In a quiet tea shop...

[theanachronistictailor]

On Saturday, an hour before proper tea time, the Anachronistic Tailor arrives at Beatrice's Tea Shoppe to find a table that is slightly out of the way. Close to the corner of the room, just away from one of the windows that let light pour into the rest of the tearoom. They sit in the chair closer to the corner, which allows them to face the tearoom and all who enter and exit it.

The table is prepared with a tray of scones and sandwiches, but the Tailor insists quietly to the servers to wait on serving the tea itself. They are waiting for company. If that company does not arrive, they will take tea fifteen minutes after--but it would be improper to let the pot over-steep or, heaven forbid, grow cold.

For now, they take water, and they have a book with them, but one eye is on the door. They've sent an invitation to a friend, but only time will tell if that friend chooses to come.

Comments

... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

When the Morbid Socialite enters Beatrice's Tea Shoppe, it is with an air of familiarity, having been many times before and will attend many times after. His eyes traced the room quickly before landing on the table in the corner of the room, out of the way and with one seat- the one facing the door- occupied by a familiar face. They smiled and, politely waving off a member of staff asking if they'd like their usual table, they made their way to the small pocket of shade.

"A pleasure to see you away from the chaos of the classroom, dear Tailor," the Socialite greeted warmly. "I do assume it is you who invited me, regardless of the presence of a seal, signature, or lack thereof. May I sit?"

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

The Tailor smiled with a touch of sheepishness--yes, they had realized belatedly they had forgotten the necessity of a signature. Old habits of trying not to leave a trace were sometimes hard to kick. But in all other regards, the smile was genuine, crinkling delight into the corners of their eyes. They closed their book and gestured at the set across from them and the table as a whole, while raising an arm to gesture at the server to bring forward the pot.

"By all means, please join me. The pleasure is mine. I had assumed, after the past week, we might do with not being so alone with our thoughts. I take it you frequent the shop? I try not to make a habit of it, unless I'm meeting friends."

For all that there had been nightmares, for certain, and they may have been bordering on madness, the Tailor seemed surprisingly well put together. Only the shadows under their eyes might give them away, but they seemed in remarkably high spirits.

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite nodded as he took the seat across from the Tailor, the movement practiced and poised. "It is a favorite of my spouses and I, Beatrice's is. Many a stressful night has been followed by an Elevenses or Devonshire Tea here. As well, for the sophisticated person in a position of authority, any 'negotiations' must be just as sophisticated and subtle."

The Socialite waved away the thought. "Ah, but pardon my manners, you've invited me to tea so kindly and I've yet to ask why. Unless it's simply pleasant company you seek, of course, in the case of which I am more than happy to provide. Our companion did say that company and, in particular, the Sunlit Special may be an effective cure for the night terrors that plague us."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

The Tailor settled back. “Company is, in the end, my primary focus. Our classmates were insistent we try to keep connections to ease each other’s minds.” They began to prepare their cup with sugar, continuing, “I don’t know how much weight I hold to that belief myself. But you offered me reprieve, and I intended more than anything to repay the favor.”

That was the real heart of it: the Tailor hated owing anyone anything. The Socialite had been kind, and that in itself was nothing to sneer at, but still something in the Tailor felt like a debt, however small, had been incurred.

They did also just like the fellow. There was that too.

“If today can be in any way a help to either of us, I’ll find it was a success. Do you take sugar?”

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

"I do, thank you." As the Socialite took two lumps of sugar into his tea, he turned the words the Tailor spoke around in his head. A denial that connections could ease one's mind and yet and admittance that the Socialite's previous actions had been of some relief. The tea eddied with the movement of the spoon, the sugar mixing in with the hot tea rapidly and emulsifying into the liquid. The Tailor felt they owed the Socialite and, thus, the invitation was sent. Or, perhaps, something deeper that the Tailor themselves were unaware of.

In the mere moments it took for the Socialite to take a sip of the sweetened tea, they considered what might be underneath all the contradictions. Perhaps a need for companionship unfulfilled normally? Or a fear of what companionship might cost? The process of revealing one's heart was a painful one and unnecessary for most surface level interactions, but true companionship required one to pull open their ribs and display the whole of themselves. Was there something to hide? All people had something to hide, but to be so abrasive to others, as the Tailor was in the previous class, spoke to the hidden abrasion they, themselves, carried. What had happened that the Socialite wasn't aware of and why was he suddenly so invested in the safety and health of the Tailor? Was there something he wasn't aware of in himself?

