Room 508, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

So...prom was tomorrow. And almost the entire contents of Kathy's wardrobe was strewn about her side of the room, as she tried to find something--anything--that she could wear and still look Ms. Adler in the eye if she were there to chaperone. Even knowing that most of this stuff hadn't started off as her wouldn't make up for actually wearing it. In public. Where people could see.

She knew she ought to be more grateful. Most of the clothes in her closet came from her neighbors who had wanted to make sure that she'd have plenty of clothing when she went away to school. And nobody in her neighborhood was rich, so handmedowns were the best most people could do. But...still... There was a reason that sometimes she dressed like someone out of the late seventies. It wasn't her aesthetic. It was just what was in her closet, especially when it had been awhile since she'd done laundry.

But even sternly reminding herself to be grateful wasn't helping her prom dilemma any. Not when she was staring at someone's weird obsession with short skirts and detachable trains. In various colors. Because that was a thing she needed, yes.

She should have taken Ms. Adler up on her offer of ordering a gown from class on Tuesday. Or maybe she should just try fashioning something out of her curtains and a flat sheet. It couldn't be any worse than some of her other options, after all.

Dammit, she really missed Minako. Between her and Sparkle, they could have salvaged something out of this wreck of fabric. And even if they couldn't...well, she still missed Minako.

Ah well. Once more into the sartorial mines. Maybe she'd missed something? No not that.

[Mostly silliness, because Kathy's PB wears some FUCKING RIDICULOUS CLOTHING. Either way, open door, open post! And a link to Hanna's conversation. DAMMIT, LJ!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed. She recognized that 'Oh. Um.' "Yeah, sure, no problem," she said, holding it up so Raven could see whatever she wanted of it. "Don't worry. I don't want most of it, either. I'm not offended you don't."

[tigerundercover]

"Not if it's itchy," Raven said. Of course, in her opinion, all clothes were itchy and restrictive. "I . . . kinda make my own clothes." She walked around, tilting her head a little as she got a good look at the dress. "I'm always looking for inspiration, but I don't really like tight stuff, either."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You do?" Kathy asked, impressed. "That's awesome! I can sew on buttons and hem a few things poorly, but that's about it. Definitely not make whole outfits." She looked at what Raven was wearing. "Did you make that, too?"

So cool!

[tigerundercover]

Okay, now Raven was feeling guilty for bending the truth (and kind of wanting to show off). "Technically!" she said. "I, um. Kind of get to cheat."

She absolutely could not sew a button or hem anything.

[spin_kick_snap]

Don't worry, Raven. When you showed Kathy what you could do, she'd be all for getting you to show off.

"Cheat?" she asked, confused for the moment. "How? Do you have some kind of...pattern-making program?"

She literally had no idea how someone could cheat at making clothing.

[tigerundercover]

"Sort of!" Raven said. By which she mean absolutely not at all. "Only kind of in my head?"

And she shifted into Kathy, wearing the dress Raven had just been admiring. Which Kathy was quite possibly still holding.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ahh!" Kathy dropped the dress she was holding and took a startled leap backwards.

A leap that ended up putting her on the other side of the room, but details.

"You're--you're--Are you magic?"

[tigerundercover]

"Mutant," Raven explained with a little shrug. "I'm a shapeshifter." She settled back into her more practiced form, not wanting to freak out Kathy too much.

She did love that first reaction, though.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ooooh," Kathy said. And then offered a tentative smile. "I--I think I might be a mutant, too," she said.

It was the only thing she could think of, why she'd just suddenly developed powers.

[tigerundercover]

Raven's eyes went wide, and she broke out into a grin. "Yeah?" she asked excitedly. "What's your power?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Enhanced speed, dexterity, and, uhh, bounciness." She really needed a better way to explain that! "I'm about three times faster than a normal human. I can outpace cars when I really want to move."

