Earning Nadja’s Trust: A WWDITS Meta

So I realized that Nadja doesn’t get the same treatment of fan analysis as say Nandor and Guillermo and I wanted to make my own contribution. I was driven to write “Earning Nadja’s Trust” because as we heard Laszlo tell baby Colin in 4.03, he learned to trust others again through his relationship with Nadja. I found that statement to be interesting because, of all the Staten Island roommates, she’s the most mistrustful of others, and even seems to still not completely trust Guillermo in the way Nandor and Laszlo have grown to trust him. If 4.03 is any indication, she sure regards familiars as below her at best and duplicitous at worst, has no respect for werewolves and her thoughts on witches need no elaboration. It is still not 100% clear the extent to which she regards the Guide either at this point.

We have seen that even in all her bouts of fury she deeply loves Laszlo and more or less fell in love with him at first sight and that she also cares about Nandor and sees him as part of her makeshift family. Even for all her issues with Colin Robinson, she was also saddened by the first incarnation’s death and was excited to meet the rebirthed one, even in her constant mistaking him for a raccoon.

Guillermo however, continues to be the outlier. Sure she does not talk down to him the way she did in the beginning of the series, but if their interaction where he demands to be the night club accountant is any indication, quite a bit of coldness still remains between them even after a year of being in London. However, I think it’s safe to say that Nadja spent so much time with the WWVC that Guillermo was barely needed.

So why is she still so as frosty as she is with Guillermo where her husband has grown to respect him and Nandor shows more affection?

Based on what we know of the respective backstories of Nadja and Guillermo, I believe that Nadja’s continued mistrust of Guillermo stems from that fact that, subconsciously or otherwise, she sees parts of herself in Guillermo.

But wait wouldn’t she then be more trusting of him?

First let’s break down the broad strokes of what Nadja and Guillermo have in common.

1. While Laszlo and Nandor were both born into lives of social (and to an extent economic) privilege, neither Nadja nor Guillermo were born into lives that would grant them those same social privileges and were outsiders.

We know Nadja was born into abject poverty some time in the sixteenth century in Greece. Not only was she born into poverty, but she’s also Romani, a European ethnic minority group that were (and continue to be) regarded as un-Godly; as more Romani people fell under Ottoman rule, they were considered the bottom of the social pyramid (no wonder her village fell into the path of Nandor the Relentless’s conquests over two centuries before her birth!)

In her interviews she even describes being mistreated because of her background and likely had to try to survive on her own at times with her sixteen other siblings dying and her mother getting eaten by a bear. When she was by the water and was turned by Baron Afanas, she was, for the first time in her existence, not powerless as she had been made to feel. (More will be elaborated on this in point 2)

Guillermo is a Mexican-American queer man who grew up with a single working mom being the most present. While we do not know of his father, he did refer to “parents” in 3.04 so imagine at some point his father was in the picture. Even if he wasn’t living in poverty like Nadja was, the small apartment where his Mom lives and the fact that he had to get a job at Panera Bread at 18-19 indicates that he might have been AT MOST on the cusp of lower-middle or high-lower class (and as anyone in the US knows, the stability of an American middle class has continued shrinking since the eighties.) His Mom, if 2.10 is any indication does not speak English with the same fluency he does (she might understand enough that she was able to express to the camera crew that she was happy to have Memo home; there are plenty of people who can understand other languages better than they can speak in those same languages so it’s completely possible that there’s that discrepancy in her English language skills) which likely indicates that she immigrated to the United States with her at some point in her life and raised Guillermo in the Bronx. As Guillermo reveals in 4.01 he was on his own for quite a bit of his childhood and probably felt some sort of isolation growing up queer and Catholic too. Even in being a familiar he is still kept at a distance and is very much the de facto odd one out in the household for the first ten years. That starts to change when he accidentally kills the Baron and later sees the ancestry report.

2. Both characters seek/use power as a means to command respect from others.

When Nadja joins the VC she ends up being the ruthless one, going so far as to rip out the heart of the leader of a rebellious vampire, forcing the rest of the coven to submit. She is even talked into showing mercy at times by Nandor in the chamber of judgment, while she doles out the more severe consequences. Finally when she returns to Staten Island, she very much approaches the night club as an inevitability despite The Guide’s protests and basically has to march over to get Richie Suck to perform at her club, showing that she has does not take no for an answer. While running a club is very different from bureaucracy, its still a means by which Nadja is able to have control. Her quest for power stems from a desire to give herself control in her afterlife as she was subjected to the whims of others when she was a human. Vampirism, for Nadja is empowerment and liberation; having visible high status in the vampire community strengthens that empowerment and perhaps even feeds her need to have control.