The Socialite set the cup down with a gentle tink and smiled up at the Tailor. "Delightful. If you don't mind my asking, how have you been sleeping? I should hope well, but the track record has forced such a hope to give way to reality."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

They sipped at their own cup quietly, eyes closing, and a near imperceptible amount of weight seemed to drop off the Tailor's shoulders. When they opened their eyes to meet the Socialite's gaze, their own seemed brighter by something of a fraction. They smiled.

"I'm managing. I won't deny I've been experiencing bad dreams, but if I were to be painfully honest, I find them to be a pretty regular occurrence. That the shape's changed a little is something of a novelty."

There was a carelessness to their words. It might have been trained to be an easy dismissal, or it could have been genuine. Nothing of the statement was a lie, in any case; they'd always been prone to nightmares. When they could, they would opt not to sleep at all. This was their normal.

"And yourself? I hope class hasn't taken too many years off your life with stress," they joked gently. They were remembering the second class--Maury's frazzled gaze, their desperate tired plea to not be forced to discuss details. Something had haunted him then, and while he'd come into the next class in better spirits and had spoken about acknowledging what had troubled them, that class in itself...

"I imagine you have experience holding off nightmares?"

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite held back a laugh at the comment on his years. He offered a scone in the Tailor's direction as he responded. "More than should be accounted for one lifetime. It would seem- for those of the Neath, at the least- that the older one becomes, the more nightmares they are wont to suffer. Experience, dear Tailor, leads the mind to terrible places when it has room to wander. Sleeplessness, however, cannot be abided by, and so one must learn to live with and effectively smother such terrors. You young and spry youths may while the night away to avoid what your mind is burdened by, but the aging have less luck."

The Socialite returned to the cup of tea and considered it. "Even something as simple as another year passing may bring about a lack of sleep and, with it, a lack of decorum, a lack of focus, a lack of the good and modern man's intelligence. I am certain you recall one such instance..."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of acknowledging any such moment that I might have been present to!" The younger fellow said blithely, taking the proffered scone and setting it on their plate. The lifted their cup to their mouth again. "In the same way I'm sure you would know not to say anything of my own imagined failings."

And there had been a number of those, hadn't there? From the rooftop scaling, to the shameful weeping in class, they'd made a fool of themself more than once, and Maury had seen a secret and had kept it. That was no small thing.

They quieted, and then set the cup down fully. A hand traced the edge of an elegant plate.

"Do you have any..." No. This constant careful choosing of words was in itself exhausting. Better to be direct. "How do you deal with them? If that's alright to ask."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite set their cup down on the saucer, thinking. "Well... I'm afraid that the way I find most effective proves your earlier theorem incorrect."

With a straight back and a knowing look, he continued. "Laudanum, tea, wine, they are all well and good solutions, but only when one is truly unburdened. The mind cannot hold all stress alone. The Royal Beth should all but prove that keeping to one's self and keeping one's cards held to their chest is not the path to relief. Mind, I am not saying that one should climb to the roofs and shout their darkest secrets. Goodness knows, the impropriety... Consider any man an archipelago, a cluster of islands. Each man may keep to themselves as much as they so desire, but one may only receive a variety of fruit if one is willing to trade their wood to their neighbor."

The Socialite grimaced. "No, that... that is a terrible metaphor. What I mean to say, as plainly as I can put it, is to find a friend you can trust with all of you and a friend you can trust with only some of you. Nobody else needs to know you so intimately, but if there is even one person with whom you can unload some of the burden, then you will be well on your way to restfulness and ease. Do trust me, I know how difficult that can be, finding the very few people you mustn't treat like a stranger or a rival. It can be difficult to keep two faces. But a gentleman must always have a confidant, even among perfect strangers."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

The Tailor's gaze did not lift. Their mouth tightened in degrees, lips pressed together, but they didn't dismiss the Socialite outright. What they did say was quiet and tired.

