xp_logs | Molly and Catseye (backdated to the 20th)

x-catseye.livejournal.com posting in

Catseye helps Molly build a leaf pile to jump in and informs her about Molly and Wade.

Molly was outside. It was fall. There were pretty leaves on the ground, DEFINITELY not like LA, where there were mostly palm trees and stuff. She was her own personal iPod as she picked up leaves and threw them up in the air to watch them fall to the ground all around her. She wore an apple hat. It was knit like an apple with a leaf and a stem and everything. "Jeramiah was a Bullfrog!" she sang. "Was a good friend of mine! I don't know the rest of this song and something about some really fine wine...dun dun...Joyyyy to the world! All the boys and girls..Joy to the fishes and the big blue sea...joy to you and meee...."

Emerging from a deer trail on her way back towards the mansion from a run, Catseye slowed up when she heard the singing. She wiped sweat from her brow and took a swig from her water bottle. "I think the stuff in the middle is supposed to be 'I never understood a single word he said,'" she told the girl, "which is kinda funny, since you didn't know the words. Aren't you going to put the leaves into a big pile and jump in them, instead of just throwing them around?" she inquired. "Oh, and I'm Sharon. Or Catseye. What's your name?"

Molly squinted at the new person that showed up. The person with awesome rad hair.

"Dude. That's an AWESOME IDEA!" she said, momentarily forgetting her question as she started grabbing leaves, buzzing about like a manic little bee while put them into her future pile.

"So do you jump off a tree or do you just run into them? I never had lots of leaves before!"

"I think you need more leaves first," answered with a smirk, beginning to add to the pile that was taking shape. "And then you just run and jump as high as you can. Don't jump from a tree, though," she warned. "Because you're a lot heavier than leaves even if there are a lot of leaves so you'll sink through them and the ground is veryveryhard. But if you just run and jump you'll be okay." She was hot and tired from her run and wanted to go take a shower, but now she was worried about this little girl hurting herself, so she set her water bottle down and stayed to help. "You didn't tell me your name," she said as they worked. "If you don't tell me your name, I'm going to have to make one up for you. Like... AppleHead," she smiled.

Tilting her head at the nickname Molly giggled loudly, covering her face with her hands. "Oops! I'm Molly! Molly Grace Hayes!" she said, reaching out her hand to shake. "Nice to meetcha!"

Her voice lowered suddenly to an almost stage whisper. "And that's okay! I'm a superhero."

Catseye shook the offered hand sagely, but grinned again when the little girl mentioned being a superhero. "Really? That's awesome. Me too!" she said in a tone that matched Molly's. "What's your superhero specialty, Molly Grace Hayes?"

The question made Molly stand there for a moment or two before she tapped her chin and beamed.

"Be right back!" she said, dashing off behind the cover of some trees. Her shadow returned ahead of her, a giant circle looming ahead of her.

"Tada!" she announced, holding a giant boulder. Her eyes glowed a bright purple. This time she had better control and stuff so it wouldn't smush her like before. And that wasn't good cause it scared WadeMan.

"Wow!" Catseye's expression was no indulgence- that was awesome. "You really are a superhero!" Still, the catgirl didn't see how super strength meant that falling out of a tree wouldn't hurt her. Even if she had a healing factor, Catseye didn't want anyone finding out that the girl had had to heal herself on Catseye's watch. "That's impressive. I wish I could do that. But don't think you're leaving me to pile all these leaves by myself, missy. Put that down and give me a hand, whydon'tcha?"

Molly beamed again, tossing down the boulder. Of course she sort of misjudged her strength and it wound up landing right in the middle of the pile of leaves Molly had already started, she frowned sheepishly.

"Drat. Sorry!"

Catseye just shook her head, chuckling. "Don't be sorry, they're just leaves," she told the little girl. "We can gather them up again." This time she used both hands and her tail to start working on another pile. "Hmm... I think we might need more leaves. A lot of them got squished under the rock. Be right back." She shifted into catform, melting into the t-shirt and shorts she'd been wearing, and struggled out of them to race up the trunk of the closest tree. She headed for the top where the leaves were still dangling and began to use her tail to strip some branches, sending a shower of leaves down on Molly's head.

Molly blinked up at Catseye owlishly as she turned into a cat! She was still looking that way when the leaves started falling, snapping her out of it. She let out a cry of gleeish surprise, glancing up to make sure it really was Catseye who did it, then spun around, lifting her arms as she giggled.

"Dude, I didn't know you were a CAT!"

