[PRP] You're both dumbbells (Shiloh & Lily & Jamie)

[Melancholies]

It was late. It was quiet. It was dark. It was glorious.

Shiloh huffed out a strained gasp as he let the weight fall to the ground, wiping the his brow with the back of his hand. He never imagined he'd end up in a gym, but the results were glorious. Coming this late meant not a whole lot of people around to observe him (even though they were preoccupied, he knew they were, he knew, but—) and it gave him a perfectly acceptable outlet for his stress. Melany had him training every single day. It felt amazing to have that part of his routine back. It felt amazing to feel his muscles burn and scream and stretch under the strain of these dumbbells.

He sat back on a bench, hand groping around for his belongings. Jamie had been kind enough to sign them both up for six month memberships (why Jamie wanted one too was beyond him), but the were didn't come as often as Shiloh did. It was fine, obviously, but...

He found his phone and his water bottle.


TEXT
to: lucky ★★

hey
l8 notice i kno but
i stopped by th gym
u wanna come ovr???

Shiloh smiled a little to himself as he took a swig from his water. He wasn't sure if Jamie would get back to him in time (he was halfway through his workout after all), but the invitation was still there. Maybe he could pace him, give him some fighting tips, race him on the treadmill. It would only be the two of them anyway, so the possibilities were endless.

Well, unless someone else walked in, but that seemed unlikely.

word count: 280

AMItotic

oh hi

 

[AMItotic]

Lily truly was a night owl at heart, when she wasn't being a fisher, or a party guest, or anything else that the Otherworld had forced her to be. When she wasn't being compelled by instinct to be most active at dawn and dusk, she found herself staying up later and later, only to be thwarted by her own circadian rhythms with each coming full moon. Her sleep schedule was by all means chaotic, which seemed the most normal thing about her these days--she was a college student, she was supposed to get no sleep. That's what the movies said, right?

But when her nights got longer and she found no way to make herself more tired than she already felt, she hit the gym, in the hopes that working herself sore would maybe burn off some of whatever was keeping her away. She left yoga for the times she had students--it gave her no peace now, left her feeling jittery, and in the throes of meditation the only thing she could see was Adoelle, falling lifeless to the ground. It made saying 'corpse pose' taste like poison in her mouth.

She was coming from the treadmill room when she caught sight of a familiar mop of blonde hair, over at the free weights where she was headed. Her eyes narrowed, but she stayed the course, walking towards him with cold, deliberate steps. This boy had repeatedly hurt Jamie, hurt a part of her pack, and she was tired of watching it happen from the sidelines.

"Yo," she called, in a voice that was distinctly unfriendly. "What's up, buddy?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh didn't have a lot of booksmarts, but he was pretty damn well versed in common sense. This women—whoever she was—was not friendly. The smile washed off of his face immediately, hand slowly setting his phone down on his makeshift workout bag. His movements were calculated, hypervigillance already ticking as he looked over Lily warily. Was this some sort of joke? Did he even know her? She didn't look familiar, not even from the ball.

It's a sinking feeling, but Shiloh immediately remembers Beel. Did he do something to her that he wasn't aware of? His nostrils flared with a sharp exhale. How exactly was someone to supposed to explain that? Sorry, I got replaced with a doppelganger and they might have upset you but honest to god, it wasn't me. Because that would fly over real well.

"Do I... know you?" he spoke cautiously, hand grabbing a small throw-towel from his bag without taking his eyes off of the unfamiliar girl. He dabbed some sweat off of his face. "Because it's not every day someone walks up to me acting like a total d**k."

That... was actually a lie. Shiloh sort of had that effect on people. Pissing people off seemed to be a talent of his, but this? He hadn't even provoked her.

word count: 497

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"I mean...you might," Lily shrugged, leaning against one of the weight racks. She smiled, but it was something cold and plastic, her gaze going past him and towards the empty room they shared. No one else needed to hear what she had to say, there was no reason she should have felt so jittery in her chest.

She was protecting her pack. It's what Lucas would have done.

"We hung out at Blackfriar's, and at the big fae party thing," she began, tilting her head back to the boy. "Does that jog your memory any?" Lily wasn't normally the type to be so aggressive, but she'd seen firsthand what this kid had done to Jamie, how he'd hurt him in so many ways, and if Jamie wasn't going to see to reason, then she had to take matters into her own hands. It was easier to fight someone else's cause, even if they didn't know it needed fighting.

