[PRP] Rush (Oliver & Jamie)

[saedusk]

It was a lot like watching someone go through the five stages of grief. What happened in a matter of seconds felt almost like hours as he watched, trying to decide if he should intervene, before inevitably deciding to let this wave ride itself out. At the end of it all, Ollie was flat on the ground and Jamie was ambling up to sit next to him.

He could've changed back then, could've tried to coach Oliver through the process of changing back too, but instead he laid down next to him, chin on the ground. Jamie was a bun pancake.

Solidarity, that's what it was. Something like that, at least. Give him a minute and he'd turn back, but for now he just wanted his friend to calm down.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver rued the day that fate dealt him this deck. He laid there like a man who had gambled everything and lost; his tragedy was written by Shakespeare himself, and his suffering brought tears and inspiration to the eyes of famous musicians and artists themselves. He sighed out a tiny squeaky sigh.

Finally, he lifted his head to look at the buncake. Then he made vague motions with his human like paws. Communication as a mundane creature was very, very difficult.

He sprung upwards and landed as a pancake again.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The motions made it look like Oliver was trying to barter, but unfortunately Jamie wasn't totally sure what he was trying to say up until the leap-flop. There was no way to know if he meant this, but it almost felt like he was asking how to change back. Well, Jamie planned on helping him out with that, anyway, so now was as good a time as any.

He sat up, but instead of buncaking again he began to grow. It was a reverse of what the moon had done before. This time he seemed to unroll, his triangle face receded, his limbs pushed his torso further away. By the time he was done, he was human again, sitting on his hands and knees on the ground next to a raccoon.

Nothing could ever be stranger than the reality of Other Ashdown.

"Are you... ready to turn back?" he asked, looking down at Oliver. Even knowing this was his friend, a moonwalker, and not a cute animal—except totally a cute animal—he couldn't resist the call of soft fur. He gave him a little head scritch.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie looked up and gave the now-human Jamie the most pathetic set of raccoon puppy-dog eyes he could possibly manage. His tail thumped against the ground. But the scritch was nice; his head tilted into the motion; the fur was in fact very soft. Probably softer than the average raccoons fur, but that came with living a nice life inside of a house and not in a garbage can.

Except, sometimes in a garbage can.

He wobbled and nodded and did a variety of other nonverbal communication in an attempt to say "yes, ******** this"; but not before crawling pathetically onto Jamie.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Accepting Ollie into his arms and making him a little half circle to lay in was automatic. Anything to show him he wasn't alone. They were pack, family, and they'd have each other's back. Honestly, once you got past the shock of it all, the whole transformation thing lost its scare factor. Occasionally it was an inconvenience—okay, it was often an inconvenience—but it became a part of life you simply accepted. Jamie had, anyway.

Delicately swirling his fingers in the fur around Ollie's shoulders, he said, "Going back and forth is easy once you get the hang of it. You only gotta remember what you used to look like, really focus on it, and imagine yourself becoming that." Scritch, scritch. "It's kinda like the way magic works in general, believe you can do it and you will. That's worked for me, anyway."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie lifted up his tiny raccoon head, trying so hard to process Jamie's information. He understood it of course, but he also felt like it was difficult to think in human ways; he was a raccoon, and his thoughts were budding up in short rapid fire sequences, instinct being the largest factor in his motivations. It was hard to fight that.

It was a lot like his encounter with Eve, when she said to imagine his hands as they were and not touched by magic. He thought about his legs being longer and stronger, his face flatter and his ears less sensitive and dull. He thought about the world being blended together by colors rather than black and whites.

...suddenly he was a whole hell of a lot bigger, and still sort of on top of his friend.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Should've expected it, really. With Oliver in his lap, there was no where else for him to go when he went human again. An elbow got him in the gut, but Jamie simply nudged it away and let it go. When all was said and done, Ollie was halfway in his lap and looking more than a little awkward that way. It kinda made Jamie laugh.

"Hey," he said, setting a hand on his back and shifting under his new weight, "How are you feeling?" He'd been able to manage shifting back pretty well, so Jamie was pleased.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I..." Pretty well, but not well enough. Oliver was acutely aware of the ears on his head and how crowded his mouth felt. Speaking was a chore because his tongue caught awkwardly on his now very-pronounced canines. Also there was a tail, but he hadn't noticed that yet.