"I tried, when I was younger, to share parts of me with others I thought could be comrades. I was found... wanting."

Not that they were left wanting. No. They had been the one lacking. The fault had laid with them. Some intrinsic value in them had been lacking, they supposed. To open up oneself to vulnerability like that and to be rejected, not once, but time and time again...

No. They were done getting hurt like that. Why would they ever let anyone see them, when the results were always so disastrous? Better to give out the truth piecemeal, truths heavily wrapped in beautiful fabrications. Fabrication, ha! No issue for a tailor.

They picked up their cup again, but they only looked at it. They met their own peligin eyes.

They swallowed around nothing.

"May I ask a strange, and possibly personal, question? Nothing--nothing invasive," they added, eyes flicking up from the teacup to their companion, then back to their own reflection.

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite picked up on the subtle wording. To be found wanting, to be told again and again that the fault lies in you, that you're too odd, too excitable, too curious, too unafraid, too wordy, too silent, too un-squeamish, too attracted to the inevitable concept of death and the processes of the body, too willing to give it all, too willing to take your bleeding heart from your chest and present it open and pumping, too bad with words, too specific, too intrusive, never enough, never enough, never enough, never eno-

He blinked and the Tailor had asked him a question. He had only seconds to process what they'd asked and figure out how to respond.

With an innate calm, a blood-thick ease that washed over the conversation, even over top of the anticipation and tension, the Socialite laid his focus on the Tailor. "Of course. Anything."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

They did not look up from the cup when they asked, with an almost childlike shyness, "What was it like? On the Surface?"

It was a potentially exposing question, if one actually care to look--if one didn't get caught up in the answer, on the complex relationship they might have had with the world Up There in the light, and all the good and bad it possessed, then one might ask themself, shouldn't the Tailor know?

Their grip on the handle of the cup was tight. They still would rather ask. People around them would talk about the Sun as a thing to miss, or would talk about the world out there being more judgemental, and all they knew was here. London. Home. And sometimes it felt so small. It felt so often like something was missing, like they were trapped in a box. Was this really freer than Up There?

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite considered, considered the implications of the question and what the Tailor might want in an answer. His thumb ran along the top of the handle of the cup, feeling the bumps and curves over and over. "Well, it's... complicated. The Surface is everything like the Neath and yet nothing at all like it. People will always be people, I'm afraid. We bring with us our prejudice, our fear, our hopes, our entire lives. There are likely plants and animals that seem alien to you that would be perfectly normal to us. The seasons are different, but quite similar. The world is wider, but somehow less varied. The society we built up above is mirrored in different ways down below. For every person of every origin, the Surface and the Neath are different. Freedom in some aspects means limitations in others. There exist strange and unknowable leaders. There exist intolerable, confusing laws. There exist shops and bazaars, urchins and gentlemen, socialites and tailors. The water is somewhat safer, but only somewhat. Language is strange, but how strange is a language that creates licks of fire? The only true difference is the sun. The sunlight is warm and burning and frigid and distant and everwatchful. It lights the world in vivid colors, when the fog and rain doesn't obscure it. But, even then, you can tell the difference between day and night. The light is near constant, save for the fluctuating hours of night. Even then, the moon carries some of the burden and the stars the rest. The Neath and the Surface are very alike."

The Socialite cleared their throat. "Of course, feel free to ask more specific questions. I do not mind talking of it. It helps to put the experiences here into perspective, one might think."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

There it was, that Sun again. The Sun, the Sun, always the thing people returned to. What was so wonderful about light? Light exposed, and even in the Socialite's words, watched. The Tailor was reminded of the thing in their dream: light that saw and judged. Bright and blinding and something to be hated.

(But that was a dream. That couldn't be a Sun.)

"If they're not so different," the Tailor said darkly, more to themself than to the Socialite, "then why come down here at all?"

They realized belatedly they'd spoken aloud, and the cup nearly clattered when the Tailor looked up quickly, nearly stumbling to correct, "That was rhetorical, of course!"

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite hummed and nodded, only a momentary surprise at the outburst that quickly faded into understanding. Their smile was patient, giving, warm. "Despite its rhetorical nature, I would like to answer the question, if I may. If you'd allow me to." He wouldn't overstep his bounds. If the Tailor truly did not want the question answered, he wouldn't answer it. But if there were room for expansion of the mutually considered idea...

