victor & irene; mariner's inn at midnight
For a man of science, a man consumed by the ritual of numbers stacked against one another(the variables of x and y intermittently divided by time), a watch was a hierogram. Time was the only religion that he followed. Time was the only deity keeping the whole sidereal system from dropping into the void. Mighty Time who walked across bitter plains to meet Death, aging the scops and scarlet ladies and all the noblemen in between. That, for Victor, was where the mystery remained, where water went still in wait of the next ripple. There was a pyramid of riddles where Time formed an intersection between those that drew breath and those who did not. Then there were those who defied category, no longer living or dead, but suspended in the amber of his imperfect science. One day, his study would be stainless, his practice impeccable. With further experiments, this could be accomplished. Although experimentation would only occur if his associate soon appeared. Victor moved to check his watch again when the woman spoke, becoming the beacon of his attention.
A frown developed, pensive. The woman truly seemed to appear, although Victor had a tendency to let the details go unnoticed until they were half upon him. In fact, he stared at her when she spoke, as if she'd just sprouted from some dusty crack in the floorboards. He was unversed in the kinds of minor conversations that one might have with a woman in this kind of sordid place. Save for Vanessa Ives, Victor's interactions with the feminine were wholly medical in natureā¦ and often those patients were already dead, which was of little help when it came to speaking aloud to anyone but himself.
To Victor, the woman's words seemed to indicate a desire for persiflage, of which he found himself seldom prepared. Still, he tried.
"It is attached." And then, he hastily produced the pendant in the palm of his hand, quick to explain without much voice that he meant the watch. It dangled from a chain. Too old to glitter, but quite solid and real.