[PRP] Cafe cleansing (Oliver & Renard)

[shibrogane]

Renard nodded encouragingly. "Eventually the cold becomes little more than something to be noted, and then ignored," he said. "It's still there, of course, but it isn't all-consuming. You will never be able to turn off your clairvoyant abilities entirely without magical intervention, but you will be able to live with them. Does this sound like something you'd like to pursue?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver moved like he was about to nod, but he hesitated. The way Renard spoke made it seem like there was a method—however obscure—to rid of the ability in its entirety. Still, as he thought about it, Shiloh came to mind; how much longer had his brother been immersed in magic compared to him? He could wave his hand and have plants obeying his fingertips, have corpse-people at his beckon, do all sorts of other crazy s**t, and then Oliver? Well, he could transform into a raccoon.

He was frowning, but there was something like resolve in his disposition too. Should he really throw this away? And then there was the thing with the undeath bond...

"Yes." He said after a moment of consideration, "I think it could prove to be more... beneficial to live alongside it, rather than stifle it entirely." His hands were gripped tightly around his drink.

He could pull his own weight too.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard smiled. This time it went all the way to his ocean-blue eyes. "I agree," he said. "Your powers are a gift; it is up to you to hone them. I'll teach you how."

He set his pen down. At some point, a squiggly line or two had been added. "Shall we make an appointment? This place isn't ideal for our purposes."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

His powers were a gift; it was funny how easily compliments swayed Oliver around. This explained his relationship with the alpha-Elliot, actually.

"That works for me." He said with a nod. Suddenly he was pulling his own notebook out, this one rather professional looking if not for the conspicuous pawprint in the bottom right corner. Opening it revealed ledgers and dates; a planner.

"If you give me a time and date, I'm very punctual." Oliver was essentially categorizing this under "studying", and he took it seriously as such. "Or would a number to reach me work better? Both?"

shibrogane

teach me senpai

 

[shibrogane]

Renard nodded approvingly at Oliver's planner. He'd been doodling in his; apparently Renard took the dates along the left margin of each page as more of a suggestion than a rule. "Once a week," he said. "Are you free on Wednesday evenings? I warn you, I'm a harsh taskmaster; you'll have to practice often if you wish to see results. If you slack, I will tell you."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver was nodding as he jotted some things down in his book. Renard may have taken the dates as a suggestion, but Oliver evidently took them as law. All his scheduled tasks were neatly crossed out upon completion, some highlighted with a key that only Ollie would know. It was how he kept sane, honestly, considering how busy he was.

And it looked like it was going to get busier.

Still, he relished the chance to actually learn about his magic. Anything to become more useful—competent—whatever. "That works perfectly, actually." He had a class in the morning, but he tried hard to keep the later hours of the day relatively free. Despite this, most of his homework was completed between the 10pm-5am hours in fits of wakefulness. "I would rather you be harsh than complacent. Being told that I'm making progress without having done so is more irritating than anything. Besides the fact that it'd only be a waste of both of our time."

He nodded to himself.

"An address?" He looked back up at Renard, pen still pressed against the paper. "I do appreciate this, by the way."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard gave his address. "I'm glad," he said. "It's been some time since I took a student. I trust you'll make it worth my while." He smiled, and then looked back to his planner. He added in his appointment with Oliver, apparently not caring that he wrote through his doodled circle thing.

"In the meantime, may I borrow your hand for a moment?" He arched a brow. "I promise I won't harm you; I will just lessen the impact of your powers until our first lesson."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

A few pen scribbles later and the information was jotted down. "If there's one thing I'm good at," He spoke as he closed the planner up, "It's my academics." He enjoyed studying, even if he went too far with it. He liked learning, even if he drove himself anxious over it. Magic was something new entirely, and it was almost... exciting, in a way? Renard Leroux...

Oliver did hesitate for a second, but he extended his hand out after a moment. "Sure." So much for the not-liking-touch-standoffish thing. Oliver supposed it was a good sign, if anything.

