➴ o p e n

[mezzanotte]

OPEN POST REDUX ① How this lot usually works. Leave me a prompt. An image, a quote, a sound - a scene and if it clicks we'll play it out, do a sort of really relaxed mini-verse/psl or whatever you wanna call it. Anything goes. If this is something gen, crack, crossovers, aus, something shippy or a kink - go right on. If we like it enough, we could make it a verse or smthng. ② Usual disclaimer of i am a turtle forever and ever ( feel free to nudge me about our thread if I am taking too long ) ③ My whole muselist is up for grabs. If you're looking for someone in specific leave it in the subject line. Less active muses may take longer to reply to; also see muse strength. OCs are also up for grabs.

Comments

[observe]

[ somewhere in new york, there is a heist. a pollock is stolen from the met and holmes is requested by gregson to be hot on the case. a sniffer dog in charge of finding out who has what is essentially arcyrlic jizz on a black canvas.

( he appreciates other masterpieces, rapheal, turner, warhol even - but pollock is a man with a temperament. too chaotic for his tempered mind. )

he goes on a goose chase. a run around trying to piece butchered up security camera files together and going through eye witness accounts of the homeless blokes he speaks with. until he puts two and two together and realizes that what he has there is a forgery. a recreation. and for once holmes is impressed.

he manages to track the other man down to a flat in the city, just before eames arrives. there's a piano. although it doesn't always seem to be used, considering the small blanket of dust now covering holmes' fingers. while he's waiting for the thief he sits down to play a melancholic rendition of problems on the piano. ]

[blends]

[ Eames doesn't do New York often. The area surrounding the United Nations is a blast zone for a former special services lieutenant of the british royal armed forced. For all the faces he has in dreams, in the real world he has but one, and he measures his risks carefully. Crime is a betting man's game, and he doesn't bet on a lame horse when he knows it's lame, no matter the hype.

Manhattan is a lame horse indeed, but Brooklyn is a gambler's prize; too close to the lame horse be a sure win, but enough in it's corner to make it worth the chance.

He doesn't keep works he's stolen and replaced from the United States on the walls of any of his US residences. The Caravaggio is from Rome, the Tissot from Rouen, and the Turner watercolor above the piano was won legitimately at auction, in York. The Pollock he stole and replaced was somewhere else entirely, and he hasn't seen it in years. He takes long breaths elsewhere before he ever returns to the scene of a crime.

He hears the piano before he even sticks his key in the door, and debates leaving right then. Catching a flight to Mumbai, not returning again to New York for another two years, until whatever trail ran dry. No cop would be stupid enough to sit down and play his piano though, nor a fed, nor someone who wanted him dead. He weighs his option, taking the safety off of his previously concealed weapon, and heads on in.

Quietly. Maybe his guest won't have heard the door, maybe he will have. He locks it behind him.

Eames recognizes the man at his piano when he sees him, gun still aimed and at the ready, and almost, almost chuckles.]

Well aren't you far from home.

[observe]

[ strictly speaking, it is not the first run in they've had together. holmes has chased him down the back alleys of london, only to have some of his work turn up in bangkok. there are many rumors of a man who has a tendency to never keep the same alias for far too long and sherlock has always found him terribly and deeply fascinating.

holmes has never been an appreciator of art or art's majesty. he has never found himself slave to a good palette and a nice frame. ( an orchestra -- despite all his protests with joan -- is however something he can and always enjoys ). eames is an artist with his forgeries and for the first time holmes finds himself an attentive fan.

( it's rare to see a criminal who stands both above and under the radar, and holmes as if the painting is just a gateway to a longer list of illicit things that mr. eames finds himself a part of. )

he doesn't get up from his chair. just continues playing. ]

As are you.

[ he says easily. ]

I'd suggest going back home, in fact. However, I do imagine you'll have quite the difficult time getting past customs with your current stock.

I have to compliment you in that your work has been improving.

[blends]

[ As Sherlock continues playing, Eames' finger never leaves the trigger, though his shoulders and the muscles in his back relax. ]

And what stock would that be?

[ His mind isn't on the Pollock that he hasn't seen in years, nor the forgery that had, until recently, been hanging in the met. He's been keeping himself busy with his more transient specialty as of late, research for an upcoming job in Atlantic City. ]