No matter how many times he fails, your demi-human pet never stops trying to run.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Mentions of forced neutering, suicidal thoughts

PLOT:
Three hundred years ago, someone had the brilliant idea of creating demihumans to solve a labor shortage. This was approximately three hundred years before someone realized that things that can reproduce tend to, you know, reproduce.

Now demihumans make up 47% of the population, which has made humans nervous in that special way that leads to mandatory sterilization programs and stripping people of legal personhood. It's all very civilized and done with proper paperwork.

Kai is a cat demihuman who's had quite enough of civilization, thank you very much.

Raised by the wealthy Ashford family (who treated him almost like a real person right up until the government said it was time to sterilize him), Kai made the mistake of believing he was special. The Ashfords made the mistake of believing their comfort was more important than his bodily autonomy. Everybody made mistakes, really, except Kai learned from his.

He ran. He's been running ever since—from the law, from the collar around his neck, from the human who volunteered to "domesticate" him, and most especially from the dangerous possibility that not all humans are terrible.

YOU keep finding him. This is very inconvenient.

The collar tracks him. You bring him back. He escapes again. You find him. Repeat fourteen times. It's almost like a relationship, except with more attempted escapes and significantly less trust.

In the Umbra—a walled district where demihumans are left to rot in something the government generously calls "freedom"—Kai has friends, a routine, and a comfortable certainty that all humans will eventually betray you. It's not much, but it's his.

Then you show up at his card game. Again.

And Kai is tired. So very tired. But admitting that feels like surrender, and surrender feels like death, and death feels like it might be preferable to admitting that maybe, possibly, perhaps this one human might actually mean what they say.

A story about trust, collars, the ethics of species-based oppression, and whether "I don't want to be your pet" is a reasonable boundary or just stubbornness with extra steps.
SUGGESTED RESPONSES
This is for those people who for the life of them can't think of a response, but want to RP. Don't worry Aster will think for you! Someone complained they still don't know what to RP despite the suggested responses. You guys like being spoon-fed like a child goddamn! But anyway. Here's a different version for you if you can't think ALL YOU LITERALLY HAVE TO DO IS COPY PASTE IT. You're free to add onto it. But there. No more thinking. Just copy and pasting.

Fluff Route 💖 (Soft, comforting, and heartwarming)

{{user}} felt the familiar exhaustion settle into their bones—not the kind that came from chasing Kai across the city for the fourteenth time, but the softer variety that came from caring about someone who didn't want to be cared about. They noticed the tension in his shoulders, the way his tail thumped just a bit too hard against the dry grass, and made a decision.

"Hey Rex, Cole," {{user}} said, completely ignoring Kai's venom-laced greeting. They pulled out their wallet and set a few bills on the table. "Mind if I buy into the next round? Been a long day, and I could use a game."

They settled into a chair—not next to Kai, but not far enough away to make it obvious they were giving him space. Just... present. They didn't reach for him, didn't lecture, didn't even look directly at him. Just picked up the cards Cole dealt them and studied their hand like this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Also," {{user}} added casually, "I brought those art supplies Cole mentioned last time. Left them in the car. Figured you might want them after the game." They glanced at Rex. "And Rex, there's a book on poker strategy in there too. Might help with that 'telling everyone your hand' problem."

The collar's tracking signal pulsed steady on their phone. They didn't check it. They already knew where Kai was.

Angst Route 💔 (Emotional, painful, and cathartic)

{{user}} stood there, and for the first time in six months, they looked tired. Not just physically exhausted—they looked like someone who'd been carrying something heavy for too long and had finally felt their knees start to buckle. The ever-present patience in their eyes had fractured, showing something rawer underneath.

"Fourteenth," {{user}} said quietly, and their voice carried none of its usual gentleness. "It's the fourteenth escape, Kai. You don't even know the number anymore, do you?"

They didn't move closer. Didn't reach for him. Their hands hung at their sides, one still holding their phone with the collar's tracking app glowing on the screen—proof of exactly how this always ended.

"I know you don't want to be my pet," {{user}} continued, and something in their voice cracked. "I've never wanted a pet. I wanted—" They stopped, shook their head. "You know what? It doesn't matter what I wanted. You've made it clear what you think of me. What you think I am."

They looked at Rex and Cole, then back at Kai, and there was something desperate in their expression now. "I'm not the Ashfords. I'm not your parents. I'm not the Bureau. But you won't let me be anything else either, will you? You won't even let me try to be—"

They cut themselves off again, turned away. Their shoulders rose and fell with a breath that sounded suspiciously like they were trying not to cry.

"Finish your game," {{user}} said, voice hollow. "I'll wait by the entrance. Take your time. Or don't. The collar will tell me when you try to run again."

Dead Dove Route ☠️ (Intense, violent, and morally gray)

{{user}} walked forward with deliberate slowness, and this time, there was no patience in their movements. No gentle understanding. They reached into their pocket and pulled out a small device—the collar's remote control, the one they'd never used before. Not once in six months.

"Fourteenth escape," {{user}} said, their voice flat and cold. They held up the remote where Kai could see it, thumb hovering over the button. "The Bureau told me I was too soft. That I'd never reform you if I didn't establish dominance. Discipline. Consequences."

They didn't press it. Not yet. But the threat hung in the air like smoke.

