^ [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]

"Well then," says Susan, smiling back. "Let's use Galahad's calendar; now you have three days. Perhaps we might celebrate each of them, just to be safe."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh, certainly we shall." He laughs. "That does rather remind me, in fact."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I have been planning something of a surprise," he says, flushing a little across the bridge of his nose. "Not a birthday surprise, but I suppose it could serve several purposes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"A surprise!" Susan exclaims, pleased.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Yes," pleased that she's so clearly pleased. "I mention it now only so that we can plan the day. I know how thou dost prefer to know thy schedule."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do, but I shall clear it whenever you should like."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"The weather has been generally good, so I think that any time we should like would suit us. We will need all afternoon and evening."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"A lengthy time out-of-doors," says Susan thoughtfully, and then shakes her head. "I shan't try to guess. You may surprise me whenever you like."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Indeed," he looks incredibly pleased. "Very well. Let us plan for three days hence. That will give me time to prepare as I need to, and to have an additional gift for thy birthday."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Splendid," says Susan. She rises to kiss his cheek, and then sits back to pour them both tea.

--

Three days hence, Susan dresses in an immensely flattering outfit suitable to all manner of outdoor activities - another gift from the Mansion for her birthday. It's akin to the rompers she used to wear as a child, but clearly meant for an adult woman with a phenomenal figure. Underneath it she's got on those clever two-legged nylons Janet calls tights; she's also got a cardigan in case it should get cold. Per Lancelot's suggestion, she waits for him in their room at the culmination of her morning routine. As she waits, she idly applies a deep red lipstick.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot has been preparing all morning -- in addition to the preparing he's already done. He secured Laertes' help the day before with preparing the food. They spent the afternoon cooking and packing, and so he has a collection of little handpies, good cold, fresh fruit and cut vegetables, hard cheeses and bread (much like he would have carried on his own outings, as a knight), and several other things. He also has packed a thermos of tea, a bottle of wine, and Susan's birthday gift.

He arrives back at their room with the picnic basket on his arm, and raps firmly on the door.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan finishes tying her cute-yet-sensible shoes, checks her hair, and goes to the door. "Good day," she says, opening it, and gestures to her cheek. "I'm afraid there's a door-opening tax."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot grins, helplessly, at her for a moment -- she looks so terribly good, and she knows him so well. Well enough to reference one of the moments he's been thinking of for months, since he first starting trying to figure out how he might surprise and treat her as they neared the mark of one year since they determined they would proceed with one another.

Then he steps in and kisses her cheek, murmuring, "I'll not complain. I am happy to pay it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan smiles up at him, already overcome. "I love you," she tells him, and then peers at the basket on his arm. "What have you got there?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"A portion of our outing," he says, drawing himself up. Right now he's in a similar outfit as the other day, but with the addition of a cable-knit cardigan. The necklace from Laertes, which he's worn each day since he was gifted it, is at his throat. He is wearing his swordbelt in his usual way, free of his sword but carrying his Narnian dagger on the opposite side.

"I thought we would walk, for a while, but if thou wouldst rather not thou mayst say so."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I love to walk," says Susan, immediately taking his arm the way she used to when they were first growing close. "Especially with you."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Very good," he says, chuckling and pleased. He leads her down the corridor, the stairs, and out onto the grounds, as he has done many times before.

After they're a little ways from the mansion he says, "Thou'rt beautiful, I'm sure thou knowest. But I am glad we can do this."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do know," Susan agrees brightly. "I do so enjoy enabling you to show me off to our little world. And there is, of course, also the unparalleled company."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Thy company is, indeed, unparalleled."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I meant yours, of course, you sweet silly man."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Didst thou? Of course."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Do you know, I've been thinking," says Susan, as they walk. "We ought to find a new way to compete once it's too cold for swimming. I'm afraid checkers might be a lost cause."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Is that because," teasingly, "thou dost not enjoy tactical thinking?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, yes," Susan laughs. "I've met my match in the vast tactical landscape of draughts¹."


¹Pretend her typist remembered to use the British version last time too