Vanessa & Catseye | Wednesday morning

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Vanessa goes to the mansion to use the archery range and clear her head. The catgirl finds out why she sounds so funny.

She hadn't been in the office for a few days. Vanessa hadn't bothered to go near it because she really was thinking about whether or not she could do the job. LeBeau was right and so was Jubilee, if she couldn't be suspicious of everyone could she do the job X-Force needed her to? The metamorph needed some distraction so she could shut her brain off enough to think logically about it all, or as logically as she was going to manage. That was why she was out at Xavier's for the second day in a row. Yesterday it was the shooting range to kill off a few clips of ammunition and let off steam. Today it was the archery range to relax. Adrienne had been nice enough to let Vanessa grab a ride out to the mansion with her from the city. She didn't think her motorcycle was really the way to go with the winter weather. Besides, she could always either find someone to give her a ride back out to the city later or steal a couch for the night. The couch idea might have been better.

Vanessa lined up another shot, her arrow steady and straight as she looked down the length of it to the target off in the distance. A controlled exhale relaxed her shoulders and her arm before her fingers released the string and let the arrow loose to soar through the air. The arrowhead buried itself in the edge of the red center circle.

The noise of the twanging bowstring had intrigued a hunting Catseye, who had stalked low to the ground at the treeline that marked the edge of the archery field so she could watch Morgan practice. She had been watching the last few shots with rising interest, and finally when the latest arrow hit the circle, the cougar couldn't resist. She padded over to the target and sniffed at it.

Vanessa had been about to reach back and pull another arrow from her quiver, but the appearance of the large, purple cat had stopped her. Her bow lowered, pointed at the ground, and the woman let her free arm hang at her side while she watched. It'd been a while since she'd seen the purple cougar. It'd been a long time since she'd seen the purple housecat either, actually. Catseye always seemed to be a catgirl when Morgan saw her these days. It was an odd thing to realize, particularly when she had been so used to the little purple cat sneaking into her bed and being there when the metamorph woke up at one point.

"Hey, Catseye," she greeted once the cougar seemed to be done sniffing at the target. The voice was Vanessa's own South Boston accent rather than Morgan's Irish Boston.

Catseye's head whipped in Morgan's direction almost guiltily, but since Morgan didn't seem angry the large cat ambled over to her and headbutted Morgan's hip, hard, making a happy 'whuff' sound. She shifted to girlform and cocked her head at Morgan. "How come your voice sounds different, WrongNamesWoman?" she inquired curiously, going back to the old name she'd been using for Morgan since they'd met since she realized she wasn't sure what else to call her.

Vanessa was just about to reach out and pet the cougar on her head when the large feline shifted into a girl. Catseye was the same height as Vanessa so the metamorph had to shift her eyes up quite a distance to find the purple ones looking at her somewhat quizzically. Catseye, the former mercenary noticed, had more muscle on her frame than the blue woman did. It was an odd thing to notice, but it made sense. Then the question processed and caught her a little off guard. "I could tell you the real reason if you want, but only if you won't tell anyone else."

"I am good at keeping secrets," Catseye assured the other woman, nodding emphatically. "As long as they are not because of something Bad. If you did something Bad though you should not tell me because I will have to tell someone if you did something Bad like murder or steal."

Vanessa had done both of those plenty of times, but neither was pertinent to why she sounded funny so she figured ignoring that point was quite alright. "All cats are good at keeping secrets, aren't they?" She smiled a bit and it was Vanessa's smile stretching out over her lips rather than Morgan's half-smile. "Always amassing secrets and holding onto them, giving people knowing looks all the time." She now had a mental image of Catseye as a house cat laying on top of a pile of secrets looking greedy and smug in that way only felines could. It only broadened her smile. "This is my actual voice. The other one? The one that sounds so Irish? It's fake."

"Really?" Catseye's enthusiasm rivaled a child's at Christmas. "You can change your voice?! That is so supersneaky! You changed your smile too! It is pretty! How come you pretend to be a fake person though?"

"It's more an accent than a voice. But different accents use your voice different. Americans usually have deeper voices when they speak than the Irish so the Irish makes my voice go up. Like a music note sort of." She wasn't really sure how else to explain the voice difference. "I can change my voice completely with mimics because my vocal chords change." She'd never picked up the mimic of the catgirl and remained a girl while in it. Vanessa had always shifted into a cat form to go carousing with the purple feline who had threatened to paint her a different color because only Catseye could be purple.

The question of being a fake person was harder to answer. The corners of the woman's mouth pulled downward into a small frown. "I didn't know if I could be me when I came here. So I made someone else to be. But most people don't know that. That's why it's a secret."

