One That Got Away

Chapter 32

Mara sat up and blinked.

"Whoah," she mumbled. She was in The Lab, surrounded by paperwork and slag from their crafting. She felt exhausted. She was hungry and disgusting and she realized she couldn't remember the last time she showered. Eww. She rubbed her eyes and rose precariously. She looked at the machine. It was elegant, really. It looked like silver cotton candy in a bowl with a satellite on top resting on curved spider like legs. Jessie, ever the perfectionist. Mara rubbed her face and considered making final checks on it. No. Shower first. She made her way towards the huge bathrooms and ran into Andy on the way.

"Oh! Mara! Perfect," Andy beamed at her happily as if the whole world wasn't spinning on the edge of a knife. "I have this thought. I'm going to be a fashion designer, right?"

"Yeah," Mara said going with this sudden development.

"I made this. Will you wear it and tell me what you think?" she asked and Mara looked at the pile of clothes in her arm.

"Sure. Anything for my sister," Mara said, taking them into her arms.

"Perfect! I want to do your makeup too, for photos, so once you're dressed, come tell me, okay? I'll be in the living room, bye!" And she swept off before Mara could protest. She sighed and went on her way. She took her time showering, rinsing her hair. Jessie was right. She had a solid centimeter of hair onher scalps, obscuring her tattoos, but that was of little consequence just then. She'd need to grow it all back out in Middle Earth. She was going home. Really home. The thought relaxed her enough that she took the time to simply let the shower water pound into her back. It was always strange, when she expected to have to adjust her wings to avoid the water so it would hit her back correctly. She dried off and braided back her green locks, looking at Andy's clothes.

"That can't be right," she whispered. There were three pieces. The first was a white blouse, but the back was completely open with a thin braided golden band behind the neck. There were sleeves, all the way down to the elbows and gathered with more braided fabric and it dropped down to her mid thigh. The second was a blue cincher, complete with boning and lacing that sat from where her ribs began down to her hips. It didn't squeeze anything, but it gathered the loose tunic into a shape. The last piece was a pair of grey pants that came down to her shins with golden embroidery on the ends in the shape of clouds. What kind of modern fashion was this? But Andy had never quite followed the trend, so Mara put it all on. She wound her way to the living space where Andy and Pythia sat talking softly.

"Oh there you are!" Andy jumped up, looked excited in a colorful party style dress.

"Hey. What's with-"

"Sit here. You hungry? You can eat while I do your eyes," Andy said and Mara sat and ate grapes idly as Andy fluttered about her face applying eyeshadow and carefully shaping her eyebrows. She unbraided her hair and brushed it out, carefully pinning it back with some hair pins and having her stand in different poses while she snapped pictures on a tablet.

"Okay. Now go do sciency stuff. But leave that on. I wanna take some pictures after you've been working, For research," Andy said and shuttled Mara out into the hall. Mara huffed, adjusted her cincher and made for The Lab. She found Jessie there tinkering with something on her desk.

"Hey," Mara said and Jessie dragged a cloth over the stuff. "Oh jeez. You've been doing that for days. what's the deal? I mean, honestly it's like you're hiding something from me." The thought made Mara freeze in her tracks.

"Yeah. My private work stuff. Mine my stuff. Not yours. Stuff. For me. Not you," Jessie babbled. "Hey, gotta go. Can you check the Signpost over one last time? Kay thanks bye!" she said and swept everything under the cloth into a bag and dashed from the room. Mara rubbed her forehead and started running diagnostics on the machine. She had just finished deciding yes, it was ready when Ben and Tom burst into the room.