The Unpopping of Jonathan Teatime
Aug. 24th, 2009 08:16 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
corkscrewmind.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
hh_mirrorDeath had gotten it right.
This was the last thought, and in fact the first thought, in the mind of Jonathan Teatime. This was a dangerous thought. Some might say, a bad thought. It was a thought that, while being spun along the uneven lines of Teatime's mind, brought with it a feeling of justification. A feeling that wrapped itself around him like a warm blanket on a cold night near Hogswatch, a feeling much like...
Like being bathed head to toe in butter. This gave Teatime pause. He was aware logically that justification was usually not a tangible feeling, or at least, it shouldn't be. It was that slightly prickly feeling one got on the inside - not quite warm or cold or any such temperature - after doing a job that you were told not to do but did anyway, and did well. And he was quite sure that justification did not come accompanied by the smell of snacks.
He looked about himself.
In this room, he stood. He was surrounded by kernels of popcorn, far too large to be eaten by any person he knew, except for perhaps Banjo, who Teatime was quite sure would eat anything if told to. They were also not in any way appetizing, in the way a person was unappetizing, even after you got the taste of blood in your mouth on several messy occasions. He'd never liked it, that taste. It was too much like money, and money was something he'd rather invest than eat.
Anyway, there was popcorn, and not much else. There was a vague sense of familiarity or, as some foreigners liked to call it, Deja-vu, but nothing solid. He recalled a man not dissimilar to himself with a great many knives, moving staircases, and a talking hat, but that was about it.
He decided that butter was not a fashion statement lending well to the life - or, perhaps, afterlife - of an Assassin, and that the discovery of a bath would be to his immense benefit. He turned and left the room, out into a hallway that was also very vaguely familiar, and pondered a direction.
The direction, he decided after a moment's deliberation, was not important. In a place like this, there was bound to be some kind of bath or water closet on every floor of large, rangy magical castles. And it was magical, he knew. More magical than the Unseen University at any rate, much closer to the Tooth Fairy's castle in its... innate magicalness. The moving paintings, the staircases that bent all the laws of science, and other things. If this was the afterlife, it was a very strange one indeed, but Teatime couldn't complain. He was here, wherever here was, and once removed of butter, his life - afterlife - would get on quite nicely. All the cogs would be in place, so to speak.
As he walked in a way that suggested the casualness of a person who did not exactly know how to be casual, he decided now would be a good time to whistle a jaunty tune. Teatime liked whistling. He liked the clear sound it made when done right, and that it would summon up attention in ways that a shout or a lump to the head wouldn't. He liked the sound of his own whistling, because it was logical and done well. Anyone who was near enough to hear it would probably be quite unnerved by it, because logical whistling had an unfortunate tendency to sound altogether inhuman, like the sounds coming from a wind-up toy that made a noise somewhat resembling words but was not quite.
When Jonathan Teatime whistled, the sound did not have any feeling, like it was missing the subtle, indescribable notes that made it music and not just sound. Like it had been trained very well to look and sound and act like whistling, but failed in that it... wasn't.
So he walked, whistled, and waited.
This was the last thought, and in fact the first thought, in the mind of Jonathan Teatime. This was a dangerous thought. Some might say, a bad thought. It was a thought that, while being spun along the uneven lines of Teatime's mind, brought with it a feeling of justification. A feeling that wrapped itself around him like a warm blanket on a cold night near Hogswatch, a feeling much like...
Like being bathed head to toe in butter. This gave Teatime pause. He was aware logically that justification was usually not a tangible feeling, or at least, it shouldn't be. It was that slightly prickly feeling one got on the inside - not quite warm or cold or any such temperature - after doing a job that you were told not to do but did anyway, and did well. And he was quite sure that justification did not come accompanied by the smell of snacks.
He looked about himself.
In this room, he stood. He was surrounded by kernels of popcorn, far too large to be eaten by any person he knew, except for perhaps Banjo, who Teatime was quite sure would eat anything if told to. They were also not in any way appetizing, in the way a person was unappetizing, even after you got the taste of blood in your mouth on several messy occasions. He'd never liked it, that taste. It was too much like money, and money was something he'd rather invest than eat.
Anyway, there was popcorn, and not much else. There was a vague sense of familiarity or, as some foreigners liked to call it, Deja-vu, but nothing solid. He recalled a man not dissimilar to himself with a great many knives, moving staircases, and a talking hat, but that was about it.
