OPEN POST; [ HERLOCK SHOLMES / TGAA ]

[retroductions]

(( hold you in my dreams ))

Comments

[retroductions]

[He shuffles down onto the floor, reaching for box to remove its contents and lay them out.]

We are smoking this now.

[velluminous]

[ keeping the truth from him had been with the intent of keeping him from the shock and disbelief of it all, but somehow she hadn't considered... whether he might hate the idea. find it impossible, and moreover, unsightly.

his sudden movement to the floor—we are smoking this now—seems to make the room shake. her stomach........... hurts. ]

I... I want to... put on some music.

[ Sprezzatura drifts to the door and passes through ]

[retroductions]

[He makes no attempt to stop her, laying out all the necessary items. Lighting a match to give the little lamp a burning flame.

Is she going to wind up the gramophone? If so, she might wish to switch out the vinyl, because what plays at first is not terribly soothing.]

[velluminous]

[ Mammon! in response, Sprezzatura's tail ripples straight out in displeasure.

grabs the needle. and moves it. and ducks down to search for literally. anything else. ]

[retroductions]

[With enough shuffling, she will find a few nearby, vaguely labeled only as:

-Hummingbirds

-Sheep

-Diamond

She could also ask him which is what, if she wanted.]

[velluminous]

[ to look at him right now is a little much. she puts on... Diamond. ]

[retroductions]

[Well. Enjoy.]

[velluminous]

Why is your music all in this way!

[retroductions]

[From his bedroom-]

What way?

[WHATS WRONG WITH AN ENGLISH SEA SHANTY HUH]

[velluminous]

[ ugh! forget this. takes the vinyl off again and drops bodily onto the chaise and all its paper, still crumpled from her bottom before.

so much softer, ] I want to go back.

[retroductions]

[The papers only protest with their usual crinkling.

Sholmes appears a minute later, one long pipe in his hand, peering into the sitting room with vague uncertainty. Silence greets him; he wanders closer and takes in her state.

Not good.]

…

[He wanders next to the fallen record. Looks at it. Picks up the one called “Sheep” and plays it, instead.]

Perhaps something with more universal appeal.

[The music sounds as he moves closer and offers her the pipe, regardless of whether or not she’s facing him. He clears his throat.]

[velluminous]

[ NOT! GOOD!

he steps into her purview, his lower half and the pipe in hand, for she's slouching already on the sofa in a defensive huddle. all the trappings of the same home she has been living in for weeks, months, and in the end that only aches the keener. the melody rolls softly behind her. hardly seems like she notices.

only him, standing above her, looking beautiful and young and overwhelmed. only the pipe in his fingers.

she takes it and sets it with only halting uncertainty to her lips. ]

[retroductions]

[Ultimately, the pipe is merely an invitation. He has prepared the paste for her, and slipped it into the bowl, but it must be continually heated via the lamp for her to smoke its vapors. She must return to his room, or he must bring everything back out here.

Still. Maybe even easing her into it will still offer her some semblance of comfort to start.]

Return with me to my bedroom? [Ah that request feels... weighted differently, if what she says it true about the nature of their relationship. He clears his throat again.] If this music selection pleases you.

[velluminous]

[ can she help the fraught tingle that runs through her when he asks that? no. but her teeth click down tighter on the mouthpiece, her fingers twist in his coat. she's beginning to get too warm, indoors and bundled up and worked up, but for now it is a barrier between her and—the rest.

oh, to rewind five minutes to the pure, buoyant eagerness in his expression. for a second, she was a source of joy and not struggle. ]

Bring it out here.

[ safer out here. ]

[retroductions]

[Ah... blast. Of course she'd choose for him to bring it all out here, the more trying of the two options. But he must be......a.....gentle....man about it, or so he's been taught. So others have tried to teach him.

Which, too, only underlines how baffling this future of his must be. If he struggles to manage ordinary decorum, how could he possibly have tangled himself up in a romantic situation, and with— Well. Someone inhuman?

...Mm. They can discuss it at length later.]

...Very well, Ms Sapione.

[Returns to his bedroom!!! Give him a moment. Eventually, he returns with everything as a comical bundle in his arms, with the exception of the lamp, which hangs from one hand.]

Have you ever smoked anything like this before?

[velluminous]

[ isn't that the question, Herlock? how, indeed?

when he returns, he'll find her already strewn back as though she's in the throes of her high already, though holding her arms close around herself, and her tail wound close around a bared ankle (the scandal). ]

No. My family would have disowned me had I so much as tread near Waterdhavian opium den. [ the slightest bit calmer, now, and having seen the contents of the box, the memory comes back to her: yes, she does know what opium is, even as far away from "home" as this, and she knows how it is used. ] Laudanum... once or twice.

[retroductions]

[He saw her in her night clothes; nothing more scandalous than that.]

My family disapproves as well, but I'll not let them dictate every pleasure in my life.

[He hovers for a moment, then places the lamp down on the trunk. Easier for her to use.]

Heat the bowl of your pipe above the lamp's flame, my dear.

[And then he crouches down and places everything on the floor, one at a time.]

[velluminous]

[ very well.

hauls herself upright and leans forward. only a fine tremor in her hand, through some concerted effort, half-lidded eyes affixed to the flame quivering in time. ]

As you say, Mister Sholmes.

[retroductions]

Mm, and what happened to “Herlock?”

[He says it as he plops into a sit next to the trunk, all long legs pulled in, and fusses with the second pipe. Preparing the opium paste into a small pea-sized ball with a thin needle-like instrument when he’s satisfied with that.]

I’ve discouraged you with my reaction to this… news of yours. For that, I must apologize. [Then, instruction again-] When the opium starts to warm and vaporize, inhale slowly.

[velluminous]

[ all the measured movements of a man who knows well what he's doing. not even a devil woman can put him completely out of his own depth. she's watching from the corner of those dark, heavy-lashed eyes. ]

Strange woman has just claimed to be your wife. This is behaviour man should discourage.

[retroductions]

But what you say is true, isn’t it? I believe you when you say you have no reason to lie.

[No, logically, there is no reason to spin something so wildly shocking as the truth when there are far easier lies to sell. And his gut is telling him her misery is real — and thus her words are, too.

He’ll need a turn at the lamp, but Sholmes has no problem waiting. His gaze drifts to her.]

It’s simply that I never thought I would get… married. Ever. It might surprise you to learn that I’m not a terribly romantic fellow who falls into affection and infatuation on a whim, much less act on it. That would require a level of…

[He hates. Admitting that he’s not good at things. In this case… he will make an exception.]

…gregariousness with others that I don’t possess. Naturally.

[Good at reading people. Bad with people. Bad bad bad bad.]

/3

[velluminous]

[ either her misery is real, or she is delusional enough to believe it. but in all other respects, doesn't she seem lucid? and thus, in others, she supposes she ought to count herself lucky that she makes for so poor a liar. ]

Perhaps you change. [ fatherhood changes him? ] But... I also push first.

[ she lifts the pipe from the flame. ]

[velluminous]

[ and takes a slow drag ]

[velluminous]

[ and sags back ]

... and second...

[retroductions]

[The slightly chemical scent is already wafting about freely. He sits up and warms the opium he’s molded over the flame, still looking at her. Sholmes takes on a curious tone.]

Whatever do you mean?