Oblivious Bliss: Chapter 9: The Collapse Part 4

Calm...

Just keep calm... There's nothing to this right? Knock on the door, wait for a response. When he answers we calmly, and in a civilized manner talk to Gibbons. When we finally get our point across to the bastard, we can leave his household and proceed home, right? Simple.

Octavia continued to psych herself up as she stared at the daunting knocker that hung on the termite infested door. After searching for what seemed like hours on end, she had finally found the broken down structure that Gibbons called a house. It's garden looked as if it hadn't seen a drop of water in all of eternity, that is if you exclude the weeds with vines so supple that not even a hacksaw would be able to tear them down. Dead and brown brush covered the first couple of feet of the houses walls, covering only the first couple of cracks that could be seen protruding along the entire length of the structure.

The house was two stories, barely being held up by crooked, slanted beams. One of which was completely useless, snapped in half with a gaping hole at it's base. The roofs boards had become withered, slowly creeping backwards into itself. Chipped paint, cobwebs, sun beaten wood, annihilated garden decorations such as bird baths, statues and even the cliche garden gnomes. All this and more Octavia seemed to miss. Once she had cringed the iron barbed fence gate of the premises, her eyes had only been focused on that damned door knocker.

It's shape, that of a manticore's head. It's mouth hung agape with what was once a golden ring within its jaws. Its eyes held deep crimson rubies adding more of a intimidating presence more than necessary to ward off any un-welcomed delivery mares and stallions alike.

Raising a shaky hoof only a few inches off the ground, Octavia waited. She waited for sometime, expecting something to happen, anything really. When it finally dawned on her. Looking down she could see her hoof tremble so. It refused to move to her whim, stopping almost as soon as it began for the knocker. Grabbing her disobedient hoof with her free one, she tried forcing it forward. It would not budge an inch. Giving up on her right hoof, Octavia tried the same thing with her left, with the same result. Her mind was willing but her body absolutely refused to partake in any of this.

Struggling again, Octavia put more effort into her motions, earning a few grunts to emanate from her. With her hoof completely still in mid-air, Octavia got up on all of her other hooves and leaned forward with her weight, hopefully moving the stubborn appendage forward. Instead the reaction Octavia got was an unexpected one. Instead of her hoof giving way, the rest of her body did and caused her to stumble, knocking her body in the door - head first.

Her hooves suddenly under her control again, planted themselves onto the tender area and began to rub the pain away. Octavia gave a hiss as she regained her posture on her haunches. Her eyes had clenched themselves from the stinging pain that pulsed throughout her head. When she opened them again she could see Gibbons looking down at her, a glass of whiskey held by a slinged hoof. A royal red robe was dropped loosely over his back, the rope belt dangling a bit from the outside breeze.

He glared a look down upon Octavia who was scrambling, trying to get in a proper positioning to address him. As she flopped her hooves around, she could feel the judgmental darts shoot through the core of her very being, elevating the amount of nervousness that had already began creeping inside of her.

With her hooves properly down on the cement below, she puffed out a relieved sigh before tensing back up at the sight of Gibbons. His facial features continued to sag downwards in disgust at Octavia's display as his harsh glare softened to half lidded eyes. He was gaining no amusement from Octavia's actions, much less her visit.

Octavia became still, focusing on all of Gibbons as she searched for the right words to say. Her mouth hung agape and tiny squeaks of her voice could be heard from her every couple of seconds. Her mouth had become dry while her brow was breaking out in a cold sweat.

After countless seconds, Octavia finally found the words to say to Gibbons, but was interrupted by a hearty throat clearing from him. "Why are you here." His voice evenly matched his aggressive body language.

"What?" Octavia asked absent minded. With her words taken out of her mouth from Gibbons interruption, she was once again lost for words. She lowered her head in though for a second, pondering on the sentence she had just a few moments ago before it all came rushing back to her. "Oh right, yes. I'm here to discuss Lyra with you."

"Lyra huh?" Gibbons raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, may I come in?" Octavia got up from her haunches and lifted a hoof, moving towards the open door.

"No." With that Gibbons slammed the door in the face of Octavia.

Octavia's hoof became limp as her eyes beaded up. Shaking off the rude gesture, Octavia knocked against the door, this time without hesitation.

The door instantly swung back open revealing Gibbons once again. "I demand to talk to you!" Octavia stamped her hoof down.

"Or what?" Gibbons leaned forward, stopping just an inch or two away from Octavia's face. Naturally Octavia craned her neck backwards a bit to avoid contact with him.

"I uh-" Hey eye's shifted away from making any further contact with Gibbon's.

