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Summary: Ahmed comes dancing into courtyard as Taylor, Cale and Nicholas hang out.
Date: August 21, 2012
Log Title: Dancing Leopard
Rating: Log Rating.
Xavier Mansion - Courtyard
Surrounded on three sides by the school, a large courtyard forms the front yard. The courtyard leads right up to the door of the mansion. Yellow square stone slabs cover the ground where the grass would be. The most noticeable thing about the courtyard is the large statue of Jean Gray, aka Phoenix, in the middle as a memorial. Benches surround the outside of the statue so students can sit and hang out in the courtyard. There are two paths leading off the courtyard, one to the left and the other to the right.
Orange, red, yellow and other similar colours show in the sky as the sunsets over Xavier's, marking another day of summer vacation over and another day closer to school starting again. One person sitting on one of the benches facing the Jean Grey memorial statue is Nicholas. A large Western Style saddle sits in his lap that he is in the middle of cleaning. A large bin of soapy water sits on the ground as Nick's feet as he leans down to scrub the leather with a small sponge. He doesn't seem to care that his shorts seem to be getting soaked in the process.
Taylor is walking down the path to the courtyard, wearing a pretty beige summer dress. The ocelot student seems to even have gone so far as to pad a bra today, which is likely noticeable as Tay is pretty flat-chested. The felinoid is carrying a book, and on the tip of Tay's nose is a pair of reading glasses that is peered over while Taylor walks. "Hey Nick," says Taylor, looking towards him upon smelling him, and offering a wave.
Looking up as his name is called, Nicholas offers a wave Taylor's way. "Hey Taylor, how's it going?" He drops the sponge into the bin with a small splash and grabs a towel to dry off his hands. "Summer vacation always seems to….wait, you have glasses!" He finally notices. "Do they help, I mean you are wearing them and they look cute on you."
Taylor chuckles and says, "Yeah, they work just fine… They magnify everything up huge so that I can see the edges of letters and stuff. It's pretty much the same as the magnifying glass, except attached to my face, and custom made for me…" The feline flops down and says, "Thanks for saying they're cute, though. I sorta felt like they made me look weird."
Nicholas gives Taylor a 'look', a 'look' that says 'are you serious', in regards to the 'weird' comment. "Taylor, no offence and I'm not saying you look weird but, saying glasses make you look weird is like saying fur makes a horse look fuzzy. That came out so wrong but, what I'm trying to say is that they look fine and you don't have anything to worry about. They don't magnify your eyes so you don't look like a giant cat bug, or like that weird teacher from Harry Potter."
"Well…" says Taylor, pushing up the glasses so that they are closer to the feline's eyes, and indeed, they magnify Taylor's eyes quite a bit, which might look a bit weird! It seems that was just a demonstration, though, as Tay brings them back down further. "If I'm reading for awhile, they're better up there, but usually I'm just like, reading labels or whatever. And… umm, yea, I guess the glasses are a drop in the bucket… I guess I must be more used to looking like this than I thought."
"Though I guess I can understand what you mean by weird." Nicholas says as he runs a finger along parts of the saddle, trying to inspect it for dirty spots. "I would imagine that if I had to get glasses I'd think I'd look weird. That's one thing I'm lucky in regards to, good vision."
"I used to have great vision. I mean. I still do, but it's different… I'm really good at seeing movement now, but not so good at making out stuff that's still… my hand eye coordination is through the roof," says Taylor, scratching the back of their neck and peering towards the saddle, "How often do you have to clean your saddle like that?"
~Tralala. Kaylee seems to be having a wonderful day, trotting down the path from the woods while practically beaming. She is wearing a knee-length blue skirt with a turquoise shirt, a couple of earbuds in her ears and a phone in her hand. When she spots Nick and Taylor, she pauses, greeting them. "Hi-lo!" she offers in a singsong voice.
"How often?" Nicholas reasks the questions. "Uh, pretty much just when it's really dirty, which can be as much as once a day but I usually try to clean it at least once a week. You just have to make sure that you take care of the leather so it doesn't stiffen, crack and stuff. After I'm done washing it I'm going to have to use a sort of leather conditioner on it." Nicholas explains before spotting Kaylee. "Hey Ca…Kaylee. What's up?" He's still not used to seeing him in girl clothes.
