[DRP] Magic House (Preacher/Chester)

[The Semblance of Unity]

make like a tree

Preacher poked his cheek with her nose. Riding his shoulder was less hard on her paws than she'd thought. "Smells like teen spirit, Kurt." Then she grabbed a lock of his hair in her jaws and tugged it gently.

"I wanna be tall.No ********' fair."  

[The Semblance of Unity]

groovy, man

Preacher was laying flat on her back in their small backyard, eyes closed and hands resting on her bare stomach. When Chester appeared, she cracked open one eye, then the other.

"Sup?" Slowly, she stretched, oddly similar to a cat, and began to creakily pick herself up off the ground.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

a rat's nest

"Gimme a sec," she said and disappeared into her room. Moments later, she emerged in a bikini top - the only one she owed, lavender, and with enough strings that she liked to forget it existed. Preacher still had on her sweats, though. They could get soaked; she didn't care.

She held some plastic bags in her hands and began to awkwardly wrap her foot and hands in them. Really awkwardly. "So. Let's do this. I got a chair in the bathroom n' I can lean all up in tha tub or somethin'. It's just a shampoo, tha green bottle; I ain't make ya dry it." Then she tried to sort of shoulder him into the bathroom, which was probably a little small for two people. Whatever - anything for clean hair.

Actually, she was kind of excited for this. Clean hair, clean hair, clean haiiiiirr.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

treats

He had a feeling he was being humored at this point, as much as a cat would be interested in that sort of thing. Still, Chester followed, turning the corner to stand in the doorway of the room where the tail had gone, his bag of treats in hand.  

[Smerdle]

make like a tree

Her nose was wet, and the cold spot it left in its wake was almost as weird as her scrabbly little claws had been. A good weird. The kind of weird that made him feel like an 8-year-old in a petting zoo, holding out his hand to pat a llama for the first time.

Maybe that wasn't the most respectful of analogies, but it wasn't like he was sharing it with anyone.

"I suppose you can come up here any time you'd like," he said with a shrug that lifted and lowered her slightly. "I mean, within reason. There should be a code word. Something you have to say if you want to do it and something I say back to let you know you can." He stopped in the middle of the living room, unsure of where to go next. Outside would probably be bad, and it wasn't like she hadn't seen the house before, lower vantage point or not.  

[Smerdle]

groovy, man

He watched her, as he tended to do when he hoped she wasn't looking, though by the time she was on her feet, he had the pictures ready to show.

"Last year, when we all jumped into that hole, I ended up in the 60s. There was a beach and a bonfire, and all those copies of the people here." He'd heard it had been similar elsewhere, so he didn't elaborate further on the existence of the weird clones, trusting she'd seen her own slew of them wherever she'd been.

"I didn't use my phone a lot at first so I wouldn't raise suspicion or waste the battery, but I did eventually take a bunch of pictures on the beach." He turned the screen toward her. "You were there. Another you."

The first few were kind of blurry and far away, just clear enough to establish that she had been on stage with the people in the subsequent photos. The mid-range shots were clearer, showing the 1969 versions of Preacher, Melany, and Ezra. Sadly, there were no closeups.  

[Smerdle]

a rat's nest

It was indeed a tight fit with the two of them in there, especially in the moments where Chester bent to get a fresh towel from beneath the sink.

"You should sit here," he said, turning the chair so its back was against the towel rack. "And lie on the edge of the tub with this under your neck. And I'll sit on the toilet and..." He made a spraying motion with his hand, glancing down at her for no more than half a second. While he wouldn't have termed how he was feeling as flustered, it certainly wasn't normal.

"I'm ready when you are." He was actually wearing jeans today, and any crazy spritzing activity up to a point wouldn't even be noticed. "Unless you want to do it some other way?"

The Semblance of Unity

i drew a diagram of the bathroom but i can't upload it at work lulz

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

groovy, man

"Oh yeah, I was shunted back to tha 20s." Preacher yawned, making a sleepy, squeaky noise, then peered at the pictures. "Holy ********, I was inna band? WITH ******** FIRELORD a**-EATER?" She was kind of stunned. Preacher had kind of thought dislike traveled cycles - destiny or some s**t.

She looked up at Chester, eyes narrowing a bit. "So who's cooler?"  

[The Semblance of Unity]

treats

Suddenly, Mink came bounding out from under the bed and smacked into Chester's legs. He stretched, placing his paws up as high as he could reached, and meowed. Really, really loudly. This time, the meow actually came from the cat himself. Congratulations, Chester, you won!  

[The Semblance of Unity]

make like a tree

"You're a good chariot. Wear me like a boa." She huffed out a laugh and slid around the back of his neck to his other shoulder. "What like a safe word? What do people norm'ly use - stoplight? Red? Watermelon, watermelon, show me tha forbidden fruit?"

She cocked her head. "What if I changed back right tha ******** now. D'you think you'd fall over?"  

[The Semblance of Unity]

a rat's nest

When he bent over, she took a moment to survey. Looking was free, anyway. It took her a moment to fully focus on how he was rigging everything up and she chewed her lip. "Seems like it'll work. Only other ways I thoughta involved straddling or laying across ya lap. Awkward when water's involved, y'know?"

Preacher sat in the chair, then proceeded to scoot it as closely as possibly to Chester. Closer. Her shoulder was half on his knee. "It's magic time."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

groovy, man

"I'm... um..." Whatever reaction he had been expecting, it hadn't included Firelord a**-Eater.

"I'll admit I'm biased," he said. "Because I didn't talk to that Preacher at all. But I would say you anyway. She needed a band as a coolness crutch, and you most certainly do not."  

[Smerdle]

treats

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was that Mink could actually meow out of his own mouth.

"Here, I brought you something," Chester said, squatting nearby and shaking out a couple of treats. "Don't tell Preacher."  

[Smerdle]

make like a tree

Chester chuckled breathily. "Safe word? I guess w—"

And like that, she got an answer to at least one of her questions. He surely would have stood his ground had he been prepared, but a 'what if I changed back' followed mere seconds later by her actually doing so gave him no warning at all. Chester made a brief strangled sound as he crumpled, ending on his back half propped on one of his elbows.  

[Smerdle]

a rat's nest

"Straddling."

He looked at her properly then, eyes faintly narrowed as if he was trying to use magic to see inside her head. He couldn't hold onto his suspicion, however, not when she shimmied into his personal space.

"Awkward, sure," he agreed sarcastically. "When soap's involved too."

Chester jiggled his knee as if he was trying to dislodge a fly, the tips of his ears going pink when other things jiggled as well. He didn't look at her again until the water was on and he'd deemed it warm enough for skin, and even then it was only a glance.

"Let me know if it's too hot."

The Semblance of Unity