epigrammatical: (I don't like scenes)
Lord Henry Wotton ([personal profile] epigrammatical) wrote in [community profile] tushanshu2013-01-26 09:25 pm

I. What I want is information: not useful information, of course; useless information. (Video)

[For a man of his era, Lord Henry has picked up the basics of the computer with surprising alacrity and ease. Perhaps he has been motivated by the understanding that it provides him with a platform of unprecedented scale.

So behold: a well-bred Englishman in his mid- to late-forties: if his good looks are a bit worn around the edges, he is still quite handsome in a way that suggests he cut a truly rakish figure when younger. His voice is exceptionally pleasant and musical, and when he speaks, his words are accompanied by graceful—though not excessive—gestures of his slender hands.]

I am given to understand that this device offers a podium to rival the pulpit at Westminster Abbey. Capital—although I assure you that I shall not bore you with a sermon; I can't abide a man who makes of himself an amateur curate.

Allow me to introduce myself—Lord Henry Wotton, late of London, which is not nearly so exciting as the vision of Moreau in which I now find myself. There are many questions with which I'm rather concerned at the moment, but most importantly, where does one find a tailor in this city? And, tiresome though domestic matters are, I suppose I must enquire after a valet. There are many indignities a gentleman may suffer in silence, but not an inadequate selection of poorly-pressed shirts.

depicted: (you live in a time of decay)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
Flaws, yes, flaws are ugly, and doubtless that is where all that tired morality comes from. But not sins. There is a fine delight in seeing your sins reflected. You must know that almost as well as I do.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
Is that why you wanted to see it? [He smiles, sweetly.] I confess, not all the sins you'd see would be reflections of your own, but you might consider it a garden engendered by them. To see how one's words have bloomed over so many decades is a privilege offered to very few.
depicted: (you've such a fetching smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Hands that you guided, Harry. [Dorian has had a very, very long time to think about his relationship with Henry and what it has brought to fruition.] "To project one's soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment; to hear one's own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth; to convey one's temperament into another as though it were a subtle fluid or a strange perfume: there was a real joy in that—"

I believe is how the quote goes. I've sometimes wondered, flipping through that marvellous book of his, how well Oscar had measure of you. Very well, I think.

Tell me. [Dorian leans in, voice lowered to the tones of a co-conspirator, smile sweet with the playfulness of games.] Did Basil ever really ask you not to influence me? I can imagine him begging such a thing, and I can imagine you laughing away the entire idea, so I am liable to believe that such a conversation did occur, but of course I can't know.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Harry. I'm too fond of you yet. [Dorian settles back, the langor coming back to him. Lord Henry is not a friend wisely kept. Dorian has known that for a long time. But Henry is good company for Dorian.]

[His laughter seems not to have known the heaviness of the moments that came before.]


I'm very sorry for dragging all this up, Harry. I'm afraid that in a hundred years, curiosity for unavailable answers has only grown greater for its starvation, and so I committed the tediousness of springing such silly fact-checking on you so soon after your arrival. It was wrong of me.
Edited 2013-02-04 17:27 (UTC)
depicted: (too much of anything is never enough)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dorian accepts the touch this time.] Thank you, Harry. Oh, but all this talk of wrongs reminds me.

[And Dorian rises up enough that he can place a brief but not especially chaste kiss on Harry's lips, then sits once more.] Public morality is a bit more open-minded around here. I hope you'll enjoy the freedom.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-04 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I intend to make certain of that.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
What high praise! Managing to create something strange and wonderful for you, Harry, is almost an art in itself.
depicted: (I would go out tonight)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
["Yes, life has been exquisite," he murmured, "but I am not going to have the same life, Harry. And you must not say these extravagant things to me. You don't know everything about me. I think that if you did, even you would turn from me."]

[Dorian is almost bashful, looking down.]
You should not make such judgements on incomplete information, Harry. My life might have become ugly since you knew me.
depicted: (night in the city)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dorian laughs without looking up. He can't tell if Henry is flattering him, trying to be kind in his way, or saying something he believes. But Dorian's ability to put faith in such ideas has been wounded over the years, so he turns the conversation away from himself. (A miracle, we know.)] I hope you don't believe you only have hideousness ahead.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, a few years abroad can be fun. English morality as it is, it is often healthier as well. [And Henry will have more cause to flee England than he realizes.]
depicted: (you live in a time of decay)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there's the Lippincott's edition, that's first, and then a year later a book publication, and then—the 1890s will be busy. I won't spoil it with detail. Suffice to say, I spent a great deal of time on the Continent. But that would have been necessary regardless, so I don't blame Oscar for it. But you, Harry, are too talented at negotiating scandal to require an exile as long as mine.
depicted: (but I'm a vampire smile)

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[personal profile] depicted 2013-02-05 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dorian almost says, "Don't worry: all the best people will be at your funeral." But even Dorian can recognize how cruel that would be.]

[So he is kind instead.]


I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Here, at least, we shall be free. [Not really thinking about the source of that line, he continues,] And exile is best when it is with friends, don't you agree?

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