[PRP] missed connection (Shiloh & Dhan)

[shibrogane]

Dhan was not okay.

He shook Shiloh's hand anyway, though. "Sure," he said. "Anyway, don't know that you can call yourself a stranger anymore, since you know stuff even my twin sister doesn't." He sighed. "Her name's Roshanna, before you ask." Dhan altered his path towards the nearest 7-11, though he was still pretty much going at a slow mosey. "It's not like I think Borr'd have any problems with it if I was a girl," he said. "My dad would, though. 'Cause I've been telling him I'm not for so long. My sister, too."

It was easy to see Dana in his introspective expression. They had all the same mannerisms, the same callused fingers.

"Beaumont, though. You know Oliver Beaumont? I've been to some of his recitals... " He trailed off. "Not 'cause they were his. I, uh. Music. I do that too."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh took note of those similarities. He hadn't been around Dana long enough to observe all her slight mannerisms, but it was uncanny enough. Liam had said the deck reshuffled in odd ways. Shiloh's own hands were rough, knuckles battered from years of scrappy fist fights and nails gnawn on from ages of anxiety.

"Do I know Oliver Beaumont." He got a laugh out of that as they started to walk. "He's my brother. Actually, we're twins too. Identical. He got all the smarts though." He tapped his head to drive this point home, "I just got the charming personality." Which was to say he wasn't charming at all and very rough around the edges.

"What'do you play though? I took band in middle school till they stopped letting me play 'cause of my grades. Switched over to art instead." He shrugged, "Still really admire people who have that kinda talent though, but I can appreciate it enough just listening to it too."

He didn't touch again on the gender thing. He saw a lot of similarities between him and Jamie, but he had learned they were better left brought up by the other party rather than on his own. It was a touchy thing that he had no personal experience with anyway, nothing that he could give any solid advice on other than friendly support.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Nice. My sister's the smart one, too," said Dhan appreciatively. Twinship, especially the I'm the dumb twin kind, was sort of a bond even among people who weren't the exact twins involved. "Um, so... Lots of stuff. I'm kind of really good." He ducked his head, adjusted his hat like it might slip off at any moment. "My dad got me a tutor, his name's Ezra? Anyway, we're working on guitar now. Before it was piano, and violin before that, and I'm pretty alright at cello and bass. Flute's not really my thing but it's important to have a working understanding of your instruments before you start writing songs for them."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh almost paused mid-step, and then proceeded to trip over his own foot in an attempt to over compensate. Way to go, Beaumont. "Holy s**t." His eyes sparkled, "You really are good at a lot of stuff." His brother was really good at piano, but he was pretty sure the music insight to make good music stopped there. It wasn't Dhan's talents that made him slip up though.

"Ezra huh? Is he any good?" If it was the same Ezra, he obviously wasn't on fire anymore, unless Dhan was totally chill with being taught by someone utterly engulfed in flames, but he sort've doubted that. Either way, he was trying to keep his anxious anticipation down to a minimum. "I mean, gotta be if he knows that much..."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Anything with a spit valve is not my thing," said Dhan darkly. ******** the entire brass section. "It's kind of a Jack of all trades thing?"

Dhan gave Shiloh a look like what. "Yeah," he said. "I guess his parents were really into letting him Pursue His Dreams. He's been my tutor since I was like..." He thought about it. "Ten? He was like fifteen then."

He said, "You okay? 'Cause you kinda tripped there."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Holy ********, that's crazy man." Tutor at fifteen... "I mean, I didn't doubt he was good good, just good as in like, a good teacher." He scratched the back of his head, "And yeah, I'm fine, just wasn't expecting you to be so goddamn handy."

"Anyway, was only askin' cause sometimes I think about trying the music thing out. 'Cept I'm probably rusty as ******** and I'd have to start over from scratch if I wanted to do anything with it." He was lying, sort of; it was more of a convenience thing because he really wanted to pinpoint some information about Ezra. "He tutor other people?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Dhan nodded. "Yeah, though I guess he got some pretty bad burns in like an accident recently." He dug in his pockets until he unearthed his phone. "He might be more up for beginners than me, I'm doing all sorts of weird s**t. What's your number? I'll text you his email and stuff, you can reach out if you want?"

