Becoming monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission
This first idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.
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Chapter 2: Itty Bitty Living Space
The alarm Justin used in the mornings was not a loud one. Never had been, never needed to be, he was a light sleeper by nature. He very much had noticed when his shy girlfriend had come into their room. He had watched as she dried off and got changed, obviously not wanting to wake him. He shifted to hold her close when she snuggled into the crook of his arms, and loved every moment of it. Her comforting warmth and weight just made him feel complete. Like he was finally doing the right thing, for the right reason.
He slept much better for the last half of the night.
The gentle beeps did not wake Abbey. Getting out of bed with her in it was a trickier matter, not the least of which because he really did not want to. Too close to graduation to give up now, though. Gently, he lifted her head to slide his arm out, replacing it with the firmest pillow on the bed.
Since when do I have five pillows?
Gingerly, he climbed over her to get onto the ground. Grabbed his clothing, went to the shower. He had only the one class this morning, Abbey didn't get to work until noon according to his newfound knowledge, so hopefully he'd have time to talk to her before lunch. She might even sleep in, given how her night went, and he wouldn't blame her at all for it. Water on hot, he started doing something new. He stretched out under it, with a smile on his face.
"Dude, you're in way too good a mood for it being this early in the morning." It was the voice of a... well, maybe not friend, but acquaintance. A fellow creative, though in the music program. A kindred spirit on a parallel track.
"Oh! Sorry, Tim, didn't see you."
"I can't even see you in that stall, and I can hear your smile. You finally get a girlfriend?"
"Yeah, and we click really well. Feels like we've been together forever."
There's more confirmation. He doesn't know about her.
"Blue girl who was doing the walk of shame last night? She's cute."
"That's her, but nothing like that happened!"
"Yeah, sure buddy. Nobody is gonna believe that one. Not sure if I do. You don't cuddle your way through a full self-care recovery program overnight."
Nope, but you can definitely Wish your way through one...
"I gotta get moving, but you might be surprised. She's all I could ever want."
"Well, if you have a thing for Smurfs, that's on you."
"Real mature, Tim. See you at lunch?" Justin got dried off and dressed, thankfully nobody else was there yet. Abbey was still asleep in the room, so he just grabbed his pack and got going. Tim, though, was hardly the only one to notice his changed mood. It seemed like every few minutes, someone was asking him about it. To all of them, his answer was the same. A girlfriend, who he was head over heels for. All of them gave knowing nods, though. Justin was, unbeknownst to him, fairly well-known around the school as an object lesson in burnout.
He was also now the subject of three separate betting pools concerning the identity, status, and length of relationship with the lady who was apparently either Miss Right or Miss Right Now.
In the dorm room at midmorning, the gently sleeping woman slowly woke. She had never been in this bed before, but she wasn't panicking. She felt the pillow like a touchstone. Recognized the scent of Justin. Her boyfriend. Even the thought of that sent a little shiver through her. Romance hadn't exactly been on her radar. Life was too complicated in the Changed world, even just trying to make it through. As a result, she just hadn't given the situation too much thought or effort.
The interest was there, just not the priority. She still had time left, after all. Especially for her, everything she found said she now aged very slowly unless abused heavily. She could make a life for herself, make a way ahead, get herself set and safe, THEN go to find people who shared an interest in the Blue Man Group. That all got... well, shuffled. She had a job and the ability to sustain herself (though that would be much more difficult without two thirds of her abilities), and now she VERY MUCH had a boyfriend. One who may or may not become serious. One whose smell kept her calm.
Alright. Wishes. Bigger wish, bigger cost. I'm not the most powerful of the Djinn, so my wishes have limits. Duration. This one feels like it'll be self-sustaining for the middle term. One thousand and one nights. I think I don't mind that, much. Two years of phantom experience being a good girlfriend. About three more of it being a primary life driver. Maybe less if he uses the other two wishes quickly. Mana pool has some charge back in it, so I know I'll be able to do things that way eventually. Hopefully my Ten comes back faster than that. One more check...
She slowly, sleepily got up. Focused, not on releasing her form to return to being giant, but to change. To shift into her preferred face for the bank. The blue smoke flowed forth, and though the process was perhaps a bit slower than her usual she got there. Taller, more slender. It would seem that what she was locked out of were the big powers. Time to do this part the old-fashioned way. She went to the showers, thankful that she still didn't need to worry about eating. They were... just as lacking as she remembered from just a couple of years back. There was a lot to get used to again. Making sure to be careful, to get ready for work later.
"Hey, blue girl! Don't recognize you, you new?" The door of her stall had drifted open, and standing on the other side was a blonde Human, towel-clad with hands on her hips. She looked very much like a cheerleader or sorority sister, smooth of skin and tanned. Quite pretty, too, but would have been more so without that aggressive expression on her face. She had the advantage, too. Abbey's nudity in front of that glare was making the painfully shy girl want to retreat somewhere small and hidden, but the shower stall closed her in.
"Ah... yeah... this is my first time here... um, I'm Abbey. What do you go by?"
The girl's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, so you're NOT a student, huh? Only banks and law firms around here have started using Fey-friendly language like that, so which is it?"
"Uh..." Abbeys eyes were going a bit wild.
The blonde laughed, a short bark of a thing. "Never mind. You're too young to be a cougar. Call me Jennifer, and I won't tattle on you as long as you aren't muscling on my man or cramping my style. You can warm any bed you want in this building. Just don't let the RAs see you, and stay away from the fraternities. I'll be mad if we get another crackdown." She strode off.
The shower had gone from feeling like warm cleansing to something remarkably like last evening's icy rain, despite the actual temperature not shifting particularly far. The last bits of getting clean, she took care of with the kind of speed normally reserved for long-tailed cats in rooms full of rocking chairs. In remarkably short order, she was back in Justin's room.
Breathing hard. Getting under control.
She needed to get centered. To do something she knew. Perhaps her mana pool wasn't exactly full, far from it, but she had enough for this. Especially since she showered the normal way and didn't just magic the dirt to oblivion. The domain of the Marid's magic was a broad one, varying wildly between members of the rare Race, but her's was very personal. Hearth and home. This magic was curtailed, sharply limited by her current state. It suited a good wife, not necessarily a good girlfriend. She could feel it looking for an outlet, pacing at the bounds of the Wish like a tiger in a cage.
The powers had a curiously old view of things. Thank you, modern society, for blurring the lines a bit. The gentle flow of her will cast forth into the room, and took hold in the walls. This place would be private. Safe. It wasn't much, really. She didn't have enough back within her to do truly strong things yet. Some soundproofing, some reduction of curiosity, some bit of resistance if someone tried to spy. The pool of power within her ran dry moments later, with the unfortunate accompanying headache only slightly responsive to painkillers. Still, it was better than nothing.
In her head, she could see all that she had "done" in the last couple of years to the room. Things that made it a remarkably cozy getaway for them. Things that were approximately a foot outside of the area the Wish seemed to have altered, and so things that just weren't yet there. It would be a lot of work to set up what she could in the next six months, even where it was possible at all. More so to make it portable, so that graduation wouldn't make them leave it all behind as they moved out.
