Sacris Solemniis

[collector]

[Teapot before him, a plate of pastries beside it, Braxiatel sits at the kitchen table with Strindberg's Ett drömspel open in front of him. Braxiatel stirs sugar into his tea, and a faint smile crosses his face as his eyes flicker to something in the seat to his left.]

[He leans forwards and pours a second cup of tea, then lifts it up to hand it over, the smile widening.] I don't know what you mean by 'ulterior motives,' Comman—

[Braxiatel's fingers tighten on the cup before he can let it go. For a moment, it hangs there, hoping for a hand that cannot take it.]

Ah.

[It is a quiet realization.]

[Braxiatel sets the cup down, away from him. He leans back in his chair and picks up a scone to eat.]

Comments

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

Oh, well that's just disappointing.

[she straightens up in her seat, taking a sip of tea]

Give him my regards at least.

[collector]

Talking to imaginary friends only encourages them.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

And here I thought you enjoyed encouraging your friends.

[collector]

[after taking a sip of his tea] Oh, no, they only have terrible ideas. Best to crush them. For their own good, you understand.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

How frightfully kind of you. [she takes a sip of her own tea] If you could at least point me in his general direction, I'd still like to give the Commander some form of greeting. It feel terribly rude to ignore the poor man.

[collector]

Thank you, Bernice. You quite ably demonstrated just one of the many terrible ideas my friends have.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[she leans across the table, hands and elbows and arms flat as she leans her body on top of them and looks up at Brax] Do you know what, Irving? This place is obviously doing something to us, and either you can do your best to ignore it, or you can play along and have some fun. I feel the fact you're completely ignoring the second option is an utter insult to your theater background.

What would your poor students say?

[she reaches her arm out a few more inches to steal Brax's scone, before pulling her body across to her side of the table and sitting up properly again]

How did you get Skutloid anyway? [she takes a bite of Brax's scone] Did you end up having to make a choice or something?

[collector]

[Braxiatel takes in her aside to him with silence, enjoying a chocolate mint. He will not say that he has been play-acting for the last week of hallucinations and that he is too exhausted to put any more of himself into it. There is always some reserve of strength to draw on, after all.]

[It's merely that he's using those last reserves to convince himself he doesn't want to fall into the easeful dreams being offered to him.]

[Braxiatel lets out a brief snort at her question.]

"Would you rather hallucinate Skutloid or Chris Cwej?" They didn't specify which incarnation of Cwej it was meant to be, and of course one can never beat an Ice Warrior. The answer was obvious.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[she smiles, although her eyes look a little sad the more she smiles] Poor Chris. He never stood a chance, did he?

[Benny pauses, then slams her hands down on the table, before pushing her seat out and standing up]

Oh! I almost forgot. I was saving it for a special occasion, and an Ice Warrior coming round is as good as anything.

I'll be back in a tick! Hopefully those creepy crawly hand things haven't stuck their fingers where they don't belong.

[she takes off for the library, and returns a few minutes later with a pie, smiling like she just delivered Brax the Holy Grail!]

Tada!

[Benny sets it down in the middle of the table, goes and grabs three forks, and then sits down in her seat again. She places a fork in front of Brax, sets a fork in an empty spot, and then digs in to the pie. Plates and slices are for losers. She's eating this pie right out of the tin, dammit]

[collector]

[Braxiatel lifts an eyebrow] Should I ask where you found this?

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

Irving! [she talks through a mouthful of pie, pointing her fork at him as she talks] Pies aren't meant to be questioned, they're meant to be enjoyed.

[she fishes a note out of her pocket]

Besides that, it's perfectly safe, delicious, and not poisonous in the least. [she hands the note to him] There's even a note that says so.

[and back to delicious pie eating]

[collector]

Well then. [Braxiatel cuts a slice for himself, and then for Skutloid. Then he pulls Skutloid's slice over and starts eating it. And no one better try to eat Brax's slice.] That's very nice of Ezra.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[Benny stretches her fork out towards Brax's slice to try to take a bite]

That was a bit odd though. Do you know anything about that lot? The way that bloke was about him, it was rather...well...not entirely [she's failing to think of words] good, I suppose. It was downright creepy in fact.

[collector]

[Braxiatel is too fast, and the plate is out of stealing-range by virtue of being lifted up into his hands]

We know the boy is Ezra, the man is Nicolai, and they're acquainted with Mr Elonen. [He isn't even going to touch the comment about how creepy it was.]

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[she pouts and returns to her own pie. Of course eating delicious alcoholic confections makes the pout go away]

He was the one so keen on the black hole a while back, right?

[collector]

[Braxiatel continues to eat from his two slices of pie.] That's the one. He and Oliver also had some correspondence during the fights a while back.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well that sounds, yes, well anyway...is there anything you know about them beyond their names and their potentially questionably hobbies?

[collector]

I intend on learning whether or not they check their post.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[she's chewing when he says that, and she laughs between bites of food, her hand coming up to her mouth to avoid making a mess. When she's composed herself]

I didn't realize you were looking for penpals. How's that going for you?

[collector]

A diarist of your calibre mustn't underestimate the value of the epistolary. I've been thinking of collecting them all and making a novel of it.

[Hey, she wanted him delivering bullshit.]

[But he pauses for a moment]

Benny? No one else has entered the kitchen, have they?

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

[she's ready with a quip, but stops at Brax's question. She turns around, nervous and alarmed and sees...no one.]

[She turns back towards Brax and gives him a sad smile that's trying to be comforting before shaking her head no. Then she smiles overly cheerful as she digs into her pie again.]

There's brandy in this pie, I think it is. You know, I can't tell you how many really good looking men I could've sworn I had seen when I've had a bit too much brandy myself. A few more slices and I'll probably be seeing strangers lurking around, too.

[she smiles even harder, and then focuses on pie]

[collector]

[Braxiatel seems to shrug it off.] A shame. The man in question was particularly good looking.

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

Maybe you can draw a picture. They last longer, [she takes a bite of pie] or so I'm told.

[collector]

I'm not inclined to share him with you. Particularly not when you've had him on and off for the past, oh, ten years?

[brandyhabit.livejournal.com]

What in - oh! Ooooh. That really does shed quite a bit of light on all the animosity between the two of you. Not that I'm too shocked. You both have far too much in common, and you both enjoy pretending you're in love with yourselves. It was bound to happen.