>"Hey, I'm here. Open up, Aeris, there's tumbleweeds outside!"
>A series of knocks filled the living room, rousing the drowsy cat from her slumber.
>Briefly glancing at the phone on her stomach, she could see it was nine in the morning.
>Almost on time.
>Still in a haze from her brief nap, Aeris slowly swung herself off of the couch and up.
>The knocking continued until she opened the door.
>With a couple of extra knocks finding their way to her forehead.
>"Aeris!"
>"Ugh, come in and have a seat, Penny."
>Rubbing the spot on her assaulted forehead, she yawned as she made her way to the kitchen to retrieve an aspirin and a glass of water.
>"You know, you were supposed to be here half an hour ago."
>"I know, but it's a lot longer walking when it's so chaotic outside."
>Aeris moved back to living room downing a glass of water, seeing Penny disentangle a tumbleweed from her tail.
>"If you know it's going to be difficult to get somewhere, leave earlier. I don't think I have to remind you how important this is."
>"Yeah, I know, I want the prize money too."
>"It's not just the prize money, it's not needing to work if we win. I just want to relax and not have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn anymore."
>"Well I don't work anyway."
>"Not everyone is so fortunate as you, now go sit down and I'll boot up the console."
>Penny did as she was told and was soon accompanied by Aeris on the couch.
>Aeris turned on the remote with her voice and the console with her controller, getting properly set to see Penny demonstrate her skills.

>That was definitely not skills.
>That was absolutely awful.
>Aeris was really glad that she didn't let Penny on her own account to mess up her kdr.
>She didn't even know it was possible to shoot yourself with your own gun.
>"Well, as much as it pained me to see that, one thing is clear now. You're not nearly good enough. We have to practice."
>"Kay."
>Molding an abyss like Penny was going to be a long dark road for Aeris.

01/??

>"Now do you see what you did wrong there?"
>"Nope."
>"I can't believe this, you didn't use the melee button. Remember, you have to melee if you're that close. We really are going to need the few weeks we have to prepare."
>Aeris rubbed her temples as she slammed back a glass of brand x lemon-lime soda.
>"How can you play video games all day and be so bad?"
>"Hey, you can't be bad at video games as long as you're having fun."
>Aeris stood up with a sigh as she walked off to get the blood back in her legs.
>Leaving Penny to ruminate on her lack of ability, Aeris went past the kitchen and knocked on a door plastered with stickers.
>"Alpha, you up?"
>Crashes could be heard from behind the door as Aeris more than likely spooked the other pink cat in the house.
>When she finally opened the door, she rubbed her eyes as she adjusted to the light.
>"I'm up, what's going on, Aeris?"
>"We got our third here now, why don't you go meet her?"
>"Cool, we're back on track to win that prize!"
>"Eh, I don't know if I'd say that."
>Alpha ran past Aeris as fast as her little legs could carry her.
>Aeris slowly made her way out of the hallway, thinking of how to best get their weak link up to speed.
>"Hey, that's pretty good."
>Her train of thought derailed as Alpha seemed to wrangle the controller from Penny, showing off her own skills.
>"Alpha, come on. She's supposed to work on her own skills, not watch you play. You're already good, you getting more playtime does us no good."
>"But look at this! Got him from the back, 20 kill streak, won the game!"
>Penny seemed completely blown away by Alpha's demonstration of skill.
>"Wow, I didn't know you could even have a kill streak!"
>"Okay, so it seems like you two are going to get along just fine. Anyway, Alpha, I have a job for you."
>"Job? What job?"
>Aeris peeled out her old and worn wallet, and tossed Alpha $350.
>"Go buy food, we're out."
>"Why do I have to get it?"
>"Because Penny and I have to work this out. Now scoot."

02/??

