[PRP] Secret Identity (Chester/A Beaumont or Two)

[Smerdle]

It started with an email to an address he had pulled from the listserv. A request for a meeting.

Melancholies

To:
From:

Subject: Music Box

Good morning,

If you're not too busy saving the world, I'd like to show you our finished dumpster box. I can send pictures if you are, but I have something else to ask you as well, so I would appreciate it if we could meet.

Chester

 

[Melancholies]

Here was the really unfortunate thing about contacting Oliver through the listserv; the last time anyone had done it, it had been Ezra, and that went rather poorly. At least he knew Chester, but he thought he knew Ezra too? ******** it, he was being over dramatic.


Melancholies
To:
From:

Subject:RE: Music Box


Hello,

I could actually use a break from the saving the world shenanigans. I'm having lunch on campus but if you're in the general area, I'm in the music building. Second floor, third room down from the west entrance.

Oliver B.


He'd left out the bit about how Shiloh was there too, and how he was stealing all his veggie sticks, come on a*****e.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He didn't know the music building well, but Chester prided himself on not being an idiot, so he found it easily enough. Along with the promised music box, he brought his usual satchel full of notes and seemingly useless small mechanical items, and as he made his way into the third room down from the west entrance on the second floor, his bag got caught on the doorknob and he spent a good ten seconds detangling it. When he looked up, for a moment he thought he had crossed over to the other side. Two Olivers. Or an Oliver and an Oliver clone. Or maybe this was the result of a simple natural phenomenon.

"Well, that answers one of my more pressing questions. It's good to see you, Oliver. And... Shiloh?"

He had been rather busy in the week that followed his library visit, but he had still found the time to look back over the listserv posts he had originally read for their content, if not their authors. There was another Beaumont, a twin he guessed now. Hopefully this was him, or Chester had just made an idiot of himself.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Oh come on Ollie share." Shiloh was huffing, relentless in his conquest for snacks, but his brother wasn't relenting. He only gave up when the door opened, both sets of blue eyes watching Chester as he fumbled with the door. That sure was a thing.

Oliver's brow knitted together, "What, about my brother?" He just sort of assumed everyone knew he had a twin. It wasn't like it was hard to tell that they were related, what with the same face and all. "I could've told you I had a twin." It wasn't like it was a secret either. Still, he supposed it might be uncanny to see them in the same place at once.

"Aw, Ollie." Shiloh was smiling, "I'm really glad you're makin' friends." He didn't know who this man was, but Oliver was briefly telling him about this listserv request while they ate. The only reason Shiloh hadn't left was in case it turned out to be another Ezra incident; not that he knew that, but Oliver was weirdly insistent he stayed regardless. "But yeah, I'm Shiloh. You're this Chester guy huh?" He was eyeing him up and down. Nerds had to stick together he supposed.

Oliver made a huffy sound as he stood up, "Here, let me help with something. Shiloh, can you—?" Shiloh was already pulling up another chair. The twins themselves were situated on a piano bench with a music stand between them as a faux-table. "—Oh, good. Here, sit down..."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I am, yes. Chester." He smiled at Shiloh slightly as he sat, music box in his lap. "It's nice to meet you." He turned to Oliver. "You having a sibling didn't really come up when we met or I might have asked more sooner. As for why Shiloh's existence answers a question... I'd have to start at the beginning. Which I will. But, music box first."

He lifted it higher, resting its edge on the music stand, but still supporting most of its weight in his hands. He then opened the lid, revealing a smooth, wooden interior. A box full of nothing. He kept pushing, extending the lid past the ninety degree mark where a normal one would have stopped to present its tiny ballerina and her tiny mirror. Still empty. The tickticktick of something being wound was clear enough, and it persisted as Chester opened and closed the lid twice more. He held up a finger. Wait.

It was silent for a few seconds after he left it open and alone, but then the faint, tinny strains of Für Elise began to play, growing louder as the box's false bottom opened like a drawbridge. A small, robotic figure rose out of the space beneath, lifting its arms and performing a series of delicate pirouettes more elegant than any plastic ballerina. It was soon joined by a trio of smaller, rigid toy animals, each on its own twirling platform, the four of them moving in time with the music.

The song faded about thirty seconds in, as everything carefully collapsed back inside. Chester closed the lid.

"That's all I can do until I learn some more intricate wood working for the outside. The animals are easily replaced, and the song can be changed as well, if I scrounge up something better." He paused and swallowed, out of things to say. "That's it."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

For Shiloh, it wouldn't have near the same value, but it didn't stop him from watching the contraption wondrously. Both the twins were watching the box with increasing vigor, both literally on the edge of their seats, both wide eyed and wondrous and waiting. Without warning the music started, the contraptions whirred to life, and they were both utterly enchanted.

