what dark materials did thomas steal them
filching from @drmadwoman's glorious alt-uni in which everyone has daemons
bc she said "Thomas would be a swallow a seagull, because though some people might consider them dirty scavengers, they’re still survivors who can fly high above the unfeeling world."
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The other servants think Thomas is a freak.
Carson almost refused to hire him on account of Dorian being a bird, and not some slope-faced canine, as if a footman needed another four paws underfoot during dining service. "A sparrow or other discreet breed of avian might have been — negotiable, of a sort," the butler had said, man and daemon exerting all the glazed dignity of the mahogany desk they sat behind.
"He'll not be a burden, Mr Carson," Thomas said flatly, letting the want, his sheer want for the house smother the native irritation sparking through his body.
"You can see how the prospect of a scavenging bird near the table might be unappetizing to Lord Grantham."
"T'werent no Phineas and Jason," Dorian croaked with a particular ugliness even for his species, every syllable a rotted yolk sliding down the butler's face. "That's classic Greek, by the by," the daemon added with a desultory flap of its ragged white wings, knocking over a wine bottle.
"I'm well aware of the tragedies," Carson intoned, catching the bottle with his non-writing hand. "And it seems most curious to me that a man of your... mien," he paused (and here the butler's nostrils flexed slightly with stifled frisson, and Thomas read that little tremble as fine as calligraphy), "would be wedded to such a companion."
"We've all got our facets, Mr Carson. Diamond-like, as you please," Thomas said, ignoring the shattering plaster that was Dorian's laugh in his head. "Even lead's got a bit of a turn to it, doesn't it?"