video.

[faking]

[It's a bit early - maybe too early to be up if you haven't any pressing business for the day - and so Alois is still in his nightgown, cream-colored and lace-collared, sitting at a vanity with a cup of morning tea. It's still steaming. The bedroom around him is all in lavenders, and he's staring idly to the left of the camera at the flower-hued wallpaper. His cheek is in his hand, elbow on the dresser.]

When did you realize you'd never see home again? [he asks, and dips a spoon into his tea.] I mean, right, maybe we'll all go back, maybe something will happen, maybe maybe maybe, but while you're here, you'll never see it again. When did that hit you for real? When did it work its way through your teeth and tongue and up into your head? Or hasn't it yet...

[Clink, clink, goes his spoon.]

About a ten hour flight, and I could be there, you know. I looked it up and everything. I'm less than half a day away from my home, but people are touring it every day, walking through my gardens and all the things they rearranged in my rooms. Well, not every day. Wednesday through Sunday, eleven a.m. to four p.m. I looked it up on the website. They're even decorating for Christmas, though they're closed on the holiday...

[His face goes strange, a wrinkling of his nose and a tug of his lips. The spoon stills.] I can look at pictures, and look at everything they've done to it, but that's all, just pictures. I'm not even so far away, not really, but I can't ever go and see it. It was over a hundred years ago; it doesn't smell like me anymore, doesn't look like I lived there at all. Like it was never mine, just a bit of history, just like I wasn't actually there, no portraits or family crest, and doesn't that make sense, sort of? Because I'm here now.

—Comes with having a famous house, I suppose, but...

[Finally, he flicks his eyes up toward the camera, and reaches for it.]

They say, 'My home is my castle,' but where can we even hold court here? [The end.]

Comments

video

[psychopath]

[looking a little less batshit rn ty.]

What! Your home is in this world?

video

[faking]

[That's... a relief.............]

Still standing, still pretty, still in Aylesbury. I'd like you to have seen it. I have a book on it, though, they actually have books on it. Well, it's old, and it's a mansion, so of course...

[He says all this like nothing crazy has happened recently.]

The gardens are all different, though, after all this time, I don't like it. And they've got wires and shit around, and stuff. It used to be even nicer.

video

[psychopath]

[ssshhh one of these days he and ciel will wake up with jack watching them sleep （*´▽｀*） as it is, jack has his chin in his hands and is smiling creepily.]

Isn't it a bit rude to have tours done in - someone's home? How odd.

video

[faking]

[Jack's so moe...]

Nobody lives there anymore. [It's said in a tone that's sort of light, and he shrugs.] Even if I could find my family history here, I didn't have a proper heir, so... I'm sure it passed to my father's brother. Who knows what Uncle Arnold and his ilk did with it in the end, but the country owns it now. They can do whatever they like with it.

video

[psychopath]

Do you approve of it, though? [pause. he squints at alois, imagining what kind of father he would be.










maybe he should ask.]

...send me a link, I'd like to see.

video

[faking]

Does it matter if I approve? I can't make any claim to it.

[But—]

Hold on.

[attachment: july.jpg

link: http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/]

video

[psychopath]

[the feed turns off for a moment as jack scrolls through it.]

Oh, it's gorgeous! [and really big, he'll get lost in it pretty easily without a map,] And it does matter, dear, I'd like to hear your opinion on it.

action;

[motioned]

[BURSTING INTO HIS ROOM THIS IS SO EXCITING]

You can look at pictures of it? Like, you can see where you used to live? Can I see it? I'd really like to!

action;

[faking]

Oh— [JOSTLING TEA... He starts at his vanity, rocking in his chair a little.] Yes! Hi! Good morning, uh - Yes, I can show you—

[So he scoots back, and clicks open one of the vanity's drawers, and pulls out a book - A Hundred Years at Waddesdon.] Look, [he says, pushing his tea aside so that he might lay the book flat on the vanity, and open it maybe a fourth of the way. He smooths the pages down; it's a color inlay. He beckons for her.]

