In which Sophie makes Howl very mad
Who: Sophie Jenkins and Howl Jenkins
Where Sophie's room
When: Right after the UFO event
Rating: G
Summary: Howl wakes up confused about being tied to Sophie's bed, Sophie explains.
the Story:
Sophie had been reading, moving around the mansion and getting food as well. There was a fresh plate of food by her bed, and another that was partially empty. She hadn't been that hungry these days. Her book, 'Dante's Inferno' was half read. She found the book long, but very interesting. There were two other piles of books as well. One for books she had read, and another for books she had yet to read.
True to her actions in his room and in the castle, her room was tidy and clean. She wasn't really a person to deal with too much clutter. There were pictures around. Family. She had found out very quickly that the mansion provided anything you needed or wanted just by you asking and opening something. The two pictures she was happiest about having managed to get were the one of Howl and herself on their wedding day and one of the whole family, both sides of it. That had been a strange day.
She let her eyes fall closed a moment with a heavy sigh. She already missed how things were at home. All her normal things. Seeing her sisters and Michael, sitting and talking with Calcifer about the things he saw when he went out. Fighting with Howl. They still fought, but it wasn't in the way she had become used to. Things seemed to change with age.
Placing the book on the chair she stood and went into the bathroom.
Howl stirred, coming too in a groggy manner. The last thing he recalled was talking to a few random people about whatever had been going on now, then.... then nothing but a funny dream. He went to lift an arm to his face and found it restricted, that was odd. He tried to sit up but found the difficult as well. Looking about he discovered he was tied down, and not simply tied down the ropes were enchanted! It smelled of Sophie.
It didn't take much to disenchant the ropes and get them to unwind him. Lifting a hand unrestricted he brushed his hair back out of his face and looked around. The room wasn't his, it was obvious, Based of the photos it was obviously Sophie's.
He looked at one closely, the one of their wedding and then the one of everyone. It was an odd sensation to see photos you never experienced taking. It was the sort of feeling you get and then wish you could stop thinking about it.
There was water running in the bathroom. She figured with how strange everything that was going on was, he wouldn't wake up for some time. Once her shower was finished she grabbed a robe and dried out her hair, brushing it out.
She still had her brush in her hand as she walked out to see Howl looking at the pictures. She drew back and covered herself with the door. It was weird. It wasn't something she would normally do, but this wasn't the same Howl that she was married to - not time wise at least. This Howl hadn't seen her ... not yet at least. "Oh, you're awake." Her face was a deep red and she was trying so hard not to let it get more so.
"I happen to be... How did I get here?" he took a step back turning towards her. "Well, I must have ended up in your way for a time," he turned towards the door. "I'll be going then." he seriously wanted to know what was going on... he felt as if he had been asleep for hours.
"You wanted to go after the flying things, so I pretended to be ill." She almost looked proud if that. She'd been slightly less devious then he could be, and it had worked! She knew the him from her time would have been very proud of her - even if he wouldn't have shown it in the same way most people did.
"Why was I trying to do that!?" he also wondered why Sophie playing sick should work so well it was easy to tell if she was or not... "And that kept me from the UFOs?"
She nodded, coming out from behind the door a bit so she could get a new set of clothing. "It seems to have. You were frantically worried." She opened her wardrobe and sorted through the dresses it had offered her. "Scared me half to death the way you were acting. I thought they'd put something in the water." She was talking casually, even though there was a strong part of her that wanted to hug him tightly, just happy that he was acting himself again.
"Do things like that happen often?" She pulled out a dress and made her way back to the bathroom. Changing in front of this Howl was NOT going to happen.
"I don't know.." he gave no indication that he was interested or bothered by her changing. If anything he acted as if anyone could have needed to change in front of him and it would have gone unnoticed. "They do have these 'events' every so often.... What you speak of makes me think of the dream I had though. It was a very strange and disturbing dream," Howl made a face. "I'm glad I didn't manage to go out there, I have no business getting mixed up in such things."
She poked her head out, red-gold hair a mess around her face. "My thoughts exactly. What was this dream?" The head pulled back in and she finished changing and cleaning the bathroom. unlike his, her bathroom was spotless and pristine.
His was dirty because he didn't care to clean it... "I was myself yet I was a different person, and so were you, and everyone I knew... it was like we were all pod people versions."
"Ah, that wasn't a dream. You were a heroic figure who kept calling Michael Mirkel." She exited the bathroom in a very pretty light green dress, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she did. "Giselle seemed to think the better of you during it. There was a pregnant man wondering around too." She crossed to her book, marked it and closed it. "I hope no one else is stuck here. I'm still working on a way out. The mansion simply won't listen to reason."
