Fogg's Asylum

[thuviaptarth]

So ranalore gave me the title "A Ray of Realness" (though I think I'm going to change it), but anyway it gets the summary:

Yami AU/Sweeney Todd/Count Cain crossover set in something remotely resembling Victorian London, in a madhouse secretly run by Delilah (evil scientist/black magic organization controlled by Cain's evil dad). Noted local philanthropist Dr. Jezebel Disraeli and foreign philanthropist Dr. Thomas Moreau (aka Muraki) are on the board of directors. Tatsumi manages the place. The most infamous patient/prisoner is a beautiful violet-eyed amnesiac boy, convicted of several murders including that of his own sister but pardoned from hanging because of his obvious insanity, which varies from the comatose to the suicidal to the raving. He becomes strangely attached to the newest patient, a bad-tempered, very intelligent blond boy who insists he has been wrongfully imprisoned by wicked trustees who wish to claim his family fortune. Will they escape and find true and relatively nonviolent love?

Also starring the shinigami and various coworkers as nurses and orderlies.

Except that is not a summary, really. It is brainstorming. My brain is stormed.

nestra insists there should be hair-stroking. I am thinking we can have a tender scene of Tsuzuki sneaking into Hisoka's cell to stroke his hair (and freak him out) early in the piece and then later on, after they've escaped, he can lay his head in Hisoka's lap and Hisoka can stroke his hair. In the snow. While they are living homeless in the streets of London.

Nestra (who is very useful and by the way should read Saiyuki) confirmed that the asylum in Sweeney Todd is Fogg's Asylum. To be more precise, it is Mr. Fogg's Private Asylum for the Mentally Deranged. I wonder if they should be there while Joanna is imprisoned, or only after, when Toby is there. Oh, I think it should be Toby. There can be comments about that crazy white-haired kid who used to work for that meatshop nobody likes to talk about. And when Hisoka insists he's sane, Terazuma the orderly can roll his eyes and say, "Yeah, like that blonde girl" and then Wakaba the cook's assistant can point out the blonde girl actually was wrongfully imprisoned and then Terazuma can shout at her.

Mr. Fogg is the owner of the Asylum and he is Konoe. It's an AU. They need to have period-appropriate names. I just haven't figured them out yet. Anyway. He's usually away in the country or at his home at a more fashionable address, solicitating donations from rich philanthropists. The superintendent on the scene is Tatsumi, who is very mean to Tsuzuki because he is ashamed of the perverse lust he feels. (Nestra disapproved of this. She does not like it when people are mean to Tsuzuki. I can't help it. The Tatsumi in my head is so fucked up, yo. You put him in Victorian London and you put him in charge of helpless and far too beautiful inmates and you've got trouble. 'Cause Tsuzuki flirts like a boy with a desperate desire for love and a history of early sexual abuse.)

The question is, what state should Tsuzuki be in when Hisoka's first dragged in? Comatose or maybe relatively coherent? Comatose and yet prone to wandering around at night?

Also, there's this scene where Tsuzuki puts honey in his eye. It's Nestra's fault for looking for medical advice on the Internet.

I'm trying to decide whether Cain and Riff should show up. I love them, but I'm not sure I could balance the tones. And Cain is a problem, because people end up dead around him too often. I do not want Hisoka and Tsuzuki to end up dead. I want them to end up rich and living happily ever after in the English countryside.

Oh! And of course Hisoka's protestations of sanity aren't terribly convincing because he is an empath stuck inside an insane asylum, which is not the best situation he could be in.

This is the honey bit, for those who are interested:


Nestra: The internet is useful for something besides telling you to put honey in your eye.
Thuvia Ptarth: Somebody should put honey in Tsuzuki's eyes. Possibly Tsuzuki.
Nestra: Heeeeee.
Nestra: I now can't get the image of Hisoka and Tsuzuki and honey out of my head. I'm not entirely sure what they're doing with it, but I think all participants are fairly happy.
Thuvia Ptarth: I was thinking they were in the Asylum.
Nestra: Works for me! *settles in for a story*
Thuvia Ptarth: Tsuzuki is putting honey in his eyes because he thinks it will change their color. Someone told him something and he got it wrong.
Thuvia Ptarth: He is kind of crazy, you know.
Nestra: He is. Poor baby.
Thuvia Ptarth: Hisoka is extremely exasperated because of course he is worried and sad and can only show it by grumbling.
Nestra: And because Tsuzuki is putting honey in his eyes.
Thuvia Ptarth: And taking the honey pot out of Tsuzuki's hands and trying to wipe away the honey with a dirty washcloth.
Thuvia Ptarth: He doesn't have any water or a pitcher or anything because, you know, 19th century asylum.
Nestra: They're probably lucky to have a washcloth.
Thuvia Ptarth: He spits on the cloth to wipe off Tsuzuki's face, but it doesn't work very well. Tsuzuki doesn't complain but he flinches.
Thuvia Ptarth: Maybe Hisoka tears the cuff off his nightshirt.
Nestra: That would work too.
Thuvia Ptarth: Hisoka stops, helpless. He hates causing pain.
Nestra: Poor Hisoka!
Thuvia Ptarth: Tsuzuki glances at him sidelong. "You could lick it off," he murmurs, very softly. He ought to look ridiculous, blinking too rapidly like that, with the gold sticking his lashes together.
Nestra: This is just the best story ever.
Thuvia Ptarth: Hisoka blushes furiously.
Thuvia Ptarth: He is on the verge of shoving the cloth at Tsuzuki and storming off, but Tsuzuki doesn't say anything.
Nestra: Since Tsuzuki, amazingly, knows just how far to push.
Thuvia Ptarth: In fact, the smile on his face falters and slips off and his shoulders slump in. It's like a gas-light going out, that quick and that different. Just a glass shell with smoke smudging the curve where fire used to be.
Thuvia Ptarth: "Stay still," Hisoka says roughly, and leans down to lick.
Thuvia Ptarth: Hisoka hates sweet things. He hates every bit of honey he tastes, and the salt tang underneath it, and he is in no way memorizing the way every single lick melts away inside his mouth.
Nestra: He's only doing this for Tsuzuki, after all.
Thuvia Ptarth: The last bit is saltiest, and wet, and he realizes with horror that it's tears.
Thuvia Ptarth: "Sorry," he whispers and tries to wipe the last away with his thumb, very gently, but Tsuzuki catches his hand and holds it to his cheek.
Thuvia Ptarth: And then they don't have sex, because it's way too soon.
Nestra: Heeee.
Nestra: But eventually, right? After they get out of the asylum?
Thuvia Ptarth: Absolutely.
Thuvia Ptarth: After they get out of the asylum and find sanctuary and have a bath.
Thuvia Ptarth: Though there may be sex for values of sex not involving penetration considerably before then.
Nestra: Gotta pass time in the asylum.
Nestra: Poor crazy Tsuzuki. Does he become less crazy?
Thuvia Ptarth: Yes.
Thuvia Ptarth: I'm thinking that the crimes of which he was accused should be solved.
Thuvia Ptarth: And he didn't commit them. Or not all of them.
Thuvia Ptarth: And there's a reasonable cover-up to allow for him being released in Hisoka's custody.
Thuvia Ptarth: Where he is happy and less crazy.
Nestra: And can enjoy honey on its own merits.
Nestra: Imagine how much he'd enjoy licking it off Hisoka.
Thuvia Ptarth: Hisoka might like it better, too. Since he doesn't like sweets.
Nestra: Right. Good for all parties.