As Guillermo comes into his own as a slayer, his confidence grows and by season three is more willing to step outside the boundaries of being a familiar as he becomes the bodyguard. His full defiance of those boundaries culminates in his fight with Nandor in 3.10 where, for the first time, any of the vampires fully recognize that Guillermo isn’t the same meek nineteen year old who started as a familiar, but a force to be reckoned with. He still uses that power in season four to help Nandor in wish logistics and in putting his foot down to Nadja that he’ll only help if she gives him what he wants (the accountant job).

So with all that in mind, with them having a shared history of coming out higher than their humble origins, why hasn’t Nadja “warmed up to” Guillermo as the others have?

I believe the answer to this question lies partly in 4.03 as revealed by how Nadja saw the relationship between Richie Suck and Dr. Tom.

She already has a low opinion of familiars to begin with, but seeing the abusive dynamic between those guys probably won’t improve that opinion. One can argue that even if Nadja doesn’t see Guillermo as a familiar in name, she still looks down on him all the same. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if she believes the four way hypnosis is the only reason he hasn’t killed any of the coven yet (assuming she knows of neither the fight nor the hypnosis immunity) and that she would trust him less if that hypnosis hadn’t been performed. Given her propensity to use murder in her anger or even threaten it, I think that (at least subconsciously) she knows if she were in Guillermo’s position she would not hesitate to retaliate against the people who hurt her.

This part goes more into speculation territory but I wouldn’t be shocked if one of the first things Nadja did as a vampire was go after the people who wronged her when she was human. And honestly, I don’t blame her.

While Guillermo was lucky to still have a loving mother in his life, Nadja- as far as we know canonically- was mistreated and lost many people close to her when she was a human. Being human for Nadja was all about surviving, making it to the next day. Ironically enough it’s as a vampire that she’s been able to live and enjoy life. And that little familiar her dear friend has grown oddly attached to now has the capacity to kill her and her coven in an instant? My girl will not let anything get in the way of destroying everything she loves again, let alone threaten her power and security. Honestly, I’d say from Nadja’s point of view I can absolutely see how she’ll probably be the last of the coven to fully embrace Guillermo as part of the family.

To fully, finally earn that trust, she would need to be proven that Guillermo is nothing like Dr. Tom and that he actually cares about Nandor beyond wanting to be made into a vampire. In addition, she would need to understand that Guillermo was always going to protect them without the hypnosis. While her finding out about his hypnosis immunity could spell trouble, her having confirmation that Guillermo would never hurt them regardless would also allow her to feel more inclined to fully see him as one of the team.

That is not to say I think Guillermo has to prove himself, he doesn’t have to prove shit to anyone and he clearly doesn’t care about doing that so much anymore.

What I am saying is that they would need to be put in a specific situation/circumstances that would make her reconsider any remaining mistrust she has in him. Clearly being in London didn’t do that. In fact it sounds like they more or less avoided each other in London if she spent the majority of her time in a room with the WWVC, likely leaving Guillermo plenty of chances to go off on his own once it was clear that Nadja wasn’t in any danger.

For what that change might look like, I’m going into some speculation/theorizing territory here for the season so DO NOT TAKE THIS AS SOMETHING THAT WILL HAPPEN. This is just a possible scenario I could see playing out in Nadja and Guillermo’s relationship.

THE ONE TIME NADJA SHOWED GENUINE INTEREST IN GUILLERMO AS A PERSON

There is one notable instance where Nadja seemed to genuinely show interest in Guillermo as a person. In 3.04 when she and Laszlo awkwardly attempt to engage in a conversation with him it starts out feeling forced (which it is) until Laszlo asks if his interests involve the “fairer sex.” While her asking if he has a “chubby little girlfriend” was still rather demeaning, the way in which she asked displayed genuine interest on her end. When Laszlo brought up “maybe a boyfriend” she, along with Laszlo and Colin are genuinely intrigued and actually wants to know about his private life, much to his chagrin.

If the episode titles are anything to go by, it seems like the vampires will meet Freddie at some point, and you can’t tell me Nadja won’t suddenly want to know EVERYTHING that has been going on with that (likely after yelling “You had a boyfriend in London this whole time and never told me?!?! I’ll fucking kill you!!!” for about a few hours). And if the Freddie being a troublemaker metas are anything to go by, I wouldn’t be shocked if somehow Nadja learned Freddie was up to something sleazy and goes after him for it in a “you don’t get to hurt Gizmo, only we get to do that!” sort of way since she would still be reticent about being warm to him. Though that scenario is more based on the fact that if there’s anything Nadja truly despises, it’s men who go out of their way to be horrible.

I welcome any and all feedback and or criticism and do not take my speculations as givens as they are just that- in fact, as I’ve said many times before I’ll be shocked if I’m on point about any of the above.

lian’s dating rumours

LIHYUNG

year: 2019

duration: late march 2019 — late may 2019

parties involved: lianna bae, kim taehyung

status: resolved, still shipped by delulus

level of exposure: 10/10

situation: at this time, lian and hyoseop were actually still in a relationship, and they ended up getting caught by dispatch while on a walk with each other.

whoever must have been following them seemed to have mistaken hyoseop for taehyung, just because the sweater he was wearing looked a lot like one taehyung was seen in at one point.

