ST Reboot art: Gaila is the witch of the woods

[pentapus]

More on my batting-average for AWOL reversebang authors. Here's another of the trekreversebang pictures that never got a story. :(




Originally, I only did one piece of art for the challenge. Just before sign ups, a call went out that writers greatly outnumbered artists and would we be willing to do any extra art. Since I love making prompts more than anything, I did, uh, four more pieces for the challenge in the next week. Three of them I had clear plans for. For the rest, all I knew was that I wanted there to be multiple pairings and multiple ladies available for writers. After a bunch of fruitless brainstorming, somehow I ended up with, "I'll draw Gaila with a bunch of cats. That's got unanswered questions, right? Oh, and also this forest picture I just found."

So here you go.

I have belatedly realized I have a (very) soft spot for the Witch of the Woods theme. In that, in addition to Gaila and her cats, three of the treehouse reversebang pictures so far meet the general criteria. And of course, there's Morgana and the bear.

Comments

[ratcreature]

This is great. I love how she seems to stride resolutely.

[everbright]

Cat, cat, cat, COUGAR! I like the picture a lot, since Galia clearly has someplace she needs to be.

[kiezh]

This is lovely. Gaila looks fierce, and your cats have very catlike body language. I especially like the one she's holding. :)

[wintercreek]

It's just a ficlet, and it doesn't really answer any of the questions about Gaila and the cats (except perhaps where the cats came from?), but here's something to go with your art:

Gaila goes for her first walk off campus on her second day at the Academy. She's exploring San Francisco, trying to keep Terran social customs in mind – and seriously, who thought making a handshake the neutral greeting ritual was a good idea? Skin-to-skin contact isn't neutral on plenty of worlds – when the calico cat appears. Gaila knows it's a calico because she'd found the coat pattern appealing when she saw it in her native species guide and remembered the name. She's been considering altering her hair color to include some white and black. It stops her in her tracks, seeing a real cat and not a sim, so she takes advantage of the opportunity to study it.

The cat studies her in return.

Gaila blinks. She doesn't think Terran cats are sentient, but maybe she's wrong. "Hello," she offers.

The cat blinks slowly back at her. It doesn't say anything, and there's no sensation of attempted telepathy tickling at Gaila's mind.

"If you're trying to tell me something, I'm very sorry but I can't understand you." She crouches down and holds out her hands, palms up.

The cat steps carefully into her arms and makes a rumbling sound. A purr.

Nyota's probably going to object to their new roommate, but maybe what she doesn't notice for a few days won't hurt her, Gaila thinks.

By the time she gets back to Academy grounds, the calico cat is walking next to her. So is a brown tabby. A kitten slips around the corner of the main library and joins them as they cross the quad.

Gaila sighs. "Okay, but tomorrow after orientation ends we're going to have to sort this out."

*

Gaila's gotten used to having a feline escort everywhere she goes by now, and the cats don't seem to mind finding their own accommodations outside her dorm. They climb into her rented hover car behind her and cuddle contentedly in the backseat as she drives east and up into the Sierra Nevadas. It's autumn, and the foliage on this world turns a pleasing set of reds and golds with the season. Gaila's looking forward to a walk in the woods, and she suspects the cats are as well.

Two kilometers into the woods, the cougar joins them. "Oh," Gaila says. Maybe the social customs aren't going to be the most complicated part of living on Earth.