Melancholies

SMOOTH, shiloh!!

 

[Melancholies]

Well, if there was any doubt before, it was dispelled now. "Hopefully that doesn't mess up his playing." He frowned a little bit. He didn't know much about Ezra other than what was relayed to him from Jeremiah, but as far as he was concerned, he wasn't Melany, which meant he felt at least a little bad.

He composed himself as he dug out his own phone, the back case on it having the pattern of a turtle shell, the lock screens being a series of really stupidly gay selfies he took with Jamie. He rattled his number off, "I really appreciate it y'know." He smiled, genuine, lopsided, "And like, if you ever wanna hang out some other time, you can totally hit me up too." That had been the original goal, anyway. Ezra was just a bonus.

He perked up when the 7/11 came into view. "Real talk with me for a second though. Red icees or blue?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Blue," said Dhan, texting Shiloh Ezra's number and email address. "They say it's blue raspberry or something but raspberries are neither blue nor taste like that." His phone was boring and didn't even have a case on it. The text was just a contact file for Ezra Fitzpatrick. "I'm not a big texter, but if you can handle misspellings I can help out."

He opened the door to the 7-11 for Shiloh. "Although I guess if you can mix red and blue, that's optimal."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Nice." He immediately added the information down, eyes glazing over the last name. Might be worth bringing up when he eventually went to see Eve. "Blue is the ******** s**t."

He walked inside, assessing the mostly empty convenience store. "I've never actually mixed them?" It sounded blasphemous really, but he'd try it. Possibly. "I'm literally the worst texter in the world, so it's no problem." He laughed because that was an understatement, "s**t, Ollie could come too. Maybe you guys could jam sometime." He started over to the icee machine as he spoke.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Dhan grinned back. "Yeah, that sounds like fun." He followed after Shiloh, rummaging in his messenger bag for his wallet. The whole thing was specifically organized; he only needed one embarrassment about seven dollar bills per lifetime. Once he had it secured, he said, "The best way to mix them up is to do it in layers. Then it looks cool, too."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh's eyes sparkled, "That's real fancy there bud." And then he turned back to the icee machine, his own wallet slowly coming out into the light of day. He fished a couple bucks out.

"Hey, where'd you get that bag by the way?" He turned to give it another glance. Turtles were the favorite and bears a far off second, but whales definitely made it into the top three. Also it totally looked like something Jamie would cart around. "It's neat. My boyfriend's totally into s**t like that."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Etsy," said Dhan, pleased to have been complimented. He started filling his giant Icee cup, swapping between red and blue flavors as he went. At the end, it looked like a demented Trolli-brand gummy worm, the kind that had sour sugar on them, if it repeated a bunch of times. "I can text you a link when I get home."

He smiled at Shiloh, a little emboldened by Shiloh not being a cishet. "It was kind of pricy, but worth it. I'm saving up to move out of my dad's place for now, but it's important to at least get nice things sometimes, you know?" He patted the plush, polka-dotted side of the shark with his free hand.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Oh totally." The Shiloh of this world was, having been established longer wth jamie, working towards that same goal. Unfortunately the Shiloh as he was now didn't have that sort of responsibility--but he was doing alright with the savings that had been preemptively built up. Jamie was good impulse control anyway.

He followed suit with the icee abomination, curious with anticipation. "Though I guess most of my extra cash goes towards art supplies. That s**t gets real pricey." It was a shame too, because he hadn't been devoting as much time to art with all the stupid magic bullshit going on. He clicked his teeth, "My goddamn iPod's on its last leg too. Responsibility sucks a**." He really needed to look into a job.

He froze, suddenly realizing that he might be working at Posies in this universe. ********>

shibrogane
 

[shibrogane]

Dhan was an emotionally astute kind of guy. He gave Shiloh a compassionate side-eye and led the way out of the convenience store after they paid. "It does," he said. "But being without music's like, the cruelty to unseat all others. Let me know if your iPod goes, okay?" He had like five of them.

"What kind of art do you do? I told you all about my hobbies, it's only fair you do the same."

Melancholies