Shortchanged

## Content Information

Arsling awoke like any other day in the last week rolling out of bed feeling like she hasn’t slept due to the constant nightmares she was having, apparently no matter how cool her werewolf moon powers were supposed to be they couldn’t protect her from her fears and anxieties, “thanks lycanthrope” she mumbles under her breath before shoving one of her suits on, odd they felt loose...must be her imagination as she struggled to tie her hair, the hair tie threatening to shoot off her head, she walked into the main room “morning Tamzen”

Tamzen was sitting on the futon with her feet tucked up underneath her, nursing a mug of hot cider and a danish as she caught up on the news on her phone. She glanced in her roommate’s direction, without seeming to notice anything out of the ordinary.

“Mornin’ Linny - I picked up some day-olds from the bakery on my way home from work last night - help yourself if you want some.” It had been weird, walking home without Fluff- without *Didi*’s company, but in all honesty, it was for the best. And she had discovered that the end of her day overlapped with the beginning of the day for the little bakery near the studio, and the last of the previous day’s pastries could be “rescued” for cheap.

So, for the last few days, there had always been a box of goodies sitting on the counter of the kitchenette - a friendship offering, since Tamzen still didn’t really know what she could do to help her friend.

Luckily Arsling was very hungry, and although she had a particular craving for meat this morning she definitely wouldn’t be opposed to lots of sweets and goodies, picking up a slice of apple pie and biting into it “so what’ve you got going on today” Arsling manages to say between ravenous bites

Tamzen shrugged. “The usual - class, then work.” She finished off her pastry and licked her fingers clean. “Might try to fit in a workout with Xander in between…” she blushed. “Depends on how busy he is - he’s got tutoring, and he’s helping Iva with her campaign, so…”

As quickly as Arsling had started she had scoffed down the pie “yeah, teachers ill today so no class, the only thing i gotta do today is send of Taylors commission, maybe i could join you in the studio, love to spend a day without she who shall not be named showing up and licking my window” Arsling grabbed another slice of pie again diving into it like she hadn’t just eaten an entire piece

Tamzen smiled, her eyes lighting up with excitement “Yeah… you could do that if you wanted - you just have to promise not to sit there and make faces while I’m talking to people during the Sound Off - last time you did that, I could barely keep my cool… I’m sure I sounded like I was high or something…”

“Pretty sure i boosted your ratings with that” Arsling grins thinking back on her shenanigans on set, she just has to work how to bring a certain royal cat onto set without a certain Shaw noticing “i’ll be sure to be on my best behaviour” Atsling says finishing her second piece of pie and grabbing a third, it’s pretty obvious she’s going to be sick if she doesn’t slow down, wolf stomach or not

“Hey! Chill out, Linny - no one is going to steal the pie from you…” Tamzen chided, her voice full of concern. She set her mug and phone down, and crossed the room towards the kitchenette. “I know you’ve got a lot going on, but I don’t think you want to add stomach problems to it. She gently took the slice of pie out of Linny’s hand and put it back in the box. She looked down at her friend. “I promise it’ll still be there when…”

*Wait.*

*Down?*

Tamzen looked her roommate over carefully, clearly surprised to have found a few inches on Linny since the night before. “Uh… Linny?”

Arsling looked grumpy when tamzen took away her food letting out a low, if cute growl before looking up at Tamzen “...are you wearing high heels? It’s like…” Arsling swiftly forgets the time “morning, what you doing wearing high heels” she steps forward, swiftly falling downwards the legs of her pants caught by her shoes, said pant legs mostly bunched up around the ankles

Tamzen reacted quickly, and managed to catch Linny before she tumbled all the way to the ground. She wrapped her arms around Linny and half-guided, half-dragged her over to the futon. “So… either you grabbed the wrong suit from the laundry room, or you’re starring in a remake of *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids*…”