"Oh how horrible! To think I was actually acting out that...." he shuttered dramatically. "Oh shes that sort to think 'gallant' and "brave' are good character traits." he waved Giselle's opinion aside, it was flighty, not that she wasn't a nice person. After all those sorts of people generally were extremely nice and easy to manipulate. "It's not going to listen to you. It's hopeless, give up, were going to die here."
She gave him a flat completely unsympathetic look. "You can be as dramatic as you like, I'm still going to find a way back. I have Lettie and Martha to think about. Not to mention you. Who knows what sort of trouble you're getting into." She left the comment at that since she knew he didn't want to know. She also made the comment as vague as she could without pretending they weren't married. She hated that, but it was what she had to do.
She did, however, look away, her eyes casting over their wedding picture before she moved toward it and placed it, and the others face down. They'd upset him, and she understood a little of feeling upset over things of that nature. After all, his time was her past. "I'm sure not many noticed. You were sleeping here for most of the thing."
"How long was I asleep?" The idea that he had been asleep for a large amount of time was unnerving. The entire thing was, to not be in control of yourself.... He did note that she was trying to not talk of her personal life involving him, if he were a better man he would say something about it, instead he took it and was glad and said nothing. "Well continue to try, I just don't see the point of trying something hopeless."
She knew that dispute his words he really was trying. In his usual backward way. He couldn't actively do anything he wasn't sure he would accomplish. Especially if it would incur the wrath of someone like the Queen of Hearts. She reminded Sophie of the Witch of the Waste, someone this Howl had not yet killed. "At least a day. I've finished four books since you've been here."
The books were her own way of keeping time. She had little else to do but read, especially since everyone seemed rather strange and busy. She had been thinking of cooking more. She would admit that she had fun before. The fact that no one seemed to want to talk about what exactly this place was seemed disturbing, but reading that book had done a good deal to help her understand the people she should be wary of and not be wary of. At least, those from that book's world.
The strangest was the book she had read about her own life. Everything they had been through was written down in a neat little book entitled 'Howl's moving Castle'. She wouldn't tell Howl about it though. It was a bit disconcerting for her as it was, and she had already lived through the events. He would be downright horrified - if secretly preening that someone took the time to write it all down. Personally Sophie didn't find it that worth doing so. Especially as it was written from her point of view. How that woman had gotten into her mind was the most disturbing part.
Howl would be in such denial about finding a book about himself. He would try to dispute it as well, especially if it was from Sophie's point of view. "that long? This place is horrid! I don't want to be so easily afflicted." he made a casual glance at her pile of books and looked away. "trying to read up on the place?" good for him he had only skimmed the titles.
"Reading in general." She felt the need to almost defend herself on the matter. Of course he knew nothing about her at this point in his life. Just what he had gathered from her living there. Even then she had spent more time with Calcifer and Michael then with him. "I happen to enjoy reading, and the library has many interesting books. A few of them I had noticed from your room, the little I've seen of it." The last part was a pure lie. She'd seen quite a bit of his room, they shared it after all. But the wording would make Howl comfortable, and she was trying to be considerate of him, even if it hurt to do so.
Howl liked to be accommodated, he was just that sort of person. "It's a good hobby, I would see what they had if I felt like reading at the moment." he gave a sigh, as if he were so busy and filled with important pressing and heavy matters that he couldn't do anything casual.
"It isn't as if there anyone is pushing demands on you, I'm sure you could read if you wanted to." She wasn't going to let him get out of things so easily and he ought to know that. "You're simply being lazy again."
"Lazy? I am distressed! Distressed I say! Uprooted, tortured. Socially and mentally molested! I am under far too much duress to properly relax and do casual recreational past times." he laid it on thick for that. each word pronounced in just the right emotional way, not too emotional, but just enough for impact, he could have won an award if he were on stage.
She noted that. It was his normal act of things. "Doing things you would normally do helps. You know that." She would have pointed out his getting drunk, but for him, that hadn't happened yet. "Besides, as distressed as you are you're not nearly as distressed as you could be. You haven't gotten even the slightest bit serious since I got here."
Oh he had already gotten himself drunk it was one of the first things on his agenda when he had found himself in this strange place. He lifted a hand to his chest as if she had shot him with her words. "Dear Sophie, you think I'm not serious? I am serious enough, how serious would you like me? Shall I go and demand an audience with the important people? I fear that would not at all do, someone else should go do that."
