Mycroft knows every inch of his mind city. There are no people, unpredictable and quarrelsome and untrustworthy. (There might be two, but they stayed in their flat and he didn’t visit that flat in his mind city. He preferred to give them their privacy, such as it was.)
He’s been walking for hours, now, simply to rest, because he can not sleep, not yet. Not quite yet.
A few more steps and he’s not in his mind city. This place is occupied, there is life and light and…
He turned around.
The city wasn’t behind him, either.
He’d gone somewhere else, and that was simply unacceptable.
Insanity? Unlikely. Poisoning? Possible, but unlikely.
Something else entirely?
Bloody well probable.
"Damn."
He’s been walking for hours, now, simply to rest, because he can not sleep, not yet. Not quite yet.
A few more steps and he’s not in his mind city. This place is occupied, there is life and light and…
He turned around.
The city wasn’t behind him, either.
He’d gone somewhere else, and that was simply unacceptable.
Insanity? Unlikely. Poisoning? Possible, but unlikely.
Something else entirely?
Bloody well probable.
"Damn."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 12:16 pm (UTC)"Thank you," he said, smiling perfectly. Best to make use of the local (young, female, something not-quite-right, but he couldn't place what... continue collecting) as well. "How did you come to be here?"
Here wasn't a real place, he was quite, quite sure of it.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 05:30 pm (UTC)Richard had to be around someplace. He handled new guests far better than she did. Especially non-Japanese.
"Would you like some tea?" she asked, cradling her own in her gloved hands. "Or you can have anything else you want."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 05:40 pm (UTC)Only polite to let her pour from the teapot that had materialized.
...discard defunct 'facts', proceed with current knowledge, and...
Interesting. A place between worlds/dimensions/realities, with apparently magical qualities.
Sherlock would hate it here. "Tea is perfect," he smiled again, at the joke about his brother she probably wouldn't understand but she'd understand what else he was saying; English + tea = perfect.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 07:26 pm (UTC)"My culture prizes tea and has a, shall we say, interesting relationship with it." he tilted his head, and there were lemon slices on his saucer.
...bloody hell. Fortunately, Mycroft had a great deal of skill in schooling facial expressions, and also control over his mind.
Sherlock would have doubtless conjured up several murders. Fun ones.
Mycroft wondered if he could create peace, then discarded the notion.
"Unlike your culture, our tea-making rituals vary," he said as he squeezed lemon into his cup, "Depending on the individual, the day, the occasion... thank you."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 07:57 pm (UTC)His statement about her culture, though, made her raise her eyebrows. Perhaps in his world, there was a culture similar to hers. "I have to admit, I don't have much experience with cultures outside my own. My brother travels abroad a lot, but I never left my home city until about a year ago, and have never left the country." It wasn't safe for her, after all.
"So, what culture are you from?" Maybe his world was close to hers, and it would be a place she'd heard of.
(Why yes, Mycroft is making presumptions of the Asiatic nature.)
Date: 2012-07-27 08:10 pm (UTC)Something odd.
Something off.
And not off in the way he was able to call lemon slices to his saucer.
(Wataru was so sheltered she wouldn't know anyway)
Date: 2012-07-27 08:23 pm (UTC)"I'm Japanese." She took another sip of her tea and wondered if she'd said something wrong. "Did I say something that caused offense?"
Re: (Wataru was so sheltered she wouldn't know anyway)
Date: 2012-07-27 08:37 pm (UTC)This place was remarkable; he would, however, need to exercise extreme control. "You have a brother?" he asked, "Older? younger?"
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 09:21 pm (UTC)This did not seem the type of younger sibling that would concern an older one endlessly for good cause. Then again, he would worry over Sherlock even if Sherlock weren't a consulting detective with addictive tendencies, that couldn't be arsed to be pleasant to people with the power to destroy him.
Very short-sighted of him.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 09:40 pm (UTC)And Taiga would have kittens if she did, of course.
"I think Taiga would be happier if I was the way your brother is. I want to go around the world someday, but he wants me to be safe. I tell him that between Mio, my w- girlfriend, I should be fine."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 09:47 pm (UTC)Fascinating.
"I have, for a conference on international trade and traffic," Mycroft said with his blandest smile. "The world is a wonderful place," he said, "And seeing it expands one's horizons." he wondered if he could show her the world from here, change the location.
Another day, perhaps...
He laughed at the mention of her brother, "I wish my brother safe as well, though he has other plans. He considers me intrusive and controlling. I only want what is best for him. I am certain you would be able to take care of yourself with your girlfriend's help. Stay in securely middle-class areas and you'll be fine, if you're sensible. Stray too high or too low..." he shook his head, "The middle is the best place to be."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 10:09 pm (UTC)"I give Taiga a bit of a headache," she admitted. "But I've heard so many wonderful stories from other people here that I want to experience more of the world."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 12:02 am (UTC)What they tried to do, at any rate.
"How do you get out?" he asked, "Or is it as random as the entrance? I was meditating," easiest way to explain a city in one's mind, really, "When I came into the place."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 12:20 am (UTC)"As far as how you got here, " Wataru said, "This place somehow takes anybody who it thinks might have interesting stories. But it never forces anybody to stay."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 01:03 am (UTC)Mycroft did what he did to exit his City - imagined his front door.
It appeared, standing still and alone in the street behind Wataru. He willed it away - so long as he could leave, he would stay a little longer. The company was good and unsychophantic. He appreciated that.
The place's sentiency thought he had an interesting story? Oh, if it only knew the half of it... "I'm hardly interesting," he said, "I'm a bureaucrat."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 01:20 am (UTC)That had frustrated Sherlock endlessly - Mycroft could play either, equally well, which was to say very, very well.
Sherlock was a virtuoso when he chose to be. Mycroft never chose not to be.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 01:27 am (UTC)I want to tell him that my mother studied under Stradivari, but that would raise a lot of questions.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 12:09 pm (UTC)More to what she did, he could feel it. He debated pressing, cutting to the quick as he did for his work.
He looked at the teacup and knew that that was not the course to take. "Thank you for the tea."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 03:56 pm (UTC)She looked over and saw Richard, returned from whatever corner he'd faded into. "Ah, there's Richard. He's usually the one greeting new arrivals - you should meet him." She looked over and waved in the host's direction.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 06:20 pm (UTC)mun note
Date: 2012-07-27 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 07:53 am (UTC)