>Alpha kept the money tightly held in her hoodie pocket, wondering what she could buy with the change.
>What Aeris didn't know wouldn't hurt her, after all.
>As the small cat entered the sliding doors, she made a beeline for the snack section with her small cart.
>She'd get the biggest bag of discount gummy worms she could carry.
>As she walked into the aisle, she did not see the snacks she expected.
>It was all just boxes with discount stickers on them.
>Where were her precious gummies?
>Where did the milk balls go?
>And what the everloving hell was CalorieMate?
>Incensed at this takeover of her sugary treasure trove, she read the boxes to figure out what these strange things were.
>"Balanced food? Daily energy? Is this a meal replacer?"
>Alpha gave the box a sniff and could smell something vaguely sweet within.
>Then an idea began to form in her head.
>These boxes were light and easy to carry, they were on sale, and there were a lot of them.
>Making a snap decision, Alpha shoved the boxes into her cart as high as they could go.
>By the time she was done, the cart was close to overflowing.
>There was thankfully still room on the bottom for her to stash some milk.
>As the cart was pushed to the cashier, Alpha had garnered quite the number of odd stares as a knee-high cat purchasing enough food to feed a small army.
>She didn't care, all she wanted to do was get out of the store and back home.
>She tossed the grubby moneywad at the cashier and retrieved 25 cents in change.
>After getting a couple of gumballs, Alpha waddled out of the store with her stuffed bags under her arms.
>Alpha attempted a small victory dance, but realized she could barely move.
>She groaned as she realized she had a long walk ahead of her.

03/??

>"Delivery!"
>Alpha punctuated her return with a kick to the door, swinging it open a few inches before Aeris opened it fully.
>"It took you long enough."
>"I got stubby legs, sue me."
>Alpha handed off a bag to Aeris before moving on to the couch and tackling her way onto it.
>"I don't wanna exercise like that again for a week."
>The small cat took off her pink hoodie and sighed in relief as the cool air washed over her.
>"What the hell is this?"
>"Groceries, like you wanted."
>"This isn't groceries! This is just a bunch of boxes!"
>"The boxes have the food in them, duh. I swear you say the silliest things, Aeris."
>"Did you spend all my money on this!?"
>"Well, not exactly. I bought a gumball, too."
>Alpha blew a large bubble, which soon popped as Aeris grabbed hold of her neck scruff and brought her face to face.
>"You just blew all my money on snack food and gum."
>"Would it help if I said it was on sale?"
>"No."
>"I don't get the fuss, it's pretty tasty."
>Alpha fell to the floor as Aeris turned to confront the nightmare next to her.
>"PENNY, NO!"
>Alpha definitely owed Penny a favor as she took Aeris' mind away from her imminent murder.
>At current, Aeris seemed to be on her knees in despair as she held the empty box and wrapper, making this an impossible return.
>"Sorry, already ate that one. This one says it's maple, try it."
>The box landed in Aeris' lap, Penny still oblivious to the amount of financial ruin she just condemned her host to.
>"Uh, there's milk, too."
>Alpha slowly rolled a bottle of milk to Aeris, landing it upright and right between her knees.
>"Aw sweet, two points!"

04/??

>"It's still food, you know."
>"Shush, no talking in the time-out corner."
>Aeris buried her eyes into her palms as she watched Penny march ever onward to some semblance of actual skill at video games.
>"They're even better in the microwave, you should try it."
>"Penny, please."
>Aeris sunk into her couch, wondering if she could sell enough of her blood to buy food for the rest of the month.
>"Whoo! I got a kill!"
>"It's something, at least.
>In her melancholy, Aeris felt her hand brush against the box of maple treats beside her.
>Her rumbling stomach told her she needed to eat something, and she was far too distraught to trust herself near a cooking range of any sort.
>She gave in to her depressive laziness and tore into the box, intent on sampling the bars Penny had helped herself to.
>As the broken off cube of cake lied in her hand, she could tell it smelled decent enough.
>Popping it into her mouth, the taste was smoother and more pleasant than she imagined.
>Not the most amazing sweet she'd ever had, but it was not an instant regret.
>She could not say it was worth the rest of her wages, however.
>The rest of her box entered into her mouth without a thought, until the amount caused her to to pause for a bit of something to drink.
>While it was room temperature, the milk Alpha brought back was better than getting off the couch and to the fridge.
>A quick pop of the top was all it took to enjoy the white gold hidden inside.
>As advertised on the box, Aeris' hunger had subsided.
>Her mind seemed to resign itself to her fate with less rage than she anticipated.
>"Has it been an hour yet?"
>"No."
>Perhaps a little 'less' of a less now.

05/??