She just rolled her eyes. Typical. She knew he was playing it off rather well, though she also realized her own mistake. She shouldn't have mentioned him being serious. It was hard pretending not to know him through and through. So much had happened in such a short time and he didn't know about any of it. She had to pretend none of it had ever happened in order to protect him. If only Calcifer were here. He actually gave good advice sometimes.
"You're hopeless." She said in a low grumbling. She was tired and frustrated and her heart hurt. It was worse then seeing the turnip headed scarecrow when she was old Sophie. She could really use something from Cesari's right now. She pulled open one of the drawers and there was a cake, complete with it's box.
Good, she thought. That was one good thing about this place. You could manage well enough to get the small things from home. They even smelled as if they were from home. She pulled it out of where it was and placed it on the table. Her room, of course, looked much different then others. It had been altered to suit her. To be much more comfortable for her, much more familiar. At least she'd gotten the hang of this place quickly. Most things in the room had been spelled, just from her talking to them and venting.
"I try to be hopeless." he shot back. He was making Sophie uncomfortable, because she was making him uncomfortable. It would be best for him to probably go. "Perhaps I will visit the library and see if they have any interesting fiction. I'm sure there are lots of authors I enjoy I could catch up on."
"I know." She said. The words were shot back. It was the middle of a fight and she knew it. She didn't care either. She was in the mood for a good fight now.
He had actually being trying to avoid a fight. He didn't feel like it, and his head was all muddled still with strange memories that didn't add up. "Oh? Do you? I suppose you know a lot though so there should be no reason to tell you anything at all." he wasn't yelling, or dramatizing or emphasis. It was spoken simply as if an observation. As if he were discussing the habit of birds.
He didn't say anything else. He just walked to the door opening it gently and then closing it quietly behind him. Not slamming it, not making it louder then it should have been, not adding shakes or groans or special effects. On the other side of the door he took a deep breath and then let it go slowly.
She knew he was angry, really angry this time. She knew he was angry with her and she didn't care. He could be angry all he wanted because she was angry with him. She'd been doing everything she could to make things easier and still she hurt so much.
She picked up the picture of the two of them on their wedding day and scowled at him. "Ohhhh -" She couldn't say anymore, just placed it back up and sighed. She missed home and how things were supposed to be. She hated seeing the man she loved not loving her in return.
Howl left at this point, back to his room. He would go down to the library at some point to check what books there were. He really wanted to do something more active though, get to know people here. He felt like socializing.
Where Sophie's room
When: Right after the UFO event
Rating: G
Summary: Howl wakes up confused about being tied to Sophie's bed, Sophie explains.
the Story:
Sophie had been reading, moving around the mansion and getting food as well. There was a fresh plate of food by her bed, and another that was partially empty. She hadn't been that hungry these days. Her book, 'Dante's Inferno' was half read. She found the book long, but very interesting. There were two other piles of books as well. One for books she had read, and another for books she had yet to read.
True to her actions in his room and in the castle, her room was tidy and clean. She wasn't really a person to deal with too much clutter. There were pictures around. Family. She had found out very quickly that the mansion provided anything you needed or wanted just by you asking and opening something. The two pictures she was happiest about having managed to get were the one of Howl and herself on their wedding day and one of the whole family, both sides of it. That had been a strange day.
She let her eyes fall closed a moment with a heavy sigh. She already missed how things were at home. All her normal things. Seeing her sisters and Michael, sitting and talking with Calcifer about the things he saw when he went out. Fighting with Howl. They still fought, but it wasn't in the way she had become used to. Things seemed to change with age.
Placing the book on the chair she stood and went into the bathroom.
Howl stirred, coming too in a groggy manner. The last thing he recalled was talking to a few random people about whatever had been going on now, then.... then nothing but a funny dream. He went to lift an arm to his face and found it restricted, that was odd. He tried to sit up but found the difficult as well. Looking about he discovered he was tied down, and not simply tied down the ropes were enchanted! It smelled of Sophie.
It didn't take much to disenchant the ropes and get them to unwind him. Lifting a hand unrestricted he brushed his hair back out of his face and looked around. The room wasn't his, it was obvious, Based of the photos it was obviously Sophie's.
He looked at one closely, the one of their wedding and then the one of everyone. It was an odd sensation to see photos you never experienced taking. It was the sort of feeling you get and then wish you could stop thinking about it.
There was water running in the bathroom. She figured with how strange everything that was going on was, he wouldn't wake up for some time. Once her shower was finished she grabbed a robe and dried out her hair, brushing it out.
