Closed Post: Ink

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's been doing a lot of research. No, seriously -- a lot. She's a good magician, but she's not the best magician she knows. She was a good student at Brakebills, but she wasn't the best student at Brakebills. She was a stellar queen, but a lot of that was bluffing and expecting other people to follow her orders. She's certainly never been a fucking tattoo artist before.

What she's come up with is an abomination that would make half her professors faint dead away. She's cobbled together a modified Cavaleri Animation, about two and three-quarters of the principles that go into making a Reed's Mark, and a whole lot of bullshit that she sincerely hopes is going to hang together.

With a significantly bizarre assortment of items assembled in a tote bag, she goes on the hunt for Galahad, hoping he's somewhere that Claudius isn't.

Comments

[sorrowandsorrow]

"July 17th. Why?" Just thanks to her general affect, it comes across slightly suspicious.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'm keeping a list," Galahad says, which is true. It's a list for Claudius.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Aw," Janet says, a little charmed. "Like you're the guy at the office who keeps track of everyone's birthdays. Do I get a cupcake?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"What is a cupcake?" A beat. "Is it a small cake?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yep, pretty much. It's yea big--" Janet demonstrates, holding her fingers in a cupcake-sized circle. "--and usually has a fuckton of frosting."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Does it taste the same as a cake?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Sure, I guess. You can eat more than one cupcake in a sitting, though. And you can get different flavors."

[onthewillowsthere]

That's a consideration. "Do you like them?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"They're not bad. Not my favorite, if I was picking dessert."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What's your favorite dessert?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Gun to my head? Dark chocolate mousse."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you not like sweet things?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I don't hate them. I ate a lot of sugary cereal as a kid. But if you're making me pick one favorite." Suddenly curious, she fires it back at him: "What's your favorite?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He shakes his head. "I can't choose a favorite dessert. The category is too broad."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet laughs. She grabs the water bottle from Galahad and takes a swig for herself. "I didn't know that was an option when you asked me."

[onthewillowsthere]

"And now?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Well, now I know there are categories. Gives me a lot more freedom of dessert." She knocks back another long swallow of cold water. "You can put your sweater back on, by the way, unless you want to keep ogling yourself."

[onthewillowsthere]

He flushes faintly and reaches for his sweater, though he remains expectant about desserts.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Okay, but you have to at least pick a favorite, all right? Favorite chocolate dessert, already established. Favorite cake, New York cheesecake. Favorite ice cream, pistachio."

[onthewillowsthere]

"My favorite chocolate dessert is sachertorte, but I think it's better with ice cream. I've only had vanilla ice cream. My favorite apple dessert is tarte tatin, but it's not my favorite pie or my favorite fruit dessert."

He isn't exactly more expressive, but he's more lively. He loves categorizing and ranking things.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Two things. One: we gotta get you another flavor of ice cream, stat. Vanilla is fine, but there's a whole world out there. Two: favorite pie, rhubarb. Favorite fruit dessert, lemon tart."

[onthewillowsthere]

"One: I would like to try more ice cream. Two: my favorite pie is pecan. My favorite fruit dessert is strawberry shortcake."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Pecan's a solid choice," Janet says. "We can probably get away with snagging some ice cream right now. Say you need to boost your blood sugar after all that."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes, please," he says seriously. "How many kinds are there?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Literally hundreds. I'm not kidding." She starts packing up all her stuff again, piling it in the tote bag. "There's this ice cream shop called Baskin-Robbins. Their shtick is that they have thirty-one flavors."