Instead he looked up at Jamie and his floppy ears and his soft flattened nose and knew exactly what was going on. This didn't make it any easier though. "Like shith." He slurred as his tongue caught his teeth again, the expression on his face saying absolutely everything.

"I guesth shis is what Eve meant." His eyes narrowed and he cleared his throat, "Maybe not. Did she ever talk to you about that? The senthes?" He huffed at the lisp again. He'd get it, but it was so goddamn awkward...

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

If it made Ollie feel any better—though it very well might not—Jamie was also still sporting a few animalistic features. Hidden behind him was a short, wiggly tail. When he opened his mouth, his teeth were long in the front, flat and wide beneath his squished pink nose. The most obvious traits were his towering ears and large, awkward hare feet, though. There was definitely no missing those.

Needless to say, Jamie did bat an eye at Oliver's new look.

"Like s**t sounds about right," he said, having not too much trouble understanding despite the lisp. "I felt that way the first time, too." Jamie was gentle as he moved to help Ollie sit up, minding his tail. At least this way he might have better luck walking than he had on four feet.

"Wait, the senses? What did Eve say? Wait, no-" he shook his head, "-we can talk about it later." It probably wouldn't be all that comfortable to have an in depth conversation right now, anyway.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Later..." He agreed, sounding tired and cranky. His muscles felt sore in ways that made no goddamn sense. Jamie shifted and he let him go, eyes staring up at him when he offered his help. He took it, stood up, tail flicking around as he found his balance. At least his feet felt the same... he looked down at Jamie's.

"I bet those took a while to get used to." He yanked his hands away the second he had the opportunity to, flexing his fingers awkwardly. "Sorry, hands..." He sighed, "They're doing the ******** up thing again." He looked around, ears swiveling slightly. "Can we go home now? Or..."

He was not happy in the slightest.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Nah, it's okay," Jamie was quick to assure. The whole 'hands thing' sounded pretty damn unpleasant the way Oliver had put it before and he took no offense to how quickly he recoiled. With the full moon high overhead, he could only assume the issue was even further amplified. "You're definitely not wrong, though," he added with a small laugh, "These feet are so awkward. I can run pretty fast now, but at first I could barely keep myself from tripping."

A few joints popped as Jamie stretched with one large, gasped breath. "No reason to stay, though, I think. Let's go home, Ollie." Even Jamie didn't spend anymore time here after the transformation than he had to.

"Do you wanna stay over or... are you gonna, um, tell Elliot?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie froze in his tracks at the mention of Elliot. "********." He looked increasingly perturbed. "<********>, I hadn't even thought about that." Elliot seemed... alright with magic as far as he could tell? But how would he take the fact that his roommate was a goddamn raccoon? He swallowed a little hard, trying not to sweat profusely, tail swishing around anxiously. His ears were flat against his head.

"...I guess I probably should. Putting it off..." He sighed. "I don't wanna hide s**t from him."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

That may Jamie's ears lay back in a similar, sympathetic sort of way. He totally understood the fear of telling other people, he'd felt the same way about telling his parents the first time, but the fact of the matter was if you lived with someone, it was a very hard thing to hide. The only solace in Oliver's predicament was the fact that Elliot did seem more accepting of magic than some, at least from what he'd been told.

In a world like the one they'd woken up to, that was a definite benefit. Jamie would've pleaded with Ollie to get out of there if not.

"Yeah... it's probably better to tell him. It's really hard to keep this sort of thing a secret," he motioned between them and their obvious animal parts. "If you wanna do it tomorrow morning, though, you have somewhere to stay." And yet, at the same time, "But if you wanna go ahead and do it tonight, I can walk you home."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"That might be nice..." He cleared his throat, "Walking me home, I mean. I'm sure I can get there on my own, but—oh, actually..." He stopped and looked down at Jamie's clumsy feet.

"...would it really be okay? Like, you don't think someone would see us and report us or some s**t?" He looked worried, "Hooligan furries wandering around in the dead of night and all that?" He didn't know where to put his hands because anywhere felt absolutely disgusting. "I mean, if you think it'd be fine... I don't wanna get you in trouble."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Jamie lifted one foot, waved it back for forth, wiggled his toes. "Oh, yeah," he said vaguely, not sounding too bothered. "I, uh, I have some special shoes for this time of the month, but we'd have to go back to my place first to get them. I guess we could just see where this place lets us out and go from there?"

Melancholies