Into the Attic

[impulsereader]

Sherlock, the bastard, giggled the entire walk back to the house. “Oh, don’t worry, John, that panto you did in uni will stand you in excellent stead. I’m not at all worried about your keeping up your end.”

“Neither am I, as I’m planning to find some unemployed West End swot and pay him to take my place.”

-------

New challenge – Sherlock is feeling a bit down; talking to John – in my head they’re outside, sitting under a tree – he remembers something from childhood and they set off into the attic to see if they can find it. What object are they hunting for? Also – things which John and Sherlock will find in dotty Uncle Rocky’s attic during the search. Go!

Comments

[pargoletta.livejournal.com]

Object from childhood: Maybe a favorite toy? The comfort object that "mysteriously" vanished when Sherlock was deemed too old for it (but wasn't quite ready to give up)?

Things in the attic: Stuff. Old furniture, old paintings. Maybe family portraits (can go back a couple of centuries). A Victrola -- maybe it still has some shellac records that can be played. Mementoes collected from whichever Holmes was an officer stationed in India during the height of the Victorian Empire -- daggers, maybe a (discreetly looted) Hindu religious object). Ancient pistols. A Golliwog, maybe, put away once the family reluctantly realized that Golliwogs are seen as racist? Relics of a long-dead family pet. Taxidermy -- maybe it's not just Labby's old food bowl that's stored up in the attic. Typescript pages of either a family history or some really awfully embarrassing fictional exercise or semi-autobiographical work. Weird objects picked up during travel through former colonies. Photographs from the Holmes family's London pied-a-terre that were thought lost during the Blitz but which ended up in Rocky's attic.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

The attic has been there for a while, right? How long a while? Because things accumulate. And this is a rather large attic.

Ivory game counters shaped like fish. Bifocals that are hundreds of years old. Gas masks. Plane spotting charts. A dress form. Trunks full of old clothing. The only stuffed dodo in existence. A mirror with mysterious carvings around the frame. A medical skeleton with one leg missing. A set of bagpipes. Some swords. Ice skates. A fly fishing kit that's too brittle with age for anything to be of use. A worn out wing chair, slightly too wobbly even for the servants when there were servants. Great Aunt Vivianne's collection of cigarette holders. A matching cigarette case, clock, pen holder (no pen) and lighter from her desk set. A matching set of badly done oils. A pair of old ski boots, the kind that lace on, with all the laces in knots. A book press. A glass display case of native insects. A cigar box filled with costume jewelry, half of the paste gems gone. A rug beater. A Victorian pump action vacuum cleaner. A bundle of children's writing exercises. A Spirograph. Galoshes, odd sizes, unmatched. A beautiful antique bottle, mostly opaque, sealed with lead. In a box lid slid under a dresser full of stuck drawers, a child's collection of river-smoothed oval stones. Great grandmother's compact.