DerbyGhost

Time for an examination!! Let's see what's wrong with Jay!

One would think that a magical examination would be exciting. That you would be shown worlds beyond your greatest comprehension and the shape of the universe would expand and fold in front of you. 

Well you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. Magical examinations are about as boring as a normal trip to the hospital. Mostly I just kind of stood while Daphne did all manner of things that probably meant a lot to her but since she didn’t explain anything were absolutely baffling to me, poking and prodding me while she hmm’d and mumbled to herself and took notes. It was less like a doctor’s appointment and more like a car inspection. Grumbling wasn’t going to help make it any faster, so instead I just turned my brain to think about how I was going to cheer myself up after all of this was over.

I was thinking something sweet, I’d been craving chocolate recently. But wait, could I even eat that anymore since I was technically part cat now? Well technically technically I’m 100% stuffed animal, part cat and part human soul. But now was not the time really to be pedantic. Now was the time to stand. And wait. And wait. 

For the first five minutes Daphne crafted a pretty intricate circle on her desk out of chalk and various secret seasonings that she grabbed pinches of. After it was all ready, she promptly instructed me to stand there and to not move as much as possible. My tail didn’t really get the memo, it followed a pattern of its own twisting and threatening once or twice to scatter some of the assorted powders. 

What followed was about fifty-five minutes of being given random orders. I was given multiple necklaces to try on and stood there for about five minutes each without a single reaction. Then I was given a rock to hold and it abruptly changed from slate gray to powder blue to a deep pink with flecks of white. After that Daphne held an emerald stone tied to a silk thread and claimed that she was “dowsing my aura” or whatever. At some points Kass had hir phone out taking pictures and what I presume were notes, ever the student even at times like this.

Towards the end of the session Daphne tried to grab my tail, which had pretty foreseeable results. I yelped and wrapped it around in my arms, holding onto the fluff like it was a life preserver. She also measured my ears and tested my range of hearing, which was apparently “quite exceptional.” After a few more random odd testing, she placed her fancy fountain pen down on the desk and nodded to herself over a job well done.

“Well, Montgomerie. It seems like your Knot is cursed.” Daphne said, awfully straightforward for something that sounded so scary. CURSED? Seriously me? Why would anyone want to curse me? And what kind of curse is turning someone part cat, sounds like a blessing if you ask me. At least, uh, if I was the kind of guy who liked that sort of thing.

“What? How is that possible? He didn’t even know about magic until I told him like, two weeks ago??”

“Not sure. It’s faint, not visible to the trained eye like most major curses are. They leave a distinct buzz in the atmosphere, which you should know from your training. Kind of like the flavor in a can of Lacroix, you know something’s there but you’re not entirely sure what is being hinted at. Here though? That’s distinctly missing, which means this is minor, sure, but it’s also extremely sophisticated. Someone didn’t want this curse to be found. Fascinating. You must have really annoyed someone, little Knot.”

“And that’s what is making me a cat??” My curiosity was burning a hole in my brain, I simply had to ask. Yeah I know it killed the cat but oh my God it is way too soon for me to be making dumb cat jokes. 

“Well, we don’t know for sure. Not 100% at least. It’s a possibility, though. Also, shush you. The adults are talking.” I vowed then and there that as soon as I became a human again, or at least as close to that as I was going to get now, I was just going to sit in her office all day and just interrupt her as much as possible. I don’t know how I’d do it, but with God as my witness this was my plan. 

“Is there any way to analyze the curse further? I know you’re more of an expert in transformations…” Kass reluctantly sputtered out the last part, not wanting to irritate Daphne. Zie was being way better about handling her, but zie was always good with dealing with authority figures.

“I am more than capable of handling a simple curse deciphering, and don’t you forget it. Give me a moment to gather the necessary supplies and we can handle this.” Without even waiting for a response Daphne brushed her way out of the room while I just continued to stand on her ever changing desk like a jackass. 

Before I could even panic, I felt the comforting feeling of Kass’s hand on my head, brushing my hair to relax me. I tried as hard as possible not to sigh, but it was just too good. My head might have been buzzing with worry about this new wrench in my life, but my body seemed to instinctively lean into Kass’s motions. Every time zie stopped petting me I whined for more, knowing that I was pathetic but that’s okay. I was feeling pretty pathetic right now. 

We didn’t say anything. We didn’t need to. Zie knew that I was stressed, and I knew that if I started talking I probably wouldn’t stop. So instead we just stood there together, relaxing. 

The question was, if the KT was cursed, wouldn’t that mean that these changes were all a mistake? That I was a cat because of some weird fluke and not because of the shape of my essence or whatever? That should be a relief right? I shouldn’t want this, shouldn’t feel like I need this. 

People didn’t just willingly become catboys, right? Well if a certain section of the internet was to be believed there were a lot of people who wanted to become catboys, catgals, and catnon-binary pals. But that wasn’t me, because instead I had this lingering magic on the KT that just fucked me up. For the first time since my big revelation, I was so happy that I got the KT rather than Kass. I could just imagine how much zie would be freaking out right now about becoming a catfriend. At least I could stomach this and save hir the concern. And to do that I’d have to be strong. 

