" [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan prevaricates for several days about whether to approach Sagramore. She's a little lost with respect to her feelings about him, particularly after the one-two punch of being charmed by his teenaged self and then having her own eight-year-old self being so thoroughly taken by him. (And isn't that queer, to remember it after the fact? She'd been so convinced he wouldn't remember their encounter in the kitchen, but... what if, like her, he has?)

Sagramore is a good man, which she's known for a while now. He doesn't like her, which is fine, because while she hasn't disliked him for months, she hasn't exactly given him reason to change his mind about her outside of a few awkward conversations. She thinks, perhaps, that there might be a world in which they get along. It isn't this one, clearly, but - the possibility is there, in some alternate dimension; perhaps one day the mansion's nonsense will bring it to bear for a few short hours and in its aftermath they will be none the wiser.

Regardless, she finds that she likes that they've got a truce, and not just because they've got people in common. He's an asset to the community, and Susan likes to keep close inventory of assets.

It's a hot day, and the queerness of the month is in full effect. Perhaps that's why Susan decides, in the midst of a fit of research, that Sagramore - who is ever so well-connected - might make a good co-conspirator for her newest project. (It is also - though Susan doesn't realize it - exactly one Earth-year since their ill-advised assignation. In truth, she's placed that encounter almost fully out of her mind, and while she does make a close study of her days here, she's merely noticed that she's known Lancelot for a year now, and refrained from considering the rest.)

And so she prepares her bribes offerings. She makes coffee the way Sagramore's teenage self taught her: with the grounds and the spices and the sugar and the water, boiled three times and decanted into a thermos. (She's also made tea for herself. She knows better than to pretend she's going to try the coffee again.) The thermos itself is a gift; it's a kitschy little affair that reads If found, return to Dad, and part of a number of queerly-labeled items that she's found populating her parlor (which is now attached to her room by a door next to her closet) since Rainbows began. While savory bakes aren't her forte in the same way sweet ones are, she also prepares hagymás tekercs, with the hopes that they're to his taste. Once she's got everything - coffee, tea, and rolls - packaged up, she places them carefully away in a satchel along with her notebook, a pen, and several samples of the focus of her true agenda. This time she hasn't got a list of conversational topics. She rather thinks she shan't need one.

To her relief, as she makes her way to his cottage, she sees that Sunny is off playing in Crowley's automobile, and Laertes is walking along the forest's edge with Magnus, seemingly deep in conversation. While it wouldn't matter if either were home, their absence shall make this discussion easier.

As before, she squares her shoulders. Then she knocks firmly on the door.

Comments

[sagramore]

"And he should!" with a bark of laughter.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do wonder if he's still looking for one. I ought to put him out of his misery," Susan says, and purses her lips. "Though I suppose I also might craft a fake chore chart, just to see if he starts following it... no," shaking her head. "I oughtn't."

[sagramore]

"I absolutely think you should. Is he really pulling his weight around here?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, he has his moments, I'm sure," says Susan, who hasn't got any clue but has had a number of lovely interactions with him. "I'd hardly know which chores to pretend to assign him. What do you suppose would be... funniest?"

[sagramore]

Sagramore thinks of Asmodean in the patterned apron, washing dishes by hand instead of using saidin. Then he says, "Probably dusting, don't you think?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Dusting," Susan agrees, and adds, "And sorting out the gutters."

[sagramore]

"Unquestionably. And perhaps polishing all the glasses in the bars."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I'd have to add false chores so it doesn't seem a joke. Perhaps the polishing ought to go to someone often in the bars already." This isn't a snide comment, actually! Susan hasn't got a specific name in mind.

[sagramore]

It does seem pointed, but Sagramore hasn't told her he's trying to drink less; only a handful of people know that. So he says brightly, "My lady, I'll do anything to aid you."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Heavens, no!" says Susan, sounding surprised indeed. "You're all the way out here. I shall put you on stable duty, how does that sound? Perhaps Bacchus or Grantaire or Janet might be assigned the glassware."

[sagramore]

"Perhaps not Grantaire."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No? Very well, then."

[sagramore]

"Dionysus would probably do quite well, though."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Then I shall entreat him to join our ruse," says Susan, with a flash of smile.

[sagramore]

"Splendid." The tea is by now almost finished, and he fetches down a cup for her.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"In any case, I do appreciate you humoring my younger self."

[sagramore]

"Oh, it was hardly humoring."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Very well, then." Susan waits until she has the tea Sagramore has prepared in hand before bringing up the true reason behind her visit - after all, one ought to let one's (compelled) host engage in hosting pleasantries before getting down to business. She breathes in the scent of it, takes a careful sip, and then looks up at Sagramore. Her hair, which she's wearing mostly-down today, with only the front bits braided back to keep out of her face, cascades down her back, and she nudges a strand off her shoulder with her free hand - a tiny nod toward a nervous affectation.

"I'm here because... well. I suppose I should like your help. With a project. Not creating a chore chart for Crowley."

[sagramore]

"Oh! Certainly," Sagramore says, as usual agreeing to things before he knows what they are. "What is it?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan blinks, surprised. She'd prepared an entire sales pitch! That was... remarkably easy. "A... I suppose one might call it a 'happy re-birthday' gift for Shen Yuan."

[sagramore]

"Even better."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

A flash of a smile. Aware that this is where her proposal might start to seem ridiculous, Susan squares her shoulders and says, "As you likely know, he's tremendously homosexual."

[sagramore]

"I do know this," Sagramore says, beginning to laugh helplessly.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I recently learned of a... fundraising mechanism used after my time that I thought might appeal to him on several levels," Susan says. "It's - oh, I haven't the first idea how to describe it. Here." And she pulls a stack of six exemplar nude calendars out of her satchel and hands them over to Sagramore. Most feature tremendously muscular men obscuring their genitals with tools of their trades and/or cute animals; one features buxom women doing the same. (This latter, obviously, is intended only as an example; naturally Shen Yuan wouldn't find the inclusion of local women interesting in a calendar.)

[sagramore]

His delight increases, to the point that he has to put a hand on the table to brace himself. "Lady Susan Pevensie, are you asking me to convince everyone I know to pose for portraits of this nature?"