Lewis meets Richard

Jekyll1886: There was a brilliant flash of bluish-white light. When it faded, a tall, slim man stood upon the Society's doorstep. He had dark brown hair and wore clothing typical of the middle classes, save for an embroidered, filigreed waistcoat of crimson hue which bordered on ostentatious. It set off his moss-green eyes marvelously, though. Disoriented, he hesitated a moment. Once he'd had a chance to take in his surroundings, he knocked upon the door thrice.

Tairais:  Richard had been sitting on the floor of the great hall sketching the grandiose skeleton that hung overhead when the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He wasn't entirely sure if the glint of light he saw out of the corner of his eye was due to his imagination, but the knocking was most assuredly not. He rose and tucked his sketchbook under his arm, crossing to open the door with somewhat of a flourish. He gave the man before him an assessing glance, curiousity flickering in his one visible eye. "Buonasera. Good e-evening. M-may I be of assistance?"

Jekyll1886:  "Buonasera," the newcomer returned, smiling at the unexpected Italian as if it were a surprise rose in the midst of a field of turnips. "Have I reached the Society for Arcane Sciences?"

Tairais:  Richard grinned, a rare sight indeed when face with a stranger, even if it was only seen in the crinkling corner of his eye. "Si, signore. Come posso assistere questa sera? Anche, lei come si chiama?" He himself was quite pleased to take a reprieve from speaking English; Though it was the most common language in London, he found the words cumbersome at best compared to Italian, Spanish, or even his native Lithuanian (which was by far more guttural, but at least it was graceful in a sense). Belatedly, he silently hoped the man knew more than basic greetings.

Jekyll1886:  "Mi chiamo Lewis Weir," he replied pleasantly, producing one of his personal cards for Richard's perusal. "Devo parlare con Helen Jekyll. È qui?" His manner was easy, genial, polite, but there was something arresting in his gaze. Tairais:  Richard took the card and gave it an appraising look. Seemingly satisfied, he nodded "Credo di sì, sì. Dove esattamente? Non lo so. Siete i benvenuti a venire sguardo, se ti va." He stood aside to hold the door for Lewis, casting a wary, calculating glance over his shoulder to London beyond. It was better to be safe than sorry, he thought. Jekyll1886:  "Grazie, lo farò, signor..." he said as he entered the building but realized he didn't know the man's name. "Come si chiama?" Tairais:  "Dottore Richard Prince. Non è un problema." He closed the door behind them both and leaned against it for a moment, resisting the urge to rub his temples. His headaches were getting worse, lately. That, plus losing time and the more frequent trips into his memories had him worried. He'd focus on that later. For now, there was a guest to attend to.

Jekyll1886:  "Stai bene, dottore?" asked Lewis, concerned at the trace of anxiety from his happenstance host. A less observant person would have taken it only for what it partially was: genuine concern for another human being's welfare. But beneath this, equally true, lay a concern for self, an assessment of potential threat, an unceasing weighing of options to be acted upon as the need arose. In the end, Weir looked a little too long, saw a little too much, stared a little too deeply into the soul.

Tairais:   "Un mal di testa. Nulla di cui preoccuparsi." To those who looked, all but his deepest secrets were worn on his sleeve: In code, but nonetheless there to see. The feeling of being known caused the hair on the back of his neck to rise once again, and Richard found himself repressing both a frown and an admiring gaze. Lewis continued to surprise him, and he wasn't sure if he was intrigued or disconcerted. Likewise, he considered his options, reluctant to say anything to interrupt the trance-like watching the pair of them were doing.

