For a story can only start so many ways, but it's hard to tell where it is going...
When the sun finally rises again, each guest will find him or herself back in their original room, with the door locked and a costume hanging beside it. The door will open - but only after they put on the clothes. When they leave, guests will find themselves descending a winding staircase into a dizzying room built entirely in crystal; the floor,
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Her eyes are wide as the reason why becomes suddenly and horrifyingly clear: she no longer walking on four taloned feet, but two very human feet. Her cry of alarm likely echoes through the halls of the castle, even through her closed door. She is naked, other than her skin, hair, neck purse and the communicator stills trapped around her wrist. Her crossbow and bolts had fallen off her much smaller frame, now sitting on the bed she had clambered out of. However, none of these things are her first concern; her first concern is that she is a two-leg at all.
She crawls to the nearest piece of furniture, clinging to it with wide eyes as her pulse races and her chest heaves in near hysterics.
"What has happened? What is this?!"
[OOC: All replies will be made with eyesofafalcon. More than welcoming any LOCAL involvement while Zhaneel tries to wrap her head around this.]
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Unlike Zhaneel, she's already dressed, in a sleek tawny gown, though her mask is still her hand. When she speaks, her voice is the same almost bored, slightly sarcastic drawl as the Calico Cat's.
"Relax. It's only because being four-legged and covered in feathers would give you away."
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She still looks like she might be hyperventilating, her breaths coming swift and shallow as she takes in the figure across from her. There is something familiar about her and it takes only the time for her to finish speaking for Zhaneel to latch onto that familiarity.
"You are the Cat from before .. in the Wood." Her wide golden eyes dart around the room and back at Cat again. "Give me away? But I was not trying to be hidden .. I do no .. I do not understand .."
Still, that this had been done to her by magic in all likelihood, it could also be undone by the same. "It will not last, then?"
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Despite the general sarcastic tone, her voice is gentle. It's alarming, finding yourself in a shape that's not your own, and if anyone would know, it's the Cat. "It doesn't matter if you want to stay hidden. It's tradition, and it's the way things work... but only until dawn."
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Her golden gaze flits around the room, eying everything curiously from a different perspective than what she is used to. The eyes set directly at the front of the face, rather than slightly back, is strange and no small bit unsettling. It will take some getting used to, although there would not be a lot of time to do so.
Sink or swim, so the saying went .. and Zhaneel wasn't about to sink; not in unfamiliar territory and in a clearly weaker form. She swallows, gaze moving back to the tawny colored dress and rising slowly to meet Calico's gaze again.
"Until dawn," she repeats, relief flooding through her. She'd be far more comfortable with four feet and her wings solidly back in place. "What tradition? What is it I'm to take part in?" Now that the reassurance of the return to self has been assured, Zhaneel finds herself quite curious as to what she's gotten herself into.
Then her head tilts curiously, shifting a bit to release her death grip on the ottoman. "You have been changed as well .." she takes particular note of what Calico is wearing now, blinking several times.
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She turns hers over in her hands, smiling wryly. It's a lion, this year - somehow, she's unsurprised by that. She doesn't put it on just yet, though, just plays with it absently, her eyes on Zhaneel's face.
"It's good for some people, having a night where no one knows who you really are." She shrugs languidly. "And I am human tonight for the same reason you are. It's not easy to disguise a cat."
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"Had you say in the choice of mask and dress, or was it made for you?" There was no denying the appropriateness of the lion face and tawny hue of her dress.
She listens with interest and licks her lips before nodding. "I suppose I can see the reasoning behind it .. the intrigue and freedom such a night would present to those in attendance."
She begins to unwind herself from the chair leg, stretching out her legs to examine their strange smoothness. She ends with a wiggle of her toes that draws a giggle from her .. until she realizes that she cannot clamber around on all fours. She will, it seems, have to at least manage well enough on two to make it downstairs amongst the revelers.
Her brows knit and she begins the process of regaining her feet and it's likely agonizing to watch as she tries to figure out what goes where to hold her balance. She ends up clinging to the back of the chair when she finally straightens, but in the end she is on her and beaming with success.
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There are worse costumes, as these things go... unless someone's trying to make a point. The Cat very much hopes that's not the case, because fae making points never ends well for anyone but the fae.
Her own expressions are slow and not entirely human, like she's out of practice with the whole thing - but she grins as Zhaneel manages to find her feet, and there's real emotion in the expression. Emotion other than sardonic mockery, even.
