Log: Forge and Rahne, Thursday afternoon

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Wherein the source of Catseye's annoyance is revealed, a MiniSquid is operated on, and a solution is suggested




Rahne blinked and hit reload when her roommate hissed at the computer
screen. Before she had a chance to read the update, her chair was
hooked by a paw and rolled backward. Catseye reached up and deposited
the unusually sedate MiniSquid in Rahne's lap, then looked at her with
an utterly doleful expression.

Rahne glanced back over at the screen and the MiniSquid icon, then
picked up the toy, testing. Broken... or at any rate not working. "*I*
canna fix it," she pointed out. "At least, I doubt it. Forge could."

Catseye hissed again and retired to a dignified sulk under the bed.

Well, that was odd. Rahne stopped herself from saying that she'd
thought Catseye liked Forge and frowned down at the MiniSquid
for a moment. Then she looked over their room, with its unusually high
level of fine purple fur and less than cheery scent, made a note to
vacuum, and started off to look for Forge.

Forge leaned back on the stool, feet kicked up on the counter as he
waited for the lab computer to finish its diagnostic cycle. Nathan's
"Sooper Sekrit Future Thingy" was nearing completion, but he still had
to run simulations for safety's sake. Even with his innate sense of
curiosity about his inventions, that was the one step he never,
ever skipped.

So, to kill time, he continued poring through his history textbook.
"Napoleon was exiled to Elba, and remained a prisoner until his death
in..." he mumbled, then slapped the book down on the counter. "What
the hell?" he said to no one in particular. "The guy blows through
most of Europe, beats everyone he sees, loved by the people to the
point of fanaticism - and he lets them send him off to ignominy like
that? God, history is stupid." Nevertheless, he continued making notes
and trying to memorize the pertinent facts. Mr. Dayspring wasn't one
to set aside learning the material in favor of rhetoric, no matter how
logical or passionate.

At the sound of footsteps, Forge's mouth quirked up in a smile,
glancing up from his book expecting to see the usual blonde hair of
his lab partner. "Hey, Pai--", he paused in mid-greeting, noticing the
distinct lack-of-Paige-ness about his auburn-haired visitor. "Oh,
Rahne. You, uh, looking for someone?"

"Aye, you." Rahne stopped speaking in vowels and waved the MiniSquid
at him. "I think it needs resuscitation."

Forge arched an eyebrow and took the small pink plush cephalopod from
Rahne's hands. "I figured as much from her post," he mused, squinting
through his glasses and popping open a small panel on the bottom of
the toy. "Oh, she's managed to knock one of the reactive AI chips
loose. It's programmed to shut down if that happens, instead of
running wild all over the place. Gimme five minutes?" With that
rhetorical question, Forge kicked away from the counter, wheeling the
stool over to another cabinet and starting to rummage through for
electronics parts.

"Soldering iron, check. May as well add some more padding while I'm at
it... so how come she brought it to you?" Forge asked suddenly.

"I was there." Rahne shrugged and glanced down at her now-empty hands,
frowning a little again. "And... I'm thinking she might be a wee bit
upset with you." This wasn't a role she was comfortable with,
interpreting and relaying -- it had gone quite wrong when she'd
thought she could do it before.

At that news, Forge paused. "Upset?" He slotted the chip into place
and soldered the connections quickly. "That's ludicrous. She gets
upset, she tends to tackle me down stairs or smack me in the back of
the head. I haven't done anything... I don't think I've done
anything. Have I done something to get her upset?"

"Well... she's not very happy. She's been spending a lot more time as
a cat than she was for a while, and a lot more of it in our room."

With a sigh, Forge took his glasses off and leaned his head on his
hands. "I probably should have noticed. You know she actually came
into the kitchen to get food last week - as a human? I mean, sure, she
opened the fridge with her tail, but she's making progress." He
brushed his hair back and thought for a moment. "Did someone say
something while she was a human? She's really self-conscious about
being clumsy or looking foolish in front of everyone. Which, I mean,
she shouldn't - but she spent how many years growing up as a cat? It's
a hard habit to get used to, I'd imagine."

"'Twas pretty odd to get used to moving as a wolf for me," Rahne
agreed, "and that's without so much threat of falling over." Granted,
she'd figured out running fairly quickly, enough to lead a decidedly
unmerry chase, but she'd still tripped over her paws quite a bit.
"But... er... I doona think that's quite it. At least... ye wouldna
have said any such thing, and someone else saying it would hardly
explain why she hissed at yuir comment."

"She hissed?" Forge asked, a confused look crossing his features. "I
don't get it. I haven't gone and said anything dumb for at LEAST a
week and a half, I didn't get in any big arguments - I've been working
my butt off down here. Heck, I even had time to be social and go out
for coffee with Paige. I can't see where I've done anything to get her
all riled up." He rolled his eyes, looking up at the sky. "Women!" he
grumbled, "you exist just to confuse the heck out of me. No offense,"
he added, looking over at Rahne.

Rahne snorted. "I'm fairly sure I have some other purpose in life."
She worried at her lip a bit. "Ye've been down here, or out, mostly
with Paige... I'm thinking maybe Catseye misses you."

Forge let that sink in. "But she's always around, how can she..." and
then it hit him. Catseye hated the labs, and rarely went down to the
basement levels unless someone was with her. And she hadn't been in
the room at nights for the past few days, either. Forge had just been
too tired and/or wired to notice.

"Oh, man..." he breathed. "I didn't even think to pay attention. I
mean, she's always there, you know? I got used to that and...
I've been taking her for granted, haven't I?"

"Well... perhaps a bit. She doesna seem to want to go looking for ye
right now, though, and I canna say how much is pride and how much
is... not feeling welcome." But avoiding a place previously claimed as
her own, which Rahne was fairly sure had been the case for Forge's
room, did not exactly strike her as a show of pride. Though, well,
Rahne wasn't a cat.

With a deep sigh, Forge leaned back, tapping his fingers together in
contemplation. Finally, he looked over at Rahne pleadingly. "You're
her roommate. And you're, well, a girl. How do I get her to not be mad
at me about this?"

Rahne gave him a wry look. "Ye ken I canna understand a lot of
the girls here most of the time, and I'm not a cat, right?"

"But you're... I mean, you've got... you're all supposed to... you
know. Girl talk and stuff!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "And
of course you're not a cat, wolves are of the lupine family anyway.
But you both retain a lot of muscle tone and density as humans, I read
that's common for metamorphs who -- oh, never mind," he shook his head
sadly. "I've got to figure out how to set this right before she uses
that muscle tone of hers and drops a fridge on my stupid head or
something."

"I think I can safely say Paige, for instance, talks to you more than
to me," Rahne informed him. "But with Catseye...." Telling someone
what she thought he should do was probably, in general, an even worse
idea than playing go-between, but she didn't think there was too much
to argue with here. "Just... change it, maybe? Ye can be the one to
take the MiniSquid back to her." One corner of her mouth turned up.
"And maybe bring food. Tell her what ye told me. Er, not the part
about the fridge."

Forge lifted the squid, giving it a squeeze to activate it and set its
plush tentacles wriggling. "You're exactly right," he answered.
Spontaneously, he reached out and gave Rahne a quick one-armed hug
before practically leaping across the lab to the door. "I've got to go
find her. Thanks!"

Rahne blinked and then looked after him with a slight smile. Well,
that hadn't gone so badly. And she rather thought she was
right, in this case, and Catseye would be glad to see him. If maybe
not too quick to give in.

Meanwhile, she'd hidden Dr. McCoy's birthday present down here, and it
would probably be a good time to give it to him.