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Jim has been rather enjoying spending weeks being moody and depressed in his suite, mainly because Sherlock's up there to make sure he's not actually all that moody and depressed. Bloody boyfriends, and their way of making life better. Jim would grump about that if he weren't pleased by it.

He's only in the bar now because his favourite distraction is asleep and anyway, they need food. Jim puts in a large order and, on a whim, asks for a current newspaper from their world. Bar provides an iPad with various headlines, and he scrolls through until he hits upon the news that NASA has discovered a solar system where life might have evolved.

He forgets about the food, and pretty much everything else for a while. Eventually he wanders over to the Window, still reading, and then just sits looking out at the explosions.

(The ice cream he bought will be melting all over the Bar at some point, so if anyone wants free food he's probably not going to object, or even notice.)

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"Of course," Harman says. "I could easily imagine that my own order might send a spaceship there before the UNO even finished discussing whether the aliens are real."

Jim's eyebrows jerk gently upwards.

'Obviously they could afford that, but you're so confident they have the knowledge?'

A group largely unencumbered by government intervention, then. Dangerous - to normal people - and extremely useful in certain circumstances.

"Of course we do," Harman says "Jesuits have always been fascinated by science. We run the Vatican observatory, for one thing."

'Running an observatory is not the same thing as sending a spaceship to an entirely new planet, darling. Not even close.'

An amusing idea, though.

'Any idiot with a PhD can learn to operate a telescope and crunch data.'

"Idiots with PhDs don't get far with us, darling," Harman answers. "You have done many things in your life, I'd guess, but never tried to become a Jesuit."

Jim snorts a laugh that manages to be both derisive, and delighted.

'Why on earth would I try to become a Jesuit? Priests never liked me.'

Which will surprise precisely no one, he's sure.

"Because you can, of course," Harman says, smiling.

'Of course I could.'

He could genuinely do anything.

'But I think you're crediting me far too much in the line of wanting to educate others, and having the personality that would ever allow it.'

He is not the man from the old books, as they've already established. No teacher he.

"To prove to yourself that you can, for the challenge," Harman says, "or because you need to infiltrate the order for something?"

'I don't need to prove anything to anyone.'

Only boring people feel that need.

'And I would hardly need to infiltrate myself. I'd just get what I need from one of your lot.'

"How would you go about getting one of my lot to talk?"

'Simplest thing in the world, darling.'

Tediously so.

'Find one of you with something to hide, and use it.' He smiles slowly. 'You can't deny there'd be plenty of candidates.'

"Unfortunately," Harman says, "there are. But why would you get to hear about it?"

Jim just looks at him. Like, really?

'Don't insult me, Father.'

"Our order is rife with sin, as any other group of people," Harman says. "But that doesn't mean we are all that likely to be caught at it by an outsider."

Jim does the eyebrow thing again, only less amused this time.

'No, seriously. Don't insult me, Father.'

Because Jesus, like there's anywhere he can't get into.

"It would be fun to see you at work," Father Harman muses.

Edited 2017-03-27 19:39 (UTC)

'Not something I ever thought I'd hear a priest say.'

A+ for originality, Father!

'If you've got any interesting problems, chuck them my way. Even if you'd think them outside my usual wheelhouse.'

He is in sore need of distraction. Also - and more pertinently - something of an enormous karmic debt to repay in the next few years. Harman's world could potentially help with that.

"I'm not your usual priests, and against our Code Fives, I will use anything."

Even Moriarty himself.

'I'm not anything, darling. And I'm not here to be used.'

Just to be clear on that.

'You can ask. If it's something that catches my interest, you might get me. My choice, not yours.'

"What would you take as payment?" Harman asks. "Given that something catches your interest, of course."

'What have you got?'

His grin is sharp, just as his eyes are, though they roam far more slowly over Harman's face.

'If nothing else, a shedload of your Vatican cash would do. But if you've anything more interesting-'

A shrug. It's not like he needs any more money.

"Cash is boring," Harman says. "I have black funds that cover almost anything, for my project. But I also have secrets, top science, vampire blood, artifacts, and access to GCHQ and all their intelligence."

Anything to fight the vampires.

'The entirety of GCHQ?'

He can get stuff out of there when he wants, but it's obviously a bit of a hassle. Much easier to get someone to hand it over willingly; he'd need to verify it, of course, and easy isn't his favourite way of doing things. But it's not like it's his world.

He does stifle a gleeful laugh that resounds through his head. Like, Harman, really. Giving him access to every secret communique washed through the UK...risky, friend. Risky.

'And what sort of 'top science'? You're not dressed for the twenty-first century, so odds are you don't have anything I don't already know about. Apart from your vampire-based stuff, of course.'

"1998," Harman says. "We still use floppy disks, which is apparently a bit of a joke to people from your time with internet everywhere."