"A book has got a smell. A new book smells great."

[Basil Benson]

"... You've been informed of insulated tumblers? " He was easy enough to distract from the topic of himself.

[Samantha McManus]

"...the tea cozies aren't the point, Basil."

[Basil Benson]

"I know...

I just can't stop coming back to it I guess...."

[Samantha McManus]

"Whatever she saw and liked wasn't... not you. She saw a side of you."

[Basil Benson]

"What if that side is too buried in the other half? I've tricked her..."

[Samantha McManus]

"I may be wrong here, but it certainly seemed to me that she found the Bohemian boorish, and the Bailey quite frustrating."

"Which leaves maybe not the Burglar... but the Basil."

[Basil Benson]

"Guh. God help her."

As he spoke, the light coming in from the library skylight went out abruptly, as if someone snuffed out a candle, and the hooded figure who'd been talking to Sam as if he were Basil tilted his head about curiously.

"The night came early today..."

In the real, the Basil who had made himself oh so comfortable in his PJs had fallen asleep on Sam.

The internal one calling itself Burglar stretched his dark clad limbs.

[Samantha McManus]

"Night... generally doesn't do that. Unless it's symbolic..."

[Basil Benson]

"Symbolic... yes.


Time for my rounds." He stated tilting his head. "You can join... if you can keep up."

[Samantha McManus]

"...wait just a moment, something's off."

In the real world, she blinks for a moment, then frowns.

"...wake up, Basil."

[Basil Benson]

At the prompting he had, and the night changed back into day.

This however caused his subconscious self to tilt it's hooded head back and forth curiously, obviously confused by the shifting of time so quickly.

Nevertheless, whatever quarry he seemed so hot to get to was now on pause again as the empty hood stared at her.
"Sorry, what?" He asked, sounding confused.

[Samantha McManus]

"Just a little... logistical issue," her avatar says.

In the waking world she's trying to corral Basil back to his side of the bed.

[Basil Benson]

Basil was more or less propped up and moved off her, but too much jarring about might cause his ability to focus on the mindscape to suffer.

"Oi! " His mental self responded in protest. "Stop the bus!"

[Samantha McManus]

"...would you rather come out of this propped against me as if I was your babysitter reading you a bedtime story?"

[Basil Benson]

".... What story was it?" He joked, the two of them getting further off task.

[Samantha McManus]

"...let's just keep this professional, Basil."

[Basil Benson]

Basil cleared his throat an straightened up, the sign of any good professional. "Yes, right...

What do professionals do now...?" He asked , the human psyche wasn't exactly his field.

[Samantha McManus]

"I mean I'm willing to ignore what just happened if you are."

[Basil Benson]

"Listen I'm just here to find out what happened to me and why I'm all messed up."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm not disagreeing. Just... never mind. You were saying?"

[Basil Benson]

"I..... ... huh..." Basil began tapping his chin with his left hand.

"I feel like there was something I wanted to show you, but I can't remember what it was..." The now conscious Basil seemed to not quite recognize the behaviour he displayed just a few short minutes ago while he was asleep.

[Samantha McManus]

"I think you were about to go on some sort of patrol?"

[Basil Benson]

"I was?" He asked, then tilted his head a bit.

"I have been visiting some of the old, familiar places as of late, against my better judgment not to. I've been trying to determine them as the origin of the issue, but... I'm not suited to such things."

[Samantha McManus]

"You're the one who said it, not me. Lead the way, aye?"

[Basil Benson]

"...Well, alright. But just...

You can't tell anyone about this..." He explains again, like she hadn't already known that.

Then, he started moving. Rather quickly actually, considering she was expected to follow. "Come on!"

He would lead her out of the library, though he did check to make sure she was indeed following.

Basil's path and movements were incredibly erratic, taking him over, under, and across things that it probably shouldn't, including benches, lamp-posts, balconies and roof tops. Here he could move in a way he had never shown any proficiency for in the real world, something akin to free-running or parkour. Anytime it seemed Sam might be falling behind he would stop for a moment and check that she was still there with him.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam has little trouble keeping up, but then again she's cheating. Any time Basil seems to have lost track of her there's a sound like a rustling of feathers and when he turns his gaze she's just there.

[Basil Benson]

The time she did this it gave him a physical start, being that he wasn't expecting it. After a few checks, he simply stopped checking as it seemed like she could keep up with him well enough.

Basil's trip across the city lead him away from the brighter, friendlier parts of it into seedier neighborhoods, likely a representation of the deeper places they were going into, places and memories best left shoved aside or forgotten in his opinion, perhaps recalled and pulled to the light only when absolutely necessary.

