open post -- a little white kitten

[onthewillowsthere]

After way, way too much research and overthinking, the kind of research and overthinking that had Janet feeling uncomfortably like Quentin and Alice's ill-gotten love child, she's been ready for a while. So, yes, maybe she wanted the dramatic gesture of giving this to Galahad as a wedding gift. Can you blame her? Nothing says “I hope you're really happy in all your marital bliss with that guy who always seems like he's trying to sell me a protection plan” like the promise of turning someone into a cat.

Whatever. It's also kind of anticlimactic at this point. Janet has a bowl of white paste and a whole lot of gumption, but as far as supplies go, that's it. She eyes Galahad. “You ready?”

“Yes,” Galahad says, in his usual too-serious way. He's excited, but that only means his affect is flatter and blanker than usual. He told Mothwing that he would come to her for a lesson this afternoon, but not what shape he'd be in.

“Okay. You're going to have cat-brain, and herding cats is famously impossible, so where do you want to do this?” Maybe Janet should have made the mansion generate a cat carrier. But it seems rude to show up to a meeting with a human person with one of those, and not her preferred brand of rude.

“In the garden. I want to go to Mothwing afterwards.”

“Sure thing.” She lets Galahad lead the way. She has a bowl of weird white gunk to manage.

Once they’re in the garden, surrounded by the riotous summer flowers, Galahad stops. “Will my clothes transform with me?”

“Nope.” Janet raises her eyebrows at him. “You'll be naked when I turn you back. I won't let your tiny cat body suffocate or anything, if you're worried about that.”

“When you have transformed me, will you please put my watch around my neck?”

That is… so cute. He's so cute. Every time Janet has mentally compared Galahad to an adorable talking woodland creature feels completely justified. “Yep,” she says, instead of oh my God, you're adorable. “Any other last requests before you can't talk anymore?”

“No. Thank you.”

Okay, sure. Janet scoops some of the chalky shit onto her fingers and invades Galahad's personal space. She swipes it onto his forehead, under his shock of marshmallow-fluff hair, then onto his bare shoulders. She steps back, looks him over like he's a used Chevy Malibu and she's about to try and talk him up to a family of four, then says a single harsh syllable out loud.

It's not a pretty transformation. Galahad kind of… crunches forward, folding up like a piece of paper crumpling in someone's hands. Cats are a lot smaller than humans. Fur is sprouting, his collarbones are melting away, a tail is crackling out from the other end of him. It's really, really not cute. But it does work, and Janet feels like the world's coolest magician when there's a little white cat with blue eyes staring at her from under his sundress.

It feels like falling down a cliffside – a whirling, disorienting feeling, but not the freefall in air of being thrown from a horse. When the world around Galahad comes to a halt, he looks up, and up, and up, to see Janet’s distant, blurry face.

He takes a careful step forward on his paws, getting used to his new center of gravity. His whiskers feel as though they’re constantly brushing against things, picking up every vibration in the air, and the world’s colors have changed into shades of yellow and blue. His ears twitch and swivel towards sounds.

He takes a practice run, and finds his stiff, awkward body has become graceful, fluid, as he bounds in a circle around the garden. He can’t tell how, but he knows his tail is important, as much a part of his balance as his four paws.

Finally he comes back and sits on his hindquarters in front of Janet. He knows he’s not supposed to be able to talk, but he tries anyway, and meows, “Thank you.”

“Holy shit!” Janet stares down at him. That doesn't make any sense. She remembers being a goose. All she could do was honk. She honked for days on end. It was actually really fucking tedious. “Whoa. I'm good.” She told him she would, so she kneels in the grass and swipes his watch from the pile of his clothes. “Here, kitty.”

Galahad pads over to her on his soft, silent paws and puts out his head for the watch-collar.

Feeling a sudden sense of portentous responsibility, Janet buckles it around his neck. She's careful not to make it too tight or too loose. He's so, so cute. “Okay.” She gives him a little scritch under the chin, like Regina likes. “Do whatever you want, but I'm gonna keep an eye on you.”

“I understand. Thank you, Queen Janet,” he meows again. Then a butterfly passes in the corner of his eye, and he springs after it, unable to stop himself.

Comments

[summerdude]

Where there's a Galahad and/or an animal, there will inevitably soon be a Magnus. And indeed, Magnus comes ambling along a few minutes later. He watches the cute little cat for a moment before he clocks the watch, and then he's plopping on the ground. "Hey, buddy. Looking good."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Magnus!" Galahad meows. "Queen Janet turned me into a cat!"

[summerdude]

"I can see that!" Magnus extends a hand so that Galahad can sniff it, or something. "Can I pet you?"

[sporesprouter]

Tress is taking a walk. It's good to get fresh air to help clear your thoughts, and it's even more so since the beach arrived, since the saltwater breezes are at least close to the smell of the wind on the Rock, when the breeze is blowing in the right direction. So she started, at least, skirting the beach before heading towards the treeline.

As she walks across the grass, she catches a flash of white out of the corner of her eye and looks over to see a kitten. "Oh! Hello."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tress!" He immediately bounds over to her, his white tail held high and his whiskers turned out towards her. "Hello!"

[sporesprouter]

She crouches down to greet the kitten, blinking with surprise when she hears her name. "You know my..." She then sees the watch around his neck. "Wait. Galahad?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan Pevensie is in her PDA era. Between the attention she got in the outfit Kade selected for her and tipsily allowing Lancelot to feed her in the beach restaurant, she's decided it's not the worst thing in the world to be demonstrative in public spaces.

