[PRP] Dadtron 5000 (Odal & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

Basement basement basement. Horace was so distracted he'd had to ask for directions from hapless fetches twice. His ears burned. He was being silly, surely - making a mountain out of a molehill. But he just didn't know how to react; didn't know how Odal would react either. A small part of him wished Ollie or Eli was there to hold his hand, but that was foolish. He was a grown adult and could do this without dissolving into an anxious mess.

Horace breathed deeply and took the steps down two at a time. "Hello?" he called out as he went. "Is Odal there?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Would anyone else be here?" Odal sounded cheerful, but the smile went rather fixed once he caught sight of Horace.

Odal's basement was a long room of wine casks and a wall of books. It was chilly, but not annoyingly so, and Odal didn't seem to notice it one way or another.

Odal cleared his throat. "I suppose Silk showed you the, er, test."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Well, I did hear you throw pretty wild parties." As a joke, it was pretty lame. The way Odal's expression changed sent apprehension zinging through Horace. He didn't know what it meant, if anything. Maybe it was just some sort of shield slamming up.

Horace held up the rolled paper. "Uh, yeah, I have here if you wanna -" He stepped forward, holding it out.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Odal took it. He unrolled it. He looked down at the paper for a long, long time. An awkwardly long time, even. And then he said, "Oh," and then he looked up at Horace.

The stupid thing was that they looked barely a decade apart in age. Odal didn't seem like a man who could be a father to someone in their twenties. He looked like he should have like, a five year old. But the magic didn't lie. He looked at Horace for a long moment.

"I imagine you have questions," he said, rolling up the scroll. "Do you prefer red or white wine?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"W-what?" His voice spiked up. Horace hadn't expected that kind of a question - he hadn't been sure what to expect. "Uh, either, uh, white I guess?" She smoothed his palms down his thighs.

Horace sighed. "I mean, I do have questions like... how are you my father when I... Well, we're not even from the same sort of universe, really."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Odal led the way from the cask room into what looked like a studio apartment's kitchen. It was kind of small and cramped, and there was a Formica table scored with myriad little burn-spots. They didn't look like cigarette burns. More like something had spilled over the edges of a cup and burned the hell out of the tabletop. The two chairs were wooden, and solidly-built. Odal opened the fridge (it was full of bottles of wine) and picked one at seeming random.

Once there were glasses poured (the wine fizzed gently, sparks of what looked like pale pink glitter drifting lazily through the liquid) Odal took a seat.

"I was very much interested in magic before I became a fetch," he said. "I enjoyed... exploring things. My mentor was a woman named Vivien Hawken, who often climbed the cliffs on the beach in Ashdown. I went with her, especially as she got sicker. There was a gap in the cliff face, you see. And it led... here. To the world you were born in. Where exactly seemed variable, and we were working on a way to determine how to either lock the pass or block it off when the door moved on unexpectedly..."

He was quiet for a moment. "So I was there for several months. In Oklahoma." Odal seemed to find that amusing. "Until the pass came through again, and I went back. I never knew that Marigold was..."

He trailed off.

"How is she?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace slid into one of the chairs and watched Odal move around. He didn't know what he expected of the man, but fizzy wine and formica tables seemed an odd mix. "I know of Vivien, though I never did meet her. Er, any version of her. It's... I can't believe it led you to Oklahoma of all places. You were probably bored..."

He paused, glass almost to his lips as Odal asked about his mother. "She's.. dead." Horace supposed he should feel more over her death, but it was an old regret. She was just a shadow he'd never known. "Apparently, right after I was born... Did you meet her mother, Dora? I grew up with her only. She refused to talk about you." Or to talk about Marigold. Horace fell silent, feeling uncomfortable.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Not particularly," said Odal thoughtfully. "It was interesting. Not my favorite place, but there's something to be said for anywhere if you're thoughtful enough in your exploration."

He frowned. "That old bit--biddy?" The frown deepened. "She didn't approve of me. I'm not... is Native the proper term?" He examined his nails, and then shrugged. "I kept bad company, had a bad job... your mother and I knew it was just temporary, so why not ignore her? I thought..."

Odal looked at the sparks fizzing in his glass.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "I liked Marigold. She was a good friend."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Oklahoma was a cesspool, but if Odal didn't think so, Horace had no reason to go on and on about the past. Well, about this portion of the past.

"Native works. Yeah, I think... I think she blamed you for, well everything." He shrugged with one shoulder. "You weren't on my birth certificate, grandma wouldn't tell - I tried to see if I could find things about you or my.. my mom, but I couldn't."

A good friend. Horace didn't know how to feel, so he carefully siphoned his confused emotions into a box. Sort it later, if ever. "So, yeah... I'm sorry for just, uh, popping into your life now and stuff. You don't owe me anything, but I wanted to... to know." He didn't know what he was supposed to do here.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Not hard to understand why. I was rather..." Odal tapped his glass against his lips. "Like an illegal immigrant, but on the dimensional level?"

He shrugged. "I'd like to get to know you," he said. "And I'm incredibly sorry that I wasn't there for you. I don't know that I can be your dad--it's rather too late--but I'd like to at least be friends."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace shrugged. "I still can't forgive her for refusing to talk about you or my mom. There's a lot of stuff I can't forgive her for, but it doesn't matter. I heard she died." He was mostly alone in the world.

He laughed a little, kind of nervously. It was like meeting any other person. "I guess we can start from the beginning. Hi Odal, I'm Horace Nokoni and I don't shake hands because touching is weird and I tend to shock people. I ran away from Oklahoma when I was sixteen and I've been living in Ashdown for, uh, 3 years now about. I like coffee and have a bat named Nugget." There, summed up. He tugged his hair in front of his shoulder, fidgeting.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Hello, Horace," said Odal. He smiled. His right cheek had a dimple. "I'm Odal. Used to be called Robin Priestly, but fetch culture requires a four-letter name. I shake hands, but not when people are nervous about it, so don't worry. I grew up in Philadelphia and lived there until I moved to Ashdown to get my master's degree. I like wine, and don't have a familiar."

He paused for a minute, and then said, "Why did you name your bat Nugget?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Should I call you Odal or Robin?" He wondered, for a moment, why his mother had chosen to keep him as a pregnancy. It would have been easier for her, better, if she hadn't. "In West Philadelphia born and raised," he muttered.

"Uh, I was just throwing names at Nugget and he seemed to like that one. Plus, he's a little nugget of a bat. Tiny, sounds like Morgan Freeman. It's kind of unsettling. What's your master's in?" He finally took a sip of the wine, actually tasting it.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I haven't been Robin for years," said Odal, "Odal is just fine."

He got the joke about the Fresh Prince, if his lopsided grin was any indication.

"I'd like to hear that someday. If you're ever comfortable. And my master's was in, um, marketing. My bachelor's was in engineering, but I started working for Lego..." Odal trailed off and rolled his eyes. "I always liked those stupid little things."

The Semblance of Unity