[PRP] Four Years, No Call (Lily/Temperance)

[AMItotic]

Lily knew that Temperance had a life, and classes that she needed not to fail, and that Ashton was going to cover whatever was going on in the listserv and that she needed to not bombard the girl she'd kissed in front of an anime movie. She was also bad at basic emotional upkeep, which meant that it was easy to go days without texting Temperance if they didn't see each other on campus. It was natural, they both had busy schedules, and Lily didn't want to seem to clingy, because that meant she was the one making things weird.

Except now Ashton was missing and it felt like electricity in her fingers and bile in her throat and nights with no sleep as she repeatedly checked the news, the county mugshots database, social media, looking for something that might put her head to rest. All that stewing to herself got Lily thinking, and it created questions that demanded answers, much as she'd rather pretend none of it existed.

Quote:

To: Sailor V

hey
is everything okay?
the other week with the emails
I don't know why they kicked you off it was stupid

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance was honestly surprised to get a text from Lily. It was so hard to tell if the girl was actually interested or not. And... she'd kind of expected someone at least to contact her after the whole listserv thing, but no one had. Had she been so bad a person that everyone was glad to see her gone? She tucked a blonde lock of hair behind one ear and unlocked the phone's screen.

amitotic

To: Lily
Hey. I don't know why I was kicked off, no one is really answering me. It makes me think magic is involved or something. I don't know...

Quote:

To: Lily
Haven't heard from you in a while, though.

 

[AMItotic]

Quote:

To: Sailor V

yeah sorry
life got real for a minute there but its chill now

Lily bit her lip, wrestling with herself to keep from frowning.

Quote:

To: Sailor V

Ashton was supposed to contact you, said that too many people texting all at once would upset you
but I never heard anything about it
and now they're missing so idk what's up

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She sprawled across her bed, holding her phone above her head. Frowning, she tapped at the keyboard. Far from too many people, there had been no text messages. Too many people had just assumed the word of Jeremiah Mercer as gospel. Irritating man, irritating abuse of power. Was she really so bad?

amitotic

To: Lily
What? When did Ashton go missing?
Do the police know?

[b

To: Lily
Also this doesn't sound like a chill life. You okay? I know you and Ashton were... welll.
Want to meet up and talk or just text?

 

[AMItotic]

Quote:

To: Sailor V

about a week ago I think??
idk
their mom texted me so I figure cops are involved

There was a long pause, full of Lily beginning to type something and then deleting it.

Quote:

To: Sailor V

I mean its not weird like that
its just kind of scary
can we meet up?

She started to type 'I miss you', and then she furiously scrubbed it away with the backspace key.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

amitotic

To: Lily
That's a while.
I can ask when Ashton was last seen at the hospital. We aren't often on the same shifts.
I'm sure they are ok!

Quote:

To: Lily
Of course it's scary; I understand.
Want to meet up somewhere - you tell me where?
Or you can come over to my apartment. I promise it's not too messy.

What she understood was that Lily probably had hang-ups about Ashton as wide as the Pacific ocean. It was, of course, mostly speculation, but it didn't sit well in her stomach. She likes having options[/i[, but she wanted them to only look at her. Though, if she had to choose, well..

Temperance rolled out of her bed and began straightening things. The studio apartment was horribly tiny, but she wouldn't be here for too long.  

[AMItotic]

Quote:

To: Sailor V

I'm gonna shower but yeah I'll just go to your place
see you soon

Lily wasn't a complete savage--she knew better than to visit someone she was possibly courting when she also possibly smelled like gym. She took five minutes to rinse off and then ten to apply fresh foundation and eyeliner, leaving her lips and cheeks pale. It almost made her feel like a new person, a person who hadn't spent four hours sprawled out on her apartment floor searching for answers on her phone. Drying out her hair would have taken too much time, however, so she let it fall like a heavy veil over her head, pinning her bangs back so she could drive.

She'd made it most of the way to Temperance's apartment before she realized she was preparing to walk up empty-handed, and so she made a U-turn just before the parking lot of her complex so she could find something suitable on the fly. The flower shop was a little out of her price range, but there were vaguely fresh apples at the gas station. She carried three of them with her to Temperance's door, two untouched and pristine and one with a single bite out of it, for her own snacking purposes.

At a lack of free hands, she gently knocked the toe of her boot on the door.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She waiting when Lily arrived. While Temperance hadn't taken a shower, she'd still freshened up, slid on new clothing, tidied things. She opened the door, cheeks pinkening a bit, despite the heavy reason Lily was coming over.

"I, um, see you've gone with the fruit theme again. Trying to sweeten me up?" Temperance moved aside just enough for Lily to squeeze past her into the apartment.

amitotic

 

[AMItotic]

"It's nature's candy," Lily laughed weakly, but she couldn't bring herself to look at Temperance's face. She elected to stare at her toes instead, sinking into her frame like she was the guilty one. Eve had said that Temperance was working for the Spinel Lady. Ashton had told her not to bother Temperance, that she would just cause more stress. And yet here she was, at her doorway with a handful of fruit and a lost expression like if she just believed it strongly enough, that none of it would be real and it would just be a misunderstanding and nobody was working for evil but undeniably hot entities.

