Players:
Summary: Evelyn is locked in a fierce battle with a purse when Tyler happens upon her in the Japanese Gardens at Xaviers.
Date: June 1, 2011
Log Title: Catnip in the Prada
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion- Japanese Gardens
A large area of the grounds is landscaped with a Japanese Garden. A river filled with coi fish runs through the middle with a wooden bridge. There is even a small waterfall splashing on the rocks. Bamboo can be heard clacking on the rocks. A small statue of a Buddha can be found in various places. The trees hang over the area and when the flowers are in bloom, it brings a variety of color to the peaceful landscape.
Today the Japanese Garden is the site of an almighty struggle the likes of which may never be seen again! A ferocious feline, around the size of a large house cat although with very unusual markings, is engaged in a battle to the death. And it's opponent? Why it's a little black purse…. The feline in question lets loose a mighty mmrawring noise, unexpectedly loud for something it's size and digs it's teeth in for what appears to be round two of the struggle.
The sound of shifting stones can be picked up in the near distance. It's loping footfalls that are disturbing the path growing ever closer to the spot where the cat wrangles with purse. "I haven't been quite the same. So sure the story of my life would never change…" sings the voice of a young man who appears from beneath an overhanging tree a moment later. "Oh! What in the world?" Tyler pulls out his ear buds to drape around his neck as the long line is connected to an iPod hidden in his jeans. To slowly turn around and walk the other way or to stare in rapt fascination? He chooses to stare.
Evelyn picks the purse up, then shakes her head savagely before dropping it. She makes a giddy little growling noise before the Margay form begins to distort and grow, fur receding and limbs extending until finally a rather exhausted teenage girl is sitting in the middle of the garden. Seeming entirely normal aside from the twenty inch tail that's swishing from side to side and her rather shameless attire. "Stupid lack of thumbs!" she declares with an oddly accent free voice.
"Yeah, you kinda need those to win against a deadly coin purse." Tyler comments as he quickly glances over the now young lady before him in a suit that leaves not much to the imagination. "Here, let me help you." Sneaker clad feet shuffle over to where the mangled purse lays and he leans down to pick it up offering it to her with a warm smile. "I'm Tyler by the way. New guy." Points that last bit out by tapping his chest with the tip of a finger.
"You see. The first thing I did when I understood I had a mutant cat shape power was to buy a catnip mouse. Just a joke really, but then I went and forgot all about it," Evelyn explains idly, her accent slipping more towards something you might hear on an American news show. "Silly mistake really. I figured I'd do a little exploring, get back and oh god that stuff is potent." She grins and points at herself. "Evelyn's the name and I guess that makes me the new girl. I wonder if they take on new students in pairs to meet diversity requirements?"
Tyler snickers then quickly turns wide eyed. "I didn't mean to laugh about that." It was just incredibly funny when he thought about what it must have done to the poor girl. "I don't know how things work around here but your point is at least funny. Might not be a bad idea either given it'd be better to not be the only person new at such a big place." Idle hands stuff themselves into the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt as he peers down at Evelyn. "It's nice to meet you. Are you from around here or they import you too? By import I mean, you know what I mean, oy. I'm from Ohio."
Evelyn ponders, sprawling out on her side taking great care not to squash her tail. "I'm from… You know that's actually a really difficult question. I guess England, it's where I was born at least, but I've been all over the place. Japan, Australia, more of South America than I even remember. Me and my Mom moved to New York for work a little while ago while my Dad is doing some work I think photographing Asiatic Cheetah. He hasn't been in touch yet to say if his paperwork was approved but I don't hold out much hope."
"Really? Man you're well traveled. This is the farthest I've EVER been." Tyler's big blue eyes are full of amazement as he waves a hand towards a nearby rock that looks big enough to sit upon. "You mind if I join you?" Hoping that you don't he'll sit down with feet flat upon the ground and dangle his hands between his knees. "Your father goes out on those wild safari type deals and takes photographs? That would be a really neat-o job actually. What's your mom do?"
