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 Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 10:27 am
So it turned out that Lily had, in fact, been to Equinox Teas & Remedies once before, if only as a curiosity between classes. Tea was expensive, and the only thing Lily had in abundance was student loans and sometimes a stealthily-slipped five dollar bill from one of her regulars, who would tip her when she helped bag groceries, and so handmade tea was definitely in the realm of 'things that Lily liked and wanted', they were definitely out of the realm of 'things Lily can afford if she wanted to eat'.
Today, however, Lily had saved two five dollar bills from her secret shopper friend, and had a curious nagging in the back of her mind about a dream she'd had the other day. It had to have been a dream, of course, because there'd been a stranger in her apartment and she'd had a tail, but it had called to mind a place that had actually been real and left her with an ache to be small that was painfully real. But she couldn't just walk into a place all 'Hi, let's chat, I had a fever dream that we were both furries', she had to buy something first.
With baggy eyes and a matching sweatshirt, Lily hunched her shoulders and perused the aisles slowly, crumpled bills in a softly curled hand. Who did she look for, how did she even broach the topic?cibarium Let me know if I should change anything!
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 4:59 pm
And there she was, just as promised: wheelchair, cute dog and all. Eve's retriever wore a vest that clearly denoted her as a service dog, however, so unfortunately pets and face-smooshing wouldn't be in Lily's near future. However, the shop's proprietor was happy to see a rare customer dip inside. "Hello," she waved the girl in, while fiddling with spreadsheets on an older-looking laptop. "Let me know if I can help you find something."
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 8:43 pm
And there she was, just as promised.
Well, s**t.
Lily hesitated as she peered at the woman from around an aisle, fumbling with the cash in her hands. "Uhhh, right, yeah," she stumbled out a quick response, only to shake her head in instant regret. She was here on a mission, she wasn't about to turn tail now just because she was starting to get answers she didn't like.
She shuffled her way around to the front counter, making an attempt not to be so sketchy in the way her eyes darted back and forth. "So. Um." She put her hands in her pockets, staring at her feet on the ground and wanting nothing more than to curl into her sweatshirt and not exist. "Do you have any teas for...um, helping nightmares?"
God, this was terrible.
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 7:20 pm
As Lily nervously worded her response, Eve wheeled herself out from her spot at the table and maneuvered herself closer, and gingerly reached out to touch her arm in a gesture of reassurance. "You're alright," she said, in a calm, welcoming tone, and -- There it was, that feeling again. This girl had entered the building a stranger, only to become near and dear to heart in the split second following contact. "Oh, I see. Lady sent you, yes? Sit down, if you like, and I'll brew up something calming for you." Hopefully the newfound sense of kinship had helped the girl gather more bearings, as it had with Lucas. But it was always a good time to have some tea.
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 7:56 pm
The store owner touched her arm and then
she was home.
It was inexplicable, the feeling of calm that washed over Lily, but when she glanced down at Eve she felt instant kinship in the woman's eyes, the girl herself a little slackjawed by the whole experience.
"...How did you know?" she muttered slowly, but something in her knew already, this was family, this was safe. She came to seating at the shop's table, curling her feet up on the chair in reverent silence as she watched the woman work, like every movement was soft waves on smooth seas.
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Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 8:29 pm
"That same thing happened with the last one of us I met," Eve calmly explained as she worked. She flipped on the kettle, loaded a steeping basket, and picked out a floral-patterned cup for the girl to use. "My name is Eve, by the way." The water came to boil rather quickly -- it had been used to make herself a cup just recently -- so a moment later Lily had her promised cup-of-something-calming steeping: chamomile, with some lemongrass and mint. "How have you been feeling?" she then asked. It was an easily given question, like she'd asked it to her a dozen times already in the past week.
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Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 11:54 pm
"I'm Lily," she greeted softly, and accepted the cup tenderly, taking a moment to just smell the warm vapors rolling up from the tea. "Really, really weird," Lily shrugged, easily answered as if for an old friend just catching up. "I don't feel right unless I'm...up on places, I gotta perch or I start getting antsy and it's been driving me nuts." As a reflex, she stared intently at the table, considering whether it would be worth it to sit the foot higher, but she chose not to be rude and sat in discomfort instead.
"And then...it makes no sense, but I feel too...big," she winced, and her shoulders scrunched inwards, taking a sip. "So I've gotta get on these tall places, but not be...tall. It's not great."
She settled for pulling her feet up onto the chair she sat on, so at least they would be off the ground. "Is that what you feel, too?" So much of her struggle had been internal, Lily hadn't even stopped to consider that other people could have shared it, much less that their manifestations would be different.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 8:12 am
"No, that's quite different." Eve was nothing if not sincere, though her response was given with tones of curiosity, not concern or disapproval. "But we've all been having a unique experience, I think..." She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper that Lucas had written his number onto, while it was on her mind. "For example, our resident werewolf," she announced with a smirk while sliding the paper over. "Not as concerned with heights as you. Neither am I, but I'm not a were wolf either. Lady has me pinned as a... were fox. I'm sure I'll be wanting to dig myself a den any day now." There was a humorous shrug at that, while she gave Clover a brief scratch on the top of her head.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 6:11 pm
"So there's a werewolf," Lily responded with a metered gaze, taking another sip as she considered how to react. "And you're a werefox, because that's a thing now."
"Is it, like, full-on wolfman status we're dealing with here, or Twilight shapeshifters with contracts to go shirtless six months of the year, because I feel like that makes a biiiiig difference." At this point, she couldn't really choose to disbelieve what Eve said, because Lily felt strongly that this woman was trustworthy, and she didn't feel strongly about most anything. Nevertheless, it would be handy to quantify the situation and figure out precisely where she was standing.
For the moment, she seemed unconcerned with the predicament, but every so often her eyes would drift up to the top of a cabinet or shelf, wondering if maybe...and then her head would tip and she would be back in her cup of tea, focused intently on the smell.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 7:02 pm
"I don't think we know for sure quite yet. I did see Lady transform into a fawn, though. Not an anthropomorphic one, just a regular deer." Besides the shimmering white-gold coat, anyway. "Lucas told me there's rules about the full moon, though, so we'll see soon enough. Apparently it's very important we don't try to rush things, otherwise it gets painful." Whether there might be pain regardless, she didn't know, but she'd be preparing herself for it anyway. Lily's tense expression and demeanor reached Eve's notice eventually, as did her frequent glances to higher places. Knowing what she'd been told of the girl's circumstances, she suggested, "You know, you can sit on the table if it helps you relax. I don't mind."
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 8:35 pm
"When she was at my apartment, she did this thing, and then she had...shark teeth or something, just because." It hadn't seemed creepy at the time, if only because it hadn't seemed real. In retrospect, she maybe should have said something, but it was too late now.
Lily curled inwards and looked down, biting her lip. She hadn't meant to be so obtuse about the height, and it was unnerving to actually be called out on her fixations. "Nah, man, it's cool, I've got mind over matter and whatnot--" But she had already begun to stand, and with a single motion she slid herself onto the tabletop, pulling the teacup into her lap as she dangled her feet over the edge. She wasn't completely barbaric--Lily stared at Eve for a long second, and then slowly lifted the cup in acknowledgement, extending her pinky finger.
"Impulse, it's a hell of a thing," she murmured darkly, gulping down the rest of her tea in one go. She put the cup down and shifted herself around to face Eve, but she kept enough poise to keep her feet off the table. She wasn't a total animal (yet).
"Thank you, though," she added, rubbing her arm. "For getting it, I guess. No one else gets it."
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