Jekyll1886:  After some moments, Lewis raised an eyebrow slightly and leaned in. "Funny," he remarked, breaking into English, lowering his voice as the ghost of an Edinburgher accent crept in from the back. "A house full of Hydes..." He smiled as he dropped to a whisper, "Yet you're the man I want to watch." Yes, Richard was reading him right: The admiration and intrigued interest were mirrored back, measure for measure. But, oddly, Weir didn't seem at all disconcerted--quite the contrary! Any pretense of fear had vanished. And, Richard realized, it'd been just that: a pretense. The man had never truly been afraid. Tairais:  Something dark and amused inside him reared its head in that moment, and he let his masks fall to the floor. Putting both hands on his scarf, he tugged it down to grin, snaggly teeth bared somewhere between feral, just the wrong side of kind, and scars shining almost mockingly, a story untold. His eyes glimmered like pools of nephrite, warm in color and frozen between that warmth and cold calculation. He mirrored the man's change in language, dropping another mask in the form of his stutter. "Oh? And why, perchance, is that? I am hardly more interesting than any of the Hyde's." He kept his time firmly in the realm of levity, leaning his cane against the door. He crossed his arms behind his back, letting a hand hover over the compartment where he kept his knife. Though Lewis truly looked intrigued, he couldn't help but want to snarl or fight back. It was entirely possible he'd forget their entire exchange in the morning anyways.

Jekyll1886:  Lewis seemed, if possible, even more intrigued at Richard's response, at the masks falling one after the other, as if he had halfway expected it, hoped for it. A sense of relief married with satisfaction and excitement, patently obvious for those who knew how to look, while a cagey mind ticked on behind those moss-green eyes. There was the distinct impression he might just drop another mask himself. And, indeed, as Weir spoke, an odd mental image--more of an instinctive feeling, really--presented itself to Richard: A quiet meadow, a natural spring, where prey and predator alike might come to slake their thirst, and leave renewed and revivified.

Or the ground might open up into a cenote and swallow them whole. That was an equal possibility. "On the contrary," asserted Lewis, accent almost fully Scottish but with odd pockets of disuse and strange inflections here and there, "you're more relevant than the pack of them. You've managed what they have no'." A lopsided grin that could've easily been mistaken for a snarl turned his top lip under, showing the teeth--yet the smile did reach his eyes. Tairais:  At the images presented before him, the snarling presence within him retreated as hastily as it arrived, leaving behind the carefully blank look of one who has spent a lifetime cultivating facial expressions, only to find they're missing one for the occasion. He wasn't sure what to make of Lewis' continued admiration, and for that, he narrowed his eyes. He tilted his head inquiringly, subconsciously mirroring Lewis' inflections as he spoke. "And what, pray tell, is that? And to that end, why does it intrigue you so? You do not seem like a psychologist, you are far too.. respectful, or tactful. Some other study related to the neurological or psyche, then, but what?" A feeling of impending danger warred with his curiosity; The sound of galloping hooves pounded in time with the anticipating beat of his heart- ''tch-tlot, tch-tlot, tch-tlot, tch-tlot.''- and his eyes darted around the room. So long as his mind remained in the present reality, no harm would come to their new Lodger, he hoped. He returned the smiling snarl, replacing his wariness with easily seen warmth. Both sides of him- predator and prey- struggled for control, the halls of his memories realigning to best resemble the hedge maze of his youth, surrounding the meadow he now faced. Jekyll1886:  A short, breathy laugh escaped Lewis's lips as his gaze flicked skyward; when he turned his attention back to Richard, it was with raised brows and a friendly smile tinged with a hint of ruefulness. "No, no psychologist, me, thank God." He shook his head, amused at the very thought. "Just an old soul, I suppose. And a transcendental metaphysicist," he added with a shrug. "But you...you're rather remarkable, you know. You've done it without aid, without potion, unless I miss my guess. No physical changes. Entirely on the level of the psyche, the mind." He looked at Richard, seeming to take in the whole of him and something yet beyond. A small crinkle of concern creased his features. "But you're no' done yet, are you?" he realized. "No... No, you've still a ways to go." The trace of pity in his voice was succeeded by a growing glow of anticipation in his eyes.

