[PRP] a moonwalker and a warg walk into ... (lily & nasir)

[azuredreams]

Nasir was a little nervous, fingers fiddling with his scarf (the last warm layer he was giving up with the weather shifting to spring) as he waited for Lily. He was not, honestly, quite sure he was ready to do this but-

Well.

He needed to go to other ashdown at some point and who better than his unofficial official adopted sister. Not that he knew how they were going to get there, he was not entirely clear on that detail, but at least he wouldn't be alone.

AMItotic

ambiguous meet-up place left to you! LET THERE BE NOODLE AND FLYING SQUIRREL FUN.

 

[AMItotic]

"'Sup, Matthew Bro-derick?"

Lily lifted a cardboard coffee cup in greeting as she walked up from the street corner, half-drowned by a sweatshirt that looked like its original owner had been a linebacker. There were horns on her head and bags under her eyes, but both of these features were pretty standard for her lately, especially given that midterms were on the way.

"You want to espresso yourself? It's got mint in it," she asked, lightly offering up the cup with a swish. She glanced past him towards Darlene's, her expression unchanging. "How was work?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Lils!" Nasir perked up almost immediately upon seeing her, smiling and chuckling as he reached for the cup to try it.

"Work was good," he said a moment later, "and mostly busy. Wing day, so you know everyone in town was there ..." Especially when he was the one cooking them. Nasir was a little crazy when it came to making up wing sauces on the fly so there was always something new to try.

"You doing alright? Need help with studying or anything?" Since mathematics was the other thing he was a nerd about, despite it not being his passion like cooking. Easier to get that stuff out of the way first before the otherworld stuff.

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Oh man, wing day," Lily said wistfully, trying not to think of the last time she'd actually sat down for a meal. "I should be fine, it's nothing too crazy. Just gotta sit down and actually focus for once without spookville sneaking up on me."

She rolled her shoulders and bumped softly into Nasir, taking a moment to dust off some flour from the sleeve of his shirt. "Which I guess finally dragged you along for the ride, huh? Weird dreams and all?" She jabbed him lightly in the arm, a teasing gesture that worked for affection. "Not sure if I should be proud or say I'm sorry, s**t's ******** class="quote">

azuredreams

[azuredreams]

"Coincidentally," Nasir said with a laugh, bumping back into Lily (though it turned into a one arm hug and swinging around just a little), "I've got some here for you." A to-go bag from Darlene's was held up for her because, of course, they would reheat nicely later.

Or she could have them now if she wanted, either way.

"Glad you're doing okay," especially with school stuff because he knew the spookyville stuff could really mess with things now, "and, uh ... yeah? I didn't get sleep for a couple weeks because I kept slipping over there? Not that I've really been there yet at all. It kind of freaked me out for a little bit because it wasn't raining like everyone said. It's cool now though ..."

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Oh my godddddd you're the best," Lily groaned, reaching slowly for the bag with a reverence reserved only for Nasir's cooking. Truth be told, she wasn't much of a fried foods person, but something about the way that kid worked a fryer made her a believer in magic even before all of the spooky s**t started happening.

"Yeah, the rain stopped after the whole 'we messed up the world so we had to go put duct tape on the world' thing," she explained, shuffling through the bag for the little styrofoam treasure chest it contained. "Not sure if you knew about that, but it happened. Factory reset the universe or something. It's still weird."

She got through half of the first wing before she glanced back at the cook, tilting her head. "We don't have to go if you don't want to. It's just some spooky Silent Hill stuff. I mean, I kind of like it as long as no one is dying or whatever, but it's not everyone's thing."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Yeah, um. I wasn't there but I kind of went to sleep on November first and woke up with it being a good bit into December? Wil too." It had been particularly strange when it had happened. Especially with all the little differences that had started to show up.

He was smiling, quite happily, as Lily tucked into the wings. "I kind of want to, honestly. I keep dreaming of the place so it would be nice to ... go there while awake? Besides, I think it'll be easier to show you something if we're there."

AM1totic

word count to here: 417

 

[AMItotic]

"Yeahhhhhhhhh..." Lily stretched her arms up, her voice crackling as it faded to nothing. She closed the box of wings with a look that might have been mournful, then stuffed them in their bag and under one arm. She could snack later.

"Okay, so...we're gonna, like..." How did people just decide to be in the otherworld? Lily knew that some people could just open doorways on a whim, but she herself had always been more of a stumbler. "...walk around for a bit, because the two of us together, it'll be easy to just oops our way in."

She scuffed her boots on the pavement and slowly moved for the sidewalk, glancing back to wait on Nasir.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I thought that's what you were going to say. That's pretty much all I've heard." Nasir was moving quickly to stay in pace with Lily, his arm linking with hers after he checked his scarf one more time.

"I'd rather stumble into it the first time with my sis than, you know, on my own. I think that would be a bit much. I mean the dreams really took it out of me but only because- Well, I wasn't really sleeping, you know?" It had not been that they were terrible but that he simply hadn't been getting proper rest.