Arsling looked down at Tamzens feet “wait your not wearing high heels...fuck” Arsling kicked off her pants, which wasn’t that hard considering they didn’t fit at the moment and stood on the futon, she looked like a child who had stolen their dads suit that combined with the fluffy hair made her seem quite...adoreable “oh, fuck the universe! What part of lycanthrope makes me short! Whoever decided that i should be short is an asshole!” Arsling rants to...*no one in particular*

Tamzen pursed her lips thoughtfully while she listened to Arsling rant. Didi was convinced that being a werewolf was an improvement, but as far as she could tell, Linny hadn’t encountered many of the positives of her new form yet. “Okay… so hang on…” She disappeared into her room and started rummaging through her closet. A moment later, she returned, with a pair of stretchy denim capri leggings, and a wide leather belt, and what looked to be an oversized sweater.

“These leggings were getting a little tight for me, but they might work for you. Why don’t you try them on, and we’ll see if your dress shirt is big enough now to pull off a shirt-dress look with the belt, or if you need a different top too…”

Arsling shoves the outfit on...she looks ridiculous, her current loose hairstyle often seemed to cater more to a punk look, the dress shirt was a little too long on the arms and well seeing Arsling in anything overtly feminene looked kinda wrong and right now that dress-shirt-dress was definitely looking well, against her usual style.

Tamzen frowned slightly, then reaches out to help roll up the dress shirt sleeves until they are closer to a three-quarter length look. She chewed on her lower lip, thoughtfully. “Yeah… I know it’s not great Linny - but it’ll hold you over until you can get some new clothing, or borrow from someone else?”

“Get me a pair of scissors and my pirate hat, i refuse to spend one day on this earth not looking cool” Arsling mentally blocks out her pigtail years and all of her stupid moments over the past...forever, she crosses her arms like a grumpy child.

Tamzen nods and disappears into Linny’s room, returning a moment later with the requested items. “I’d offer to help, but well... “ she runs her fingers through her own pigtails - “Clearly, I’m not one to take advice on for how to have cool hair…”

“No pigtails are fine on you” Arsling says, beginning to cut...her clothes? Seemingly trying to recapture the torn up pirate look she got a few days ago when she ‘went to hang out with Xander’ shoving the pirate hat on her head tames her hair shortly, before it just pushes the pirate hat off, apparently the full moon season ment her hair was an immovable object, she looks particularly mithed about this, and that look also happens to be adorable “Tamzen, how do i look?”

Tamzen smiles and gives her a salute. “Absolutely terrifying, Captain!”

“Thank ye very much navigator Tamzen” she hops of the futon, quickly going back to being three inches shorter than her best friend “...this is ridiculous, people are going to notice” Arsling says her cute yellow eyes filled with worry, she almost seemed to be using puppy eyes on Tamzen, probably unintentionally.

Tamzen reached out and hugged Linny close to her side. “You still got the sass and personality of a 6-foot tall hottie - you keep acting like that and no one will notice. I mean… do you know how many people are surprised that I’m as tall as I am? This is just the same in reverse... “ She ruffled her friend’s hair. “It’ll be fine… and if someone gives you crap… well… then they aren’t worth hanging around with, right?”

Her hair was soft and it immediately relaxes Arsling, like petting a dog “Yeah i suppose, still really confused about how i lost nearly half a foot, and here i thought that the moon was supposed to like me now” arsling says leaning into the hug “...you smell nice by the way” she muttered out sheepishly

Tamzen blushed and buried her head in Linny’s hair. “Thanks…” she murmured, the sound mostly muffled by the excessive cloud of hair. After a moment, she pulled away.

“I better get going to class…” she gave Linny an impish look. “Are you going to promise to take it easy on the sweets, or do I need to put them on a high shelf where you can’t reach them?”

“That’s low...like i am right now” Arsling grins at her own joke “ i can always climb Tamzen, and this shorter body needs food” Arsling says impishly back to Tamzen, out-imping her successfully

Tamzen sighed, perhaps a bit dramatically. “All right, I know when I’ve lost - but promise me you’ll buffer that pie with something that has a little protein in it - there’s some leftover egg and sausage casserole in the fridge. We don’t need a werewolf on a sugar high this weekend…” she teased.

