[PRP] Post void reunions (Shiloh & Kaleb)

[Melancholies]

Shiloh had honestly lost count of the sheer amount of weird s**t that he had encounter in this new world. He had a license despite the inability to drive, had apparently been going to college for sociology, was some sort of 'turned his life around' go-getter. It was hard. These weren't his shoes and he was trying his best to fill them but it was awkward as all hell, and he hated going through the motions with the grace of a clumsy tailless squirrel.

But whatever. The day was fairly warm for winter and he was making the best of it. Beneath his jacket was a tiny meadow of flowers, and they soaked up the heat that radiated off of his jacket. The sun was radiant. Shiloh was happy, despite everything; his afternoon walk was doing its job.

Except, there was someone passed out on a bench in the park and it was still (in his humble opinion) way too cold to be stationary, let alone napping. Maybe they were dead? He had to investigate. Except, upon closer look...

Their face was obscured by a very thick looking book, but they seemed familiar. "You alive?" He hovered over the other's head, looking down at the book binding without caring to read it. You win today, dyslexia.

Grey Dragon

hope this is ok!

 

[Grey Dragon]

Perhaps it was the warmth of the sun, on top of not sleeping well, that had lured Kaleb into an unintended nap that afternoon despite the winter season. He had been reading in one of his favourite quiet parks, taking advantage of the bright sun and dry surfaces for sitting. Outdoors, in whatever little pockets of nature he could find, the freckled teen could fully take advantage of the peaceful atmosphere and relax. Except today it had backfired, and lying down for comfort had led to closing his sleepy eyes for only a minute... and that minute turned into a full-blown afternoon nap.

When he heard the voice nearby he awoke with a start, pulling the book off his face and sitting up quickly. Kaleb blinked at the familiar face he saw, and then frantically wiped a sleeve across his mouth where a bit of drool had collected at the corner.

"Pardon?" He asked, his cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment. The bridge of his nose hurt where the book had weighed on his glasses, and the sunlight had shifted, leaving half his body in shadow while he slept. The cold felt like it had sunken into his scrawny bones.

It seemed once again Shiloh had appeared to rescue him from a most unpleasant fate.

Melancholies

It's good yeah! Very good! ^o^

 

[Melancholies]

"Hey!" It would be a lie to say Shiloh's expression didn't light up at least a tiny bit, because it totally did. Kaleb had been someone he saw back in the rift—led into the rift, really—and all things considered he hadn't been sure if the guy had made it out okay. Not that he didn't believe in him, but magic was finicky and it took no prisoners.

Unless, like, it was for some weird Otherworld Court bullshit, and then he supposed it took prisoners, but somehow he thought that was a little worse than death? Whatever.

"It's you, sup buddy." He leaned back to give Kaleb some space after his jolt. "Was just askin' if you were alive or not, 'cause you looked pretty comatose there."

Grey Dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

"Oh, I guess sitting up is a good answer then," Kaleb replied with a meek smile. Then he reached up to rub the sleep from his eyes, nudging his glasses up as he did so. "I wasn't intending to sleep, but I guess I've been a bit tired lately."

That was a little bit of an understatement... He had never been that great at getting back to sleep after nighttime visits to that other Ashdown, but ever since the history change he didn't even have a quiet apartment to himself anymore. Sleep was even harder to come by.

A part of him wanted to ask Shiloh about all that weirdness, since the other teen seemed to know what he was doing even before everything had changed. Only a small number of people remembered things had been different, and sometimes the isolation caused by this alternative history was even worse than it was when Kaleb had merely been a normal awkward bookworm. Instead of asking, he apologized.

"Sorry to make you worry," he said scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"s**t, I ain't worrying." He sat down on the bench now that there was room, "Just confused. I mean, s'great day and all, but napping?" He still managed to crack a small smile.

"I guess I am kinda glad you made it out of the void alright." He didn't have a lot of difficulties speaking about what had happened; they seemed to be alone for the most part and he was confident in his ability to scare off anyone who seemed particularly nosy, "Anyway, tired why? New world giving you a s**t end of the stick?" He had a myriad of differences, some subtle, some great, some absolutely terrible, so he could sympathize.