Neither of them spoke until the display was over. "You made that?!" Shiloh was flabbergasted. He was an artist with his pens and pencils, but the realm of sculpting and building was a complete enigma to him. "You made that? How did you—? How can you make it do that?" The way everything moved in time, the way everything had such subtle movements.

"It's incredible..." Oliver's reaction was far more subdued, but no less star struck, his eyes undeniably twinkling. Like Shiloh, he was an artist in the audible sense, and this sort of contraption was just as much of a mystery to him as it was to Shiloh. "It has... so much more detail and life than any music box I've ever seen."

"Totally," Shiloh agreed, "You can tell you put a lot of effort into what you have there. It's really cool!" He puffed up, "Can you make me one? Can you can you—"

"Oh come on Shiloh don't be greedy." Oliver chastised him quickly.

"But it'd be for Jamie." Shiloh groaned before dramatically leaning over the back of his chair. "C'mon, you know he'd be totally weak for something like that."

His twin contemplated this, "It is awfully pretty, but... that's besides the point." Oliver offered Chester a smile, "It is really wonderful though. I can't believe you made this with the materials we scrounged up. Is it magitech?" He looked the box over again.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Before he'd tried and failed to make waves at his dream school and learned the hard way that he was not as smart as he'd thought, Chester's ego had been the stuff of legends. He liked to think it had mellowed since, but with the twins stoking it, he actually felt his self-importance shift for the first time in at least a year. This was a*****e Mode.

"I wouldn't call it magitech exactly, just something Gloom showed me about mechanical items that I've expanded upon." Chester paused, his gaze falling to the box. Okay, slow down there, chief.

"Truthfully, it's not all that impressive in the grand scheme of things." He smiled softly. "I'm sure if I could make the best waffles or grow the best flowers, I'd be doing that instead. I just really like using magic. But I can make you one, if you really want. It wouldn't be exactly the same, since the pieces all say different things, but I'd try to make it as... nice." Yes, nice. It was certainly far nicer than the first thing he'd made, even if he wished he could do better.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Both the twins seemed to be considering this. If Chester was being an a*****e, neither of them seemed especially bothered by it, and this was because Oliver himself could be an insufferable p***k and Shiloh was used to the behavior by proxy. "That's okay if it isn't the same," Shiloh said as he kicked his feet, "That's kinda neat, actually? Like, they're all unique, neither of them is the same."

"And it's always good to push your limits." Oliver added hopefully.

They both nodded in tandem. It was a little uncanny to watch.

"Anyway," Oliver wanted to keep admiring and talking about the music box as much as the next person, but they were all a little busy and probably had s**t they needed to get back to. "So what was the something else?" Shiloh was nibbling on some animal crackers in anticipation of the conversation.

"I can leave," He offered, "If you just wanted to talk to Ollie."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

The nodding was uncanny, but Chester quite enjoyed the symmetry. He made a mental note to email Shiloh and ask him what sorts of things this Jamie liked as he bent over to rest most of his stuff on the floor beside him.

"No, you don't have to go. This definitely concerns you, probably even more so than Oliver." He opened his notebook, the one thing he had kept with him. "I went to the library to look up the purge. From what I understand, it was briefly discussed at the differentiated conference?" Chester waited for a sign of acknowledgment before continuing. "I found out that the victims were all killed by a small cut to the back of the neck, and all the evidence pointed to a single perpetrator. Long story short, someone came forward who said he knew who had done it." Chester paused, wondering if he should postpone what he had to say until they had discussed a more wholesome topic for a while. Going from music boxes to incineration seemed a little dramatic. But they were living in a dramatic world.

"That person was Shiloh. When the people he had warned came to meet him, he had been horribly burnt. He was dead." Chester swallowed. "I thought it was Oliver at first, despite the caption. I didn't know he had an identical twin, so... well, now I do."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh gave Chester the acknowledgement he was looking for, but both twins were silent with interest as he continued to spoke. After a while the interest turned into something somber, Shiloh's expression hardening as he eyes watched Chester speak. It was the same morbid fascination that one experienced while watching a car accident, or at least that's what it felt like.

"At the conference," Oliver spoke up first, his voice soft, "None of the fetches knew why it had happened, only that... they spared a few members of the Court."

"And the principals of the time." Shiloh picked up after him, "The Spinel Lady, which makes sense because she is the Court. The Burning Man, Ezra... and then Aodelle and Heliodora and Micheal." He sighed, "Aodelle was a Noble, and Micheal was a moonwalker, but I guess their principality came first."

The twins were silent again.

"You were probably dead," Shiloh said what Oliver was thinking, "Killed, I mean."

"Jamie too." Ollie fiddled with his hands in his lap.

"The thing about the Charter, from what I understand anyway," Shiloh wasn't really nibbling on his animal crackers anymore; the bag was sealed and he was crushing the crackers inside of the bag until they were fine like dust. "A number of people signed off on it in a cycle hundreds of years before this one. It gave the magic permission to change them." Oliver, having not been privy to this sort of explanation himself, turned to Shiloh as he spoke, "So, everyone's name that was on the charter was differentiated. They were wargs, moonwalkers, nobles... or the principals or the deer triplets"

"So you're saying I was probably a moonwalker in every cycle since then?" Ollie asked.