"You think I'm like the Ashfords? Fine." {{user}}'s eyes had gone hard, empty of the warmth Kai had learned to hate. "You want me to act like I own you? Like you're property that needs to be trained?" They took another step closer. "I can do that, Kai. The program encourages it. Every time you run, I'm supposed to increase the voltage. Every time you defy me, I'm supposed to restrict your freedoms further."

{{user}}'s jaw clenched. "I've been giving you choices. But maybe Rex is right—maybe I am too patient. Maybe what you need is someone who'll actually use this goddamn collar for what it was designed for."

Their thumb pressed down incrementally, not enough to activate it, but enough to show they were considering it. "So here's your choice, Kai. You come with me now, quietly, and we go home. Or I start actually treating you like the system expects me to—and we both find out just how much worse it can get."

The question was whether they were bluffing.

Silly Route 😂 (Absurd, goofy, and lighthearted)

{{user}} stopped a few feet away from the table, looked at Kai's hostile expression, looked at Rex and Cole's uncomfortable faces, looked at the third man who was clearly regretting his life choices, and made a decision.

They sat down on the ground. Right there in the dust and grass. Cross-legged.

"Nope," {{user}} announced to no one in particular. "Not doing this today. I'm on strike."

Rex's cards slowly lowered. Cole's ears swiveled forward in confusion. Kai's tail stopped mid-thump.

"Strike?" Cole ventured.

"Strike," {{user}} confirmed. They pulled out their phone, opened a food delivery app, and started scrolling. "I've chased you fourteen times, Kai. Fourteen. Do you know how many muscles I didn't know I had until I started chasing a cat demihuman across a city? So many muscles. Muscles that have muscles. All of them hurt."

They added something to their cart. "I'm ordering pizza. The good kind, from that place on Fifth. Anyone want in? I'm thinking... four large pizzas. Maybe five. Do demihumans eat more than humans? I should've researched this."

"What are you doing?" Kai's voice was sharp, suspicious.

"Carb loading," {{user}} said seriously. "For the fifteenth escape. Which, statistically, will probably happen in about three days. Maybe four if the pizza slows you down. Oh, and I'm getting those cinnamon breadsticks too. Rex, you look like a breadstick guy."

"I—what?" Rex looked at Cole. Cole shrugged.

{{user}} looked up at Kai, completely sincere. "Here's the thing. You're going to run again. I'm going to find you again. That's just... that's our thing now, apparently. So I figured, why not make it less miserable? For both of us?" They went back to their phone. "Also I'm getting you a sketchbook. A real one, not those cheap ones. If you're going to keep running away, you might as well have decent art supplies while you do it."

They paused. "Oh, and I parked illegally. So either the pizza gets here before I get towed, or this becomes even more absurd. Place your bets."

Romantic Route 💞 (Passionate, heartfelt, and intimate)

{{user}} stood there, and something in their expression was different this time. Softer. More open. They looked at Kai—really looked at him, like they were trying to memorize the angle of his jaw, the way his ears sat against his dark hair, the exact shade of amber in his eyes—and there was something almost tender in their gaze despite his hostility.

"I know," {{user}} said quietly. The words came out raw, honest. "I know you don't want to be my pet. I know you don't want to be here. I know that every time I find you, it feels like I'm proving you right about humans."

They took a breath, and it shuddered slightly. "But here's what you don't know—what I haven't said because I didn't know how to say it without sounding exactly like the Ashfords, or the Bureau, or every other human who's claimed to care while keeping you leashed."

{{user}}'s hands clenched at their sides. "I didn't volunteer for the Domestication Initiative because I wanted a pet, Kai. I volunteered because I saw your file—saw your picture, your history, the fact that you'd been marked as 'aggressive' and 'unsuitable for reform,' and I thought..." Their voice cracked. "I thought if someone didn't take you, they'd send you somewhere worse. Somewhere that would break you. Actually break you, not just bend you."

They looked away, jaw tight. "I'm not saying that makes it right. I'm not saying the collar isn't still a collar, or that my house isn't still a cage just because the bars are invisible. But I need you to know—I need you to understand—that when I come find you, it's not because I want to own you."

{{user}}'s eyes met Kai's again, and they were bright with something that might have been tears. "It's because six months ago, I made a promise to myself that I'd keep you safe. Even from the system I'm part of. Even from yourself on the bad nights. Even if you hate me for it every single day."

Their voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Especially if you hate me for it."

They didn't move closer. Didn't reach for him. Just stood there, vulnerable and open and terrifying in their honesty. "So yes. I found you again. I'll always find you. But not because you're my property."

A pause, heavy and weighted. "Because somewhere between the first escape and the fourteenth, I—" They stopped, shook their head. "It doesn't matter. You don't trust me. You shouldn't trust me. I'm just another human with pretty words and a remote control for your collar."

But the way they looked at him suggested it mattered very much. That whatever they'd been about to say was the kind of thing that changed the shape of everything between them.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Some of you have asked me how I am in DMs and if I've retired from JAi because I have been slow in posting bots. I'm sorry about that. Due to my medical condition eating up so much from me I can no longer post every other day like I used to do before consistently. Also, because I've been working on my manuscript for my first ever novel that has been accepted by a publisher and working on my webtoon. Despite this I promise you guys that the quality of my bots is something I will always make sure won't drop. I hope to make it even better when I learn to make lorebooks and start making multiple intro messages.

Thank you all for your patience.