[PRP] Life Lessons (Shiloh & Aleksy)

[Melancholies]

Being sick sucked. Shiloh wasn't even sure how it was possible for him to get sick, or if he was just sick with some weird magic disease, or if he was more sucesptible to plant sickness since he was kind of half one, but either way it sucked. It sucked hard. Sucked harder than he'd ever sucked before and that was saying something.

But the world didn't stop for the sick and he was only reduced to sniffles, so work went on like normal, school went on like normal. The thing about sickness was it made riding bikes everywhere a pain in the a**. Things being a pain in the a** made for good motivation though, and the currently unused licence was calling. Cue some end of shift bitching and a few texts later, and suddenly he'd found himself in a car with his boss.

"Are... you sure about this?" He sounded sad and wholly unconvinced, eyes redrimmed like he was having the worst allergies of his life.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"To be technical, I am already dead, therefore you cannot kill me," said Aleksy, trying to sound encouraging. Honestly, the first time he'd taught Shiloh to drive, it hadn't been that harrowing, but also the first Shiloh-teaching-adventure had begun from a somewhat more excited place, so maybe the lack of enthusiasm was indicative of a future having reversed a car up a tree? Who ******** knew. Anyway, Aleksy was a vampire. He would be fine. "I have done this before and walked away. So did you. This time will be no different."

He looked out across the Easter Sunday-deserted parking lot. Honestly, the worst thing that could happen here was they hit a light pole. Aleksy didn't need his legs anyway. Still, he didn't want to experiment with the possibility that the dead could get double murdered, so he buckled up and gestured for Shiloh to do the same. "Have you adjusted the mirrors," he asked. "And remember to depress the brake when shifting from park to drive."

They should just both be glad Shiloh's car wasn't a stick shift.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Well yeah but—" Shiloh made a face, lips pursed into a thin line, "I don't want you to be like, dead and missing an arm while being dead. Maybe legs, but you need your arms." He stared straight ahead like a deer in headlights, the irony being that he was the one in control of the headlights, "I need my arms."

The silence hung. Shiloh sighed. "Okay, okay. It's fine." He looked around at said mirrors, eyebrows scrunched up in something like concentration. Another perk of having a preemptively dead instructor; he couldn't catch your disease, because he was dead, so Shiloh didn't feel so bad about the constant shallow coughs and sniffles. "I uh. No..." He reached up to fiddle with the rear view.

"I mean, I was behind the wheel like... a few times." Jamie had offered him around the neighborhood once or twice, but both were short lived and a little too eventful. "It should be fine, you're right..."

Something about the attitude was more defeatist than calmed. Foot on the break, he cautiously shifted into drive. They didn't move however; and they wouldn't for a little moment. Shiloh was just gathering his bearings okay.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Take your time," said Aleksy. "I promise that I will reattach any limbs you cause me to lose. And if you make it around the parking lot twice without either of us dying, I will refrain from hugging you and telling you you did well."

In case that wasn't bribe enough, he added, "And I will buy you a beer."

Hey, Aleksy had liked alcohol at that age.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"What if I want the hug." He said with a huffy pout. Still, it was better than the sad anxiety he seemed to be experiencing a moment before. This was a pretty standard Beaumont right here; childish, immature, cheeky. "I think I've only ever drank beer like, twice." He added, unable to actually recall either time. It had been bitter, but Shiloh didn't mind stronger tastes.

His foot eased off of the break, the car gently rolling into motion. Heart to hearts while driving didn't seem like a good idea—mostly because he figured he should be paying attention to the turns and obstacles in front of him—but Shiloh was hardly ever executing great ideas. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He admitted out of nowhere, "Um, I mean, when I showed up for work and you were talking about the 'pod people' and s**t. I just didn't want you to be mad at me or anything..."

The vehicle was "rapidly" (see: snails pace) approaching the grocery store front that laid bare in front of them. He slowed (if that was even possible) before making the turn of the century, literally, because it probably took a hundred years to complete.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Then I will give you the hug," said Aleksy, who did not sound exasperated at all. He rested an elbow against his window, the very picture of relaxation even though he didn't feel relaxed at all. In fact, he was kind of ready to reach over and throw the car into park if he had to, the transmission be damned. "I will not ever be mad at you for things you can't help. That's counterproductive."

He did add, "I was sad when I learned. But I understand. It's alright."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was silent for a while, if only because that struck a chord somewhere deep down inside of him. The majority of his life had been reared on the back of anger, or abuse, or pain, so to be told that was—no, no, focus on driving, don't get carried away. "Thanks, Aleksy."

He was quiet, "You were still my boss in the old world though, so I'm glad that didn't change." He laughed a little, "Like, I totally wasn't expecting anyone to hire me, and all you asked to see was my sketchbook before you decided to give me an in. Maybe this world isn't as different as I thought..." He trailed off, growing a little more confident in his driving (see: not going 2mph).

"Actually, can I ask you a question?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Aleksy said, "I have good taste in employees. This is unsurprising." He sniffed, kept up his nonchalant lean with an eye to Shiloh's driving. "You have never given me cause to regret hiring you. Do not start."