Grabbing her bag, Tamzen made her way to their front door and stepped out into the hallway. “I’ll see you at the studio tonight, then?”

“Of course! I’m looking forward to it” Arsling smiles

Tamzen shuts the door behind her, and hurries down the hallway towards the front entrance.

The second the door shuts Arsling books it running into the kitchen and begins devouring pastries sitting on the floor pulling down the pie still in its case she stuffs her face making audioble noming noises while shes at it

Didi was bouncing on her way back from the grocery and the specialty butcher. The full moon always put her in a good mood, and it felt like the happy ending to a month of pain and terrors.

As she walked past a certain familiar window, she spotted Arsling looking feral as hell and going to town on a pie like a fresh-killed carcass.

She pushed open the window and leaned inside.

“Hey Ash, got the munchies?”

Arslings ears perked up her head rising from her apple pie based conquest, an almost dopey look on the new wolfs face, said face had a beard of apple pie jam “m-maybe” she said embarrassed before licking the jam off, she didn’t feel as angry to be seeing Didi as she had done the past two weeks, luckily her embarrassment doesn’t last long, or is beaten out by her hunger more like as she dived back into her pie happily and looking cutely feral

Didi clambered in through the window, though the process was a bit less graceful than her usual wolf-leap entrance.

She crouched down near the redhead and whispered conspiratorially. “Ask Tamzen to get you some jerky. I don’t know what brand she gets but it’s ``so`` good. One of these days I’m just going to open every one at the store until I find it again…”

Arsling drops the empty pie tray “mmm jerky sounds good” she looks dopey happy, you could almost hear her metaphorical tail wagging, she stands up looking over the counter at more meals she could consume, it becomes very clear that Arsling is suddenly much shorter than she was the last time didi saw her

The blue-haired wolfgirl cocked her head and stood up straight herself, sniffing the air.

“There’s something different about you…” She narrowed her eyes, but then it dawned on her. “You’re not a giant beanpole anymore! You’re, like, normal height. Hold up, are you ``shorter`` than me, now?” Didi cackled at the realization, recalling all those ‘shortie’ jokes Ash had leveled at her.

Arsling turned around a chocolate eclair in her mouth and let out a cute little dog like whine “o-only by an inch!” she said, muffled by the contents of her mouth “hay how come nothing happens to you but i get shorter and hungry” Arsling said intending to sound and look angry but just ends up looking cute, like a kid upset that the kid across the street gets a trampoline and they don't

“Oh, I get hungry…” replied the other wolf, her expression turning distant for a moment as she chewed her lip. Then she looked back to Ash. “You really ``are`` a cutie,” she said, just before booping the redhead’s nose -- just like the girl had done to her.

Arsling successfully bites Didis finger, not hard though more playfully, afterall her instincts were running wild on her and she didn’t want to hurt her mentor she removed Didis finger from her mouth and went to eat her eclair

The wolf in Didi was tempted to pounce the irreverent pup to the floor, but she settled for ruffling her hair and grabbing an eclair of her own.

“Mmm, pistachio!”

“Hay that's mine” she growled out devouring her own eclair and attempting to snatch Didi’s eclair for her own, apparently hunger and territorial instincts *and* Arsling equals one wolf who doesn’t know her place

Didi met Ash’s eyes as she crammed the entire eclair in her mouth with one hand, grabbing her wrist with the other. Before she knew it, Ash was on her back on the floor with Didi on top of her -- looking like she wanted to say something, but contending with an entire pistachio eclair in her mouth.

Arsling didn’t expect to be just taken down like that, she scrambles attempting to unpin herself from under Didi the pup being considerably helpless in this act of dominance, afterall Didi did have a year-and-a-half on the junior wolf

The senior wolf chewed her eclair, watching Cutie squirm beneath her.

Eventually she was able to speak. “Witholding food from a senior pack member is a big no-no, Cutie. And after all the times I fed you!”

