^ [open post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't believe in the mansion spirits, but she is being followed by something in a way that makes little sense.

It begins when she wakes up. Opening the drawer to the sideboard in her room to retrieve tea, she finds another gold chess piece wrapped neatly in ribbon. Lancelot didn't put it there - it hadn't been there when she made her pre-sleep cuppa the night before, and she woke up when he did and sleepily saw him off to his training; he hadn't gone near the drawer. She shuts the chess piece firmly away, makes her tea, and dresses blearily for her own archery practice.

There's a new bow in the closet, too. To her pleasure, it's a heavier one that requires a stronger pull - she's quite got used to the draw of the ones the closet first supplied to her.

After her shooting routine, she finds a lipstick in the precise shade Ingrid used to wear on the bathroom vanity. When she's showered and dressed for the rest of her day, she finds her favorite pastry - a sort of breakfast roll she used to get from the shop by the tube station she'd walk past on her way to work, back in London - on a platter in the kitchen.

It's when she opens one of the closets in the hall off the library to return a pile of laundered wash-cloths that she receives both some clarity and a deepening of the mystery: a jumble of assembled balloons tumbles out, made of some queer material and filled with a gas that keeps them afloat. The writing on them reads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN PEVENSIE.

She stares at them, perplexed.


Susan's birthday post! Three days (by our reckoning) and eight months (by her reckoning) early! Feel free to have your puppets run into her in any reasonable location at any point during the day; she's just going to be accumulating more Stuff she can't get rid of as the day goes on.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I might've, if I thought it was coming up," Susan says, as the balloons rustle behind her.

[vineleaves]

"...So it's not your birthday then?" The thought of Susan not knowing what the Earth date is just feels so completely impossible that it's not even a consideration.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's the queerest thing," says Susan. "By my reckoning, today is May twenty-first. By Galahad's, it's December thirteenth. My birthday is December sixteenth."

[vineleaves]

"...Huh." He considers this. "Don't suppose this is their way of informing you there was a misprint on your birth certificate, do you?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I believe there might be some confusion afoot. Ambient effects from the latest nonsense, perhaps."

[vineleaves]

“Possibly,” he says, thinking this over. “I wonder if they’ll decide to give me a random birthday party at some point too. They did this to Sagramore a while back.”

[quote_gentle_unquote]

A very careful nonexpression flits across Susan's face at that. "When is your birthday?"

[vineleaves]

"Great question. I don't know when either of 'em are."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You've got two?"

[vineleaves]

“Oh, yeah, ah—“ if she doesn’t already know the story he doesn’t feel like getting into all of the specific details right now. “I was born — early. My mother passed away at the time. Luckily my father was there and he was able to sew me up in his — uh, his thigh, until I was ready to be born for realsies.”

It’s the version he tells when he’s feeling charitable towards Zeus, anyway. Technically not incorrect.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah. Yes. I do recall something about that."

[vineleaves]

"Two birthdays, and I don't know when either of 'em are, aside from a vague idea of 'spring' and 'autumn'. In my defense though, ah, well. You saw me when I was a kid, I didn't even know what a building was, we definitely didn't have calendars to keep track of stuff like that. Not to mention how often calendars change, plus back then most cities had, y'know, their own wildly different calendars anyway."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Then I suppose you ought to select days that feel right to you."

[vineleaves]

"Oh, I've done basically that in the past. Sometimes if I just feel like having a party and can't think of a decent enough excuse I tell people it's my birthday party. Not that you need an excuse for a party, but you know what I mean. It just, y'know, would be kind of fun to know when the actual days are. If the mansion spirits are aware of it themselves¹." Choosing random dates every year definitely feels like something that's easier to get away with when you're constantly traveling and rarely around the same people long enough and constant enough for them to get invited twice. He is aware that this is a distinct improvement in his life as a whole, but it does make pretending to have a birthday harder.


1. Nope.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You might hold a birthday party every day and settle on your favorite one for regular celebration," Susan suggests. She still doesn't believe in mansion spirits, so she can't speak to their potential awareness of birth dates.

[vineleaves]

He laughs at that, loud and warm. "While having a party every day does sound like a lot of fun, I do think everyone else here would get pretty tired of it pretty quickly."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I suppose," Susan allows. "Though I do think we might benefit from more social events, generally speaking."

[vineleaves]

"That's true! Maybe I should do -- y'know, a weekly thing. Or even a monthly thing. I don't throw nearly enough parties, come to think of it, not sure what's wrong with me."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Bacchus," says Susan, a flash of that businesslike tone of hers, tinged with an edge of sternness, coming through in her voice. "You do a tremendous amount for our little community. You produce more social events than most. Though," she adds, thoughtfully. "We ought to get back to the play, soon."

[vineleaves]

He lights up, as he always does whenever mention is made of the play. "Are we up to enough people to form a cast list yet? Gonna be honest, I've lost track of who all has shown interest."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"We haven't, but we've had several new arrivals since our first attempt at auditions. Perhaps if we spread the word once again?"

[vineleaves]

"Maybe we can put up a new flyer about it!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps! I think inviting people to audition directly might be more effective this time around."

[vineleaves]

"We could also just post up a cast list," he says with a grin. "And if someone really doesn't want to be involved that badly we'll change tactics and let them off the hook." Is he joking? Great question.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Bacchus," says Susan, her tone equally scandalized and delighted. "Oh, I do like the way you think. Have you got insight into aptitude because of your drama powers?"