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

Caught off guard at the open expression, the Tailor nodded quietly. "By all means." They set their cup down altogether, hands pressed to their lap, still a little flustered at their own outburst. That the Socialite was willing to answer such a thing was... well, they didn't know what it was.

Nice, mostly.

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

"Why come down here at all... I believe it may be different for everyone. For some, they landed here in the Fall. For others, it was the very idea of freedom from what was known on the Surface, even if they knew not what such freedom looked like. For more, it was simply a punishment to fit the crime of being outcast. For my wife, it was loneliness. For my spouse, it was glory. For me... The Neath has different freedoms and limitations than the Surface. That does not make either better inherently, but it does provide opportunities for those who would seek it. For those that choose to come down here, a closed door may mean an open window. Certainly, we are a people now deathly allergic to direct sunlight, who live in a world where we may not drink the rain water and should never consume the snow, where a monster stalks the night and hunts its hunters, where a serial killer is undying and there are words that burn our eyes. But there are colors we would never have otherwise seen. There are species of flora and fauna both that do not exist on the Surface. We can take genders and sexes beyond man and woman and change our bodies with Shapeling Arts until they fit. A hundred new drugs, a thousand new books, and a great zee to explore."

The Socialite took a sip of tea. "There is something darkly beautiful about the Neath that the world above cannot hope to attain that humanity, in their endless curiosity, is drawn to. It is exploration and novelty personified. It is boundless possibility and experimentation without true judgement. What is the cost of a scandal? A week or a month in the Tomb Colonies? Certainly, yes, we have brought our own judgement to the Neath, but what worth is the judgement of man against man and in the dark where no god is wise to our actions?"

The cup hit the saucer with a soft noise and the Socialite looked back up, eyes bright. "Dear Tailor, I can to the Neath with a singular goal in mind, in a time when I had nothing, not even hope, just a bare desperation. And, in the Neath, I found love, a home, and a world begging to be known just as it wants to know us. And, with luck, I would hope to have found a friend as well."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

What to say to that?

The Tailor loved the Neath. London itself they were at best ambivalent to, but the Neath? The Neath was everything. For all the reasons the Socialite said, yes, but beyond the things the Tailor took for granted, like Jack, like the rain and snow, like the opportunity to present and dress and identify as they liked--these were all so regular to the Tailor that it hardly even registered they were special at all. But the Neath itself; big, begging to be explored, dark and expansive and theirs. Stories and secrets to be found if they could just get off this little piece of rock and go.

They met the Socialite's bright gaze. Finally, they had found something that was mutually understood.

"...a friend who can trust you with only some of them?" they asked quietly, turning the Socialite's earlier words back. "Would that still be alright?"

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[themorbidsocialite]

The Socialite undoubtedly recognized their own verbage and chuckled. "Of course. I would always accept your friendship, no matter how bare and honest, if you'll accept mine."

Their smile was warm, glowing brilliantly in the dim light outside the window, reflecting golden like the tea before them. Was this sunlight? Not the true light of the sun, but the poetic metaphor that prose enjoyed droning on about. The glow that sat on the hair of a lover or the glimmer that passed the eyes of a child. The light that causes a shimmer on the surface of water, the dappled light that danced through leaves they'd never seen, the pride of a father cast upon the sight of their joy in life. It was in a smile that reached the eyes and the laugh that rang like bells and the open, honest way of talking and the inviting look that said there would always be a place at the table. Maybe that was what the poets meant, when they said they missed the sunlight. Maybe they really missed all the people that brought it.

The Morbid Socialite- Mori- raised his cup in a toast. "To new friendships, to partial honesty, and to open windows."

Re: ... an invited guest arrives.

[theanachronistictailor]

Warmth, and kindness, a kind of smile that meant your presence itself was welcome and appreciated. The Tailor had only seen it cast in their own direction a few times in their life. Not often enough. They'd grown to presume they didn't need it. And perhaps they still didn't, but--

It was welcome. It was more welcome than they expected. They lifted their cup in turn.

"To friendship and freedom in the Neath."