“paul- i think there’s someone following us.” lian whipped her head back to look at whatever was behind her, wrapping her arm tightly around hyoseop’s bicep.

he made sure his mask, along with his bucket hat was protectively covering his face before picking up his speed, lian soon catching on and following after him.

they turned a corner and eventually lost whoever the hell decided to stalk people for a living, and they sighed a breath of relief. lian loosened her grip on his arm, now reaching down to loosely hold his hand instead.

“god, if that’s dispatch-” she shook her head as she adjusted her mask that began to fall past her nose and looked up at her boyfriend. “my first scandal? at least i’ll get some exposure!” he jokingly winked at her as she hit him.

“don’t act like it’s a good thing! i’ve been in too many of these already.” she pouted even though he couldn’t see her, and she let out a whine when he disagreed.

the two entered a convenience store so they could grab some snacks before heading back to hyoseop’s apartment complex; they wanted to get some time with each other before lian had to leave the next morning.

maybe a few days later, pictures of lian wearing the exact sweater that was seen the same night of their walk, had surfaced over twitter from a sasaeng’s account.

the beginning of the rumours + resolution: if the pictures that dispatch ended up posting of the two that night wasn’t enough to set fans off, this definitely was. people started putting their pictures side by side to compare the cardigans and the rumour of “lihyung being real” was beginning to look a little too suspicious.

sm wanted to make sure that lian wanted nothing about her current relationship to be revealed to the public, and shortly after, they made a statement regarding the whole thing.

it was in fact revealed that the cardigan she was wearing did belong to someone else, but it had just been a hand-me-down from a friend that was no longer interested in it. they concluded with the fact that lian wasn’t in any sort of romantic relationship, and she was just focusing on her career as of right now.

bighit took a while to respond to what was going on, but they basically just said the same thing; taehyung is focusing on his career at the moment, and isn’t involved in a relationship that wasn’t strictly platonic.

LIMARK

year: 2020

duration: mid january 2020 — late january 2020

parties involved: lianna bae, mark lee

status: immediately resolved, everyone in nct is shipped together in one way or another so uh

level of exposure: 12/10

situation: back in january when nct 127 had been playing truth or dare on a teen vogue interview, lian had ended up picking truth on her first round. the question she received was rather intrusive, having been asked when she had her first kiss.

she played it off and jokingly asked, “hey! are you allowed to ask me this?” with a small laugh as she looked back down to the tiny slip of paper that she was holding between her thumb and pointer finger.

“we got permission!” a lady shot back from behind the camera, and lian soon thought that she had no choice but to elaborate. she covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head, eyeing the staff with a disappointed look.

lian went on to explain that it happened when she was still a teenager — around 2015. she was sure that was the end of it, and she was silently praying that after she exposed such a meaningful part of her personal life, the producers would leave her alone.

“if you don’t mind us asking, who was it with?” she didn’t want to answer; she was given a choice! guilt began to eat away at her chest as she overthought every possible thing that could go wrong if she said no, buckling under the pressure of everyone’s eyes being directed right at her.

“this is so intrusive!” she laughed sarcastically, but masked it with fake happiness as she shook her head again, gasping for a small hint of breath. “uh, it was with mark-” she ran a hand through her hair to desperately distract herself from the utter embarrassment she was feeling.

mark, who was sitting right beside her, slapped a hand over his mouth and placed a hand on johnny’s shoulder as he looked at the wall. his main goal was to avoid all eye contact between himself and anyone else.

no one except haechan had known about mark and lian’s little secret from before they debuted, and it was their intention to keep it that way for as long as they could. “wait what?” jaehyun whipped his head towards the back row, as did the rest of the members.

“yah! don’t get the wrong idea!” she made sure to say it in korean, but continued in english, “nothing happened after that-” mark stepped in for her, noticing how she was getting more overwhelmed by the second.

“yeah, yeah, it was just a little thing. we were really young and wanted to get it over and done with with someone we were both comfortable around.” he nodded with a tight-lipped smile, surprisingly less awkward than he usually was.

lian saw the way a staff member from behind the set was getting ready to talk more about the situation, but she quickly shut them down, “moving on, yes? yuta’s turn!”

the beginning of the rumours + resolution: shortly after the interview was posted onto youtube, fans noticed how defensive lian was towards the question and began to speculate that “the kiss” the two members shared wasn’t just “a kiss.”

their conspiracy was that whatever was going on between them behind the scenes had still been thing now, and they started spreading rumours about how the two idols were dating.

keep in mind that actual fans of the group did their best to cover up all these things with loving messages for both of them, and tried SO hard to ensure that they wouldn’t have to see them.

fans knew how close of friends mark and lian were, and they weren’t gonna let some crazy, delusional “fans” get in the way of that, and potentially put a strain on their friendship.

some of these rumours ended up escalating into hate towards both of them, and lian was being called a slut over twitter for “sleeping” with a fellow member.

sm entertainment released a statement as soon as they could, confirming lian and mark were just friends and will remain that way; their private lives will stay their private lives, and whoever participated in this malicious train of newfound hate will be sued.

