(Originally written on September 8, 2024.)

“Can I help you, sir…?” Elizabeth asked in a semi-sarcastic tone. The man before her was huge, muscular, and directly in her way.

“Sure,” he replied. “You could give me your purse.” She furrowed her brow. Was he mugging her or something?

“Sorry, I don’t—”

“Bullshit,” he interrupted, his voice carrying the slow and deliberate hatred of an animal’s warning growl. “You’re from the, what is it, the uh, the furry convention. Aren’tcha?” He pointed to the top of Elizabeth’s head, where a synthetic-looking pair of circular, brown-furred animal ears poked through her deep blue hair. “So don’t try to tell me you don’t have any money on you,” he continued, working himself up. “Everyone knows you furry freaks are filthy rich, so you can buy your little costumes to run around in!” Angrier and angrier. “It pisses me off, y’know? And if I get pissed off by someone who can’t help me calm down, well, I might just end up doing something that they regret!”

One of the ears atop her head twitched in annoyance. He didn’t notice.

“I see. You seriously are robbing me,” Elizabeth said. Her voice was deadly calm. “When you’ve got a body like that, I’m guessing nobody is able to make you regret behaving this way. I recommend that you not continue with this behavior, in my case.” She spoke with a certainty that should’ve given him pause, but the sheer lack of respect and fear made him boil over.

“You… YOU BITCH!” he bellowed. “I’LL GIVE YOU A BLACK EYE! I’LL GIVE YOU TWO, SO YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR FREAKISH FRIENDS DRESSED AS A GODDAMN PANDA BEAR!” His gigantic fist was coming down at a remarkable speed, but Elizabeth merely stood there and glanced towards it without even flinching.

Then, time seemed to slow down as something very strange happened.

The left half of Elizabeth’s face grew, swelling out to meet the man’s fist. At the same time, the area changed color, sprouting soft, brown fur before his eyes. His punch landed, but instead of the clean hit he was expecting, the man simply watched as his hand sank into this strange girl’s head. It was deforming around his fist, compressing like a spring, her features carried along her face’s distorted surface, her eye pressing against him. It felt smooth and hard to the touch, like plastic… but before he had any time to process this, her head fwoomped back out into a convex shape, launching the man’s fist out and throwing him off-balance.

It all happened so fast, but he swore that for a split second, half of Elizabeth’s head had just resembled that of a stuffed animal, complete with a red circle sewn onto the cheek like a cartoonish blush. Either way, she clearly did something, and he wasn’t gonna let—

She quietly positioned her fist right in front of his stomach. Then, it rocketed forward, striking him in the gut with the force of one of his own punches, if not more! A vocalization of pain, quite literally forced from his lungs by the impact, marked the man’s instant defeat, and he flew backwards and collapsed onto the ground.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the sight of Elizabeth’s arm, partially visible thanks to her disconnected sleeves. Her upper arm looked strange… Swollen, and brown, and furry, with a seam(?) running along it… It reminded him of her ears. What was she?

Elizabeth sighed and looked down at her handiwork. Her ursine ears sank down into her hair, taking their usual spots on the sides of her head once again. They’d looked so cute, but then this asshole just had to ruin her fun. “The convention was a blast, by the way,” she spat, her little outburst falling on unconscious ears. She turned, and left him there, resuming the struggle to locate her hotel room. Maybe she’d lie on her bed and go full teddy bear for a bit once she made it back, just to relieve some of the tension in her body…

It was such a shame that her super power didn’t help with her sense of direction, though.