Taylor looks over towards Kaylee and says, "Hey, there, Kaylee. What's up?" The felinoid glances towards the saddle and then says, "I guess in westerns and stuff they don't really show much saddle cleaning. I never knew there'd be that much maintenance, I never thought about it."
"Nothin!" Kaylee smiles, glancing towards the saddle. "You still owe me riding lessons, you know?" she sticks her tongue out at Nick slightly. "Yeah, that's why living back then sucked so much! You had to be tough. 'cause there was a ton of work involved in eeeeeveryyything."
"Well you have to come and find me when I'm free, or call me, when you want to cash in." Nicholas teases back before looking back over at Taylor. "There's a lot of maintenance that goes into owning a horse, it's not like having a cat or dog or hamster. Westerns mostly show the heroic and Hollywood Glamour side of the Wild West, which is why I love them so much. Would I love to be a cowboy, sure, would I want to live back then, not really. Heroin as headache medication isn't exactly something I'd want to live with." He's seen Tombstone a few too many times.
"Yeah, I've never really got to have a pet before," says Taylor, shrugging slightly, "I mean, for a horse, I'd probably gladly do all the maintenance stuff, but I guess on television… well, everything looks a lot cooler. Anyways… owning a pet seems weird now. Like. Owning a dog, people would be like, haha, look at that cat person walking that dog! And if it was a cat? Even worse."
"Well, it's really not that weird! It's not any weirder than someone owning a monkey for a pet…" Kaylee ponders… "Well okay, that's pretty weird! Maybe it would be. Maybe you would be a weirdo, and people would be like, hey, look at that weirdo over there, with the cat!" she pauses awkwardly, biting her lip and glancing to the side, "I've been hanging out with Amy too much…"
Sitting on one of the benches with his saddle in his lap and a bin of soapy water in front of him is Nicholas, who appears to be chatting with Taylor and Kaylee. He chuckles at something Taylor said and grins at the ocelot. "Be careful what you wish for Taylor. I love horses and even I hate the maintenance that comes with owning one, but I'd never want to not own one. Thank my parents for that." He says looking up at the sky momentarily. "Is that a bad thing Kaylee? Hanging out with Amy too much, after all she is your sister. If I had a sibling, I'd spend as much time with them as possible seeing that they are my only family. Don't ever think of spending too much time with her as a bad thing." If one is listening closely they might notice a hint of jealousy in his voice.
From off in the distance, the other three students can hear… Music? The swell of the BeeGees suddenly fills the background as 'Stayin' Alive' goes out full blast from no place, and then from… a huge snow leopard. The tiger-sized feline is strutting to the beat of the music, head bobbing back and forth as he looks around, a little shoulder movement in it even as the tail flirts and flicks behind him. Suddenly it bursts into the chorus 'Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive!' And the snow leopard bounce-crosses his front paws back and forth with each 'Ah!' And then rolls from nose to hip in the motion of a roar during the words. Repeat until the lead singer belts out that high note, and the huge feline does a double spin and POSE!
…and then freeze… as poeple are watching… Which causes an instant bout of 'I'm not doing ANYTHING!' grooming, but forgets the music is still playing from speakers that are centered around his haunches…
Taylor glances towards Nicholas, and then shrugs at Kaylee, "I guess I haven't really spent much time with your sister, I don't really know her well or anything. But yeah, I mean, hanging out with family is cool…" The feline shrugs again and then… Ahmed appears. The feline's eyes drift towards the snow leopard, falling victim to a horrible giggling fit upon seeing the cat dance.
Kaylee glances over to find… Ahmed! The kitty. Of course, seeing a cat dance, and then the meta-factor of a cat-person giggling at the cat dancing, sends her off the deep end also. "I… ah… wha?" when all else fails, feign confusion.
Nicholas drops the saddle he's holding, luckily it doesn't land in the water, and just stares at his roommate. There's obvious disbelief on his face as he can't stop staring at him in shock. "I don't believe it." He says softly. "I really don't believe it." He's too shocked to laugh.
Hardly less than shocking is that the music winds down, only to face back into ABBA's 'Dancing Queen'. The huge feline stares back, leg gracefully up in the air and being groomed… followed by a grumbling rumble. With a resigned-sounding chuff he pushes off his haunches. Choosing to ignore the group watching him, this seven hundred pound beast proceeds to get into an appropriate rumpshake and twist. What might be attractive for some just comes off as amusing on that but fuzzy butt, as the huge tail twirls like a cane. Turning around he saunters right up to Taylor, trying to drag the other feline-person out onto the 'dance floor'.
