The Paladin Costume -Kane-

Indigo wasn't actually that bad a person.  She was just a little eccentric.

If asked to describe herself, Indigo would say she was mainly into arts and crafts, which was true.  She especially liked making things with her own hands, and enjoyed the making significantly more than the having.  There was nothing wrong with having a hobby of that nature... as long as you never asked her what her preferred construction materials were.

The renaissance faire was right around the corner.  Indigo had chosen to dress up as a paladin for the event, and put her hobbies to use by making her own costume.

It was now the day before the faire, and Indigo's paladin outfit was almost complete.  She phoned Kane and asked him to help her put the finishing touches on it; he agreed only because she promised not to flatten him as part of it.

When Kane arrived at Indigo's door, he was greeted with the sight of a fully costumed Indigo.  Her paladin's garb included platemail precisely the same shade of yellow as Jack's scales, as well as a bright red cape Kane was sure he could see Red's face in.

"Er... hey, Indigo."  Well, now I know why I haven't seen those two since yesterday.

Indigo's demeanor was as cheerful as always.  "Hi, Kane!  Come on in; I can't wait to get my costume finished for the faire tomorrow!"

As they proceeded through the house, Kane and Indigo chatted a bit.  Apparently she'd been too busy drafting and designing her costume to work on any other projects in the past week, which explained why he'd never seen her then.  When Kane let slip that he was relieved he didn't have to put up with her rolling pin during that week, she just laughed and said he just wasn't in the right frame of mind about it.

Upon being asked what exactly she needed him to do to finish her costume, Indigo replied with a cryptic "You'll see."  This unnerved Kane understandably, but she'd promised not to squish him flat and she never made false promises.

The two of them continued right past Indigo's workroom and into her backyard, where she had set up what looked like a blacksmith's forge.  It had a large oven for melting down metals (or something), a subchamber with an open top where they were presumably mixed and processed, and finally a tap for pouring them into molds.  One particularly large mold was already set up beneath the tap.

"It took a lot of effort to construct that mold, you know.  I read about this sort of sculpting and decided I just had to try it for myself."

The same instant Kane realized exactly where this was going, Indigo opened up the oven and shoved him inside.

SLAM.  Indigo closed and latched the oven door, leaving it unopenable from the inside.  It was actually quite roomy; if the ceiling was a foot higher he'd have enough room to stand up.  It was also dark, except for the sunlight shining through a single small window on the door.

As the oven began to heat up, Kane realized something.  Indigo had promised she wouldn't flatten him.  She had said nothing about any other forms of disfigurement.

The temperature quickly grew sweltering.  Kane couldn't believe his clothes weren't catching fire.  He repeatedly wiped sweat from his forehead.

On the fifth or six wipe, he noticed that he was dripping something besides sweat.

Kane's eyes widened.  He was dripping something gray.  He ran his hand over himself; his hide felt like wet clay, with the texture of fur barely there.  Mysteriously, his clothes felt the same way.

Oh my God.  I'm melting.  I'm actually melting.

Kane banged on the door, but Indigo ignored him.  He couldn't help but feel that he'd been tricked into all this, although to be fair if Indigo had approached him directly and asked to melt him down he probably wouldn't have reacted well.

I didn't agree to this.  ...Who am I kidding, I'd never have agreed to it if she'd been straight with me.  She had to do it this way.

The wolf was melting more quickly now.  He could only watch helplessly as the loose drips of him flowed down the central drain.  He knew that sooner or later all of him would be gone the same way.

Maybe Indigo was right.  Maybe I'm not looking at this in the right frame of mind.  I have to think positive.  This isn't so bad.  This isn't so bad.

Only about half of Kane remained now.  He tried to take deep breaths, but his respiratory system had already melted beyond functionality.

This isn't so bad.  I mean, it's not even painful.  It's just like... just like... WHO AM I KIDDING, IT'S JUST LIKE NOTHING!  I AM MELTING!

He tried to bang on the door again, but not enough of him was left solid that he could hit it with any force.  Finally he had no choice but to surrender and lay motionless as the rest of him turned to liquid and flowed out of the oven.

Indigo was waiting at the subchamber as it filled up with the liquefied Kane.  She uncapped a vial of a special solution designed to alter Kane's molecular structure, poured it in, and began to stir.  The subchamber was lightly heated so the wolf wouldn't cool whilst inside it.

Once Kane had been stirred and mixed into a solid color approximating a nice silvery gray, with the red and brown patches from his clothes nicely dissolved, Indigo opened the tap and poured him into the mold she'd crafted, taking extreme care not to spill any of him.

The mold filled up quite neatly; Indigo had taken care to make its volume precisely in proportion to Kane's mass, so he'd fill it perfectly.  As he cooled, the solution she'd added transformed him into a sturdy metal, which was a somewhat weird sensation, like being frozen solid without the coldness.

Kane took the opportunity to reflect on what he'd gotten himself into as Indigo left him to cool and solidify.  In particular, he made a mental note to examine the promises Indigo made in the future more thoroughly.

About half an hour later, Indigo came back and cracked the mold open, revealing what exactly she'd smithed Kane into: a sleek two-handed sword.  He fell out of the mold with a loud clank sound; she tried to pick him up, but he was a bit heavy.

"Ah... I'll be right back, Kane."

Indigo ducked back into the house for a moment, then returned with some rubber strips (yes, it was actual rubber; it wouldn't be worth the trouble squishing one more person flat for so little material) and carefully wrapped Kane's hilt in them to form the grip.

Finally, the sword was complete, as was Indigo's costume.  She went back inside with Kane in her hands and posed in front of the mirror.

"Look at it this way, you guys," she remarked, as if answering a question one of them wanted to ask.  "We'll all get to see the sights of the renaissance faire together, and I'll only need to buy one ticket for the four of us."

Then, to Kane: "Before I decided to make this costume I've never melted someone down in order to mold them into something this way, Kane.  Once you're back in shape you've got to tell me what you thought of it."

Kane couldn't make up his mind whether or not he'd rather have been squished flat like usual than subjected to this.

(For those of you wondering, in order to return Kane to normal after the faire, Indigo simply melted him down again, then left him to cool out in the open without pouring him into another mold.  The second heating neutralized the metalmaking solution, and as he cooled he congealed naturally back into wolf form.)