"Yesyes you sound like Terry sometimes," she nodded, "like music. How come you thought you could not be you? Were you hiding or were you just waiting for the right time to be you?" Hiding was unacceptable to the catgirl (unless one was hunting, or being hunted). Waiting for the right time to tell a secret, that she could support.

Vanessa thought about that. Why had she thought she couldn't be herself? "I wasn't really sure who I was. I wasn't willing to put that person out there with strangers when I didn't know who she was. So I guess I was waiting to figure that out before being me. So I guess I was waiting for the right time?" Strange, Vanessa hadn't really had this conversation with anyone. Not even with Adrienne who she was closer to than anyone else. Yet the catgirl's honest curiosity spurred it. Funny how that happened.

"Waiting is good," Catseye said with a nod. "Especially if you do not know who you are. That way you can decide the best time to be yourself. I understand. But your real self is not a cat yes? Both your selves are people!" She giggled at that idea; that you could have a crisis of identity while remaining the same species throughout.

It was very hard to not smile at the catgirl's observations. "Yes, both of my selves are people. But I can be many people. You can only be one person or two cats. It's not so different being many people."

Offended, Catseye poked Morgan in the shoulder. "Being two cats is the bestest! You can only be one cat and it is only because I let you copy me, the best cat ever!"

Laughing, Vanessa shook her head at the girl. "I meant that being many people is sort of like being a girl and a cat. But not as cool as being a cat, obviously, because I still only get two legs."

"You could be a cat now," the catgirl suggested with a grin. "We could go hunting. I do not know what I should call you now. Do your fake person and your real self have the same name?"

Clever cat, wasn't she? So many people pretended to be someone they weren't while pretending that person really was them. But here Vanessa was with an entire other identity. Most people wouldn't have considered that but Catseye had. "The name on my birth certificate is Vanessa Carlysle. We could go hunting." Vanessa let her voice trail off and a smile sneak onto her lips.

"But do I call you Vanessa all the time or only when you are yourself?" the inquired, not ready to go hunting until she had worked out what the WrongsNamesWoman's special name was. "You said your real self was a secret? So should I call you Morgan sometimes?"

"You can tell by the voice which name." Vanessa was smiling because there wasn't any way to not smile at the dedication with which Catseye was figuring out the quandry set before her. "You can tell the differences between the accents, right?"

Nodding, Catseye toyed with one of Vanessa's arrows. "I can yesyes. So I should call you either Vanessa or Morgan? Or Vanessa or Miss Lennox?" She had been an instructor at the school at one time, after all.

"Vanessa or Morgan," she confirmed with a nod. "I'm not a teacher anymore." She skipped the fact that she was considering a substitute position if she did, indeed, quit her job at Snow Valley. That was neither here nor there for the moment and she'd cross that when she came to it. Something about being a substitute didn't really fill her with a need to be referred to as Miss Lennox, though.

"Okay Vanessa! Do you want to go hunting now? It will be nice to go hunting with another cat I have been hunting a lot with my wolfboy his name is Nick and he is a good hunter but he is not a cat."

"He is definitely not a cat," the metamorph agreed. She set about collecting all her arrows so she could slide them back into her now mostly empty quiver. "Hunting would be great, just let me get my stuff together and ditch it somewhere safe, okay? I met your wolfboy the other day. I like him, he's a nice guy. Relaxes a lot when someone brings you up."

"You met my wolfboy?" Catseye's face lit up. "He is a nice wolfboy yesyesyes. I love him very much. He is a good hunter. You said you are not a teacher anymore but can you teach me how to shoot those sticks sometime?" The arrows were definitely curious.

"You want to learn archery?" That made the woman pause and look at the catgirl over her shoulder. Catseye had an infectious sort of enthusiasm about things. How did you say no to that? "Sure, I can teach you archery if you'd like. We can figure out a day of the week that we'll do it." With her last arrow back in her quiver, Vanessa went back to the teenager. "And, yes, your wolfboy is a very nice wolfboy. I like him a lot. And I told him if people tried to use their wings or nail guns or pipes on him because he made a mistake and made you sad but he didn't mean it and tried to fix it that I wouldn't let them use those on him." Actually she'd offer to shoot them with the 'sticks' Catseye wanted to learn to shoot, but that sounded so much harsher out of context.

Catseye basically wanted to learn everything, so she let the question go unanswered. "Yesyes a day of the week would be good! I would like to learn thank you! That was nice of you to help Nick if Jay and Forge and Kyle try to hurt him," she pointed out. "I think even if Nick did hurt me which he would nevereverever do I would not want the boys to hurt Nick even if I was hurt."