She still had her brush in her hand as she walked out to see Howl looking at the pictures. She drew back and covered herself with the door. It was weird. It wasn't something she would normally do, but this wasn't the same Howl that she was married to - not time wise at least. This Howl hadn't seen her ... not yet at least. "Oh, you're awake." Her face was a deep red and she was trying so hard not to let it get more so.
"I happen to be... How did I get here?" he took a step back turning towards her. "Well, I must have ended up in your way for a time," he turned towards the door. "I'll be going then." he seriously wanted to know what was going on... he felt as if he had been asleep for hours.
"You wanted to go after the flying things, so I pretended to be ill." She almost looked proud if that. She'd been slightly less devious then he could be, and it had worked! She knew the him from her time would have been very proud of her - even if he wouldn't have shown it in the same way most people did.
"Why was I trying to do that!?" he also wondered why Sophie playing sick should work so well it was easy to tell if she was or not... "And that kept me from the UFOs?"
She nodded, coming out from behind the door a bit so she could get a new set of clothing. "It seems to have. You were frantically worried." She opened her wardrobe and sorted through the dresses it had offered her. "Scared me half to death the way you were acting. I thought they'd put something in the water." She was talking casually, even though there was a strong part of her that wanted to hug him tightly, just happy that he was acting himself again.
"Do things like that happen often?" She pulled out a dress and made her way back to the bathroom. Changing in front of this Howl was NOT going to happen.
"I don't know.." he gave no indication that he was interested or bothered by her changing. If anything he acted as if anyone could have needed to change in front of him and it would have gone unnoticed. "They do have these 'events' every so often.... What you speak of makes me think of the dream I had though. It was a very strange and disturbing dream," Howl made a face. "I'm glad I didn't manage to go out there, I have no business getting mixed up in such things."
She poked her head out, red-gold hair a mess around her face. "My thoughts exactly. What was this dream?" The head pulled back in and she finished changing and cleaning the bathroom. unlike his, her bathroom was spotless and pristine.
His was dirty because he didn't care to clean it... "I was myself yet I was a different person, and so were you, and everyone I knew... it was like we were all pod people versions."
"Ah, that wasn't a dream. You were a heroic figure who kept calling Michael Mirkel." She exited the bathroom in a very pretty light green dress, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she did. "Giselle seemed to think the better of you during it. There was a pregnant man wondering around too." She crossed to her book, marked it and closed it. "I hope no one else is stuck here. I'm still working on a way out. The mansion simply won't listen to reason."
"Oh how horrible! To think I was actually acting out that...." he shuttered dramatically. "Oh shes that sort to think 'gallant' and "brave' are good character traits." he waved Giselle's opinion aside, it was flighty, not that she wasn't a nice person. After all those sorts of people generally were extremely nice and easy to manipulate. "It's not going to listen to you. It's hopeless, give up, were going to die here."
She gave him a flat completely unsympathetic look. "You can be as dramatic as you like, I'm still going to find a way back. I have Lettie and Martha to think about. Not to mention you. Who knows what sort of trouble you're getting into." She left the comment at that since she knew he didn't want to know. She also made the comment as vague as she could without pretending they weren't married. She hated that, but it was what she had to do.
She did, however, look away, her eyes casting over their wedding picture before she moved toward it and placed it, and the others face down. They'd upset him, and she understood a little of feeling upset over things of that nature. After all, his time was her past. "I'm sure not many noticed. You were sleeping here for most of the thing."
"How long was I asleep?" The idea that he had been asleep for a large amount of time was unnerving. The entire thing was, to not be in control of yourself.... He did note that she was trying to not talk of her personal life involving him, if he were a better man he would say something about it, instead he took it and was glad and said nothing. "Well continue to try, I just don't see the point of trying something hopeless."
She knew that dispute his words he really was trying. In his usual backward way. He couldn't actively do anything he wasn't sure he would accomplish. Especially if it would incur the wrath of someone like the Queen of Hearts. She reminded Sophie of the Witch of the Waste, someone this Howl had not yet killed. "At least a day. I've finished four books since you've been here."
The books were her own way of keeping time. She had little else to do but read, especially since everyone seemed rather strange and busy. She had been thinking of cooking more. She would admit that she had fun before. The fact that no one seemed to want to talk about what exactly this place was seemed disturbing, but reading that book had done a good deal to help her understand the people she should be wary of and not be wary of. At least, those from that book's world.
The strangest was the book she had read about her own life. Everything they had been through was written down in a neat little book entitled 'Howl's moving Castle'. She wouldn't tell Howl about it though. It was a bit disconcerting for her as it was, and she had already lived through the events. He would be downright horrified - if secretly preening that someone took the time to write it all down. Personally Sophie didn't find it that worth doing so. Especially as it was written from her point of view. How that woman had gotten into her mind was the most disturbing part.
