xp_logs | Forge and Catseye, before the wedding

Before the wedding, it is discovered that Catseye has nothing to wear. Wackines ensues.

A blur or purple whirred into the room the moment Forge opened the door, cat shifting to girl in midleap for the ancient dresser in the corner, which never even budged as she scrambled to crouch down on top of it, one hand scrabbling among the stones of the walls for purchase.

"ShinyBitsBoy make them go away! NooOOowoowow!" The modulated wail expressed Catseye's distress with acute clarity, the girl shifting back to cat, ears laid back as she hissed ferociously at the silver haired woman who now hovered in the doorway with the air of one who had fought such battles countless times before and would not be deterred by storm, hail, fire, or the end of the world for that matter.

The accent was so thick as the woman spoke that not a single word could possibly be made out, but her intent was clear enough as her companion raised her hands, holding enough fabric up to show off something that had to be a dress.

The hiss that answered the unintelligible sentence, however, left no doubt at all to its meaning.

Forge arched an eyebrow, stepping in between Catseye and the old woman. "Here," he said, holding out his arm, "I'll handle it. You can probably tell she's got... issues with clothes she's not used to."

After the door closed, Forge knelt down, careful not to wrinkle the legs of his suit. Placing the dress on the bed, he crouched closer to Catseye's level. "There. The mean nasty Scotswoman is gone. So, were you planning on going to the wedding in shorts and a t-shirt, or just a collar?"

A disconsolate mew answered him, Catseye scooting close enough to the edge of the dresser to plant her forehead against his (good) shoulder, curling up in as tiny a ball she could manage for a cat her size. Unhappy was one way to express how she was feeling at that moment. The shift was smooth once more and though it meant for limbs sticking out at slightly odd angles for most humans, Catseye mostly didn't move much at all.

"NastyOldWoman!" Who had rushed into the room so suddenly Catseye had nearly leapt out of the window in sudden startled surprise. The reinforcements had not helped much either. "Catseye is not wearing any of that! Too too tight!" She'd hated it on sight. Mostly because it had been imposed upon her, true, but to her it was an entirely valid reason.

Forge held up the dress and inspected it. Glancing discreetly at Catseye and trying not to be TOO closely analytical, he quickly deduced that indeed, as designed, the corsetlike stays in the dress would be horribly uncomfortable for her.

"Well, we'll have to fix it up a little. I'm no Clarice, but this isn't so much fashion as it is engineering, really," he said, inspecting the hooks and loops in the back of the dress. "We've got a few hours before the ceremony still, I think that I can get this adjusted in time to where it'll be comfortable. Just don't try and run around or dance in it - you think you can do that for an hour or so, and then you can ditch it for the reception?"

Eyeing the dress doubtfully, Catseye considered the offer. It was tempting to just keep on howling and hide under the bed for a while, but that would be... easy. And possibly ruin the whole wedding and reception thing for Forge, and with everything else that had happened lately, Catseye wasn't sure she was willing to do that just for the sake of her own convenience.

"No PointyTipShoes?" There was a pathetically hopeful gleam in her eyes at that and Catseye made no attempt to hide it. After all, if she could get away with going barefoot, maybe, just maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Meggan gets to go barefoot, you get to go barefoot," Forge decided. "So long as we don't sit you next to Miles and..." There was a thought. What would happen if she and Miles were next to each other? Would she turn into a cat or a girl?

"Yeah, no shoes, then." Forge began making small incisions with his pocketknife in the seams of the dress, pulling out the corset stays. Folding it over his restrained arm, he worked slowly but methodically. "Fun plane ride here, huh?" he asked.

Crouching down comfortably on the dresser – which involved turning into a human pretzel more than anything else – Catseye watching him work. "Catseye slept most of the way. The BigBlackPlane makes nice noises to sleep to." She smiled at him, a touch slyly. "ShinyBitsBoy was forgetting to breathe each time Catseye checked on him though."

The little boys had been whispering the entire time though, with the occasional shriek of delight as well – it was hardly anything Catseye couldn't sleep through if so inclined however, but making sure Forge didn't try to sneak off to poke at something he shouldn't have been poking at had kept her from napping through the entire flight.