"Exactly. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm very busy today so if you don't mind I'm going back inside." Gibbons turned around and moved a couple feet into his home. "Oh and don't worry about Lyra. I'll make sure to make her suffer for the humiliation she's bestowed upon me." Gibbons said, turning around only for a moment to give Octavia a devious grin before turning back around.

As the door began to close, a thought raced across Octavia's mind. Before she could even properly process it, it had blurted itself out. "First chair."

The door halted.

"What?" Octavia could only faintly hear Gibbon's voice as the nearly closed door muffled most of his sounds.

Biting her lip, Octavia continued on, "First chair. If you let me talk to you, and possibly persuade your mind about Lyra, I'll give up my first chair to you."

Gibbons opened the door back up a bit, just enough for one of his eye's to poke out.

"What makes you think that the Instructor will even agree to me being first chair again, over you?"

"I don't" Octavia answered truthfully. "But, I'm sure I could convince him."

Gibbon's darkened form remained still for a moment before Octavia could see him hand his head in contemplation. Lifting his head up, he moved to the side as to open the door back up.

"Five minutes, nothing more. Nothing less." Were the only words Gibbons said as he led Octavia into his home.

"That's all I ask."

~~~~

"Tavi, I'm home." Lyra called out in the couples apartment as she shrugged off her work bags, letting them drop to the base of the door. "Hello? Ya home?" Lyra called out again after receiving no response from her first call out.

Giving a momentary pause, Lyra still received no response. Looking back over at the door she could see Octavia's cello case along with her saddlebags gone. Putting two and two together, Lyra assumed Octavia must have gone into practice early as usual.

Letting a puff of air escape her mouth, Lyra slouched her posture some before making her way over to living rooms couch. Dropping herself onto the cushions of the couch - back first - Lyra looked up at the ceiling, groaning all the while. Reaching with both hooves, Lyra rubbed her eyes shut before straightening them out up into the air in front of her before letting them fall back down above her head.

"Rose..." Rose, was the only thing her brain could muster to think about. The fact that she had been evicted in such a quick and hasty fashion enraged and saddened her at the same time. But above all, it scared her. Sure she felt for her friend, but what of Lyra? For the time being she's financially stable, but what if something happens to her or worse Octavia? Something that leads her to loose all of her savings.

That one awful thought crossed her mind for a split second, no more and no less. But that split second was more than enough to make Lyra shudder in fear. The unforeseeable future of the days, weeks and months to come were already starting to drive her mad. What a blessing foresight would be for her.

Rolling over onto her side, she looked at the closed door of the apartment before letting out another sigh, this time of relief. Relief that Octavia wasn't home. Sure she wouldn't had been upset if she was home, but with her mind dwelling on such bleak thoughts, she rather be left alone for now to dwell.

Rolling back onto her back, Lyra put a hoof onto her forehead. "Shit..."

~~~~

"I got to say, I didn't expect to see you at my doorstep. What's the matter? Did the instructor finally loose his nerve? Damned prick." Gibbons said aloud as he lead Octavia through the halls of his house. Although on the outside it looked trashy, un-nurtured, beaten, worn and all around horrid, the insides was that of a royal palace. Blood red curtains draped themselves over every window, marble pillars stood at each side of the hallways bearing statuettes and trophies. The floors were covered with multiple fur rugs, and the walls covered with countless self portraits of Gibbons on them.

"His nerve?" Octavia asked absently, taking in the lot that was Gibbons house.

"Yes, his nerve." Gibbons hissed with scorn. "The very thing that he thinks gives him the right to talk down onto me." Gibbons finished his sentence as the two musicians walked into what Octavia assumed was Gibbons' 'study'. With a gesture of his hoof, he lead Octavia to take a seat at one of the two couches in the room. Both of the couches facing one another whilst a coffee table laid between them.

The guts of the room were the same as the rest of the room, excluding a personalized bar that stood a few feet behind where Octavia sat and the two armored knight statues at opposing ends of the room.

A shaking noise from behind the grey mare interrupted Octavia's gawking at Gibbons house. She hadn't even heard his earlier response, nor was she even fully aware that she had been seated. Looking back at the noise she could see Gibbons standing behind the bar counter, mixing a drink for himself.

"I suppose you'd want one too huh?" Gibbons asked half-hearted, Octavia lightly nodded for a yes. With a sigh and eye roll, Gibbons disappeared behind the bars counter for a few seconds, only to reappear with two bottles of alcohol. Pulling the tops off of each bottle, he began mixing Octavia a drink of her own.

Octavia looked on at Gibbons as he continued to mix her drink. After a couple for shakes he begun pouring the light red drink into two martini glasses and dropped a swirl of lemon zest in both of them.

Walking back around, Gibbons gave Octavia her drink before walking over to the opposing couch and taking a seat.