Taylor seems to need a moment or two to catch their breath, still unable to quite stop giggling. The felinoid is surprised, however, when Ahmed 'asks' for a dance! The ocelot student is not going to fight back that huge feline, though, and Tay laughs a little bit more and then says, "Aw man, Ahmed, I can't dance worth a crap!"
As Taylor is yanked out onto the 'dance floor' by Kaylee, the lizard mutant looks slightly disappointed. Dancing is fun! Even though she's never really danced before. Well not in public, anyway! Hmm… "This is too much…" she whimpers, shaking her head and glancing towards Nick for his impression…
Nicholas just watches in complete disbelief for quite sometime. "I don't think I've ever seen Ahmed just have fun before." He says mainly to Kaylee since she's the only one whose near. He shakes his head to snap himself out of whatever daze he's in and bends over to grab the sponge, ringing it out as much as possible, so he can continue getting all the dust and dirt off of his saddle. "Do you take music requests Ahmed?!"
Ahmed flashes his backside at Nick. Talk to the butt darling! But he proceeds to try and show Taylor the moves he was doing… which was mainly just shaking his butt and strutting his front. However… as he continues to demonstrate, there's an odd displacement in his backside, as the mini-speakers and the phone he was using to play his tunes slurp out of him, supported on a shelf that then extends on a pseudopod towards Nick. It stops there, and he can see it's on a random shuffle under a category that's just marked 'Just Dance'.
Taylor tries to follow along with Ahmed's moves, because if the giant snow leopard can do it, so can Tay! The feline stops, however, at the displacement on Ahmed's backside, and the feline says, "Um, something is coming out of your ass. That's… kinda weird…"
Kaylee smiles at the dancing cats for now, but seems content to continue on to wherever she was going, which happens to be back inside the mansion. With how cheerful she seems today, perhaps there was something else going on previously… who knows! However, she fairly quickly slips away.
"Oh that's just gross." Nicholas says in regards to the goo shelf, but there's a chuckle in his voice. "I was going to request if you had any Chris Gaines but I doubt he's on a 'Just Dance' mix. Also I'm almost afraid the Chris Gaines joke would be lost on the two of you." He says as he bends over to dip the sponge in the water and fling some of the soap water in the direction of the two dancing cats. "I don't know how the two of you are gonna make it through the school year next year." He teases.
The music setup is retracted back into the big feline, but it causes his entire form to ripple a moment as the items are settled inside of him. There's some odd shifting inside the belly as something inside moves around. That causes Nick's phone to buzz with an instant message as the music goes off from ABBA right into 'You Can't Stop The Beat' from Hairspray.
"Man, that's so weird! I sometimes forget that you're made of goo!" says Taylor, watching all of the weirdness with the shelf retracting back into Ahmed. The felinoid headshakes and then moves out of the way of the bulk of the splashy soap water! "Saved by my catlike reflexes." There's a pause. "Where did Kaylee get off to?"
"Huh?" Nicholas asks Taylor as he reaches for his phone so he can see whose sending him a text. While pushing the buttons he looks around. "I don't know, he..she didn't even say good bye, just kind of vanished. I hope they're okay." He says looking around before going to look back at his phone. "Alright I think I'm done doing most of the washing on this."
There's a text from Ahmed that says, 'I offered. Now you have to suffer my sister's music choices. I found these songs on an old CD.' Back to dancing a bit once more, the cat remains in it's silly state for a few moments longer, and then curls around Taylor once to help them keep balance. But this means the butt-music is especially loud.
Taylor stumbles a bit at being curled around, but it's not a clumsy stumble, sort of a graceful stumble. The feline continues dancing for a bit and then says, "It looks pretty clean!"
Nicholas raises an eyebrow at the text message and tries not to let it bother him. "Ahmed, the day you have country music on your iPod is the day I'll die of shock." He says not really thinking Ahmed is the country music kind of guy. "Though that's not all I listen to, I just like it." Better than this dance CD stuff. "I'll be back in about two minutes, gotta go get a damp towel so I can get off all the residue from the soap." And with that he runs inside quick and returns about two minutes later with said cloth.
Taylor is still outside, and it seems that Ahmed has left by the time Nicholas comes back, and the feline is now humming to themselves some kind of music, to the tune of nyan.cat, reading the book, even though it's started to get a bit darker out.