>"See, told you they were good."
>Aeris blushed as she turned to face Penny, realizing what she had just done.
>"They are not good, I'm just not going to starve because Alpha was swayed by low prices."
>"So why are you opening a second box, then?"
>"Just focus on learning how to strafe and bounce a grenade right."
>Aeris brushed off Penny's prodding, but she was not wrong realizing that she was indeed opening a new box.
>Not that there was anything wrong with that, as the boxes were small.
>Small and very easy to open.
>Penny's sudden binge demonstrated that well.
>One after another, they took the place of their fallen comrades.
>"Ha, take that! Final kill, and fifth place!"
>Aeris stopped glancing at Penny's snack attack long enough to notice that Penny had improved.
>Not by a very wide margin, as she was still far from the top of the board, but it was definite improvement over her inability to compete before.
>Aeris, by way of having more than two neurons to fire off at one time, pieced together a hypothesis of Penny's improvement based upon her eating.
>While disgusting, it was something she could use to her advantage.
>Perhaps she was too hasty in exiling Alpha.
>"Hey, you did improve."
>Looking down, Aeris could see that Alpha had broken her sentence.
>"Who said you could leave?"
>"You did?"
>"When?"
>"Just now."
>"You know very well what I...you know what, fine. You can stay."
>Alpha smiled up at Aeris, only to be hit in the face with a box.
>"But your stupidity has cost you chore duty for the rest of the month."
>"Oh, come on."
>"You wanna pay me back my money instead?"
>The color drained from Alpha's face as she began stuffing her mouth with chocolate goodness to have an excuse for ending the conversation.
>As their staring match was cut short by the sound of a round ending, a glance at the screen painted a good picture.
>The prize money would soon be a real possibility.

06/??

>"Game over, yeaaaaaaaaaah!"
>A long groan escaped Aeris' mouth as she tried to cover her perked up ears.
>When it became obvious that sleep was not coming back, her legs shifted off of the bed and onto the floor.
>The crunch of cardboard took her attention for a moment.
>Quite the amount had begun piling up.
>Aeris kicked them out of her way, deciding to leave it to Alpha.
>She was on chore duty, and it was her responsibility.
>Slipping off her nightwear, Aeris went to her dresser and dug out her current favorite shirt.
>While that went on well, the same could not be said for her pants.
>They seemed to be too snug.
>Aeris chalked it up to the lack of anything but those crappy bars for food.
>It was her house anyway, it didn't matter if she wore only a pair of panties.
>She'd find something proper to wear after Alpha got out of the shower anyway.
>Walking out the door, Aeris saw Penny wearing out her couch as she wore down her controller.
>And definitely not training.
>Penny was so invested in her driving, she didn't notice that Aeris had managed to sneak up behind her.
>"Morning."
>Aeris managed to spook Penny right off of the couch.
>As the much heftier house guest got off of the floor, she saw her current mentor sitting adjacent to her former seat.
>"Oh, hey, Aeris."
>"You sure are having fun not working on the fundamentals."
>"Uh, I know I should be working more, but I just thought I should take a break for a bit."
>"I get it, it can get a bit boring just doing the same thing over and over again, I've played enough Pokemon to learn that. But I still need you to keep it up. Come on, let's see how you've made progress."

07/??

>"Alright, fine."
>Penny set her current game off, and switched over to the title she should have been playing.
>Aeris watched with a careful eye as Penny began a throwaway free for all match.
>Penny started out strong, taking first blood to start with.
>She also managed to use melee right.
>Then the disappointment slid in.
>Penny did not keep proper track of her ammunition, or her grenades.
>Some situations she could have avoided were part of her inability to keep tabs on what she should have.
>Despite that, Penny still seemed to do a decent job.
>She managed to get a kill streak which she even kept to the end of the match.
>Penny came in fifth place.
>Not great, but she had shown improvement in a few days.
>Having finished her match, she ducked out of the lobby and stood up to face her mentor.
>"How was that?"
>Aeris, knowing that Penny had to make a good showing at the competition or risk everything, she put on her stern face.
>"You're STILL not good enough."
>Penny's face took on a frown, giving a blow to the poor cat's confidence.
>Aeris knew that as much as she had to be honest, she still had to pump Penny up like any proper coach.
>"Maybe next week..."
>The frown on Penny picked up, into a bit of a smile as she realized she still had a chance to impress Aeris despite not hitting her goal yet.
>"Kay."
>"Now, go get the other controller...I kinda wanna race a bit."
>Penny's face turned into a full smile, realizing that she could finally wind down and enjoy some relaxation.
>"Hey, you can't just start without me!"
>Alpha's voice knocked on Aeris' eardrums as she turned to look at her roommate.
>She was fresh out of the shower, and covered by a towel.
>Or she would be if it wasn't barely covering anything.
>"Alpha, no, you got a long list of chores to plow through."
>"I'll do it later, now comes the games!"
>"I'll go nuke some more CalorieMate."
>"Oh, put in two boxes for me!"
>"Alpha you can't just-"
>Aeris' words were silenced as Alpha used her as a towel rack.
>There was no doubt that she would kick Alpha and Penny's asses now.
>It's not like she'd be able to miss.

