Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major

[collector]

[Braxiatel walks through the rain with an umbrella in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He is taking more care in keeping the rain out of his tea than he is in keeping it away from his clothes, and for a moment he even sticks his head out from under his umbrella to look up at the clouds. When he speaks, he is speaking to himself, his voice like smoothed glass.]

That's an awful lot of oil going to waste. And in such a way. [His smile is made of irony, and he looks down at the stars still under their feet despite the rain.] How the old symbols are reformed.

[With the skill of the absurdly well-balanced, he switches his cup to the hand holding the umbrella, opens the library door, and steps inside.]

[After a moment, he pops his head back out again.]

Oh, one thing: have there been any odd deaths lately? I'd be interested to know.

[Then it's back in out of the rain.]

Comments

[oliverplus]

Come on! You torment me like that, and then you won't even share?

[collector]

[with the slightest smile, though not one of his usual ones of holding a mystery out from someone] It really isn't my story to tell. The wife of the individual in question may not wish for old ghosts to be resurrected even in speech.

[oliverplus]

[frowns. Leela mentioned a Time Lord husband who had died, but...what are the odds?] If you say so, then.

It doesn't make you any less impossible, by the way.

[collector]

[Very, very high, Oliver.] Thank you.

[But his half-amused smile is now at about 75% amusement!] I like to think of it as 'having character.'

[oliverplus]

[shakes his head, smiling wryly at him] Oh, you're a character, all right.

[collector]

The raisonneur, I suspect.

[oliverplus]

What's that one?

[collector]

It's common to a type of play on Earth in the nineteenth century. A man older than the protagonist, the voice of reason, offering knowledge and moral support central to the resolution. Or, more briefly: Mr Exposition.

[oliverplus]

Hey, moral support sounds like more than exposition!

But it also sounds like you--as long as he's supposed to be mysterious, anyway.

[collector]

I can be a bit lax performing that particular function of my role. [His mysterious smile is the only answer to that]

[oliverplus]

Which, the exposition or the moral support? [because you've been terribly morally supportive of Oliver, Brax!]

[collector]

I feel very confident in my gift of exposition.

[oliverplus]

I don't know, I think you're rather good at both.

[collector]

Thank you, Oliver. I appreciate that.

[oliverplus]

[smiles, a bit sheepish] Still true.