Jane and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Hanging out (naked) in the woods, Jane and Catseye have a discussion about names.

It was an interesting sensation to be wandering around the forest without anything on. Catseye had discovered quite accidentally when she'd shifted while hunting, thinking she'd heard Nicholas's footfalls on the trail and wishing to speak to him. Her ears had deceived her- there was no one there- but the shift had brought it to her attention that she'd forgotten to put a collar on today. Whoops. Having many collars now led her to forget sometimes, but luckily no one had noticed yet. Luckily it hadn't been Nick, or Catseye feared she might never get a proper word out of him, only the stammering he'd been doing a lot lately. That was one conversation with Jean-Paul she didn't need to have- she already knew how uncomfortable it made people when she was naked in girlform. But there was no one around right now, and the feel of the grass and underbrush on her human feet felt cool and refreshing. So now she was strolling along in girlform, taking in everything in the forest from a human experience rather than her usual feline one.


"It's awful pretty, isn't it?" Jane sat perched on a branch half-way up a tree in a similar state of undress. She'd been enjoying the somewhat erratic weather - pouring rain one moment, pure sun the next - when she'd spotted the lavender-tressed teen below. "I wish it could stay like this forever. I mean, fall is super pretty too, but everything is dying, and spring is all mud. Summer is definitely the best, don't you think?"

Startled by the other girl, whom she hadn't heard or scented, Catseye jumped, gaze shooting up into the tree. She grinned at the sight of Jane also not wearing clothes. "Catseye agrees!" she nodded emphatically. "Summer is definitely best." She shifted into catform so she could climb up to where Jane was perched, then shifted back. "Jane likes the trees and the woods too? Catseye did not know! Catseye has not seen Jane in the woods, Catseye thinks," she murmured, brow furrowing in thought.

"Jane very much likes trees and woods, too," she replied with a grin. "Although usually I'm up there flying." She pointed to the sky, raising both hands over her head and basking in the sunlight that danced between the leaves and over her face. "It's my favorite place in the whole world to be. You can see everything everywhere. I see you down on the ground sometimes. You're very fast."

Catseye followed Jane's pointed arm and looked at the sky, the effect of which had her experiencing disorientation and swaying precariously, having to dig her claws into the bark of the tree to keep from falling. "Catseye is not as fast as Nick," she pointed out. "Catseye has been up in the sky on carswithwings before, and Catseye liked it veryverymuch! Catseye would like to see everything everywhere without being in the box that the carwithwings makes people stay in, though. But Catseye knows if she wasn't in the box she would not have air for breathing. Does Jane's power make it so she can breathe in the air?"

"Nick?" Jane asked, giving Catseye an owlish look. Who was Nick? And what the heck were cars with wings? A vision of Forge cackling maniacally over one of Scott's prized possessions flitted through her mind briefly before she quashed it, rationalizing that as far as she knew Scott hadn't killed anyone recently.

"I turn into a cloud and stuff when I'm flying so I don't have to worry about it so much. I wonder if maybe one of the flyers could take you up with them," she mused. "Or maybe you could ask Nathan to be really, really careful and do the telepath flying thingy without the laking?"

Catseye giggled. "Catseye will have to ask Nathan, yesyesyes. Jane has a veryvery good idea!" Saying the name prompted a question she'd been meaning to ask. "How come Jane told Catseye that her name is Jane because 'cops name anyone they don't know the name for Jane.' Is that like Catseye not knowing a human name when she came to the mansion and Forge naming her Sharon for papers?"

"Pretty much," Jane agreed cheerfully. "I don't know why, but they name everyone they don't have a name for Jane Doe. Or John, if you're a guy. I'm Jane Doe number thirty one, actually. I guess they get a lot of them, which is pretty sad when you think about it, really." Which Jane tried very hard not to do, most of the time, although she couldn't help wondering what the other Janes were like sometimes . It was kind of sisterhood that Catseye had luckily managed to avoid, she realized a little wistfully.


"Do you like being a Sharon?" she asked her, curious.

"Catseye is not really a Sharon," she explained, tail twitching as she watched the clouds. "Catseye's parentpeople named her Gabrielle. But Catseye is not really Gabrielle, either. Catseye is Catseye. It is the most special name to Catseye. Catseye does not understand- Catseye thought all names were supposed to be special, but Catseye does not think Jane is a very special name if the 'cops' name everyone the same thing! It is like Catseye calling everyone 'boy' or 'girl'!"

"I think you have to make your name be special," Jane replied, a bit stung at the thought of being 'unspecial' , even though she knew that's not what the other girl had meant. "I'm so used to being called Jane - I've always been called Jane. At least that I remember. It's me, now. I don't think I could answer to anything else. Besides, do you know what my parents named me? Get this: Miribelle Azure." She widened here eyes for dramatic effect as she waited for the horror to set in. "I mean, really? What kind of parents name their kids Miribelle?"

Not that she had a proper answer to that. She didn't know her parents at all.

"Catseye thinks Mirror ball is a very nice name," she told Jane, smiling. "Mirrors are pretty because they are shiny and let people and cats see themselves. And balls are fun! So if Jane is a ball made out of mirrors she is pretty and fun! But Catseye thinks Jane is pretty and fun being Jane anyway so Catseye thinks if Jane wants to be Jane that is a goodthing! Catseye understands making your name be special and how Jane can like her name Jane even if lots of people have the same name. Because when people are Jane's friends they see that she is special and not like any other Jane. Catseye thinks it is not Jane's fault that cops are sillystupid to name everyone the same thing."

Two things occurred to Jane. First, that if a mirror ball was ever installed in Catseye's room, they would probably never see the girl again -- what with all of the sparkling, spinny, mirrory-goodness -- and second, that she was quite the smart kitten.

Jane beamed at Catseye. "They are sillystupid, aren't they?" she agreed, feeling quite a lot better about herself. Funny how a single, well intentioned compliment could do that. "Now all I have to do is pick a last name, and I'll be set. What do you think of 'Yelchin'? I'm on the 'Y's."

"Catseye does not know what a Yelchin is," she lamented. She liked names better when she knew what they were for, why they were special. "Catseye thinks Jane should name herself 'York'. That is what lots of people are named in Shakespeare for their last names. They are brave and strong!"

"Brave and strong, huh?" She could definitely use a little of that in her life these days. "Maybe I'll give it a try then. Race you back to the mansion?"

"Catseye will win! No one can beat Catseye in running! Except sometimes Kyle and Yvette and Nick and Dori," she amended, frowning thoughtfully for a moment. "But not Jane! But no powers! No being a cloud! It is cheating!"


"But I don't have any clothes!" Jane protested weakly, already trying to figure out how to shimmy down the tree. She might have to change form to do that. "And no being a cat! That counts as powers cheating, too!" Shifting briefly, she slid down the trunk of the tree to the ground below before reforming, wearing a barely-there shift of swirling mist.

"Well?" she demanded with an impatient smile.


"Catseye has no clothes either," she reminded Jane. "Catseye will not be a cat until they get out of the woods, then she will have to shift or people will get uncomfortable. Is that a plan? Race to the end of the woods?"



"...Good point." Jane totally hadn't even thought about it. "The end of the woods it is!"