Agony of a Witch...

           …This episode. It BROKE me.

           I was afraid this episode would be intense, but my heart is GENUINELY beating, like Belos’!

           Where… where do I begin.

           Lilith cursed Eda. She really did. She said there was more to the story, and asked Eda to explain herself first… I remember speculating that if it HAD been Lilith, what would’ve been the motive?

           Either way, Luz is OUT FOR BLOOD in this episode. Can we… can we appreciate that she felt like she had to pay back Eda for anything, as if just being in her life wasn’t enough? And that in her last moments conscious, Eda made this clear to Luz? Luz is someone who’s always thinking about what she can do for others, that sometimes she forgets herself. She underestimates how much she can mean to OTHERS, and now…

           She KNOWS how much she means to Eda! And it’s tearing her up inside that she FAILED Eda, that she wasn’t good enough… She must feel like a failure, because her attempt to heal Eda got her captured and cursed! And she must hate herself, and King waiting for her… That cold twist on the ending title! I knew this episode was Agony of a Witch, but it really was TRUE agony.

           I feel like I’m hyperventilating, I almost feel faint… I feel like CRYING, I can’t remember if I’ve ever felt this intense before! The intensity of that duel with Eda and Lilith, Eda really IS the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles! What’s interesting is that Willow doesn’t directly dispute this, she merely states that Belos is the most skilled…

           Does this have to do with ‘wild magic’, not being restrained by a coven binding? Or is it something more… Eda is glowing with a golden power and summons some sort of Owl Deity, is this the effect of the curse? Is the curse her physically manifesting the power of this being that she’s the avatar of? But Lilith caused the curse, but then again we don’t know WHY the curse was placed… Was it just to restrain her magic? What was Lilith doing…

           This episode was a fucking nightmare for me. The intensity, the FEAR in my heart seeing that flashback of Eda, asleep and so happy… Only for her older sister to open the door, the FEAR in my heart… The BETRAYAL, of a little sister being cursed by her older sibling, it was like something out of a horror movie… This episode BROKE me, I’m shaking I really am I swear…! It’s almost hard to breathe, I…

           Why Lilith, WHY?! You clearly cared so much before, was it just guilt? What was your reasoning?! Why the HELL would you curse your own sister?!

           And Belos! Emperor Belos himself… He’s got a coldly mechanical, yet viscerally biological feel to him, I know I keep invoking Bionicle but it really IS like it, that biomechanical aesthetic! I was right, I WAS RIGHT, that the chasm in the titan’s chest, that the subject of its heart would come into play… It seems that Belos himself penetrated the titan’s sternum and built this mechanical, iron-lung castle around its heart, having total control.

           Why? Is it control the power of the titan’s bile, the magic flowing from its heart? When Belos gets agitated, the heart starts beating faster… Is he the Titan, reincarnated? Or is he a usurper, seeking to control the Titan? To direct the flow of its magic… Could he stop the flow entirely? Does he control bile, or ALL magic, period…?

           I love his mechanical voice, something about him is just… It’s CREEPY, it’s eerie, like he’s barely holding himself together, when he cracks open that creature and gets back his sight… Is he dying, is he incredibly ancient? Has he attached himself to the titan’s own heart and bile to survive? Why does he want control, he claims to be able to speak with the Titan…

           …And so can Luz. More parallels between him and Luz, no doubt. Does he mean well, his VA called Belos ‘misunderstood’ in a sense… Regardless, he is WONDERFULLY creepy, and the way he’s drawn, the shots of him watching silently, it was TERRIFYING… He claims to be the most skilled, does this relate to knowledge from the Titan itself? What of its BRAIN…?

           Oh, god. What if the Titan is DYING, and this Iron Lung castle is meant to keep it alive? Or worse… What if he’s trying to resuscitate the Titan, but with himself in control? Just like Makuta from Bionicle… And he needs BILE to do that! Bile to power its veins, to course through… And what of that furnace, that chimney? What is it burning…

           …Oh god. Remember those jokes about witches being burned? And what Belos alluded to rogue witches without a coven, and what would happen to Lilith?

           Is he harvesting them for bile? Burning them as fuel, as energy to power something?!?

           This episode TERRIFIES me, holy fucking shit. What’s interesting is that the Coven System itself is apparently new, relatively speaking, only about fifty years or so… Eda describes bile magic as having been around long enough for glyphs to be forgotten, but was it really? Did Belos… Did Belos harvest the titan’s bile and graft it to the hearts of others as well?!

