[prp] crap. (lady + julian)

[cibarium]

"Can I say something?"

Julian had been mostly quiet as he and his young patron left the meeting area, and for the time he'd tiptoed around the yawning chasm of horrors said meeting had freshly opened in his mind so he could be attentive. He'd pensively stayed at a safe enough distance to communicate he was around for support. He didn't think he was going to be asked for much. So he was going to set free this one thing chewing away at his mind and then probably ask if she wanted to be left alone.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I mean... okay," said Lady, stretching her legs out in front of her.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Okay," Julian repeated.

In typical Julian fashion, it took him a moment to actually start saying anything of substance. Even though the Court's magic ensured a perfect fit to any outfit imposed on the wearer, he felt like his shirt was too big for him.

"It's kind of my fault you had to deal with everything that's gone down at these meetings," he said. "Because of the whole patron thing. So I understand if you're angry with me."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I'm not angry at you," said Lady, stretching down to try to touch her toes. Her expression was illegible, in a way her expressions rarely were. She looked fey in any circumstance, like a changeling escaped from faerie. Usually this exaggerated her expressions and made her comically easy to read. Right now, her brows were slightly arched, her eyes half-lidded, her lips stretched into a thin line. "I'm not angry at anyone."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

That was a relief but also Lady was acting weird, so Julian got un-relieved pretty fast. He wasn't moving much, just sitting tensely and trying to massage some kind of cramp out of his palm.

"Are you okay?" he asked. The big question.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Lady flattened her palms on the ground beneath her calves and let her forehead drop down. "No, I'm not okay. But I've gotta be. I have a tithe to think of and I don't even know if this is gonna benefit you in the end and I can't freak out about this. I'm okay."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"You can freak out," Julian shrugged. "Or talk about it if that's better. Or I can leave you alone."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Lady didn't know what to do with her body. There was just too much of it, and not enough to express how she felt. Instead, with a glittery puf!, Lady's human form was subsumed by the small golden fawn that was her other form. The buck sighed, too, another little puf of sound, and flopped, gangling legs gangling in more directions than ever.

Gangle 2: the Ganglening.

This was sort of a freakout, anyway. Lady looked up at Julian dolefully.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

The deer's tithe blinked. He hadn't seen Lady in deermode in a while. It was enough to signal at him things were pretty bad, and so in response he slowly sat down next to her on the floor.

"No talking, then," he said. "That's fine. I should have figured this would put some pressure on you eventually. I think you're doing good, though."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Lady gave him another doleful look. Like, not a look full of pineapples, that would be a Dole-full look. This was a sad look. A ya think? kind of look. A I'm so very sad look. Maybe even a you should give me scratches between my budding antlers because they itch look.

Maybe not.

She de-gangled, curling up small and tight.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"I'm getting the impression you want scratches around your antlers," said Julian.

He was being polite. Deer couldn't talk.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Lady tipped her head towards him, ears flattening low to give Julian access to the Best Scratches Spot.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

It was his solemn duty as Lady's tithe to provide scratches when asked, except that was actually kind of weird to think about it that way, because this was a friend thing. He gently rested his wrist on the deer's neck and abided by the request.

Then he said, "I miss the finches."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Lady whuffed out some kind of deerlike snort thing, which was adorable, especially as no deerlike bodily fluids were involved. She directed her too-human green eyes up at Julian, which seemed to be her way of saying, then hurry up and finish being my tithe.

Absolutely merciless.

cibarium