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Ylva was sitting in a little carved out area of the Thorns. She wanted to be away from the Freehold when she was butchering a dozen little creatures.
She sat surrounded with a pile of gore. The bodies sat on one side in various states of butchered and knawed on.
On the other side is two organized piles. What looks like lollipop sticks and lollipop heads. Though anyone who is here can see that they are made of bone and meat respectively.
She is humming a little tune under her breath and sucking on one of the already made lollipops.
Wearing just her long leather coat, kitsune features on full display. White hear flowing behind her a little stained with blood. Tails swirling happily in tune to the humming.
Lauren isn't trying to be stealthy - she's not very good at it anyway, but sometimes it's worth trying. Not today though. Today she's practically ambling, so the sound of hooves on undergrowth precedes her. That said, there's a slight sheen of sweat on the fur of her shoulders and she's breathing a bit heavier than normal. Seems she's been running a bit. At her side is her faithful hedgebeast Astrid, who's also lightly panting.
Both stop abruptly as they come upon the scene.
Lauren reaches down to place a hand on Astrid's head, not quite as a restraint, but maybe more a caution. "Are we... interrupting something?" she asks. Not unfriendly, but a little unsure.
Ylva looks up tilting her head.
"No? You're good."
She finishes on the piece she is splitting into meat and bone setting them down.
"Feel free to join me. Nice to meet you."
Lauren hunkers down to put herself more on Ylva's level, though she's not getting comfortable quite yet. "Name's Lauren, and this is Astrid" Astrid looks up briefly at being introduced before turning her attention back to attempting to sniff some of the corpses.
"So whatcha doing?"
"Nice to meet you Lauren..." she curs off at Astrids name looking away and taking a deep breath.
"Nice to meet you too Astrid, you can call me Ylva." As she looks back there is moisture in her eyes.
"Im making Lollipops? Is that not obvious?
Lauren chews on her bottom lip, suddenly feeling self conscious. "Well, now that you say it, I guess so. It's just... not something I've seen someone do before."
A pause
"Any kind of lollipop actually."
There is a chuckle to her voice as she speaks.
"Well, I'm an interesting sort. Keeps the habits He gave me at bay."
In other, less Thorny environs, that comment might cause confusion. But here, and with both of them being what they were, well, it makes perfect sense. Lauren nods, expression serious. "We do what we must. That's kinda why I was running earlier. Burn off the... memories"
"Yeah, I understand that. Mine are quite hard to burn off. And tend to pop up at inopportune moments."
She leans forward, making a little nest for her head with her tails and rests on them.
"I'm freshly back. So still learning. You ran into me on a good day."
A half suppressed giggle.
"Sorry, couldn't resist."
Lauren's grin is sudden and wide. "Never apologize for wordplay," she says. Then she settles into more of a sitting position as her expression goes more serious. "I don't think the learning ever really ends, but it's important. Glad it's a good day though."
"Yeah I suppose not. I can hope I won't have to fight it every day though."
There is a half grin half grimace as she continues.
"Yeah, better first impressions these days. How about yourself? New to town or new back?"
"Not... super new, and I spent a lot of time finding my way back. And I had Astrid for some of that time so it helped, kinda. New to town though. I wanted a fresh start when I got back."
Ylva nods, another grimace at Astrid.
"Well welcome to Philly. It's, well, it's Philly."
A chuckle at her words.
"Couldn't slot back into what you left back home?"
At the grimace, Astrid sits down politely, her head tail moving back and forth in languid arcs. "No need to glare at me. I didn't ask to get found by the horse," she says in a perfectly polite voice, before lightly batting at one of the skulls and asking "You need this?"
Lauren just rolls her eyes. "Not a horse" It's obviously a routine back-and forth. To Ylva's question she shrugs and looks away. "I probably could have, if I'd put some work into it - from Ironside's perspective I wasn't gone all that long. But I... needed to get away from all that."
"No but did you choose your name. Because that's my bother."
She speaks to the hedge beast thinking nothing of it.
"And yes you can have a skull. I don't need all of them."
Turning to lauren she continues.
"I can understand that. I wish I could get away but, it's too much to leave. I was barely gone. As far as anyone Ironside is aware."
Astrid's head tail lashes once. "Did you choose your name?" she asks before laying down to begin gnawing on the skull, pointedly uninterested in the answer.
"Ignore her" Lauren says, almost apologetically. "She's moody on the best day."
"It's a big city. You could prolly start something new without going too far."
Ylva chuckles.
"Its fine really. I understand them more than us half the time."
"Im sure I could but, well, I couldn't leave my Astrid."
"Family?" Lauren asks. "Or partner?"
"Yeah. My wife."
Lauren winces. "Oof, yea. That would make it hard. Have you... managed to reconnect?"
A solid cackle at that.
"In a manner of speaking. She knows I'm alive, we talk every few days but I can't really see her."
After a moment she adds.
"I'm in the Thorns cutting up meat into Lollipops how do you think thay reunion went?"
Another wince. "Okay, fair. That was probably stupid of me to ask, sorry."
A pause.
"No one really noticed I was gone. I mean, I got fired from my job but there wasn't anyone I really cared about who noticed."
"Your fine really. I just miss her."
She chews at her lip finishing the lollipop and eating the stick before grabbing another one from her jacket and settling back on her hands.
"Im sorry, that must have been hard. No one noticed I was gone, but, only because I wasn't gone long enough."
Lauren shrugs, but there's a tightness in her shoulders. "I was gone a week, Ironside. My parents even just assumed I'd been busy and missed our weekly call."
Ylva raises an eyebrow but isn't one to push half truths told to keep yourself sane.
"And you got fired. Of course you fucking did. Gods, this is why I hate working for scumbags."
"Yea, well, it wasn't a huge loss. Just big box retail. Now I'm doing freelance full time and... mostly making it. "
"Ill admit that does sound far more fulfilling. My shop is booming thankfully. Even when I'm not working."
"Oh? What sort of shop do you have?" Lauren sounds genuinely interested. "I don't think I could ever manage an actual shop"
"I run a tattoo and piercing shop. I tried to work my first day back. Bad plan."
She smiles genuinely for the first time. Showing that excitement and passion about her work.
"I've got 4 artists that work under me. My receptionist and my wife who manages it along side me. At the moment I'm just doing art work for them, its the only work I can do from this side and quickly pop over to send."
"Oh that's cool! My parents were always sort of anti-tattoo, so I never really considered one for a while and once I did I could never decide on something I wanted on me permanently"
She reaches into the base of her tails and pulls out a business card.
"Same, but that just made me lean into it more. You should pop by. Jenny is really good at helping people find what fits or I can do something once I can actually work again."
Lauren takes the card and slips it into her pocket after giving it a glance. "Maybe I will. Not sure how well a tattoo would work with fur though." She lightly ruffles the fur of her forearm.
Ylva tilts her head.
"True. You can't see most of mine. But I dunno, they are still there."
There is a chuckle as she continues.
"We could always shave it? Or a piercing. No pressure but the offer is there."
As she finishes she sits up pocketing the finished lollipops and starts putting the last of the meat in a sack.
"I'll think on that. Not gonna lie, I kinda like my fur." She shifts, getting ready to get up. "If you want, I'll clean up the," she waves a hand to indicate the rest of the gone. "If you've got somewhere to be or something."
"I know, I was mostly joking."
She finishes taking what she wants and stands.
"Eh, leave it. Something will come along and eat it. I just need to get back to my hollow. Approaching my limit of being out."
Standing she waves with a smile to Lauren.
"It was nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too!"
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