           And the atmosphere, the mood around his castle is just so HAUNTING and foreboding… My heart is still racing, people.

           Anyhow, I… I like the beginning, we get to see how messed up Hooty can be beneath it all! And it’s funny that King gets to pop out of the cake first, but not Gus! Eda was making the cloak for Luz, was it in preparation for the day she’d be unable to take care of her? I love the touch of Luz not wanting to go the castle because of the kind of person Belos is, but going just for EDA… And poor Amity! Her broken leg really DID stop her… Maybe that was for the best, though. I don’t think her heart could’ve taken seeing her crush defy the very order she strives to join. On a side note, maybe I’ll need to update my Boscha fic to include the detail of her leg still being broken…

           Belos calls the pre-Coven System the Savage Ages, but was it really? This reeks of colonialism. Whatever he is, I feel like if the mask were to be peeled back, it’d be a scenario of a robot being punctured and explosing FLESH inside… Flesh, I suspect, may not be so well-put together. Flesh barely holding itself together, cooped up inside a metal exoskeleton, more a tin container and a prosthetic than anything… There’s something so disgusting about Belos’ vibes just from this brief clip, like he’s both organic and mechanical, I love it!

           I like the touch of Luz having been in an eating contest, she’s always so wild like that! And jeez Lilith… Her elitist bias really shines here, with how she regards Luz and just tells her to go back to her own world…

           Also, the chest gem is finally acknowledged! Apparently it’s connected to Eda’s magic, after all, or an indicator based on how much the curse is advancing. What do gems do? Are they merely a fixture of the bile sac, or something more? Could Belos’ castle be his attempt at recreating one?

           What’s interesting is that the relics from the ‘Savage Age’ are deemed useless by Lilith, and the Healing Hat so quickly burns and she just dismisses it! Given how she sees this but isn’t at all concerned about Eda not being able to be healed, I imagine Belos had another method and she knew of it…

           And JEEZ Lilith, I had a feeling that you had the flaw of feeling like Eda’s true family and prioritizing what you knew for her as an older sister, feeling more entitled to Eda than Luz!

           I wonder why the relics are weak… ARE they weak, the Greenthumb Gauntlet seemed somewhat powerful? Or did Belos just drain them of power, or maybe they’re fakes? I thought it was sweet for the Oracle orb to say that Gus is always his best self, but now I’m afraid its guidance may not have been so accurate after this revelation…

           Goodness. I’m WEAK. This episode had an increasing sense of foreboding that made my heart race, more and more, slightly easing only to go back to full-pumping! Which makes sense, given the heart-motif of this episode and the setting…

           I’m… I’m done y’all. Peace. I am BREAKING.

Jeweler Richard Fanbook Short Story #1

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Cleopatra’s Pearl

Yesterday, for the first time in a while, I had a night shift in my part-time job at the TV station. I continued working there for just a little, to an extent that wouldn’t get in the way of my Saturday part-time at Jewelry Etranger.

Only the channel of the station I worked for was displayed in the muted TV of the night shift room. There was a history-type quiz show going on when I came in at six. It wasn’t a genre that I had any particular interest in, but…

“Hey, Richard, do pearls really dissolve in vinegar?”

“Cleopatra’s anecdote?”

“Whoa, as expected of a jeweler.”

“This is common knowledge.”

It was said that Cleopatra, once the queen of Ancient Egypt, had a battle with the Roman general Antonius as to which of them could arrange the richest dish. In a direct attack, Antonius showed her rows of delicacies from all over the world, but the queen used an unpredictable move. She dissolved one of the large pearls that she wore as earrings with vinegar that she had poured into a cup, drinking it up in front of Antonius. By the moment she smiled at a dumbfounded Antonius, saying that she could use the other side in case one had not been enough, their contest was already over.

As I talked about the anecdote of the unexpected trick, Richard nodded with a composed face. “That is Plinius’s description of it, right? If you look for a book called ‘Naturalis Historia’, you will find it written there.”

“So it’s true?! No, that’s impossible, isn’t it...? Vinegar can’t really dissolve pearls, right?”

“Depends on its density. If the acidity is strong enough to affect your body after you drink it, it can indeed dissolve pearls as well. But then I cannot conceive that the Queen of Egypt drank it.”

“Thought so...”

“I believe it is unreasonable to expect chemical accuracy from ancient Roman literature, but at the very least, it conveys the romance that he was attempting to tell. The worth of Cleopatra’s large pearls must be immeasurable.”

I had never seen pearls being used much in Etranger, but were there any requests from the clients, this magus-like jeweler would always stock up the necessary goods in rows. As I asked how much a pearl cost, Richard answered that it depended. When I formed a big circle with my fingers and asked, “What about this?”, the beautiful man sighed.

