Fashionably Late

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Icon	Xanadu story universe

Hi, this is my first submission to shifti. This story is set in Bryan Derksen's Xanadu setting and will be posted to the Xanadu story archive as well.

Before that though I wanted to use it to test posting here and to hopefully get a couple comments on it from people other than the guys on the TSA Mailing list where it was originally submitted.

Feel free to comment and point out anything you like or dislike.

The Xanadu setting was created by and is the intellectual property of Bryan Derksen.

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Jacob kicked the flat on his car. Frustrated but not letting it get to him. He was about another hour from Xanadu, this was going to take a bit of time but once he got the spare...

Jacob mentally kicked himself. He'd taken the spare out of the trunk to make room for his costume and bags. He hadn't even thought anything of it when he did, heck he'd never even had to change a tire in his life until right now.

He reached into his pants pocket for his cellphone. Everything was fine, he told himself. At worst he'd be a few hours late after he found a tow service that could come out. He'd been looking forward to Xanadu, but more as a sightseer than anything else.

He didn't really have any friends he was meeting there, it was just an opportunity to test the costume he'd made before taking it to an anthro convention and maybe get some ideas from looking at what other people had done.

Xanadu was the BIG one. He really didn't care how his arctic fox costume stacked up against some of the stuff he'd see there, he was just looking for ways to better represent his avatar and what better place to do that than Xanadu.

Feeling better, his only worry now was how much the bill was going to be from the tow company...

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Mack heaved the booth wall over to get at some of his costumes that lay scattered beneath it. He cursed as he saw some of them were going to need repairs.

"Well this is just lovely. Not only does someone take off with my cash bag in the chaos but some of these thousand dollar full body costumes are going to need stitching as well and its not like I can just repair them and sell them for full price with a clean conscience." he grumbled. Fiona gave him an out of character leer in response.

"At least you didn't come as a Victorian era Vixen anthro." she said, gingerly helping him pick up some of the costumes that lay scattered. Though she had to take it easy as she was wearing a corset under her dress they had found out she couldn't take off in public, she was just grateful she hadn't come in a bodice. That made Mack feel a bit guilty although he wondered if it was just something in Fiona's head that wouldn't let her...

"Well... Maybe I would have liked to come as something. I only didn't because I wanted to focus on the business while I was here." Mack replied, examining a Minbari head that he'd sculpted by hand just a month before the convention. He'd sold the other one he'd made a couple hours before. It made him wonder where that person was now. "I had that problem at the last Anthrocon I went too remember? I had a lot of fun with that coyote morph costume but I couldn't concentrate on running the booth."

"Hmph, I'm sure you would've just loved coming in that female anthro Girrafe costume you've been working on for the past year." she said bitterly. Mack imagined that if a proper lady was allowed to lose her cool and cuss people out in public Fred.. er... Fiona would be right now.

He considered what to say for a second. Part of him wanted to snap at Fred that no one had made him come to Xanadu dressed as an Victorian styled Vixen but considering he was the one who had designed and built the costume for him...

"Sorry.." he said, feeling a bit inadequate. What business did he have getting angry? He should be trying to be there for Fiona like she was trying to be for him by helping him salvage what was left of his booth.

"No, don't. Don't worry about it." she said with a sigh. "I know I shouldn't be acting this way. I just wish I had someone to help me through this." she said, sitting down on the shattered remnants of his table, careful about not getting her dress caught on anything. "I realize its greedy of me to think so but a part of me actually wishes you had come in costume, then maybe we could have helped each other with this." The sadness in her voice was much more muted than her words seemed to say, but Mack could tell just by looking at her that there were some of the psychological changes in her head that he'd seen in some of the other convention goers who had been struck.

Mack considered his words and realized that he could only really bring himself to say one thing. Fred had been his friend and by default Fiona was as well. "Fiona I'm sorry I didn't come in costume and now for more than just one reason. I want to be there to help you because your my friend and even if it meant being a lady so that I would be able to share this with you I would." He left it unsaid that he couldn't. He hadn't come in costume and that seemed to be that. He felt guilty after saying it, sure it was one thing to say it but did it really mean anything when nothing could be done?

Fiona smiled, still looking a bit woeful but seeming reassured that at least her friend was there for her as much as he could be. "Thank you."

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Jacob stumbled into the room he had reserved numbly. He dropped his bags on the bed and just looked around for a second, not really believing something so out of this world could happen in such a mundane place as a hotel.

Actually, he thought of that for a second. It was Xanadu it had happened at.

Easily the biggest gathering of costumers anywhere and it gets hit with something that changes everyone into what their costume is? The more Jacob thought of it the more deliberate it seemed to him. Not that it helped considering he couldn't even begin to guess who, why or most importantly how.