The 'ladies' were here too, but he ignored their calls as he passed over the assembled group from one roof top to another.

He stopped on a balcony, and turned his back to the shuttered doors, holding them closed.

"I need your assurance that if I show you this, you aren't going to hold it against me or become judgemental or.... preachy..."

[Samantha McManus]

"It's weird in everyone's head, Basil."

[Basil Benson]

"Yes, but this wasn't just in my head." Basil corrected. "This was real."

[Samantha McManus]

"Everything that's here will be in confidence."

[Basil Benson]

Upon her assurances, Basil opened the double doors and stayed in the doorframe, leaving the other side for Sam to occupy. As he stood there, the room materialized to reveal a bar scene. Basil, sitting with a familiar but up to this point unidentified redheaded man.
"You don't have to baby sit me you know. I'm eighteen now."
"You know that I do, or your mum will have a shit-fit and I'll be blamed for it because it's my turn. " The redhead answered. "Howie can be as lenient with you as he likes in the day hours, but at night, you're mine.

Anyways you're more likely to get into trouble after the nightfall which is why I gotta remain... Virile?"
"... Vigilent. The word you are looking for is vigilent. "
"Right, that. My shift is harder so I gotta keep my eye out. Theives and hooligans everywhere ya kno?"
"I- what?! No there isn't. Not in Oxford."
"Not in this neighborhood of Oxford, aye? You obviously don't read the crime reports."

Basil sighed. " I just don't see how having a bodyguard is supposed to help me acclimate to normalcy. It's always made me feel weird, and I don't feel like this would be normal even if I weren't a freak."
"Oi! Hey! No usin' the F word."
"My point is I thought I'd be bloody rid of you two when I became an adult."
"Well you ain't. You got me n' Howie for the rest of the forseeable future, so get used to it kiddie."
"How bleak for you. Did you know you were signing up for the life of a loveless bastard when you took this job? Was that a pre-requisite? ' Wanted: personal security for young boy. Preferrably a heartless git incapable of being admired. Must be terrible with children'? "
"Course!" The man replied jovially. "Yer parents wanted nothing but the same consistent level of emotional neglect they'd come to expect from themselves. I came highly reccomended."
"Well, you've done a bang up job so far. Where does Howie play into all of this? Was he meant to confuse little Bobbie about whether or not the weirdo gingy who took care of him actually cared about him oooorrr?"
"Howie's the good cop, eh? He convinces and bribes you with his kindness, then I come down with the hammer. S'good system."
"Indeed." Basil stated, bored with the barb trade now.

"Stay here, I'm going to get a drink. Do you want anything?"
"Oh no you don't!"
"Please Harry, you're being suffocating. Would you have wanted a man in his thirties following you everywhere when you were my age? Not only does it give the wrong impression, it's creepy."
"Fine! Fine... Just get me a Seltzer.I'm at work after all."
"Will do! Back in a flash!" Basil always said that whether he meant it or not.

"Beefeater's and tonic please!" He cried out when the bartender finally decided to 'look' at him. Basil had gotten the distinct impression he had been ignored intentionally because of his invisibility and not in spite of it, but he also suspected he was going to have to get used to such behavior now that he had this... condition.

"Can't serve you mate. You could be underage."

"I... Are you serious? I've ID." Basil stated, taking out his wallet to show his Driver's license. "See? That's me." He assured the man serving libations.

"Right, but how do I know that's you? You see my dilemma."
"This is ridiculous... You know I could just send my friend over to get me a drink if I was trying to be cheeky, right? You appreciate that?"
"I do, but that don't change the law mate. If I can't identify you, I can't serve you."
"I can't beli-"

As he spoke, a small hand mirror was held out in front of his face, and his image reflected back at him. He noticed a feminine hand attached to it, but he didn't bother to see who's arm it was on, taking it from her without thought.

"Ha! Here. How bout this?" He said, laying the mirror on the countertop next to his ID, he looked into it to reflect his own image at the bartender with a forced smile. "Drinks please!" He asked again. " A seltzer plain if you would as well."

Basil picked up the mirror and looked at himself for a moment before turning to his left to hand the woman her mirror back.

"Thank you, I never thought this would be nec-" Basil's thought was cut off at the familiar face next to him.

"Mia?!"

Next to him sat a black haired, blue eyed young woman several years his senior, dressed head to toe in black clothing that left little to the imagination. Tight laced into a corset that made her waist impossibly small and shoved all her top bits right into her own face, she stared at Basil from behind heavy false lashes, smirking at him through black 'bitchstick'.

"Hello Bobbie, it's nice to see you."

