olden times for Tommy

[oohforeshadowing]

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."

Comments

[bleak_midwinter]

Polly narrows her eyes at them, judging something. It's not clear what yet, as she just ends up saying:

"Someome saw Fae near the house the night he disappeared. We thought you lot had taken them again. But perhaps it's not your lot entirely...?"

[oohforeshadowing]

While it's not particularly constructive for her to write off the entirety of the Realmsfolk as 'your lot', Double understands why she says it. Most Realmers do the exact same thing to most humans.

They pull a chair from a nearby unoccupied table and sit down at the end of the booth.

"I know about how Thomas came into my father's employ," they say smoothly. "I don't approve of it, but the one benefit I thought it would have would be to keep other Fae away from your family. Disrupting a bond has consequences for the party doing the disruption."

Which is to say, they must have been extremely motivated, or in too much of a hurry to check him for existing magics, or both.

[bleak_midwinter]

"He told us he could come because you're allowing it, and stayed nearby," she agrees, with a frown. Arthur huffs and falls back down into his chair, slumping over his glass.

"So either you were wrong or someone, for some reason, really wanted to have him. There are hundreds of stablemasters not bound by a familial vow, surely it's not just that."

[oohforeshadowing]

"It's also not how Fae tend to recruit new staff," they say, dryness concealing their anxiety. "Were there any unpaid debts or old disputes he left behind when he was claimed?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"Between him and the Fae? No."

She's been looking into that for years.

"But there may be something along the bloodline. We don't talk to everyone, and his father passed."

[oohforeshadowing]

And not that many Fae will pursue a grudge through multiple human generations, but those who do? Will go after the offending party like bloodhounds.

"What do you know about his...disappearance? Did anyone hear or see anything?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"The Fae were seen outside our house, but whatever else happened, happened inside."

"I got home from work and there was no one there," Ada supplies. "If you were able to track him here, can't you keep doing that?"

[oohforeshadowing]

Double shakes their head.

"Just their presence would have been enough to confuse the spell," they tell her. "Their inherent magic is too powerful for a great many means by which others use it."

They look to Polly.

"The Fae who were seen - did you get a description? The colour of their clothes, their hair?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"We can ask- Finn, go and fetch the O'Donnell boy, and have him bring his friend."

Finn nods nervously and strides out.

"You think you could recognize them?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"Some clans are more distinctive than others," Double says. "If we're lucky, there's something about them which might mark them out. If they did this in daylight hours, then at least they didn't care who saw them."

And at most, they wanted to be seen, to make a statement.

[bleak_midwinter]

"...could they have taken him to the Realm?"

She says it quietly, not meeting the eyes of the others at the table. It's her biggest fear, because she has no idea what it all means. The lack of information is frightening.

[oohforeshadowing]

"No," Double says, firmly and immediately.

The threat of taking a human to the Old Realms is, in fact, a particularly cruel lie. Not even the Fae would dare even try to return.

"They won't have done that - if they know he's bound, I doubt they'll have even taken him from the city. If they've tried, they'll have run into trouble."

[bleak_midwinter]

The news visibly relieves her, and she sits back. The others at the table seem to accept that Polly is taking Double seriously.

"What would trouble look like? Accidents? Personal harm?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"Harm to them," Trouble emphasises. "Fae bonds are...quite intelligent, in a way. The magic will differentiate between an escape and a kidnapping."

[bleak_midwinter]

"This is impossible," Arthur groans, burying his hands in his hair and hunching over further.

"Don't matter if they're in pain, that still don't give us our brother back."

"We've got more of a chance now than ever before," Polly says, firmly.

[oohforeshadowing]

"I don't intend on letting this go either," Double says, firmly, but without any defensiveness. "He's here because I brought him here with me, and I'm responsible for his safety."

[bleak_midwinter]

"We are as surprised as we are pleased to hear it," Polly says, not one to mince words. There is something in her face that looks ever so slightly supernatural, a slant of the eye, or a shape of her cheekbones. She'd never admit it to a stranger, but she has a bit of a gift, too. She tries to chalk it up to gypsy blood, not Fae.

Finn comes charging back in with the O'Donnell boy, presumably, and his friend. "Tell 'em what you told me," he tells his friend.

"About the Realmer we saw?"

[oohforeshadowing]

Double turns to face the two boys, their eyes returning to a human 'normal' before they can see anything different.

"Please. I know a lot of Realmers - if you tell us what they looked like...?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"The man was blonde, had a pretty big nose, he was wearin' something purple - bit queer looking, yeah?"

His friend nods. "But he had a woman with him. She was blonde too, had a birthmark on her lip. They was tall, too."

They clearly look unsure of what else they'd want to know. So far, though, it sounds suspiciously like the Duke's family.

[oohforeshadowing]

Double frowns thoughtfully. The old man's sister had died some time back, but he had a niece and nephew, who would almost certainly have inherited if the Duke hadn't chosen an heir or died intestate. Double had met them both at a party in London, at which point they'd been in the Duke's good graces - but not yet in his will. The siblings hadn't called them a shameless, conniving gold-digger to their face but certainly hadn't warmed to them, either.

They're both distinctive looking. Could have used glamours or charms to be less noticeable, were this not a direct challenge to Double themself.

Fuck.

"...I know who you're talking about," they say, quietly. "Thank you."

[bleak_midwinter]

"Uh," they say, shifting awkwardly until Polly tells them they're excused. They run out and leave the family sitting there.

"You don't sound happy," Ada says.

[oohforeshadowing]

"I'm not," they say, shoulders sinking. They're furious, but won't take it out on these people.

"...Is there somewhere more private we can talk?"

[bleak_midwinter]

Polly gets up right away and makes her way out of the pub. The rest follows, wordlessly, all feeling that they may now know more but that they're no closer to Tommy.

They walk to 6 Watery Lane and enter through a nondescript door. "Set up at the table," Polly instructs them. The space is warm and cozy, with plenty of chairs at a long wooden table and a smouldering wood fire in the hearth. Michael gets it going with a new log as Polly goes to make tea.

No one's speaking about the case until they have their drinks and their aunt at the table, and Ada feels brave enough to ask:

"Is this what you really look like? I've never seen a shifter before."

[oohforeshadowing]

Double smiles slightly.

"No, not like this. It just helps me move around town."

They transform, a slow green-black ripple from head to toe - body growing tall and slender, ears elongating, tail spooling out as if from nowhere.

[bleak_midwinter]

"Goodness," Ada says, leaning back, looking on with open fascination. "You're so pretty - "

"Ada!" Michael flushes and looks at her, shifting uncomfortably.

"Well, it's true! Why not say it? I like compliments too!"

"Alright, you too," Arthur huffs. All of this really paints a picture of what they're like as a family. What a family who trusts each other can really be like, in all honesty.