This is where I used to live, Ahiru.

action;

[motioned]

[She hurries over, grinning widely, and bends over the book, a few loose strands of hair falling next to the picture. As she looks, she draws in a breath, delighted, and traces the photo gently with the tips of her fingers.]

It's so beautiful... Really, this whole place was yours?

action;

[faking]

The whole thing. Look, it's very big, ridiculously big. [The way he nudges her hand aside so that he can turn the page is quite gentle; he finds another part of the book thanks to dog-eared pages. It's an arial shot, this time.] That's the entire manor. And then I owned a lot of the land around it, too, acres and acres. Trees and gardens all over the place. A lake. I had more flowers than they have now. There were so many rooms in that place, it made for really good hide-and-seek...

[...No matter how manufactured those games of hide-and-seek were, since you can't very well hide from a demon.]

I wish I could show you the gardens I kept, but there aren't any pictures of that. They've been dead for decades.

action;

[motioned]

Oh, my God, it looks like something out of a storybook! That's so beautiful...

[She pauses, running a hand over this picture as well, trying to imagine what it might have been like.]

Did you visit the gardens a lot? Did you go swimming in the lake? It's awful they let them die, that's so sad.

action;

[faking]

I visited the gardens all the time. Picking flowers and catching butterflies... It was always bright, even on rainy days, and it always smelled good.

[He traces, too, though idly, and at the book's edge. His cheek is in his hand again.]

I never went swimming properly, not in the lake. There were swans. But we - But I went out on a boat... [And dancing on the water. That night, it was okay, that Claude wasn't human.

He taps his finger lightly against the page.]

I used to visit the wood, too. The trees were so old and sturdy, it was like an audience of quiet gods. And there were bluebells... But Claude said the wood was dangerous. After a while, I couldn't go as often.

[His eyes shut.]

They can talk all they want about preserving history, but they'll never know what all that was like.

action;

[motioned]

Oh, I bet it was beautiful watching the swans swim around on the lake though. Swans are so nice to look at, you know? Really graceful. Flowers and butterflies sound amazing, too, and the boat, and the woods... It's not fair that he didn't let you go out. I can see why you'd miss it, it seems gorgeous.

[Her voice is warm and gentle, a bit awed at how magnificent what she's seeing is. She takes a pause.]

You know, I think when I realized for certain that I wasn't going to see it for a while - my home, I mean - I'd already been here so long and knew so many people that it didn't seem quite so awful as it would have at first. For you, it's nice that you can still look at it, though. I'm glad.

action

[littlest_lord]

_{[Alois isn't the only one in his nightgown. Ciel has a saucer and cup of tea himself when he waddles into the room, sitting down on the edge of the mattress of the bed.]}

It's strange, isn't it? To see your old home in travel pamphlets and tourist guides.

_{[He knows that feel, okay. He does.]}

action

[faking]

Good morning. [He's turning in his seat to face the bed, to look at Ciel, and he lifts his spoon again, to pop it into his mouth.] Doesn't it seem - I don't know. It's kind of voyeuristic.

action

[littlest_lord]

Morning. _{[He has to stifle a yawn with one hand, holding his cup and saucer in the other.]} It is a bit, yes.

action

[faking]

Did I wake you?

action

[littlest_lord]

No, not really.

action

[faking]

Good.

[He turns back to his cup.]

I think I'm sore about it.

[inthejunk]

That must be really weird.

[faking]

Ah, you've no idea. I thought, 'They better hadn't be tracking mud on my carpets,' but then I realized they'd have changed all the carpets by now...

How are you?

[inthejunk]

Me? Um. Fine, I think. The dizziness only lasted for a day or two.

You know, where I come from it's a real honor to have strangers track up your floors after you're dead. Usually only emperors and shogun have that kind of privilege!

[faking]

And that's all?

I guess if a person's going to have an amazing home, it might as well end up as a tourist trap. Suppose I can't fault it as a business venture.

[inthejunk]

My memory was a little weird at first, but it's coming back just fine. You're Alois-kun. See? Good as new.

I guess it is pretty morbid, now that you mention it.