“Perfect!” Melanie stepped forward, taking charge once again. “Now, let’s get you into your costume and see what you think!”

“Come on, lad!” Paul smiled at Nep in a reassuring way. “Let’s get you dressed.” Nep followed the friendly man to the curtained changing area where he pulled back the curtain to reveal the costume hanging on a peg. It was a toga similar in over-all style to Rowan’s, white with a gold trim, but made from a far more substantial fabric. Lion’s-head clasps were on both the shoulders and, waiting for him on the bench, Nep noticed a pair of gold sandals very like the ones Rowan was wearing and a selection of gold jewellery. Also hooked around the same hanger as the toga was a belt made from what looked like woven leather strands painted gold.

“I’ve got the wig and beard over here,” Karen explained, “for once you’re in the costume.” Nep nodded his understanding.

“I’ll be just out here if you need anything.” Paul explained. “But it should all be pretty self-explanatory. Just pop your regular things off and put these on. You’ll have total privacy unless you need assistance.” Nep stepped into the cubicle but, just as Paul was about to pull the curtain across, stopped him.

“Should I…” he asked a little nervously before swallowing and rephrasing the question. “Do I keep my underpants on or take those off?”

“That’s really up to you.” Paul answered with a warm chuckle. “For today it doesn’t really matter but you’ll probably want them off for the party, if you catch my drift!” Nep’s eyes went a little wide and his cheeks turned pink but he nodded quietly and stepped back from the curtain so that it could be closed.

Quickly, he pulled off his T-shirt then sat down on the bench and pulled off his shoes and socks, not bothering to unlace them as they were not laced especially tightly in the first place. The carpet felt soft and warm under his feet, the most luxurious he could ever remember standing on, and he almost regretted the need to put on the sandals but he was really keen to look the part on the day and recognised the need to make sure everything fit properly.

“Can I get a hand with these?” he called to Paul on the other side of the curtain, finding the sandal straps anything but intuitive. Discretely, so as not to expose whatever state of undress he might be in to the women in the room, Paul slipped around the curtain and knelt down to show him how to strap the first one, suggesting that he do the second one himself as practice but promising to stay to assist if needed. Having seen it done once, Nep managed to strap the second one around with leg with not too much trouble and thanked Paul for his help. Once alone again, he pulled down his shorts, deciding to leave his underpants on for the time being although unable to keep the assistant’s rather cryptic advice from his mind.

Carefully, not sure how delicate it might be and not wanting to disgrace himself at this early stage by tearing the costume through his own clumsiness, Nep took the toga off the hanger and slipped it on over his head, assuming correctly that it should be put on like a long T-shirt, unlike Rowan’s which seemed to be more like a long scarf wrapped artfully around her body. The belt was self-explanatory enough and he buckled it tightly around his waist. Pulling back the curtain a little, he asked for Paul’s assistance with the jewellery which was duly given then he stepped back out into the room.

“What do you think?” he asked, holding his arms out by his side and turning slowly in a circle to show off the costume which hung well on his slim frame, resting just above his knees, and did not look too comical as he had feared.

“Pretty dapper!” Karen grinned while the two younger women nodded. “But you need hair and beard done to get the full effect!” She pulled a large, comfy-looking leather chair like a gaming chair or a chair in a hairdressing salon back from the counter which held all her equipment and the wig and beard set on a polystyrene head, in front of a mirror surrounded by bright light-bulbs just like Nep had seen in dressing-rooms on TV. “Come take a seat!” she smiled. Nep did as he was asked, his eyes lingering on Rowan for a little too long to go unnoticed as he passed. He could feel a swelling inside his underpants and was rather pleased that he had kept them on, protecting his modesty at least a little bit. “Now, just to be serious for a moment,” Karen got down to business, standing behind him and framing his head in the mirror once she had adjusted the chair to an appropriate height, “have you ever used spirit gum before? For a school play or anything?”

“Yeah.” Nep nodded. “Last year I was playing a made scientist and had these crazy, wild eyebrows stuck on.”

“Good.” Karen nodded. “And I assume you didn’t have any sort of allergic reaction?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Nep replied thoughtfully. “Not that I remember, anyway.”

“That’s okay then.” Karen smiled, then proceeded to show him the three different pieces she would be applying, how they went on and how they connected to each other. “We’ll do a bit of makeup for you too.” she explained. “I’ll do what I have in mind but if you don’t like it, you must say and we can try something else.”

“I’m sure it will be fine.” Nep smiled politely, happily putting himself in the hands of the experts. Explaining what she was doing with each stage, Karen fitted the huge, off-white beard to Nep’s chin, with hooks over his ears, and some spirit gum to ensure that it moved with his jaw, then the separate moustache which she glued to his upper lip then finally the wig.

“What do you think?” Karen asked as she carefully tucked a few loose strands of the boy’s dark hair under the rim of the wig.

“I look kinda goofy.” Nep observed with a hint of sadness, disappointed that what he was seeing in the mirror did not match his mental picture of what he had imagined being turned into a god would look like.

“Ah but that’s because we’re not finished yet!” Karen assured him kindly. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you close your eyes while I do your makeup, then the big reveal will be a surprise?” Thinking this sounded like a good idea, Nep did as she suggested, feeling her brushes of various sizes on his cheeks and eyelids, across his eyebrows on and on various other parts of his face. “Okay!” Karen declared after no more than ten minutes. “Open your eyes and meet Zeus!” Nep did as she said. This was a different experience entirely! Looking back at him was a contoured, handsome, noble face filled with power and wisdom. He barely recognised it as his own.