"That's one beautiful machine," Forge said reverently, holding his pocketknife in his teeth and flipping the dress up onto the bed to work on it one-armed. "Do you know how rare it is for me to look at something and NOT immediately think of how to make it better? Although if they're willing to sacrifice a little top speed, I could probably double their fuel efficiency..." he trailed off, pulling out another corset stay and removing a small spool of wire from his luggage. "Don't have any fancy thread, but this should hold the back together... put it on?" He indicated the dress and turned around politely to look out the window at the Scottish countryside.

One quick shift to cat and the collar was merrily pried off and throw in Forge's general direction, Catseye then resuming human form to reaching for the dress. Sorting out what went where was a tad bit more complicated than anticipated due to some of the layering involved in the fabric, eventually resulting in a firm thud as the dress won the battle. A low hiss of annoyance followed but finally, heaving a sigh, Catseye stood up once more. "Catseye has the Thing on now." One arm crossing over her chest to hold it up, Catseye blew out air, directing it upwards to push a lock of hair away from her face.

Forge turned around, eyebrows almost immediately shooting into his hairline. "That, um... well, it fits." Diplomacy won out over a sudden attack of teenage hormones as he reminded himself of who was standing there in the completely disconcerting dress. While still very traditional and conservative, it suited her quite well, he thought. Motioning for her to turn around, he began lacing the back of it shut with some of the wire he carried for maintenance. "This won't look weird, and this way, it won't be too tight. Figure you can probably just shift to get out of it - you'll want to carry the collar in a pocket... okay, around your wrist or something..." he corrected. "Remember, shift down, not up?"

"Catseye will remember!" She beamed at him, pleased with the possibility to just get out of it as soon as it the ceremony was over. A pause ensued as he finished lacing up the dress with wire, and then Catseye stopped to actually look at the dress. And did the only thing any self respecting cat would do, once she'd taken a deep enough breath to ascertain that the Thing adapted well to her breathing this time around. "Is ShinyBitsBoy sure the Thing fits properly? Catseye does not look silly?" She twisted around, tail twitching under the confinement of the material, dancing a short distance from him as she tried to get a good look at herself. It didn't matter if she was stuck in human shape for this, she still intended to carry off being a cat anyway. And cats always looked good. It went with the "owning a room as soon you entered it" walk.

"So long as you don't go lifting up the back with your tail," Forge quipped. "That might bother a few people." He reached into the bag, hefting his digital camera and placing the strap around his neck. "So, want to walk around beforehand and help me find pictures to take for their scrapbook?"

"No tail! Pbhhht!" Well, Catseye wasn't about to do that. It wasn't as if she was wearing anything under the dress and she remembered only too well how people tended to get all bent out of shape at seeing her walk without clothing in the mansion. Doing so here with the really weird humans that lived here would probably get her in all sorts of trouble she'd rather avoid. Being chased down hallways by humans jabbering at you in odd languages wasn't anything new, but those old women had been scary. Hopping place just to feel the firm stones under her bare feet and to hear the swish of the fabric. Not as interesting as the noises the plane had made but still fun. "Pictures! Catseye will help!"

"Good, because I brought a friend, too." Forge reached down and withdrew the familiar form of Catseye's mini-squid toy from the luggage. "MiniSquid," he ordered, depressing a small switch. "Necktie, Windsor."

In a blur of pink plush motion, the eight-armed construct scampered over Forge's shoulders, lifting his collar and perfectly tying his tie around his neck, finishing with a quick shuffle-footed dance before leaping onto the bed.

"Eeeeeeeeee!" The mirrors likely would have given way under the auditory assault were it not for them having been such an established part of the castle that shattering might have been considered rude. Catseye pounced on the MiniSquid with a second, less piercing shriek of glee and once it was firmly affixed to her wrist, proceeded to do the same to Forge, with the restraint due his recent operation. The suddenly clumsy trip on the way to the door was absently corrected by Catseye slapping one hand to the doorframe and swatting at the dress, before looking back at Forge cheerfully. "Pictures now!" And exploration. The castle definitely merited exploration.

Forge simply raised the camera and caught a quick photo of Catseye standing there in the doorway, grin on her face and the MiniSquid tightly around one wrist. "One down," he announced, "and an entire bridal party to ambush. Mr. LeBeau said he'd pay good money for a photo of Amanda and Mr. Marko."

"StinkyStinkMan says a lot of things he doesn't mean," was Catseye blithe response as she breezed out the door, ready to hunt down picture prey. "Thataway!" she pointed down the hallway and waited for Forge to catch up. At least she could have fun while wearing the Thing – that she might forget entirely about the fact that she was wearing it never crossed her mind, of course.