(Untitled)

[jack_artful]

It wasn’t until Dodger had tumbled out of bed, hopped to the front door tugging his trousers on, stumbled outside with his hat in hand, shirt, waistcoat, cravat, and coat loose, rumpled, and untucked, and staggered out to Millbank street, with Westminster Abbey to his left, and the Thames in from him, that he realized something wasn’t right.  It

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[a_swan_diver]

Bella wandered out of the Homestead, pulling and yanking on the dress she'd tried to get on and wobbling on shoes she hadn't been able to get laced. Yeah, she'd been warned, but looking like Charlotte Bronte had come into her room and swapped clothes with her was something altogether different.

She tripped over a seam in the sidewalk, still trying to get over the geographic changes as well as the clothing ones, when she spied a woman coming towards her. She'd never seen her before, but most people here were friendly. She smiled and held a hand out, "excuse me?"

Her jaw dropped when the woman walked away without a word or glance. "Well, crap."

[jack_artful]

Dodger didn't notice the woman among the phantoms until she tripped, and when he moved towards her, his attention caught, she didn't fade away, and seemed to be just as unnerved looking as he did, even if her clothing did look normal enough. "Hullo, missus," his fingers reflexively tipped the brim of his hat, "you ain't a phantom, are you?" He asked, hopeful.

[a_swan_diver]

Bella looked up at the familiar voice, relieved to find a face she knew from the Homestead. "Not last time I checked, Dodger. Probably look weird as anything in this mess, though, don't I?" She laughed. "The last time I wore a dress was my mom's wedding a few years ago, and even then, it wasn't the best idea."

[jack_artful]

"That you, Miss Bella?" He said, wondrous - he'd thought she looked familiar, but the clothing had kept him from recognizing her. He was getting used to ladies in trousers and short skirts, but he was somewhat relived to see women dressed the way they should be again. "No, you look tops. Fine togs, those are. Nicely made, 'n all."

[a_swan_diver]

Bella grinned. She loved listening to the boy speak, his accent never failed to charm her. "Hard to believe, but yeah, it's me." She lifted the hem of the skirt and showed him the unhooked boots. "I'd kind of like to lodge a complaint about what happened to my hiking boots, though. These might just keep me housebound for a month."

[jack_artful]

"Fancy stuff as that, you should 'ave a lady's maid to 'elp with the puttin'-on." He said, suddenly aware of his own rushed manner of dress. He crouched down, and started to pull and over and button the boo, it was a tricky and time-consuming process, but not impossible, and the quick and nimble fingers of a pickpocket helped, and he'd helped Nancy or Bet on occasion. "Didn't you see a button-hook?"

[a_swan_diver]

She couldn't help the giggle at the very idea of having a maid. "Guess this place didn't think of quite everything, did it?" Bella frowned, then rummaged in a pocket, pulling one out and handing it over. "Is that what this is? I thought it was someone telling me I should learn to crochet."

[jack_artful]

Dodger eyed the thing, nodding and giving a chuckle. "It ain't for needlework - it's like this, miss." He slipped the long, slender hook through the button hole, caught the button, and tugged it through, nipping the hook off, then finishing one boot, and then the other. "Fine ladies don't do nothin' themselves, that's what the help's for - and they like it lookin' tricky to get on 'n off."

[a_swan_diver]

"That's the thing, honey. I'm used to being the help, not having any, but thank you very much for doing up my shoes. I'd have managed to break my ankle for sure this time. And forget about just looking tricky, it is tricky. The corset itself was like nothing I've ever...," she stopped, remembering her audience. "Well, it's was difficult, but I managed that one."

[jack_artful]

Dodger laughed, certain that Charley would be beside himself with hilarity at a comment like that. He'd grown up around prostitutes and other such ladies of ill-repute, so he'd heard far worse, but nice ladies didn't mention their undergarments. "Thought ladies liked feelin' strait-jacketed - secure in their virtues, and figures all up straight."

[a_swan_diver]

Bella grinned and looked down, then grinned back at him. "I don't have much in the way of virtures to speak of, so they're usually straight on their own without so many laces. Guess I'll have to get used to it, at least for now. Does it make you feel more at home?"

[jack_artful]

"Now that ain't ladylike to say!" He said, mock-aghast, but it reminded him of something Nancy would say, and that made his heart squeeze in his chest a bit. "What, now that you ladies are dressed all proper? Or the dressin' of the Island in a more gen'ral sense? Either way, it do feel more like 'ome. Save for the phantoms, and other oddities, 'course."

[a_swan_diver]

"Phantoms and oddities, yeah. This place seems to have the by the truckload, doesn't it? Well, I guess we should be glad it wasn't my hometown come to visit. Nothing but a load of cold rain and big, overgrown forests. At least this place is pretty, even if it does have snow."

[jack_artful]

"Would've like to see some forests." Dodger said, tucking his bare hands in his deep pockets. He'd be able to nick some gloves and a scarf pretty quick, once left to his lonesome.

He looked about, trying to see it the way somebody who'd never seen it before might. "Pretty swell. Don't look as nice as this, really." Didn't seem all that politely conversational to point out the lack of soot, yellow fog and the smell. He hadn't really given all that much thought to the stench at all until it was gone, and to be in London without it just felt out of place.

[a_swan_diver]

"They can be pretty, but mostly they're just dark and full of tree roots that want nothing more than to twist your ankle. I liked the desert a lot better," Bella finished, then looked around the buildings with him, trying to remember her European History class. "Yeah, I imagine it wouldn't have been this, ah..." God. What was the word she was looking for, with no modern plumbing and horse drawn carriages everywhere. "Sanitary?"

[jack_artful]

Dodger laughed, nodding. "You future folk are awful concerned with hy-giene, don't think you'd like this London much if it were auth-en-tic." He was starting to doubt that Spitalfields and it's slums would exist in this version - if this was how Westminster looked, the slums surely couldn't be all that well represented, much less a rookery like Jacob's Island, near which Dodger had been when he'd arrived on the Island. "Buildings still awful nice, though. Plenty of fine stuff in them, too." He said, encouraging.