So when she sees Janet in the garden, she walks up, curls a hand around Janet's cheek, and draws her in for an immediate kiss. (She does not, it must be said, notice the cat off chasing the butterfly.) It's only as she's pulling back that she notices the stuff all over Janet's hands.

"My goodness," she says. "What have you got going on?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's so into the kiss that she has to really coach herself not to put her gunky, pasty hands all over Susan's nice clothes. She grins as they part, a grin that only gets wider with the question. "Hi. I turned Galahad into a cat."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh! My goodness. Today's the day, then?" Susan glances around until her eyes fall on the cat with the watch around its neck. She shan't be embarrassed about this. "Good day, Galahad."

[mothwingofriverclan]

Mothwing's waiting for Galahad to come to her den for his lesson today when she hears leaves rustling. She pokes her head out and sees a young white tom crashing inexpertly through the nearby vegetation in pursuit of some kind of small prey. If she hadn't recognized his collar, she'd know him by scent: it's Galahad.

Joy and surprise battle each other. Part of her hadn't believed that Janet could actually do something as extreme as turning a twoleg into a cat; it's a big leap beyond the cat magic she's seen. Another part of her feels enormous relief to see a cat that she knows, at long last. Regina, Charlotte and Angus are fine acquaintances, but none of them would be Clan cats, even if there were a Clan to join in this odd place. Galahad, on the other paw, is her apprentice, and finally looks the part.

"Galahad!" she meows, trotting out of her den to meet him. "Wow!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Mothwing!" Galahad meows excitedly, leaving the white-footed mouse to scurry into the grass. "Look! Look! We did it!"

[ravkanwitch]

Nina's eyes light up when she sees the small white kitten chasing a butterfly next to Janet. Saints, how adorable! "Janet!" She exclaims, also excited to see her as well. "Who is this?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet turns a sharp grin on Nina, happy to see her and still riding high on the apparently total success of her spell. "Hi there. I'll give you a hint: he's not usually a cat."

[scrap_collector]

Xie Lian has spent the morning collecting red coral from the tide pools of the mysterious, recently-arrived beach. He's coming back with a collection of them wrapped in cloth in one hand and his boots in the other when a white kitten leaps out of the underbrush in front of him, chasing butterflies. He startles, losing his grip on his sack of coral branches, and they tumble out onto the path, scattering around them. "Ah—"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Hello! I'm sorry!" Galahad's tail puffs up at the spill of coral, and his whiskers pull back against his face. "I didn't mean to startle you!"

[wickedwit]

Such a handsome creature! Claudius catches sight of Galahad roaming the gardens on his own, a flash of white amid the growing greenery, summer-lush and full of flowers. "Well, hello," he softly says, setting down his basket of picked herbs and crouching closer to the ground. "Don't you look glamorous? Not everyone can wear white so effortlessly, you know. Won't you turn, and favor a future admirer with a glimpse of your face?" He hasn't learned his lesson, clearly, about coming on too strong with strange cats.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius!" Galahad spins around, so excited that he trips over his own paws. He's already purring just at the sight of Claudius, and he scrambles over, rubbing his face against Claudius' knees. He doesn't know why, but he knows doing this will tell everyone that Claudius is his, and someone who makes him happy.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot and Szarka are out together; Lancelot requested to 'borrow' her for a hike through the woods. He's been exploring, looking for just the right spots for several notions he has, and Szarka is excellent company.

By now they're heading back toward Sagramore and Laertes' cabin, approaching the greenhouse. Lancelot spots a flash of white and pauses, saying, "Szari, to heel."

[timebethine]

Szarka's entire body quivers with anticipation. She Knows this smell! She's smelled this smell before! And when she's told to Sit or Heel or High-Five for someone she knows, that almost always means Jerky!

... how a small white cat is supposed to give her jerky is not a logistical problem that concerns Szarka at this moment. She comes readily to heel, pausing where Lancelot pauses, looking up at him and waiting to be told that she's a Good Girl.

[biteybaby]

Sunny had been helping her daddies dig around in the dirt some, but she got bored of that faster than her daddies did, so she has decided to walk a little bit away from them to go explore Over There. She's glad she did, because she spots a cat walking around the bushes. "Kitty!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Hello!" Galahad meows, approaching her, suddenly very shy.

[socialjusticedragon]

Temeraire is, of course, attentive to most going ons outside. He is keeping half an ear on whatever Galahad and Janet are up to, but then his attention is caught by a small white furry creature galloping about near his pavilion. He sniffs the air and edges carefully outside, peering at the new (?) cat in attendance.

"Hallo!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Temeraire!" Galahad scampers over to him -- and then, as with Szarka, he realizes how big Temeraire is, and his tail bristles, his spine arches.

[aflashbastard]

Crowley's wandering past on his way either to or from the greenhouse. He nods at Janet; they've probably had a few chats here and there since their first meeting but nothing too deep.

Cats have always had an affinity for Crowley, maybe something about them being supposed creatures of darkness or perhaps it's because they're just enough of an asshole to make a beeline for the person least likely to want cat hair on their dark clothes. So when a white cat nearly tumbles into his path chasing a butterfly, he thinks nothing of scooping it up and raising an eyebrow in her direction. "Yours? Nearly stepped on it."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Oh, it's the pointy asshole who conjures wine like it's nothing. Note to self, stay on his good side for the free wine. "Nobody's," Janet counters. "He's a free man. Unless you count marriage as a prison, but that's a major can of worms to open on a nice day like today."