"Good. If we manage to get you into the dress without breaking or ripping something, I'll be shocked, but it's progress."
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"Oh .." Her voice is little more than a breath. Her widened gaze turns to Calico then, and she can't help the startled exclamation that slips past her lips. "I do not know how to dance! There is dancing at these things, I am certain! Oh, hellsteeth, I will not have to wear shoes will I?!"
Breaking something, up to and possibly including her neck, was greatly increased in probability if she were put into shoes on top of a gown, mask and walking.
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The smile slips a little, and she shakes her head again, this time dismissive. "A very long time ago. So long as you're wearing clothes - and the mask - you'll be fine."
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She chuckles softly, but it fades as Calico changes subjects. Zhaneel is becoming accustomed to the Cat's preference of privacy and she'll not pry where something is not willingly given. Particularly if the information is unlikely to mean harm coming to herself or her friends. This is another case of 'Calico will explain if/when she cares to.'
She nods, though and offers a warm smile, amusement coloring her own tone. "Clothing .. this will be different in and of itself .." Though necessary to protect one from in-climate weather and terrain, Zhaneel thought the wearing of clothes was a silly thing. Clothing got in the way of movement, so far as she could tell .. although armor was a different story altogether.
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"You'll forget about it before long. Probably." Assuming she doesn't trip over the train, but there's not much to be done about that.
The Calico tosses her mask onto the bed for the moment, and strides over to the door to grab the dress and hold it out to Zhaneel. "Think you can manage to struggle into it by yourself? I can stand by to catch you, if you think you might need it..." Zhaneel's unsteady enough on two feet already - the last thing she needs is to fall and concuss herself.
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"I suppose the only way to know is to try, yes?" she manages as quite the brave reply. She exhales and nods, claiming the dress in her own hands. She holds it before herself and after a moment finds how she'd best manage to pull it on. There is an instant that she nearly attempts this standing, but after a beat she shrugs this off as a TERRIBLE idea and shifts to sit on the chair she is holding onto.
It's a stretch of several minutes and a few steps done incorrectly, but when she stands again Zhaneel has managed all but casually the corset like bodice. She is standing again and looks at Calico. "Would you please help me?" The fact that it fastens and ties in the back leaves the process a bit out of her league. "I can't reach the ties and I'm rather certain I would do it wrong and only manage to have the entire thing fall off.." She's being quite honest, but she is also smiling, tryin to handle all of this with as much poise and bravery as she can muster.
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She's careful not to pull it too tightly, making sure the dress hampers neither Zhaneel's breathing or movement - at least, not any more than it would by simple virtue of being a dress. "Be careful at the party, okay? Talk to anyone you like, but don't agree to anything. No bargains, deals, favors... You understand?"
The Calico Cat doesn't know why she cares. Maybe it's just that Zhaneel reminds her of old friends... or of herself, a long, long time ago.
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The bodice is tight, but no tighter than any other garment of this sort. It seems that every effort to leave it as loose as plausible is being made, to which Zhaneel is gravely appreciative. The the feline turned human seemed genuinely concerned about her well-being and how her evening would proceed was not lost on the gryphon.
She stills more than before, however, head turned slightly toward the Cat so she does not miss a single word as the other woman continues speaking. There was no denying how serious her tone was and Zhaneel's brows knit together slightly, but she nods. It seemed even on this, a night of fun and frivolity, one had to be certain not to step out of their carefully choreographed motions. She nods again, repeating what she has been told.
"Be careful .. speak to whom I wish, but do not make any deals or agreements .. No favors or bargains." She exhales and there is no hiding the bit of a tremor to her breath. "I understand.."
The fact that the Calico is watching out for her so directly is not missed on the gryphon and she hopes she appears as grateful as she feels. She didn't know anyone, outside of 'Drake or Skan (and Gesten, of course), she couldn't think of anyone that had ever been so concerned about her well-being as much as Calico seemed.
She turns a bit more, looking at the other woman as her fingers fret and fiddle with the front of her bodice. "Thank you .."
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The Cat glides around Zhaneel to get to the bed again, almost brushing against her the way a real cat might with a familiar human, and picks up her mask to tie it on. The likeness is of a male lion rather than a lioness, for reasons possibly only the fae know.
"I'd also be careful what you drink. Nothing's enchanted, for once, but..." She grins behind the mask. "I'm guessing you probably don't drink much alcohol in your normal shape."
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