" [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

[sorrowandsorrow]

This is very much Janet's trying not to look as intrigued as she is face. "Did you say something insensitive to the baby?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Certainly not! I - hm." Susan makes a face. "I gave that boy a dressing-down in front of her."

[sorrowandsorrow]

That boy presumably being Magnus. Janet does actually like Magnus fine, and she doesn't really get the extent of Susan's beef with him, but it's so fun when Susan has beef with someone. "What'd he do? Or did you just not like his vibe?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan knows Janet likes when she complains, so she's got no issue hamming it up a little as she says, "He's got no respect or care for the ramifications of his actions. He was enabling her in scribbling all over the walls in the hallway! Clearly he's trying to indoctrinate her into his bad behavior."

She doesn't mention the secret training; Lancelot has mentioned that Magnus has ended the secret -- far too late, if you ask Susan! -- but she's still genuinely angry about it, and doesn't want to feel genuine anger when she's tangled up with Janet like this.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Half of Janet's attention is going to the irritation etched into Susan's face instead of the gist of her complaint, but she gets the idea. "I mean, babies do things like that, right? Maybe she's indoctrinating him and he's just not putting up much of a fight."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan blinks. Perhaps she's had a little too much wine to follow. "I beg your pardon?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I don't really think Magnus has the strength of personality to indoctrinate anyone," Janet explains, possibly badly. "Unlike Sunny."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't know about all that. After all, Magnus roped Lancelot in to his stupid secret fighting scheme. "I suppose Sunny does rather seem to know her own mind," she hedges, thinking of her eight-year-old self's interactions with the baby.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"She definitely does," Janet says with a laugh. "So, yeah, maybe you do need to have a chat with her."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It does feel a little ridiculous," Susan says, with the lightest of eye-rolls.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Totally ridiculous," Janet agrees, "but less shitty than making the baby cry."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Fortunately, Susan hasn't made Sunny cry, but she is picturing her as the tiny head of some sort of protection racket. Very well, she shall kiss the ring. "Then I shall add it to my to-do list," she says. "And in the meantime--" she leans in to kiss Janet.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet half-laughs into the kiss, but then she rallies. Pulling her focus back around her, she tips her head into the kiss, turning it sharper and deeper. Never let anyone say that Queen Janet gives half-assed kisses.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Oh, in for a penny. Susan slides into Janet's lap, pushing her hands into her hair, matching Janet's sharpness with her own, skimming a hand up and down Janet's side. "Might I interest you in a third round?" she asks, the words a mumble against Janet's lips.

[sorrowandsorrow]

There's another laugh, looser and warmer. "Aw, did thinking about me telling people what to do get you all hot and bothered?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes," says Susan, tugging Janet's head back with her loose grip on her hair and planting a kiss to her neck. "We shall have to schedule appropriate breaks between each photo shoot so I can drag you off for an hour or two."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Mmhmm." Janet tilts her head helpfully, her hand finding its way to the part of Susan that dips in just before the curve of her hip. "The mood has to stay sexy. For Shen Yuan. It's an act of generosity."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"All in the spirit of the gift," Susan murmurs, her words a rumble against Janet's neck.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"You're such a giver." Janet laughs, almost breathless. The bottle of wine is still around here somewhere, she's pretty sure, but it might be lost in the sheets.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's on the nightstand where Susan placed it earlier. Since she's tremendously task-oriented, she dances her fingers down Janet's spine in firm, stroking touches until she can stretch her hands over the small of Janet's back and use the angle to draw her closer. As she does this, still kissing the tender skin under Janet's ear, she says, "Have you got some sort of duplication spell? For back-up copies."

[sorrowandsorrow]

It's so totally, characteristically Susan that Janet only laughs again, arching into the touch like a cat under a firm hand. "Sure, I can do that. We don't want to do all that work for one flimsy calendar, right?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Certainly not. Everyone involved ought to have the option of a version of their own, for their troubles." Susan leans with Janet's arch, dipping to trail her mouth along Janet's collarbone. "And it strikes me the cafe and welcome table might benefit from copies as well, to document events of public interest."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh, definitely." Janet settles into a lazy grin, eyes half-lidded. "Welcome to your new pocket dimension. You can't leave, but the men are hot and naked." Her fingers drum lightly against Susan's side.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Small mercies," Susan murmurs, leaning back and drawing Janet with her. "We ought to make a private calendar of our own, you know."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I'm in," Janet says without hesitation, letting Susan pull her as if that proves it, but then she does pause for a second. "How are we even doing this? Do we have film?"