"Um, mind if I..." Lily began to ask before she noticed Temperance's shuffle, and then nodded weakly. "...Yeah." She crossed the threshold into her apartment, holding up the apples like it was some sort of peace offering.

"So, um...how's life?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance frowned. She understood Lily was worried, but she wasn't even looking up at all. She took the apples in one arm. With the other, she reached out to tug on a lock of Lily's hair.

"Your hair's still wet, Lily. I'll, uh, get your a towel or something." She set the apples on the table. Later on, she'd cut them into cute rabbits. Then, Temperance grabbed a towel - pink with embroidered bows at the edge - and stepped in front of Lily to fling it over her head. She kept each end in one of her hands.

"You know you can tell me whatever, Lily. It's gonna be okay."

amitotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Yeah, it does that," Lily shrugged, leaning in at Temperance's touch. She waited obediently as Temperance moved about the apartment, taking in the sight of the soft textures and hues. It was gentle and cute and genuine in a way that Lily had never known. In her experience, being feminine was a mask, the trappings of a strenuous and grueling performance, a misdirection under the heavy gaze of those who would seek to distill her entire existence down to a number between 0 and 10. It had always been beautiful but dangerous, and one of the things that had drawn Lily to the Spinel Lady was that she threw away the pretense of hiding it.

Here, in this cozy apartment, Lily might have been content to learn how to wear pink again, not as armor but as a comfort. For now, she just used it as a drape to hide under, her hands tucking her hair under the towel and wringing the combined mess out.

"I know," she murmured, searching for something in Temperance's eyes. "I just...I don't--um--" Her mind went blank as she ran through every possible scenario, looking for some solution where Temperance hadn't just been part of a performance too.

"So what's going on with the listserv?" Lily paused for a moment, processing that she'd even been able to ask. "I mean, you know, the whole thing with Mercer or whatever. He said you requested the ban and that whoever had your email was working for the Spinel Lady? Did you get hacked or something?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She leaned a little closer, almost too close, then Lily brought up the listserv. Temperance sighed, one of her hands sliding from the towel to take Lily's hand. She tugged the be-toweled girl over to her bed, sitting down and tugging Lily again with her.

"To be honest, I... I don't know. My email wasn't hacked, as far as I know. I didn't request the ban and my contact with the Spinel Lady... I mean, I haven't seen her in forever, since the ball, and even then." Temperance frowned, her face troubled and a little sad. She hated being kept in the dark and that is essentially what the listserv ban was attempting to do to her.

With one hand, she yanked out her ponytail tie and tossed it onto the bedside table. "It make me worry, Lily, that there's someone out there - maybe in that other Ashdown who looks like me. No one has even asked me, everyone just... went along with it."

amitotic

 

[AMItotic]

Where Temperance pulled, Lily followed, her eyes sad but dutiful under her towel cloak. It didn't make sense, and it was making Temperance sad, and both of those things made her sad and confused and aching for it to all just be one miscommunication. But she didn't think Jeremiah would lie, and she didn't think Eve would lie, and she didn't think Temperance would lie, but given the situation at least one of these things had to be false.

Lily didn't like it, but she needed to know.

"Like a...double thing?" Lily frowned. As a moonwalker, she was supposed to stop things like random dopplegangers from attacking people and stealing their identity, and she couldn't even help the ones she cared for most. "That sounds like some Court s**t. Do you think they're trying to kidnap you for the noble thing?" If that was the case, Lily needed to be on high alert. There was no telling when one of the fetches could kidnap and replace someone.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"The court? I...." She sighed heavily. "Lily, I.. I even asked to be tithed, you know. Well, you don't know, but now I'm telling you." Temperance fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

"They refused me, all of them. Not good enough, not determined enough, not pretty enough. No one wants me as a tithe, so I can't help thinking it must be some other sort of thing." Pain wreathed her voice. "But I've only really interacted with the faceless and destruction... The faceless don't like me very much, but I don't think." Abruptly, she leaned over, plopping her head on Lily's shoulder. "Everything is confusing."

amitotic

 

[AMItotic]

Lily was not often an expressive individual, but when Temperance admitted that she'd asked to be tithed, her eyes widened under the towel, lips wavering. "Why the hell would you even want that?" Lily murmured in hushed tones, reaching to cup Temperance's face in her hands. "Those people are awful, they kidnapped visitors just so they could ******** them up, they killed that girl like it was nothing. You're nothing like them, and ******** whatever they told you, you're beautiful and smart and--"

--potentially working for them anyway, Lily remembered, trying to keep some measure on her feelings. She looked down, shaking her head.

"It's not the Faceless," she declared, like she was agreeing to the terms of a surrender. "They're weird and they're creepy as hell, but they just want to help."

The Semblance of Unity