She was grinning now, too, because it was cool to be able to show off, at least a little. "And I'm like a cross between a superball and a weeble-wobble. I don't fall down and with enough things to grab onto, I don't ever have to land until I want to."

Kathy owned at parkour.

[tigerundercover]

"That is so nifty," Raven said, applauding a little. "Can you -- oh, I guess there's not really enough room in here to show me all that."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not in here, no," Kathy agreed, looking disappointed. Too much stuff to potentially crash into, knock over, and just plain break. "Can you make yourself, like, really tiny or something? I can take you for a run into town?"

[tigerundercover]

"I can go as small as snake or rabbit," Raven said. "Or, ooo, a turtle. I haven't tried going any smaller than those, though."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was grinning again. "That's probably small enough. Wanna go for a quick jog?"

She was so not going to leave it at a jog.

[tigerundercover]

"Definitely," Raven said, and shifted into a small snake, figuring it'd be easier to hang on at high speeds in that shape. She lifted her head up and flicked her tongue out at Kathy in what would probably not be accurately assessed as excitement.

She was always up for meeting other mutants.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy bent down and scooped Raven up, depositing her around her shoulders like a boa. "You can tighten up if you think you're gonna fall off," Kathy said, "but try not to throttle me, okay?"

And then she was heading out. Not through her door, though. Ha! No way, if she was showing off, she was going to do it right. Instead, she opened up the window in he room, all the way up of the 5th floor, and jumped out of that. A crenelation here, a tree branch there, and Kathy was on the ground, landing in a one-armed handspring, the other one keeping hold of Raven as she flipped and spun.

Once they were on the ground, Kathy was off, running at a full sprint, upwards of ninety miles an hour.

[tigerundercover]

It was very sad that snakes didn't have the vocal cords to properly squeal in delight.

But of course, Raven was not just any snake. And she wasn't super up on her snake biology. So that would be a tiny snake squeal happening as she clung on to the back of Kathy's neck and felt the wind across her scales.

[spin_kick_snap]

They made it into town in a little over a minute. Kathy raced towards the nearest building, not scaling it, but bouncing from one handhold to another, as if she had springs in her feet and each jump just sent her higher and higher.

She slowed once she was on the roof, down to a mere sixty or so. Roofs hadn't been made for travel, after all, and she didn't want to pound over someone's head. But with each leap, each flip, her smile grew bigger and bigger until she was whooping as they flew across the rooftops of Fandom.

This was what it was like being Banzai. The fastest, wildest, most colorful superhero on the island.

[tigerundercover]

Raven joined in the whooping as best she could. The speed was nice, but the bouncing was fantastic. It was like riding her own personal rollercoaster.

You know, if rollercoasters were things you clung desperately to to keep from falling off.

[spin_kick_snap]

After a circuit of the island, Kathy headed back to the dorms, getting in the same way she'd gotten out--by bouncing up the wall of the building and then tumbling in through the window. "So that's me," she said, winded but still beaming. "And now I'm gonna be rude and eat, like, my body weight in hummus and pita bread. I'm pretty sure my metabolism got ramped up when the rest of me did and now I'm, like, always hungry."

Especially after careening around at top speed.

[tigerundercover]

Raven slithered her way back down to the floor, swaying a little, and flopped dizzily back into her human shape.

Her real human shape.

"That was amazing."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Whoa!" Kathy said, though with less shock than she'd displayed when Raven had taken her shape. "Is this...?"

Asking if that was how Raven really looked sounded like it might almost be rude.

"Is the way you normally look--is that just for show?" Hopefully that was diplomatic enough. "I kinda feel like we're really meeting for the first time." She gave Raven a smile. "Hi."

[tigerundercover]

Raven ran her hand over her hair a little self-consciously. "Yeah," she said, with a shrug. "This is what I look like when I'm not trying. But, you know. Blondes have more fun."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Don't tell that to the Korean girl," Kathy said. "I'd look stupid with blonde hair." Her smile grew a little bigger when she added, "Everyone knows redheads are hotter anyway."