"Four minutes."

"What?" Octavia looked up from her drink.

"I said you had five minutes to convince me to drop the charges, you now have four." He finished up his statement with a sip of his drink.

Gibbon's words sunk into Octavia's skull like a ton of bricks, he had quite literally meant five minutes. Scrambling to set the drink down onto the table in front of her, Octavia prepared herself. Opening her mouth some, she let out a squeak of what should have been the beginning of her sentence. Instantly closing her mouth, she looked back down at her drink before picking it back up and downing it in one gulp. Her actions surprised Gibbons who in turn raised an eyebrow at the grey mares downing of the drink.

Letting out a sigh, Octavia clapped her hooves onto the upper portion of her hind legs. She cleared her throat before speaking, " Sorry, my throat was a little dry.". A blatant lie, both Octavia and Gibbons knew. In truth Octavia's nerves were a wreck, having your loved ones career on the line would make anypony nervous. A drink was what she truly needed before beginning her plea for Lyra.

With her nerves relaxed Octavia opened her mouth again, this time making an audible sound, "I can't do anything to stop you from suing Lyra, this I know." Gibbons chocked up a bit on his drink from her words. Her pounded his chest a couple of times as he coughed, trying to clear his throat as to breathe once more. Nearly spilling over his drink in hoof, he calmed down and looked onto Octavia with shock. "Even if I were to give up first chair for you, there's no guarantee that you'll be true to your word and drop the charges on Lyra. In fact, I suspect that If I were to give my spot up for you, that'd be exactly what you do. I mean, why wouldn't you? You'd have both me and Lyra out of our respective positions, leaving you at the head of the Orchestra... For the most part that is."

"Most part?" Gibbons pondered out loud, still trying to grasp what game Octavia was pulling.

"Well I mean the instructor will naturally know if you continue to go through with your case against Lyra, meaning that he'd know about our bargain that we would have made."

"How would he know about any deal that we make? Obviously something like this would have to be made under the table. No way he'd let this kind of deal fly if he were to know about it." Gibbons retorted.

"Precisely, he wouldn't go through with it. And that is where our issue lies, well yours at least. You see, I had a lot of time to think while I was looking for your house." Octavia leaned forward, placing both of her hooves on her knees. "I figured that if your pulling something like this over a little scrap that you and her had, what possible reason could I have for trusting you? And that was my main though in my head, how can I trust someone like you? I couldn't, or at least that was my final conclusion. So, I'm going to lay down the only options that you currently have. Option A, I give up my seat willingly and you drop the charges on Lyra, or option B is that you go through with the charges and you'll be permanently removed from the Orchestra. It's your decision to make."

With her last breathe of air, Octavia let out another sigh and leaned back onto the couch, he body shaking a little bit from the adrenaline that had been coursing through her veins since they had begun. This was the first time she had ever acted this way to anypony, ever but she needed to for Lyra's sake.

Gibbons chuckled a bit as Octavia laid back onto his couch. Killing his drink off, he responded, "I must say Octavia, you came with your guns loaded." He scratched his chin, pondering what would the proper course of action. "So if I drop the charges and play along with you, you'll surrender first chair. However if I follow through with my plan, I get removed at you two girls go right on with your lives, is that correct?"

"In short yes." Octavia quietly responded. Her adrenaline had subsided and her whole body was growing colder by the second. Her stomach continued to tie itself in more and more knots and she could swear the room was starting to spin around her.

"Well that certainly does put me a predicament doesn't it? Hmm, what to do what to do." The hints of sarcasm within his voice was starting to boil Octavia's blood. The fact that he was acting like this was some sort of game they were playing rather than having peoples careers and in turn their lives on the line. "Well I appreciate your offers, I truly do. But I think I would rather decline both, if you don't mind." I grin crossed Gibbon's face.

"What!" Octavia sprang up in response to his declining. As quickly as she had sprung up in protest, she was back down onto the floor. Her knees and forelegs barely able to support the weight of her body. Her breathing was strained and her vision was becoming blurry.

Keeping her eyes plastered on the floor below, Octavia could hear Gibbon's hoof steps making their way over towards her. She tried to speak out against him again but it was if her voice had been stolen from her. She could do little more than breathe at this point.

"Geez Octavia, you didn't tell me you were such a lightweight." He gave off a laugh at his own pathetic joke before kicking Octavia onto her back. Her hair sprawled out, along with all of her legs. Her breathing becoming heavier pants as her vision and hearing were beginning to fail. "Aww don't pass out just yet Tavi." Gibbons got down to her level and leaned in towards her ear. "If you pass out now, you'll never get to see what option C is."

With that Octavia's world went black...

Author's Note

Dun Dun Duhhh...