You aren't Ranger Rick! (Zac and Ollie)

[endejester]

So, he’d had a brain worm, someone had caused Jer to get into an accident, and he was more than a little lost about what the heck was happening anymore. He wasn’t sure if he was more embarrassed about ‘mouthy brain worms’ making him vomit even his most half formed thoughts in the rudest way possible, or the fact he felt like he had no idea what was happening anymore, not even a little bit.

Ultimately he was leaning towards brain worms, because he’d probably never had any idea what was actually going on.

He pulled out the journal that had the delightful quality of recording his personal experiences and found a seat on a park bench here in the, now much nicer Other Ashdown and sighed.

He wanted to review what little he did know. Maybe… just maybe something would stick out, something he could use as a lead to investigate.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver wasn't especially sociable, but he made an effort to communicate with visitors on the other side of the veil, especially if they were people he didn't immediately recognize. Galaxy boy over here seemed to fit the bill, but Ollie couldn't really tell wht he was doing... aside from reading? To each their own; he supposed the Otherworld was a quiet place.

Or at least, it was a quiet place until you had clumsy raccoons ambling about the place.

He'd been roosting in a tree, but it was still hard to access his wereform; that is, once he climbed the tree he was left so tired from the effort that he just kind of loafed up on a branch until Zac came along. His interest had been rightfully piqued, but the further he encroached out along the branch, the more unstable it became, until finally the thing gave way and snapped entirely.

The branch would thankfully miss Zac, but the raccoon resident wasn't so spared, and now he laid sprawled on the floor where he fell.

endejester

 

[endejester]

He heard the rustling, pausing in his reading. To be fair though he heard the rustling, just before he heard the snap.
“Holy S—“ He cut off the second word even as he leaped to his feet.

He really had no other reason to address a raccoon, other than the fact they were in Other Ashdown.
“Are you alright!?”

He felt immediately foolish after asking, but at the same time hoped that his assumption that there was a good chance it was either a were like Eve, or something like the little ‘pine martin’, the owl thing, or even the deer siblings wasn’t incorrect.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Said raccoon laid there stunned for a moment, but after a while Oliver roused to his senses. He wasn't hurt, so long as you didn't count his pride something that could be injured, but he rolled slowly to his feet and gave his body a good shake. Zac was regarded with tiny blue eyes and a very fluffy floof.

But Zac wasn't wrong either; after a moment of consideration, the raccoon at his feet sat onto its back haunches before shifted, the entire process happening in the blink of an eye, until finally there was just... a normal looking, if not vaguely familiar human.

"I'm fine." Ollie sounded a little huffy, but he rose up to his feet alright. "S-Sorry... wasn't trying to scare the s**t out of you."

endejester

 

[endejester]

Zac’s jaw fell open for a moment, closing after a moment, as he blinked rapidly, never having witnessed the change before. One second a raccoon, the next… very not.

“I-It’s ok! I mean, that was a nasty fall! I’m the one who um, I mean I wasn’t paying attention, and that honestly gets me in trouble enough times you’d think I’d know better by now.”

“I, don’t think we’ve met, which is maybe a good thing after the last little bit.” He worried his lip then added. “Brain worm…apparently, um… My name Is Zac”

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Zac..." Ollie committed the name to memory, "I'm Oliver Beaumont. Oliver is fine." Ollie was too, but he usually didn't offer that to strangers. If they decided to call him that then whatever, but he wasn't the one to take any first steps into the realm of casual behavior. "Sorry to spook you though. Haven't you met a Moonwalker?" He thought they were pretty common with their numbers, or at the very least that anyone with access to the Otherworld would know about them. Then again, Zac was clearly undifferentiated since he hadn't been to the meeting, so who knew.

Wait.

"I think I recognize you." He said after a moment, "The void. You were there, weren't you?" His head tilted in thought, "Anyway, brain worm sounds highly unpleasant regardless."

endejester

 

[endejester]

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve met like, Eve before but I’ve never seen one of you change before? I’m not as cool as all that, I’m not, noble or were or Warg or anything I mean.” He shrugged before tipping his head slightly at the question, eyes widening as he placed the face.

“Yeah, I was, we ended up in I think the 80’s, I saw someone who looked like you in a club. But I saw someone who looked like me too, that was just… it was weird. I was there when we made the new seal thing.”

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Bingo. "Yeah, that person was my brother. I mean, the weird 80's universe version of my brother. We're twins." His eyes widened a little bit at the not as cool as all that comment.

"I mean, being a Moonwalker isn't really cool." He rolled his shoulder awkwardly, "It has some perks I guess. Prolly some more than others depending on what you can shift into." A raccoon didn't mark high on that list for him, "And it's honestly more of a hassle than anything else. At least Wargs get neat companions and... I guess Nobles get some fairly affluent influence, but I wouldn't want to be a Noble either. The whole differentiated-not differentiated divide is kind of dumb in my opinion."

Ollie shrugged. "But what can y'do I guess. You prolly haven't heard that much about all the Charter bullshit then, have you?" He raised an eyebrow.

endejester

 

[endejester]

“Oh, Oh! twin! That…that’s pretty cool actually, I mean better probably than seeing a strange version of yourself that isn’t your twin, I mean, I don’t have siblings so maybe it’s not that cool I’m not sure, he seemed nice?”

He let that awkward rush of words sit for a moment as he considered the last question that came with the raised eyebrow.

“Nnnno?” He said cautiously, drawing out the word as though by adding to the length of the pronunciation he could cover just how much he didn’t know about the ‘charter bullshit’.

“I mean, I was emailing a little with My G… my Dad, before um… brain worms and things butI didn’t really ask the questions I normally would have.”

“I don’t think I’d want to be noble either, not after um, not after that first ball.” He made a face. “Cutting throats to renew the seal, things like that.” He shuddered quietly thinking of how accepting people had come across, at least till it came down to do the deed.”

“I mean, that hasn’t happened again, not lately but it was still really, well -“ He trailed off.

“Sorry, do you know about this Charter stuff then? I think, I think it got mentioned something about Were and Warg, but I didn’t catch up to that point in my um, in my journal.” He waved the book vaguely. “It um, sort of catalogs what I see and do, which is odd but kind of useful too.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Yeah," Ollie nodded, "We had a big conference and everything. Are you in the listserv?" He tilted his head, "It got discussed there a lot, even between the undifferentiated like you. We're basically remaking the Court, but I guess that means remaking how all the classes are governed..." Oliver trailed off with a quiet hmm sort of sound.

"I wasn't there for the ball though. That's what you mean, right? With the cutting throats thing?" He's heard stories. "Either way, we've all decided it needs to be stopped. The Court's personally harmed my brother in ways I can't even begin to think about, and this entire boon that Moonwalkers have is dangerous at best. Did you know the moonwalkers and wargs used to be the same thing?" Oliver blinked, "Sorry, I'm getting carried away with myself. There's a lot of information if you need help glossing over it."

He gave Zac's journal another look with renewed interest, "That's really cool though, that your journal is capable of that."

endejester

 

[endejester]

“I sort of am, I haven’t looked at it in a while though.” He admitted. He was sort of terrible with keeping up on anything that remotely resembled ‘social media’ even if it was a closed group of people.

“But, yeah, I was there for the ball, so I got to see some of that first hand, and hear about others later so, I mean I guess it’s a thing, or was a thing.” He gave a hapless shrug.

“T-trust me though I very seldom mind information, and if I am minding it I’m… uh, probably not myself.” He flushed slightly and then added. “I, um, the journal actually kind of showed up on my bed one day. Ashdown things, right?”

Melancholies

I'm so sorry