He walked over to the window when he heard the sound of car horns blaring from outside. His room wasn't that high, fifth floor. From here he had a pretty good view of the barricade about twenty soldiers were setting up on the street, blocking off traffic from the hotel. The army had arrived just a few minutes behind him, he'd been lucky to get in when he had.

He turned around slowly. His eyes going straight to the bag that held his costume. He walked over timidly, almost as if he expected it to jump out at him. Carefully he unzipped the bag and looked at the arctic fox head that stared back at him.

What am I doing? He asked himself. Something weird had gone down here and he had no Idea what would happen if he put that costume on, so why was he doing it? He slowly slid the head on, closing his eyes and waiting to see what would happen.

After a few moments of nothing he opened his eyes to see a very limited field of view of his hotel room. He could feel the material of the mask on his face but that was it. Maybe he needed to put the whole costume on, a part of him thought frantically.

A few minutes later he was fully clad in the costume from head to toe. He walked into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror for a while. Watching in case it should start on him any second now...

Half an hour later he bit back a flood of tears as he tore the mask off and slammed it against the bathroom counter. He threw it out of the room without even looking and sat down on the toilet and shuddered. When he finally got control of himself he took the costume off and carefully packed it back into his bags. He was heading home.

He'd lived his whole life like this after all, nothing was going to stop him from continuing to do so, not even a missed opportunity like this. He looked around, wondering where the head was. He found it on the other side of the bed and couldn't fight back his grief anymore as he looked over the damage he'd done to the muzzle.

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Mark had set up his sewing machine after attempting to leave and getting rebuffed by the army outside the convention center. Fiona and him had salvaged an intact desk from another stall whose user had likely abandoned the convention.

Luckily his sewing machine had survived the event intact. Some of the costumes he hand repaired but for the larger gashes and tears the sewing machine came in handy. He knew he wouldn't likely turn a profit selling them but if he just left them that meant losing all the money he had invested in making them as well and Mack wasn't rich.

Fiona seemed to have picked up a bit of sewing skill from her transformation as well. Mack had been a bit hesitant to let her help at first but she was handling a sewing needle more deftly than someone who'd never touched one before had any business being able to.

He wasn't sure how long he was going to be here, but as long as he was stuck he could at least get some work done to try and recoup his losses. Mack snorted as he thought that. Loss in profit, at the biggest costume convention around. His only gain from this convention was that Fiona it seemed couldn't wear anything but period clothing, which meant she was thinking about commissioning Mack for a wardrobe seeing as he'd not only done the vixen part of her costume but the Victorian style dress as well.

Even with that though he was looking at a severe hit to his budget for this year. What he really needed were some more commissions from new costumers but he doubted any of the transformees at the convention centre were interested...

He looked up when he saw someone walking across the debris towards the doors. His stall had been fairly close to the entrance to the costumers hall, something he'd thought would help rake in a little extra cash but instead had only gotten his booth trampled.

The kid didn't look that old, maybe mid-twenties at latest. He was carrying two bags with him and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He must not have gotten caught in costume when whatever that was happened, Mack thought. He almost started to think 'lucky' until he saw the expression on his face. It was a brave one but he had red eyes that gave away earlier grief.

The kid slowed down as he walked past and watched what Mack and Fiona were doing. Mack wasn't sure what to say, he doubted this was a potential costumer... in fact unless he missed his guess the kid probably already owned a costume. Still he felt like he aught to say something.

"Hi." Mack said casually.

The kid looked back at him and then looked back at the full helmet he'd been working on. "Hey."

Mack had decided to take a break from the other costumes for a moment to repair the damage to his anthro giraffe helmet. The leg stilts had escaped damage thank god but one of the horns on the helmet had been bent. Mack was almost ready to put the synthetic fur back on the head.

"Your a costumer?" The kid asked. Mack nodded, wondering if maybe he'd been off on his guess.

"Yeah, hold on a sec." Mack reached into his pocket and fished out a business card. "I'd like to be able to show you some of the stuff I have here but a fair bit of it got damaged by the stampede of people trying to get out. You can check my website for some good examples of what I do." He wondered if he was coming on too strong, but then again the kid had asked.

He looked at Mack's business card. "Mack Corrinth." The kid smiled and raised his hand, which Mack shook. "Jacob Faye. And uh, actually I was just wondering if you did repairs?" He put his bag down and unzipped it, pulling out the head of a costume.

"Let me see." Mack said as he took it from Jacob's hands. The muzzle was deformed, Mack felt along inside the head. It was a plastic mesh with some foam overtop. some of the stitching where the muzzle met the skull had torn which caused the muzzle to just droop to the side. It just was a matter of some new stitching and checking to make sure the foam wasn't out of place. "This ain't nothing. I can do this for you right now."

