The Mobian Chronicles
Book I
Chapter VI Sidestory
"Like No Other Girl You Know"
"Nothing for me, thank you." Professor Cassiopeia Notwen gently pushed away the menu with her soft-feathered hand. The events of the morning's meeting had soured her appetite, but she had come to the high-class restaurant with her colleague, Dr. Renard, anyway.
"Aw." René curled a finger and rested her chin on it daintily, regarding her friend of several years. "Still upset about this morning? I think it was terrible, the way his Majesty and Dr. Faustian talked to you." Her accent was a thing of convenience for the vixen; it came and went whenever she pleased.
"No, no, I'm over that." The cardinal shook her plumed head, the long feathers in the back swaying slowly. "There's been something… else. I don't know how to talk about it though… It's a sort of… girl problem."
"Ooh!" René grinned at the thought that she was about to be in on a deep secret. "It is so much a girl problem, or a boy problem, hmm?" She stifled a giggle. It was hard to imagine her quiet, introverted colleague taking a liking to a man, but it had to happen sooner or later.
The feathers on the avian professor's cheeks ruffled; it was her species' equivalent of a blush. "Eh, well, that might be a better way to put it, yes. I tried talking to Ren about it all the other day, but he just gave me some strange metaphor about… tree roots I think it was… and walked off."
"I think, perhaps he is not quite an authority on this kind of thing… but I will try to help you. Who is this tré mystérieuse man in your life, hmm?"
"Oh, no, no!" Cassiopeia chirped in surprise at the notion of telling anyone the identity of her love interest. "I-I don't want to say…"
"Ah-ha!" René beamed at an opportunity to pry any piece of interesting secrecy from anyone, especially her friends. "So I will be guessing him, hmm? Well, if he's one of our colleagues, then we can rule out most of them on the spot; Lorne s a married man, most of the others are too old…"
Not wanting her to go on, especially in public, Cassiopeia lowered her head a little and whispered it to her in surrender. "Arthur."
There was a sharp intake of breath as the vixen went wide eyed. When she spoke suddenly, it was more a squeak than a whisper. "You have a crush on the Profess-" She covered her mouth suddenly to stop herself from accidentally saying it too loud in public. Her muffled words turned into soft giggles as she pictured it in her head. "I-I am so sorry, Cassi, I do not mean to laugh, but the Professor… he is so… oh, you poor thing. I'm sorry." She regained her composure slowly. "He… must have absolutely no clue you like him, right?"
"I just don't know how to approach him. You've had boyfriends before and all, you must know how to… well, approach him, right?" Cassi looked to her friend with her glassy eyes full of hope.
"Ah… you could… call them that, I suppose." The vixen flattened her ears and sunk into the plush booth with a troubled expression. "I… suppose you don't quite understand this, Cassi, but I can't help you with this."
"Wha- but why??"
"It is… hard for me to explain." René sighed a little. "I suppose you have to see for yourself. You should, uh… meet me at the Petit Fleur tonight, about midnight. It's a nightclub on the east side, it's not hard to find. If you come, then I think you'll understand why I'm no good for this kind of advice."
"I've never heard of such a place, but… all right." Cassiopeia excused herself from the booth and smoothed out her plumage, the bright red feathers fanning out around her in their usual pattern. "I should go, I've got a lot of work to get done this week and I'm not feeling up to lunch. You enjoy yours, though. I'll track down this night club and come see it tonight."
… … …
The 'east side', as a particular segment of the eastern half of Mobotropolis was known, was widely considered one of the seedier parts of town. Cassiopeia Notwen walked through the dark night of the city, lit by the neon signs of gambling houses and gaudy advertisements, all casting reflections in the sunken puddles that lined the street from that afternoon's storm. She'd already found directions to the Petit Fleur, but the building itself was quite hard to miss. A large, somewhat soaked banner with the name hung over the tinted glass doors and the distinct neon sign of an orange vixen suggestively hanging from a vertical pole suggested this was not the kind of nightclub she'd pictured in her mind. Summoning her courage, the cardinal opened the doors and stepped into the waiting maw of social awkwardness. It was not at all what she'd re-imagined after seeing the sign.
The inside was bright, and much higher-class than she'd guessed. The floor was richly carpeted in red, and the area around the well-maintained looking bar was done in an expensive looking dark wood with a highly polished finish. The music was unusual to her, but the well-dressed pianist and the small orchestra on the dark wooden stage exuded a sense of class. A suited attendant greeted her and took her to a seat that was reserved especially for her. René evidently had a great deal of pull with the establishment, but she was nowhere to be found among the patrons of the nightclub. There weren't many women in the club at all, in fact; the clientele seemed to be almost exclusively men.
