Madelyn, Catseye - Tuesday afternoon

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Madelyn, having been elbow-deep in cyborg bits all morning, has some questions to ask a certasin Cat. Thank goodness for emergency jerky.



Glaring at the floor while trotting in a decidedly anything but straight way down the hallway leading to the medlab, Catseye swished her tail irritably. She was still hungry. The kitchen was in shambles and there hadn't been enough mice left to hunt in the area since the subsonics (as explained by Forge) had gone off. She'd even gone after a hapless rabbit and that hadn't quite taken off the edge. At least the soreness and various bumps and scratches weren't annoying. She was used to those. But the hunger was getting worse again now. The thought of finding someone to beg for food had actually made her growl and even that reminder was enough to elicit a low, annoyed sounding yowl as she stalked into the medlab and headed straight for the offices. The constantly abrasive and annoying smell of the medlab did nothing to help her mood. Or the hunger.

Madelyn heard the yowl and raised her eyebrows. That was one unhappy cat. Still, she was prepared... Pulling a couple of jumbo packs of beef jerky out of her drawer, she waited for Catseye to appear. Given the amount of fuel shape changing took for Catseye, and the fact she was largely carnivorous, she'd decided something other than donuts would soothe the savage (or at least extremely grumpy-sounding) beast. And given the mess that had been made of the Reaver she'd examined, soothing was possibly a good plan.

Whiskers held back and nose wrinkled in distaste at the offending smells, Catseye slithered into the office, tail neatly whapping the door shut. Maybe that would keep the office from smelling as bad. Still keeping that same predatory 'I will chew anything that gets in my way' pace, Catseye beelined for the chair and clambered up on it, sitting on it with her tail curling tightly about her paws, in the classic pose nearly all Egyptian cat statues seemed to favor. Except the part where the ears were pinned back until they nearly disappeared and the cat obviously was trying not to hiss simply for the sake of it.

"Hello," Madelyn said neutrally. It was hard to talk to a patient who was a rather pissed-off cat, but
still, there were weirder things. "I figured you'd be probably hungry with all the shape-changing," she said, ripping open the first packet of jerky and holding out a piece. "And not so into the donuts. Emergency snackage?"

Eyes widening, Catseye stared at the package, the lovely perfect and amazingly heavely smell of meat reaching her even through all the usual horrible smells of the medlab. After all of one second of rapturous staring, the lavender cat swarmed on the desk, descending upon the offered food while barely managing to remember not to include Madelyn's fingers as part of what was to be considered edible.

Madelyn wisely didn't chuckle, although she wanted to, merely opening the other package and slipping the contents under Catseye's nose. "I suppose it's hard to get anything out of the kitchen at the moment, hmm?"

A faint snarl answered that, Catseye pouncing on the morsel with single-minded intent. The food was starting to take the edge off the immediate threat of starvation, though, and finally Catseye took a moment to breathe and looked up at Madelyn with a look of pure adoration. Kitchen dead. Hunting lousy. Catseye was STARVING!

"You're welcome," Madelyn said with a slight smile at the look - it appeared she'd made a friend for life.
There was another package of jerky in her drawer, but she'd save that after the first two had been partially
digested, at least. "I take it you exerted yourself more than usual yesterday, hmm?" she asked neutrally,
trying to guage Catseye's reaction to the incident first.

"Mrrr?" Still chewing, Catseye nonetheless slid an elaborately innocent look Madelyn's way. She supposed actually ending up being a leeetle bit bigger than usual while pouncing on someone (in an entirely unfriendly way) could be considered that. After all, she'd ended up being that hungry for a reason. Of course, there was the kicker.

No matter how hard she'd tried, she couldn't do it anymore.

"I got to spend yesterday examining one of our visitors... damnedest thing, it looked like he'd been
attacked by some sort of big cat. A tiger or a panther or something like that," Madelyn mused, apparently
thinking out loud. "Purple hair everywhere. Too bad we don't know who it was, since we'd have to make sure
they were okay, and feed them lots since that sort of shapeshifting must have used up a lot of energy..."

This earned Madelyn a decidedly uncat-like roll of the eyes. Finishing up on the last of the available jerky, she flopped off the desk and into the chair, and shifted. The collar Forge had made for her was obviously being worn, judging from her clothed state. "Catseye would rather not tell anyone." She chewed on her lip at that, and then frowned a bit - was that a bit of more jerky package peeking out of the drawer. "Catseye doesn't know how she did it and can't do it again!"

"Do you know what patient confidentiality is, hon? It means that we doctors don't go around telling people about other people's issues without permission. So if you don't want anyone to know, they won't find out from me," Madelyn assured. "As for what happened... I take it you've never done it before either?"

