Sherlock Saturday, [Silas]

[Heidi Washburne]

Traffic had extended a ten minute drive to something closer to thirty. All the while Heidi had screamed through the windshield at people about needing to drive like they owned it. Occasionally she'd scream about it being the pedal on the right, or ask if they were waiting for the light to turn greener. Whatever the cause, Heidi was thoroughly disgusted with traffic by the time she pulled the grey Buick into the parking lot of Temporal Treasures.

Once she was there, however, her mood lightened, though the driver's side door was closed with more force than was perhaps necessary. Grabbing her bag through the open window (really there was nothing worth stealing in the Buick and if someone wanted it that badly she'd rather they not break the window) and hoofed it inside.

"Yo! V-Man!" The now usual greeting rang out as the door closed behind her and Heidi gave the Dalek a pat as she took a small detour in order to do so.

[Silas Lews Moreau]

Silas shop closed early on Saturdays, so there was no one inside except for him. When she came through the door, a greeting loud on her lips, Silas smiled brilliantly. "Hey Heidi," he replied. "I have the weapons of boredom vanquishing.

"Want to set up in here or inside?" Silas figured he would offer the choice. It'd be more comfortable inside, but she might prefer to stay in the shop.

[Heidi Washburne]

Laughing, Heidi stopped with her feet staggered but shoulder width apart. Pointing she jerked her head so her chin was held higher. "You, sir, are fab-u-LAS and I LOVE you for it." Moving again, she pursed her lips. "Eh, let's go on inside, it's easier to get refills on the chocolate wonder that is your chai that way."

It would be the first time she'd stepped past the shop and into the actual dwelling of her friend. But she figured it was fair. He'd been into her home, though no further than the living room and she was curious to see if the whole steampunk thing extended back or not.

"Sorry it took me a bit to get here. Want me to lock the main door?" She was closer, so it'd be easier for her to. "Since you're technically closed and all that." It might be strange to some, how she could behave as though nothing had happened. As though she hadn't snapped and gone into a depressive spiral down and dropped out of communication. But it was how she survived. More or less. How she (ineffectively) dealt through things.

[Silas Lews Moreau]

Silas laughed. He wasn't taken by surprise over Heidi's outrageous statements so much anymore, but he was delighted by them every single time. "The sentiment is returned, thank you," Silas said as he bowed with a flourish. When he straightened, he flipped an imaginary scarf over his shoulder.

He was surprised and pleased that Heidi had finally accepted his invitation into his home. He didn't show it on his face outside of a crinkling at the corners of his eyes. "Quite true," he said. "And these are long episodes, so we'll need plenty of chai. And yes, if you could lock the door that would be wonderful." Silas made sure to pick up the two spiders before he lead Heidi inside.

Silas's home, on the inside, did indeed continue the element of steampunk, though most of his creations were of more practical use than decorative. He'd built a lamp-like contraption designed to warm and flicker the light to imitate what sunlight would be like, and had placed that on one of the walls. He had a system of chimes designed to ring at certain times, in case he was running late for work.

Silas kept his home cozy, clean, and comfortable. "We can set the show up on Netflix or on the telly, your pick. I'll make us some chai--the water should be ready."

[Heidi Washburne]

Turning around again, Heidi bounded to the door and turned the lock. It was a simple thing, but the click was always satisfying to her. Regardless of the door. It didn't take long, a few seconds at most, but she double-timed it back towards Silas, the spiders she'd quietly claimed as her own regardless of where they resided, and the house portion of Temporal Treasures.

As she was lead back, Heidi's eyes took in everything. Including other ways out. Just in case.

"Dude, this place rocks so hard. You make me want to decorate my own space a little more." Her apartment was more or less bare bones. Couch. Chair. Tv. One book shelf that held the few DVDs she'd bought. The standards in kitchen stuff that had been there already, and her bedroom suite she'd picked up for cheap at an Ashley furniture sale. Nothing spectacular.

Nothing like what Silas had. But then, he'd had nearly two hundred years to decorate. She'd had seven or eight. Less if one counted the apartment-hopping she'd done and the time on tour with the band.

"I may actually have to spend money. Anyway, the tv's fine. Easier to watch than on my little bitty computer screen."