"Here, this might help," Lily added, cupping her hands outside her ears to mimic the fisher traits she'd taken on at both.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh's knuckles were white as he gripped his knee. He was almost certain that Beel must have done something to this women, because the animosity was uncalled for and Shiloh couldn't ascertain why she was acting with such vehemence. What had Beel done to slight her, he wondered? It didn't seem like she had sought him out on purpose; Shiloh did well to cover his tracks. It was dumb luck that they found one another here.

It wasn't until the name Blackfriar's came up that his vision jolted. Blackfriar's, Blackfriar's; that wasn't Beel. The ball had surely been Beel, but not... not Balckfrair's. A sinking feeling settled in Shiloh's stomach. What had he done to her, then? Think idiot, think...

...he could remember Micheal, and he could remember Jamie and his gored open chest. He remembered the corpses and he remembered tossing the feral moonwalkers through the portal Jeremiah had spotted. Go back further; he remembered... it started as a job fair? Thorne was there... some others... That's right, where had Jamie come from?

It was vague, but he could still recall him and the rest of his pack suddenly... being there. He remembered the tall, imposing wolf and there was a brief moment of anger; and he remembered...

"You're... a moonwalker." he said with a dawning realization. Her name? He didn't know. Jamie had surely spoken about her in their conversations, but the names of all the other jumbled together. Seemed like three months of torture really did a number on your psyche. "Wait, so you know Jamie then..." It didn't sound like a question because it was more of a statement.

"I think there's probably a misunderstanding." Despite the statement, Shiloh was sounding increasingly defensive, gaze locked on Lily's as he slowly stood up.

word count: 793

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Folks, we have a winner," Lily cheered, her voice hollow as she clapped slowly. Her eyes narrowed down at the boy, biting her lip--he wasn't mad, he was confused, and without the presence of someone else's mounting aggression it was hard for her to keep up her bravado. It would have been so easy to relent, to just agree that there was a misunderstanding and apologize, but Lily knew what she'd felt in the main hall and she had a point to prove. She'd been a limp noodle so many times when it came to standing up for herself, but she refused to be that person for Jamie.

"I could see it being a misunderstanding at Blackfriar's," she began, scratching at her hairline. "People were panicked, didn't know what was going on, I get that. Sure, you spooked Jamie and that's not cool, but I can forgive that."

"But whatever hocus pocus s**t you pulled at the ball was not kosher, and you need to back the hell off with whatever you think you're doing with Jamie. He deserves better than that." Panic rolled in her gut, ugly and gnashing, but it was too late to bow out graciously, and so she channeled everything she felt into a look of disgust.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The sneer, the passive aggression, the sarcasm in her voice; Shiloh felt his skin crawling, but he still held back. Her inner struggling was lost on him. His arms folded across his chest defensively, eyes set in a narrowed glare. Had it just been this trite bullshit, Shiloh probably wouldn't have done anything to escalate the situation. Had this situation only been about him, he would have walked away. It wasn't.

The second Jamie's name crossed Lily's mouth, his teeth bit deeply into his lip. "Excuse me?" he was incredulous; He deserved better? Hell, had Shiloh less indignation, he would have agreed with her. Jamie deserved the world and he deserved none of the bullshit that Ashdown had inflicted on him. He deserved a friend that could remember him and someone that could have protected him; yeah, Shiloh could have gotten behind that statement. Hell, the second Lily mentioned the ball, Shiloh should have remained calm. Obviously it hadn't been him. Obviously he didn't remember her. Obviously it had been Beel.

He took it as an insult. Jamie had sacrificed so much for him that it was disgusting. Jamie believed in him more than he believed in his own self. Shiloh wouldn't let some b***h slander that loyalty. Shiloh would do anything for him at this point, and deep in his gut, he felt like he would feel the same at any point before this.

"Forget whatever the ******** I said before then," He met her look of disgust with a look of his own, broiling and iron hot, "Who the ******** do you think you are?!" now that was a familiar feeling; unbridled rage, something that had been beaten down under his time with Melany, something that resurfaced like a blazing wildfire as he tightened his fingers into his palm, fist swinging towards Lily.

word count: 1,098

AMItotic

WHOOPS MY HAND SLIPPED

 

[AMItotic]

She didn't think that it would come to violence, and she took the hit full-on, not even thinking to dodge. She staggered back, holding the place at her stomach where she'd been hit as a blank look struck her expression. Heat was flushing Lily's cheeks, and she struggled to keep cool as she fumbled for words. "You said it yourself, man. I'm a moonwalker, I'm one of Jamie's packmates, and I know what a parasitic leech looks like." His rising anger was beginning to feed into her own, and whatever chance she had of keeping composure was beginning to crumble away.

