Midsummer's Nightmare - Yvette and Catseye

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

At rehearsal, another accident occurs, and Catseye insists someone must be responsible.



Catseye was practicing lines near the middle of the stage with Yvette, throwing in a roar here and there for form, just to make people jump. Mostly, she was providing a sounding board for Yvette to run her lines, reading along to correct any mistakes, though they were few and far between. "Is SharpSkinGirl excited about the play?" she asked curiously, attention waning. "Catseye is excited. BigBrother is going to come watch and so is the MotherWoman!"

"Oh, yes. I am thinking I will ask Mr. Logan to be watching for me. And Miss Dani." Yvette's eyes glowed brightly, pleased for her friend. "And your mother is to come? Oh, that is the very good news. You are not seeing her so much before, so I am glad she is starting to, how you say? Come around?"

"BigBrother thinks that if MotherWoman sees Catseye doing human acting then MotherWoman will like Catseye more and not be afraid or confused," she explained with a shrug. She didn't give her mother much thought, really. Cats didn't stay attached to their mothers the way humans did, after all. And the family she had at the mansion was the one that really mattered to her- along with Evan, of course. "The CigarMan and BakingBreadGirl will cheer very loud for SharpSkinGirl," Catseye agreed with a wide smile. "Is SharpSkinGirl going to ask BlueBirdBoy to come?" she asked, tentatively. "BlueBirdBoy likes the Shakespeare."

"You brother is having the good idea, I think. I am wishing my mother could be coming, but she is too far away." Yvette sighed a little. While her mother and herself weren't as close as they had been, there was a degree of regret she couldn't show her how far she had come from the shy little mouse of old. "I think I can be asking. I do not know if the crowd is the bad thing for him, but I think it would be good for him to be leaving the mansion and being the real person again." A slightly impish grin, fitting with the Puck costume, crossed her face. "And he is having the trouble saying no to me when I am asking and being cute."

Catseye giggled at her last comment. "Yesyesyes! Catseye agrees. SharpSkinGirl is very cute and BlueBirdBoy will not say no to SharpSkinGirl. Catseye will not ask because BlueBirdBoy does not like Catseye but he likes SharpSkinGirl and Catseye thinks he should come so SharpSkinGirl should ask." She pondered over what Yvette had said about her mother being too far away. "Catseye thinks ShinyBitsBoy can use a machine to record the play like a movie and send to SharpSkinGirl's MotherWoman?" she suggested.

"I think Jay is liking you. He was just being confused and hurt," Yvette explained. "I think if you can be talking, you will see he is much better now." She didn't want to push too hard, however, and nodded at the rest. "I think that is the very good idea. I will ask Mr. Forge if he can do this for me."

"ShinyBitsBoy can do anything," Catseye pointed out emphatically, "and Catseye would like to talk to BlueBirdBoy and be friends again but only if BlueBirdBoy wants to." She waved the script at Yvette. "Keep going, SharpSkinGirl, keep going because you have the second-best part in the show after Catseye's Snug but very much more lines and you have to practice practice practice and the MotherWoman will be so very proud!" Moving closer to the red-skinned girl, Catseye crossed over the trap door in the middle of the stage. When she put her weight on it, however, she found herself dropping through thin air.

"Catseye!" Yvette lept forward, dropping to kneel at the lip of the hole. Her eyes blazed brightly as she peered down into the darkness. "Catseye, are you all right?"

She'd shifted into catform as she's been in the air and landed on her feet under the stage. The cat couldn't leap back up through the trap door but she mewed at Yvette to reassure her and began to sniff liberally around the area, catching the faint whiff of the smell she'd smelled in the womens dressing room. Confused, she raced through the underbelly of the stage and back up to the main level of the theatre to Yvette, where she shifted back to girlform. "Catseye is fine." She peered down into the hole. "How come the door opened? Catseye smelled a boysmell but didn't see anyone."

Yvette was examining the trap door, since she'd been reassured Catseye was all right - afterall, cats did land on their feet and it wasn't a huge drop. "See, here? The screws, they are loose," she said, pointing at the latch that held the trapdoor closed when it wasn't being used. "And some are falling out. The accident, that is all."

Catseye leaned over to inspect where Yvette was pointing and sniffed deeply. "But Catseye smelled the same boysmell she smelled before when she was in the dressing room and told everyone that there was a boysmell but nobody there," she said with a frown, trying to puzzle it out in her head. "Now there is boysmell but nobody there again. Catseye thinks there is a SneakyFastBoy here not an accident."

"But why would someone do such a thing?" Yvette asked, reasonably. "And we are the only mutants here and it is not one of us."

Reasonable she might have been, but cats weren't particularly known for their adherance to reason, and neither was Catseye. "Catseye does not know why someone would do something SneakyBad to Catseye, but Catseye knows what Catseye smelled and it was a boysmell, not an accident." She shook her head emphatically.

"Well, accident or prank or something else, we should be saying something to the teachers, yes? Before someone is getting hurt." Yvette straightened from her crouch. "Will you be guarding the hole until I am coming back with someone, please?"

"Yes!" Catseye agreed, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the hole and crossing her arms over her chest, trying to look menacing. "SharpSkinGirl is VeryVerySmart to think of saying something and Catseye will be a VeryGood guard, Catseye promises!"

Despite herself, Yvette couldn't help a giggle. "I will be back soon, yes?" she promised, and went off to find said teacher.