Chapter 9 : The Reception

Breakfast having come to an end and everyone sated, Shego and The Trix exit the sunken dining room to the main floor. Icy swipes at the sensor on the wall and the floor closes over once again hiding the recess below. "The house-bots take care of cleaning up and preparing for the next meal," Icy explains to Shego, obviously proud of her penthouse apartment and loving to brag about all its many conveniences to her guests.

The Trix stretch and yawn in unison and then stretch themselves out on the various couches and reclining mats about the apartment. Shego goes to the remaining reclining mat but is soon bored just stretching out on it and doing nothing. She picks up a magazine from a nearby coffee table and opens it only to find that it is in a language she does not understand. "This must be written in Witchspeak," she thinks, seeing repeats of the few characters that Icy wrote out for her when showing her the "facilities". Well, she may not understand the language, but, the pictures plug the same old messages: "Wear haute couture from Witchy-Poo Fashions and be the beautiful Witch who catches the handsome Warlock of her dreams", "Cover-Witch cosmetics will transform you into the bewitching young Witch who catches the handsome Warlock of her dreams", "Hanna Henna is the choice of discerning Witches for enchanting hand designs that are guaranteed to catch the eye of the handsome Warlock of her dreams" and finally (Taaa-daaa), "Show your love to the handsome Warlock of your dreams by serving him Spider's gourmet buggy broth tonight". "Well, well," thinks Shego, "it would seem that young Witches in this dimension are just as man-crazy as any young women from my own – despite initial impressions."

At one point, Shego must have drifted off to sleep, for, the next thing she feels is Icy's hand on her shoulder to rouse her and Icy telling her that it is now time to make their way to the reception. Shego rouses herself to see that The Trix have all changed out of the disposable dresses of this morning.

Icy is wearing a sky-blue, knee-length dress with gold stitching about the hemlines of the sleeves which end at the elbow, the neckline and the bottom. She has on a pair of matching blue, low-heeled shoes also with a simple gold design stitched into them. She has put on the minimum of pale-pink foundation, a touch of natural coloured lipstick and amethyst highlighter along the edges of her ears from the tip of the tops to just short of the earlobes. The final accessories are a gold mesh choker with a single large blue ice diamond in the centre and a matching pair of pendant blue ice diamond earrings mounted in gold.

Darcy is wearing a faun-coloured, pleated, knee-length Greek goddess style dress with royal-blue beadwork. Like Icy, her face is made up with the minimum of medium-pale foundation, a touch of lipstick and some natural coloured blush along the lines of her cheekbones. Her waist-length, warm brown and amber streaked hair she has tied back with a barrette which features two large indigo-blue flight feathers set in an inverted "V" mounted in silver. On her ears she is wearing a pair of silver earrings which terminate in a small fan made up of multicoloured down feathers. On her feet are sandals with greaves up to her knees.

Stormy is dressed in a simple dark mauve dress with silver trim. The hemline of her dress comes down to her knees and the modest yoke is above the bust line. The sleeves are short and puffy and the low-heeled shoes she has on match the colour of her dress. Unlike her sisters, Stormy has naturally red lips and rosy cheeks so she requires no additional makeup. Add to this the soft blue lights in her eyes and she is breathtaking.

Shego looks at the gorgeous attire of The Trix and feels awkward about wearing a skin-tight bodysuit to what is obviously going to be a formal event but The Trix seem to take no notice of it. Soon they are all strolling leisurely down the hallways to the cafeteria. Along the way, Icy points out to Shego all the spots of interest, "Here is the auditorium, here is Miss Griffin's private boardroom where she meets with members of the High Counsel of the Sisterhood of Witches and other suchlike dignitaries, Miss Griffin's quarters are just around the corner," and finally, "Here is a bust of Lady Shakira who was the Headmistress of Cloud Tower before Miss Griffin," she tells Shego with a note of sadness in her voice.

When they arrive at the cafeteria and enter, Shego finds herself standing there for a long moment all a-gawk and a-gah. "If this is a cafeteria," she thinks, "I wonder what they call a five-star restaurant!" This is far from the cafeterias she is familiar with with their stackable tables, simple chairs, paper flatware and cups and plastic cutlery. This place is total lux with its deep carpet, carved wooden tables with expensive linen table cloths with ornate embroidery along their borders, fine china flatware, ornate silver cutlery and crystal goblets. The only thing that could betray it as a cafeteria is the steam table at the far end but even it was made of expensive-looking, highly polished carved wood with keepers made probably of black Alfeanium that blended unobtrusively with the dark colour of the wood.