Jacob smiled when he heard that. "Thank you. How much?"

Mack shook his head and waved the question away. "No charge. Its good make, It deserves good treatment." He fetched his stuff and got to work before Jacob had a chance to say anything.

Jacob looked like he wanted to protest for a second, but then he just smiled and sat down to wait. "Yeah... yeah it is. I shouldn't have..." Jacob started to say then shook his head. "Heh, I'm heading to a couple furry conventions later this year. Thanks for repairing it. Are you sure I cant pay you something? I came with a couple hundred dollars spending money."

Mack just shook his head.

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Jacob almost thought that maybe he should try to press the guy into accepting payment. It was obvious as he sat and waited how badly the guys business had been hit by the event. His booth was trash and a lot of the elaborate looking costumes looked in need of repair.

He smiled back at the vixen anthro that was hand stitching another costume while Mack worked on the muzzle that Jacob had damaged in that fit of anger. Jacob realized he wasn't really that bad off now that he thought of it. When he went home earlier that day he wouldn't have to worry about what his parents would think, who didn't even know that he was a furry. Wouldn't have to worry about his job, going out in public looking like...

"There we are, told you it was no problem." Mack said, suddenly handing Jacobs mask back to him. Jacob blinked in confusion, thinking that it'd only been at most two minutes. He took the mask and turned it over in his hands, it was as good as new again. This guy was good.

"Are you sure I can't pay you anything?" he asked Mack as he looked at what could have been the face he would've seen in the mirror.

"... Actually, yeah. You can do something." Mack said. "You can promise me that you'll enjoy that costume. Something that good deserves to be enjoyed, even if its not as good as the real thing."

Jacob looked up in a bit of shock. Sure he'd been thinking about maybe trying wearing it to another convention somewhere down the road but after what happened here how could the guy seriously suggest...

His train of thought ground to a halt when he saw the expression on Mack's face. He suddenly realized Mack wasn't in costume either.

"Yeah. Okay I can do that." he said, smiling and nodding as he reached his hand out to shake Mack's again. Mack smiled widely when he said that and took his hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Mack said.

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Jacob muttered to himself as he dropped his bags on the bathroom floor. Still stuck in Xanadu unless the Sergeant he'd spoken too kept his word and talked to his superior about letting non afflicted people out.

He sighed and wondered who exactly was running the show anyway. He would've thought the military at first glance until he'd seen a Corporal with a machine gun, a guy wearing an FBI vest and someone in full biohazard gear all involved in a very loud argument over chain of command.

He ran some water and splashed it on his face. It usually helped calm him down and at this rate he figured he might be here a while. He would try to get out again in about an hour as he had seen some people who had been allowed to leave. He wasn't sure why some people were allowed to go and not others but he figured that might have something to do with the confusion amongst the authorities.

He could still hear weird noises elsewhere in the building and although a fair number of the attendee's had retreated there were still quite a few roaming the hallways.

Jacob had no idea what to do. Head back to his room? He hadn't checked out, course there was no hotel staff around for that to matter anyway. Not to mention a number of rooms with door's wide open or even off their hinges.

He grabbed his bag and had his hand almost on the bathroom doors handle when he heard something roar so loudly that the he felt it in his bones and the lights flickered off for a second.

Slowly backing away from the door, he figured he may as well stay in here for an hour or so. Just to be safe.

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Ten minutes or so later he found himself growing pretty bored even despite his uneasiness about heading outside. He needed something to do, but he hadn't brought his cell phone laptop or anything with him on this trip. He'd just brought some clothes, some traveling supplies like towels larger than the ones you found in hotels and...

He glanced sidelong at his bags. Jacob almost didn't want to do it, but he'd made a promise to both himself and Mack. Not to mention that if he couldn't even bring himself to look at his costume he may as well just say the hell with the furry fandom altogether and there was no way he could bring himself to do that.

That thought made him feel a bit better. There were lots of people he knew on IRC and various other internet hangouts that also hadn't come to Xanadu. When he got home and got online doubtless there would be more than a few emails from friends wondering if he'd got caught up in the magic here. It would be hard to explain he'd gotten a flat and missed out on it but they'd be more than willing to comfort him for his loss as he would theirs. He smiled and unzipped the bag. Knowing you had friends to help always made the hurt easier to bear.

Taking the head out and examining it in the stale bathroom light he wondered when the last time was that he'd really looked at it. It still looked the same as it had when he'd handed it to Mack but the closer he examined it the more he found himself awestruck by it's craftsmanship. It was still the same mask, but for some reason he just couldn't help but feel a much deeper appreciation for it now.