Catseye hopped from branch to branch stripping leaves to rain down on Molly until the tree was bare, then zoomed down. She dove under her pile of clothes and, in a trick she'd been practicing for more than six months, lined herself up with the various holes in her clothing so that when she shifted back into human form, she wasn't naked. Her shirt wasn't even on backwards, which may have been a first! It gave her a sense of pride, since she'd gotten so used to wearing regular clothes instead of her clothescollars, that she could pull off getting back into her clothes after shifting. "I'm a cat, yes," she laughed, not bothering to stipulate that she just turned into one, but was actually a human. "I can be a small cat or I can be a cougar, but the cougar scares people a lot of the time. Do you like cats?"

Molly nodded excitedly, the proverbial bobble-head doll. "Yeah! I wanted to have a cat but my mom and daddy didn't want pets so...that didn't go over very well," she said, shrugging.

She bit her lip. "Can you turn into a cougar now? I won't be afraid!"

"Sure I can! But I'm gonna go into the woods for a minute when I change back, okay? Because I'll have to put my clothes back on." She shifted into regular cat form first, so she wouldn't destroy her clothes, bounded a few feet away, and shifted into BigCat form. As usual, she fought with the cougar's animal instincts regarding the New Smell of the Strange Person, but after a moment the cougar approached Molly slowly, head down submissively, tongue lolling like a dog.

Again, Molly's eyes widened with wonder as she inched toward the Catseye Cougar (Cougarseye?).

"Can I pet you?" she said, holding up her hand intently but holding off until she got a yes or no. Or maybe a grrr or cat nod. One of those.

The cougar nodded and took things one step further as she put her head up into Molly's outstretched hand, then headbutted her gently in the side, then laid down, purring a deep, rumbling purr.

Letting out a little squeak of happiness, Molly plopped down beside the cougar and reached out to immediately scratch behind one ear, then both, making little swirly circle motions. It was a purple cougar. This was the best thing ever so far.

Still purring, the cougar leaned into the ear skritches, indulging in a moment of bliss, and rolled over onto her side hoping Molly would rub her belly.

Molly giggled again as she crawled over and started to scratch her belly, running her finger along her fur. "Wow, your fur is soft," she said, perpetually beaming.

"Kitty kitty kitty scratch..." she said as she worked.

Living almost exclusively as a girl for over a year, it was now a little odd for someone to be treating her as a cat now, but it was so rare now that Catseye relished in the few moments she had to be purely a cat again. The cougar kneaded her paws in the air and arched her back, stretching out as she was petted.

After a few moments, however, the human thoughts resurfaced and the cougar rolled over and got to her feet, grabbed her clothes in her prehensile tail, and took off into the woods. She reemerged in her human form. "Let's keep working on that leaf pile, yes?" she grinned.

For a moment Molly pouted a little at no longer being able to pet the cougar anymore but she quickly got over it, hopping up to stand.

"Okay!" she said grabbing fistfuls of leaves.

"Are you going to jump too?"

"Maybe," Catseye answered with a smile. "But you get the first jump." She continued to sweep leaves with her tail and both hands, contributing to the growing pile. "So do you like living here, Molly Grace Hayes?" she asked conversationally as they worked.

"Really? Are you sure? Cause you can go first if you wanna! Since it was your idea!" Molly said, scrambling to help. Her hands were almost too small to make much of a dent.

"I like it here cause there are superheroes! And a jet! And Daisy! And Wademan! And a beach in the basement! I just got to go to a real one before but this one is cooler cause it's INSIDE."

"A beach inside is veryverycool, yes," the purple-haired woman agreed with a grin. "Daisy and Wademan?" Catseye inquired curiously. Wow, she really had been away too long.

"Are those your friends? What grade are you all in?"

"Daisy is a moose! And Wademan is Wademan! Um...or...just Wade," Molly paused, shifting her eyes. "Man." "He has magical healing powers and likes Bea Arthur he got me a moose from Canada and I'm in 8th grade and I'm 13. But I will be in 9th grade next year. Which is awesome cause...Freshperson!"

"Daisy is a... moose? There's a moose here?" Catseye had to laugh at that. "A man named Wade who lives here gave you a moose?" Wow, this place really was weird, wasn't it? It took being away for that to really sink in, though. "Well, that's... very nice of him. Mooses are nice." She didn't even add 'to eat' afterwards, which she thought earned her points. "Ah yes, being a Freshperson is a lot of fun," she grinned. "Do you like school?"

"Yep! Wademan is awesome! And Daisy is super nice and everyone likes her except for the new teacher lady but she's scared of all the animals and Mr. Beard Man likes her too and he feeds her," Molly said, her excitement measured by how quickly she scooped up each bit of leaves.

"I like the reading part of school but not the math part but please don't tell Mr. Bobby because he'd be sad. Its kinda hard to remember stuff cause there's a lot but I try really hard. Are you gonna be a teacher here too?"

There were a lot of adults there and most of them were teachers and some weren't but she didn't know what they did except punch people when they went away on the jet.