"You don't give a s**t about Jamie, or you'd just leave him alone," she hissed, drawing closer to the boy. "You don't understand what he's had to go through, and all you ever do is hurt him. Why would you want that? What did he ever do to you?" The more she thought about it, the more she seethed--and before she even had a chance to think she swung back, wanting desperately more than anything in this world for Shiloh to feel the world of hurt he'd inflicted on everyone else, on Jamie, and now on her.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Look, I don't give a s**t what you are. He's my best friend," Shiloh spat right back, face bloomed with satisfaction as his fist made contact, a sadistic sort of smile carved onto his exhausted face. Physical aggression was a good teacher; if his dad and Melany had imparted anything onto him, it was that single fact. Too bad there wasn't much of an opportunity to revel in it.

Because what Lily said next hit him hard. It hit him harder than her punch did—and it struck true, decking him clearly in the jaw—because it slammed down on a rickety bridge of insecurities he had forgot he had. He knew that Beel had hurt Jamie. He knew that he had used him and said terrible things to him and completely ravaged his self esteem; but there was a dreadful sense of responsibility that he felt there. It was irrational to think that he could have prevented it, because he couldn't have, but?

Falling in what felt like slow motion gave him a surprising amount of time to think. Maybe his continuing to be here did hurt Jamie? Did Jamie see all the terrible things Beel had done to him reflected in his face, the same one he had temporarily stolen? Shiloh felt a little better in his recovery, but was it too much? Was he really leeching off of Jamie? Was he using him now? He thought back to the ball and the atrium and how he had lobbed his sketchbooks and canvases at the innocent were, how some had left bruises on his body, how it was something that they never really talked about. Jamie forgave him; Shiloh hadn't been thinking right, but that didn't mean it wasn't wrong. What about the entire ordeal of forgetting his friend? Did he really have the right to call him his best friend? Did he really have the right to feel the way he did about him?

Should he leave? Should he have just never come back at all? But that would have hurt Jamie more in the long run, wouldn't it have? Or maybe Jamie needed that, needed to grow past him, grow strong for himself. Pax's words echoed in his mind about how he was free from the cycle of rebirth. If this all reset, would he leave Jamie regardless? Would he have to watch him suffer cycle through cycle through cycle, knowing there might've been something he could have done but didn't?

He stumbled back against the bench he had been sitting on, not completely losing his balance as he looked up at Lily again, eyes wide. "He's my..." he started to say again, but his voice only trailed off, so legitimately startled and shocked that he had no words. Had Jamie said something to Lily about him? They were packmates, right? So...

Hyacinth's abruptly bloomed up out of the collar of his shirt, brushing gently under the bruising spot along his jaw.

word count: 1,594

AMItotic

saedusk

paging bun

 

[saedusk]

Quote:

Text to: Shy ♥

sure! i'll pack up and be over

After that, Jamie didn't hear back. That didn't strike him as unusual, though. More than likely Shiloh had sent the text and gone straight back to his routine. Totally normal and Jamie knew how to find his own way to the gym, after all.

It didn't take terribly long to get there, especially at this time of night when it was easy to skip waiting for crossing symbols thanks to the lack of traffic. His mood was high as he walked inside, squinting against the harsh light as it took his eyes a moment to adjust. As he glanced around, he was faintly smiling. Jamie wasn't the most physically fit individual, but a workout with Shiloh actually sounded pretty nice right now.

Quote:

Text to: Shy ♥

where are you?

Again, after that, Jamie didn't hear back. That was fine, he could look around. It's not like there were a million places to hide. Humming softly under his breath, he searched. It didn't take terribly long, either.

When he found them, they'd never know he'd been smiling.

"W-W-What are you d-doing?" he stammered loudly, breathlessly. He'd come running, clutching his peach-colored gym bag as if it were his only lifeline. From the distance he'd seen Lily clutch her stomach like she was in pain. As he grew closer he saw her lash out, he saw Shiloh stumble.