However, the music was nice, and so the professor sat in her private booth, enjoying it and drinking her glass of water, until the pianist, a black cat with strong features, glanced off-stage, nodded, and brought the song to a close. He turned around on his stool and smiled to the audience, addressing the club-goers in a deep, smooth voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome as always to the Petit Fleur, the classiest dive on the east side! It is now my deepest pleasure to present for her nightly song and dance number, our owner and proprietor, the mysterious Madam Rose Scarlet!"
There was a loud round of applause and the lights dimmed, a single spotlight following the vixen that sashayed out onto the stage. She was wearing a fake beauty mark on her white muzzle, and garishly red eyeliner accented her facial features, but Cassi instantly recognized the woman as her colleague, Dr. René Renard. She owned the establishment under an assumed name, but why? And why was she dressed so strangely? She had on a large, feathered hat, a flowing silk robe that hung around her bare shoulders, and a scarf, all equally bright red.
Rene sung along with the band as they began to play a slow but upbeat melody. Her voice, was missing its common accent, and she sounded much more soft than usual; a trained singer.
"Da dum dum da,
Da da dumda da dumda…
Da dum dum da,
Da da dumda da dumda…"
The music quieted down so as not to drown out her singing, though it would have been hard to do; Dr. Renard was more confident and strong-voiced than her perplexed colleague had ever seen her before.
"While I'm not your next door neighbor,
And you don't see me on the street.
If you'd just get to know me then I'm sure
You'd find I'm very sweet..."
The doctor discarded her hat with a practiced toss; it spun through the air and landed perfectly atop the head of one of the male patrons, who blushingly tipped it to her and nervously smiled as the spotlight briefly fixated on him.
"Of course I never mind it when the boys look at me.
I might even forgive them for just trusting what they see..."
René shrugged her shoulders and her robe slid cleanly off her, landing with a soft rustle on the neatly lacquered wood floor. She didn't have anything else on beneath it, and this elicited a quiet cheer from the audience while Cassiopeia shockingly realized the nature of her friend's performance.
"A pair of legs…
A pretty face…"
René admired herself with the casual indifference of someone making sure everything was still there as she strutted off the stage and to the nearest patron, lifting a leg and putting a foot to his chest as she leaned in against him, smiling.
"Another... thing or two.
But if that's all you're after, then those things..."
The vixen suddenly kicked both the club patron and his chair over with a loud crash, much to the laughter of the rest of the audience. She deadpanned down at the dazed admirer, hands on her hips.
"Are NOT for you."
Cassiopeia was seeing a part of her dear friend that she'd never seen before; both literally and metaphorically. Technically, nudity wasn't considered sexual in Mobian society, in fact, it wasn't terribly uncommon, after all, fur, scales, or plumage covered up their private parts as completely as they could want. It was the context and intent that counted, and in this case, her friend wasn't taking them off because the room was uncomfortably warm. What was she thinking? This was the career equivalent of suicide if anyone in her circle of colleagues found out about what the genius geneticist was doing in her night life. It was no wonder she performed under a stage name.
The musical solo ended and René's singing snapped the cardinal back to attention. No longer menacing audience members for the time being, she'd returned to the stage and continued her dance number.
"Well you really aren't ready
If you just want a pretty show.
Clearly you don't understand me,
I'm like no other girl you know."
Using her long scarf as a makeshift lasso, the vixen snared the waist of one of the front row patrons, and playfully reeled him up onto stage as his slightly inebriated friends cheered for him. Once he was within her reach, she traced a hand along his collar and turned her singing towards him more directly.
"Independent, smart, and pretty,
From my head down to my toes.
And if you should disrespect me..."
René suddenly turned from caressing her unwitting prop's collar to grabbing him by it, as she menaced him with clenched fist just centimeters from his face.
"I'll have to break your nose!"
As he went cross-eyed staring at the neatly manicured fist that threatened him, the vixen shoved him off the stage, scarf and all. He landed back in his padded seat with a thud and she blew a kiss after him.
"I refuse to be a trophy and refuse to be your mother,
There's a million girls just for that but I'm not like any other.
If you expect me to,
I'll laugh at you...
Don't you tell me what to do,"
She stomped a bare foot on the stage in time with a loud orchestral hit.
"I do what I want to!"