[Silas Lews Moreau]

Smiles beamed, delighted that Heidi liked his home. It was where he'd spent the vast majority of his time for the past eight years (coming on nine years now), so he'd done his best to make it comfortable and pleasant. "Thanks!"

Heidi's place had, once Silas had taken a moment to look around, been surprisingly stark. Heidi was a colorful person, so he'd expected to see a lot more little things around. Posters, knick-knacks, that sort of thing. The emptiness had startled him, though he hadn't shown it.

"I've spent far too much time at home over my life," he explained. "Decorating makes it seem not as empty." Silas didn't spend much on himself as a rule, but after a while, he tended to accumulate. And being an artisan made that even easier. He set the spiders down on the back of the couch and smiled at Heidi. "If you want to take them home, you're welcome to. They're pretty much yours by this point anyway."

The spiders really liked Heidi. They liked Rupert, too, but Heidi spent more time with them. Silas was making Rupert a spider of his own, anyway. It was nearly finished.

"Make yourself at home," he said, and then went to pour the chai and pull out the poptarts. He'd make popcorn as well, since the poptarts were for Heidi, and Silas had discovered a weakness for plain popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast.

[Heidi Washburne]

Staring after the flamboyantly dressed vampire, Heidi's hand reached out for the spiders and they both crawled onto her. One perching on her shoulder, the other going into her hair. Their usual perches. Was he joking? She could take them home?

It would solve the pet problem she kept waffling over. And they could go with her on tour no problem. They didn't eat. They didn't make a mess, unless one counted the tangles in her hair after they'd 'nested'. "I can pay you for them. I mean... are you absolutely serious about this?" She wanted them. Loved them. Had very quietly named them though hadn't said as much.

Heidi realized she was staring and settled onto the couch, kicking her flipflops off and pulling her legs up into a tailors seat while she settled into the corner against the arm rest. The spider on her shoulder, Polly, skittered down and settled onto her knee.

[Silas Lews Moreau]

Silas returned with two cups of chai and a box of potarts tucked under one arm. He handed Heidi her cup (in a mug thick enough not to burn on the outside) and looked at the spiders, now comfortably arranged in Heidi's hair and on her knee. His eyes sparkled.

"I'm quite serious," he assured her. "And I won't take a penny for them. You've been a good friend to me and to the spiders. They are quite fond of you. I think they've been waiting for a proper home long enough."

This was why Silas did what he did for a trade. He could make things--build things--that could give people joy. He loved that. He loved being able to make someone's life brighter. And Heidi needed more brightness in her life.

Silas set his own mug down on the coffee table and went to pop the first series of Sherlock into the DVD player. A Study In Pink. "Do you mind subtitles?" he asked Heidi. "I find it's easier to catch more of the dialogue with them on, but some people find them distracting."

[Heidi Washburne]

Both hands reached out to take the mug, the ceramic warm but not hot against her palms. "Thank you," for the chai and the spiders, "I would love them. V-Man you're the absolute best. Ab-so-lute best."

They were hers. Her little spider friends. Polly and
Viktor. Her delightful little skittery friends. Viktor's shorter body with a broader bulb, and Polly's longer legs suited each, and Heidi was more than a little pleased. Regardless of Silas refusing money, she'd find a way. If it meant leaving twenties around the place for him to find, she'd pay him for her little pals.

"Subtitles are fine. I can ignore them or read them whatever. No big deal." Turning the mug so her fingers laced through the handle Heidi held it with one hand while pulling a pop tart bag out of the box and used her teeth to open it. It took a little bit of work, but she eased one part way out of the packaging before taking a bite out of it.

There was nothing better than chocolate pop tarts and chocolate chai. She had much to thank Silas for, and no way to articulate it.

[Silas Lews Moreau]

"It's my pleasure," he replied with a smile, and quite earnestly too. Silas had wonderful friends, and he was going to do right by them.

Silas flipped through the menu. "Subtitles it is, then." And pressed play. The episode had an unusual opening, that was to be sure. He loved every moment of it.

Silas ducked quickly out into the kitchen to snag the popcorn, which he offered to share with Heidi if she wanted any. Silas was an odd duckling--he ate popcorn with chopsticks. He didn't think anything of it anymore.

