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 Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 4:43 pm
 For once, Lady meets someone outside their bedroom. She watches the kid by the tide pools, blank-faced, for a long moment. Then she says, "How are you not noticing the fact that your ears are shapeshifted?" They are long and slightly furred, in fact. It's pretty weird.
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 7:11 pm
When Jamie jumped, the sudden movement startled away the fish he'd been watching. It had been silver and shiny, we're talking really shiny, and it had captivated him for so long that he couldn't remember exactly when he'd started watching it. There was a pang of disappointment in his gut while his eyes followed each individual ripple bouncing away from where the tiny friend had disappeared. Or maybe that was just the nervousness and butterflies that came with the realization that he wasn't alone.
"What?" he asked quite eloquently (except not eloquently at all), turning to face whoever had snuck up on him. It took his mind a while longer to catch up with what she'd said, because who the heck would believe such a claim could be true.
"I don't-" As he was speaking, he was brushing at his own ear, poised to prove the stranger wrong. Unluckily for Jamie, she was entirely right. "-get it..." Fingers slid over fine fur, up over the point of an elongated ear, and Jamie spun around faster than a top to face the tide pools again. Leaning far enough to see his reflection, he stared and couldn't find his voice again. All that came out was a series of startled gasping sounds.
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 12:28 pm
Oh no, this was one like Lucas, wasn't he? The panicky kind. That was so like a male. Lady hops down the stony shore to stand close to Jamie. "Hey," she says, reaching forward to touch his shoulder. "Hey, you're okay. Breathe with me. In... and out..."
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 1:13 pm
The panicky kind summed Jamie up rather nicely and Lady would find it took more than a few seconds to soothe him once he became riled. With time he'd calm down, he always did, but the touch that should've been comforting only made him jump again and her assurance sounded like distant static in his suddenly furry ears.
"W-What's going on?" Jamie gasped out, obviously not attempting the slow, steady breaths he'd been instructed to. When he looked up at her, his eyes were wide and confused.
"Who are you...? Am I dreaming?" He was so sure he was awake. Wasn't he?
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 1:18 pm
"I'm Lady," she says, "And I'm your friend. You're basically doing werewolf puberty, only with less wolf. Hey. Hey. Breathe or I'll make you."
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 6:34 pm
To her credit, the answer, though brief, touched on most of Jamie's concerns. Didn't do much to ease his discomfort and confusion, and going out on a limb to say it only further agitated him wouldn't really be going out on a limb at all, but it was something. She hadn't yay or nay'd it either way, but Jamie starting to think this really did have to be a dream.
"Werewolf... puberty...?" He had to make sure that was what she'd actually said, it sounded absolutely ridiculous. "That's... not possible. That's not real." But hey, at least he was breathing now.
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 10:49 pm
"I guess then your ears aren't shapeshifting," said Lady. "And you haven't been trying to shift to a nocturnal sleep cycle."
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 10:14 am
Well, she had him there. Jamie didn't know how she had him, though; it didn't make sense for her to know about the way he'd been feeling lately. The whole wide awake as soon as the sun went down thing was definitely something he hadn't told anyone yet.
In fact, he felt pretty damn speechless in the face of this kind of statement. It's not like he could keep denying it, though he honestly wanted to.
"But... I just want to be normal," he muttered, shoulders drooping. It felt hard enough to fit in without all of this. "Why is this happening?"
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 11:58 am
"I do not know hte answer to that question, kid, I'm sorry," says Lady, and she actually sounds kind of sorry, or at least in the neighborhood of regretful. "You know what your ears look like? Close your eyes and think about that for a bit. They'll go away."
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 1:13 pm
That was that. Jamie continued to look unsettled, but he closed his eyes anyway. What other options did he have? It was tempting to run away and pretend none of this had ever happened, but there were far too many potential pitfalls to that idea.
"So... what am I, t-then?" he asked, eyes still closed. "What am I supposed to do now? W-What if this happens again and I... what if I can't control it...?"
His eyes squeezed tighter and his shoulders were shaking now. It felt like he was about to cry. He'd just made a friend and things actually felt kind of okay for once, but suddenly they weren't.
"T-Think about ears..." he whispered to himself in frustration, voice growing more wobbly, when he found he couldn't focus on the thought right away.
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 4:00 pm
Lady pries Jamie's hands off his arms. "Here," she says, gentling in the face of his upset. "You're just you," she says, "You're Jamie, and you have this little thing about you that's different now, and it's gonna be scary for a little while but you're going to be okay, yeah?" She sounds like she's done this before; there's a foreign cadence to her voice, but it's the right tones. "Think about--" It's been a while since Lady has had to think about her human skin. "Listen to the waves," she says, finally. "You hear them? Breathe with them. Hush. And breathe."
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 6:49 pm
It was hard to hold back the tears, Jamie could feel them threatening and they'd probably spill over as soon as he opened his eyes. It was kinda pathetic and he knew it. Eighteen years old and still so sensitive. Sometimes he wished he could steel himself, but rather than learn to block out discomfort, he'd only let it bother him more and more the older he got.
Still, there was comfort to be found in her words. Jamie was also the type to cling to any shred of kindness he could get.
"O-Okay..." he agreed before falling silent. If there was one thing that brought him joy it was the water and this was one of his favorite places. As he listened to the waves, he remembered what she'd said. He was just himself. He was just Jamie. Yeah, he was still scared and confused, he still found himself wishing this had never happened, but he also felt a little better. Only a little, but it was a start. It was enough that he could finally stop to remember what he looked like when he saw himself in the mirror each morning.
Jamie did as Lady asked and thought about his regular old ears, the ones that could hear the waves just as good as any.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 2:31 pm
"See? All better," says Lady soothingly, running her hands over Jamie's hair gently. "No harm done. Yeah?"
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 4:35 pm
Better believe Jamie's hand went back up to his ear as his eyes fluttered open. Not that he didn't believe Lady, she knew things she shouldn't have, so what good would it do to doubt her words now? He had to know for himself, though. When what he felt was normal skin, it was like a weight had lifted off of his chest, ceasing to crush him as thoroughly as before.
"Yeah..." he agreed, voice drawn into a small sigh. What followed was a short silence as he enjoyed her gentle touch, a small gesture that meant more to him than she likely knew. If he'd noticed his fuzzy ears in the tide pools and wound up facing the anxiety and confusion alone, Jamie was sure it wouldn't have gone this well.
"What... do I do now?" he asked again, looking up at her, eyes wet with tears he'd barely held back.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 10:33 pm
"You're gonna call this guy," she says, pulling a card out of her pocket. "And you're gonna go see Eve, at Equinox Teas. You're not alone, short stack. They'll love you the moment they shake your hand."
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