Chapter Text
Mudcrabs and Marriage
Voryn Dagoth stood in the music club's practice room and glared at the grand piano in front of him as if he made to burn it down with the power of his stare alone. It was his fault really, and that was the worst part. He couldn't even blame the accident on anyone! All he could do was replay the embarrassing moment he decided to move the piano by his lonesome and broke it.
The leg had snapped and buckled from the friction of being dragged across the carpet, and because the lid had been open when he moved it, threw the delicate guts of the piano skittering across the room. Snapping wires and splitting hammers and scraping keys.
"So," Vivec made a point to sip his iced drink loudly once the dust had settled. "What now? Don't suppose you can strum the broken strings with a viola bow, can you?" He remarked dryly, kicking a splinter of wood to the side.
Voryn dug his nails into his palms. He was painfully aware of all the eyes staring at him, the voices murmuring, the thrumming in his chest. If you had told him he was having a heart attack, he'd believe you without a second guess. An elbow dug into his side.
"Hey," Vivec had moved closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Unclench your butthole, I was just joking. That piano is probably from the merethic era anyway, it was on its way out the door. You just...sped up the process."
"I'll grab a broom!" Kijhu hissed out, scaly tail disappearing down the hallway.
"Don't stand there like a s'wit, help us pick up!" Aben scolded.
Voryn hadn't even noticed that people had moved to start cleaning up the mess. He promptly sprung into action, slightly frantic as he gathered scraps of wood and metal to dump into the trashcan. Just then, the teacher presiding over the music club that day walked in.
"What in the ten hells?" She balked. "How did the piano break?"
"It's my fault sera," Vivec called out. "I tried to move it and the fucker broke."
It was Voryn's turn to balk, as that wasn't the truth at all. Voryn had been the one insisting he could move the piano alone and Vivec didn't even touch the damn thing! But the lie sounded so innocent and casual falling from his lips, that even the people who had witnessed the incident didn't say anything to contradict it.
"Vivec, you fucking know better!" She scolded. "I have explicitly told you all that moving the piano is a two-person job at least! It should be three given the constitution of you lot." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Regardless, we'll have to do without for now. I can see about a replacement later. Maybe the jazz kids have an extra upright they can lend us..."
"Great!" Vivec grabbed his drink and his bag and started for the door. "Glad that's all resolved, I'll see y'all next week. C'mon Voryn."
"Excuse me?" Aben hissed. "What the fuck? Where do you think you're going?"
He stopped just before the door. "I've been yelled at, the piano is broken, and my mood is ruined. Do you expect me to play my best under these conditions? You would feed a plant acid and expect it to bloom?"
Vivec didn't have a 'team' mentality when it came to things. It was always himself first with no exceptions. If he wasn't one of the best harp players in Resdayn he would've been kicked out of the club long before this day. But, alas, they needed his talents and he knew that, and he used it to his advantage. So he turned and left without so much as another word, knowing that they wouldn't dare do shit about it.
After many hurried apologies to the people in the room, Voryn grabbed his things and started after Vivec, glad for an excuse to escape.
"You didn't have to cover for me like that, really. It's not that big of a deal." Voryn mumbled.
"Oh please." Vivec took a cigarette from behind his ear and lit it with a match. "You would've pissed yourself and started crying if you had been yelled at like that. And as thoroughly arousing as the sight would've been, I'm feeling charitable today."
"Arousing?" Voryn squeaked in surprise, unsure if he heard the other correctly.
Vivec ignored him, instead taking out his phone and checking his notifications, the lit cigarette loose between his lips as he typed with one hand.
"My roommates are requesting an energy drink run, wanna come with?"
"...sure."
Voryn followed him numbly. Sure he knew Vivec, he saw him twice a week at music club - three if they had rehearsals - but he wasn't considered a friend. At least Voryn didn't. He scrubbed his mind for a reason as to why Vivec would invite him to spend time together but came up empty. Regardless, it would be beneficial to have Vivec as a friend, even if he was trying at times. Vivec had a lot of connections in the college, some more unsavory than others, but connections nonetheless, and they might come in handy for Voryn.
