One Last Nudge

Today, the last day of February, is the last day to sign up for the femme_fic 2009 ficathon event (I've signed up) or to contribute to falcon_horus's Fleur Mini-Ficathon (I'll post today). 

An exchange-style ficathon can be a great opportunity to ask for a story that you've always wanted to read, but perhaps can't quite manage yourself; perhaps your ficathon match will have just the right background or inspiration to bring it to life!  (butterflykiki wrote me an outstanding HL story starring Methos and Tessa in that line last year.)  Okay, okay, enough with the nudging... :-)

The Bottle in the Chimney

Last week, celli described a writing exercise designed to bolster skills with perspective and setting.  In a few swift steps, it took me from pondering the exercise, to picturing the loft, to: Why does Nick have a bottle of blood hidden in his chimney?  In "Feeding the Beast," that is, the scene in which the ghost/delusion of Lacroix taunts Nick from the balcony.

I don't mean to ask "why blood," of course; we're all clear that the character is a vampire.  And I don't mean to ask "why hidden" -- the core metaphor of that episode, and the fallback metaphor of most episodes, is vampirism as addiction, and so Nick behaves like an addict when that metaphor is in force.  But why the chimney?  Above the fireplace?  What would rising heat do to wine-cut blood?  Should it even still be liquid when he goes back for it?

Further, in "Dark Knight," Alyce finds the fireplace dusty, and wonders whether Nick has ever used it at all.  When Nick first hid that bottle, did he expect the fireplace to be a safe hiding place because he intended never to use the fireplace?  However, there was most certainly a fire in "Dark Knight," and then again at least for a moment in "For I Have Sinned."  So what would that mean for the time the bottle has been hidden there before being pulled out in FtB?  Would it necessarily have been planted since the last time the fire burned, or could it have been there since Nick first moved in?  And would the carved mantle (cf. "Baby, Baby") be involved in some way?