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

[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.

[very_sharpe]

"Oh yes, a very good one, actually." He blushes a bit. "It may not be right to call her my wife, anymore. We were married before we arrived in Darrow - she about a month before I did."

[modern_alpha]

"So she is here, then?" Biffy asked. It was, again, a gentle prompt to continue if Thomas so desired. In the meantime, he assembled three shirts, two pairs of trousers, and four different styles of suit jacket. For amusement's sake, he also added a smoking jacket to the pile but doubted it would suit Thomas' needs.

[very_sharpe]

"She is. She is the person that found me at the train station... though I can't imagine the shock it gave her. Last she saw me, I was dead, and my sister was trying to kill her."

[modern_alpha]

That did, Biffy thought, rather put a damper on the relationship. He did not say that. Instead, he held out the selection of shirts in Thomas' size. "Try these, then, and tell me what you think."

And then, because he was always too curious, he added, "What is the lady's name?"

[very_sharpe]

Thomas takes the shirts and steps away from the mirror, assuming he's to change in a dressing room or something.

"Edith." He says her name with a tender tone. "Edith Cushing."

[modern_alpha]

Biffy stopped mid-stride, distracted from showing Thomas to a dressing room at the name. Given everything that Thomas had just discussed, it didn't necessarily surprise him that Edith would not have mentioned having a husband but it did catch him off-guard.

"I know her," he said, searching for the right expression to put on his face and ending on 'bemused.' "She and I are friendly."

[very_sharpe]

"Isn't she wonderful?" Thomas would not be surprised or even hurt to learn that Edith had never spoken of him, or their marriage. Why would she? No doubt she had seen Darrow the same way he does: as a fresh start, a way to forget everything that happened in Allerdale.

"She's been very kind to me. Every moment with her is like... basking in sunlight after a long winter."