“Wow!” he gasped, finding himself a little surprised to hear his own fairly high-pitched, barely-breaking voice coming out of such a face when surely it should have been a resonant boom. “Now I really look the part!”

“There’s my husband!” Rowan beamed, slipping her arms around him from behind and kissing him on the cheek. Nep was thankful for the makeup because it went a fair way towards concealing his blush. “How about we get your mum in here and see what she thinks?” Nep agreed and took her hand, allowing himself to be led to the little round, carpeted stage in front of the curved sofa while Melanie went to fetch his mum from reception.

“Oh my!” Nep’s mum exclaimed walking in. “I barely recognised you! You look so handsome and majestic!” She beamed proudly at her son then seemed to notice Rowan and her bare breast. “Oh, my dear!” She smiled awkwardly at the older teen. “You seem to have… umm….” She circled her finger over her own well-covered chest. Rowan looked puzzled for a moment then looked down and giggled in realisation.

“Oh, this?” She cupped her exposed tit in her hand for a moment. “Oh no, that’s meant to be there. “I guess you could call it a style choice?”

“Oh come on, Mum!” Nep chuckled a little awkwardly as he could see the visible confusion bordering on disapproval on his mum’s face. “The girls who get cooked are gonna be wearing a lot less!”

“Well yes, I suppose so,” his mum tugged distractedly at her own blouse as if trying to pull it more securely closed, “but that… Well that’s not quite the same, is it?” Nep, Melanie and the others all understood that his mum was buying into the cognitive dissonance that allowed them to see meat-girls and boys more or less as animals who were rightly naked while still being mildly shocked by even partial nudity from someone they considered a “real person”.

“Speaking of which,” Nep turned to Melanie, “do I get a preview of the menu?”

“I’m afraid not!” the caterer chuckled. “That would spoil the surprise! But don’t worry,” she assured him, “the casting process is coming along very well! I am sure you will not be disappointed!”

Once his mum had been given a chance to take a few pictures of him in costume on her phone, some on his own and some with Rowan, once she had nervously asked for reassurance that such pictures wouldn’t get her into any sort of trouble, given her exposed state, a question which Melanie had resisted answering with derision and had instead assured her that Rowan was eighteen so there could be no legal complications from a topless photo, Nep sat back down in Karen’s chair for the transformation process to be reversed. This time, he kept his eyes closed until the transformation was complete, the wig and facial hair removed too, warm water with a heavily-diluted solvent mixed into it used to dissolve the spirit gum, so by the time he opened his eyes again, it was entirely his own, rather pink and scrubbed-looking face gazing back at him from the mirror.

The day of the party arrived. Melanie and her team had spent the entire week running up to it preparing, setting up their equipment and set-pieces and making sure they were well-versed in working the theatrical mechanisms that would allow the various themed cooking devices to appear and disappear as the plot demanded. Looking at the performance space, from the surface, it was hard to imagine the entire network of rooms and corridors beneath. Due to its outdoor location and classical styling, this particular theatre had been designed so that all the areas usually deemed “back stage” in a conventional theatre were location beneath it, accessible via mausoleum-style buildings either side of the performance area, one providing access to stairs and the other to a lift. At various points across the circular stage itself were concealed trap-doors or other openings through which set-pieces and performers could be raised and lowered.

The cast-members, all but of of whom had been recruited from the theatre club to which Rowan was connected, were being helped into their costumes and having their makeup done, edible of course, in the large communal dressing room which, if Melanie’s spacial calculations were correct, was located beneath the throne-like seats set atop the amphitheatre, somewhat like a Royal Box but without any sort of front, where Nep as Zeus and Rowan as his consort would be seated for the performance. Rowan herself was down with the general cast assisting with getting them ready but Nep, who had been told to arrive an hour before the rest of his class and their parents so that he could be ready to greet them in character, had a dedicated dressing room, the one with a star on the door, where Karen and Paul were currently waiting for him along with his costume and accessories. To his slight frustration, he had not been permitted to see any sort of script ahead of time, only given the very vaguest of plot-outlines that he would be expected to improvise along with. Nor had he been permitted to meet any of the cast or see the cooking methods. Still, as curious as he was, he had to admit that the mystery did make the whole thing more exciting and not knowing what to expect in advance would make his in-character reactions all the more genuine!

While the members of her team who would be carrying out the cooking and other preparations would be dressed in costumes, mostly simpler togas with no ornamentation, marking them as “slaves” in Zeus’s court, Melanie herself, as host, was dressed in a smart black suit, her hair swept up elegantly as she rushed around, tablet in hand, making sure everything was ready before the audience started to arrive. As arranged, Nep was the first to arrive with both parents who left their car in the parking lot and followed the path to the theatre area. Since he would be changing into the costume, Nep was once again dressed in baggy shorts and a T-shirt that seemed to have been chosen entirely at random while his parents, following the dress-code, were all in black, his mum in an elegant dress and his dad in a nice shirt and pair of trousers which were clearly the lower half of a suit as he carried the jacket over his arm.

“Welcome, My Lord!” Melanie gave a deep bow to the youngster and grinned welcomingly. “The preparations for your celebrations are nearly complete. Please,” she offered him her hand to hold, “allow me to escort you to your chamber of preparation!”

“Have fun, honey!” his mum called after him with a cheerful wave. “We’ll be out here watching! Looking forward to the feast!” With that, Melanie led the guest of honour towards the mausoleum structure with the lift which would take him down to his star dressing room while his parents were offered glasses of wine and a tour of the theatre.


To be continued...