~ [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Now that the Mansion is producing goods again, it's very easy for Susan to compile a picnic basket full of, essentially, the makings of a rather international charcuterie board. Four cheeses (a good British cheddar, a French camembert, an Italian sheeps-milk ricotta, and a wedge of Dutch Leyden), three meats (jamon Iberico from Spain, mortadella with pistachios, and something labeled as an American bison-blueberry salami), along with some honey, fruits and fruit preserves, a baguette, olives, nuts, and crackers. She tops this off with nice linens and silverware and all the necessary ingredients for French 75s. It's definitely more than enough for two people.

Something about the end of that dreadful month has her considering wearing color again. As a first step toward moving past mourning clothes, she experiments with a very flattering deep navy dress that's definitely not black, though it looks it in most lights. She adds a coat of lipstick, and then takes herself and her basket to Janet's room, where she raps lightly on the door.

NSFW!

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[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's perfectly dreadful," she agrees. "I'm glad Aslan didn't want me."

[sorrowandsorrow]

It feels like somebody gentler would be better for this conversation, but the only person Janet's got is herself, so fuck it. "He wouldn't have deserved you anyway," she says, fiercely. "These gods are all so fucking careless with their creations."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"What I fail to understand," says Susan, with some slight reluctance - she hadn't meant to ruin the tone of the conversation - is why he decided to give up entirely on Narnia and let it crumble and burn and drown - I believe in that very order - and take my entire family with it. Including Mother and Father, who didn't even know it existed. If he was so dead-set on collecting them all, couldn't he have waited for them to arrive in the natural way?" She's thinking about Edmund again, and how Lucy's description of Aslan's country seems as antithetical to his interests as it is to Susan's own.

[sorrowandsorrow]

They've talked about this before, but they kind of haven't, also. Janet sets down her champagne glass, not with any clear purpose -- just in case she needs both hands, she guesses. I believe I would scream at you if you tried to be gentle. Hopefully that's still true, now. "There might not be anything to understand," she says. "Gods have whims, and they don't think about the people whose lives are getting washed away with them. It's -- bullshit." That's not a strong enough indictment, honestly.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I rather agree," she says, fiercely.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet laughs, almost. She's gripping Susan's wrist tighter now; when she notices, she slides that hand down to lace their fingers together instead. "I don't have anything to make it better. Sorry. But I can tell you that you're right to hate it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan leans her head against Janet's shoulder for a brief moment. "You needn't do anything," she says, and twists her neck to drop a kiss to Janet's arm.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Well, no." Janet directs a quick smile down at the crown of Susan's head. "But I'd smack Aslan right in his smug lion face if I could."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"He wouldn't have the first idea what to do with a dead sexy woman who can wield magic ice axes."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's next smile lingers a little longer. "See, that's another thing I hate about gods. Lack of imagination. You'd think a divine force of creation would have it in spades, but..."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"There were things he did that were genuinely good," says Susan, who can't forget how Aslan's sacrifice saved Edmund. "But I think it's absolute tosh, how inconsistently and yet how severely he applied his will, and how intolerable he could be of things he didn't approve of." She also can't forget, of course, how sternly Aslan treated Edmund despite his sacrifice.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"It is absolute fucking tosh," Janet says, only giving herself maybe half a second to be privately delighted about Susan's Britishness. "If you hadn't already told me he was the Christian god, I could've guessed based on that unflattering description. Very Old Testament of this lion."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan snorts and, infinitesimally, relaxes. "But enough about him," she says, and takes a small sip of her drink.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"He probably gets enough attention," Janet agrees, breezily. She picks her own drink back up with one hand, not letting go of Susan's hand with the other.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan lifts their joined hands up and presses a kiss to the tender skin of Janet's wrist. "Do you want to be stage manager?" she asks. "For the play. You mentioned an interest in your survey."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yes," Janet says immediately, with a quick grin that could be the result of the question, the kiss, or both. "I'm great at making people follow rules. A script is like a really, really specific set of rules."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Very good." Susan offers her a small smile.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet bumps her shoulder companionably against Susan's, then returns to sipping her drink. "I guess Dionysus is going to have to get over however offended he is about how mean I was to him," she says, brightly unapologetic.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"If he knows what's good for him," Susan agrees.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Aw." Janet laughs. "Yeah, I bet you could take him, actually."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I believe I could," Susan says, thoughtfully. "As could you. You'll do brilliantly at the job." She means stage managing, but she does also a little bit mean Bacchus-managing.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"They won't know what hit them." She sounds borderline delighted about it. Because there's still so much cheese left to eat, Janet does reluctantly let go of Susan's hand, but not before giving it a firm, decisive squeeze. She assembles herself a cracker topped with camembert and mortadella. "It's The Wizard of Oz, right?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan sips her cocktail, and then bites into a slice of apple with cheddar as she nods. "I've added some rather pointless sword-fighting scenes in an obvious attempt to generate more interest."

[sorrowandsorrow]

That makes Janet laugh a little around the sip of her drink she's using to wash down her bite of charcuterie. "Makes sense, after the zombies. A lot of people here are pathologically attached to their swords."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose I could consider it to further my other machinations," she says, thoughtfully. "Perhaps it might generate deeper interest into the ability demonstrations."