Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.

[very_sharpe]

The weather lately has been particularly reminiscent of England, enough that it leaves Thomas wanting to add more brightness to his life. He's finally set to decorating his apartment, making it look like a proper person lives there. Despite the lingering spring rain he's finally feeling some optimism about Darrow. Perhaps the hope was in hibernation for the winter - he can't blame it, the winter was rather dismal, even by his standards.

Thomas might have never called himself vain, before coming to Darrow. He isn't entirely sure it's vanity, though, as much as a sheer delight with what he can afford. That is what brings him to Bardolf's.

Upon entering he closes his umbrella and leaves it in a provided stand, in a plastic bag to avoid creating a puddle. If someone takes it, oh well. Perhaps they need it; he'll get another.

He's been here a handful of times, but has stuck to the ground floor on each visit. Today he's decided to visit the second. He's done a fair job of choosing things for himself, but clothing really isn't his area of expertise. That, and it might be nice to have something properly tailored from the ground up.

Comments

[modern_alpha]

On the second floor today, Biffy was respectably outfitted in a suit jacket and tie paired over a silk shirt and pair of dark wash and impeccably fitted jeans along with his very favorite wingtips. It gave him, so his coworkers said, an air of perfect sophistication and modernity–two things he sorely needed to project.

"Hello," he said, nodding as a man rose up on the escalator. "How may I be of service?"

[very_sharpe]

Thomas offers a polite smile. "I'm hoping for a tailored suit, but I haven't the slightest idea of where to start in all that. I was told I would find whatever assistance I need up here."

[modern_alpha]

"And you have," Biffy said, dipping his head modestly but not obsequiously. It was true that one's former rank mattered very little here but he was still a gentleman of some means, back in London. "Sandalio de Rabiffano but, please, everyone calls me Biffy."

He gestured the man toward a display of suits. "Where do you intend to wear the suit? Special occasions? Out on the town?"

[very_sharpe]

He couldn't help but notice the very familiar mannerisms. "Thomas Sharpe." It's taken some practice dropping the title - it isn't important here. His accent is English; any trace of where precisely has been practically erased through higher education.

"I think something between out on the town and special occasion." Perhaps it's a frivolous thing to want, but Thomas thinks it might be nice.

[modern_alpha]

Biffy nodded and then circled the display, thinking out loud and throwing out suggestions to narrow the style. "A three-piece suit, then, with a versatile jacket?" he suggested. To prove the possibility, he gestured to his own ensemble, suit jacket and jeans. "Eminently suitable for many uses."

[very_sharpe]

"I think I like the sound of that. With a waistcoat nice enough that I could wear it without the jacket, should occasion call." A less formal, more versatile look. Thomas looks at the display gestured to and he nods. "Yes, I think that's perfect."

If he's going to spend the money, he should like to get as much use as possible. Lucille would hate every part of that thought.

"How long have you been doing this?"

[modern_alpha]

"Over a year now, if you can believe it." And sometimes Biffy hardly could. In his London, it would have been a scandal if he was found working in trade and then he would never have had the chance to learn how happy it made him. He retrieved a ring of fabric swatches and held them out for Mr. Sharpe.

"Any of these suit your fancy? I personally recommend this one. It's subtle and formal." Biffy was holding out a dark gray that was shot through with a slightly warmer gray on the weft than the warp. It created a slightly shiny, illusory texture that would have the added benefit of warming up Mr. Sharpe's complexion.

[very_sharpe]

"I'll bend to your expertise. I think the last truly tailored thing I owned was about a decade out of fashion and... black." He laughs, shaking his head. A color that never went out of style, Lucille had always insisted.

"I've been here for five months and I still feel as though I'm catching up."

[modern_alpha]

"Black is a multipurpose color, but I don't think it suits your colors," Biffy said. He said it without censure and only thoughtfulness. "Your coloring is quite fair and very delicate; black would be a bit oppressive. More subtle tones will create a sense of vibrancy. Very modern."

He smiled and nodded his understanding. "I came here from 1874 myself," he said. "Most of the time, I find the modern world fascinating and exciting but there are times when I'm deeply lost."

[very_sharpe]

"That's what I get for growing up so far north," he says with a little laugh. "I'm happy to embrace something modern." He looks at the fabric, approving.

"Just a few years after I was born." Thomas actually looks a bit delighted by that revelation. "I'm from 1901," he answers in kind. "It's utterly thrilling to me, but a bit overwhelming."