Nodding at that, once assured that her secret would be kept, Catseye sighed. And tried to fit herself on the chair in an attempt at curling up, tail twitching in irritation as nothing fit. And her tail nearly kept getting caught in the arms each time. "No. Catseye got big!" She nodded emphatically, eyes widening a bit at the memory. Now that she could look back on it without the immediate urgency of the moment, the other shape had been exhilarating, truth be told. "And Catseye is still hungry." She meeped, giving Madelyn pleading look.

"Here." Madelyn pulled the third package of jerky out of her drawer and passed it over. "Sometimes, when we're very angry, or scared, or in danger, we can do things we didn't know we could. And when we try to do them again, without being angry or scared, it doesn't work straight away. I'm guessing the man attacked you, and that's when you got big?"

Shaking her head no, Catseye ripped into the package. The taste wouldn't be quite the same and it baffled her how some things were tasted either horrible or better than when she was a cat, but right now none of it mattered, really. A bite was taken first, though more time was granted to actual chewing, before she answered. "No. The MadMetalBitsMan was going to hurt Mao." The name sounded like a meow, the way she said it. "And they'd hurt Mao's hu- BigGrumpyMan. Only not! But Catseye didn't know. And Catseye got angry and wanted to stop them."

Madelyn looked thoughtful. "Strong emotions trigger unusual responses in people - cat people as well as human people, that is," she clarified. "With power s, it means there's another angle to those reactions. You wouldn't be the first person at the school to discover a new aspect to their powers under stress. If you like, once things are less busy around here with Hank being sick, we can work on maybe finding out how to help you get big whenever you like, instead of just when you're angry." As always when the subject of Hank came up, a hint of worry entered her expression.

The nuance had been caught, and only Madelyn's quick recovery mollified Catseye enough so that she kept listening, finally managing to tuck both legs on the chair, while still working her way through the jerky. "Catseye will figure it out." Independent wasn't even close to the right expression, though it gave a general sense. "Is BigBlueFur going to be okay?"

Madelyn nodded at Catseye's assertion she'd get it herself. Cat to the core. "We hope so," she replied, absently shuffling around yet another round of unsuccessful test results. Her tone didn't hold much of that hope. "We don't know what this is, so it's making it difficult to stop it."

"Either BigBlueFur will be okay, or BigBlueFur will not be okay." Catseye voice was strangely calm as she paused. She wasn't at all indifferent to the situation or the people, but life was life and some things you could either change - or not. "Catseye thinks maybe it is not what FixingHands does not know that is important. It can't be changed. What FixingHands knows is what should matter." There was unshakable belief in her eyes as she looked at Madelyn steadily.

"It doesn't work like..." Madelyn began, then paused. There was something niggling at her, something important. "Where is that... ah-hah!" Unearthing the first set of test results she'd made up, she compared them to the most recent. Given the rate of progression, Hank's mystery condition had started around the time of the Mistra mission in Canada, only they'd ruled that out as a cause... "He was a bit vague in Canada," she mused, mostly to herself. "Tactical thinking isn't his strong suit, but he was really off then. Which means it started before that. Something else, something unusual happened..." She began rummaging through the paperwork on her desk, then looked up, realising Catseye was indeed still there. "Thanks for the brainwave."

A matter of fact, tiny grin was all of Catseye's reaction (of course she'd been talking sense) before she turned her attention to the last of the beef jerky with a small growl. "Catseye still hungry," she muttered, skipping any words she might for the sake of getting the message out. The edge of the hunger was dulled, but it was still there.

The growl caught Madelyn's full attention, and she gave Catseye a careful look over the top of her
glasses. Noticeable weight loss, with her cheekbones more obvious than usual and her collarbones prominent. "And no kitchen to raid," she agreed. Coming to a decision, she stood and grabbed the jacket hanging over the back of her chair. "C'mon, kiddo, you need food, and Forge has been telling me about this burger place he took you too. And people keep trying to get me to take breaks, so you'd be doing the place a public service."

The fervent look suddenly affixed to Madelyn left no doubt as to exactly how happy that offer was making Catseye. The pounce that followed, involving none of Catseye's limbs going anywhere but exactly where they were needed to propel the catgirl that much faster towards Madelyn was rather spectacular. "Mrr! Catseye would like to go! Catseye will even stay human!" It meant being able to eat more, after all. "Catseye is starrrving!" The following purr that followed only added to the sentiment that Food Was Good.

"Oof." Madelyn chuckled as she found herself being glomped by an enthusiastic catgirl. Who was able to rest her chin on top of Madelyn's head - Madelyn forgot just how big Catseye was in human form. And yes, way too bony right now. "I thought you might be, and I'm all out of jerky. So let's grab you a coat and go, shall we?"

"Ookay!" It really wasn't that cold outside but if everyone was going to insist - and they usually did - Catseye figured it was the easiest route to just take the coat and then forget it in the car or something. Besides. She was hungry enough to not argue with much of anything at all, really. "Pastrami!" She bounded out the room, a single moment of unsteadiness quickly forgotten as she disappeared rapidly from sight.