[PRP] Pyramid Skein (Horace & Oliver)

[Melancholies]

"I dunno, is it?" He looked back to his work, "I guess I'm just not used to it. Was never much of a talker." Was never usually so modest either, but he felt comfortable enough to be so. "But if you say so." He seemed relieved.

"Anyway, I'll probably have at least someone else. Jamie—uh, Shiloh's boyfriend—he'll probably be there at least." He pursed his lips, "I don't think I have anything to worry about if I run into her again. At least, unless if I provoke her—but y'know... I'll probably be going the other way if we see one another again." He laughed, but it didn't sound so much like a genuine laugh; more or less just conversation filler. "I still dunno what I am shifter wise either. It's a little nerve wracking..."

He stopped for a second like he was thinking, like he was going to say something, but apparently thought better of it when he started working again.

"That's funny though, about the project." He rubbed his nose to hide a dumb little grin, "Sucks, but still kinda funny." He readjusted his legs under the table only to accidentally bump against Horace's again with a shock. Naturally he jumped a second time, eye wide, "Sorry! sorry. Wait did—did you do that?" Static shocks were not usually things felt through shoes after all.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yep," he said. "Boyfriend's the rabbit, which makes planty Shiloh the... rabbit food." Horace snickered. Look, it was still funny, "How do you figure out what you are - just from the first time it, uh, happens?" The ears were frankly great.

"So can I see sometime? Like, when you shift. I bet it's something cool." He propped his chin on one hand, not bothering to work on his cross stitch. "Yeah, it's a drag and-" He sucked in his breath when Oliver's leg bumped his and jerked back. It was one thing for him to touch others, but having people touch him without warning was still antsy.

After a moment, Horace remembered to breathe again. "Uh, uh, what? Do what?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver's eyes were still huge as he blinked rapidly. Thankfully, he regained his composure a lot quicker than Horace did, "The shock?" He furrowed his brow, "That shocked me."

He scooted back in his chair a little bit, just to accommodate for any other sudden shock accidents. Except then he puffed his cheeks out when he realized he was too far from the table now, and then proceeded to spend the next minute or so readjusting the chair around with a series of unfortunate screech sounds as the legs slid across the floor. Other people being jolted and nervous and antsy had a tendency to make him a little bit antsy too.

"It's uh— it's nothing, probably. Just a little static." He scooped the needles back up again, seemingly satisfied with his chair being... right back in the exact spot that he had started in, way to go. "You can watch sometime. Maybe. If I don't die or something the first time."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

A shock? Horace opened his mouth, then closed it, rearranging his feet underneath the table. "You're too cute to die, anyway." He waved his hand dismissively before stopping short. "Like, uh, the ears, yeah."

He sighed. "Can I tell you something without you thinking I'm nuts?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver stopped for a second as he silently gawked for the second time this encounter. Pretentious or not, he still didn't know how to take a compliment (however bumbling and roundabout as they were). "I guess the ears were pretty cute..." he agreed hastily. Animals were cute. He was cute because he had fluffy dumb ears that one time. Not because of who he was or anything.

He shook his head, "Given everything I've been through since I came back to Ashdown, I'm not sure you could tell me anything crazier than anything I've experienced." Going back to the eighties was sort of a trip in more ways than one, anyway. "So sure, shoot." Good conversation jump. Maybe. He was anticipating it anyway.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Yep, the ears. Horace liked cute things, but a very specific brand of cute things. But as the topic shifted, his leg bounced uneasily under the table.

"Everything? What've you been up to, Oliver?" He paused; he was talling. "Well, okay... like I have this thing where if I get touch unexpectedly-" Horace frowned, trying to find a way to say things concisely without going into much detail. "I don't really like it. So lately, I think I've been...shocking people who do that. I don't mean to, but... If I'm expecting it, I don't shock people, I think." He shrugged. Holding out his hand, Horace wiggled his fingers. Clearly, he wanted Oliver to test it out.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver blinked really slowly as he took in the explanation, finding his previous resolve unwavered. "It sounds like a reflex." He mused aloud, "And prolly magic related, unless you're just that conductive." He looked down at the hand that was offered out to him.

"Honestly, I'm not terribly fond of being touched either." Despite that, he was setting down his project, "Which sort've sucks, because I still like being touched." He wiggled his fingers right back like their hands were speaking some sort of weird noodle-finger-language before tentatively setting them down, one on either side, fingers gently in the palm of Horace's hand.