I’d be the strongest dang cat pal that zie had ever seen! Well, after head scratches of course. I leaned in, blissed out. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy this for much longer because Daphne came back and fortunately Kass stopped scratching me so I wouldn’t be too embarrassed. A portly gentleman wearing a well crafted white suit followed behind her carrying two black cases. 

“Kass Montgomerie, zie uses zie/hir pronouns Herb and if you fuck it up you’ll have spaghetti for hair for a week.” The man who must be Herb nodded and Daphne decided that was a good enough introduction. “This is Herbert East, he’s one of our premier experts on curses and when he heard we had a hexed Knot, well, I couldn’t stop him from following me like a lovesick little puppy.” Daphne was sending out ‘please go away’ vibes but it’s obvious that Mr. East was not picking up what she was putting down. Instead he brought his face again to eye level with me. What is it with dude’s and getting way too close in your personal space? Is that a dude thing? Did I used to do that?

“Yes this is absolutely fascinating. Knot Things themselves are rare, not unheard of obviously, but rare. And then for a Knot to go wrong, well we haven’t really had a chance to study one in depth. Kass, as the presumed owner/caretaker of this Knot Thing, I assume you’ve been doing your due diligence to check in on it. Make sure it eats enough food, water, that kind of thing. Sometimes knots just have no energy, y’know. Don’t properly eat, miss their old body. The one Knot that I met complained about it the whole time, said it felt like wearing a skin that wasn’t hers, hmm. Fascinating.” 

“I’m right here and yes, I typically make all of our food and I’m getting kind of good at it too!” I interjected. 

“Oh, oh haha how splendid.” I was rewarded for my contribution to the conversation with a condescending pat on the head. A voice in the back of my mind told me to growl at him for violating my space, but I told it to shush. I just didn’t want to get into more trouble. “Well it’s good that you’ve got it trained, from what I’ve read some knots gone wrong can be quite feral. Astounding creations.” 

Kass remained silent, a look of resignation on hir face. We both knew that fighting back at this point in time was pointless. No matter how many times I tried to correct them I’d just get overlooked because I was cute or because I was weird enough to be inhabiting a little stuffed doll anyway. The institution had made up their mind and I was going to have to live with that. At least we’d get some answers out of this. 

“Alright Knot,” Daphne nodded towards me while accepting one of the boxes from her associate. “We’re going to try a slightly more complicated method of determining what this curse could be. The first tool is this.” 

The woman undid the clasps on the side of the box and, with a bit of a dramatic flourish, pulled out what appeared to be a waxy green hand. Kass gasped, and Herbert was 100% living for the tension of the moment. 

“No way, that’s not a real…” Kass mumbled astonished.

“That’s right Montgomerie, it’s a Hand of Glory. Rare and limited. For good reason too. This relic dates back to the 1700s. A thief and a cut-throat met justice, and well, an enterprising witch made lemonade out of lemons.” Noticing the look of confusion on my face, Daphne decided for once to actually bring me in on the conversation. 

“Knot, what you’re looking at is a magical artefact of immense power. When someone is hanged, particularly someone wicked, the hand is cut and preserved. Now typically people dry or pickle the hand, but it’s been found that over the years the best way to preserve the ambient magic of the moment is to encase the hand in wax.”

“I have to say, that’s pretty gross nasty. Please tell me I don’t have to touch it,” I whispered.

Ignoring me, Daphne continued her lecture. “You find the Hands of Glory all throughout folklore. You find that people without the gift of magic still respect them because, let’s be honest they’re creepy. And of course certain ideas have sprung up about their use. Not all true, to be honest. No, they don’t put people to sleep. No, I’m not going to even touch on their use in the Wizard Boy stories. But they are handy at casting a light on any situation.” She placed the hand stump down on the table and it stood bolt upright with a sheer disregard for gravity. 

I definitely didn’t like how close that thing was to me. The mottled wax was flaking but showed no sign of the skin beneath. From each fingertip there extended a candle wick, charred from use. I feel like if I squinted I could make out a face trace of the hand underneath the candle itself, but doing so made me feel kind of queasy so I didn’t try for very long. The whole thing was unpleasant, a bit upsetting, and still very confusing. 

Like how does chopping off a dude’s hand and turning it into a candle immediately make it magical? Is it, what, stained by this dude’s whole life? That completely ignores some of the socio-economic factors that causes someone to turn to crime. What if this so called cut-throat was just trying to survive in this bitch of a world by any means necessary. And besides, it was the American South in the 1700s, so he could have been like somebodies indentured servant who didn’t even want to be on this continent in the first place but that was better than rotting in jail because he didn’t have enough money to pay his debts. 

Also this is like, completely ignoring the fact that slavery was runnign rampant as well. Can’t really sweep that racist nugget of history under the rug, especially not while there were multiple plantations in this very state that styled themselves as wedding venues and luxury vacations. If there is one thing that I know, it’s that studying history definitely makes you a little bit cynical. 

