[PRP] breaking the wall (oliver & cid)

[azuredreams]

It was noon.

Ollie's phone was ringing.

It would not stop ringing.

Strangely enough, the ring tone was also the ending theme to the new Sailor Moon Crystal.

Me1ancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver was, uncharacteristically, passed right the ******** out.

He hadn't gone through his phone contacts in the new world, because he hadn't felt any real reason to; aside from the weird slip ups with Elliot and the fact that things were obviously different, it never dawned on him that there might be people he didn't know that the other him did. Suffice to say, even if there had been, he sure as hell wouldn't have picked such a gaudy ringtone.

He didn't recognize the name either, as he groggily grabbed his phone and inspected the caller ID, but if the ringtone was customized... "Hello...?" He sounded like he had just woken up, mostly because he absolutely had.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Probably did not help that the contact was change frequently. This time it read Deadsmol (instead of Deadpool but Ollie didn't know that).

Someone somewhere probably got whiplash from the anime and comic reference.

"Dude," the voice on the other side said, "what the ********>. Are you alive? I'm guessing your sick because normally if you don't show up it's either a killer migraine or whatever but you text and this is like ... longer than that."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver was very confused.

"I?" He sounded genuinely taken aback, unsure what exactly to say. "Sorry? I'm alive I think." Because really he had been knocked out and absolutely dead to the world, "Can I ask who this is?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Seriously?" The very obvious sound of someone facepalming. "Unless you're going to break into some spiel about how you're an Ollie from some reality that's long gone and replaced my employee, you know who this is. Cid. Your boss. Who is now very concerned that you might be more than a little ill."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

There was a messy sound from his end; it sounded perhaps like a phone being dropped, or more likely thrown across the room, but either way there was an awkward lurch—woosh—thud—swear.

"M-My boss." He fumbled with the receiver, antics messy, mind racing. "A-Are you kidding? Why would I say that? That's ******** crazy." Lord, where was Elliot when he needed him? Why hadn't anyone said he had a ******** job.

"Sorry I uh? It's just—You know how it goes. Killer migraines. First time getting out of bed in a week." He laughed nervously as he paced the room.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Cid was giving his phone a very strange stare, mostly because he was trying to give Ollie a strange stare and wasn't there to see it.

"Uh huh," he replied slowly. "So do I need to send over the coroner or you going to be able to work today? I mean I can reschedule the babysitting thing too if necessary."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver definitely felt the stare. It was awkward and probing and terrifying.

"I can make it." He rushed out, "I can—it's fine, totally fine—I feel great now! Never felt better. Sometimes you just gotta sleep that s**t off, you know?" Another nervous laugh, followed by don't swear in front of the boss you apparently have. His chest hurt. He felt like he was going to immanently vomit. Chai appeared out of the blue uninvited to murble out a squeaky sound from the doorway. "I'll be right over."

He switched to speaker phone to hastily text Elliot where the ******** he worked at.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Are you- No, I'm not going to be the person that asks are you sure. If you say so, fine. I think you left some of that heavy duty migraine medication in the staff basement." Yes, he said staff basement.

"Take your time, wake up properly. Do the things, Ollie. It isn't like there's a new booster pack for MtG or- well actually there was but that was last week. Either way, I'll see you when you get here."

Then he hung up because obviously there was no need to be on the phone the entire time that he was on his way here.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I—yeah, of course." He took a deep breath and hung up, also still wondering about that staff basement and why he would have left his Imitrex there in the first place (sure, convenience, but he had a bag).

After about thirty minutes of running around, getting dressed, doing necessary google searches and talking to the right people, he found out that he worked at some comic book venue (what) that also sold trading cards and the like (whaaat), and that said place of work was a fifteen minute bus ride away. He got there looking presentable enough, but also a little like hell.

Which, realistically, was pretty normal. Except he entered the establishment like a lost child who was completely unsure of everything he was supposed to be doing.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Ollie was lucky.

So ******** lucky.

Mostly because Cid was dressed normal and working on putting in a new display (this one was Yuri on Ice one; he knew what the world liked okay) and trying to eyeball it to make sure it was perfect. It wasn't yet but he'd figure that out.

The music, victory fanfare, played as Ollie entered and Cid looked up from where he was crouched at the young man. "Holy s**t, you look wrecked. Are you like ... going through moonwalker puberty again or something?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver jumped at the door tone, and then jumped again at Cid's comment. "I? What? Again?" s**t, was this his boss? It had to be his boss. The voice sounded similar anyway; he took a moment to give the workplace a very quick glance around, taking in the comics and trading cards and... anime displays, oh boy. Because Oliver sure knew everything about comics TCG and anime, which was to say he knew jack s**t about any of the above.

"That's not something you go through multiple times." He was fairly certain of this fact, even if he was still sorely unsure of his... well, slow growing transformation. "But uh, sorry for the mix up." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Cid pushed himself up to stand, patting at his well worn jeans and straightening his shirt up. He was not tall and was, in fact, short (because five foot four was smol). He was blonde at the moment, winter beard in place, and raked a hand through his hair to get his bangs out of his eyes after he adjusted his glasses.

"If you say so, Ollie." His head tilted towards the back, through all the displays to where the counter was (and the staff basement door). "You definitely look the same you did when it happened, I think ..." There's a squint, a hard once over, before Cid shrugs and gestures for Ollie to follow. "You can take it easy today, if that'll help. Just got in some comics and you can put those out in the bins."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Why was he so short. Oliver wasn't tall, but he was still average, and he was still unaccustomed to people being shorter than him. Especially when they were obviously older than he was.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He was very serious when he spoke, but followed Cid anyway. "But I appreciate it." Organizing sounded like something that he could waste a few hours doing, even though he still had next to no knowledge about comic series. He hoped to god they were by series and alphabetical instead of some other weird sequence. Or wait, comics were numbered right? He had this, he totally had this.

The basement door remained unnerving to him.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Cid looked fabulous for his thirties, thanks.

If the basement door (which read STAFF TURF) was unnerving, Ollie was probably especially bothered by the giant Cthulhu statue that had a santa hat on it still.

Soon there would be little cupid wings on it and hearts.

"I can never tell if you're being a smart-a**, sarcastic, or genuinely have some kind of brain trauma ..." Not knowing what he was talking about. Cid pulled a tablet from behind the counter, one that had the shop's inventory and organization system on it. (There was, if he looked, actually quite a lot about the store and how it was run on there.)

"I'll grab the boxes, you pull up the shipping manifest." His fingers tapped at the air, a gesture for Ollie to get going on the tablet. "If you hadn't been in, I was going to give Jamie a call to make sure you weren't dead in a ditch somewhere."

Melancholies