"I didn't feel a shock when you touched me before either." He thought about this for a second, "In the car, I mean." And then he laughed in a tired sort of way, "You wouldn't want to hear about the s**t I've been up to. It's a long story."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Well, people have told me I have an electric personality." And, despite being nervous, he winked at Oliver just as he set his fingers in Horace's. "I like ebing touched, too. Or I did - I didn't used to have a problem with it." He sighed but didn't move his hand.

"I'm working on it and I'm better than I was, so there's that. Plus, you didn't get shocked in the car because I wanted to touch you. It was soft." Horace even went so far as to tap his index finger on Oliver's palm. "And of course I want to hear. I know some s**t about-" he dropped his voice again, even though the tables around them remained unoccupied for now. "-magic, but there's so much."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie looked a little nervous too, but it wasn't at the touch. Actually, the touch was sort of keeping him calm like some sort of lifeline. He'd let go if Horace decided to pull away, but for now he seemed perfect content to continue whatever-the-hell it was they were doing with their hands.

"You're such a nerd." He snorted at the pun, answering the tap with a gentle thrum from his own fingers. His hands were decidedly well maintained—if one wanted a stark difference between him and Shiloh, it was always the hands. Shiloh's were calloused and rough. Ollie's were smooth and damn near manicured. Pristine. "It really is a long story, though."

He worried his lip a little before going on, "Did the time between November first and the eighteenth of December seem strange to you in any way?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Takes a nerd to know one." He rolled his eyes at Oliver. Still, Horace didn't move his hand. It was a test, sort of. Or like exposure therapy. He hoped his palms wouldn't sweat.

He thought for a second. "Uh, not really? I mean, that's around when the magic stuff started - latter half of December. Why- what happened?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver clicked his tongue. Even if his palms started sweating, he probably wouldn't care. He was still occasionally poking his fingers around his palm absentmindedly. "That's a bit of a coincidence..." Magic still seemed fairly rare here, all things considered. He doubted the events in the void would have had a direct impact on Horace, but...

He sighed. "There was an... event, I suppose, on the first of November. It had some unfortunate effects on the state of the world." He knew he was being vague, but it was hard to flat out say 'I'm not from this universe'. "You grew up always knowing magic was always a thing, right? That magic existed, however rare...? I'm being presumptuous, but that's how the state of this world is, right?" He took a deep breath, perhaps putting a little to much emphasis on this world than he meant to.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Each little tap got an answering tap from his own fingers. A puzzled look crossed Horace's face. "Yeah, magic's been a thing. I mean it never, ever, ever got talked about back where I'm from - it was like an urban legend almost." He tried to make sense of Oliver's words.

"What happened in November - I didn't notice anything change, but..." He trailed. "Wait, are you trying to tell me you're an alien?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Had Oliver been drinking, he probably would've had to spittake. "An alien? No, nothing like that." Though as he thought about it, his particular position might actually be even more outlandish. "Well..."

"Do you believe in parallel universes and all that?" He was still throwing hypothetical questions around, testing the waters, procrastinating on the subject. "That there may have been thousands of different yous existing in thousands of different cycles?" Or something like that. All Oliver knew was that the world kept repeating and this world wasn't his own.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yeah, sure. I've never had a reason to be especially skeptical, so..." He trailed off, looking at Oliver closely. "What do you mean by 'cycle', though? The different universes or some kind of rebirth thing?" Horace believed in ghost or the energy of past events, believed in any number of things simply because the world was more fun if he believed.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver looked to be thinking over his words for a moment, somewhat pensive, before finally speaking again, "A mixture of both, I guess. Shiloh could explain it better; I'm not so sure on the specifics." His eyes looked to their hands again in deep thought, gaze not really on them so much as beyond them.

"But sure, say this world loops over and over and over. Maybe it's not always the same though." His own life here with Eli had taken a different turn anyway, as had Jamie's and Shiloh's. "Sometimes it resets and you start off somewhere different, or your hand is dealt a little differently." Oliver sighed, looking rather remorseful if not dowe right guilty.

"I'm not... from here. A lot of us aren't. You being magic like this--being able to access otherworld--I'd think you'd be in the cycle too somehow, but maybe since you woke up to it after..." Thinking, thinking, thinking, "...after what happened to the world I was from, I mean."

"Sorry. I probably sound like I've gone mad." He laughed a little sadly, "I felt like I have, honestly. Maybe I am."

The Semblance of Unity