the evening.
In the meanwhile Skarpöra has appeared again looking at Gast as he's nothing to care about. Gast answers with a yawn. Skarpöra glares at her and lies down at Tryggtas favourite spot again.
"By all the lemures in the Roman Empire - are you here Again?!?" someone shouts and again the same human chase away Skarpöra by throwing coins at here. Gast feels good watching it but can't help wonder what that human has against Skarpöra specifically. Gast starts to get a little worried that the human will start to hunt him when he discovers him so he takes a jump up to a window alcove slightly to the left from the windows with the human to have a better view and easier avoid eventual projectiles. As he land in the alcove the human throws shut the shutters with a "cat lemur" spitted out into the air between the buildings. Gast is confused.
When Svansglidaren, Grå and Tryggtass gets back to the street roof and Gast they noticed a certain Skarpöra smell. Gast describes the morning's events with amusement. Svansglidaren looks over where there human should have appeared and recognises the apartment where he did his dream walking with the pater familias (family head) and looks very satisfied.
Grå leads the way towards Skarpöra's territory as he, Svansglidaren and Tryggtass walks off to try to find more intel on Skarpöra and her activities and most of all her personal quality for the senate hearing. They start to ask around along the streets towards Skarpöra's territory seeking cats losing parts of their territories to Skarpöra. Different cats seem to agree on that Skarpöra is the one making the calls on the streets.
One of the cats losing their street is Stortass (Big Paw) who apparently has become almost offish lately and totally satisfied with territory only within the actual building of the insula. It takes some searching in the insula before they find a shy and suspicious cat that presents itself as Stortass (although he seems quite muscular and competent in fighting). After a lot of rethorics and luring Stortass agrees to that Skarpöra and company bashed and threatened their way to the street outside the building and not necessarily by the book. Stortass is very unwilling to appear in the Cat Senate but agrees to telling them what happened in more details to the one that shall plead the cause. That is not decided yet so in the end he tells the three being present. At first he says the duel went by the rules. They are little unsure wether that's actually the case since he seems nervous. After more convincing he admits that the other cats accompanying Skarpöra almost, almost joined the fight by that threatened Stortass into submission without having to actually win a fair duel. Foul play is obvious from Stortass' tale. They also find out that Stortass territory neighbour across the street is Trubbklo (Blunt Claw).
To be continued in c6s4c...
The cats are laying around at the street roof having a discussion regarding whether Tryggtass should represent herself or not and if it's good or bad for her case that they have discovered that Skarpöra is cooperating with two other cats to dominate the streets. Svansglidaren tells Tryggtass that he has talked to Kattmyntetunga (Catnip Tongue) who will help out with the hearing if they wish so. Svansglidaren, Tryggtass and Grå decide to see her while Gast stays at the street roof
They saunters along on top of the estate walls to get a better view, look cooler and to avoid the humans that run along everywhere.
While Gast is half asleep Skarpöra appears and actively ignores Gast like he was air and goes to for Tryggtass favourite spot. She sniffs and looks to carefully place her as exactly on that spot as she can. She rubs herself on the concrete to be sure to leave some scent after her. After a short while Gast hear a human curse by some unknown entity and something swish through the air and crash into the wall a little uncomforably close to Gast. Gast keeps it cool and looks up as Skarpöra does. Someone has thrown a pies of charcoal from the building across the street which hit the wall and broke on Gast's and Skarpöra's side. Someone shouts from across the street (from Grå's insula), curses some more and shouts to Skarpöra to leave which Skarpöra ignores. This seems to make the human furious who with much hatred throws another piece of coal towards Skarpöra and escalates by throwing a few as (copper coin) directly at her and hunts her off.
Svansglidaren et al arrives at the domus (city house) of the burden of Kattmyntetunga and Svansglidaren jumps up on the garden wall and calls for her. Shortly a cat with nifty appearance shows up. A slim cat without scars that cares for her appearance. Her kind of cat doesn't have fur tips on top of the ears but it's almost like someone has patted her fur to almost form tips anyway. She greets them and Svansglidaren presents his friends and the case. Tryggtass and Svansglidaren starts to describe details but Kattmyntetunga stops them politely and suggests that they go to park not far away where they can talk without humans running around and between the lines without other cats listening. Kattmyntetunga leads the way a few blocks away into a smaller park where she stops under a tree that gives some shade but not totally blocks the sun. She seems to signal to magpie who flies to somewhere near the top to, from what it looks, keep a lookout.