He started to relax as Shiloh did, though he remained alert to possible Issues. "Yes, sure," said Aleksy. "What is it?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"What, falling off the face of the earth for a few months isn't enough to regret hiring someone?" He teased, but realistically, he was pretty sure someone would get fired for pulling that kind of s**t in any other sort of workplace. "I do like working there though. The plants like me." He looked a little childish for a second there, the way someone looked when they got a pet hamster or something, because they had something that would love them unconditionally no matter how stupid they were. Or something.

"It's about the ball." He said after a moment, "Like, I still became a Noble in this universe, right?" He came up on another turn, handled it alright, if not a little jerky. Driving wasn't that hard he realized; it was just... anxiety inducing. "I only ask because I found the person who tithed me in the last world, but she's nothing like the one I knew. That uh—that's not a bad thing either—but I was just wondering."

He paused, "Not to mention some of the people who were there just don't... exist anymore."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Aleksy frowned. "The ball..." He thought about it for a long moment, and then he said, "Oh. That thing back in September?"

For some reason, Aleksy had gone a dull shade of red, and he was avoiding looking at Shiloh. "I do not know what it was like in your universe, but, um. Yes. You did become one of the fae. Similar to myself, actually. With more plants. There was some sort of fight between you and a clone of yourself?..." He thought about it some more. There were a lot of things about that night that he didn't really want to share with his younger, impressionable friend/employee. Talking around it was hard, but also sort of easier. "We had to watch, and at the end of it all one of the horrorterrors decided that you would live and your clone would die... Or at least I think that is what happened."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Horrorterrors?" Shiloh looked exceedingly confused. He gently slowed the car down to a still, "Okay, so um." He huffed, "I got kidnapped by this women called the Spinel Lady, and there was a ball where they pick a sacrifice at the end? And they picked this girl called Aodelle, but she isn't like, a thing anymore." He looked over, "She was part of the old sigil, but um. We kind of ******** the old sigil over and made a new one and—and that's why we crossed over the way we did. And like, replaced all the people you care about, I guess."

He winced.

"So I was just wondering, like, it was a pretty monumental thing." He started to fidget with the steering wheel, "Ezra wasn't there? The—The Burning Man? or the Spinel Lady? Was The Sorrowful one?" He was so confused, "Any of the deer triplets? Are they even a thing you know about?"

One thing at a time was apparently not something Shiloh knew how to use.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Aleksy looked at Shiloh for a long moment, and then he said, very quietly, "I don't see things the way you do." Of course Shiloh didn't remember. This was a different Shiloh, one who hadn't spent time with him after the ball, who didn't remember long, lazy afternoons doing nothing but talking and arranging flowers. What an idiot Aleksy was, to forget that. "I see magical things for what they really are."

He reached over to the gear shift and put the car in park, just in case.

"That is not what happened here," he said. "It was... A show. A trial, between these beings called fetches and the tithes. A celebration, really. There was a thirty-nine course meal as the clones and the real people were brought out... I don't know who won or lost, truly..."

He frowned. "Ezra Fitzpatrick was there. He is one of the fae, what you are calling nobles, I think. I do not know these others."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Oh..." Shiloh went silent after that, a little awkward, a little sad sounding. "So... there wasn't a council? They didn't sacrifice anyone to the blood moon? It was just... our Noble trials."

He was silent.

"In my world, I beat my fetch. I guess I did in this world too, but..." He fidgeted, sniffed a little. "So I guess Ezra might've been the one... Melany Dubhslaine doesn't ring any bells? The Nobles kidnap you and make you strong enough to beat your fetch, and then you become a Noble too..."

"Well, strong enough is kind of putting it lightly." He huffed. "Sorry for bringing it up."

Another awkward moment passed, Shiloh's eyes glued on the dashboard, "You can fire me still, you know? Like—Like if it's too awkward working with someone who isn't who you thought, like, I can find another job. It's fine. I understand."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Yes," said Aleksy, "That's all they did."

He frowned at the suggestion that he might fire Shiloh. Um, what? "If I didn't like you or believed working with you was too awkward, I would have fired you already," he said, "I am not a nice person, Shiloh. I keep no one on due to pity, and I am frankly insulted that you would think that I do."

Aleksy frowned at a nearby streetlight. Honestly, all of the pod people needed reassurance!! He could do that. He was a ******** superstar of making people feel better. The Albert Einstein of insecurity squishing. "If you have questions about this world, I will answer them," he huffed. "It seems there's no one left to do it."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Look, I'm ******** sorry," He snapped without meaning to, "I'm just—I'm stressed out, okay?" Shiloh expression got tight around his eyes, his mouth, his bottom lick sucked into his mouth as he gnawed on it furiously. "I'm not trying to insult you, I just feel like s**t because I took someone's life who was doing so much better than I was, and now people like you are getting the s**t end of the stick, and—" He slapped his hands on the steering wheel, "—I can't even drive! I can't even do simple things."

Never mind the fact he was literally, like, just driving.

"I was never in college either." He huffed, "I didn't have time for anything except for all this stupid magic bullshit. I never wanted to be a Noble, I never wanted to be a principal either, I just did it 'cause everyone else was, and now it feels like I have to do everything but I don't know anything and..."

He inhaled, sharply, because he was running out of breath.

"I don't know." His forehead flopped forward, resting on the front of the steering wheel. "It's just running in circles and dead ends. And then November's going to roll around and everyone's going to die."

shibrogane