Catseye raised an eye at the girl's names for people and tried to follow along. Wow. Was this what it felt like to be on the other end of made-up-names? It was pretty confusing! She felt pretty contrite about having put everyone through this sort of thing for so long! "Nope, not a teacher. I'm here because I'm training to be a superhero," Catseye answered good-naturedly. "And I'm going to school to learn how to be a chef."

"OH!" Molly said, nodding. "Meggan and I make things too! Well, she does cause I drop stuff. Can you show me how to make things? What do you make? We make pancakes and cereal! Not together, though."

"I like making... chocolate-covered ladybug ice cream," Catseye deadpanned. "And earthworm stew. And cotton candy lasagna." Okay, so she'd only ever made the first one, but Molly seemed like the type of kid who would enjoy the joke.

Molly blinked at her owlishly, silent for a few moments before her eyes got bigger ever still.

"OhMaGad EW AND ALSO COOL! That would be good for Halloween!"

"Yeah, too bad we just had Hallowe'en," Catseye said sadly. "Maybe I can make you some of those fantastic dishes next year though?" She finished sweeping up all the leaves in sight and eyed the pile, which was formidable. "I think the pile's ready..." Frowning, Molly looked down thoughtfully. "Oooh, what about Thanksgiving?" she said. It wasn't REAL ladybugs, right?

She walked around the pile to check it out before nodding her approval.

"Yep! Now what do we do? Just jump?"

"Sure they were real ladybugs, and real earthworms. And real lasagna," Catseye giggled. "Yep, run back, over to that tree there. And then run and jump!" Molly's eyes widened again. "EW! AWESOME!" she said. She stared at her a moment at the instructions, then nodded.

"Okay!" she said. Dashing off, she headed over to the tree, then came up, kicking off the ground and landing in the leaves in a flurry of slow motion. Leaves went everywhere, and she disappeared into the pile. A giggle followed from the now Molly-Leaf-Monster

Catseye leaned over the pile and grinned back at Molly. "Are you still there? I can't see you! You turned into leaves! Oh no! Wademan and Daisy the Moose are going to kill me for turning Molly Grace Hayes into a pile of leaves!"

Molly was silent for a few moments, or at least tried to be, before suddenly bursting out of the leaves, arms lifted.

"Tada! I am...FALL GIRL!" she said, then put her hands on her hips triumphantly. She blinked a little.

"Dude, have you met Wademan? He's so cool!"

Catseye shook her head. "Nope. I haven't met him. But if I come across any cool people I will ask them if they're Wademan." She grinned and turned to an imaginary person. "Hello sir, you look very cool. Are you Wademan?" With a shrug she started piling leaves on Molly's head. "But I used to live here so I still know most people who live here. So that should make my search for the cool Wademan easier." Giggling, Molly grabbed a couple of leaves and positioned them over her eyes like they were sunglasses.

"He's got hair!"

She was trying to be helpful, then paused with realization. "Brown hair! And boots."

"Brown hair and boots? Okay, that makes things easier!" Catseye lied with a grin. "Hmm... what does he do all day? Where does he like to go? Does he go to the gym a lot? Or the woods? Does he teach something? Because knowing where he goes will help me think of what he might smell like, and I might be able to find him if I know how he smells." Molly blinked a little, trying to sort through all the questions.

"Ummm....He eats food a lot. And he has minions. And he likes a lady named Bea Arthur. I think he goes to the gym...He doesn't teach anything...um...He likes a lady with red hair who has cards that have pictures on them. Mary-Angie. We all went to the movies on Parent's Day!"

"Movies are cool," Catseye nodded. "And I know the lady with red hair you're talking about, so I think it'll be easy for me to find him now. What movie did you see?"

"The punching robot movie! It was good! I wonder if Dr. Beast can make a robot?" Molly said, rolling out of the leaves.

"You have a really cool nickname by the way," she said with a grin.

"I think Doctor Beast can make anything," Catseye laughed. "And thank you. I really like your name, too. Molly Grace Hayes sounds like a superhero."

Molly put her hands on her hips. "Really? Thanks!" she said, beaming. It would only be more perfect if she had a cape to go with it.

"Do you wanna go inside and have hot cocoa with extra chocolate and sprinkles and whipped cream?"

"Umm..." Catseye pretended to think about that for a moment. "Only if I can make cookies to go with it!"

Her eyes widening, Molly nodded eagerly. "YES! LET'S DO THAT!" she said, reaching out to grab her hand and drag her along. She tried not to pull too hard, though. Cause sometimes Monet said it might pull people's arms off and that would be bad.

The catgirl could only laugh as she was pulled along by the enthusiastic young girl, mentally planning the best type of cookies to do justice to that level of excitement.