Topaz, Molly, and Catseye (Backdated to January 19)

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Saturday night.

Molly is having some cope failure after the Slendermen encounter and Topaz tries to make her feel better by doing magic. Hearing it go awry, and being tasked by Wade to check up on Molly anyway, Catseye investigates.

Topaz sighed as her phone buzzed. She wasn't really sleeping - it had been laughable to think she could even try. There was a text from Billy waiting for her; she squinted at the screen as she tried to answer. God her head hurt. She finished sending the text and lifted her head to look around the room. It was dark - she tried not to dwell too much on that - but she couldn't see Molly. Maybe she was with some friends...

A very faint glow and the sound of beeping and clicking could be seen and heard from across the room, in a place where it shouldn't have been: the closet. Something rustled.

Topaz blinked, looking towards the closet and seeing the glow. Or maybe she was seeing things. Hard to tell, really. "Molly?" She questioned uncertainly, climbing carefully out of bed. It didn't make any sense. Why would Molly be in the closet?

A gasp was quickly added to the rustling noise.

"Um...no?" Molly said, momentarily forgetting Topaz was in the room. She felt silly being scared, when she tried not to be scared before, and now she was scared when she was really home and Wademan wasn't there. And she wanted Wademan there but she knew Mary Angie got hurt too so Mary Angie would need help too so she was just going to stay in the closet. It was safer. Or it was safer until people started talking.

She hoped the bad guy wasn't wearing Topaz's face too.

"Really, 'cause you sound like Molly," Topaz replied dryly, turning on her lamp and groaning when the light hit her eyes. She couldn't win. She kept her eyes down and slightly covered as she walked over to the closet, kneeling down. "Mind if I ask why you're in the closet?"

Molly scooted further into the closet when the light came on and Topaz got up and walked over. For some reason she had a brief thought about Matt and a toy store but she didn't know why. She frowned, trying to sound very serious.

"I'm hiding. From bad guys. If you're a bad guy I'll...um...get you."

Topaz held up her hands - a universal sign of surrender. "Not a bad guy, I promise." Of course, that wasn't overly convincing. Oh she should have just gone back to sleep. "Um...would a bad guy have the henna tattoo I gave all the girls earlier?"

Molly shrugged. "I dunno," she said, making a face. She fell silent for a few moments in deep thought.

"Well...you don't have pointy teeth. So...okay. You're good."

She still wasn't coming out from the closet, though.

"I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Actually, Billy did. I wasn't really sleeping anyways." Topaz re-positioned herself on the floor so her legs were curled underneath her. "You don't have to hide in the closet, you know. There are magic wards up all around the school to keep things like the Slendermen out. And they were done by someone who's better than me at magic so they actually work."

"You mean Amanda?" Molly said, resting her chin on her knees.

Dear lord what was she doing? She was the last person who should be trying to comfort anyone, much less Molly. "Yup." She pushed on anyways. "If you know Amanda, you know the wards are good."

Molly shook her head. "I just met her once. And I was in a tree. Then I wasn't in a tree. She was nice, though. But...I guess... that's good?'" she said.

"So you have magic powers too?"

"In a tree...? Okay." Topaz wasn't going to ask. "Yeah, it's good. Trust me." Oh that was a laugh. "And yeah, I have magic powers too." She was probably going to regret this... "Wanna see?"

Peering at her a moment, Molly finally nodded. "Okay," she said with a smile.

Well, she'd gotten a smile. That was something. "All right." Topaz closed her eyes, ignoring the part of her head that was vehemently screaming bad idea, bad idea! One small light spell just to show Molly. And to prove to herself she could still do it. That she wasn't pathetic. Or useless.

Three dancing baubles of light appeared in the air between the girls, and a small, tired smile pulled at Topaz's lips. Take that Slendermen.

Molly stared up at the lights with wide eyes, the faintest of smiles lingering.

"Wow...."

Of course, the moment had to be thoroughly ruined by a particularly sharp stab of pain that shattered Topaz's concentration. and the cute little baubles exploded with an audible 'POP!' The girl jerked back, cursing. "Bloody hell-" Well, she had known that was a bad idea...