Grey Dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb hugged his book close to his chest, shivering slightly in the cold. It was usually personal questions like this that made him more likely to retreat into himself, shutting out the world before it could once again remind him that he was failing expectations. But Shiloh was one of the few people who had experienced similar life-changing events recently. If nothing else, that earned some candor instead of the usual shallow replies.

"No, it's... well maybe, I don't know. Somehow I ended up with a roommate, and he's pretty loud... So if I have trouble sleeping, it's a bit harder to catch up on sleep during the day." Kaleb was still new to trusting his peers, so some details were conveniently glossed over out of habit. Like the whole not sleeping part. Sometimes he just visited that other Ashdown in his dreams, other times he woke from real nightmares that were only a creation of his own mind, but either way he never seemed able to get back to sleep afterwards.

With the heart of the matter left sufficiently unexplained, Kaleb offered a shy smile and diverted the path of the conversation away from himself. "Have a lot of things changed for you, too?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Weird," He said in response as he listened to Kaleb, letting him get his spiel out even if it was only a vague sentence or so, "But makes sense I guess." He shrugged, leaned forward so his elbows were resting on his knees.

"There's differences, yeah, but most of them are super subtle?" He thought for a moment, "Little s**t, like how I got a drivers license but no ********' idea how to drive." He laughed, "Oh, I guess my boyfriend's fish got really wonked out, check this s**t."

He dug out his phone and flipped through his gallery. The picture he finally turned towards Kaleb's direction were in fact fish, in massive fish tanks, except closer inspection would reveal that they were hardly normal at all; most if not all were eldritch abominations. Some had multiple eyes shifting all over their bodies, others had long unnecessary appendages, some had faces that looked almost human; it was all very unsettling.

"Apparently they can talk now, but not to me, only to him." He huffed like a child who got picked last for a sports team, "Other than that, though, nothing super major. 'Cept how magic is apparently a thing normal people know about."

Grey Dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb smiled a bit at that, just imagining the bewilderment he would have also faced in such a situation. Coming from a large city with passable public transit, he had never gotten his driver's license either. There had never been any need for it, although perhaps he would have enjoyed the freedom to drive even farther out of his way in search of peaceful reading places.

When Shiloh turned his phone to show off the photo of the 'wonked out' fish, Kaleb couldn't help but lean closer. The creatures were both terrifying and fascinating to the science-minded student, and he found the term 'fish' to only loosely describe the things.

"Wow," he muttered, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his freckled nose. "I think I would be kinda scared if something like that started talking to me."

For a long second he was silent. "I haven't really talked to anyone about it, all the magic stuff. It still seems pretty crazy..."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Well, I'd still be careful." He looked at the picture again, tabbing back to his home screen to oogle a selfie of Jamie and him there, before locking it up again. "People know about magic in this world, but I almost think that's worse? There's a massive stigma from what I can tell." He deposited the cell phone back into his pocket, "But, it also means we can use magic more freely here too. Normal people are scared of people like us." He sighed.

"Though, far as I can tell, no one seems to know I'm magic." He leaned back against the bench, "And I'd prefer to keep it that way. I mean, as far as the other non-magics are concerned." He waved his hand vaguely before looking to Kaleb again. "You know, though, you can chat me up if you ever have questions. The last two times we met were sort of, uh," He laughed, "Messy."

Grey Dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb nodded, his brows drawing together slightly with worry. He wasn't sure if Shiloh's use of the words 'we' and 'us' just referred to people who could use magic, or if they were also meant to include him in that group. Aside from getting caught up in magic-related situations, Kaleb hadn't seen any manifestations of magical powers in himself.

"So the plant thing, it happens on this side too?" Kaleb asked, remembering the way Shiloh had so casually dealt with a plant proliferation during their first meeting. "I've only seen one other person do anything magical, but..." He paused. "Is it true that going to the other Ashdown means you have magic?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Yup," he held his hand out, did another glance around to ensure they were as alone as alone could get, and produced a miniature meadow of clover in his palm. He closed the hand crushed it let it dissolve away into nothing, "Course I could before too, but that's cause I'm a Noble. Let's me do this s**t whether magic exists in the real word or not."

