The Shadow

The Shadow's gifts are sent by PINpoint.

Courtney and her uncle Aloysius receive a collection of teas, and for Courtney there is a book on sleight of hand and other practical magic tricks with a note slipped inside the front that reads, Sometimes, this kind of magic comes in useful, too. -S

Victor receives gourmet coffee, and a book on Tibetan sand painting.

Sarah Branigan receives a collection of teas, gourmet coffee, and a small framed print.

Metody receives gourmet coffee, a table-coffee book on China, and a small framed print.

Burbank and his assistant receive their usual large fruit basket, and a box full of music cassettes.

Ichi receives a bottle of sake, and another of scotch, a box of cinnamon rolls, and an array of music cassettes. After the party at Metody's, he assumes his gifts will be less of an unexpected surprise than they were last year.

Harry receives a gourmet coffee, a sweater, a small fruit basket, a gift certificate to a local bookstore in the amount of fifty dollars, and a small potted bamboo plant.

Myra receives gourmet coffee, a small fruit basket, a small potted bamboo plant, and a small unframed painting on silk. It is a little old, amateurish, and unsigned. It also appears to have spent some time rolled up, for storage or lengthy transport. What she will make of it, he does not ask, but he would not claim to be a true artist.

It is nearly a week after The Shadow's sobering visit to the Nexus before he invites Ichi for a drink.( Read more... )

The Shadow is hard at work coordinating things from the Rettigue apartment, today. The break from hunting out Khan's activities in his alternate's world is merely an opportunity to chase criminals in his own. Unavailable to gather forces for multiple raids and without the time to head up those operations himself, he's stuck compiling information and passing it to legal authorities through very careful channels. It's a lot of paperwork, and very tedious, but it gives him a physical rest he needs from his other activities.

When Metody arrives, he's in the most worn spot in the whole place; the center of the black plush sofa, bent over the coffee table. He regards his visitor over the rims of his reading glasses. "You've looked better. Coffee or tea?" The paperwork is shuffled neatly into a folder, out of sight.

The apartment is spacious and spartan, with sleek dark furniture. There's a grouping of the sofa and a few black armchairs around a black metal coffee table, all arranged on a vast Oriental rug. A bookshelf built into the wall opposite the sofa holds a television set that is archaic by Metody's standards, fewer books than one might expect, a sleek stereo system, and in spots of honour a card bearing Chinese calligraphy by Myra and the wrappings and knife Metody sent for Christmas. A floor to ceiling window dominates another wall, but the drapes are only open a crack. Apart from the kitchen doorway and a hall, there's little else to be seen in this room. It has quite a bit of open, empty space and the feel of somewhere that is only sporadically lived in.