Molly flinched too, letting out a squeak of surprise. As she did, her arms flailed and she bumped into the back of the closet, the force of it making all of the stuff on one of the shelves come tumbling down.

One of the biggest changes to becoming an RA was that Catseye now had keys to all the rooms. She no longer had to access other rooms through the windows in her catform like she'd done for years. Sometimes she missed it. But not tonight, when she heard the loud pops, Topaz's curse, and the falling stuff. She was already on her way to the suite after receiving Wade's text message, so now it was merely a matter of knocking on the door and stabbing the key into it simultaneously when she heard the noise, rather than having to run all the way outside and unlocking the window in her catform.

"You ladies okay in here?" she asked as she burst through the door.

Topaz curled in a bit on herself, cradling her head in one hand and resting her elbow on her knee. "Spell gone wrong," she muttered as an explanation. "M'Sorry Molly, are you all right?"

From the closet, Molly pushed a few boxes, for hats and for shoes, out of the way. Her hair was a tangled mess. She squinted, putting her hat back on properly.

"Uh huh," she said, then frowned at all the boxes.

"Oops."

Catseye went over to the closet and offered a hand to Molly. "C'mon, out of the closet so we can put the boxes back," she said with a smile. "What kind of a spell were you guys doing?" she inquired curiously, since she couldn't see any remnants of a spell other than the boxes.

"Dancing lights." Best way to describe it. "Kinda let it get away from me though, they popped. Sorry."

"How do lights pop?" the catgirl inquired, still curious. "What are they made of?" Wait, this wasn't why she was here. "Molly, are you okay?"

Molly peered at Catseye's hand, then shook her head. "Can I stay here? I can pick them up later," she said politely. She wasn't ready to come out just yet, even if it did seem like maybe the bad guys were gone.

"I'm okay...the lights were fun. Maybe...maybe you made magic fireworks? Oooh. You could use them against bad guys."

"They were just made of energy," Topaz told Catseye, still rubbing her head. "Put a little too much in though, overloaded, pop." It was the best way she could think to explain it. "Magic fireworks though, that's somethin'. I'll keep that in mind. Glad you liked 'em, Molly."

In answer to Molly's question about staying in the closet, Catseye shifted into catform and jumped into Molly's lap, purring, headbutting Molly's arm in hopes of getting skritched. Wade had never said she had to get Molly out of the closet, right? Just check up on her? And maybe it would make Molly feel better to cuddle the purple cat.

Blinking, Molly couldn't help but smile a little as she rubbed Catseye's head. The petting of Catseye's fur brought with it a strange memory of narrow metal walls and crawling. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry I made 'em go pop."

"Oh, it wasn't you," Topaz assured Molly quickly. "All me on that one." She tilted her head at Catseye, curious; she hadn't seen the RA's catform before.

"But you were trying to make me feel better," Molly said with a shrug, then glanced down. "She can make a big cat and a little cat," Molly said, nodding with a smile.

Catseye gave a nod and headbutted Molly affectionately.

"Worth it." Topaz leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, watching Molly and Catseye. "She's cute." Wait, had she said that out-loud? Wow, she really was tired.

Knowing that Topaz was kind of stand-offish most of the time, Catseye was taken aback by the comment. She licked Molly's hand and then jumped out of her lap to head over to Topaz and headbutt Topaz's leg.

Molly laughed, and fund herself scooting over a little to get closer toward Topaz and Catseye, crossing the threshold of the closet and further into the room.

"She is. She can purr too."

Topaz hesitated for a moment before reaching out and carefully rubbing Catseye's head, as she'd seen Molly do. "I don't know much about cats," she said. "If I hurt you just...hit me or somethin'." She was talking to a cat. And somehow this wasn't the weirdest part of the day.

And hey, Molly was out of the closet.

Catseye let out a 'mew' in response to Topaz and began to purr, trying to beckon Molly closer as she kneaded her claws happily, stretching her toes.

Tilting her head, Molly stayed where she was at first, but then scooted over a little more, reaching out to try to pet Catseye as well.

Topaz angled her hand so Molly could get in as well. At least she seemed like she was a bit more okay now. That was definitely something.