He slid it on, getting a kind of euphoric kick out of the way the material graced his face as he did that he'd never felt before while costuming. Jacob just closed his eyes for a bit and really just felt what it was like to wear it, it was like being new to fursuiting again.

He opened his eyes and looked at the face in the mirror. Staring right back at him was the face he'd always wanted. His breath caught in his throat and a smile tugged at his muzzle as he just looked at himself, wondering how he could have brought himself to damage a mask like th...

He winced and glared at the bathroom door as he heard another roar like the one before, this one sounding angrier than the last. Upset that he couldn't even get a few minutes to just appreciate his costume to himself today he snatched his clothes bag off the floor and slung it over his shoulder, grabbing his costume bag and reaching up to take his mask off. He was just going to wait outside until he could get the hell away from here.

Jacob took one last appreciative look at the mask before taking it off. The ash white fur, the deep azure eyes, the ears folded back against his head to show his agitation at this mother fucking day. He sighed and pulled it off, holding it in his paws for a second before putting it back in his bag.

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Wait, what?

Jacob stared down at his... paws? White furred with black leathery pads on the palm and tipped with claws. As he watched the fur slowly receded down his arms towards his hands, leaving pink flesh in its wake.

He accidentally laid his other hand on the mask in his bag and the progression stopped. He stared at the mask for a few seconds before putting it back on, watching this time as the fur spread down from his neck all over the rest of his body.

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Mack sighed and considered trying to just pack everything the hell up and heading home. He wasn't sure what kind of trouble the authorities outside would give him but anything would be better than this.

"And then when my dad gets done suing you he's going after your stupid friend here!" The enraged cat girl screamed at him. Mack just figured she was more scared than anything. He'd sold a cat mask to her and each of her giggling teenage friends just before the change, but obviously she hadn't taken it as well as he friends.

"Lindsay, lets just go." her friend begged her. But Lindsay batted the snow leopard morph's arm away.

"How am I going to get sued?" Fiona asked, sounding confused. Although a small bit of pity for the forlorn cat girl leaked through her tightly composed voice.

"You're an accomplice! You, you..." Lindsay sputtered, gesticulating at Fiona and trying to dredge the words out past her own self pity.

Mack tried to figure out what he could do to calm her down. She would probably take offense if he offered her her money back. But other than that Mack just couldn't think of anything to say.

She was just about to begin her tirade again when she and her friend looked up sharply at a spot behind Mack. He almost got turned around to see what it was when it jumped him and knocked him off his chair.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!" The white furry thing that was pinning him in a bear hug repeated again and again. Mack just laid there for a second trying to figure out what the hell was gong on.

"Your welcome?" he replied.

"I wasn't sure how it happened because I'd tried the costume on before and it didn't do anything but then I looked at your business card again and it just made sense and I know you wouldn't take cash before but you dont have any choice this time!!" The Arctic fox morph shouted gleefully. "I owe you so much, your getting all the cash I have left and when I get back home I'm going on IRC and I know a LOT of people who are going to be wanting their own costume and I'm referring each and every one of them to you and..." The arctic wolf morph paused to breath and as he did so he seemed to think of something and jumped off of Mack, looking a couple different ways all at once. "Where's the nearest pay phone?! Or even a computer with internet, I gotta... I just gotta TELL people about this!"

Fiona pointed in the direction of the check in desk where several pay phone kiosks were located and the arctic fox took off like a shot. Lindsay's muzzle flashed between confusion, disgust and exhaustion all in a few seconds, after which she just walked off. Her snow leopard friend looked apologetic but didn't say anything as she turned around to follow her.

Mack sat up and looks inquiringly at Fiona. "Who?"

Fiona glanced over her shoulder at where the morph had run off too. "If I had to guess I would say Jacob."

He just stared blankly at her for a second as he tried to follow her train of thought. "Jacob? But that kid didn't get changed." he replied. Fiona shrugged and he thought about what the arctic wolf morph had said. He agreed with Fiona, there was a weird resemblance between that morph and the mask he'd repaired for Jacob but how did he get transformed then?

He pulled out his business card and looked at it, wondering what Jacob had been referring too. "Mack Corrinth. Costumer. Crafting you the body you've always wanted since nineteen ninety five."

A silence lingered between Mack and Fiona as they thought the implications of that over. "He... he thinks I can make costumes that can transform people?!" Mack said in bewilderment.

"It does make a bit of sense. I talked with some people who were changed and for some it seemed to make a difference in how they thought of themselves when they were changed." Fiona explained.

"So... Thats, no thats crazy. I mean how could I even find out if I could do..." His voice trailed off as Fiona held up the Anthro Giraffe he had been working on when he met Jacob, a mischievous grin on her muzzle. "Oh..."

The End