"We'll be sitting at the High Table," Icy whispers quietly to Shego.

"Oh!" says Shego and proceeds to make her way directly to the High Table but Icy holds her back.

"No!" whispers Icy somewhat urgently to her. "We sit at the back and wait for the Mistress of Ceremonies to summon us to the High Table. It is considered bad manners just to go up and seat yourself," and Shego looks at her apologetically. "And what if you are wrong and the Mistress of Ceremonies tells you that you have to leave the High Table and sends you crawling back to sit among the common folk? It would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it?"

"Besides," whispers Darcy with a nasty look in her eyes, "if you are summoned to sit at the High Table by the Mistress of Ceremonies, then you can walk there through the crowd with your head held high and really sock it to all those wannabes who think they're all that."

The guests continue to wander in – mostly in groups of three – and all are wearing gorgeous haute couture similar to The Trix and again Shego feels self-conscious about her bodysuit. Many look directly at her but seem to take no notice as if forewarned that for this reception black and green, skin-tight bodysuits are the in thing and anyone daring to say anything disparaging about them does so at her own risk and peril.

Shego's attention drifts away from clothes as more guests enter the cafeteria and she is amazed at the many shapes and sizes from dwarves to two metre giants, (yet none either fat or scrawny), and skin colours that cover the whole spectrum of the possible. A flash of green reflected from the chandeliers attracts her attention to a Witch standing a little ways away from her. She is average height, somewhat comely but humanoid rather than human. This Witch is flat-chested with green scaly skin and webs between her fingers. She has a fine muzzle rather than a mouth from which occasionally flicks a long, red and forked tongue and she has vertically slit eyes which are red tinged with gold. Her sisters standing beside her are almost clones of her and all are wearing clothes that are reminiscent of blue seas and sea foam. Then one of them turns around and Shego sees her long, leathery tail!

"That is Rusulka and the other two of her trix," whispers Stormy, having noticed Shego's interest in the green-skinned trio.

"She is the Water-Witch Icy was telling me about, isn't she?" asks Shego and Stormy nods in confirmation. "Where are the Cat-Witches?" she asks.

"Oh, you can be sure that they are somewhere close by, especially because we are also here," replies Stormy, "but they like to keep themselves out of sight. Just try any monkeyshines, though, and you'll see how fast you'll be getting a painful introduction to the whole litter."

"Hey! I resent that," says a simian-looking Witch with brown fur, dark-brown eyes and heavy eyebrows.

"Ney-ah!" mouths Stormy at her and, although the Simian-Witch says not a word in reply, Shego is quick to pick up on the furtive and insulting gesture she makes at Stormy with her tail and then turning her back to them she walks deeper into the crowd.

"Who is she?" asks Shego.

"Bad news," replies Stormy, her face wearing her patented bitchy expression. Then Stormy turns her attention to one of the other guests.

Everyone continues to wait and Shego wonders when food will be served, surprised that there are no hors d'oeuvres, (which she secretly likes to call "nibblements"), or before meal drinks are being offered.

Suddenly, the room is hushed as three figures approach the High Table. "That's Miss Griffin in the middle and the other two are Professor Ediltrude and Professor Zarathustra who are the second and third members of her trix," whispers Icy. "Quiet now, we should be summoned to the High Table very soon."

"Sister Witches," begins Miss Griffin in a mature, mezzo voice, "we are gathered here at this reception to welcome and receive Shego of Middleton of the Planet Terra who has come to Alfea and to our dimension to be a student at Cloud Tower…" and Shego's eyes go wide, Darcy and Icy's expressions turn into ones of absolute shock and Stormy looks about ready to scream."

"No way!" protests Stormy in a loud whisper.

"Stormy, shut up!" growls Icy.

"But…," Stormy continues to protest.

"Stormy, I told you to shut up. Now-shut-your-mouth or do I have Darcy tranquillize you?" snarls Icy, rapidly losing patience with her hot-headed sister and Stormy glowers at Shego and her sisters, her eyes full of undisguised rage.

"I had nothing to do with it!" whispers Shego to The Trix, looking as if she is expecting to be attacked by a swarm of angry hornets who have had their nest disturbed.

"I believe you, Shego," replies Icy but still with a note of resentment in her voice. "It's Griffin and her trix. They're up to something and you and we have just been thrown into the thick of it," and her sisters are nodding in agreement and looking royally peeved.