“A gem worn by a royal is a special good among special goods. There are no other comparable items for sale in this world. Therefore, the speculation of ‘how much this costs’ has next to no meaning.”

“So no matter how much money you pay, there’s no way you can get your hands on something that doesn’t exist.”

“Exactly.”

Antonius’s treat was food. It was not cheap, but one could manage acquiring it with money somehow or other. In contrast, Cleopatra all too abruptly dissolved something unique and drank it. I see.

“That’s Cleopatra’s value, huh. So moral of the story is that, even if it wasn’t true, Cleopatra was a step above in sagacity.”

“Right you are. Authenticity aside, it is possible to do a rough analysis from the nature of the anecdote.”

“Cleopatra loses in the end, though.”

Antonius and Cleopatra did join hands, but in the end, they lost to a different general who had come from Rome and both died. Apparently, the new general had no interest in Cleopatra’s beauty. It wasn’t like everything would go well for someone so long as they were good-looking. My break time had ended there, and right before the end credits, I received a task to guard the studio’s management counter.

I would take the night shift four days a week until I started working in this shop, and thinking back on it now, my body sure had endured it. My skin was three times bumpier than normal when I woke up after sleeping until eight o’clock in the nap room. I was by no means a peerless beauty type like Richard, so this was the kind of experience where I became self-aware that even the things we couldn’t see would wear down little by little. Speaking of which...

“Is something the matter, Seigi?”

“No... I was just thinking a bit about the relationship between beautiful people and gemstones.”

Gems lasted more than people. Richard had said before that stones nestled close to people’s lives.

“Gems are stones, so they don’t get damaged so easily and stay beautiful for about forever, right? The reason why rich people feel like collecting them might not be just for using up their fortunes.”

All human beings grew old. Someone had also told me in the past that “luxury is the same as dirt to the wind”. But I could understand why someone would want to think that, by some sort of exception, they would never age and things would always work out for them.

After all, stones – being stones – would retain their beautiful forms.

Richard exhaled curtly with a “hun”, sipping his royal milk tea. Today’s serving was a work I had confidence in.

“Seigi, do you know how pearls are made?”

“Eh? From oysters, right?”

“Precisely. In order to tell apart the way they are formed from the way that minerals form in the ground, they are called ‘carbonate minerals’. As oysters have soft bodies, they are weak to pollution and pain, and dealing with them normally requires meticulous care. It is exactly because they are sensible natural creatures that they have been loved as symbols of beautiful women since times of old. From the fact that the shellfish is nurtured for a long period and born out of the mother’s body, it is also popular as a protection charm for childbirth.”

“‘Carbonate mineral’... something like calculus?”

“You say such emotionless things. It can be considered a delicate gem, close to human flesh. If the owner can successfully manage to coexist with it, it can guarantee a graceful beauty.”

A sensible gem born from shellfish. Hence the “coexistence”. As expected of a jeweler. He said some smart things.

Had Cleopatra also tried to explain herself away to the enemy general like that? She probably had. But it’s useless when it doesn’t work.

“Would it have been useless to give the pearl that she had set aside to the attacking Roman general and say, ‘Please pardon us with this’? It wouldn’t work, huh...”

“You sure are obsessing over it. If Cleopatra had won against Rome’s Octavianus, history might have changed.”

“That’s a hindsight-based opinion, isn’t it? Beautiful people are also part of this world’s riches... Ah, just now! It’s not like I was saying this and that about you!”

“I get it, I understand. Do not shout so loudly,” Richard said, making a bitter face.

My apologies. Up until now, I had been complimenting the appearance of my beautiful boss over and over countless times, and would end up praising him too much, making his face get suspicious. Regardless of the day.

“Survival tactics sure are difficult, both now and in the past.”

“Gemstones cannot speak or hold grudges. They do not increase in numbers if left alone. While their owners change as the people in power are replaced, stones simply exist. The beauty of stones lies in their thoroughly passive charm. Even if there are interpretations for them, they cannot interpret people. That is exactly why people can accept them without any ado even if they belonged to an opponent. The same would not apply to a living person.”

“Speaking of which, it was said on TV that Cleopatra committed suicide in the end, I think.”

If she were truly an unmatched beauty, she might have had her life spared even if she had lost the war. But in that regard, I felt something like pride from a queen who had fought carrying a nation on her back. Like, “I am not the same as gemstones”. It wasn’t as if I knew what the actual course of events was, though.

“Gems also have it hard. Even if they’re cherished because they’re oh-so-pretty, they can’t pick their own fate.”

“So you say there are stones that complain about their own sorrows? How surprising. To think your knowledge of the spiritual side of things would be this deep.”

“That’s not what I’m saying...”

Richard asked, “Is that really so?” and I furrowed my brows. Eh?

“Stones also choose people.”

“You saying that for real?”

“For real. It is like a chance encounter. Just as people choose one another, stones choose people as well. It is precisely because fate ensues that they settle into a person’s hand, I believe.”

