we are invariably pleased to welcome tourism

[cross_and_bow]

Sherlock is usually very puncutal. He's only one minute late, but that's still not quite as punctual as usual. Bella peers out the window, not yet allowing herself outright concern.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"Well, 'blunt trauma', says Shell Bell. "Some of them get weirdly specific but I don't have getting thrown into a wall particularly on the menu. Here goes."

[cross_and_bow]

"Hm," says Juliet consideringly. "Yeah, I think I am forced to conclude that pain tolerance is a Slayer thing, although I'm sure I'd make an awful face if you, like, quadrupled that at me."

[eversomuchfun]

"In the name of scientific inquiry," says Sherlock, "can I have a hundred in blunt-trauma flavour?"

[she_sells_seashells]

Yes he can.

[eversomuchfun]

He blinks.

"That was... invigorating," he decides, with a hint of a smile.

[cross_and_bow]

"Invigorating?" asks Juliet. "Really?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Why, would you prefer a different word?"

[cross_and_bow]

"I don't know. I can't read your mind to see if that one makes the least bit of sense."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I can read my Sherlock's mind," volunteers Shell Bell. "It's nice. Oh - we were thinking that Sherlocks should have nicknames too, since you tend not to have themes the way we often do, and you have name consistency where the Whistles don't. Do you have any ideas on that?" she asks Sherlock.

[eversomuchfun]

"Nothing springs to mind. But I agree we probably should."

He grins at Juliet.

"Pending further discussion, I could be 'Romeo'."

[she_sells_seashells]

"This is some kind of reference I don't get, isn't it," says Shell Bell.

[cross_and_bow]

"Yes. Yes it is," snorts Juliet. "Romeo here has named us after the romantic leads in a famous play."

[eversomuchfun]

He grins unrepentantly.

[cross_and_bow]

"At the end of which both characters are dead. But I should've objected back when I first allowed my nickname to go unchallenged, I suppose, if I consider that problematic," she snorts.

[eversomuchfun]

"And since I am arguably dead already, I'm not sure it's quite the same. But I can choose another if you prefer."

[she_sells_seashells]

"How do you mean, you're dead?" Shell Bell asks. "You walk around, don't you?"

[cross_and_bow]

"I don't really mind," Juliet tells Sheromeo. "And whether vampires are dead is a pointless matter of technical quibbling. They walk, they eat, they think - some of them - but they don't properly respirate and their hearts don't beat so some people apparently consider it meaningful to declare them 'not alive'. Probably contributes that for most of them the transformation involves a period of inactivity followed by personality change."

[eversomuchfun]

"Also that for all biological purposes I am an unusually lively corpse," Sherlock points out.

[she_sells_seashells]

"But you eat. Corpses don't eat," says Shell Bell.

[cross_and_bow]

"You eat," agrees Juliet. "You heal from injuries. Do your hair and fingernails grow?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Golden's kind do, but slowly," volunteers Shell Bell, "if you haven't gotten to Stella's notes about her."

[eversomuchfun]

"I drink blood," he says. "And tea. Liquids in general. Solid food and I don't get along. My hair and fingernails do grow, yes. At the normal human rate, even."

[cross_and_bow]

"It makes about as much biological sense to declare you an ambulatory talking fungus as to declare you a dead human," says Juliet. "Mushrooms are not expected to have pulses or functional lungs, after all, and they're alive."

[eversomuchfun]

"Mushrooms do not traditionally spend time as humans and then go through something remarkably like dying before they become mushrooms," says Sherlock.

[cross_and_bow]

"No, you're not a mushroom, you are a vampire, but the question of whether a vampire is alive is only about as interesting as the question of whether a clone is a real person."