"I did mention it's a modern retelling, yeah? And it manages to follow the heart of the original stories just brilliantly."

[Heidi Washburne]

Settling back, pop tart in one hand, spider on her head and on her knee, and chai in the other. The opening was interesting, and confused her for a moment until Silas returned and explained that it was a modern retelling. If he'd said so before she'd forgotten.

"I'm so used to the Victorian. And now the Robert Downey Jr." She bit into the Pop Tart and then inhaled it. A piece lodging somewhere in her throat. Her hands jerked, the chai spilling over and onto the arm of the couch as Polly was knocked from her knee.

The face on the other side of the body bag was not the face she'd expected to see. Heidi's eyes were glued on the screen even as her vision blurred from tears.

No way.

Her hand flapped in front of her face, the pop tart having fallen onto the couch beside her as the chai was rested on the arm of the couch. She couldn't breathe. In part because Robin was on the screen, but mostly because of the inhaled pop tart.

[Silas Lews Moreau]

"I think a lot of people have lost sight of what the stories were originally meant to be," Silas mused. "I remember reading them as they first came out. They were modern-day, cutting edge crime stories back then, and that's how Doyle wanted them to be read. Silas nodded at the screen, where John was chatting with his old friend on a park bench. "This version really brings that aspect back, and does it so, so well."

And then they got to the first glimpse of Sherlock himself, and Heidi started to choke.

Silas knew the difference between someone coughing because water went down the wrong way or a few crumbles had tickled their throat, and actual choking. This was the latter.

"Heidi?!" Silas's eyes went wide. The name was said out of reflex, not because he expected an answer. He didn't wait. Instead he jabbed the side of his hand very precisely at the base of her diaphragm, angled up, to force air out from her lungs. It wasn't a maneuver easily pulled off for someone who didn't possess the careful reflexes and precision Silas did, but he did it well, and Heidi expelled the bit of poptart that had lodged in her throat.

"Good lord, Heidi." He rested a hand on her shoulder and waited for her to catch her breath and let him know that she was ok.

[Heidi Washburne]

Silas hit hard! The force of blow, a single blow, was enough to pop the bit out of her throat and once she had her breath, a hand wiping away the tears that had gathered and fallen she pointed at the screen.

Normally a hit like that would send her into either a frenzy or a flash back, but her brain was too focused on the shock of seeing the most confusing person she'd ever had the (dis)pleasure of meeting. Robin Gyllt.

The one person (elf) she'd ever felt anything resembling lust for. Sure there had been the occasional person Heidi had recognized as good looking. But nothing like Robin. She'd never had dreams about other people turning her into a cello while playing her.

He'd left though. And even though he'd left, the confusion hadn't gone away.

"What the actual fuck!?"

Polly had climbed her way back up the couch side and onto Heidi's knee.

"Why the hell is Robin in this? Why didn't you say?!"

[Silas Lews Moreau]

Silas blinked. He looked at the screen, which he'd paused out of reflex when he'd heard something amiss. There was Sherlock, cooly examining the camera corpse. He squinted.

"Oh." Silas blinked again. "Yeah, I guess he does look like Robin, doesn't he? I never noticed."

And then the rest of it registered with him. He looked back at Heidi. Normally when he saw someone on the television that resembled a person in real life, he might be startled, but he'd never choke. "Sorry! I didn't realize. It really never occurred to me before. You going to be ok?"

[Heidi Washburne]

"So that isn't Robin?" The doubt in her tone was lined in a thin layer of pain. Why did he have to have such amazing eyes. Even better collar bones. And those lips. God those lips.

Her eyes remained glued to the screen, and Heidi nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. It's just..." Crap. This sucks. I thought I was rid of him. "A bit of a shock is all. I mean. I just. I dunno. He looks so much like Robin. It's kinda creepy and weird."

And wrong. So very wrong. It's not fair. There can't be more than one of him. But oh god there are two. A Robin, and a doppelganger. I wonder what it would be like if they... It was at that point, Heidi forcibly shut her mind off, her cheeks going red as she suddenly became very interested in the chai she picked up again.

"Mmmm, Chai."