^ [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]

"How vexing," Susan says; it's an understatement, and she sounds thoughtful.

[vineleaves]

"You ain't kiddin'."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I don't like it one bit."

[vineleaves]

"I don't either," he sighs. Maybe, if he were a more violent god, he would have already done something to... deal with this, before it becomes a problem for Claudius again. There's probably some people who would say he should. But ... that's not who he is, and he can't bring himself to do anything while there's -- maybe not no threat, but no active threat, at any rate. "I know this isn't exactly the conversation you were expecting us to have."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No, but I'm glad you've brought it to my attention. I'd prefer to know of such things so I might respond accordingly."

[vineleaves]

"I think everyone should know, honestly, if for no other reason than to keep themselves safe."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Do you have any sense of who does know? Besides, of course, Claudius. And presumably Galahad?"

[vineleaves]

"I don't, no. I can't imagine Galahad doesn't know though. I've warned Mercutio about him, but he doesn't know all of the details."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan nods. An action item! What a relief. "I shall spread the word to some people - Lancelot, naturally. Janet. Perhaps some others. Perhaps..." she purses her lips. "My focus shall be on the warning, rather than on airing Claudius's specific experience. I shouldn't want to let that slip to someone else he might feel vulnerable about."

[vineleaves]

"That's a good idea. Thank you. I would hate to make him feel -- upset, or anything like that, in our attempts to let everyone know."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes. He oughtn't have his vulnerabilities disclosed unless he wants them to be shared."

[vineleaves]

"Exactly. Susan, I'm so happy you're here."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan looks up and directly at him at that. "Thank you, Bacchus. That's terribly kind of you."

[vineleaves]

"I mean it. I mean, in addition to all of the great things you do for, y'know, the community, you're just a really good friend."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Why, Bacchus," says Susan, an unfettered smile spreading across her face, despite everything they've been discussing. "I feel the same way about you. I'm ever so pleased I've got to know you."

[vineleaves]

"Thank you, dear, that means a lot." He reaches for her hand and gives it a friendly squeeze. "Well, ah, where were we, before I brought all that up?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan squeezes back. "I believe we were about to cast the play with little consideration for the auditions," she says, with a conspiratorial smile. Being Susan, it's also a little flirtatious.

[vineleaves]

"Ah! Yes, of course. Our plan to invite people to roles. Well, speaking of Claudius, I think he'd be really good as the wizard." Someone who deep down just wants to help people, who knows how to talk his way out of any situation (even one as absurd as trying to convince someone they already have a brain or whatever), and who often puts spectacle ahead of everything else? It's almost like it was written for him.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I do think that's a good idea. He's got the right sort of showmanship to make the role sparkle."

[vineleaves]

"I agree! I'm really curious to see what he'd do with the role, you know?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Absolutely," says Susan. "And I think Nina ought to be the Wicked Witch, don't you? I imagine she'd have tremendous fun."

[vineleaves]

"Oh, she'll have a blast, I'm sure. ...We need to make little bone flying monkeys for her to control if she's the Wicked Witch."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Surely she would be best-suited to creating her own, ah, bone flying monkeys?"

[vineleaves]

"Well, yes, I meant 'we' in, y'know, a group sort of sense. She'd probably be doing the actual making." He shrugs. He doubts there'd be much he could help with anyway, unless she wants her bone flying monkeys to be hot glued together.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah. Then yes. I imagine it might take some work to get this place to cough up sufficient bones."