[PRP] A Silent Arpeggio (Oliver & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

When Horace got an idea in his mind, he tended to be as stubborn as a dog with a bone. He could put the idea, the thought away for days, but he always returned to it, picked it up, stared at it until his eyes felt like bleeding. In this case, it had to do with Oliver. Horace would never admit to the amount of time he spent thinking about Oliver (it... it was a normal amount!), but this time he had good reason.

'Things keep dying.' Like that wasn't supposed to be the most worrisome thought ever.

The problem with his plan to bother Oliver had been the simple fact that he couldn't find the stupid guy. Horace knew he saw him on campus earlier, so where...? Ollie wasn't answering his text either. However, he'd finally located that familiar head of blond hair in the practice rooms. He edged the door open gently.


Hey, he thought at Oliver. He felt oddly warm. Hard at work?

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver hadn't noticed his phone, mostly because his phone had been silenced in the first place. It sat forlorn and abandoned on a music stand, the soft blue light indicating messages unread. As far as Ollie was concerned though, his composition work was far more important.

He'd last worked on it when Ezra confronted him, and he hadn't been back since.

The thought made his hands shake a little, but that was alright. Oliver was a creature of anxiety and he was used to unsteady jitters. It didn't make for a good practice either, and it was obvious with how the margins of his sheet music was scrawled over with weird... shapes, circles, triangles, lines crammed together making some vague semblance of a symbol.

The intrusive mental ping made him jump. How fast could an Oliver whirl around? Very, apparently.

"Christ," He sighed as he settled down, "You startled me. Hey, Horace." At least he recovered relatively quick.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

His hands raised when Oliver jumped, but what could he do? It wasn't like he could steady him with these hands. Not that Oliver needed it, but the thought made him feel... weird, anyway. Horace dropped his hands and clicked the door shut behind him.

"Sorry, Oliver. I thought the, uh, mind thing would be less startling than actually saying something." He looked at the music. "You weren't answering your texts so I came to find you."

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[Melancholies]

Oliver's face screwed up into concentration, his hand scooping up his phone. Sure as s**t, there were all the texts. "Ah..." His eyes were flicking around as he scrolled the messages, "I'm... sorry. I was distracted."

He set the phone down with a sigh, and then he did something a little weird: he smiled, or at least tried to, but it was obvious his focus was hardly there, his energy was razzled. The fine point sharpie in his hand was set down onto the music stand with a delicate clink. "I've had a lot on my mind. I honestly wasn't expecting you, that's all." He started to gesture to a seat, but after a second thought he simply scooted over on the piano bench where he was sitting.

"Did... you need me for something?" He asked quietly.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I'm sorry for interrupting," he said, but Horace still slung his backpack off, letting it fall to the floor, and sat on the piano bench next to Oliver. Their thighs weren't touching, but almost.

Horace glanced at Oliver. "You sound distracted, sorry. But... do you remember what you said at that weird meeting?" I worry.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

He shook his head, "I wasn't getting that much work done anyway."

At Horace's prompting, Ollie fell silent. Right the party, the weird s**t. He held out his hand with his palm up, turning it slightly as he tried to catch the light. "Do you see it?" There was a faint sigil there, the outline shining like a thin thread of spider silk, barely there. If Horace was more observent, he might notice the smoothness of his thumb too, the absence of a print; but that wasn't Oliver's focus. "The mark helps. It--" He shook his head.

"It's called... thanatophilic clairvoyance, I guess." His eyes glazed over a little with thought, "I can sense death. Like, when something dies, I feel it. Someone hit a pigeon when I was on the bus this morning." He made a face, "Chai woke me up at 3:27 this morning because I felt her kill a moth in the other room."

He looked over at Horace. "Um. It kinda sucks."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Thanatos," he murmured, catching hold of Oliver's hand in his. Hands, Oliver's hands were okay, somehow. Their hands, more specifically. He stared at the symbol, touching it with his finger. It didn't feel any different from his normal skin. It looked liked a white tattoo.

He frowned. "That sounds shitty, to be honest. Did it just... manifest? Maybe we can dampen it somehow."

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[Melancholies]

Oliver grimaced, but it wasn't from pain. "You could... call it that, I guess." He shrugged, "I mean, it did come out of nowhere, yeah. Just a little while before the meeting..."

"The symbol there sort of dampens it." He told him, "But it's kind of like... I dunno, I liken it to morphine. The drug doesn't remove the pain, just your ability to care about it. Still, it creeps up on me sometimes." Oliver sighed, "But it's better than it was. There's probably a way to stifle it completely with magic, but I'm learning to try and control it."

He didn't seem bothered when Horace took his hand. In a way it helped to calm him? He could still feel the urge to tap his foot or jitter but it was stifled for the moment. "I guess I probably should've expected it."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Does it feel weird when I touch it?" His finger still pressed into the symbol. "We could probably find a way to dampen it further. I can try to help you...somehow. I'm not sure... I'm not sure how it can be a useful magic thing, really. But then again, I got magic shocks whether I want them or not." But he still wasn't shocking Oliver. He smiled wryly.