"His pictures have been in all kinds of wildlife magazines," Evelyn informs proudly, waving in assent when Tyler asks about sitting. "My mom works for the British Consulate. Which is why I'm here really, sticking around would cause her all kinds of problems at work. A lot of what she does is about encouraging international trade and as tails aren't very popular in America right now…" She shrugs. "Plus I'd quite like to stop getting stuck as my other self. I have to keep a bowl of water in my room on the off chance I can't shift back and the door is shut." Slowly but surely her accent seems to nudge further Ohio-wards the more she says.
Tyler shuffles his foot on the path from side to side marking the ground in an odd half circular pattern. "Tails were in fashion in the eighties," he points out due to having watched far too many music videos and cartoons as a kid. Who could forget the leopard catsuits? "I know how you feel about random acts of the crazy. I don't fur out or anything but I've got a sorta similar prob….hey…" Furiously waving a hand in front of himself. "You're kinda sounding like me. Well, in some words that is. That and you totally don't sound British either. Not that I mean to be rude or anything. Just something that I noticed, thought about, I'll stop rambling now before I seem more like an idiot."
Evelyn giggles. "You can't sound British. It's not an accent," she informs wisely. "And it's a one of my many useless talents. I'm good with accents, guess it comes from living in so many places. If you sound like people they're more likely to accept you and make friends. I guess with everyone here being from a different place I'll have to pick an accent and stick with it. Decisions decisions!" She sighs. "Tails may have been in, growing one less so. So you change into something weird too? What kind of thing?"
Tyler reaches up to rub the nape of his neck looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry. Spose I should have said, English but that just seems weird. Oh well! Not a big deal right? There are a lot of different people around here though I've only been around a few days. A few of the teachers have interesting accents if you want to swing one way or another." Forgot his iPod was still running so he fishes the device out of his jeans pocket to power off before it runs all the juice out. "I'm not sure you could call it a thing really," mentioning that as he stuffs the iPod away again and leans back to rest his hands on the rock on either side of his hips. "You know space right? Like outer space? Imagine taking a section of some really trippy gas clouds and space particle type things and stuffing it into a container that's human shaped. Kinda like that. If that makes sense. I just can't say; Hey! I look like a buncha space."
"Do you go all empty then and suck stuff inside?" Evelyn asks curiously, her tail swishing back and forth some more. "And no worries. I've already made a dozen inappropriate language mess-ups since I moved here! Trust me on this you should /never/ use the English slang for borrowing a cigarette. It'll get you so many weird looks."
"Oh Gods no!" Tyler cringes at the mere thought of turning into a void. "I'm not a black hole at all but gees. Guess I should worry about that huh? I'm erm…I suppose you'll just have to see one day. I can't show you now because there's this whole problem with reverting back and being naked after that yeah." Watching your tail whip back and forth has distracted the young man to a point where he nearly spaced out that last bit. "Yeah, fag means something completely different here. You're a smoker then? Or just saying in general?"
Evelyn waves her hand. "Sometimes. Although I don't think I'll be trying to sneak a smoke in behind the bike sheds at this school," she replies. "And I know the peril of reverting without clothes all too well. Which is why they've given me some of these rather fetching undersuits. Thank god I'm not overly shy or I might have died of shame…"
Probably difficult to get away with much of anything around here given how many people are around and no doubt a killer security system is in place. Tyler shrugs, "There is time off campus if you need to. I've not left just yet cause I haven't had a reason to. Throwing that out there in case you go into withdrawals or something." He really ought to apologize if his babble drives her crazy but it is who he is so he doesn't think on it overly much. "What? Pfft. You look good in the suit if you don't mind me saying that. I've got one but there's no way I'm putting it on. It's just…weird." Both hands fly up from his elbows to hang in front of his chest waving about, "I didn't mean that it's weird you shouldn't wear it because it's weird or your weird or anything like that. I just …I don't even know what I'm saying." Those hands sag with an exasperated sigh. "Guess I'm not ready for the shiny suit but seriously it's hot."
