~ [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]

Susan glances at Janet and then says, delicately, "Perhaps if a man is so full of regret for his various actions, he ought to choose different actions."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet starts to say something, hesitates, and then gives Susan a sharp look. "Did he do something to you?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, no, not at all," says Susan, who doesn't think of her assignation with Sagramore as him doing something to her, and who certainly doesn't mind that he was thinking about Janet the entire time, or want to tell Janet that Sagramore was thinking about Janet the entire time - she suspects Janet mightn't be so sanguine about it. That is, he apologized, which she doesn't care for, but she's never been interested in friendship with one-off sexual partners, so it barely registers.

Susan isn't typically very open about her assignations; this is partly because to date, there haven't been many important enough to bear mention, and partly because her friends, save Ingrid, had unwelcome opinions about their frequency and volume. Perhaps she ought to have mentioned this when it first came up? Now it feels like, if she doesn't mention it now, she's making it out to be a bigger deal than it actually is. Certainly the sex hadn't been good, but it had been pretty standard for most of her couplings immediately before her arrival, too, so it only stands out in the slightest in that she encounters Sagramore with greater frequency than 'never at all.' Ugh.

She rolls her eyes, conveying with every scrap of posture, tone, and expression that she can command that this is an entirely neutral tidbit that she's sharing, and clarifies, "I suppose I initiated a rather maudlin assignation when I first got here, and he's avoided me ever since. I don't mind, naturally; we don't get along. I just think that if there's a pattern of regretted behavior it ought to be a sign that the behavior should change. Otherwise it stinks of self-flagellation." Which she'd just been talking with Laertes about. Could he have meant...?

[sorrowandsorrow]

The sharpness of that look doesn't fade away from Janet's face as she takes this in. Now she wishes she hadn't just finished her drink -- she could have used the time it takes to nurse a sip to get her shit together before she has to say something. Objectively, it's not a big deal. Sagramore has sex with a lot of people. Janet always knew that, abstractly, and took it as a relief that she wasn't solely responsible for whatever was going on with him. And Susan was wildly different when she first got here, for obvious, depressing reasons.

Objectively, it's not a big deal -- but it is, also objectively, kind of weird. "You didn't tell me that," she says.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I didn't think to," Susan admits. She doesn't apologize (yet, at least), due to her policy, but there is an apologetic note to her voice.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Huh." Janet doesn't enjoy introspection. It's not her strong suit, it mostly makes her feel stupid, whatever. So she's actively trying to avoid figuring out why this is bothering her. "Maudlin?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan glances at Janet, and then leans against her, and then selects a shiny firm grape and offers it to her. "Extremely maudlin," she says. "I rarely think about it." She also, frankly, remembers little of it.

[sorrowandsorrow]

After a split second, Janet takes the grape. She rolls it between two fingers as she says, "Too bad. He and I usually had a pretty good time in the sack, actually."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"He wasn't the only one that week, and—" since Janet has said she enjoyed Sagramore, Susan shan't say 'nothing to write home about,' actually. "—I've got stronger memories which far overshadow any sex I was having then. Playing darts with a gorgeous woman, for example." Susan lets her hand drop to Janet's knee for a squeeze, and then she leans forward to start mixing them each a second drink. "But your time in the closet. You're alright?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Just like it was probably meant to, Susan's flattery pulls a little flash of a grin out of Janet. She eats the grape. "I'm all right. It just took the wind out of my sails. It's not that fun to be pissed off at a man who's already doing all the work of hating himself for you."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"The audacity."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"It's fucking rude," Janet agrees. "Like, you start whaling on a punching bag and it collapses immediately? No fun."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"That sounds horrifically unsatisfying," says Susan. "It's rather edging catharsis, isn't it?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Surprised, but a little thrilled, Janet laughs. "Pretty much. I could use some more zombies every now and then. Give Sorrow and Sorrow and me something to do."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Not for the first time, Susan thinks that Janet really ought to have something she can sink her teeth into. (Something besides sex.) "If only."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Go ahead and add some zombies to The Wizard of Oz," Janet suggests, only half-joking. "You know, for the swordspeople to stab. And decapitate."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Alas, I haven't the faintest notion of how to raise them."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"We've gotta have someone around here who can raise the dead." Janet eats another grape. "Gideon knows about necromancy, but she's not a necromancer."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"We shall include that as one of the questions prior to the magical demonstrations I'm trying to sort out," Susan says, snagging a piece of cheese and some of the salami. "I believe Nina can do things with bone, at least."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh, she can," Janet says with another quick grin. "It's badass. Can I be on the panel of judges for the magical demonstrations? I'll be the Simon Cowell."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I don't know who that is," Susan says, "but I was rather hoping you or Thomas might take charge, given that you know best what magic entails."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I love magic and I love judging people." Janet's quite cheerful about this. "I'll write you a cover letter to that effect if you want."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You can if you'd like," says Susan, brightly. "I trust your credentials, but if it brings you joy..."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Don't tell me you wouldn't get a little turned on by a good To whom it may concern."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I take it back," says Susan immediately. "Please prepare several such letters at once."