[PRP] In Too Deep (Horace/Kaleb)

[Grey Dragon]

With the weather becoming more warm and pleasant with every day, Kaleb had convinced Horace to visit one of his peaceful outdoor places for study rather than the quiet 'haunted' room in the student centre. Some time ago, someone had dragged an old picnic table into the woods, but the buds on the trees had not yet sprouted into full leaves, leaving the space warm and sunny.

Kaleb, on the other hand, was not quite as sunny as usual. All the way over he seemed a little more quiet and reserved than normal, like his thoughts were elsewhere. Clearly he was prepared for the studying, with books in his arms and more books undoubtably in his bag, but he was usually more enthusiastic about time set aside to read them.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace plodded placidly alongside Kaleb. The guy was absolutely dedicated to studying, much more so that Horace. Which wasn't bad - it mean that Horace actually did study more. Outside was kind of strange though, Outside was full of bugs and weird stuff. Still, he'd gone along with it, though he noticed the normally quiet Kaleb was even more quiet, which was quite a feat in of itself.

"Hey - are you alright? You're kinda quiet." Better to ask than just wonder, he figured.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb nodded, albeit in a distracted way. It was a good thing Horace hadn't led with the question itself or he might have missed it.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just..." He went silent for a second, thinking hard. "The nice clearing is up ahead, it should be pretty nice today. The table will be dry at least."

After another moment of deep thought and decision making, he turned to look up at Horace nervously. "So all that stuff, on that list serve thing..." He trailed off, unable to find the right words to express how lost and nervous he was.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yeah, it doesn't look like it'll rain on us, either, which would thoroughly suck." He peered up briefly into the sun and regretted it as spots danced across his eyes. Ugh. Danger orb in the sky.

He looked down at Kaleb, blinking rapidly. "Which... which part of the listserv stuff?" There was literally so much on it. So much. "Are you an alien, too?"

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

"An alien? No," Kaleb responded with innocent confusion, meeting Horace's glance almost curiously. Had he missed something before he joined, or was this something he just hadn't read yet? And... did Horace mean an illegal alien from another country or aliens from outer space? Here in Ashdown either option seemed reasonable.

The freckled blonde glanced around them, but the street was fairly empty this time of day. Nobody would overhear them when it came to magic-related conversation.

"It's... that stuff about the court, and nobles, and... the world resetting... I have no idea what anyone is talking about but it sounds really scary." He looked back down at the sidewalk. It was easy for him to admit he didn't know about something, that was how every scientific inquiry started. What he didn't like to admit was how terrified all that mysterious information had made him.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

They'd reached the table and Horace slung off his backpack with a thud. "Well, it sounds like they tried to do a middle school version of a governmental checks and balances system. There's nobles, um, werewolves, and nobles. I don't really get it, either, but parts of it seemed ******** up. I figure I can just try to... do stuff?" Horace shrugged.

"Last November, a bunch of people tried to reset their place and came over here instead - I call them aliens."

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Try to do stuff. It should have been pretty open-ended and simple enough, but Kaleb had never been good at picking his own path through the world.

He sat down heavily, and let his own messenger bag slide onto the bench next to him. Then he dropped his elbows on the table, and his head into his hands.

"Oh my god... I AM an alien..." He muttered in a hopelessly lost tone. "I didn't know what they were doing, but I was there, and they needed everyone's blood and someone cut my arm... But I couldn't look because... And then we were back in the forest but everything was different... I'm so sorry, it can't have been me who studied with you all those times, I just don't remember..."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Well," Horace said after a moment. "You could have told me before. But, eh, I don't really care. So many of you are aliens - I don't know why I'm surprised." He pulled out a thermos and took a swig of barely lukewarm coffee.

"I think information about how to do stuff is so fragmented, right now. It's hard. I think the police chief knows a lot."

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb wasn't sure what he was expecting when it came to Horace's reaction, but the chill attitude towards it all caught him off guard.

"I'm sorry, I was really confused and afraid, and you were still pretty nice to me and all... I thought the me that existed might have been a much better person to have made a friend like you," he stammered quickly. Now that the whole November situation was out in the open, he felt like another dozen apologies wouldn't be enough to soothe his conscience.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Nah, you're pretty cool. I don't think about it too much." Which was the truth. He'd be stuck wondering who was who and mourning a dozen people who'd been replaced. It wasn't worth his time when he was already full of anxiety on a good day, even if he rarely showed it.

"Though apparently, y'all brought a whole score of issues with you." He laughed a bit.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

"Sorry..." Kaleb looked as dejected as ever. The weight of everything he had gotten caught up in was too heavy, he didn't think he could laugh it off the way Horace did. Sometimes it was a miracle he could even keep breathing.

"I don't know why I was there- I don't know why I'm here, and I don't know how to fix it..." He let his head sink closer to the surface of the table.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He took a deep breath. "Okay, I know it feels weird and like you can't do anything, but getting sad about it doesn't do anything. You have to keep going, you have to find out." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Are you on that listserv thing?"

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb nodded, but he didn't quite have the spirit to quell the drifting and lost emotions. "I am, but I don't understand any of it... Like resets and cycles, and the Charter, and moonwalkers... And people were talking about kidnapping and insanity and death, it's just... I don't even know where to start."

Despite the inner turmoil, there were certain behaviours and routines that Kaleb could follow in his sleep. Pulling a book out of his bag and finding the sticky note placeholder with his fingers was one of those actions, even if he had essentially selected the textbook at random.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"It's cool. I don't really understand most of it. But you kind of just have to find someone who does. Find someone who says 'hey this is wrong, this hurts me', then you work to fix it." Horace titled his head, looking at Kaleb.

"Basically, y'all got dragged over here because you made a new sigil: fact. A charter was made before y'all came that governs the special magics: the moonwalkers, the wargs, the nobles: fact. The charter is bad because it was created by essentially imprisoning a girl inside magic: I would say fact, but I'm sure someone might disagree." He rubbed the scar of his finger absently. "Somehow or other, everyone's been repeating since the very first sigil was made and we've got to fix it somehow."

Horace shrugged.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

"Wait, everyone? So this reset thing people are talking about has happened to us before, and we just haven't realized it? How-" Kaleb cut off abruptly. He remembered the beach back in November, how it just kept happening over and over again, but worse every time. Being mostly new to the whole magic thing, Kaleb hadn't known enough to make the right connections back then.

"So magic just exists on it's own... But the charter thing was created from magic, using questionable means, so there could be moonwalkers, wargs, and nobles?" Kaleb began to look a little more intent, a little less despairing. The effect was almost like watering a sad and parched plant.

The Semblance of Unity