^ [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

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Yes, of course," gazing at her with a look that is possibly best described as besotted.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She preens under the weight of this gaze, arranging herself comfortably so that she's reclining on her back with her head nestled on his lap, looking up at his face, her hair spilling over onto the blanket below. She props one leg up, knee crooked, and stretches the other one out. The pose is completed with a brief reach upward, just quick enough to boop his nose. "For starters," she says, "Bacchus and I are moving forth with the play. We've decided we shall cast who we think is most fitting rather than try and drum up interest in resumed auditions."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot draws his fingers through her hair, admiring it and hoping not to disarrange it too much. "So the two of thee will bully folk into performing?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Bully is so strong a word, don't you think?" says Susan, who has described her methods as 'bullying' to Lancelot on more than one occasion. "We shall cajole... entreat... everything short of begging, I imagine."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He laughs, "And am I on this list of those who would be cajoled?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Of course you are," she says, brightly. "You're to be in the ensemble. That means you shall have a few smaller lines, some background stage presence - and we thought you might enjoy participating in the swordplay interludes I've added to the script. You and," with a note of hope to her voice, "Laertes and Lan Wangji."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Swordplay interludes -- I think they could be persuaded. But lines?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"A word or two, really. Here and there."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He gives her a little half-smile. "Thinkest thou that I can manage such a thing? Without error?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She reaches up and cups a hand around his cheek. "Why, of course I do, sweetheart."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Well," the smile broadening (how could it not, when she is looking at him that way?). "An thou sayest, I shall believe thee."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I expect it shall be terribly fun," says Susan. "Laertes is to help build the set, too, and," a teasing note enters her voice, "I imagine you'll be able to prevail upon him for a list of ways to assist him in that endeavor."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He laughs, flushing a little. "Laertes does like to issue me a task, yes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And you like it too, yes?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Yes. I like to be of use, as thou knowest, and it is good to do work together."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Good," says Susan firmly. "I do so love when my machinations can be structured in such a way they create another space for your happiness." She lowers her hand from his face, catching his with it, and threading their fingers together. Then she rests their joined hands on her belly. "There is another matter."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He chuckles, "All my attention is thine."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I should like your assistance in thinking of something we might do for Claudius. The tone ought to be one of support and care, ideally in a way that doesn't encourage painful memories to resurface."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Why?" There is both concern and curiosity there. "Is he not well? Is something amiss between him and Galahad?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No, no, he and Galahad are fine; according to Galahad they're deliriously happy together. Bacchus told me--"

She pauses. Ought she be spreading this? But she trusts Lancelot completely, and it's far more important that he be aware of potential threats than remain circumspect about this sort of thing in the off-chance Claudius mightn't want Lancelot to know.

"When we were settling on the casting, Bacchus explained we oughtn't cast Luo Binghe, because he used his abilities to torture Claudius for no reason some months ago. Bacchus implied it might be a bad idea for me to, ah, upbraid the man," because surely that's what Bacchus meant when he spoke of magic and shit, "and I shall defer to his wisdom there, but I think it's dreadful Claudius has had to live with this for so long. I should like to send a stronger message than just roles in community theater."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Genuinely shocked, he says, "Tortured?"

Then he shakes his head and says, "No, Luo Binghe ought not be part of a production based on fellowship. I would like to help, but I don't know Claudius well at all. We are not exactly friends."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, sweetheart, I know, but--" Susan squeezes his hand. "You've still spoken. Perhaps you've got some insight. --And I imagine your support and care may carry different weight, specifically because you've not been close."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Dryly, he says, "A few of the times we've spoken have been a good demonstration of disdain." He considers for a moment, then goes on more gently. "The most recent, though... perhaps things have changed."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"If it shall cause problems for you, obviously you needn't be involved," says Susan immediately. "But perhaps they have, and even so..." She's not trying to sway him, just explain her meaning: "I think Claudius and I are alike in a number of ways. Of course I've not been tortured needlessly the way he was, but if someone with whom I had a complicated past came along and said they saw my pain and found it tremendously reasonable and should like to try and bring some ease - if Peter suddenly showed up one day, for example, or one of the people here... Sagramore, for instance, or perhaps the angel, or even Enjolras - I expect I would find it startlingly touching in a very different way to how it feels when it comes from an expected source. Do you see what I mean? And I think Claudius is like me in this."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He's about to answer, turning all of this over in his mind and thinking of how understood he had felt when speaking with Claudius the last time, when that percolates through and he says, "Sagramore?"