[for Layla] Powers Plot

[howmanylives]

Mornings in the Hut of M ran along a series of predictable outcomes. Layla usually woke first, for example, followed by Richards, and then, finally, Jamie. Even on those days where he needed to wake up early, whether it be for a class or his rounds for the IPD, he tended to be the last to rise, though given the difficulties he often had falling

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[butterflyfactor]

Layla felt happy, in a floaty sort of way. She was warm and curled up and the world felt soft. Not bad.

And then someone jammed a nail into her ear.

She scowled and curled in more tightly on herself, burrowing into the silky fold of what felt vaguely like a mink stole.

"What the crap," she snapped, hands darting up to cover her ears. That weren't there. She stopped, going still, hand sliding up through her blond hair until they felt a totally different texture of hair. It was short and fine and soft and growing out of her new ears, which were roundish and sticking out of her head too high up and at a strange angle and way too far. Layla's body unfurled as she sat up, eyes extremely wide, and went rigid when she saw her tail.

"..." She looked at Jamie. Her lips seemed to work for the briefest of moments, and something there felt odd, too, before she eventually worked out a strangled, "What-"

[howmanylives]

Jamie's hands came up in an immediate show of both surrender and innocence.

"I don't know."

It was the truth, though he could he could make a few guesses. That the Island was behind the transformation, for example, was a no-brainer, though the underlying purpose remained, as ever, a mystery.

"It's temporary, though. It has to be."

[butterflyfactor]

"Am I a squirrel," she demanded, loudly, digging her heels into the mattress and trying to scoot herself away from her own tail. It didn't work.

"Jamie am I a @&*#$%! squirrel."

[howmanylives]

"No," said Jamie, but the answer was both too quick and an obvious lie. Giving comfort was not high on the list of things he excelled at, and while he'd improved, slightly, over the years, that improvement was hardly about to help him, now, particularly with Richards barking his head off, and Layla being a @&*#$%! squirrel.

"...yes."

[butterflyfactor]

She made a high pitched, distressed sound and scrambled out of the bed, body twisting as she tried to get a good look at herself.

The absolute least that could be said was that she had maintained her coloring.

"I am going to kill something."

[howmanylives]

"I'll have to ask you remove me from the list of possible victims," said Jamie, following after her without any sort of haste. Experience with temperamental, superpowered women had taught him that keeping one's distance was often the best course of action to take if you wanted to keep all of your limbs attached.

"My death wish expired two years ago."

[butterflyfactor]

"Jamie, this is about me having a tail and fur, not about you making macabre jokes about your past mental states can we agree on that?" she gritted out, chest starting to rise and fall with a somewhat alarming rapidity.

[howmanylives]

"Okay," he said quickly, holding out his hands in something akin to surrender. "Okay, this... Is about you having a tail and fur. We are agreed, I promise."

[butterflyfactor]

"Oh my God," she said, closing her eyes and tilting her head back against the wall where she found herself suddenly backed up, fingernails digging into the wood.

"Oh my God I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart with adrenaline. I hate squirrels."

[howmanylives]

It wasn't hard to get Jamie sidetracked on a good day, but this morning, he was finding it particularly difficult to focus, given that his girlfriend had become every furrie's dream overnight. The admission about the sciurophobia effectively derailed him for a moment.

"Really?" he said. "But they're so... fuzzy."

[butterflyfactor]

Layla stilled somewhat, and tilted her her chin down to watch him with a narrow gaze that was more interested than judgmental.

"You have a thing for squirrels? You really liked Disney's Robin Hood has a kid, huh."

[howmanylives]

"What?" he said, scoffing, and promptly crossing his arms. "No, I don't have a thing for squirrels. They're just... relatively harmless. Benign. A bit beady eyed, maybe, but they're hardly a menace."

[butterflyfactor]

".............Did you just," she started, eyes narrowing not at all beadily and fingers curling over a little, almost twitching, into very claw-like shapes.

[howmanylives]

Jamie played over what he'd just said in his head, and not finding anything particularly offensive therein, asked, "Did I just what?"