"No worries, kitty cat, I've got your wolfboy covered." She grinned and gave the purple-haired girl a wink. "Let me figure out where I've got time in my schedule," and if she was going to have any schedule at all anymore, "and we'll figure out a day for archery lessons. Now, I need somewhere to stash my bow and arrow and clothes so we can go hunting. Any brilliant ideas that are closer than Laurie or Adrienne's suite?" She would not leave her clothes in Lex's suite, particularly because she might be a little too tempted to pounce him without them afterward.

Catseye nodded and took Vanessa by the hand, leading her a short distance through the woods to the base of one particular tree. She dug underneath it for a few moments and uncovered a Tupperware box, containing two bottles of water and a pastrami sandwich, but with enough room left over to stuff some clothes in. It was one of the many survival tubs she had hidden throughout her woods to fend off the hunger that came from shifting from BigCat to girl. "You can put your clothes in here if you want, they will stay clean. And we can put your bow and arrows in the tree or I can go put them in the treehouse if you want?"

Very clever kitty. "I think it's less likely someone will find it in a tree and think it's been lost and take it. In the treehouse someone might take it to try to find the owner and then I'd have to go search for who had it. So clothes in the Tupperware and bow and arrows in a tree, yes? Why don't we hide the bow and arrow while I start picking your mimic up?" She'd need a fair bit of time before she could shift into the girl's cat form, but it was possible Catseye's genetics would help keep Vanessa warm without her clothes. First, though, the arrow. The metamorph held her hand back out to the girl. "Gotta keep touching now or it'll take longer before we can hunt."

Catseye took Vanessa's hand eagerly and led her over to a particularly great Hiding Tree. "This is a good hiding place, up high so the animals will not be curious but not high enough the fliers will see. There were thorns just over there the other day," she pointed out conversationally. "Nico grew them. Do you know Nico?"

"I've heard of her, but I haven't met her. Is she nice?" She knew that Amanda was going to potentially ruin her life for her own good but Vanessa didn't mention that. She didn't mention that Nico was never going to be allowed to have secrets because she would be watched every moment of every day that it was possible. She had a strong moment of sympathy for the girl she didn't know.

"Yes she is veryverynice but her magic is ickybad and she needs to practicepracticepractice to make it be Good magic. She made thorns in my woods! And exploded a log! In my woods! But we are going to go to the quarry next time even though I like climbing in the quarry it is not as nice as my woods so if Nico explodes it it is okay."

Vanessa began to cough in order to cover up the laughter that wanted to respond to Catseye's declaration about her woods. "It's not nice to explode your woods. It's very inconsiderate. I think the quarry's a better idea, too. And thorns," she frowned. "No one likes thorns. Who took the thorns away?"

"I did. The thorns might hurt some of my Prey and that is NotGood. I want lots of Prey so I can bring presents to-" she cut herself off before she could mention Jean-Paul, and shrugged instead, "to my friends. Do you want some Prey? I will give you a deer if you want. Maybe we can catch some today but it will be little Prey because you cannot mimic BigCat. Can you mimic BigCat?"

Prey for her friends. God, Vanessa had missed the catgirl. Work at Snow Valley had kept her in the city more often than not. When she got out to the mansion it was usually to see Adrienne or Lex or occasionally Laurie. She'd been damned fond of the little purple house cat that had appropriated her as a kitty pillow. Now she was remembering why. "It's good of you to protect your Prey. And technically if you can turn into BigCat then I should be able too once I'm you. I think we should try for a deer. Maybe a couple. I haven't been hunting in a long time." Vanessa grinned over at the catgirl. "And I haven't been hunting the right way. Bows and arrows and knives, not claws."

"Claws and teeth are the Right way to hunt. It is The Way Things Are," Catseye agreed, nodding. "I cannot turn from regularcat to BigCat though I must be a girl in between can you mimic me as a girl or just as regularcat?

"I start with you as a girl. Then I could be BigCat or TinyCat." A look of pure mischief came into her eyes, obvious more in the lines around them and in her mouth than the eyes themselves. "We could be BigCats and hunt and then be TinyCats and find someone to be our pillow." She liked this plan. A lot. Vanessa wasn't even overly picky about who said pillow was.

"Okay! That is a good plan." Catseye nodded, thoroughly approving. "We should find Amara or Angel to nap with they are warm."

"Definitely, warm people are bonus points!" She mentally put in a bid for Amara because she'd never really interacted with the girl as herself much and continuing that trend amused her. But Daniel knew Amara quite well.

"But first we hunt! Hunting is the bestest," Catseye exclaimed happily. "Can I shift now or do we need to wait longer?"