* [semi-closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan is still struggling, but she's established a little routine, specific to Dark: every morning, she goes to her favorite room - the one with all the rugs - and retrieves several bottles of alcohol. These, she ferries down to the cafe and arranges them on a corner table, where she sits for the next hour or so, passing bottles to anyone who needs a full one, and measures from the bottles to anyone who would prefer just a drink or two. By now, she's got a sense of the regulars, their preferences (though she cannot always accommodate these - it really is the queerest assortment of libations), and how much they require, but she always brings an extra bottle or two just in case.

Today, she's tireder than normal, and moving slowly. Her tea was running low, and so she's rationing it. She's even on the verge of capitulating and getting a cup of coffee to tide herself over.


[Primarily intended for Dionysus and Lan Wangji, but if anyone wants to play out the awkwardness of the daily alcohol retrieval I'm all in!]

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan leads him to the room with all the rugs. "This is my favorite place here," she admits, as she nudges the door open with her hip. Not a single rug has disappeared with the change in the season: she's unrolled each and every one in her time here, just to look at the designs. The alcohol she mostly keeps tucked under a monstrosity in the corner: enormous and garish and too loosely-woven to easily roll up (neither she nor Galahad will recognize the make of it, but it's a hot pink and electric orange shag rug), it makes a lovely cover for a lot of bottles.

[onthewillowsthere]

As he helps her tuck the bottles away beneath it, he asks his favorite question: "Why?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Have you got a favorite color?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Blue."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And you like flowers, yes?" She's noticed he tends to wear florals and actual flowers with regularity.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan goes and selects three rugs to unroll. One, a medium-sized rectangle, has a blue background, with trailing vines and birds woven in greens and yellows. One is clearly meant for children: it's small and tufted, in the shape of a flower itself, done in shades of blue yarns. The last is large and looks like Delftware in rug form: intricate blue flowers curl around each other on an ivory base. Once they're laid out, she looks at Galahad, wondering if they'll speak for themselves.

[onthewillowsthere]

He notices how she knows exactly which three she wants just from his answers. He notices the way she handles them, with familiarity and fondness. He notices all the different ways in which they're beautiful and distinct.

"Oh," he says. "Yes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She nods to the blue-and-ivory. "That one is one of my favorites."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You know all of them."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do now," Susan nods. "The mansion stopped producing new ones when it stopped producing most food and alcohol."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Which one is your favorite?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's a colorful one, predominantly green, depicting a hunt, but in rather a stylized fashion. There are dogs and foxes and people on horses and horns, all done up in spirals and curls and - marvelously, deftly woven - no straight lines. It's not of Narnian make but it reminds Susan of the golden heydays of Narnia. She can't look at it for very long, so it stays here, but she does unroll it every other week for the space of a cup of tea.

She unrolls it for Galahad now.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad reaches into his pocket and clasps his fingers around the little bone frog there. The rugs remind him of that -- he knows that rugs have purpose, but these ones feel more like something meant to be beautiful for beauty's sake. He wants very much to touch this one, so he does, crouching down to run the fingers of his other hand over the grain of the weave.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's lovely, isn't it?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. It's good."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan smiles, small and genuine. "You can take any of them, if you like. They're not mine, and they ought to be used."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad, who had absolutely been planning to ask if he could have one, looks at her mouth for a long moment and then carefully smiles back. "Thank you. I would like one."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I can help you, if you'd like to take it and the wine now. Or we could come back after the tower." She's happy to let him take one without her there, if he'd prefer, but she does want to note down the wine he selects.

[onthewillowsthere]

"We should take it first." He kneels down by the bottles of wines and selects a Merlot, after some time looking at labels. Then he gently wraps the bottle up in the flower-shaped rug.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan takes out her notebook and makes note of the wine. "Would you like help?

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you know where our room is?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan hesitates - she knows where everyone's room is. "Yes."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods, unperturbed. "Yes. Come with me."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Would you like me to carry anything?" But it looks like Galahad's got that well in hand.