Closed Post: Practice

[sorrowandsorrow]

Thank Christ that wedding dance is over. Janet had felt it looming, like exam season at Brakebills but way, way worse, and it had made her feel like she was being stalked. It's over, and Susan came to keep her company, and she still has a bottle of wine stashed in her closet about it. Spoils of war.

In a better mood all around, Janet's in a sitting room not too far off from the main drag of the mansion. She's cross-legged on a couch, in stocking feet but with her boots tucked up against the side of said couch, and she's essentially playing with dolls.

Okay, it's a little more grownup than that. She has a couple of those ubiquitous green toy soldiers, the ones every kid ends up with whether they want them or not, and she's practicing a Cavaleri Animation, making them march around and aim their tiny plastic guns at each other.

Comments

[timebethine]

Laertes can't help smiling. Of course Janet isn't concerned with questions of philosophy--she's a woman of action, and that's one of the things he admires in her. "He is very handsome," he says. "Although no rival for the queen of Fillory."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"You're laying it on pretty thick today, pal," Janet says, but she sounds a little bit pleased about it.

[timebethine]

"If I had been braver when we met, I think I would have tried to win thy love," says Laertes, although it still sends an old thrill of terror through him to say it. "But although that moment's passed, I do admire thee, and I defy anyone to prevent me from declaring it."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Huh." Janet studies him, picturing how that might've gone. Laertes is so completely not her usual type. Maybe that would be a good thing. "That's fun. Very missed connections of us."

[timebethine]

"It would have ended in screaming, ice, and fire, I'm sure," Laertes laughs. "Better we can come to each other like this."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"The men in my life do usually have better longevity when we're friends instead," she agrees wryly. "I might stick to women for a while."

[timebethine]

"Wise--we're all scoundrels and knaves. Not above three quarters of women are so bad as that."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yeah. Sometimes I want to be the biggest asshole in the room." Janet grins.

[timebethine]

He grins back. "Hast thou set thy sights on any of the ladies here?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Laertes," she says, mock-stern, "are you gossiping?"

[timebethine]

"Never!" he says, thunderous and dramatic, hand clenched at his breast. Then he leans in with a conspiratorial grin and whispers, "Yes."

[sorrowandsorrow]

The corner of Janet's mouth twitches, and then she's rolling her eyes and smiling. "Susan kept me company the night of your dance."

[timebethine]

"Oh," he says, momentarily taken aback. "So that was why thou didst wear such a look, when I called her Lancelot's young lady."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I guess she used up all her good taste on me, but come on -- if they're hanging out, she's not his young lady. He's her boring knight." She sighs, dramatically put-upon.

[timebethine]

"Extremely handsome, though," he says. "A fine brooch to adorn a woman of great worth."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"If you're into that sort of thing." Janet narrows her eyes at him. "Oh my God, are you into that sort of thing?"

[timebethine]

Laertes doesn't quite flush--he's made of sterner stuff than that--but he does say very delicately, "I cannot see how such matters are thy concern."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"That's rich coming from you." Janet nudges him with a sock-clad foot. "Anyway, that shit never stays secret for long here. It's a pressure cooker."

[timebethine]

He nudges her right back; this feels hauntingly like bickering with Ophelia, but it's a friendly kind of haunting. "Very well--yes, I'd happily take him to bed if he wished. And half the men here, if I'm honest. The women are less to my tastes; so many of them are too young to rouse my blood. Even Nina, I can only see as a sister. There, now thou hast a full accounting. Hast thou any further demands?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Half the men! You're not as picky as I am, huh?" Janet laughs, relaxing a little. "My further demand is that you show me immediately next time you learn new magic."

[timebethine]

"My tastes are catholic in this respect," he says dryly, meaning all-embracing. "I certainly will. Nightingale hath promised to teach me another spell, but not yet told me which, or when. I'm afire to learn."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Well, I'm afire to see it," Janet says, a little teasingly. "I'm guessing there are no Circumstances you have to adjust for?"

[timebethine]

He tilts his head. "I know not what thou meanest by 'Circumstances.' Perhaps?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"So, when I do magic, it's -- I told you how complicated it is. Every time you do a spell, basically, you have to adjust the way you do it. For the phase of the moon, the altitude, the weather, all manner of bullshit."

[timebethine]

"Oh! Ay, I do remember that. So far, nothing Nightingale has taught me requires Circumstances--but he has only taught me one spell," says Laertes. "More complicated works may require a more precise alignment of the spheres."