OOM: Christmas dinner with Pyrrha and Egil

[ostro_goth]

[[Ctd. from here.]]

Teja opens the door, laden as he is.

His usually comfortable, creatively untidy room is still that -- there is even Ferdinand the cat, sprawling all over Teja's bed, fast asleep. There are simply two new doors, one of them leading to a kitchen that provides all the modern comforts and appliances as well as a space to comfortably sit and eat, the other leading to Egil's room in Loki's apartment on the 12th floor.

One better should not think about how that works.

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"So we can change in the bar, if the person we wish to find is there," Teja says.

Pause.

"Maybe I will be offered centaur-shape again next Cubefall," Teja says. "It was the mythical creature on my list a few times."

[scarred_grin]

"I really don't think you want to be his centaur."

Not with the mental image she's getting.

"He says they're like other cat collars, made to come open if they're pulled on pretty hard--like if a cat falls out of a tree but the collar gets caught on a branch and it's hanging there, it'll come open so the cat doesn't get hurt. It's like that."

[ostro_goth]

"So we can rip them off, if we do need to," Teja nods.

[scarred_grin]

"He wouldn't want us to be trapped and unable to free ourselves," she says. "I wouldn't want that either. This way, we're safe."

[ostro_goth]

"That is good to know," Teja says. "We must try them soon: - hunting demonic rabbits in the snow, in the moonlight..."

He remembers doing that, with Yrael and his cats.

[scarred_grin]

"I'm not really a hunting kind of person," she says, picking one of the collars up.

But she can't resist putting it on.

She still has her stripe, as a cat. Egil leans forward to see over the edge of the tray, and laughs.

[ostro_goth]

"Oh, Pyrrha!" Teja says, holding out his hand for her to touch him, as a cat would.

[scarred_grin]

This feels weird.

Not just the sudden change in size and shape and position--the senses and coordination take some getting used to also.

Disoriented Pyrrha!cat, looking up at him.

[ostro_goth]

"Do you want me to take it off again?" Teja offers, touching her fur as he bends down.

[scarred_grin]

She has very soft fur.

She bumps into him, in the cat-greeting way, and tries walking around a little. Still weird.

Plus, the other cats. Should she do the head-bump thing with them? How does that work?

[ostro_goth]

Myrrh comes over to smell her, and then indeed bump heads with the strange cat. Who is also Pyrrha.

The forge cats are all used to people turning into cats at times.

[scarred_grin]

Hey, that feels nice. Maybe this cat thing isn't so hard after all.

Until she tries to jump onto the counter to look at Egil. It turns out she can't get that high, but apparently the 'I totally meant to do that' attitude is innate to cat shapes.

[ostro_goth]

Myrrh licks her paw, then coolly jumps onto the counter, because cats can do that, of course.

Unless they are Ferdinand, who is too lazy.

Teja gives a little chuckle.

[scarred_grin]

Time to see if she can use any other cat powers: she tries standing up on her back legs, half-climbing Teja, and mewing piteously.

Poor Pyrrha!cat just wants to be picked up. Really, she's wasting away on the floor for lack of attention. It's tragic.

[ostro_goth]

Of course, Teja understands her, and picks her up, to hold her in his arms.

"I should try one of my collars, also," he says.

[scarred_grin]

Being picked up is nice. Maybe she can get a little scritching behind the ears while she's there? Or under her chin.

Egil watches, reaching a hand toward them. Everybody can take fuzzy shape now, isn't it fun?

[ostro_goth]

Teja does scritch both her ears and her chin for a while, then puts her onto his lap and takes out the black collar with the moon shape.

Everything shifts underneath Pyrrha's paw.

"I think it might be better one of us stays human, with Egil around in human shape," she says.

[scarred_grin]

And she gets some purring in approval.

Purring feels weird too. But enjoyable.

She just might get the hang of this cat thing after all. For now, she'll do her best to climb up onto Teja's shoulder to get a closer look at this new shape.

[ostro_goth]

Teja is reaching up to rub her jaw.

"Do you approve?" she asks. "It is the shape I always get when I change gender, which has happened more than once -- thanks to Milliways."

[scarred_grin]

She gets the affectionate head-bump.

Followed by Pyrrha!cat losing her balance and ending up in her lap again. Okay, she's revising her confidence levels as far as being a cat goes.

She does approve, though.

[ostro_goth]

Teja puts both hands around the cat, as if to prevent her from falling further, and rubs the fur along her spine.

[scarred_grin]

That feels good.

It would probably feel just as good in people shape, though, and in people shape she'd be able to talk.

Is this a pattern? Two gifts that involve her not being able to talk.

Eventually, she paws at her collar.

[ostro_goth]

Teja takes off Pyrrha's collar at once, and will hold on to her as she shifts her shape again.

[scarred_grin]

"That was weird," she says. "I don't know how Egil does it. Well, it might be easier for him since he hasn't had to get used to walking like people yet."

[ostro_goth]

"One gets used to it," Teja says, still stroking her spine. "I know that I did."