"Shiloh? Lily?? What's going on?!" His voice was jagged with confusion and his sinuses stung with impending emotion. The hyacinth bloomed from Shiloh's collar and it was beautiful, but it made Jamie's stomach flip with the implication.

His important people, his friends, both Lily and Shiloh held strong grips on his heart and they were tearing it in two. But... but... maybe it wasn't what it looked like?

AMItotic

Melancholies

 

[AMItotic]

"Best friends don't do that to people," Lily seethed, and for a moment, she felt a choked satisfaction in seeing the pain in his eyes, the way he stumbled backwards after her hit. He was muttering to himself, but for the first time she saw the guilt and remorse that said that she was right, that all of this was right, and she felt a wicked rush of excitement in knowing that her aggression was justified, that he knew he was ******** off, you know that's not true," she spat, looming over Shiloh with her arms crossed. She made a face when he started to sprout literal flowers, but it shouldn't have been surprising, given everything else that happened to people in Ashdown. "You don't get to mess with someone's head like that and call them a friend, that's bullshit and you will never mess with him again, do you understand me?"

Lily heard a voice cut through the silence, and her head darted up in surprise, visibly blanching when she caught sight of the same curly mop she'd been trying to protect. Any courage in her gut shriveled to rot at the sight of his frightened expression, any feeling of rightness crumbling to dust. "s**t," she whispered, and then in a quivering voice she said, "Don't worry about it, buddy, it's all good."

mel1ancholies

Sorry about the delay

saed1usk

;A;

 

[Melancholies]

Had it not been for Jamie, Shiloh would have all but lost himself to the self doubt and loathing that coiled around in his stomach. Lily's words made sense, but not in the way she implied; Shiloh had never done anything to hurt Jamie, not outright, but it still made him wonder. Was it worth it? Was Jamie deserving of this? He knew he was loud and brash and sometimes ostentatious, but he—

He had been Jamie's first friend—at the time, his only one—but now it was obvious that he wasn't. And that was fine. In fact, that was spectacular and Shiloh wanted nothing more than for Jamie to have privy to self worth and happiness and all the typical things that (most) people were deserving of, but where did that leave him? Did he not have the right to call Jamie his friend? He thought back to Pax and her words about leaving the cycle and cringed. What if this all repeated again and he had to leave him behind? What friend would he be then?

And all the heartache they'd been through still hadn't been enough to protect Jamie. Hell, back in the ball, he had hurt him. He panicked. He threw the picture frame.

But beyond all of that, he still cared for him. How could he not? Maybe it meant he had to try harder. Maybe it meant he just—he just had to put in more effort. He had to be more self sacrificing; was that it? Did he have to prove something? Jamie and him had one thing in common: before each other, they had no friends. Shiloh had Oliver, but the brotherly bond was something... different.

Cut back to the present; Jamie was still there, and he was freaking out, and the look on his face made Shiloh's heart twist up again in remorse. The fight with Lily; he threw the first punch, he was in the wrong.

He shouldn't lie to Jamie.

"About time you showed up, Jame." he was playing off of Lily's attempt to cover up the situation, seemingly oblivious to his own garden of flowers soothing his skin. "We just uh—" he looked around awkwardly, "—we're... sorting something out." he looked to Lily, face all shades of apologetic, and then offered the same guilty expression to Jamie. He didn't know how much of the situation the were saw.

He supposed he had wanting to protect Jamie in common with Lily, at least.

AMIIItotic

saeeedusk

 

[saedusk]

The gym bag was still his lifeline, even if it gave him no comfort, and he clung to it so tightly his knuckles turned white. It was obvious whatever they'd gotten into wasn't all good and it wasn't sorting things out in the way you were supposed to—with words. Maybe Jamie was naive, but he hated to see anyone fight.

"You're... playing it off," he told them, both of them. The words tasted sour on the back of his tongue, but he tried his best to be up front with his feelings. Both Lily and Shiloh were his friends, they'd want him to stand up for himself, wouldn't they? "W-Why are you fighting? Can't we just... I dunno... talk about this?" They wouldn't be mad at him for butting in, would they?

There was a hopeful look in his eyes then, desperately trying to fight through the worry. It was the same hope that made him think only moments ago—before both of their obvious attempts to brush it off like nothing—that maybe he was misunderstanding something.

AMItotic

sorry it took me 3 years to reply....

Melancholies

but i still rly wanna do this rp..........