“Alright Herb, next.” Were they putting on a magic show for me, Herbert passed the box to Daphne and again she did a very over-the-top flick of her wrist as she brought out what seemed to be an ordinary silver hand mirror. “This isn’t as unique as the Hand, but important nonetheless. It’s a simple seer’s mirror, probably dates back to a Spiritualist parlor from Victorian England. Not very powerful on their own, but good for a parlor trick or two. But we put them together, and that’s when the real magic happens.”

“Now Knot,” Daphne turned specifically to address me. “In a moment I’m going to be lighting the Hand of Glory. At that time we will turn the lights off and let it cast its glow upon the room. You need to look into this mirror and describe exactly what you see, for only you can give us the shape of your curse.”

“Seriously?”

Daphne let out a long sigh. “What Knot.” It was more of a challenge than a question, but I’m just a dumb ol’ half animal who doesn’t understand subtext so I’ll just answer it anyway witha  sweet innocent look on my face.

“All of those grand gestures and our big plan is we’re going to light candles and then I’ll look into the mirror and tell you what I see.”

“Well,” scoffed Herbert, “there’s more to it than that.”

“Sorry excuse me,” I gave a little curtsy because I was feeling cheeky. “We’ll light the magic dead man candle and then I look into a magic mirror and then tell you what I see.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kass barely trying to hold back a laugh. 

“Curses, Knot, are a very personal matter.” Daphne clapped her hands and the room descended into darkness. “We cannot answer your questions, we can only give guidance based on what you see. Now shut up and hold the damned mirror before I even rethink helping you.” Without even asking if I was okay with it, Daphne placed the mirror in front of me and just let go of it causing me to fumble with it, careful not to drop it on the ground. The mirror was heavier than I expected, or maybe I was just generally weaker. My eyes were caught by my reflection and I gasped. 

When Kass had said that I was cute, I thought zie was just being kind of nice. I didn’t expect hir to have been telling the truth. The ears were the same rich brown as my hair, which had grown since I last looked in the mirror to a nice shoulder length. The corners of my ears were speckled with little white flecks and the insides had little tufts of fuzzy white fur peaking out. They ended in this little tip that reminded me of a lynx, although not as dramatic. They were perfect! They perked up and I amused myself by moving them around and laughing to myself before I realized that I was in a room with other people and I was just making a complete fool of myself.

For once it was good to be ignored as nobody said anything about my reaction to the mirror. Kass had a sly look on hir face and I knew that zie wouldn’t let me hear the end of it once we were all done.  

Daphne clapped her hands together and just like that, the room went completely dark. Not the dark of a pitch-black night, but the dark that you get when you’re alone in an office complex. Still eerie, but not necessarily freaky. I heard the sound of someone’s finger’s snapping and saw that Herbert was pointing a small flame about the size of a lighter at the Hand of Glory, whose wicks immediately burst into an iridescent golden flame casting the room in bizarre shapes and shadows. As much as I talked shit about the hand, it was legit. The light pulsated and oozed over the surfaces. Not graceful, but instead this constant menace emanating from a dead man’s hand. 

I figured, well I’d better do the thing we’re all waiting on, and with some effort hefted the mirror up to about my eye level again. The slick light of the hand cast harsh shadows on my face and around the room. Initially everything seemed normal, albeit much more atmospheric than my last mirror gazing. The room was there, albeit bathed in darkness. I still had those adorable ears on my head and this time I watched as my tail swished around in the corner of my eye. My tail, however, wasn’t the only thing moving. 

There, behind my left shoulder, the shadows seemed to shift and coalesce in a singular whole. For a moment I looked around the room to see if anyone was gasping or pointing at this creature and realized that it was only showing up in the mirror. At once the shapeless form shifted, fluid, into what appeared to be a hare. Ears to rival my own twitching, along with a sniffly little nose and big bright shiny eyes. Obviously, in a situation like this I did what anyone would do which is freeze out of abject terror.

If the bun realized that I was afraid, it didn’t signal it. Instead it leaned forward and wrapped its arms around my shoulder, a hug from behind. The arms were soft, gentle, but with enough hidden strength that said “hey bud don’t test your luck.” At this point I wished the stupid candle would blow out, when the hare ceased its hug. Instead rough paws scratched the space in between my ears and a very feminine flirty voice told me that she’d “see you around, Jay.”

Deciding that this was it’s dramatic moment to really shine, the mirror thought that staying together was a little too inconvenient and decided to shatter into a million pieces. Rude if you ask me. Everything else happened so quickly.  Herbert blew out the Hand of Glory and Daphne very quickly got the lights back on. I for one got the hell off of the desk and darted out of the room scurrying on my arms and legs. I don’t care if that was very cat of me, I just couldn’t be in that space for another minute. 

What was that thing? Why was it so close to me? Why was it so… casual? Its very presence seemed wrong, but at the same time it didn’t appear threatening, more like it was having fun toying with me. And specifically me, it didn’t seem like it was connected to the KT, otherwise how would it have known my name? Maybe that was a leap in logic, I don’t know. I’m grasping at straws here after having a close encounter with some sort of magical being. Cut me some slack.

DerbyGhost

Curious and Curious, what does this even mean? Who knows! Well I do, but you'll just have to wait til Monday to find out what happens next. I'll see you then~