Tairais:  Richard chuckled, a more civilized smile perched on his lips even as the rest of his body language stayed tense and poised to react. Lewis' words and his own personality, fraying at the edges, left him unsettled. There were blockades in his mind for a reason, even if he couldn't recall what it was. The fact that that reasoning had started to reveal itself once again did not bode well: He had a strange sense of deja-vu that accompanied his rare flash of self-awareness. He had, in fact, been in a similar position many times over. He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could manage with his hands situated as they were. "You would be correct; I had no potion or aid. The only thing to happen to me was, well, me." He cleared his throat before continuing. "My psyche is not half so unified, I'm afraid. The man I used to be, the man I want to be, and the man I truly am... they are not kind to each other. Perhaps that is for the best." He wasn't sure what to make of the man's anticipation: the terror of being known and seen combined with anger and curiosity, leaving him with the feeling of being stretched like taffy. He tilted his head critically at the hint of pity in Lewis' voice, and he tilted his head curiously.. "Why do you pity me, Signore Lewis? You do not know me." ''What do you want, good doctor? All that I am, good doctor of mine. ''The memory clawed at the corners of his mind with a vengeance that would be felt for many more days, even if he remembered none of what was transpiring. Jekyll1886:  "On the contrary," he answered back, ignoring the distance implied by signore, "I think I know you better than you know yourself, at this point. You said it yourself: Your pysche is not unified. You've been split, but you've not yet been patched back together. You're not whole. You havnae come to terms with yourself--not all of yourself; that, I can tell. I pity you because the root of the worst suffering we can ever know--the only true sin--is self-deception." Having spoken his truth, he held his peace, never once breaking the gaze he shared with Richard. He'd used "we". We can know. He was speaking from experience. Hehad suffered. He did know. Tairais:  Richard smiled, the gesture all at once feral, self-deprecating, amused, and bitter. He was fully aware that the set of morals he so desperately clung to were not his, but he kept that revelation deeply buried. He needed some form of dignity, after all. "My self-deception keeps me from acting upon the part of me that would see the streets run red. Do not the needs of the many outweigh the few? I do not believe coming to terms with all parts of myself would benefit anyone at present, including me." ''He had closed his eyes at some point, though he wasn't entirely sure when, and upon this realization, snapped them open to prepare for Lillian's countera- ''It wasn't Lillian. ''For a moment, time seemed suspended on a thread as he quickly took in the marks on Elias' face, his elevated breathing, the wound on his side- oh gods, what had he done? The feeling of his heart plummeting into his chest accompanied the sounds of his ragged breath hitching and the clatter of his knife as he lost his grip. He stared and tried to speak, words failing him as his voice croaked. "E-.. Elias? I.. I.."-- ''The self-loathing in his smile flickered in the depths of his eyes, along with a greater flicker of pain as the mental blockades H- His mentor had helped assemble flickered into place, his awareness of the conversation trickling away. He'd have time to finish the conversation, but he likely wouldn't remember it for some time. He wasn't sure if the thought upset him or relieved him. There was still a familiar piece missing in his mind, but he had long come to terms with the fact only one person would ever hold that key, and that person had explicitly told him the consequences, should he return to them again. The people he cherished always drove him away. He shook his head ever so slightly to clear the pictures from his mind, focusing on the man before him. "You speak from experience." It was almost a question. Jekyll1886:  He closed his eyes, a small smile laced with mild chagrin upon his lips. He'd given himself away. He tried to decide whether he'd meant to or not. A bit of both, he concluded. He hadn't set out to do it so soon--he'd only just met this man--but there it was. Like called to like. And it was human nature not to want to be alone. To be known and understood. And he hadn't been, not since... A memory cropped up. A man on his deathbed, old and dignified: the most honest, steadfast soul he'd ever known. And he had to let him go. Weir'd tried to stave off his death but failed; he brought up a solution--a desperate longshot--but his suggestion was declined. The man had made his peace. Instead...a promise, a vow, their hands clasped tight together as if by holding fast enough Lewis could tether him here by will alone. Then, he was gone. The slums of Calcutta. The teeming tide of humanity. Filth and blood and a promise broken. Darkness and death, the knife in his hand. But to no avail. The world could wink out a thousand times over, and still the corpse would get up and walk. A cosmic joke, fate laughing at his fruitless efforts. A brilliant path to futility. A vow renewed. A truth apprehended. Sorrow and beauty and gratitude all in one. Hope and passion and loneliness. But not fear. Not anymore. Acceptance. And, eventually, an offer. The path here. This room. The soul before him. An unexpected opportunity. The truth? he wondered, the moment hanging between them. ''Hell...why not? ''"Aye." He said it softly, barely more than a breath, eyes locking with Richard's. "I do." And in that moment, the meadow mindscape changed. What need have animals of hedge-mazes when they can run free across the field, scampering in the sunlight, stalking in the shadow, just as they were meant to, the autumn breeze stirring their blood in quickening warmth? Freedom, possibility--to feel alive and right! That was what Richard was being proffered. It was a present, a promise, a prayer. All he had to do was reach out to Lewis...and reach in, to himself. Tairais:  Richard struggled to gain a hold on the part of him that was furiously building walls and forts to keep others out of his mind (or perhaps they were there to keep him in his mind), eyes narrowing once more. If the animals in the field were free and wild, his was one used to a cage, fearful of others and their cruelty, content to hide behind itself. It was mild to the kind and terrible to those who would prey upon the kind, and it was confused.