The Great College of Mournhold, or just The College if you don't have much time, was actually several different institutions haphazardly welded together by a barely functioning bureaucracy. It started out as a school for Medicine and Restoration, before branching out to other sciences and eventually encompassing any and all fields one could hope to study. It even boasted one of the best (albeit smallest) business schools this side of the Inner Sea.
The campus was massive, spanning multiple buildings, and was large enough to warrant the use of guild guides to cross from one end to the other. There was even a silt strider line that ran from the dorms to Brindisi Plaza so that students could do shopping and whatnot. The campus itself sat a substantial distance outside the walls of Mournhold Proper, nestled like a boil on the side of the city. Shops, apartments, and even a concert venue nearby, and beyond that the rest of the city's neighborhoods.
After a round of cussing out the vending machine and a trip through the guild guide, they made it to the environmental sciences wing of the campus. Voryn was surely lost at this point, as he had only ever set foot in this area once during a campus tour years ago. He spent all his time in the Fine Arts and Music Halls, occasionally the medical wing when he went to visit Almalexia and study with her, and this part of the college was practically foreign to him.
This area of the campus was more recently built and still smelled of fresh brick and mortar. The tile was only slightly dirty, as opposed to the worn and melted mosaics of the older parts of the college. It was bright, and every veritable surface you could conceive of sat either a potted plant, sculpture, or tableau displaying migratory flight patterns and restoration efforts.
He thought that a department of sciences would be neat and organized but this...was organic in a way he couldn't quite describe. It was a fantastic departure from the austere halls he was used to.
Round several corners and up a flight of stairs, the pair arrived at a room. '406 Laboratory' a placard read beside the door. Vivec didn't even knock before entering, which Voryn found quite rude.
"Helooo~" Vivec called out in a singsong-y voice.
"Is that the sound of libations I hear?" A voice called out from a table.
He was a young Chimer with long grey hair down to his shoulders. He hunched over some kind of machinery, dwemeri from what Voryn could make out. Long oak tables with lacquered tops spanned the length of the room. There were tanks filled with fish and other critters, and shelves filled to the brim with jars of specimens.
"Rejoice! Libations upon ye!" Vivec tossed a can across the room, and the Chimer dutifully caught it and set it between his legs to hold it steady while he popped the tab of the can.
As Voryn stepped into the room, he could see why. His left arm was gone from below the elbow, and Voryn immediately everted his eyes, lest he be impolite.
"Where's Neht?" Vivec asked. "I got him that stupid Aedric Energy he wanted."
The grey-haired Chimer gestured to the table on the other side of the room. "He's got his headphones in, you'll have to kick him."
Vivec groaned and walked over. He looked down at the ground, clearly contemplating something. He held up the can and dropped it. It made a resounding thud as it collided with its target, and was followed by a cry.
"AAH! Fuck was that for?"
"Think you meant to say 'you're welcome',"
"What're you doin here? I thought you had band or some shit."
"Read your phone dingus."
The mer stood up and stretched. He was faced away from Voryn but he could tell he was Velothi, given the tattoo on the back of his neck. His clothes were that of a standard college student, worn t-shirt and all, but the piercings adorning his ears were made of chitin and bone, as opposed to the precious metals favored by their urban cousins. His hair was white and fluffy, cut into a half-mohawk-half-mullet style that fell to about his shoulder blades.
"What the fuck? How the hell do you break a piano that bad?!?"
Vivec jutted his chin in Voryn's direction. "Ask him,"
He turned around and looked at Voryn and he thought for a moment that he had been punched. He was incredibly beautiful, with sharp blue eyes that ripped through Voryn like a hot knife through flesh. Two small rings adorned either side of his lower lip, and a crescent shape hung from his septum. The mer flashed a lopsided grin, and it was all Voryn could do not to blush.
"What did the piano insult your mom or something?"
Voryn said nothing because he wasn't sure he would say what he wanted to if he opened his mouth.
"I tease! Accidents happen. Azura knows I've broken enough tanks and equipment to fund a trip to High Rock!" He laughed. "I'm Nerevar, by the way."