The door to the room opened, and Tamzen hurried in… “Linny, it’s just me… I forgot my…” she paused as she saw Didi pinning her roommate to the ground. “Oh for *Chrissake*,” she fumed. “Can’t you leave her alone for *one* friggin’ day?” She stamped past the two of them, and disappeared into her room.

Arsling  grumbled under Didi she was almost ready to accept that she was deserving of being disciplined by her senior before Tamzen walked in, her face red she shouted “hay can you help a girl out? She tried taking some of the eclairs!...also can you get me some jerky?”

“She’s got those full moon munchies,” said Didi, as if it were a perfectly friendly and ordinary conversation. “Ordinarily I’d say ‘eat up, you’re a growing pup’ but it kind of seems you’re shrinking instead.”

“I will bite you from down here!” Arsling says, defyingly nipping at Didi

Tamzen tried to keep her expression neutral as she exited her room, but it would take a lot more than that to hide her discomfort from two wolves. She swept the box of pastries off the counter and tucked them up on top of a tall cupboard. “Yeah, well, munchies or not, I’m not feeding the entire pack, so leave her alone,” she muttered as she swept out of the suite and into the hallway, intent on still making it to her first class in time.

Arsling watched Tamzen put the pastries out of reach as well as not...well she’s not sure what she could’ve done about the large one inch taller mass of shimbo muscle letting out a low whine she turned back to Didi “...can you get off me now?”

“Yes I suppose you’ve learned your lesson,” said Didi, rolling off of the redhead and sitting on the floor. She looked over the other girl. “How are you feeling otherwise? You don’t seem like you’re sleeping very well…”

“I’ve not felt like i’ve needed much sleep” she yawns, she’s clearly had late nights, possibly the wolf in her trying to tempt her to shift by keeping her up late “i don’t know Didi, like shit? I smashed up a warehouse on tuesday and binged wrestling on wednesday to try and distract myself from the fact that i won’t be able to avoid Cu, i’ve got two days left, and hell i’ve lost 5 inches in height, and i didn’t even notice until i saw tamzen wasn’t wearing high heels” Arsling scoots over to the fridge pulling out some sandwich ham and chewing it “all i want to do is not be stressed and because of that i want to break shit up or have sex with Selene, i’m stressed Didi and....” Arsling has more to say but can’t her instincts telling her to not insult or criticise her mentor

Didi looked at her with genuine concern and more than a little guilt. “Go ahead. It’s not healthy to bottle it up,” she said, bracing herself.

Arsling with the permission granted felt a wave of instinct wash away from her as she looked at Didi in the eyes “you’re the cause and cure to all of it, everytime i see you i have to question my own feelings, i want to love you Didi, so much of me wants that back but i can’t even tell if its real anymore, everytime i see you it’s like a spell has been placed on me that makes me this zombie that wants to follow you around, when you showed up with me that friday morning i wanted to punch you, just as much as i did the night before but i couldn’t, i wanted to throw you off my bed but i couldn’t, because...i looked into your eyes and i saw someone who loved and wanted to help me, despite everything i was and everything i had done, and just like that, like that time at the springs i was under your spell again” Arsling howls this out in a mix of anger and fury and misery and longing before looking down

Didi’s heart clenched at hearing the other girl’s anguish. She stood and put her groceries in the fridge and sat beside Arsling, vacillating on whether to put an arm around her.

“I do… I do still care about you. And… I don’t think I ever even noticed the way the transformation pushes you to feel a way even if you don’t want to. That’s…” It was creepy, is what it was. It was awful. She swallowed, trying to find the words. “It might be the way it always is, or it might be your curse interacting with it, but… I know I’m responsible for this shitty thing you’re feeling and… it feels empty to say ‘I’m sorry,’ but I want to help you through this both because I do feel responsible and because I ``do`` care about you.” She met Arsling’s yellow eyes. “I’ve been feeling that way about the trip to the springs. I thought I was just interested in you, excited to be with you… but was it the curse? How could I know?” She let out a sharp breath and let her head drop. “At least now ``I`` know that’s not it anymore…”

“There's nobody in the world that knows what’s happening to me and everyone who did is long dead” Arsling looks out the window, morning sunlight glaring in “Maybe i could try asking the moon? It’s felt like it’s been trying to talk to me” Arsling recalls the whispers in the wind during her late nights basking in the moons glow

“It’s worth a try,” Didi replied, hopefully. “And we have packmates who are really in tune with that kind of thing. I could text them and they could come by tonight, if you want?”

