Open Post: Welters

[sorrowandsorrow]

It's probably been noted before, but Janet's not actually dumb. The people of this mansion are varied and mercurial. They're not like Fillorians, some of whom are little bitches but who were largely cow-eyed and willing to accept her authority just because she was a pretty girl from another world.

So. She has to win people over. Maybe everyone needs a little fun to take their minds off things. Conveniently, welters is absolutely Janet's idea of fun. There's a bunch of insane rules, violence is encouraged, and you win if you're good at magic and being bossy.

The mansion grounds are also a little tempestuous as to their character, but apparently the master magician toying with all their lives is feeling charitable today. She's found a big, flat stretch of undisturbed grass, and she's sketching out welters squares with a piece of chalk.

Comments

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yep. And..." Janet hesitates, but Sagramore is handsome, and sweet, and when she was on top of him, he looked at her exactly the way she likes men to look at her. And he's not crowding her or insisting on a second date; she likes that, too. So she continues, "And if I'm in charge, nobody worse can be. If you want something done right, do it yourself."

[sagramore]

"I see the logic, certainly."

[sorrowandsorrow]

How could Janet explain this, even if she wanted to? The way she needs to be in control, not because she trusts herself so much as because she trusts everyone else even less. She'd love to spin a tragic backstory about it and win some sympathy points, but she's been like this since she can remember.

Well. Whatever. She gives him a considering look. "I assume you've been having a better time."

[sagramore]

"You assume correctly." He ruffles Fenyes' mane. "What are you working on?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"It's... a game." She laughs and examines her fingers in the mid-afternoon light. Still a little dusty with chalk. "We played it in school. I drove my friends insane making them practice all the time."

[sagramore]

"Is it meant to be played alone?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Five on five, ideally." Janet pulls a face. "I know, barely enough people here and half of them don't like me."

[sagramore]

"Aye, that could pose a problem." He leans on the horse, who more or less ignores him. "Can't scale it down?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

That makes Janet brighten. She says, "Oh, no, we can. We can do two on two. It can get pretty violent." This sentence is delivered with obvious relish, then she relents and adds, "I think I'm going to have to change the rules anyway. Tone it down. I'd need more magicians here to do it the way it's meant to be played."

[sagramore]

"Well, yes, there I will be of no help to you at all," grinning. "You know, this is foolish of me, but the drinks didn't surprise me at all -- that there are games really does."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet nearly beams at him, and tosses her hair over her shoulder. "They invented it about a zillion years ago. Supposedly students kept killing each other in duels, so they came up with this to make them stop."

[sagramore]

"A tragic loss for a good old-fashioned pasttime, but I suppose. Is the game actually less dangerous?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Sure, it's less dangerous." She's still grinning. "Usually people just have to go to the nurse instead of the mortuary."

[sagramore]

"Sent by you, I suppose."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Only sometimes. I play by the rules." About this, she's quite serious, although her tone remains light. "There are a lot of them."

[sagramore]

"Mmm, that falls into the same category as the drinks: I'm not surprised. About the rules or your adherence. Will you explain it to me?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Absolutely."

At that, Janet strides a few feet away and makes a wide gesture to show the grid she's sketched. Objectively, it's not all that impressive. But it's got potential. Like so: "Some of these stay grass. Others, I'll change."

A tiny little-girl part of her wants to impress Sagramore, so she does a series of intricate motions with her fingers, mutters something in passable Japanese under her breath, and turns one of the squares into water. "Like that. Some of them will be sand, metal, whatever." Water's the easiest, but she won't tell him that. "Then you use spells to capture them, or defend them, or recapture them. Different spells work on different terrain."

[sagramore]

Gratifyingly, he does look impressed. "You can change the whole yard into different things?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Sure, if I want to. It'll take a while with just me, but what else are any of us doing with our time here?" She shades her eyes with a hand and squints toward the farther end of her future welters board. "I haven't made any progress at all toward figuring out what's keeping us here, anyway."

[sagramore]

"Right, right. Have you been working at it?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Ugh." Janet wrinkles her nose. "I've read every magic textbook in the library. Most of them are useless, first year-level stuff. I read them again anyway."

Alice could definitely bust them out. Maybe Quentin, now that he's not such a piece of shit. But magical theory has just never been Janet's strong suit.

[sagramore]

"Wait," grinning again. "Tell me the difference between first-level and advanced."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Ugh, he has a nice smile. It kind of pisses her off, in a pleasantly prickly way, how charming Sagramore is. "First years have to learn... I mean, everything, unless you were born into a family of magicians already. Most people weren't. It's hard as shit." She laughs. "You have to learn how to adjust for everything. Weather, time of day, the stars. And the way you're supposed to move your hands, it doesn't feel natural at all at first.

"But the advanced stuff is, like, theory. Why magic exists and how it does what it does. Using magic to make more magic. Altering the nature of your own magic. That's not my thing," she adds. "If you want a really technical explanation of magical theory, you need Alice."

[sagramore]

"No, no, I like you. So it's a bit like swordwork, then, all the variables, things within you and without you. And you're good at it."

[sorrowandsorrow]

That trips Janet up, just the tiniest bit. Not visibly, she thinks. "I'm good," she says, "yeah."

She's not the best. She knows that. But she is good, and she tries like hell not to make it obvious when she's faltering.