LOG: Forge, Jennie and Catseye

[x-roulette.livejournal.com]

Set last night. Jennie's midnight wanderings lead her to cross paths with Catseye. Although, somebody forgot to tell her about Catseye's "big" shape.



Jennie yawned and stretched, feeling the satisfying crack of her
shoulder joints as the stumbled out into the hallway. It was dark
out, although if it was late at night or early in the morning, Jennie
couldn't tell. After her arrival she just kind of fell asleep, and
stayed asleep. She couldn't quite explain it, but lethargy had crept
in and sucked all the energy out of her. Jennie knew she should
be out and about exploring and meeting new people, but lately all she
ever wanted to do now was sleep.

Although now she needed to find the bathroom.

She had been out hunting, earlier, with Rahne. And while most of the
motions of this current shape were familiar to her, hunting had still
been something entirely knew, considering that big game was now most
certainly a different proposition than before. Rahne was patient
though, and Catseye quick to learn, which meant shifting to big cat
shape wasn't so annoying a proposition anymore in regards to hunger,
the few times Catseye indulged in it.

And it meant she lingered in that shape as long as possible after
eating, since she could enjoy it without hunger pangs of doom gnawing
away at her. Though it did mean being horribly careful of the wooden
floors when skulking back to the third floor to find a nice warm bed
to curl up in with someone. Big Cat shape and all. Clambering up the
last of the steps, Catseye curled around the corner of the wall,
yawning mightily as cats (or several hundred pounds' worth of cougar)
were wont to do.

Jennie's fuzzy brain registered a loud sort of booming yawn and turned
toward the source, only to make eye contact with a large purple cougar
coming around the corner. She blinked once, twice, slapped her face,
realized it wasn't a dream, and shrieked.

The shriek nearly gave Catseye a heart attack, claws scrabbling over
wood as she did one of the purely catlike starts of surprise, hopping
several feet up on the air and turning around to land crouched on all
fours, staring at the source of the scream, tail lashing. The low yowl
was both interrogative and reproachful as she backed away a few paces,
heart beating much faster than it had any right to.

Hearing the yowl, Forge perked up and bolted from his desk. A sound
like that usually meant Catseye had been surprised by something. At
that timbre and volume, it definitely meant she was in Big Cat form,
and that almost always meant one thing. Property damage, and an angry
Mr. Marko.

Okay, two things.

Skidding around the corner, he saw Jennie, hands to her face,
stock-still and frozen, with the purple cat, all five hundred pounds
of her, coiled in a tense posture.

"Whoa!" he called, stepping between the two of them. "Time out. This
has got to be a misunderstanding, because while I'm not one to say no
to a good catfight, this can only end in tears. Jennie, are you okay?"
He glanced quickly over his shoulder. "Catseye? Smaller, please?"
"Kitty," said Jennie intelligently, pointing. "Big kitty."

"Mrreow!" The sound was far louder than it usually was, Catseye will
in her larger shape as she emitted the protest. The screaming girl's
words brought faint glow of approval though, and she settled out of
her crouch to half arch her back approvingly, before flowing into a
smaller, cat house shape. "Mrrr!" Trotting forward, she came to a stop
in front of both Forge and Jennie and sat down, licking her shoulder
while politely ignoring Jennie's obvious discomfiture.

"She, uh, she does that," Forge said, trying to put the new girl at
ease. Crouching down, he stroked the back of Catseye's head with his
mechanical hand, listening to the responsive purr. "But usually not in
the house. Or during class, thankfully."

"Wait? She, don't tell me, this is another student?" Jennie put her
head in her hands. Took a couple of deep breaths. Then she crouched
down until she was eye-level with the cat. "Um, Hi, I'm Jennie." She
awkwardly stuck out a hand.

With a half purr that might have passed for a laugh, Catseye leaned
forward - past the hand, to press her cheek against Jennie's, purring
cheerfully. She recovered nicely enough, this one. And knew some of
the social niceties. Catseye had to approve.

"That usually means she likes you," Forge said, dropping onto his butt
and leaning against the wall. "Either that or that she's going to
sneak into your bed at some weird hour of the morning and steal all
your covers. She does that too."

Jennie giggled and carefully rubbed Cateye's head. "So, is she a cat
that turns into a big cat, or...?"

Oh yes, Catseye approved! And since she felt like answering on
her own, Catseye shifted to human, ending up nose to nose with Jennie,
eyes wide and cheerful - and still slitted like a cat's. "Catseye can
shift from cat to human to big cat!" And with a small meep, she then
went cross eyed, a loud rumbling from the area of her stomach
reminding her in no uncertain terms of the price to be paid for such
things. "Mrr. Catseyeishungrynow."

Jennie fell backwards none too gracefully in surprise. Regaining her
composure and some of her dignity, Jennie scrambled back onto her feet
and smiled sheepishly. "That is going to take some getting used to."
She laughed. Jennie had always been able to take new situations in stride,
which was extremely lucky for her, as this place just kept throwing her
curveballs. Well, a purple cat-girl wasn't so bad. If she could take the
blue guy with the tail, she most certainly could accept Catgirl. Or Catseye.

"It's funnier when she does it in your roommate's bed," Forge
explained with a smile, ruffling Catseye's hair. "What say we hit the
kitchen and see if there's any pastrami left over for sandwiches, eh?"

"Yes! Catseye is hungry!" The pinched look on her face was underscored
by another mighty rumbling from the vicinity of her stomach. "Gah.
Catseye knows Catseye is not supposed to change so often... mrrr..."
The pitiful sound was followed by an equally piteous look directed at
both Forge and Jennie.

Jennie heaved herself onto her feet. "I could go for a snack." She said.
Because she herself hadn't eaten in very long time. She extended a hand to
help Catseye up. "Shall we?"