InsaneJournal

Who: Morphine, Opium and the Landless kids (NPCs)
Where: Opium's shop and apartment
What: Visiting a very sick brother.
When: Late afternoon/Early evening - later. Wednesday January 6th.
Warnings: ... Adorable Opiates? TBD.




The holidays had come and gone. Phaedra had received beautiful items from her family, and had sent modest thank you cards, crafted by a daughter of one of her patients, to all. Each card had unique flowers upon them, the paper itself made from an assortment of natural fibers and flowers.

But with the holidays, and with winter in general, came the cruelty of cold. Morphine was well aware of the way Opium could get during the frost, and so she had juggled her work at the clinic with running around town to find the proper ingredients that would elevate her older brother's health and his mood. She managed to have Martin reschedule the few Wednesday afternoon appointments that there were and arrived at her brother's shop with likely a dozen bags full of various things. Groceries, a few bags from the nearby hardware store, and a fruit basket.

Ophelia's eyes went wide when she saw Miss Phaedra walking up toward the shop with arms full of heavy things. She quickly shooed Monty and Henry out of the shop to help Oscar's sister with all of that... stuff. It was like Christmas, all over again. The dark haired girl smiled sleepily when she saw Miss Phaedra was wearing the scarf she had made her; there was something endearing about the cozy ivory bundled around the older woman's neck, stark against the red-red of her hair. Had her hair become brighter?

When Morphine and all of her stuff she had brought made it into the shop, she put the Landless boys to work.

"Montague, be a dear, and take this downstairs? Henry, darling, there are new fixtures for downstairs in that bag for you to install," she gestured idly to a pile of items that were too awkward for her to carry, things that Montague had awkwardly carried and leaned against the wall. There were several - enough to replace and to restock Opium's current inventory - eight foot, double-tube high-output VHO lamps and fixtures. Along side these lamps, were several simpler and cheaper groLux lamps. It was quite possible he would never suffer a lamp burning out again. The walls downstairs, without Opium knowing, had been painted bright white by Montague earlier that morning, at Phaedra's request. She had called the store line directly, knowing her brother would be upstairs likely lost in Baudelaire or some other poetry from his vast collection. Bright, bright white paint, to reflect the warmth and the brightness of the VHO lamps and have the light bouncing to provide optimal growing for the frost-bitten poppies. Poppies needed much light, and more warmth.

"Yes, ma'am." Montague nodded and fumbled with the eight-foot lamp fixtures as he moved behind the counter, through the double doorway, and down the stairs. Henry gazed at Miss Phaedra for a moment as the woman turned to speak to Ophelia, half lost after hearing that voice, before toddling after Monty.

"Ophelia, a special task for you," she smiled gently as she looked across the counter, and leaned down, pulling out many packets of flower seeds in one hand. "When your brothers are done, plant these. You'll find some small earthenware pots for them in this bag, and some nutrient rich soil as well. Place them carefully along the walls downstairs. Also, if you find a chance, do replace the filters for the air purifiers - good ventilation makes for happy plants and less bacteria."

Ophelia caught herself staring at Miss Phaedra, pressed her lips together, and glanced downward, a silent nod. She knew Oscar's sister well, and there was something very familiar about her, yet every time Ophelia found her thoughts scrambling as to why, it felt as if the why was submerged in ice in her mind - hard to see and impossible to get at. "I forgot you had such a green thumb, Miss Phaedra," she said with a polite half-smile, nodded to the woman, and went back to her duties in the store. She had seen only pictures of Miss Phaedra's garden, but it was beautiful and lush. "Oh, and Oscar is sleeping. I don't think he knows you were coming, Miss. We were very quiet about it."

"Lovely, Ophelia, thank you." Phaedra watched the sleepy-eyed girl for a moment, tilting her head. Inhaling softly, she bent at the hip and picked up the grocery bags, slipping behind the counter and brushing past Ophelia, through the same doors the boys had gone through, but up the stairs instead. She eased herself through the door of her brother's apartment, slipping off her shoes in a nearly automatic gesture. A glance around the sitting room, so warm and inviting, before pulling out half a dozen bushels of lavender flowers. Morphine carefully and strategically placed them in Oscar's favorite lounging places, on window sills, bookshelves and the smattering of tables. The soothing benefits of lavender would ease Opium's mind and relieve the doldrums of winter. Inclining her chin upward slightly, she listened for a moment, hearing the soft inhale and exhale of a man in the throes of sleep in the next room.

She found some empty wall space on top of one his bookshelves and stood on her tiptoes, leaning a small Delacroix painting there. She muttered something about her height, before moving into the kitchen. Each grocery bag was set on the kitchen counter, and she got to work, chopping vegetables and ingredients for a simple, yet healthy meal: to start, a tomato caprese salad, followed by Asparagus and leek soup, to be served with Heroin's home baked bread and his dangerously delicious cheese strudel. She withdrew a large soup pot from a cupboard, pouring the broth, stirring in what was needed, lowered the heat, stepped back. Slowly but surely, the smell of her brother's favorite foods began to waft through the apartment. She also placed a fresh bit of water in the kettle for some tea and set several large jugs of orange juice in the refrigerator. Hazel had given her a basket of goodies earlier for their brother, including an assortment of tea which she organized carefully on one of the kitchen shelves: two blends of tea from Adagio, Christkindle Marketplace blend and A Victorian Secret blend.

She also found his record player, and at a very, very quiet volume, slid a Nina Simone record, dropping the needle at just the right place to play Feeling Good.

While the soup simmered, Phaedra carefully pulled two small but impossibly healthy poppy plants from one of the paper bags, a gift from Hazel. The flowers and their roots had traces of Heroin's power itself in them, a so-called repository of her brother-Self's power, and thus some of her own. Their color was vibrant, a glow when placed against the grey palette of winter. Her spirit was lifted just by holding them, and, with a few pieces of lavender flowers under her arm, she moved from the kitchen, potted plants in hand, to her brother's bedroom, where he gloriously napped through his sickness. She could feel his illness, his slowed breathing, the effects of the frost claiming his own nervous system as the opiates themselves did. Not to disturb him, she carefully slid the plants on the nightstand, arranging bits of lavender around its base. Her hand then found the side of Opium's sleeping face, and she leaned slightly to press a light kiss to his temple.

Without a word, she moved to a cozy chair nearby, pulling it closer. Draped across her brother's chest, an open book. Phaedra carefully reached and grabbed the book, easing back into the cushions of the plush chair. Where her brother had left off before slipping into the arms of sleep caused her eyebrows to raise and the corner of her lips to twitch into the shadow of a smile. As it eats you up with kisses, that I have preserved the form and essence divine of my decayed loves...