The attention of Shego and The Trix returns to the High Table just in time to hear Miss Griffin pronounce, "… Shego, I summon you to the High Table and also your sponsors, Icy, Darcy and Stormy.

The four advance to the High Table: Shego walking in what she hopes is the appropriate manner. Icy is near by her trying to school her face into a neutral expression. Darcy is walking with her head held high and with a smirk on her lips – obviously enjoying "socking it" to the crowd – but Stormy is walking as if she feels the heat of everyone's gaze burning into her back.

When everyone is in her place, Miss Griffin announces, "The Peace and Blessings of the Goddess. Enjoy your meal," then all get up in a predetermined fashion to serve themselves from the steam table.

Shego is about to do the same when Icy tells her to remain seated. "Those of us at the High Table get to select from a special menu and have our food brought to us."

Shego picks up what Icy indicates to her to be her copy of the menu and again finds it written in a language she cannot read. "I don't understand this at all!" she whispers to Icy. Icy makes a gesture over the menu and suddenly it is in English.

"I would suggest item number three," says Icy.

"Black scorpion with an avocado and key lime sauce?" asks Shego.

"Yes, it's haute cuisine here," says Icy. "You like lobster, don't you," she asks and Shego nods. "Just think of scorpion as a land lobster with a stinger and bad attitude.

"Isn't scorpion poisonous?" asks Shego concerned.

"It would be if you cooked them with the stinger and poison gland intact," explains Icy, "but the chefs here have been trained and licensed to remove the stingers and poison glands and prepare the scorpions in a manner that won't kill you. That is why scorpion is considered haute cuisine. I shall be having the same."

When her meal arrives, Shego finds that the scorpion has been plated with a variety of sculptured vegetables and greens. The scorpion is split down the back and the meat partially lifted out of its shell. Beside her is set a dessert sized bowl filled with a thick, green sauce which must contain avocado and key lime.

"Take the two-pronged fork beside you, push it through the thickest part of the tail meat then holding the thorax firmly with your other hand, twist and pull," explains Professor Zarathustra who is sitting at Shego's other side. "If done correctly, the meat will come out cleanly. Then dip it into the sauce and nibble at it. The cracker at the top of your plate is for breaking the claws and then you remove the meat with the same fork. Don't bother with the small legs and the thorax. There is nothing there worth eating."

Shego follows Professor Zarathustra's instructions and the tail meat comes neatly out of the shell. Then she dips it into the sauce and takes a careful nibble expecting it to be incredibly sour. She is pleasantly surprised, though, when she finds the scorpion meat is sweet and so also the sauce. "There is honey in this!" thinks Shego delighted and then remembers Icy telling her that Witches eat honey but quietly pushes aside the thought that there may also be bees and bee larvae in the mix.

Shego observes the guests as they eat their meals and remarks that she can only hear the noise of cutlery and muted conversations. Then, she looks into a dark corner and believes she sees two disembodied vertically slit, golden eyes looking her way. But before she can give it any more thought, she is distracted when Professor Zarathustra asks her a question and then comes dessert which consists of platters of fruit, berries, nuts and… cheese?

"I thought that there are no dairy products on Alfea," Shego remarks to Icy.

"That's right," replies Icy. "This is made from coagulated and fermented vegetable sap something like tofu but there are many more plants on Alfea from which it can be made. Try this one. It is made from a plant similar to a rose."

Within another hour, the meal has concluded and the guests of the High Table file down and make a line at the exit. Miss Griffin opens the door ceremoniously and says, "Depart now in Peace."

As the guest file out, all exchange kisses with those of the High Table. Everyone is pleasant enough with Shego but when it comes to exchanges with The Trix many wear the expression of someone being forced to put her mouth against three warm gobbets of tainted meat. Then come Rusulka and her trix and Shego learns that with them one just touches each other cheek to cheek. Lastly, Shego meets a Witch with the face of a white tiger and, to Shego's surprise, she offers her hand-paw to Shego to be shook. "Nice to meet you," she purrs but then squeezes Shego's hand so hard that, had Shego been any other woman, she would have been on her knees begging to have her hand released. Shego, however, grips the Tiger-Morph Witch's hand-paw in a similar grip and while her eyes go wide in surprise Shego says to her, "Just what I like. A nice, warm and friendly handshake!" Finally, she too departs.

"I am truly pleased to welcome you to Cloud Tower as a new student. You shall be summoned next week to sit placement exams," says Miss Griffin to Shego who is looking at her confused and Icy looking like she could chew the silverware into musket balls and spit them through Miss Griffin's back.