(Untitled)

[mrharmony]

Mr. Harmony fondly regards the front room of the Mansion; although he has only just arrived, he has every confidence that he and the master of the house shall be excellent friends shortly, and he wants only a friendly introduction to make it so. In the meantime, he is cataloguing the furniture, the draperies, the pattern of the floor, to slip in a

Comments

[tomboy_22]

"Dunno what kind of possession you're referring to, but if it's ownership you're talking about, you're outtaluck, Slick."

Mr. Harmony, meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter extraordinaire, smooth and refined young woman that she is.

[mrharmony]

Of course he will make a polite bow to this smooth, refined young woman. "My dear lady--are you a guest here, as well?"

[tomboy_22]

Oh, dear, not another one of these lady-callers. She sighs. "Yeah, you can call it that." She sits up a little more in her seat. The pants are probably a bit odd, which she is aware of, actually, and that makes her just a little bit awkward.

[mrharmony]

This is Mr. Harmony's complete lack of concern for her trousers! After all, she probably has an excellent reason. She might be an actress in a breeches role, or she might be in disguise to hide from a lover spurned or desired; for all he knows, someone stole her dress and left her without a half-penny to her name, and it would be a miserable thing to call attention to her reliance upon a kind gentleman's charitable contribution of a pair of unfashionable trousers. "Oh, dear! I hope you are a willing guest, if I may call it that."

[sissy_queen]

Should Mr. Harmony want to speak to someone a little less callous, Guinevere is embroidering at the window, singing a lay softly to herself.

[mrharmony]

He catches sight of her, and bustles over with a charming smile at the ready. "My very dear woman," he says, and bows. "Are you the lady of the house?"

[sissy_queen]

"One of many, good sir," she replies with a charming smile. "Are you looking for aught, per chance?"

[mrharmony]

"I have only been seeking the most appropriate person to praise for this fine house," he answers. "But if you are one of the house's many ladies, then certainly it is fitting to tell you that it is most extraordinarily well-appointed, and that you make the picture all the more charming by your presence."

[colored_gowns]

"I am afraid that will take some time, sir," says Mrs Strange. "As no one has yet discovered who that is."

[mrharmony]

"That seems to be the general sentiment," he agrees, a little regretfully. "What a pity! He certainly keeps an excellent house--and his guests are without exception of the most charming and decent sort." He bows to Mrs. Strange very politely. "My name is Mr. Harmony. What might I call you?"

[colored_gowns]

"How kind. It is a pleasure, Mr Harmony," she says with a curtsy. "I am Mrs Strange."

[mrharmony]

And were he any less good-natured, the name might well give him pause; after all, in the world of the plays of his period, surnames are often shorthand for character. However, he passes over any speculation on her strangeness, and beams. "Mrs. Strange! What a pleasure to make your acquaintance! I take it there is a Mr. Strange, as well?"

[abitofboth]

Childermass looks unimpressed. Then again, the dark, not-quite-respectable Childermass will be unlikely to impress Mr. Harmony in return. "Give him a good word for the rest of us, when you do," he says, dryly.

[mrharmony]

You reckon without Mr. Harmony's unbounded love for everyone--even the disreputable! He bows as politely to Childermass as he would to a lord. "Ah, sir. Then the master of the house is as much a mystery to you as to everyone else? I do hope that he hasn't had reason to vanish suddenly," he says, and seems sincerely to be concerned about this hypothetical stranger.

[abitofboth]

"Well, if he has, he's been gone as long as anyone here can recall." He looks the new arrival up and down.

[mrharmony]

He is of middling height and build, looking nothing so much as affable, with a pleasant smile growing swiftly from his sincere concern. "Then who maintains the place? It seems marvelously well kept," he observes.

[fearlessboy]

"Oh! Hey! That's me!" Meet the simplest of simple country bumpkins. "The king said if I stayed three nights up in the castle with the spooks and monsters, I'd get to keep it -- and I'd get to marry his daughter, too! They say she's the prettiest girl the sun ever shone on. I haven't seen the king in a while, though, not since the castle changed to this house with all these people in it. I'm thinking it's probably magic."

[mrharmony]

"Oh--! Well, sir, I'm very glad to have met the owner of this fine house; it is fit for a king, and therefore quite fit for you." He makes a deep bow--perhaps a deeper one than he usually might, more because the boy is a child than because he is the apparent master of the house. "What might I call you, young man?"

[fearlessboy]

He's not quite a child -- he was growing tall and strong when he left home, old enough to pursue a trade, old enough to marry, but that might still seem rather young to someone from a later age, and his childlike outlook on things doesn't help. "Well, you can call me by the name those nice kids with the pointed ears gave me," he beams. "They even said it was okay to tell folks it was theirs. It's Milui! Isn't that great?"

[mrharmony]

"Milui! It suits you," he says. "And these children? What were they like?"