“Hearing you say ‘for real’ is kinda... nice.”

“Ha?”

“The gap is incredible, like seeing Cleopatra chug down beer from a tankard... Ah... Sorry about that.”

Richard cleared his throat in displeasure and stated, “Tea” with his usual tone. Whenever he was a bit embarrassed, he would chase me away into the small kitchen.

Today’s snack for the Etranger staff was ramune that we received from a client who had come from the Kansai region. The pastel-colored little spheres were tightly packed inside a lovely box that looked like those hat boxes from department stores. They dissolved in bubbles once we put them in our mouths. Though they were delicious and pretty, as one would expect, eating them in heaps with the clients while talking about stones could have a bit of a bad effect, and I felt like it would make me laugh, so we decided to finish them in private.

“I can even bet on it, but these are definitely tastier than a pearl dissolved in vinegar.”

“What do you intend to bet? How foolish.”

Richard and I absent-mindedly ate the sweets that most certainly neither generals from ancient Rome nor the Queen of Egypt ever got to tasting. We ate and ate but there was no end to them. While we were at it, it felt like we were binge eating pearls, which made me feel just a little sorry for Cleopatra.

As I grimaced a bit, the unrivaled beauty raised an eyebrow only slightly, looking puzzled, and then began wolfing down the ramune again.

Blog of John H. Watson, Hidden Post #57 (Adlock Drabble, Post S4)

This is what happens when I’m bored at work and speculate on the possible dynamic that could spawn out of Irene’s continued presence in Sherlock’s life being revealed in The Lying Detective, as well as the thought that John totally keeps an up to date documentation of Sherlock’s bullshit, even when he doesn’t share it. Short head canon in a blog post. A happy medium ending shall we say. Compatible with canon.

Rated T, for language and innuendos.

---

Sherlock Holmes is not a romantic, by any meager stretch of the imagination. In fact, if there were a term in the English language adequate enough to be defined as the polar opposite of a romantic, I wouldn't hesitate to employ it in regards to the world's only consulting detective. But, as with everything else in the complex world surrounding him, it's never quite so simple as that, either. For every area of disinterest in his over-wrought brain, there never ceases to be an exception to the rule. He hates the television, except for when he needs to pass the time.; he's seemingly ignorant of any charms the fairer sex may possess, until he decides to point out which one's they're lacking; he doesn't eat while on a case, unless you buy a very particular brand of biscuits and force them into his line of sight; and he doesn't have a single romantic bone in his body until The Woman is brought into the equation.