The animal wanted to be free, but greater still was its desire to keep from hurting the friends it made in its potential prey. There was a significance in the moment of Lewis' admission, he could tell that much. Still, he could not help but pull at the edges of significance, wanting to see it unraveled and examined, thread by thread. "What would you have me do, exactly? Why does this-" He waved a hand at the distance between them, "Matter to you so?" It was a gift, quiet curiosity and no small amount of discomfort. Most everything in him was screaming to run away, yet there was a small part of him that drove him forward. ''Why not follow him? Why are you holding back? He offers you that which you have always coveted, why won't you run for it? You deserve it, after all the šūdas life has shoveled on you. You deserve to be strong. ''Louder still: You deserve NOTHING He was inclined to believe it. Jekyll1886:  Lewis smiled. He found the other's hard-won ambivalence quaintly endearing. The poor soul was struggling with himself mightily, instinct and intellect and emotion rippling through and ricocheting around inside him like shrapnel. Yet still Richard managed civility, had the wherewithal to ask meaningful questions, hadn't run away... "I'd have you live," he answered, the light in his eyes seeming somehow more intense. "Truly live. And live truly. I'd see you whole. And happy. And those you care for safe around you." His smile broadened. "'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. As for why it should matter to me..." He looked away, thinking, then shrugged. Meeting Richard's gaze, he laughed, "I'm a bit of a narcissist, if I'm honest." He looked down briefly, then back up to him, the levity gone. "I see you suffering," he revealed, letting all masks fall away. "As I once did.......when I had happened to myself." Tairais:  Richard saw, even understood, to a point. Lewis' compassion to help him was still a strange, foreign concept, his mind far more used to the concepts of selfishness and hidden greed. Lewis' words threw his mind into chaos. Louder and louder, the voices of his subconscious warred against each other. He stifled a full body shudder at the sheer intensity of their crescendo, upper lip bared in an snarl directed inward. There was so much ungodly noise, like the raucous cawing of a murder of crows, a drumbeat played in franric, syncopated rhythm against his fluctuating heartbeat, thunder crying against a dissonant organ, a churchbell clanging the whole while. It was unbearable. A low growl rumbled in his chest, perching in the back of his throat. Pausing, he shook his head, though that didn't lessen his overlapping thoughts in the slightest. ''Let him in, let him in and he can help you! You can save Elias, spare him from yourself if you- - Let him in and he will destroy you. Even if you deserve destruction you don't deserve to be seen or accepted, not after all the things you'vedone and enjoyed you- - Deserve a chance at happiness, would it be so difficult? Just ask him to- LEAVE and barricade yourself inside yourself, save yourself, save them- "Būkite rami, už ypu meilės." He paused in the momentary silence. Had he said-growled- that out loud? The raw places in his throat suggested as such, and he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. (Well, eye.) "What would you have me do, exactly?" The cacophony began anew at his gritted question. ''Jekyll1886:  Lewis took the growls and unexpected foreign language in stride. The latter sounded Slavic or Baltic, he thought, though he couldn't be sure. The former...well, he'd made similar sounds himself from time to time, and with Richard's inner turmoil, it was hardly surprising. "I'd have us talk," he proposed. "We'd explore things--perhaps compare circumstances, experiences, thought processes, or the like.I'd happily let you know what worked for me; you could try and see if it works for you, if you're so inclined. I've a few exercises in mind which could prove useful to you as well. I'm really an open book, if you can keep my secrets confidential. And, naturally, I'd extend you the same courtesy. Just...think about it," he suggested. "I don't expect an answer this very moment. And I intend to stick around for a good, long while. So...simply find me when you're ready."

Obtained From
Lewis Weir Intro