Basil was far too dumbstruck by her random ( and sultry) appearance to say anything at all back, and just stared at her. It was probably for the better he was invisible at the moment, as his staring might have been cause to get him kicked out of the club along with his 'other problems'.

"Or perhaps experience you is a better turn of phrase. I go by Amber now though, if you would."

His continued silence went into a bit of a stammer.

"Buy a lady a drink?"

"Of course! Where are my manners..."

After his initial flubber, the two spent time catching up with one another over a course of several drinks. This conversation was largely of a personal context and made little sense to Sam, but some of it seemed of value to this memory. Sam gleaned from the on-going back and forth a lot about the nature of their past relationship. Mia, or rather Amber, was the daughter of 'help', specifically his mother's personal assistant. Amber moved into the house around the time Basil was eight or so with her mother after her mother and her father divorced. She was exactly three years older than Basil himself. Even though she was far too 'cool' in her tweens to hang with a little kid like Basil, Basil still talked with her when they ran into each other, always riveted to hear what latest thing she had to share with him. Basil even pointed out at one point that he thought Amber had hated him as they got older, which she admitted to finding funny since she had grown to envy and eventually despise him for what he had, though that feeling faded after his mutancy revealed itself.
In the course of the conversation, Basil would text Harry that he was fine and was talking to a girl and it was going well and to *not* come and spoil it for him, which Harry did not, though Sam got the impression from Basil's mind that Harry was still watching him.

"So why are you here? This is the last place I expected to ever see you. Why aren't you in London?"

Amber's dark lips drew into a smirk. " I have a client here, but after travelling all the way here he cancelled on me last minute, so now I'm on my own. I figured perhaps I could find another before the night is out."

"Good luck, it's rather late for work I should think."
"Not in my line of work."
"What do you do?"
"You're a bright boy. What do you think I do, Bobbie? What kind of a woman works exclusively at night with her clients and might show up at a club to find a new one when the old one didn't pan out?"

"Dental hygienist?" He joked.

"Bobbie... You can do better than that."
"Oh! You drive for Uber!" He guessed, sincerely this time.
"Have you ever seen a uber driver with such massive tracks of land on display? Think harder Basil. You're a big boy now..."
It took Basil a moment before he realized what she was implying. "... Nnnnnooooooo....!"

"Yes." She replied, sounding a bit relieved that she didn't have to outright say the word in a public establishment.

"... Really?! I didn't think people actually... did that sort of a thing for a living in this country anymore. I mean, not enough that I'd... know one?"
"Don't be daft, Bobbie. The world's oldest profession doesn't stop because church ladies want it to. Anyways, the laws here are more lenient about these things than one would expect, though not as lenient as some places."

"I see..." Basil replied, falling silent.

"Does this sort of talk make you uncomfortable?" She asked.

"Ah, no, I-" Basil paused, as he did when he was thinking of just the right thing to say. " I guess I just... I'm sorry?"
"For what?"
"That you have to do this, I guess..."

Amber laughed, a sound Basil hadn't heard from her in such a long time, he was unfamiliar with it now. She tried to hide her amusement as best she could by covering her mouth.
"Basil... No one forced me into this, no one hurts me or abuses me for money. I chose to do this."

"Well... I mean, I suppose everyone must choose to do it in some fashion but... I don't know. Don't you think you'd want to do something else, if you could? "

"No." She replied in full confidence.
"Really? You wouldn't like to go to school and be an accountant, or a computer programmer? Something more mentally challenging?"
"It's extremely challenging work, in it's own way. I have to learn to appeal to a person's tastes, and each person's tastes are as unique as the person. It's not as simple as laying down on a bed and collecting a fee afterwards. At least, not if you care about making any real money. "

Basil was not at all convinced she was being entirely truthful and so he pressed the subject, somewhat outside of his normal behavior. "What about something more rewarding? Like a doctor, or a nurse. Or a school teacher."

"I find the work of making the lonely people in this world feel a little less lonely is rewarding."

Basil sighed, struggling to come up with some other reason why she shouldn't want to do this, and failing.

"Poor Bobbie... Do I disappoint you?"
"No. You should do whatever you feel suits you." He paused for a moment in thought. " I-I guess I just never thought the girl I had a crush on since I was eight would grow up to become a working girl.

But then again, I thought I'd grow up and you'd be my wife and Mother Teresa and a ballerina at the same time so maybe what I expected was unrealistic in hindsight." He joked.

"Awwww. How sweet. I'm not even Catholic.

Or Jewish for that matter. Bubbe was always quite kind to me, but somehow I don't think she would approve."
"While I heavily value Bubbe's opinion, I wouldn't let her decide who I'm with.