They discuss the matter and Tryggtass tells what has happened and also the history of Tryggtass territory and that there are no real territory connections between this street or street roof and Skarpöra's real territory. Kattmyntetunga takes a quite aristotelean stance and try to get Tryggtas and the others to tell as much as they can themselves and tries to get Tryggtass to suggest her stance in the hearing herself.
Kattmyntetunga asks about which witnesses there are and learns about Gast who aren't there now. All events seem to have several witnesses on both sides; Tryggtass, Grå, Gast, Svansglidaren, Skarpöra, Högertass and a third cat that Tryggtass can identify on sight and scent but doesn't know the name of.
According to normal praxis Kattmyntetunga finds several issues with how Skarpöra is claiming the street and the street roof.
* It's a strange way to get to the territory in question. There has been no real territory fights over the territories (or parts thereof) between Skarpöra's and Grå's or tryggtass'.
* The duel seemed less duelesque than wished for. Högertass seemed very keen on joing in to help Skarpöra in what rather looked like a regular fight than a territory duel.
* Skarpöra seems to have quite a non-proper attitude to the whole thing.
* The provocations in themselves are especially problematic but since Skarpöra so very much homed in on Tryggtass she sort of jumped over Grå's part of the street/street roof and directly to Tryggtass which doesn't give her a fully connected territory even if that area could actually be called a territory.
* She didn't do a formal challenge.
As a counter-gesture for the help Kattmyntetunga wants Svansglidaren to get her a hemina (~0.25 kg) of catnip (kattmynta) which Svansglidaren agrees to but for himself thinks that that's gonna be somewhat of an effort to gather. They leave to try to find out something more about Skarpöra's personal quality, find it as low as possible. They all agree on meeting again in the evening.
In the meanwhile Skarpöra has appeared again looking at Gast as he's nothing to care about. Gast answers with a yawn. Skarpöra glares at her and lies down at Tryggtas favourite spot again.
"By all the lemures in the Roman Empire - are you here Again?!?" someone shouts and again the same human chase away Skarpöra by throwing coins at here. Gast feels good watching it but can't help wonder what that human has against Skarpöra specifically. Gast starts to get a little worried that the human will start to hunt him when he discovers him so he takes a jump up to a window alcove slightly to the left from the windows with the human to have a better view and easier avoid eventual projectiles. As he land in the alcove the human throws shut the shutters with a "cat lemur" spitted out into the air between the buildings. Gast is confused.
When Svansglidaren, Grå and Tryggtass gets back to the street roof and Gast they noticed a certain Skarpöra smell. Gast describes the morning's events with amusement. Svansglidaren looks over where there human should have appeared and recognises the apartment where he did his dream walking with the pater familias (family head) and looks very satisfied.
Grå leads the way towards Skarpöra's territory as he, Svansglidaren and Tryggtass walks off to try to find more intel on Skarpöra and her activities and most of all her personal quality for the senate hearing. They start to ask around along the streets towards Skarpöra's territory seeking cats losing parts of their territories to Skarpöra. Different cats seem to agree on that Skarpöra is the one making the calls on the streets.
One of the cats losing their street is Stortass (Big Paw) who apparently has become almost offish lately and totally satisfied with territory only within the actual building of the insula. It takes some searching in the insula before they find a shy and suspicious cat that presents itself as Stortass (although he seems quite muscular and competent in fighting). After a lot of rethorics and luring Stortass agrees to that Skarpöra and company bashed and threatened their way to the street outside the building and not necessarily by the book. Stortass is very unwilling to appear in the Cat Senate but agrees to telling them what happened in more details to the one that shall plead the cause. That is not decided yet so in the end he tells the three being present. At first he says the duel went by the rules. They are little unsure wether that's actually the case since he seems nervous. After more convincing he admits that the other cats accompanying Skarpöra almost, almost joined the fight by that threatened Stortass into submission without having to actually win a fair duel. Foul play is obvious from Stortass' tale. They also find out that Stortass territory neighbour across the street is Trubbklo (Blunt Claw).
To be continued in c6s4c...
The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4a
A sketch over some of the territories in the story so far (several will be mentioned in the post for the fourth session, c6s4)
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