" [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]

"You're right." He straightens. "You're right. I wouldn't mind a disagreement between adults, but when Sunny understands so much of what's said, people ought to be thoughtful what they say in front of her."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

This, Susan takes straight on the chin. "Yes, precisely," she agrees, remembering when she confronted Magnus in front of Sunny. Her expression and posture do not change, though, and her tone is even. "And anyway, it sounds as if it's his behavior that's consistently poor. If a second chance is ever in order, he ought to be the one to seek it."

[sagramore]

"That's fair. That's fair." It sounds a bit like he's reassuring himself with her words, which... is what he's doing, to an extent; he certainly still struggles with wanting to be liked and trying to smooth things over, even after everything that happened with Luo Binghe. "You're right."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan does wonder how she might respond if Lucy were to ask her directly to make things right with Aslan. On many levels she's not fond of him, beginning with her own barring from Narnia going straight through to being punished for adapting to the very same, and ending with him causing the death of almost everyone she loved in London. The only good thing he's done is letting her live, though she imagines his reasons for and interpretation of that choice are radically different from her own.

"Has Sunny asked you to improve that relationship?"

[sagramore]

"No, she's trying to sort it out for herself, which might be worse, if I'm honest. She wants to talk to him about whether she can trust him to be a responsible guardian for her."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

On the one hand, it's good for a young woman to know her own mind, boundaries, and goals, and Susan wholeheartedly approves. On the other, Sunny is barely two, and oughtn't have to deal with this sort of responsibility. "My goodness!"

[sagramore]

"Yes! Exactly!" He's so relieved that there's an adult outside his family who agrees that this situation shouldn't have been teed up in the first place.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Frankly, that Apollo himself hasn't made every effort to seek restitution himself is a mark against his character," says Susan, stoutly. He'd annoyed her during their conversation - that combination of cocky and mercurial, particularly in such a way that the cockiness hasn't got a foundation which backs it up and renders it justified - is one she's never enjoyed. And she's specifically never liked slippery men (which is partly why she wasn't terribly fond of Laertes's alternate self, back during the spring), which Apollo seems to be. This conversation is providing grist for her proverbial mill.

[sagramore]

"He really should apologize to her. As I said, I don't mind disagreements between adults, but she shouldn't have been made to be involved. He could have avoided the topic since she was there."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Between you and me, I don't think much of the Greeks or Romans," says Susan, "if they made that man the god of childhood."

[sagramore]

"Christ! You know, Dionysus is good at the things he's god of."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan rolls her eyes demonstratively. "When I was speaking with Constance the other day, it struck me that the god of healing does considerably less healing than several of our other residents," she says, marveling inwardly that she and Sagramore have found a topic upon which they agree. "It does make one wonder if Bacchus is the exception or the rule - regardless, he, at least, is a boon."

[sagramore]

"I wonder whether we'll get any other gods to test the theory," thoughtfully. "It's just the two of them, isn't it?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I believe so," Susan says, sounding uncertain indeed. "Perhaps we might ask Xie Lian; he seems to know several gods personally."

[sagramore]

"Does he really?" He frowns, mostly to himself. He's still quite worried about Xie Lian.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"He spoke of a number of gods as one might speak of one's friends from university... if one had opinions about how the nicknames one's friends were given by worshipers might affect the, ah, size and virility of..." In for a penny! She gestures evocatively.

[sagramore]

"Really."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan is far too evolved to do something as puerile as blushing when discussing such things with a former one-time assignation with whom she's trying to establish a - truce? Alliance? Friendship? She really ought to be clear on her objectives! So she's straight-faced as she airily says, "Confusion between the characters for perfect and gigantic, you know how it is."

[sagramore]

"Oh. He's--" He laughs. "He's a very complex person, isn't he."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes. So perhaps he's got some insight on the matter."

[sagramore]

"Very well. I'll make inquiries."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Lovely," says Susan, with considerable warmth. She takes another sip of her tea. "I believe that leaves us agreed that we shan't invite Apollo to feature in the calendar, save as a last resort?"

[sagramore]

"Absolutely not. We're in accord."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Right. They've reached a point where Susan doesn't trust her flimsy memory to retain all their decisions. She leans over to retrieve her notebook and pen from her satchel and starts noting down their decisions -- who to include, that sort of thing.

"It shan't be difficult to make the calendar pages themselves," she says, contemplative, tapping the tip of her pen against the page after she's jotted down NOT Apollo. "I can get those made rather quickly. The difficulty, beyond securing agreements, shall be in photograph layout... perhaps Janet has got a spell to assist." And possibly make copies? That mightn't be out of order. "But I suppose we needn't worry about that yet."

[sagramore]

"Right. The first order of business is making my rounds, which I'll get started with immediately, and perhaps you should talk with Janet and find out what she needs, just in case."