Howl would be in such denial about finding a book about himself. He would try to dispute it as well, especially if it was from Sophie's point of view. "that long? This place is horrid! I don't want to be so easily afflicted." he made a casual glance at her pile of books and looked away. "trying to read up on the place?" good for him he had only skimmed the titles.
"Reading in general." She felt the need to almost defend herself on the matter. Of course he knew nothing about her at this point in his life. Just what he had gathered from her living there. Even then she had spent more time with Calcifer and Michael then with him. "I happen to enjoy reading, and the library has many interesting books. A few of them I had noticed from your room, the little I've seen of it." The last part was a pure lie. She'd seen quite a bit of his room, they shared it after all. But the wording would make Howl comfortable, and she was trying to be considerate of him, even if it hurt to do so.
Howl liked to be accommodated, he was just that sort of person. "It's a good hobby, I would see what they had if I felt like reading at the moment." he gave a sigh, as if he were so busy and filled with important pressing and heavy matters that he couldn't do anything casual.
"It isn't as if there anyone is pushing demands on you, I'm sure you could read if you wanted to." She wasn't going to let him get out of things so easily and he ought to know that. "You're simply being lazy again."
"Lazy? I am distressed! Distressed I say! Uprooted, tortured. Socially and mentally molested! I am under far too much duress to properly relax and do casual recreational past times." he laid it on thick for that. each word pronounced in just the right emotional way, not too emotional, but just enough for impact, he could have won an award if he were on stage.
She noted that. It was his normal act of things. "Doing things you would normally do helps. You know that." She would have pointed out his getting drunk, but for him, that hadn't happened yet. "Besides, as distressed as you are you're not nearly as distressed as you could be. You haven't gotten even the slightest bit serious since I got here."
Oh he had already gotten himself drunk it was one of the first things on his agenda when he had found himself in this strange place. He lifted a hand to his chest as if she had shot him with her words. "Dear Sophie, you think I'm not serious? I am serious enough, how serious would you like me? Shall I go and demand an audience with the important people? I fear that would not at all do, someone else should go do that."
She just rolled her eyes. Typical. She knew he was playing it off rather well, though she also realized her own mistake. She shouldn't have mentioned him being serious. It was hard pretending not to know him through and through. So much had happened in such a short time and he didn't know about any of it. She had to pretend none of it had ever happened in order to protect him. If only Calcifer were here. He actually gave good advice sometimes.
"You're hopeless." She said in a low grumbling. She was tired and frustrated and her heart hurt. It was worse then seeing the turnip headed scarecrow when she was old Sophie. She could really use something from Cesari's right now. She pulled open one of the drawers and there was a cake, complete with it's box.
Good, she thought. That was one good thing about this place. You could manage well enough to get the small things from home. They even smelled as if they were from home. She pulled it out of where it was and placed it on the table. Her room, of course, looked much different then others. It had been altered to suit her. To be much more comfortable for her, much more familiar. At least she'd gotten the hang of this place quickly. Most things in the room had been spelled, just from her talking to them and venting.
"I try to be hopeless." he shot back. He was making Sophie uncomfortable, because she was making him uncomfortable. It would be best for him to probably go. "Perhaps I will visit the library and see if they have any interesting fiction. I'm sure there are lots of authors I enjoy I could catch up on."
"I know." She said. The words were shot back. It was the middle of a fight and she knew it. She didn't care either. She was in the mood for a good fight now.
He had actually being trying to avoid a fight. He didn't feel like it, and his head was all muddled still with strange memories that didn't add up. "Oh? Do you? I suppose you know a lot though so there should be no reason to tell you anything at all." he wasn't yelling, or dramatizing or emphasis. It was spoken simply as if an observation. As if he were discussing the habit of birds.
He didn't say anything else. He just walked to the door opening it gently and then closing it quietly behind him. Not slamming it, not making it louder then it should have been, not adding shakes or groans or special effects. On the other side of the door he took a deep breath and then let it go slowly.
She knew he was angry, really angry this time. She knew he was angry with her and she didn't care. He could be angry all he wanted because she was angry with him. She'd been doing everything she could to make things easier and still she hurt so much.
She picked up the picture of the two of them on their wedding day and scowled at him. "Ohhhh -" She couldn't say anymore, just placed it back up and sighed. She missed home and how things were supposed to be. She hated seeing the man she loved not loving her in return.
Howl left at this point, back to his room. He would go down to the library at some point to check what books there were. He really wanted to do something more active though, get to know people here. He felt like socializing.