The dance and musical number started up again, and Cassi was again wracked with questions. 'Why?' being among the top in her mind. All this because she asked for advice on dating. She carefully removed her tiny spectacles and cleaned them with a feathered finger, replacing them and blinking. But it was no trick; her friend was still up there, still doing a striptease for a crowd of cheering men, and apparently all the happier for it.
The band stopped and the spotlight shone down on Dr. Renard again, the song almost at a conclusion as she sang the final verses in as heartfelt a way as she knew.
"Why not get to know me?
At least past just' hello'.
Then you'd get the chance to see…"
There was silence in the audience as their nightly star began her slow sashay behind the curtains, blowing kisses and waving to various patrons as she made her way off-stage, stopping to finish the last line before she vanished behind the curtains.
"…I'm like no other girl you know."
The audience erupted in cheer, many of the patrons standing to applaud as the band picked up the melody again and slowly brought the music to a cheery close. The main curtain fell and the lights came back on in the nightclub, leaving Cassi to shake her head in disbelief at the spectacle she'd seen.
The same attendant who had seated her now approached her again, motioning to a stage door. "Madame Scarlet wishes to speak to you backstage. She is in her dressing room. Please, this way."
… … …
René sat the plush comfort of her favorite chair in her dressing room, clad in another red robe as she gently brushed away the makeup in her fur. "Da dum dum da, da da dumda da dumda…" She hummed her song quietly, a smile locked on her face. "Oh, do come in, Cassi, there's no need to wait at the door there." From the reflection in her large mirror on her dresser, she could see the timid cardinal waiting in the doorway. "Did you like my song? It's my favorite, I wrote it myself."
"It was… very…" Cassiopeia struggled to find the words. "Revealing, yes err, but what is this all about? Why are you doing this, René?"
"Because I want to, of course!" The vixen stifled a giggle and stretched, pushing her chair back to stand up and deliver a hug to her friend as she entered the room. "Didn't you listen to that part of the song?"
"But René…" Cassi returned her friend's embrace and took the other seat in the room. "I don't mean to judge or anything, but you were up there… and all those men, and the dance was… Y-you're a geneticist, not… not an exotic dancer."
"Oh!" René sat back down and tied her robe closed, a smirk upon her face. "And why can't I be both, hm? Just because I'm an expert in some stuffy scientific field, does that mean I have to cloister myself away in some lab, and shun contact with everyone?"
"No, but, being a geneticist helps people, and…"
"And so does this!" Dr. Renard threw her arms open in gesture at the entire place. "Those men, my customers, do you think my next genetic breakthrough will bring any joy to their lives? They have no idea what I am outside of this club, and that's how it should be. All that matters here is happiness. They may live dreadful and dreary lives outside, but each night, they can come and taste a sample of the life they really want; entertainment, pleasure, fantasy, fun! This place lets me enrich the lives of those people that never see a fraction of the luxury I enjoy in high society." She folded her hands in her lap, leaning back relaxed. "And in return, they give me what I can't find in a stuffy dinner party or a test tube rack; applause, adoration, attention." Her hand reached out and took a rose, her adopted namesake, from her dresser. She took a sniff of the flower as she read the name on the card to herself with a soft and happy sigh. "And when the mood strikes me some of them give me a bit more… if they play their cards right."
"That's… well enough I suppose. "Cassi cocked her head, still not sure what to make of her friend, but accepting nonetheless. "It's… your body afterall. But… what about your life on the council? Someone could use something like this to completely ruin you…"
"No." The vixen's face became serious. "They could only destroy René Renard, not Rose Scarlet. I could live my days without the money, the prestige, the high-class life as a scientist, but no one can ever take this place from me. It may happen someday, or it may not, but I don't fear it." Her expression slowly softened again. "Ah, but that wasn't the point of all this was it? You wanted me to help you with matters of love, and this was all to show you why I can never really do that for you."
The cardinal shook her head in response. "No, you know all about men, that's obvious, you can tell-"
"You don't want advice on men, though. You want advice on just one man, and on love, and I can't give you that. I don't have any interest in love, myself, not the kind in your heart, at least. Love is…" René stopped, stumbling over words in search of the best way to explain her point of view as her tone and expression became more somber. "Love is not for… people like me, Cassi. Too much commitment, too much finality, and too many chances for loss, or for jealousy, or to let my nature get the better of me. No, I don't want those strings to hold me down, and that's why I honestly have no idea how it works. It would be good for you, I'm sure the two of you would be a wonderful couple, but I could never imagine that kind of life, any more than you can imagine living mine."