“Yeah, I'll be at Tamzens studio, maybe you and the packmates could meet me there? No wolf though I just...don’t need that now, I'm waiting till the twenty-eighth” Arsling lays her head on Didis shoulder “what was it like for you? I got the cliff notes but i wanna hear it from you”

“They can meet you -- I won’t be able to join, but I’ll let you know.” She frowned in thought at the question. “I was terrified at first, getting bitten, but I was used to being terrified. I wasn’t used to the way that Zahra took care of me, though. She kind of… pinned me down and told me what was happening and… I was ready. I was ready to be strong and special and chosen.” She wanted to shift to talk about it, but she didn’t want to deal with her clothes so she stayed human-shaped.

“At the full moon,” she continued. “I was still at home in Vermont. It wasn’t the first time I transformed, though -- I was eager to try it and a few days before the full moon I was finally able. It was painful, pushing myself like that. Trying before I was ready… but when I finally pushed through, it was euphoria. Fast and strong and graceful and the world was even more vivid. For me, by the time the full moon came, I thought it would be easy… but it was such a rush, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t remember my name until dawn, could only remember what exactly happened on that first hunt over the course of the dreams that came after.”

She paused, her eyes searching.

“We hunted deer. Not glorious, but larger game would be wasteful for just the two of us. It’s hard to describe, but I didn’t just feel like a wolf hunting, I felt like myself and the mountain and everything under the moon… including the deer.” She shook her head. “It’ll make sense when you experience it.”

“That sounds terrifying...forgetting your own name and forgetting what you did as giant beast...i can’t do it” Arsling says to herself, knowing that she has no choice in the matter,that in two days time she’d no longer be really considered human and her transformation into a werewolf would be finally complete “with any luck i should just me a small cute wolf right?” Arsling says trying to cheer herself up but failing miserably tears appearing in Arslings wet eyes

Didi scooted next to Arsling to hold her. "We'll be there. I'll be there to make sure the memories are good ones when they come back to you." She Nuzzled against the other girl, fondly remembering that one beautiful afternoon, before things got complicated. For the moment she could set aside those hard feelings about the influence of the curse and just remember the fun and the intimacy.

Arsling leans into Didi feeling...safe like she’s in good hands and paws “thank you...i want Tamzen to be there for me...i know my feelings for her are real and i trust her” Arsling nuzzles Didi back “maybe we can go get some food? I’m still hungry and i want meat” Arsling looks at the pastries out of reach “and i can’t reach the top shelf anymore”

Didi grinned at that and squeezed Arsling tight. "Yeah, I've got time, let's feed you! First, though, you might wanna wash that pie off your face..."

They were heading out, in the hall, when Didi spun around . "Ah shit! I forgot my testicles in your fridge!"

Arsling  looks grossed out “i’m sorry you’re what?! Did you steal someones bollocks?” Arsling says giggling to herself uncontrollably

"

The senior wolf started giggling herself, particularly when another student turned her head at the conversation.

"Ccis boys beware," Didi declared. IA She Couldn't stop laughing at the idea. "Feminists are here to take your balls."

Back inside, she hefted the grocery bag. "I Just need to drop this off upstairs, then We can get a bite. Korean BBQ maybe?"

Arsling is laughing uncontrollably barely managing to recompose herself “y-yeah i’m good for anything, i’m just damn hungry” Arsling says smirking slightly confused about how she could still be hungry after downing an entire pie and some ham, this would make any normal girl sick