There was also the fact that he had been going through his own change.

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Well, prepare to be whelmed, because sometimes it's a lot and sometimes it's not and I'm not sure which one it's gonna be so buckle your seatbelts," she chimed, curling one hand around Nasir's while they walked. She felt warm and fuzzy leading the way; normally, she thought of Nasir as the big brother, the one with a house and a relationship and a job that paid for both of those things, but this time Lily got to be the one in the know, and she got to share her particular expertise in a time where no one was dying or about to be dying.

It was kind of nice, actually.

She wasn't sure precisely when they crossed over; it might have been one of the streets they'd crossed, or that time they'd passed through an alleyway. Eventually, though, the color of the air seemed to shift just slightly, and though it wasn't raining, Lily thought she could smell the crispness of newly fallen leaves.

"Hey," she tugged at her arm, glancing over at Nasir with a slowly growing grin. "So I think we--wait, wait, I have an idea." She wiggled free of his grasp, putting the box of leftovers on the ground, and then watched his expression as she shimmied her shoulders and shifted, melting down and out until her human body was replaced with her fisher body. She ran a lap around him, her claws skittering across the open ground, and then she sat up on her haunches, lifting her upper paws like a cartoonish attempt at 'ta-daaaaah'.

Oh yeah, her brother could join her in the otherworld, and this was officially the best part of it.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir leaned into Lily as they walked, just because he could, and blinked as he thought he felt some kind of ripple. The air wasn't quite the same, like it was perpetually damp in a way that was different than the bay air of Ashdown.

He was looking around, eyes wide as he realized they had crossed over, before Lily was tugging herself free. "What kind of idea?" he inquired, though it was clear something was going on and before he realized it Lily wasn't the Lily he knew.

Instead she was a fisher cat and she was, quite possibly, one of the top five most adorable things ever.

"That," he said in awe as he crouched down to reach for her, "is amazing. I mean, I knew you were a moonwalker but I've never seen you like this?" Then Nasir was laughing a little bit. "You're pretty buff for a fisher cat, Lils."

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

Lily couldn't respond much while in her fisher form, but nevertheless she made some happy-sounding chirps as she sniffed at Nasir's hand, nuzzling her forehead against his. After a moment, she wiggled herself free then scuttled around at his feet before bounding away to have the space to shift back into a seated human, her ears and tail still fisherfied.

She rotated her shoulders and stretched as she propped herself up to standing, still grinning ear to ear. "Yeah, I work out sometimes," she sighed with a laugh, swaying her arms to shake off her mini-sprint. "But yeah, I can pretty much shift however I want here, unless it's the full moon. It's pretty tops."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir smoothed his hand along the top of her fuzzy head before he sat back as she shifted back to her more human form.

He still thought the ears were adorable (and had since he had seen them the first time). Pushing himself up to stand, he made a little work out motion himself with his arms. "I try to though most of my strength comes from having to give Wil piggyback rides."

... because one had to be strong to be able to lift a blonde who actually had several inches on you in height.

"That's pretty awesome, though. Especially if you can do it whenever you want here." Nasir paused for a moment, hand coming up to rest against his scarf. "I, um ... well. I kind of wanted to show you a thing too," he said with a sheepish smile.

His scarf was tugged to the side and there was, of course, a mostly asleep southern flying squirrel tucked away there. "This is Trouble," Nasir was plucking him up into his hand, "and he's my familiar."

The flying squirrel yawned and blinked his eyes open. Eyes that were the same shade of brown as Nasir's.

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Yeah. I mean people say you can do whatever you want here if you have the will for it, but...I kind of like it, it's cool." She turned her head curiously when Nasir reached for his scarf, and when she caught sight of twin sets of eyes, she looked from the man to the squirrel with her mouth agape.

"Oh my god. No s**t. You warged? No s**t." She kept looking between the two, her smile growing even wider. "That's--that's awesome. That's like...the best thing." Wargs and moonwalkers were allies, and that meant that she and Nasir were on the same team for whatever spooky bullshit was going on. No worrying about who was in which court, they both had animal powers and that was the best.

"His name is Trouble," she laughed softly, lifting her hand towards the squirrel so he might catch a hint of her smell. "How long have you known?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Apparently that was not good enough because Trouble was almost immediately alert and jumping over to Lily. In the span of a few heartbeats there was a squirming, wriggling bundle of small fur that was on her chest and then shoulder to nose at and get a good smell.

Nasir was absolutely beaming at Lily's reaction. "Yeah, um. I kind of got it all sorted, uh, last month or so? It's really new still though it did start happening last year? Around October, I think. Trouble totally sight jacked me after dinner one night and freaked me out. Now it's pretty awesome though."

... and then Lily was absolutely having her space invaded by Nasir again because he was sneaking close and wrapping an arm around her for a hug. "I'm really, really glad for it, you know? 'Cause we're in it together?"

AMItotic