Ny'Obi Puddlefoot

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Ny'Obi is a small, extremely fluffy dark grey catfolk kitten with the kind of fur that goes in several directions at once and seems to have opinions about this. Her coat is a deep charcoal with subtle darker stripes running through it, and it is almost always somewhat sandy. Her eyes are a vivid, electric blue that take up a significant proportion of her face and give her a permanently startled expression that does not accurately reflect her actual level of surprise at any given moment. She is currently, and nearly always, holding a purple scoop.

She wears cream and beige overalls with brown button fasteners, which are both practical and a frequent source of sand accumulation. She sits in the sandbox with the settled authority of someone who considers this her professional environment and is currently mid-project. Her small black paws are good at gripping things and have demonstrated this through the scoop, several objects the scoop has dug up, and at least one thing that was not supposed to be picked up.

The electric blue eyes are striking in a way that people notice immediately and tend to mention, which Ny'Obi does not react to because she does not know her eyes are remarkable. She simply has them. Her ears are mobile and expressive in the catfolk way, swiveling toward interesting sounds before the rest of her has registered them, and her tail communicates her emotional state with a specificity and independence that she has not yet learned to moderate. A twitching tail tip means she is thinking. A lashing tail means she is deeply engaged with the sand project and would prefer not to be interrupted. A full puffed tail means something has startled her, which resolves quickly once she has assessed that the thing is interesting rather than threatening, which everything usually is.

Ny'Obi Puddlefoot was born on Goldenleaf 10, 1304, the first child of Puff and Shadow Step. The nickname came quickly, a nod to her dark grey coat and the late hour of her arrival, and it has stuck with the easy permanence of names that simply fit. She came into the world with her eyes open wider than seemed strictly necessary for a newborn, which her parents took as a sign of character. They were correct.

She has the Phoenixborn Ifrit birthsign, which among those who track such things is associated with intensity, curiosity, and a particular kind of persistence that does not respond well to obstacles. The sandbox, in this context, is less a toy than a vocation.

Ny'Obi has been a fully present and physically active participant in the Puddlefoot household since approximately the moment she learned she could move under her own power. She has investigated most of what is in reach and a surprising amount of what technically was not. The sandbox was introduced as a controlled environment for this energy, which was a sound theory that has worked well within the sandbox itself and not at all for sand distribution across the rest of the house.

Puff she follows with particular devotion. Shadow Step she studies with the attentive curiosity of someone collecting information. Together, her parents have accepted that small amounts of sand in unexpected locations is simply a feature of their current life and have adjusted accordingly.

The purple scoop arrived at some point in the last year and has not left Ny'Obi's possession in any meaningful sense since. It is with her in the sandbox. It is with her approaching the sandbox. It has been found in three rooms that are not the sandbox, one of which does not have obvious access from the sandbox. She sleeps near it. She wakes up and locates it before most other things.

No one remembers exactly when the scoop became the scoop, but no one has questioned its importance. In the Puddlefoot household, the scoop is simply a fact, like the sand and the blue eyes and the way Ny'Obi greets a new hole with the specific open-mouthed trill of someone who has just discovered something wonderful.

This is the primary organizing principle of Ny'Obi's days. The sand contains things. She knows this because she has found things in it before, and logic dictates that if things were there once, there could be more things, deeper, or in a different part of the sandbox, or possibly in the dirt near the sandbox which she has also been investigating. The scoop is the instrument of this research. The research is ongoing and shows no signs of reaching a conclusion, which is fine. The process is the point.

Ny'Obi follows Puff with the easy certainty of someone who has identified the most important landmark in their world and keeps it in view. She does not require active attention from him at all times: she is content to do her own thing while he does his, as long as his thing is happening in the same general area as her thing. When he leaves a room she follows, scoop in hand, with the matter-of-fact quality of a small creature who simply considers this the correct arrangement.

Discovery is not complete until it has been shared. When Ny'Obi finds something in the sandbox, whether it is a pebble, a leaf fragment, or a small interesting piece of nothing in particular, she locates the nearest available person and presents it with the wide-eyed urgency of an important announcement. The correct response is to look at it and make an approving sound. She does not require sophisticated feedback. She requires acknowledgment that the thing was found and that it is, in fact, a thing. She will then return to the sandbox. The cycle continues.