[modern_alpha]

Biffy smiled and nodded. Not so far away from when Edith was born, then. It hardly mattered. In 1901, Biffy's appearance would be utterly unchanged; such were the facts of immortality. He could only hope his hair would stay in fashion or else it would be a long lifespan indeed.

"If only men's fashion weren't so...restrained," Biffy opined. True, one could still find pocket squares and fashionably knotted ties but that was rather different than the dandies of his time.

[very_sharpe]

That prompts another light, airy laugh. "They don't seem so bad now," he muses. "I've picked up quite a bit of color. Blues, greens, and greys for the most part. Though I suppose my family was always a bit more given to... somber fashions."

[modern_alpha]

Now Biffy tutted. With such fine looks as Mr. Sharpe's, somberness seemed more a burden than a style. "Forgive me for being overly bold, but I find that in your case, a lighter touch is to your advantage." It was kinder than saying that mourning dress mixed with Byronic features made him look rather...Heathcliff.

[very_sharpe]

"It isn't bold to say it, I imagine it's true. I always felt I looked a bit like I was dressed for a funeral. Likely morbidly pale as well, Cumberland didn't have much sun for most of the year. Between that and the clothes it was... oppressive. I am more than content to move on from that."

[modern_alpha]

"Well, there is that." Biffy couldn't help but agree and now that he hadn't been the one to say it, he felt safe in expressing his thoughts more fully. "I always thought the fashion for mourning was a bit morbid and my London is well-populated with the undead."

[very_sharpe]

Thomas laughs, almost self-consciously. He wonders if that is what he is - undead. Though he hardly feels like a character from Stoker or Shelley. "All the more reason to avoid it, I suppose. I wanted so much to quit the family home and move to London full time, but my sister wouldn't hear of it."

[modern_alpha]

"It's not my place to inquire too deeply, but I make a good listening ear as well as a consultant," Biffy offered. "Let's get you in front of the mirrors while I take your measurements. I'm going to try a few of our off the rack samples on you, just to get an idea of what suits."

[very_sharpe]

Thomas follows Biffy to the aforementioned mirrors. "It isn't much of a story," he says. "Father spends away family fortune, son and daughter are left with nothing but a name and a piece of land. It lead to a lot of making due while trying to at least look the part."

[modern_alpha]

A sadly typical story and Biffy nodded his sympathies. It was known to happen, he knew, and for families to send second and third children to be drones or clavigers in hopes of patronage. With vampires picking up the tab, it was generally considered worth it, if a bit modern.

"Well, now you have quit the family home rather spectacularly," Biffy said, hoping that meant Thomas was happy here. He retrieved a tape measure and one of the store tablets, creating a new entry for Thomas in the store database.

[very_sharpe]

"Oh, I didn't have much choice in the matter," he says with a weak laugh. "My uh... sister and I had a falling out, over a woman I married. Lucille-- well. She killed me."

Well, there it is. If Biffy is from a place that has the undead, perhaps someone coming back from the dead isn't so strange. "I am happy here. Happier, at least."

[modern_alpha]

"Well," Biffy said politely. "That must have made things awkward in the family."

He filed away another measurement and processed how to continue. Already, he had decided he liked Thomas with his charm and manners but he was still here as a customer and Biffy as an employee. However they might befriend each other outside of this building was different from this precise moment.

"I am glad you are happier then. In many ways, I am too."

[very_sharpe]

"The rest of them were already dead. It had become a bit of a tradition by the time she got to me."

Perhaps it isn't right to make light of it, but if he broods too deeply on all of it Thomas is sure that he'll go mad. He stands patiently, moving however Biffy needs him to in order to get all the proper measurements.

"May I ask what you come from? I can't imagine a London with... with undead. Ghosts are one thing, but you seem to be referencing something else altogether."

[modern_alpha]

Well, Biffy thought again. That did not seem like the kind of family one spent very much time missing.

"My London is unusual, even with the rest of the world. Supernatural creatures abound where I'm from. Vampires, ghosts, werewolves and the like. England is exceptional in that it allows these elements to walk freely," he explained. The amount of times he had this conversation, Biffy was beginning to think he ought to print a pamphlet.

[very_sharpe]

Thomas shakes his head. "It's still hard for me to conceive of so many different faces for the same place." He wonders how many Londons there are. "It sounds like the sort of story my wife would write. Though she tended more towards ghosts, I think. Those, at least, we knew were real."

[modern_alpha]

"I find that, in any world, there are more things that exist than anyone knows of." In Thomas' case, it seemed there were ghosts.

"Your wife is a writer?" What stories she must have written. Maybe something Mary Shelley.