"Expected this kind of magic? How even?" Horace snorted. "What were the other weird things before the meeting?"

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[Melancholies]

"No, it doesn't feel weird." He watched as Horace played with his palm, but said nothing. "I forget it's there a lot of the time, actually." It looked like he was waffling on saying something, but dropped it for a moment.

"I mean," He huffed, "A few weeks ago I got the ability to like, see magic? But not in ways you'd expect." He wiggled his fingers, "If someone's casting, I can sense it. Shiloh's tastes like spring and my friend Nasir smelled like home." He shrugged. "My head's full of so much... stuff all of the time now, it's hard to do stuff like I normally did..." Ollie was kicking his feet, his heels scuffing against the ground.

"I guess I could use that to track people, if I really wanted. The effect stays there for a little bit after they cast." He sniffed, "The death thing is just there all the time though. I met a guy—he's the one who put this mark on my palm—and he offered to teach me more about how to control it."

The waffling finally broke through, "He said people with my ability can intervene with deaths." Kick, kick, kick...

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Oh, I know Nasir. That probably fits him, I think." Horace paused, then laughed a little, awkwardly. "I hope I smell extra cool or something to you. I'm sorry this all kind of avalanched on you." Horace had stopped tracing the symbol and was just absentmindedly moving his finger in random patterns on Oliver's palm.

His fingers tightened briefly. "Is this guy like... safe and stuff? He just foisted some magic on you and said 'hey I can teach you if you want'?" ********, that sounded super shady. "The ability to potentially intervene in a death is.. great, but what are the consequences of it?" Worry coated his voice.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I mean, I kind of knew him? He's from the other side too. Like, my world." He huffed, "I'm pretty sure he's safe?" What was that supposed to mean? "I met a version of him when we time traveled to the eighties."

He looked down at his palm again.

"He did say, uh—un...undeath bonds? I think that's what he called them—that they had consequences involved, but I didn't ask him about it." Oliver shrugged. There was a queer look in his eyes for a second—the blueness of his irises shimmering with some sort of emotion—but nothing seemed to come of it. He just wanted to be stronger, stop following in his brother's footsteps...

Wait, was this how Shiloh felt? Oliver was always ahead of his academically and he knew it and he knew Shiloh resented him a little for it. Oh god. Now he was biting his lip with this sudden revelation; it was a terrible feeling.

"I-It's—" He took a deep breath, "It's fine. It's fine." It was. He looked fine now, even if he had just gone through a range of several different emotions in the past two minutes. "I dunno what your magic is like to me, actually. You haven't shocked me in a while."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Another alien," he murmured. Time travel, aliens, magic - Horace consistently let it roll off of him. It was easier. He, however, instinctively didn't trust this dude who bounded in to bestow some kind of shitty power and then bounded right the ******** off. It seemed beyond shady.

"I think, before you accept his offer, ask about the consequences. Please. It's not fine; I don't want you to get hurt." Horace raised one of his hands to press against Oliver's face. "Promise me you're going to be careful with this?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oh. Okay.

"I-I...?" Oliver was honestly startled by the touch, but not entirely deterred. Mostly it was because he didn't get any sort of touches like that; sure, Eli did them on occasion to be dramatic, but therein was the difference—he expected them from that guy, not from 'I shock people on accident because I have a thing about touching people Horace Nokoni' or whatever the ********. "I-I mean, I don't think I have anything to lose." His eyes were wide and blue and blinking kind of wondrously, "The mark thing—it's helping, really—I'd probably be going crazy without it. Plus if I can—if I can get better at magic, I can be more autonomous, useful even."

There was the rambling again.

"It's every Wednesday evening at six. I'm pretty sure Shiloh knows him. A-Actually, I think his husband teaches here too." Pause, "I mean, Mr. Leroux doesn't. Then again, I haven't seen Mr. Noor around... but I'm also not a magitech major or anything."

He huffed, just a little bit blushy, totally not leaning a little into the hand or anything. "I'll be careful. Promise."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"You are useful, though," he said, frowning. "But I can understand that feeling. I...I mean, if you can trust this guy to give you magic lessons..." Horace fell silent again, his thumb moving slightly against Oliver's cheekbone. He wasn't really thinking about it, it was just kind of happening. His other hand had moved, as well, just to insert his fingers a little bit between Oliver's.

His eyes widened a bit. "Mr. Leroux? He was in the, uh, void with you guys. Leila thinks he's evil so..." He sighed. "I don't know very much about him, except that he is powerful. Can you text me when you have your first lesson?"

Horace knew it wasn't his place really to worry, but he did. "And no, I haven't seen Mr. Noor around... I heard he was actually missing, but the school says he's out on a sabbatical."

melancholies