Now when I say 'romantic', don't think I mean that in the normal sense of the word - marriage and babies aren't something I can see him ever willingly seeking out, even for the likes of her.  That man's idea of a valentine is probably the still-beating heart of one of her enemies, but thankfully (dreadfully?) that woman would happily accept it, and even prefer it over the largest diamond at Tiffany's. Domesticity, suffice to say, has never been a prominent part of their 'relationship'. They do so enjoy flirting with it though. The way anyone else would take a holiday from their mundane desk job to somewhere more exciting, every once in a great while, The Woman formerly known as Irene Adler takes a brief respite from whatever chaos she's getting up to on the other side of the pond and finds her way to Baker Street. Sherlock never seems surprised, though whether that's because she warns him ahead of time of her eminent arrival or if he can sense her presence like some sort of lovesick bloodhound, I don't know (I mostly suspect the latter). But one moment everything is perfectly normal, and the next she's there - and the world has turned upside down. It's never really that dramatic a shift, though, truly. Sherlock is still very...Sherlock. Not even Cupid could fix that. It's his resolute single-mindedness that suddenly seems to take its leave. Whatever has been at the forefront of his thought process is, if not completely usurped, carefully shifted over as if to make room for her. Normally anyone or anything having such an impact on his needle-point focus would annoy him - and sometimes it still does, 'defiance' added to the cluster of other emotions that seem to radiate from him in her presence. More often than not, however, he accepts this adjustment without complaint. If he's particularly deep in the depths of boredom, dare I say with relief. One moment he'll be in a rush to go over some experiment or contact a client, and then there she is - sometimes sitting in his chair looking over a file he'd left lying on the floor or lounging in the bathtub as though she had always been there, and hadn't just broken in. If the timing is really inconvenient, he might shoot her a look not unlike one you or I would give a beloved but stubbornly misbehaved house cat - but it still happens, the immediate recalculation of his priorities. He probably just pulls up a day planner in his mind and starts crossing things off and pushing them around. Brooding can wait ‘til next week, there'll be time to annoy Mycroft tomorrow afternoon, etc. The case - if there is one - still gets solved, of course. No force, however unstoppable, would ever halt the investigative side of his brain. If anything we just gain an amused spectator or even another educated opinion. However as soon as the thinking is done and the only thing left of it is the 'boring' part - contacting the client, handing over evidence, explaining all of his elaborate deductions to a mostly confused and unappreciative audience - I tend to finish it out. Hell, I volunteer to do so, or else it simply doesn't get done. Found that out the hard way once when he stopped answering Mycroft's phone calls halfway through halting a smuggling operation and - well, suffice to say he always knocks now, even if he did have a spare key made just to be intrusive. Not that it seemed to phase either of them. Hardly anything does, during these short visits. As affronted or even offended Sherlock will no doubt be at the turn of phrase, the world by and large ceases to exist to him when The Woman is in town. Once the mostly-metaphorical detective hat is off, there's nothing that can begin to compete with her hold over his attention. I've certainly never had any interest in trying. It took me less than five minutes, the first time she showed up, to see how obviously under-stated he had been when he told me that it was 'just texting' between them that first night I discovered their continued interaction. There had been a tension between them since the moment they'd met, obviously, but it had evolved somehow. It wasn't the unresolved curiosity it once was, but it wasn't a comfortable fondness like most couples have after a reasonable period of time either. It was trapped somewhere in the middle: a constant thrum of kinetic energy almost. It was the power of uncertainty and yet the knowing acknowledgement of potential. I've never seen it’s like anywhere else, probably because no other two people in the world have the patience and tenacity to make such an unreasonable constant work. Coupled with the fact they seemed to be in a continuous competition with each other, for what stakes I still don't know, it was a tangible thing. I'd call it a 'battle for dominance' but that seems far too on the nose for my taste. No, the only thing out of the ordinary about her physical proximity to the detective was that I was now privy to it. I'd say I'm now 'in on the joke', but that doesn't sound right, as funny as the idea of Sherlock shagging a (former?) dominatrix sounds. More like being an unwilling member of an obscure and elitist secret society whose meetings I don't attend and yet end up bearing witness to anyway. Then again, with Sherlock Holmes, when don't I feel like that? Neither of them have ever asked me to make myself scarce during these periods (the shortest being all of 12 hours or what I would deem An International Booty Call - the longest was a full week: Christmas to New Year, leading into a suspicious spike in our usual caseload), but I often do it anyway. No matter the innocence of the conversation they're having - or not having, it seems voyeuristic somehow. And not just in the sexual way. There's a certain foreign intimacy to their seemingly benign interactions that makes it almost more intrusive to walk in on them having tea than any of the more explicit scenarios that end up occurring at 221B Baker Street behind closed doors. There are exceptions of course - the three of us have managed a few pleasant evenings (as pleasant as Sherlock is capable of), but all in all, I leave them to themselves. For as suddenly as she arrives, she's just as quickly gone - leaving no obvious sign of her presence save the lingering of her perfume and usually some spontaneous possession that finds its way to the mantelpiece, and remains there until the next time she inevitably appears in another few months. Hell, maybe the next year. A bottle of red nail lacquer, a hair pin. Last time it was a dagger. I think it's probably deliberate - an excuse, outside of sheer interest, to return. Or maybe some sort of weird code, fuck if I know. Regardless, as soon as her presence dissipates, the Consulting Detective is back to his obnoxious and hyper vigilant self, as though nothing and no one could ever distract him from his single-minded search for problems to solve and humans to outsmart. If Sherlock's unhappy with this unstable 'arrangement' - hell, even if he's perfectly happy with it - he's never really said. In fact, he makes almost no comment about her at all when she's not here. This alone, apparently unbeknownst to him, makes her unique in the whole of the human race. The only exception seems to be under the specific pretense of making his older brother look both nauseous and disapproving at the same time. As for Mycroft Holmes, if 'The Ice Man' ever had any specific ill intentions towards The Woman who nearly brought the nation to its knees, he's apparently given up on them for now. He's even stopped making lewd comments about beheadings just to make Sherlock angry. Every once in an even greater while - only thrice in my memory - some mysterious 'case' will arise from overseas and Sherlock himself will vanish from the streets of London for a number of days. He always asks me if I'd like to come along, and I always give some sort of excuse to remain: can't find a sitter for that long, my passport expired, etc. I know what he's really doing, just as he knows that my passport is perfectly legal, and yet neither of us say a word. I don't know if it's some twisted way to extend the 'mystique' of a secret tryst, or he's just helping her out with something very illegal, but I'm not sure I want to. It's not up to me to say if this sort of dynamic will last - if either of them will eventually require something more steady or resolute, or simply grow bored with one another. But for now, as I write this, Sherlock is restocking the kitchen for the first time in months without being harassed and has ceased whining about Lestrade not calling him back all weekend - so I doubt it's going to be a concern for a long while. By morning I'm sure I will walk in to witness my boorish and manner-less best mate who will rarely even boil his own water trip over himself to have her coffee made by the time she wakes, so he can regale her with the gory details of how he solved the grisliest murder we've had since her last visit. And they say romance is dead.