Evelyn giggles. "Chill out. It's not like I'm wearing any less than someone at the beach would have on," she teases shamelessly. "This stuff actually breathes really well. I would have killed for some sets of whatever it's made from the last time I was visiting my dad. Rainforests are murder until you get used to them and by the time I was it was going home time."
Tyler pulls a face, "Well, your bathing suit to my boxer shorts? Not real covering. I've not been to the beach much so you know, not used to it." At least the training uniform that was made of similar material for him was at least full body covering. "I wonder if I could wear an entire suit under some clothing. You say that it's very forgiving? I'm just not ready to be naked or walk around in itty bitty shorts in front of the school just yet."
"I didn't say forgiving. I said it breathes well," Evelyn points out with a wink. "Giving the girls something to look forward to huh? Such a tease. But anyway how did you hear about this place? Did they come fetch you or is there some website that lets people get in touch and request places?" She pauses and plucks a bit of grass. "They found me napping up a tree while some tourists tried to find the number for the city animal control department."
"Uhh…." Tyler blushes about giving the girls something to look forward to. Not sure how he feels about that so he presses onward to a different topic. "Up a tree? That's not such a bad place. Not much goes up trees sept squirrels, and other kitties." At least if Evelyn is meaning somewhere in the burbs or something. "I'm glad you didn't end up in a zoo or something. Me? They found me after I got into some trouble. I hadn't done anything bad save for scaring a few people to death but what I am isn't exactly pretty, ok I'm pretty to look at, but I'm not the kinda guy you want around if I'm all twinkly."
Evelyn frowns. "Unless there are worse people around for you to unleash whatever bad part of twinkly-mode there might be upon?" she wonders. "It was a fairly large tree, but then I'm not just any tree climbing cat. I'm a Margay, also known as the Tree Ocelot. I could catch squirrels in the treetops if I felt like it." She coughs. "Not that I ever would of course. That would be cruel."
Tyler ponders, "So you don't go all kitty kitty mew-mew when you shift? That would definitely be a good thing. Me?" Tyler's not so sure how to talk about this form issue he has for he's only had to talk to a very few people about this particular situation before. "I'm not sure I want to be /that/ guy. You know, the one who saves people. Besides, I wouldn't try to stand beside anyone. Good or bad, Evelyn. I've got this aura like thing I consider it to be. You can't see it save for a bit of mist on the ground sometimes but around me is extremely cold. I don't want people getting erm…I guess I could call it frostbite but it's so much worse than that."
Evelyn coughs some more. "I might go a little like that…. You /did/ just see me trying to hunt my purse remember?" she reminds. "But in a crisis situation you can be trusted to keep any frozen food we've got handy from going bad! Uhm… Sorry that sounded a little callous. At least your power means you /could/ save people if you wanted. Unless someone is in dire threat from a rogue bawl of yarn I'm not going to be saving anything."
"Yeah, you beat the snot out of the purse," Tyler finds himself laughing. "Oy, I know you meant to joke there but you totally wouldn't want to turn me into the replacement fridge parts. I didn't take any offense at all, no worries. I think my power might be able to save people but I've not used it all that often. I lit a few things on fire once and it makes for killer fireworks but I dunno." Standing up to dust dirt off his jeans he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt. "That yarn thing is really funny by the way. Who knows? You could drop down from trees onto people's heads and give them a facial reconstruction too. It might even help some people look better!"
Evelyn shakes her head. "Not unless it happens to be dark. Otherwise unless I'm trying /really/ hard then my first instinct will be to take a nap in the tree while the bad guys get on with whatever they're upto," she explains with some more tail swishes. "The world is really bright during the day and it's almost painful at times. Perhaps the world just isn't ready for the almighty Yarn Hunter and the fearsome Sparkly Fridge. We'll just have to delegate the saving the world business to everyone else for now."
