Fashionably Late
Fashionably Late
By Devin Hallsworth
Authors Comments: 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.
Insert non-formatted text here
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.
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 freinds he was meeting there, it was just an
oppourtunity 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...
***
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, examing a Minbarri 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 coudn'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 innadequate. 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, dont. Dont 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 pshychological
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 freind and by default Fiona
was as well. "Fiona Im 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
freind and even if it meant being a lady so that I would be able to share
this with you I would." He left 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 woefull but seeming reassured that at
least her freind was there for her as much as he could be. "Thank you."
***
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.
Actualy, he thought of that for a second. It was Xanadu it had happened
at.
Easilly 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
finnaly 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 oppournity 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.
***
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.
Luckilly 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 commisioning 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 commisions from new
costumers but he doubted any of the transformee's 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 twentys 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 greif.
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 Girrafe helmet. The leg stilts had escaped
damage thank god but one of the horns on the helmet had ben 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 stiching 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 aint 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.
***
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 cant 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 deserve's 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.
***
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 arguement over chain of
command.
He ran some water and splashed it on his face. It ussually 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
alowed 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 authoritys.
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.
***
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 broughthis cell phone labtop or anything with him on this trip.
He'd just brought some clothes, some travelling 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 freinds 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 smilled and unzipped the bag. Knowing you had freinds 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 craftmanship. 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 aggitation at this mother fuckng day. He sighed and
pulled it off, holding it in his paws for a second before putting it back
in his bag.
...
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
reccesion 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.
***
Mack sighed and considered trying to just pack everything the hell up and
heading home. He wasn't sure what kind of trouble the authoritys 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
freind 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 freinds just before the change, but obviously she hadn't
taken it as well as he freinds.
"Lindsay, lets just go." Her freind begged her. But Lindsay batted the
snow leapord morphs 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.
"Your 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 freind
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 wouldnt take cash before but you dont have
any choice this time!!" The Arctic wolf 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 im reffering 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 at once. "Where's the nearest payphone?! 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 payphone
kiosks were located and the arctic wolf 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 freind 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
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