Now it made sense, Cassi realized. René had brought her here and shown her all this to come clean to someone; to confess and share her secret world as much as to show her why she couldn't help her win her crush's heart. "I understand, and that's… all right, actually. But, as a friend, is there no advice you could give me?" She pleaded with her eyes.
René looked at the floor quietly, in thought. When she looked up again, it was with a small smile on her face. "Follow your heart, Cassi. As long as you intend to hurt no one, including yourself, there's nothing to fear in that. If you truly want to see him, go to him, and then just do whatever your heart tells you is right. It may not work out, or it may be a fairytale romance. But you'll never know if you don't try, and that's worse than rejection, that much I know."
It would take a lot of courage, but the logic-minded physicist in Professor Cassiopeia couldn't deny that the wondering and the what-ifs were the worst part of it all. "Yes." She nodded softly, her plumage bobbing slowly as she steeled herself to face her feelings. "Yes, I'll do it, René. Thank you." She stood to hug her friend and mutual confidante again. "Do you ever wish for a different life, René? Do you ever have regrets about the way you live?"
"A little, from time to time." The vixen hugged her friend tightly and saw her to the door. "But not tonight. Good luck, Cassi, and remember. Just follow your heart, and no guilt, no matter what happens."
… … …
"No matter what happens…"
It was raining again, when Cassiopeia left the night club. There was nothing open anymore, and no one but the street lights to keep her company in the cool night, but she knew the way to where she wanted to go. Her own home wasn't far, but she passed it by and nodded to herself, certain that she would face her feelings, no matter what. The two moons in the black, cloudy sky of the early morning vanished into the stormy skies as she arrived at the street she sought, and the doorstep of the red-bricked flat that Professor Arthur Calus called home.
There was a light on inside, and that wasn't a surprise to her; Calus was a night person, and was probably tinkering away with some computer inside, heedless of the hour. She stopped at the door, a feathered fingertip at the doorbell as she struggled internally, whispering confidence to herself. "No turning back now. Just follow your heart, Cassi."
The doorbell rang, and as she'd imagined, the squirrel came to the door, still clad in his work clothes, a circuit board in one hand and a full coffee mug with 'I / 0' printed on it in the other. "P… Professor Notwen?" He tilted his head at her, a concerned look on his innocent face. "What are you doing out in the rain at this hour? Are you all right?"
Cassi smiled to herself, her thoughts deeply internalized. She remembered all the things she loved about him in his kind, concerned face then and there. All the times she'd fixed that hideous tie for him, all the time's they'd helped one another find their glasses…
"Is this what you really want, Cassi?" She asked herself. The answer came back with resounding certainty as she looked into his bespectacled eyes.
"Yes."
"Professor Notwen?" Arthur stood in the doorway, still confused at her silence.
Without a word, the soaking and cold cardinal reached out and took off his glasses, pressing her body to his and kissing him as deeply as her beaked species could manage.
"Always and forever."
"Mrrph?" Arthur tried to speak, but his tongue was drawn out of his mouth before he had the chance. There was a crash as his circuit board and coffee mug left his hands and shattered on the rain-soaked steps. "Mm…" His eyes widened and his hands trembled as social ineptitude gave way to instinct and he put his warm, dry arms around her. He stayed that way with her, both of them oblivious to the rain for some time, until at last she let him have his tongue back. "P-p-p-professor?"
"You know you can call me Cassi."
"O-of course, prof… er, Cassi." He blushed brightly, and one of his hands found one of hers of their own volition. "You're going to catch cold out here, Cassi. …w-would you like to come inside?"
"Arthur…" She smiled at him, the rainwater running down the faint curve of her yellow beak as her cheeks ruffled and a wave of warmth and happiness came over her. "Yes Arthur. I would like that, very, very much." She gently placed his glasses back on his face.
"All right." The squirrel nodded timidly, a smile starting to form on his face. "I-I'll just get you a towel, and some hot coffee." He backed away a little, regarding her with a curious feeling he'd never had before. Slowly he turned away and disappeared into his kitchen.
Cassi stood in the doorway, and cast her gaze back to the sky one more time. The two moons of Mobius had found their way through the dark clouds somehow, and they sparkled in the night sky as she smiled up at them. A comment from her conversation with René- no, with Rose, sprang back into her mind as she rested a long-feathered hand on her chest; "Do you ever wish for a different life, René?" she'd asked the vixen.
"Do you ever have regrets about the way you live?"
Her answer made sense now. "A little, from time to time."
Cassiopeia closed the door quietly and leaned against it, sighing with content in the warmth of the house as she listened to Arthur fumble nervously in the kitchen. A smile crossed her face once more.
"…But not tonight."