Taking a cat nap probably wouldn't do much good to anyone save for the cat. It is however an amusing visual for Tyler to have of Evelyn snoring away in a tree in Central Park while some little ol'lady gets robbed by some blob looking guy. "Light hurts your eyes? That's got to suck. Hey! What about those goggles they make for pets? Fashion horrors but I bet you could rock a pair if you had help getting them on." The pink kind are terribad actually but it might be a good thing to mention to Evelyn if it works out. "Hmm, I should have considered Sparkly Fridge as a secret name. Though instead of being afraid they'd probably try to store those new beer bottles that show the chill on the label on my head or something."
"American beer…" Evelyn laments. "Now I'll have to find someone to buy me imported beer. God it's hard enough talking people into getting you the regular stuff. Just because I'm lounging around in practically nothing doesn't mean I'm entirely without standards. Cat sunglasses fall squarely in the unthinkable catagory." She glances around. "Besides my head is the wrong shape compared with a domestic cat."
"Well, damn. Was worth a thought. If they weren't a fashion horror maybe someone could make you something." Tyler shrugs for this as well as the mention of obtaining beer here in the states. "Never had the stuff. Nor do I think I want to really. My parents don't drink and I'm not sure I'd ever want to really. Don't see the point it but I'm not trying to push my views on you at all." There's an odd jingle in his pocket which has him pulling out his cell phone to check the message before he pockets it again. "You want me to take the catnip off your hands? I may have to cut out on you soon and I wouldn't want you to have to wrestle your purse again."
Evelyn laughs. "It's okay. Not planning on changing back anytime soon," she assures. "As for drinking.. It's just a little fun. Gather a few friends and have a few drinks. Really good way to get to know people and when you know you probably won't be sticking around for the long haul… Besides if I wanted to just get wasted apparently I can just hit up a pet store." She shakes her head in dismay at the imagine. "Nice of you to stop and say hi. I've barely been here a day so I haven't really spoken to anyone yet, been busy unpacking my scrapbooks and making sure my camera is okay. I tend to worry like you wouldn't believe whenever I have to pack it up."
Tyler normally gets together over some pizza and soda but to each his own. He's not about to tell anyone else what they can enjoy and can't. Not his style at all. "Free fall into the cat nip? That could get really interesting. Hope I don't miss something like that. At least you're talking it all with good spirit. It's not as if we could get rid of our differences if we wanted to." Mention photography and you've peaked his curiosity. "Do you want to be like your father or are you taking different sorts of pictures?"
Evelyn stretches lazily. "I like taking pictures of people rather than animals, although I have a ton of nature shots I've taken. If you want I can bring out some of the better ones sometime? I have a lot of pictures of the students helping research small wildcats that I took just before I grew my tail. I try go for candid shots when people aren't really aware, but every now and again I'll take a few shots of people who expect it. Sometimes for variety and others because I just think they look pretty or interesting." Appears it's a topic she can happily babble on about at some length. "I guess I'd be more upset if it didn't feel so… right. It's like being in a whole new world everything is new and exciting."
"I'd like to see them some time. You kinda feel about photography how I feel about painting," Tyler sounds a bit wistful. "It's definitely good you've found something that you're passionate about and fun to boot." From within the hoody a hand shakes free and is extended towards Evelyn. "Glad I got a chance to run into you. It was nice meeting you, and welcome to Xaviers. So far it's been a really cool place."
"Hope I have the same positive experience!" Evelyn agrees, shaking the offered hand. "With any luck I won't miss too many classes while napping in the forest. Which looks like it'll be amazing to explore. Such a shame I can't take my camera with me when I'm a Margay." She eyes her chewed up purse. "I better get back to my room and see if I can dig out a replacement before I lose my phone. Hopefully I'll cya around sometime!"
