Double Trouble (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oohforeshadowing) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wondrousplace2023-03-22 07:25 pm
oohforeshadowing) wrote in wondrousplace2023-03-22 07:25 pm
olden times for Tommy
The great country pile isn't their speed, really.
Double had their lovely house in London, bought and paid for by their adoptive father - a High Fae of some high regard, who'd been fretting about their lands and accounts falling into strangers' hands when he passed on. It was a heartrending story, of course, and Double was...well, positively delighted to be anything the old man wanted them to be. For the right price.
Shapeshifters have long since had a bad reputation for sliding into the upper echelons this way. They hadn't been in penury to begin with, by any means, but 'lovely house in London' money and 'vast estates with mining wealth and hundreds of rate-paying tenants' money is not the same by some order of magnitude.
The old man died peacefully in his bed, well over a century old, and left the manor house and everything that went with it to their sole heir. Who is going to sell it all, eventually, but it feels tasteless not to even let their 'father's' body grow cold.
They move in after the last of their furniture has been transported, and lets the housekeeper give them the tour. They cut quite the figure: long blond hair pinned up in curls, a jacket and blouse tailored tightly to a corseted waist, the snug high-waisted breeches favoured by most males. Their tail is the most exposed part of them and the woman they're following keeps eyeing it like she's not sure if it's obscene or not.
"...show you the stables, your grace," she says, as she walks ahead to the outbuildings.
"Ah. I suppose we ought."
Double had their lovely house in London, bought and paid for by their adoptive father - a High Fae of some high regard, who'd been fretting about their lands and accounts falling into strangers' hands when he passed on. It was a heartrending story, of course, and Double was...well, positively delighted to be anything the old man wanted them to be. For the right price.
Shapeshifters have long since had a bad reputation for sliding into the upper echelons this way. They hadn't been in penury to begin with, by any means, but 'lovely house in London' money and 'vast estates with mining wealth and hundreds of rate-paying tenants' money is not the same by some order of magnitude.
The old man died peacefully in his bed, well over a century old, and left the manor house and everything that went with it to their sole heir. Who is going to sell it all, eventually, but it feels tasteless not to even let their 'father's' body grow cold.
They move in after the last of their furniture has been transported, and lets the housekeeper give them the tour. They cut quite the figure: long blond hair pinned up in curls, a jacket and blouse tailored tightly to a corseted waist, the snug high-waisted breeches favoured by most males. Their tail is the most exposed part of them and the woman they're following keeps eyeing it like she's not sure if it's obscene or not.
"...show you the stables, your grace," she says, as she walks ahead to the outbuildings.
"Ah. I suppose we ought."
no subject
"I don't know how long I'll be like this. If you're serious I know it's going to be challenging to be..."
This is very hard to say - can he say it? He takes a breath.
"To be someone close in my life. But I like the idea of at least fighting together. Using this to get others to fight."
no subject
They nod solemnly.
"...Do you want to remember it all? What you've been put through?"
no subject
"Right now I'm still only halfway sure that this is real," he admits, a little sheepishly. "I'm treating it like it is, because it doesn't change a thing if it turns out to be fake. Apart from the heartbreak it would cause me."
He picks his cup back up. "Either way, it would feel like a betrayal to want to forget it. Does that make sense?"
no subject
"...I understand your reasoning," they say, delicately. "I don't think I would make the same choice in your shoes, but it's your choice to make. Just - darling..."
It's their turn to take his hand in both of theirs.
"I can't have you getting lost in the dream. Thinking that it's alright to take risks with your own safety, because this might still be the compulsion. You must take care of yourself."
no subject
What they're saying makes him look down at the table, maybe caught out a little.
"No. You're right. So I'll try to operate under the assumption that this is real, and that I'll die if I don't eat, or break my leg if I fall off a horse."
But he could use a reminder every now and then.
no subject
"Precisely. And I shall be there to be insufferable if I suspect you're skipping meals or riding irresponsibly," they promise, with a small but genuine smile. "It's not the role I am accustomed to, but I'm very flexible."
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"I remember that," he jokes, softly, like he's much of a joker at all.
"But first we get in contact with some people in the movement. Plenty in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool. We could go a little further North if we have to."
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"And a little further south," they recommend. "The centre of Fae society is in London. It would stand to reason that a great deal of their resistance is there as well."
London is a huge city. It's a simple numbers game.
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"But the people we know are up here - we'll ask them to put us in touch with people in London."
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"Of course. You know this world much better than I do. Although I might...I'm sure I'm not the only person in my position who feels the way I do, either," they venture quietly.
They can put out feelers.
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"You think so? From your time in London, did you hear anything of the sort?"
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"Sometimes. Rumours, mostly - gossip about elves or ogres getting into fights with Fae. Taking humans' side when there were accusations of theft or disobedience. There's been a fair bit of discontent simmering for a while now," they say, and then sip their tea. "But the Fae have so much power, it's easier to...swallow the bile."
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"Well, fuck their power," he says, letting the bile out for once. "There are more of us than them. I hope you're right, that you can talk to your people, likeminded people, and show them again what's at stake."
no subject
Double reaches out, taking both of Tommy's hands in both of theirs.
"I will, Thomas. We will. I promise."
It's not a blood vow, but it's so much more meaningful to them.