Fourth Dimension Fine Arts & Antiques, Wedsnesday (9/16)

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

At the moment, Sophie has the doors and windows wide open, and is considering what wine goes well with spring rolls, tempura prawns, and kung pao chicken. Or whether to skip the wine entirely tonight. Hmmm.

There's coffee, lemonade, cider and tea on the sideboard.

Still on display: Fractal Art.

The gallery is open, and the gallery owner distracted.

[ooc: and ocd-free]

Comments

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

After class (and a shower) Max decided that it had been way too long since he'd visited his favorite art dealer. So he'd left his apartment, stopped to buy a box of chocolates, and headed over to the gallery.

"Anyone home?" he called as he walked in.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie returned from the kitchen area, and smiled when she saw him. Possibly not quite the same smile as it would have been a week or so ago, though. "Max. How lovely to see you. Would you care for something to drink?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max might have noticed the difference in that smile, but he wasn't the sort to let it bother him. A smile's a smile, after all. "I can't say no to an offer from a beautiful woman, Sophie. You know that."

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie laughed and poured him some coffee, bringing it over to him and leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. As non-verbal signals went, that one was fairly obvious. "Chocolates, you know me so well. Unless you just came to taunt me with them and not share?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max was pretty good at reading women, what with all the experience he had at it, so the kiss didn't actually come as a surprise. It was a bit of a disappointment, honestly, but nothing he couldn't live with.

"I suspect that it would be terribly rude of me to take your coffee and then withhold chocolate," he teased, offering her the box.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Or at least deserving of a very upset look," Sophie said, shooting him a completely insincere pout before laughing and taking the box, and opening it to select one. "How have you been? And how is your class this term? Have I missed any uprisings in the teacher's lounge?"

Somewhere behind one of the antique sofas, a cry of "Crivens! This is a heavy 'un!" might have been heard. Or not.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Things have been--" Max cut off suddenly.

"Did... you hear that?" Because he wasn't about to rule out spontaneous auditory hallucination. This was Fandom.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie swallowed the candy, and said, "I heard something." She took a step into the next room, and looked around. "What is that vase doing off that table?" she wondered, perplexed.

She wasn't looking in the right direction, but an Art Deco lamp with some nice stained glass was skittering across the carpeting toward the door.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max followed her and looked around with a frown. "None of your art is supposed to be animate, is it?" Because that bronze was tottering precariously as its pedestal seemed to be trying to get up and walk away.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Of course not! It's perfectly unmagical--"

"Scarper! 'Tis da fuzz!"

Thud thud thud thud thud of tiny feet lifting a bronze bust and then THUD as it accidentally runs into a wall.

"--what. On. Earth...?"

"Big 'uns! Ruuuuuun!"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max was still standing in the doorway from the kitchen staring. "Should... we go after them?"

Apparently some sort of complex rope-and-pulley system had been constructed and one of Sophie's smaller paintings was being recklessly lowered down the wall to much shouting and scrambling.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Of all the cheek!" Sophie spluttered. It was one thing to arrange for thefts for security purposes, but this.... "Yes! Grab them! And stop them! And--" She stomped over to the painting and grabbed it herself. "You! Little thieves! Stop this at once! Don't you know the proper way to conduct a theft? Not in broad day light!"

"We nae broad!" A tug back on the rope on the painting, and Sophie looked down to see about a dozen little blue men. Tiny blue men, in kilts. "We be Pictsies! It wa joost hangin' thair!"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty sure it's supposed to just hang the--" Max started to point out, then he spun suddenly. It was a trap! distraction. There were more of the little blue kilted things unplugging Sophie's coffee maker. They were shushing each other extremely loudly.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

They all froze, beady little eyes trained on Max, then one shouted, "For aye Nac Mac Feegle coffeeeeee!"

"FOR AWL WEE FREE MEN!"

And rushed the door, coffee-maker held high, looking to get past Max, as the others swarmed past Sophie and jumped on his ankles.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max wasn't so much hindered by the ankle jumping as he was... too busy staring in shock to react.

"They have your coffee machine," Max informed Sophie in a stunned tone.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Come back here! Come back here you little--" Sophie tripped over a couple, then got up and threw an art deco knick-knack after them. "I need that!"

"CRIVENS! RUUUUUUN! BIG 'UN IS PISSED!" And so saying, they sprinted out the door and down the street-- or what looked like a coffee-maker zipping away on its own, aside from teeny blue blurs beneath it.

"...unbelievable."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max stared in silence for another few seconds.

Then his shoulders heaved in a philosophical shrug. "Fandom."

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"I should have thrown a shoe." Sophie sat down on the nearest ottoman and huffed.

"Fandom indeed." She frowned, then facepalmed. "And they got your chocolates!"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Your chocolates," Max corrected with a small grin. "But I can get more of those. And, honestly, did you really want to lose a shoe on top of all the rest?" Because he was pretty sure that's how it would have played out.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Lord, this place was insane.

"...I'm going to lock every door, every window, and then go out and get food, and stare at it so it doesn't disappear on me." Sophie sighed. "I should be grateful they don't like art, shouldn't I?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Do you want company for food?" Max offered. "And... yeah. Small miracles and all that, huh?"

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"If you'd like to come with and help me pick things out..." She paused, and said, "Geoffrey's coming over for dinner."

Her expression was rueful, bordering on hopeful, bordering on apologetic.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max frowned, trying to place the name. Then, suddenly, he grinned.

"Aaaaah..." he laughed. "The theater guy."

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Well." Her lips twitched. "Yes." Sophie rolled her eyes. "Food. I don't cook. Unless I have to."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max smirked. "Sure, I'll join you for a shopping run. What were you thinking to grab?"

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Chinese food, and a nice wine, and ... possibly even more alcohol, after this." Sophie shook her head, then smiled widely at him. "Has anyone told you you're a very nice man, Max?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

After a quick chuckle, Max managed a sad pout. "How can you say that to me, after I spend all my time working on my reputation as a thoroughly naughty fellow?"

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"All things naughty and nice," Sophie amended it, slipping her arm through his. "Come on. I won't tell anyone. The only thing I shall say of you is how lucky your future paramours are."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Well, that much, at least, is the truth," Max smirked playfully, bumping her shoulder playfully with his.

"So... tell me about Geoffry. He must be quite an interesting fellow to catch your eye with someone like me around." He was kidding. Mostly.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie laughed silently at him, and then sighed. "Rumpled, mad, obsessive, manipulative, and, well. A director." Her smile softened a little. "Passionate, brilliant, amusing, and rather diffident, underneath that. And ... he's letting me set the rules. Whatever they are."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max didn't even try to suppress his amused chuckle at that. "A wise man. Only a fool tries to approach a woman on anything but her terms."

"He sounds like a nice man." Max would threaten to break his legs if he hurt Sophie, but... the truth was it wasn't his style. Sophie could make her own decisions, and live with the consequences, even if they were painful ones.

He did hope things worked out, though.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"He is. Much nicer than I am, in some respects." Sophie gave Max a wicked look. "But that's all right."

Max would hopefully find someone of his own eventually.

Sophie wasn't going to hold her breath, though. And until there, there would doubtless be lots of other options.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Ah, so you're going to corrupt him." Max's grin suggested that he heartily approved of that plan.

Aaaand... it was probably a good thing that she wasn't holding her breath. She'd probably pass out.