"Voryn Dagoth."
"Oh shit, aren't you the heir?" Nerevar raised his eyebrows.
Voryn just nodded in response, doing his very best to remain impassive and unreadable. Nerevar scooted up and onto the table, crossing his legs and turning to face him.
"That over there is Sotha Sil, he's doing engineering, and I'm in the marine biology program. What about you?"
The younger mer from the table waved at Voryn, and he gave a polite smile, before returning his attention to Nerevar and Vivec. He opened his mouth to respond to Nerevar's question but before he could Vivec squealed.
"Eek! Neht! One of your nasty pets has escaped! Put it BACK!" He clambered up onto a table in his panic, and sure enough, Voryn could see a mudcrab skittering across the floor, hissing angrily.
Nerevar lept off his perch, scooped up the crab, and turned to Vivec looking truly hurt.
"He's not nasty!" He patted the top of the crab, and Voryn was surprised it didn't try to bite or pinch him. "Don't listen to him, he's just jealous he's not as pretty as you,"
"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you're aiming to marry the wretched thing!" Vivec spat, still sitting on the table.
"He'd make a better husband than you!"
"Excuse me?!?"
The pair went back and forth, arguing about how and why someone should (or should not) marry a mudcrab. Voryn watched the scene play out with mild amusement before he heard someone clearing their throat right in front of him. He looked down to see Sotha, sitting in a wheelchair.
"I'm Sotha, it's nice to meet you."
Voryn gave him another polite nod before looking away.
"Hey!" Sotha sounded terse and annoyed. "I'm not a fucking gargoyle, you can look at me. You act as if I'm going to put a curse on you."
A small amount of panic rose in Voryn's chest, forcing his mask to slip slightly. "I-I'm sorry! I just've never-"
"Save it. Whatever you're about to say I've already heard and I can guarantee you it's going to just piss me off even further."
Voryn steadied himself and considered his next words carefully. Finally, he met the other mer's eyes.
"You're right, my apologies. I should have acknowledged you when you introduced yourself the first time." Sotha seemed pleased at that, and his smile returned. "You're an engineer, right? Are you focused on anything in particular?"
Sotha's eyes flashed with a quiet excitement and motioned for Voryn to follow as he wheeled back to the table with the Dwemer contraption. He couldn’t make sense of what was on the table. Wires running to and fro across a metal plate, it looked like a circuit but bore none of the modern silicones and metals they were typically made of. It was all dwemeri metal and copper wires.
"I do work in electrical engineering, and this is part of my thesis. I want to prove that circuits using magicka are just as viable as electronics, if not better.”
“What’s wrong with electronics?”
”Nothing, they’re great. They do a lot of good in the right hands, but they have their issues. For one, they need a lot more work and effort to work under water or in extreme temperatures. There’s also the fact that they warp over time when in prolonged contact with magical currents.”
”What? I thought the whole ‘magic ruins your phone’ stuff was just a myth?”
”Eh, not exactly. The occasional spell won’t toast your devices, but say if you’re doing research on a magical source, or if you live in a place where the veil between the planes is thin, or if you’re wearing a powerful enough enchantment, over time the device will start to malfunction. This is at most inconvient for the average person, but when it comes to precise measuring devices and medical equipment, it can mean life or death. However, if I can get a magical circuit to work in a way that the current is secure, that won’t be an issue.”
"Have you gotten it to work?"
“…no. The circuit works, but every time I make a connection it fizzles out. The longest I’ve managed to get it to work is five minutes, then it burns through the wires and fries itself. Maybe if I could get my hands on some more Dwemer goods, I could see about fabricating some wire from it, see if that’s the reason why it keeps bugging out.”
Just then Voryn's phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked at the phone to see that Almalexia was calling him. Shit. He completely fucking forgot that he was supposed to meet her for studying after music practice today. Looking at the clock on the wall he saw that he was more than half an hour late for that. He cursed under his breath and grabbed his bag.
"I've got to go, sorry."
And with that, he hurried out the door.