Then again, the absence of his thumb print burned with phantom pains, even though he was certain the invisible injury was past the point of hurting. ******** Ezra.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard took one of the paper napkins, and used it between the two of them to avoid touching. "This ought to lessen the impact, if nothing else," he said. "I didn't have very long to put it together; if there are negative effects, all you have to do to break it is take red ink and break the circle."

He took a felt-tip marker and quickly inscribed a more refined version of his planner-doodle. "A quick lesson to begin," he said. "A circle indicates protection. The Norse rune for protection and defense, Hwaz, connects three triangles that form the three points of algiz, the life rune. Hwaz was sacred to Odin, who gathered the souls of the dead; there is also the rune yr, the death rune. Life cancels out death, and leaves behind protection. Triangles are an especially stable shape, and three gives better protection than simply leaving you with a circle."

Renard capped his marker, and, finally, tapped his bare fingertip against the drawing on Oliver's palm. It flared a light lavender, and disappeared. "If you turn your hand to catch the light, you'll be able to see it," he said. (If Oliver tried it, he would see the lines drawn in a silvery spider-silk shade beneath the whorls of his palm.)

"Wednesday at six? I'll have a syllabus ready for you then."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver watched in absolute wonder as Renard set out to work, his eyes trying to burn the image of the symbol into his irises. First improptu lesson, don't forget it Beaumont. "And you did this all on the fly?" He said after a while, his eyes watching the tip of the marker all the way through Renard's explanation of the shas.

Circles for protection, triangles for stability, three seemed to be important evidently. Life cancels death, so did that mean contradicting symbols brought a rune back down to equilibrium? And all of this about Norse runes... did they have any meaning specifically? Magic was about belief wasn't it, so was it solely a technique that Renard implemented himself?

Anyone could see that Oliver's mind was whrring a mile a minute.

"That's interesting..." He said after a moment, eyes glazing over his hand as he turned it in the light. It was barely there, but he could see the light colored outline of the mark. "That works, absolutely. Anything I should bring other than my person?" If Renard was a harsh taskmaster, then Oliver was a harsh student, compromised of 50% intrigue and 50% questions. He'd bring paper and pencils of course for notes, but he had a feeling that magic was much more hands on that anything he'd dealt with before...

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"A Sharpie or similar permanent marker," said Renard. "Blank paper. Not notebook paper; printer paper is fine if you don't want a sketchbook." He tapped his planner; he had an odd pattern to his tapping. Index index ring pinky middle: he repeated that same pattern over and over, and didn't seem to realize he was doing it. "I doubt we'll progress to creating your own sigils on the first lesson, but I'll give you a more refined version of that spell to practice and use if you need to focus on something else..."

He closed his planner. "Do you sense anything?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver took a mental note. Sketchbook was more than doable, sharpies were easy to come by, especially for a scrapbooker. Oliver was... sort of paying attention to the tapping? He had an odd fixation with hands from the get go, but if the doodling was ever a clue, then he had a sneaking suspicion that Renard didn't do things without meaning behind them.

Or, well, he was reading into it.

At his question though, Oliver tried to focus. For now, his mental world was silent. "I mean, if anything out there is... dying." He made a face, "I can't tell for the moment. I'm sure I'll have a more decisive answer by the end of the day." He offered a small smile.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Here is my contact information," said Renard, pulling out a silver business-card case and plucking one out. "Call me if something seems not-right. Or text; I will respond to either. Right now is a rather busy time at the gallery, but I do try to be prompt and I expect that you will do the same." He leveled a very teacherly look at Oliver.

"So we are agreed? This Wednesday."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The card was plucked up and turned over Oliver's hand delicately. How fancy.

"Of course." He said, to both things. "This Wednesday at six o'clock sharp." He offered a small but grateful smile. "I'll definitely take you up on the offer, and you can assuredly expect the same."

He opened the planner to tuck the card away within it, his scattered homework more and more forgotten on the table.

shibrogane

can probably end on ur post?