08/??

>"Hey, you cheater! Blue shells are unsportsmanlike."
>"My house, my rules."
>"Is it really your house if you won it in a bet?"
>Aeris gave Alpha a smug smirk as she banked a green shell off of the upcoming wall and knocked her firmly out of second place.
>"You bet it is."
>"That pun was awful."
>Penny was right, that pun was awful.
>Not as awful as the gap between Penny and Aeris, however.
>Aeris, testing out her initial hypothesis, gave Penny a fair few bars of CalorieMate to see if her game performance really was tied to her eating.
>Well, it probably wasn't the eating exactly that did it, more likely that she was just in the zone and the chewing kept her in the zone.
>If baseball players can chew gum and make billions while doing it, there wasn't any harm in continuing their trend.
>The pink cat's train of thought was interrupted as Penny hit a box and managed to force a brake right into her car at the moment the shells appeared.
>As soon as she had managed to close the gap, it widened once more.
>It wasn't long before she realized she was jockeying for second with Alpha more than trying to get back the lead.
>Losing should have made her a bit more cross, but she realized that she needed this.
>The better Penny got, the more realistic that the money was going to be rolling in.
>If the girls managed to strike it big their first time out and kept it on, they could very well get popular enough to land sponsorship deals.
>Forget prize money, being a corporate sellout was way more lucrative.
>The greed penetrating her mind knocked her off her game enough that Alpha snuck out of third and into second.
>"Ha, I did it! In your face, in..your..oh, that victory dance was a mistake."
>The usually energetic girl was as short on breath as she was on height.
>Guess a sedentary lifestyle and a monotonous diet of meal replacers was not a recipe for physical fitness.
>"Fine, you won. Now go put some clothes on."
>"Can't...too...tired..."

09/??
 
>"Was it really that draining?"
>Aeris' only response received was a labored wheeze.
>"I can feel that. It's been hard to get to and from my house to here."
>"You don't even live a mile away."
>"I know."
>Penny punctuated her statement with a yawn.
>"I don't think I could even make it back home today. I'll just crash here tonight."
>Aeris wanted to argue about the sudden decision to just stay at her home, but it was actually smart to get Penny to stick around.
>Less time walking around meant less time wasted not training.
>Plus, if she could get her to pick up some of the chore pace that Alpha lacked, lazing around would be a breeze.
>"Sure, but you're on dish duty."
>"Aw."
>"Whoo-hoo..."
>The situation resolved, Aeris continued the fun for a while longer before letting Penny get back to her training.
>And finding a good plank of wood out back to pry the fallen butterball of a cat up.
>With her wide butt out of the shower, Aeris could take a shower herself.
>A lot less of her got properly wet than she expected, and much more of her hit the side of the smoky glass door.
>The towel didn't seem to want to close on her as well, letting her stomach show through the wide gap that barely covered her chest.
>Aeris was definitely going to have to get a new wardrobe.
>Some cheap secondhand clothes she could scavenge out of the Sears that closed down a few weeks ago would do.
>In the mean time, it looked like it would be the lazy Saturday special of no pants.
>Not a very pressing problem for anyone to have, surely.

10/??