He gave him a reassuring grin, even if his words weren't the best thing any normal person probably wanted to hear, "As far as I can tell, definitely." He nodded, "I know when I first started I only went there in my dreams. Course, it's still possible to go there physically on accident... trust me, the longer this goes on, the more the magic roots in you. Something'll pop up soon, and it ain't always a blessing.

Grey Dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb had no idea what nobility had to do with magic, that was an added layer of complexity he had not heard of before. But he did understand the difference between avoiding attention and actively hiding abilities from people who knew they existed. It must have been pretty isolating...

His shoulders sank at the confirmation. It wasn't that he was ignorantly fearful of magic or the people who used it, but Kaleb knew he was an entirely underwhelming sort of person. Just a shy kid who liked books, and could never be what everyone else wanted him to be. He didn't need one more unreachable set of expectations landing on his head.

"I haven't noticed anything magical about myself though, except for the unusual things I've run into here," Kaleb admitted. It matched the rest of his useless self, he thought, but those words stuck in his throat long before he could put a voice to them.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh didn't seem too surprised at this answer, actually. Of course, when Jamie had his first introduction to Otherworld it was with congratulations, you're a ******** rabbit, which was indicative all by itself, but for himself...

He sighed. "You know," He started off quietly, "When I ended up in Otherworld for the first time, it still took a while until I noticed anything magic with myself." He looked to his hand, "I was really really ********' frustrated about it. Like, my best friend turned out to be neck-deep in the stuff and I felt like I couldn't do anything to help him. I just had to sit on the sidelines and watch him stumble through s**t we didn't understand."

He shrugged.

"And the sad thing too is that sort've got reversed. Like, not so long after that I had a bunch of weird s**t happen to me." He looked to Kaleb again, scanning his features, "Like I said, being a Noble. It's... it gives you a lot of power, makes you really strong. Othercreatures look up to you like you got some sorta' ******** reputation suddenly. I didn't have very much ability before this." Another tiny bud popped up in his hand, and then another, and then more and more like a video game slowly populating scenery through a bout of lag. "It's cool now, I guess, but Nobles don't just become that way, they're made. It's tough." He left out the part about how his particular brand of training was downright torture at times.

"Anyway, I'm preachin' to the ********' choir. The point I was getting at is—I get it. It's like a here-nor-there thing. You question where you really belong in the whole thing. That sort of dumb stuff." The buds faded away again, less someone happened by to see his display of magic, "But all I'm saying is, it comes out and snaps you when you least expect it. If you're really serious about magic, though..."

He was silent for a second.

"I mean, I could teach you? Or try."

Grey Dragon

this guy talks too much omfg sorry

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb understood the feeling. He still felt like a normal person, no neat abilities or anything that would actually be of any use to him. It wasn't until lately he had even begun to suspect he could have magic. All that craziness with dreaming of the other Ashdown, finding himself there for real, and the great void thing on Halloween and time travelling and everything... He had still believed himself to be a normal person just caught up in abnormal situations. A normal person with normal limits.

Despite all the doubt inside him, the freckled teen seemed just a little bit more relaxed after Shiloh's talk. Perhaps this confusion WAS the sort of normal he should expect, at least at this point in time.

"Do you think that's possible?" He asked, raising his glance to look at Shiloh. "I mean, how do you even learn about your magic? All I've seen in books, even the ones in this new world, are superstitions and case studies about the exceptional people. If you could even call those stories case studies..."

Melancholies

Kaleb is super comfortable listening to babbling people! <3

 

[Melancholies]

"Of course I do!" Shiloh said this sort of loudly, voice thick with conviction, "Anything's possible, especially magic. If you have the aptitude—and you do—then it all boils down to belief and intent." He crossed his arms and then uncrossed them and then settled them in his lap, energized and fervent.

"People in this world know about as much as they did in the previous one: jack s**t. I'm not a super great teacher, but I could give you pointers still. Plus I know a couple of guys who are real good at it too." He grinned, "Oh, and they technically have classes and professors at Raider-Waite that are knowledgeable with magitech. Liam Noor knows his s**t real good, and he's nice if you're polite. Respect for respect kinda thing."

He shifted around in thought.

"It'll... work in naturally to a degree too, I think. The longer you're exposed the more it changes you." He looked to him, "Honestly, you probably have been experience magic, even if you haven't been casting it yourself. It kinda tends to be super subtle."

Grey Dragon