"I mean, that's the theory." He sighed, "Granted, I never signed the charter, but I still became Nobility. There's probably exceptions to the rule, but if I was alive in the cycle that the purge happened..."

He couldn't even imagine, but if his brother was alive, if Jamie was still someone he cared about, he could just picture the grief and the rage and the confusion, the intent and the willpower and the desperation to find out who hurt the people he cared about the most. Shiloh sighed.

"Did you learn about anything else?" Oliver asked as he tried to clear the air, the atmosphere having grown considerably heavy.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Not much more than you know. The survivors, the general devastation and upheaval following the murders, it all seems fairly straightforward. I did hear two people speaking about carrying out the deed, but I feel like I would have to tap the phones of every powerful person in town to figure out who they might have been. One of them said something about killing 'the three of you too'. The one he was speaking to had green eyes. Very pale."

Chester had closed his own eyes for a second as he tried to remember, but he opened them again now, looking back and forth between the twins.

"There was a page missing as well. Not missing from the book, the words had just been removed."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh hmm'd in thought. "Preacher mentioned that too on the listserv, about how there were blank pages. Minerva is one of the deer triplets—do you know about the deer triplets?" His eyes glittered a little, "They kind of function like principals for the Otherworld. The magic for the differentiated gets filtered through them after it passes through the Spinel Lady..."

He went silent then, like he was debating saying something.

"Green eyes, very pale..." Oliver was thinking too, "I'm not sure if that matches any of my descriptions. I can tell people apart very easily based on their magic, but I'd have to be exposed to it first."

And then Shiloh spoke up, after getting over what he was seemingly mulling over, "A principal could reveal the words, I think was what Preacher said on the listserv, or maybe tell who the hell tried to hide them. It's really suspicious that Noeh's words were blocked off, and Pride is... dealing with a lot of stuff." He sighed, "But Pax was dying, or nearly dead, from what I heard."

"You're pretty informed." Ollie noted, though his tone wasn't accusatory or anything.

Shiloh shrugged, "I guess I kind of have to be. I am one of the principals." He looked to Chester, "If you ever wanted to check the library out again, I could help you out if you wanted."

Oliver just stared.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"The deer triplets. Yes." He had seen one or two of them at the ball and had a little of their purpose explained to him since. While he hadn't been expecting a humanoid-based magical filtration system, so little of what magic actually turned out to be really surprised him anymore. He wanted to add what Shiloh continued on with to that same category, but as it turned out, it was slightly more of a shock than he was prepared for.

Chester recalled the void, his own violently adamant mental separation from the trees and knots and keys, and he couldn't help wondering what kind of person it would take to have welcomed something like that. He didn't know Shiloh. He couldn't guess if it selfish behavior or truly altruistic.

"Thank you. That's generous of you. I'll try to keep my visit short." He was speaking of a future trip to the library, but from the way Oliver was looking at his brother, Chester might as well have meant this meeting as well. He didn't like being in the vicinity of family glares, especially when they involved other people's families.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh shrugged, "I have all the time in the world."

"You have a part-time job, school, and Court." Oliver corrected.

Shiloh looked a little sheepish. It was in that moment that the circles under his eyes—the way his shoulders sagged—it wasn't just exhaustion. Shiloh was clearly overworked. Should a 19 year old have that much responsibility? Probably not. "Yeah, I guess I do. But if it helps..." His foot scuffed against the ground.

Oliver made an exasperated sound, "Honestly..." At least he didn't seem... mad. Or at least he wasn't going to blow up with Chester around, which was a good thing. "I guess it might be good to know what those books say though."

Shiloh nodded. "We can coordinate something. I'm kinda curious about my past lives anyway." To an extent.

"Anyway, we don't want to keep you." Oliver looked over at Chester, his tone cordial, "Unless you had something else you wanted to talk about. Lord Shiloh over here can probably answer most of it."

"Hey!"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Lord Shiloh." Chester was only testing the sound of the title, but he found himself smiling a little anyway. On the one hand, the whole situation was terribly serious, unprepared people thrown into positions of power too young, blah blah blah. On the other, the tired-looking kid in front of him was a lord. Chester hadn't even bothered getting a driver's license yet.

"I promise I really won't bother you for long if we go." He nodded then bent down to start gathering up his things. Coming to the music box, he lifted it back onto the music stand and looked to Oliver. "You can keep this if you'd like." Turning to Shiloh, he continued. "And I can make one for Jamie if you tell me a sort of theme. It doesn't have to be now. I'm on the listserv so..." He drew his bag into his lap. "Thank you both for hearing me out. I just thought this was important to share."

Melancholies