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]

Janet grins when she sees Sagramore, and straightens from her work. She scrubs her chalky hands on her breeches, so that she can offer the back of one sidelong to Fenyes, to sniff, when they draw close enough. "Sir Sagramore, of Camelot," she says, lightly teasing. "I thought you'd never call."

[sagramore]

Fenyes snuffles Janet's hand and then whuffs out a breath, disappointed at the lack of treats, before lowering her head to crop grass.

"Forgive me," he says, in tones that suggest he neither expects nor desires forgiveness. He throws his leg over the saddle and drops to the ground. "How are you?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Fair enough, Fenyes. Janet has a horse of her own (had a horse of her own?) back in Fillory, but she didn't think to come equipped with apples on her accidental world-crossing adventure.

"Bored," she admits, rolling her eyes about it, as if she hates to even say it. "Bored and maybe in a power struggle with some asshole?"

[sagramore]

"Oh, really?" a clear invitation for her to go on.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I don't even know if this mansion is worth ruling," Janet admits, "but I don't know what makes Claudius better qualified than me. I'm a literal queen." Admittedly, he's a king, or he's going to be one. But that doesn't count. That's a murder thing.

She really considers letting what she knows about him slip, but maybe that's best saved for a time when she needs it more pressingly.

[sagramore]

"Hmmm," he says, warm neutral. It seems an inopportune moment to mention that he knows and likes Claudius. "Ruling would be generally a means to occupy your time, then."

[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."