>*knock knock*
>"Alpha, go get that."
>"I'm busy here! If I don't clean these bottles out, we're gonna get ants."
>"Well we can't get it, we're busy here."
>"Busy whooping your butt."
>"Shut up!"
>Distracted by her momentary outburst, Aeris was taken out by a well-bounced grenade.
>The game of 1 v 1 was over.
>Aeris had only managed 5 kills to Penny's 25.
>While she had wanted Penny to get better, this bruised her ego.
>Success always has a price, it seemed.
>Penny jumped for joy as she beat her mentor, a smug victory smile on her face.
>Well, what passed for jumping when your ass was too big to leave the couch more than a half inch.
>The impact of the rotund cat tush caused the couch to creak, followed by a longer one as Aeris got up to answer the door.
>"OK, you're getting too good. Stop it. Also, don't break my couch, dammit."
>Aeris moved as fast as her legs could carry her, shuffling on the carpet with her socked feet.
>As she opened the door, her hand was greeted with a zap from the static she made.
>A brief recoil and replacement later, she opened the door to see a familiar face.
>"Oh, Shima, what's up? I haven't heard from you since you declined to be our third member."
>Her neighbor looked at her in stunned silence.
>"Uh, hello? Earth to Shima?"
>Her eyes fluttered briefly as she seemed to come out of her sudden stupor, clearing her throat and fixing her expression.
>"Yes, it has been a while. I came over because I wanted to get back my camcorder."
>A sudden memory flooded back into Aeris' mind, realizing that she was so distracted with training she forgot she had that device on loan.
>"Oh, heck, I completely forgot! I'm so sorry, I really meant to get that back to you, but I got distracted with training for the competition."
>Aeris stood aside, making space for Shima to enter.
>"Why don't you come inside? I'll go look for it, feel free sit wherever."

11/??

>As Aeris went on to plumb the depths of her room to find Shima's property, Shima looked on in astonishment at the state of her neighbor's home.
>There were empty milk bottles all over the floor, crumbs, empty boxes, and most worrisome of all was the two other cats in her residence.
>Alpha was far larger than she remembered her being.
>Not in length, but width.
>And there was barely a shred of clothing on her.
>What was on her she was fairly certain was just a skirt she had failed to get past her hips or her arms, masquerading as a shirt.
>The other one she hadn't seen before.
>She was wearing a proper shirt albeit one with severe damage.
>It looked ready to fail at a moment's notice.
>"Heya! Why don't you take a seat?"
>She gave Shima a genuine smile, and patted the section of cushion to her left.
>There was a serious groove left in it.
>Shima, not wanting to make a fuss, simply sat down on the couch.
>Then, as if she wasn't there, the girl went back to playing her game on the television.
>Shima briefly wondered if she was dreaming or not, as the situation she found herself in was such a surreal deviation from what she expected.
>Looking over to the mountain of feline beside her, Shima saw just how big she was.
>She was only a bit smaller than Aeris everywhere but her bust.
>Though she definitely wasn't taking advantage of that with her wardrobe.
>She was both bottomless and barefoot.
>Did she live here now?
>Is that why she was so underdressed?
>So many questions began to swim in Shima's mind, until she heard a couple of grunts from the nearby hallway.
>She politely excused herself and got up from the couch.
>It was likely she wasn't even noticed.
>When she made her entrance into the hall, Shima saw Aeris in her doorway.
>Holding one arm on the wall, desperately trying to pull herself through.
>Shima slowly approached her, and waited until Aeris had finally noticed that she was there.

12/??

>"Shima, what-"
>Aeris found a digit placed upon her lips.
>Shima kept it there for about ten seconds before she took a long breath in and a slow exhale out.
>"Aeris. What is this?"
>Shima took her hand from Aeris' head, and placed it upon her monstrous midsection.
>"Look at yourself, you're...big. Really, really big."
>"Hey!"
>"I mean, just look at this. You did this to yourself in a few weeks, it's unthinkable, unhealthy, and...so interesting."
>"Interesting?"
>Shima cleared her throat and clasped her hands together at her own stomach.
>"Aeris, I have a proposition for you. I know that this is far beyond how your home usually looks, and that your preoccupation is with your training. So, I figure you could use some help and in exchange for that, I could film you and the others."
>"Film us? You're going to try and turn us into some sort of Netflix documentary, aren't you."
>"Aeris, I assure you I am not doing this for personal financial gain. It will be both edifying and informative to document what's going on in here."
>Aeris gave Shima a glare of disbelief and slight annoyance.
>Shima responded with a big grin, hoping that Aeris would buy her little spiel.
>Of course, Shima did have an entirely honest interest in documenting the happenings in the house, but that didn't also mean she didn't have bills of her own to pay.
>"Ugh, fine. I'm not going to turn down doing less chores, after all."
>"Wonderful, I'm sure this'll be enlightening for future generations."
>"Yeah, yeah, can you help me out now?"
>"Oh, sure."
>Shima took hold of Aeris' free hand and pulled her with as much might as her much smaller body allowed.
>Aeris came free after much effort on both ends, coming free with a ripping sound to follow it.
>Shima looked at the surprised expression on Aeris' face and tried to stifle a giggle.
>"Old clothes, I presume?"
>"Shut up."

13/??