He decided that butter was not a fashion statement lending well to the life - or, perhaps, afterlife - of an Assassin, and that the discovery of a bath would be to his immense benefit. He turned and left the room, out into a hallway that was also very vaguely familiar, and pondered a direction.
The direction, he decided after a moment's deliberation, was not important. In a place like this, there was bound to be some kind of bath or water closet on every floor of large, rangy magical castles. And it was magical, he knew. More magical than the Unseen University at any rate, much closer to the Tooth Fairy's castle in its... innate magicalness. The moving paintings, the staircases that bent all the laws of science, and other things. If this was the afterlife, it was a very strange one indeed, but Teatime couldn't complain. He was here, wherever here was, and once removed of butter, his life - afterlife - would get on quite nicely. All the cogs would be in place, so to speak.
As he walked in a way that suggested the casualness of a person who did not exactly know how to be casual, he decided now would be a good time to whistle a jaunty tune. Teatime liked whistling. He liked the clear sound it made when done right, and that it would summon up attention in ways that a shout or a lump to the head wouldn't. He liked the sound of his own whistling, because it was logical and done well. Anyone who was near enough to hear it would probably be quite unnerved by it, because logical whistling had an unfortunate tendency to sound altogether inhuman, like the sounds coming from a wind-up toy that made a noise somewhat resembling words but was not quite.
When Jonathan Teatime whistled, the sound did not have any feeling, like it was missing the subtle, indescribable notes that made it music and not just sound. Like it had been trained very well to look and sound and act like whistling, but failed in that it... wasn't.
So he walked, whistled, and waited.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 08:08 am (UTC)"You have what you want right in front of you," he breathed, his smile widening. Little snatches of memory were curling up from the base of his brain. Glorious memories. "Don't you want... it any more?"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 08:15 am (UTC)"More of your lies," he growled, swinging the machete with no effort to actually aim. "Do you think you can fool me so easily?"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 08:52 am (UTC)"But Nny," he said, his voice imploring, teasing, the littlest bit hopeful, "I do so want to be your friend now."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 08:57 am (UTC)"You're lying again."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 09:04 am (UTC)"Always. You always lie! You made me want and pushed me away and then smiled. I won't believe you now!"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 09:11 am (UTC)But, the same honesty in Nny's voice meant the opposite was true.
"No?" Teatime knew how to sound sad. He'd been taught what emotions were supposed to sound like and how he was supposed to act around other people. He knew how to sound - for the most part - as if he was feeling something he had almost no capability of feeling. But, this time, he actually felt what he was saying. Disappointment. Sadness. the anger of having something ultimately enjoyable dangled in front of you and then snatched away before you could reach out to take it. It hurt. Not like a poker-through-the-chest or falling-from-one-reality-to-another-one hurt, but a more... subtle hurt. An undefinable ache.
His brow furrowed and he looked at Nny. "You're sure?"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 09:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 10:07 am (UTC)He would have gladly taken claws or caresses at that very moment, because he knew, the way he knew that Nny knew, that meant solidifying something between them. A touch like that was better than words. It was a contract. It was vindication.
He smiled, and tilted his face against Nny's hand. Mine, he thought smugly. And I didn't even know I had him.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 10:13 am (UTC)"I can't trust you," Nny wailed, shaking Teatime's head roughly.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 10:41 am (UTC)"No one in the world is trustworthy, Nny." His voice was soft, wistful. "But the door is open." He certainly wasn't shutting Nny out now. No, not at all.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 10:52 am (UTC)"I know," he said miserably, "That you know how much I'd want to believe you."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:07 am (UTC)"Prove it."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:24 am (UTC)He moved his hand from Nny's neck to the hand that gripped his hair, prying it loose and pulling down the sleeve before turning his head and sinking his teeth into the flesh of Nny's palm, right under the thumb. He bit hard, as hard as he knew he could without paralyzing the hand, tasting blood and butter, holding his teeth in so he knew the imprint would last. Nny would see the scar every day of his life, he would know it was there. Always.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:47 am (UTC)"Every day," he purred, turning his face so his gaze caught Nny's fully. "You'll see how much I believe every day." And please, he thought to himself, don't wear gloves. Your hands look so much better in pale and red.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 12:28 pm (UTC)How, with such an enticing, interesting, fascinating person like Nny could he be indifferent? Nny wasn't dull, or boring, or in any way like the other bits of teeming humanity that he'd passed by during his life. Nothing like those walking mannequins that so bothered him.
No, Nny was nothing like that. Nny was interesting.