Oluse's question was met with unexpected force, and this overwhelmed him suddenly. His brow grew more turbulent as Darin's gale force words ripped through, and straight past him. Oluse admittedly missed the true gravity of the statement at first, his empathies shocked out of effectiveness by the sheer intensity of their nature.
Ultimately his head continued it's roll to it's side, and his searched eyes diverted, descended, and met with a particular knot upon the wooden comprised table before them both. His hands came from under the table, his unkempt nails digging into an uneven spot within the dark swirling knot. Just along the edge of the knot's realms he could see the unfocused tight of Adarin's threatening hand tighten around the neck of his ale, before quickly loosening. Oluse simply squinted into the darkness upon the table, as if looking straight into Syna herself. That which can never been seen directly, or that which he doesn't want to see.
His posture was distracted, and meek, as would his voice be when he spoke. His mind however, was present, and trying to decode what the older man was saying to him. Adarin seemed to feel threaten, this was clear to Oluse. He didn't know what poison Adarin spoke of, but Oluse could only imagine it had to somehow do with his feelings that Oluse wasn't solving the source of Denval's problems, but the result. Adarin also seemed reluctant to speak in front of Patar. Oluse gave the slightest suspicious look up toward his father, giving the unintended (and completely true) impression that he felt uncomfortable with this topic around him.
Oluse suddenly came to a decision in that moment, he would listen to Darin, under two conditions. His father could not be around, and Adarin had time to sober and think somewhat before the conversation. He did, however, dedicate himself in his entirety to to understanding what threatened Adarin so. The tone implied a danger not simply personal, but to all of Oluse's community. This was something the boy took seriously. But, Adarin's withheld nature on the topic confused him, scared him, as if his own father were an enemy.
Deliberately withholding eyes contact Oluse spoke in a very meek and quiet voice. "Adarin, I should go. Excuse me." He then quickly rose up, the chair vibrating nosily backward across the floor behind him. Not listening to any objection to his sudden departure he set a course directly for and past his father. Words to Oluse at that point only rewarded Adarin with a surprisingly focused expression and simple words from Oluse. His eyes seemed contemplative, and intensely excited. And in a tone unnecessarily truthful he said, "I will see you later, Sir."
Oluse bounded up the narrow stairway to the second floor where his and his sister's rooms were, and dove for his bed as if it would be some safe heaven from the emotions there were brewing inside of him. It wasn't. His mind stirred and darkened, folding deeper and deeper into himself. Little true thoughts accompanied the intense emotions in his mind, emotions that Adarin had impregnated into him. This was an area which Oluse was unaccustomed. His father had taught him the school of thought that belonged to a physician. Critical, insightful, physical. These emotions were none of these things, they ran deeper. Visceral, raw. And Oluse vowed he would piece through them no matter what it took. Adarin's words had scared Oluse, but he for the first time in longer than he could remember felt as if his existence, his choices, mattered.
Curlled in on himself, blankets wrapped crudely around him Oluse fell into an uncomfortable slumber, accompanied by a dream. A dream of the knot, mirroring the one in his stomach. Though in his dream it wasn't stationary, it churned and rotated, the center like a dark black pit to a storm. He felt rain around him, as he watched his finger twirl around the top of it, etching as they had earlier that night. The rain grew steadier, and the wind increased immeasurably as he realized the finger before him, dictating the spinng storm was not his own, but Adarin's. Oluse's eyes watered, as a feeling of great loss struck into him, and Oluse reached out for this hand, only to feel himself tumbling backward into what was no longer a knot upon a table but a true deadly storm.
The next morning he woke with a terrible start, his sister's worried face above him. He had lost his covers throughout the night, and not gotten up to stoke the fire as he usually did, being more sensitive to the cold than his siblings and parents. His skin was cold and stained with wet from sweat. It tasted of salt, like sea water, as Denvali sweat did. He had all but forgotten the dream from the night before, unable to recite it to his sister. He only felt that foreboding feeling in his stomach, and as a result the remainder of the day was miserable. He sat impatiently through school, and as it came to a close he took off into the snow as he had grown accustomed to doing after his meaningless classes.
He did not find himself wandering aimlessly that day, however. Instead he found himself directly before Adarin's place, staring at the door, the pit in his stomach growing deeper and stronger. Oluse squinted against the cold and his own fear with great reluctance before stepping forward and drawing his fist up, then applying three great knocks on the heavy wooden door. He would finish the conversation he had started the day before, this time in privacy, where his father couldn't stop Oluse, or Adarin.
oocI kinda think sometimes Oluse is mildly autistic... o.O
Srry for random scene change, it's just Oluse is really um... introverted. He can't process things quickly, and I wanted to show how much of an impact Adarin's words had on him outside of just a single drunken conversation. Hope you don't mind!
by Oluse on February 3rd, 2012, 5:29 pm 