Mainly because our family doesn't need another of her." He quipped again.

Amber laughed politely, and the two fell silent.

"So." Basil states, playing with the ice in his empty glass. " What's the score around here? See any good marks?

Harry definitely needs love, and I know he gets paid well enough to afford it."

"Harry is a boorish idiot. Always has been."

"Can't argue with that." He chuckled. "But then, do you get to be so discerning?"

"Of course. Dare I say, it's important that I am, lest I get myself into a bad situation."

"I suppose." Basil replied, falling silent again at lack of things to say.

"But to answer your original question, I think I have spied someone I find of interest."

"Oh, which one?" Basil states, looking around a bit. When he turns back to her, he's staring at his own reflection in her hand mirror again.

"I don't understand."
"I think you do."
"... Why me?"
"When's the last time you've been with a woman Basil?"
"Factoring in my age and cross referencing it with my condition, and assuming you mean in the biblical sense of the word...

Never." He laughed. " All of which seem like ample reasons not to pick me, combined with the fact I am not interested in paying for anyone to be with me."

"Who said you were paying?"
"... Is that not what I am supposed to do in this situation?"
"Just because that's what I do for work doesn't mean that sometimes I don't just do it for fun. I'm just as human as you are.

I'm here in Oxford for the night, might as well make it an evening. Unless you're magically no longer interested in the girl you've supposedly been infatuated with since before puberty."

"Quite the opposite actually." Basil stated. "I have been staring at you all night, completely dumb-founded as to how you've managed to remain the most enchanting thing I have ever seen.

I do not however understand what you see back in me."
"Your undying admiration is endearing. You've always been kind to me even when I was being a shite-head teen. And you've grown to be quite physically attractive if my mirror does not lie. Do I need more reasons?"

When Basil didn't answer, she leaned in to kiss his neck, and whispered him orders while she nibbled at his ear.

"Text Harry you are ready to leave and to go and get the car. We'll leave while he's gone and go somewhere he's not skulking about all night."

"Yes ma'am." His voice trembled back.

The memory faded. Basil deigned to show her no more beyond that without her request.

[Samantha McManus]

"...why would I judge you for that?"

"Though really, 'Bobbie'?"

[Basil Benson]

"It's my initials. Everyone called me that when I was younger. I almost accidentally put it down in the spot where they asked for codename on the school personal information list." Basil explained away.

"I showed you this so you understood the problem in full. After that night, she never left Oxford. I invited her to move in with me, and she did, and continued to work the same job as she had previously. I pretended like it wasn't a big deal, but it was. She would go out and do what she did... professionally, and then return home as if it were normal. And I allowed it, despite the fact that it upset me greatly.

The only reason it stopped was because Harry and Howie finally dropped the dime on her and I. Once my parents found out what I had done, how I was using their apartment, they were furious."

[Samantha McManus]

"You miss her, don't you?"

"Or you miss... a version of her."

[Basil Benson]

"Yes." He admitted, sounding a little sickened with himself for having said it. "I knew after they had done what they had done that Harry and Howie were right. What was going on was not healthy for me because I was not comfortable in the situation. I wanted more and she refused to give me anymore, which was her right, but she also refused to let me go emotionally speaking. But despite what happened, I still go to bed at night dreaming of affections that were not afforded to me.

She found another way to worm her way in." Basil replied. "She 'appealed to my tastes', as she called it. And knowing that no one else would want me, I accepted that as if it were love."

[Samantha McManus]

"And now someone wants you, and you're scared out of your wits."

[Basil Benson]

"Yes!" He cried, his voice becoming further and further concerned and frightened as he spoke.

" Do you see now? I am nothing more than what you see, I am the Burglar. I take what I need when I am not given what I want, because I must survive. It is no different with the Madame. She hesitates to share her affections with me, and I snatch away from her what little I can get because I am so starved for it I cannot bear to wait any longer.

What if she did this to me? What if I don't know how a real relationship works because of her and it happens again? What if next time what almost seemed like my Id is worse than 'mildly obnoxious'? I'm obviously nothing more than a slobbering idiot when it comes to women. What if that is what comes to the surface?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I feel like everyone is a slobbering idiot until they're not. Don't you think you deserve a chance to learn?

[Basil Benson]

"No!" Basil replied, probably unexpectedly.

"Not if the consequence is that someone else gets hurt because I am trying to learn! I have to know what caused this! If I don't know I feel like I won't be able to stay sane."

[Samantha McManus]

"So what do you want me to do? Keep digging until I can tell you something's wrong with you? Confirm what you insist on believing?"