A True Master Of Disguise

After Altair reinforced that her name was Altair instead of the strange names that Marissa and Serius used as alias' to her, she was taken to a fairly large room that was decorated much the same as the building she had left at the arena. It's just that there was far more of the same type of decorations as before. She couldn't see a hint of the color of the wall or ceiling. The floor even had a very colorful carpet that depicted people she had never seen before.

Nothing in the room seemed to have been able to escape the decorations.

Serius had gone to his own room to change, so it was just Marissa and Altair in the room.

Marissa walked to a closet that had a character that looked identical to how she looked on it and opened it in a smooth motion. She then grabbed a gorgeous dress out and tossed it to the bed. It was one of those dresses with half a dozen layers of skirts and jewel embroidery, along with several pieces of clothing that had to be put on separately just because of tradition.

Altair could immediately tell that it weighed more than she did.

Marissa then pushed the front row of dresses to the side to reveal the various cosplay outfits she had worn. Almost all of them were exceptionally revealing outfits, some were male oriented clothes as well, and only two of them were clothes that Altair deemed fitting to actually wear. She then pushed the cosplay outfits to the side, which revealed a row of shirts, pants, and shorts behind them. She grabbed a plain white shirt and tossed it unceremoniously at Altair. She didn't even check the size of the shirt either.

Once she had done so and Altair caught it instinctively, she stated, "Wear that." She then cast a look at Altair's wings before she said, "If you can." Immediately after she moved to start disassembling the dress she tossed on the bed to prepare to change into it.

Altair looked at the simple button up shirt that was basically a dress to her and frowned slightly. 'I guess there's no chance of hiding my Magic,' she thought to herself as she looked around the room and noticed there was nowhere for her to go to change behind. She doubted that Marissa would let her change in her closet. 'Doesn't really matter I guess,' she considered. Since she was, in her mind, going to pass away she didn't really see the need to hide her abilities in this situation. She was told that she would be able to relax and live a normal life. Since that was the assumption, why would she need to hide her Magic?

She started to pull it over her head because she didn't see a need to unbutton it at all.

As she did so, Marissa saw her doing that and chuckled several times. Her chuckling immediately stopped when she saw the wings on Altair's back, along with her dress, dissipate into the air like they were smoke. Her eyes opened wide in shock. She even dropped the clothing she had in her hands as Altair's head popped out of the shirt she was now wearing.

The bottom of the shirt dragged on the ground, as well as the sleeves, and Altair had no hope of remedying that. However, she felt far better now that her dwindling Mana reserves had stopped being burned on her. The shirt, while large, weighed practically nothing on her and was smooth to the touch. If it wasn't dragging on the ground, then she wouldn't have minded wearing it instead of fancy dresses.

She turned her gaze to Marissa and saw the shocked expression that she had half-expected her to have. Altair felt her back sweat before she flatly stated, "Ah, I haven't told you yet." She paused and then emotionlessly stated, as if it explained everything, "I'm not a Human." She then started to walk over to a heavily decorated chair before she fell face-first onto the carpet because she stepped on the shirt she was wearing. She couldn't get her arms up to stop herself because they were tangled up where her legs where, which prevented her from stopping her fall. As a result, she fell without an ounce of grace or dexterity.

Marissa would have laughed at her if she wasn't shocked. Instead, she cleared her throat as the words she was told sunk in slightly. She then eyed Altair suspiciously as the girl started to stand back up. Altair didn't look like something that wasn't a Human so she couldn't help but wonder what kind of lies were told to her.

Thus, she asked, "What do you mean, you aren't Human?"

As Altair pulled back halfway out of the shirt in order to stand up, she looked at Marissa before asking, "I'm not a Human. Not completely anymore, anyway." She then pulled up the bottom of the shirt like they were skirts and walked to the chair inelegantly. She plopped down in it without saying anything else when she got there. Her stomach immediately growled at her in protest for the long day without food.

Marissa looked back to the dress before her for a moment before she sighed lightly. She would be able to find out more later. For now, time wasn't on her side so she needed to get dressed in a hurry.

Altair didn't know that the kind of fancy dress that Marissa had pulled out was able to be put on alone. She had assumed it was impossible with how she was dressed in them a few times herself. There just seemed to be far too many layers of clothing and it was confusing to get everything on the correct way enough. To be able to do that by yourself, and in a third of the time it took Stacey to dress her, was shocking.

What was more shocking was that Marissa had turned into a completely different person. Altair had some skill in disguises, however, what Marissa had accomplished made her disguises look like cheap costumes by comparison. She didn't even know how she managed to change her hair color until she saw that there was a wig sitting on the bed.

The real Marissa was like a golden goddess. She had the lightest tint of a tan that made her skin appear to be in a permanent glossy state while still remaining completely fair. Her blonde hair that hung to her waist looked more like gold as she proceeded to put it into braids. Her blue eyes were sharp and piercing like a dagger made of ice. With the dress she had managed to put on by herself, she looked more like a queen than a princess in Altair's mind.

She was gorgeous before, but now her beauty could steal people's breaths away.

Altair found it completely unfair. She didn't know how old Marissa was but she was sure she wasn't much older than she was. Yet she was stuck with the body of a child. She wound up pouting in the chair she sat on until Marissa had finished getting changed.

Serius walked in without knocking as Marissa finished braiding her hair. He also looked completely different. In fact, it was like looking at another species entirely.

He, as well, had golden blonde hair that was neatly trimmed. His eyes were also blue, but they seemed to be carrying a smile that they didn't have before. His skin was no longer the red color it was before as it had returned to a fair complexion, although it lacked the glossy state that Marissa's had. He wore a crisp uniform that looked enviously easy to put on compared to the dress that Marissa had to wear.

His gaze froze on Altair as he noticed the wings were completely gone. His eyes widened in confusion and, before he could ask, Altair headed off the question she was sure was coming with a simple, "I'm not Human."

Serius shifted his gaze to the ceiling for the briefest of moments as if he bought it before he brought it back down with the same confused look and asked, "What?"

Altair didn't want to answer again. However, Marissa didn't seem to be making any attempts to intercede so she felt she had no choice. She repeated, "I am not Human."

Serius nodded skeptically, not buying it at all, before he turned to Marissa and said, "Dinner will be at the Cosmic Palace when we get there after dropping Altair off."

Marissa nodded blankly before she took a deep breath and stood up. She looked completely unmotivated to do anything. She turned a tired gaze over Altair and said, "Be sure to tell her about Mecha before we get there. In the mean time, I'm going to go be bored while trying to buy some time from father."

They were going to be late. She had found that out while she was changing. Her Battle Cruiser wasn't fast enough to cover the appropriate distance to arrive back at the Cosmic Palace before her curfew. She really didn't want to be punished but she knew it was coming. In an attempt to hold off the punishment, she decided she would call her dad and see if she could have another five minutes. She didn't hold much hope for being able to get that five minutes though.

She wearily walked past Serius, who turned his attention to Altair. Serius then said, "Let's go somewhere that's more appropriate to discuss such things first." He then turned and walked towards the door behind Marissa as if that was all he needed to say.

In the past he would have offered his hand to Altair so she could get down from the chair easier. Hell, he would have even offered to carry her when he noticed how much of the shirt she had to lift up. But the old him didn't exist anymore. It was all thanks to Marissa that he was the way he was now.

Altair grabbed the bottom of her shirt and jumped off the couch before racing after him. She looked completely ridiculous running around in just a shirt, but Serius didn't say anything about it.

He actually expected Marissa to dress in her a more absurd fashion than what she was currently wearing.