[PRP] They Scream (Ashton/Lily)

[Daekie]

"It's magic," Ashton murmured thoughtfully, "it don't gotta explain s**t. As far as I can tell, the job fair never happened in this reality we made - we'll have to wait for the full moon, but it's possible I'm the only wolverine, now." It was an unpleasant thought. "Well -- I met another, actually, but she was never part of our pack before; and I can hardly force her to join us. If she's determined to be a danger," and he hummed, on-key, a few notes, "it's hardly on us what she does."

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

A strange feeling stirred in Lily's gut at the mention of no Blackfriar's fiasco, something blended between relief and anguish. No Blackfriar's meant that in this timeline, no one got hurt, but so many people still remembered, so did that even count? She still felt the panic from the thoughts of the blood, the way they had held down and broke the already-broken, the victim of a cruel magic that was kin and kind to her own.

"If you're still a wolverine, then the others we hurt are still wolverines, too, all of them, and they probably all remember, so it's all for s**t," she said dourly into her arms, glancing up only to give Ashton a hard look at the mention of the new packmate. "Okay, but it is kind of on us. It's big-time on us. If she doesn't know how to handle the shift, then it doesn't matter if Blackfriar's wasn't a thing in this timeline, because it'll just happen again the first full moon she spends out of the otherworld."

She hadn't considered that there would be people who rejected the idea of Pack, when it had felt so easy and natural to accept. "She doesn't have to join us," she responded, but there was a certain dejection to her voice. "But she's gotta know the basics at least."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"We don't know," Ashton clicked his tongue, "if the people who weren't in the void remember, do we? As I said, she wasn't part of our pack before -- so either she's a new development to this instance of the world, or she was transforming in Ashdown every full moon and had some way to keep it under control. As long as nobody gets hurt and nobody finds out about us, it's not our problem if she chooses to lock herself up for a week a month."

There it was, really -- the ugly, callous cruelty endemic behind Ashton's polite facade - if it wasn't advantageous to him, it didn't matter. Lily knew it better than most, of course - he could be terrifyingly tender when he wanted to be, but there was something predatory under his skin that meant a wolverine had never been anything less than fitting.

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Oh," Lily responded, shrugging her shoulders as she glanced back to Ashton. "Yeah, I guess we don't really know. It wasn't mentioned in the new world manual."

Taking initiative was a new thing for Lily, and she didn't like it--it was messy, it took effort, and it made her bear the uncomfortable weight of responsibility on her shoulders. She hadn't signed up for this, but there was no way to be blase about it, not when she'd seen what she'd seen and done what she'd done at a
Blackfriar's that apparently never happened in this world. The Lily that had dated Ashton might have been nonchalant enough to agree with him, but now there was a tightness in her chest that kept her from relaxing, from simply accepting his chilly attitude.

"We took you in, didn't we?" Lily said dully, looking out towards the streets. "And besides, the whole 'no one knowing about us' thing is ********. I checked my youtube page, I'm like the pewdiepie for furries who like yoga." Her stand-in for the month she'd been away had been just as nonchalant about her changes as she was, and she'd even made a video called 'Yoga for the Full Moon'. Secrecy was pretty much out the window at this point.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"If Lucas hadn't found me, I would have found a way to deal with it," Ashton murmured dismissively. "Maybe this you was, but this me - nobody knew, as far as I can tell. I suppose I'll have to check your videos to see if I appear in any of them." He made it sound like a trial, really, as if he was long-suffering and Lily's failure to tell him only compounded upon it. "I know myself well enough to know I'd have instructions on how to hide the changes somewhere..."

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"You're not," Lily sighed, her eyes flickering to the ground. "There's pictures of us on Instagram, but it looks like it was before...whatever happened this time. No one knows you're a furry ******** this, her mouth twisted into a thin smile, amused and sardonic. "Well, I mean, you were a furry ******** before all this magic stuff, but your secret's safe with me." From under her bangs, she winked.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"I," Ashton sighed, mock-offended, "will not stand for this kinkshaming, Lily." He leaned backwards, almost falling over but not quite, catching himself in such a way he'd never been in danger at all. "If I wanted to be outed as your favorite furry ********, it'd need to be one of those ridiculous dramatic coming-out fetish parties, of course."

AMItotic

 

[AMItotic]

"Yeah, sign me up for...not that," Lily snorted, still laughing under her breath. On impulse, she reached for her phone, but caught herself just before she flipped it up for a quick instagram check. Her reception was garbage in the otherworld, and upon recalling that, she lapsed into an awkward silence, staring out into the foggy malaise that drifted inevitably in the distance.

"So, um, yeah...on that note..." She shuffled to her feet, dusting the dirt from her dark pants. "I should, uh...go. Before the otherworld decides it wants to manifest some spooky other-fetish party, because nah." Her eyes drifted down to where Ashton sat and she smiled in the slow, creaky way that she only did when she was uncomfortable.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

Ashton's lips quirked upward in a slow, knowing smile, and he raised one hand to wave Lily off. "Don't worry about me. I'll find my way home eventually, if this place sees fit to let me do so. Have a good day, mm?"

He made no move to get up, no move to reach for her; just that goddamned lazy smile that always sort of felt like you were unsure of what you were doing. Always the same with Ashton, wasn't it? Always the same. With some people you pulled back brusque words and harsh movements and found someone brittle and scared underneath -- but Ashton was just ambition and control, all the way down in his bones; and with someone like that there was no room in him for other people, not really.

AMItotic

fin on yours?

 

[AMItotic]

"Yeah, um..." Lily bit her lip, shrugging her shoulders. Her instinct was to offer to stay, to figure out an exit together, like packmembers and friends and partners. But she knew Ashton's game, and she knew where this led if she offered herself up to help.

"...will do. Check ya later," she nodded, walking in a vague direction towards where she expected to be. A few steps in, she began to crouch down, and with a shuffle of her form the fisher darted away, a dark blur in the fog.

Daekie

and wrap if you're good to go