Closed Post: #SelfCare

[sorrowandsorrow]

Eat your heart out, Castle Whitespire. Eat your heart out, Eliot Waugh. Janet doesn't need any of you, because she found this stupid mansion's stupid Jacuzzi all by herself. In the aftermath of the zombie uprising (by the way: what the fuck?), she must have been putting out some kind of extra desperation, caked in sweat and zombie dust and the dirt of the mansion's grounds, because as she stomped down the hallway to her bedroom, something told her to open a door. And she did. And there it was.

It was fucking glorious, and she was too selfish to wait that time, but she has a date to set up. Susan will find a neon orange Post-It stuck to the door of her room this morning that says: Found it. Meet me at seven o'clock tonight, third door on the right when you hang a left past that ugly chandelier with the swans. --J

She even doodled a little crown symbol over the letter to make her point clear.

When Susan does make her way to the room with the hot tub, she'll see Janet in a black bikini with a glass of prosecco in one hand, another frosty glass sitting on the tiles next to her hand. With that hand, she's propping herself up as she takes a sip. Her legs are dangling into the Jacuzzi already, but she hasn't switched on the jets yet.

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[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan slips the note into her pocket and goes to her closet. She's not sure how to blend mourning and bikini - and neither, it seems, does the strange magic of this place. It eventually yields a deep burgundy number that looks like a more-scandalous version of what she's used to.

Ah, well. She's has a good body, and no compunctions about it being seen by others. She puts the bikini on, pulls a black robe over it, and goes to find the Jacuzzi. Luckily, Janet's instructions are clear, and the room is easy to find.

She slips inside and shuts the door gently behind her. "Janet," she says, warmly.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Hey." Janet shoots her a little grin and sits up straighter. She raises her glass, then nods meaningfully toward the one that's clearly marked for Susan next to her. "It's been a little while." This is pretty clearly Janet-speak for it's good to see you.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Too long," Susan agrees. She shucks her robe, letting it puddle onto the floor before thinking better of it and draping it over the back of a handy chair. Then she climbs up next to Janet and picks up the glass. She raises it in a silent toast. "I've got some good news."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet watches this, gazing at Susan frankly and unabashedly as the robe falls away. It's one of those things that's easier to brush off between women, but she wants to make it clear that even if this doesn't go anywhere tonight, she's looking with real appreciation, not you look so cute, platonic girlfriend appreciation.

Anyway. She lifts her own glass with a small smile. "Good news? From you? I'll believe it when I hear it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan registers the look. Many things feel... easier, today; it's been a good day on multiple fronts, and she decides to lean in to the vibe she's picking up from Janet. She slides her easily-accessible flirtatious smile on, then sips from her prosecco, giving Janet a conspiratorial look over the rim of her glass. "Have you heard about Enjolras's cafe?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"No." Janet laughs, almost self-deprecating. She's been a little checked out since everything with Sagramore. "But go on. Am I finally going to be able to get a decent latte around here?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

From context, Susan assumes that Janet is talking about a specific drink rather than just milk. "Regrettably, I doubt it," she says. A little catty, she adds, "Between you and me, I don't think that man regards 'cafes' as anything more than a gathering-space. Oh, there was a liquor cabinet, a promise of pastries, and discussion of a small refrigerator for - some purpose, or another. Heaps of unsorted furniture all around, a plan for a bookshelf, that sort of thing. A - oh, what did he say. 'Access to coffee,' I believe." She rolls her eyes. "So it's not a lost cause. Still, it doesn't instill a great deal of hope, does it? But I believe I convinced him on the importance of... ambiance." This last is said with a wicked gleam in her eye.

[sorrowandsorrow]

All of this helps Janet's next laugh come much more easily. She knocks back a mouthful of prosecco and says, "Men are so pathetic sometimes." She shoots Susan a fresh sidelong grin. "So, we're going to take them for everything they're worth, is that what you're saying?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I've already liberated and relocated several dartboards," Susan tells her.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Thank God." Janet raises her glass toward Susan again, toasting her ingenuity. "Now let me show you what it's all about."

She's perched herself pretty close to the Jacuzzi control panel. All she has to do is reach over and press a button, and then the jets come on.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh!" Susan says, surprised and then thrilled. She leans over, putting her hand in the water next to one of the jets to feel its pressure, carefully holding her prosecco out of the way. "Oh, that's a delight."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I know," Janet says, insufferably smug and not even trying to hide it. She takes the second or two necessary to tug a hair tie off her wrist and wrangle her hair up into an untidy bun before sliding, with a reasonable amount of grace, the remainder of the way into the water.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's hair is already up in her usual crown of braids, as always; she watches Janet slip into the tub and then follows her in. She's a little less graceful about it, but manages to find purchase with minimal splashing. Thus ensconced, she takes a sip from her prosecco and sets the glass on the ledge of the tub.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"There we go." Under the water, Janet stretches out her legs. She drains her first glass of prosecco, then immediately reaches for the bottle to give herself a refill. "So, these things are incredibly popular. For relaxation and health, I guess, but also for parties."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"For parties!" Susan tries to envision this. The closest she can come is the naiads that would frolic in the pools deep in the woods close to Cair Paravel. Sometimes they'd let Susan and Lucy in on the fun, but that felt... different. She takes in the entire tub. It doesn't seem quite big enough for the sort of party she's envisioning. "Like what?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet huffs out a sound that's half of a laugh. Susan is so like her in some ways, and Janet likes her so much, that sometimes it's too easy to forget she's from more than a half a century ago. "Like... house parties. I mostly went to those when I was on breaks from the stupid expensive boarding school my parents packed my ass off to the second they could, or from Brakebills. You know, a bunch of bored teens or twenty-somethings drinking cheap booze and trying to get laid."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's conceptualization of Jacuzzi parties reorients, sharply, from wild women frolicking in the water to wild women frolicking in the water. "I know the type," she says, tone fondly exasperated. "I've been to - and thrown - a fair few."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh, have you?" Janet tosses her a sharp, fleeting grin before taking the first sip from her refilled glass. She's positioned herself so there's a jet right on her back, between her shoulders, and it feels amazing after all that axe-slinging.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Most recently..." Susan tries to remember. "Bonfire night, last autumn. It was a horrid drizzly day; my - friend, Miriam, didn't fancy going out even after it cleared up. So she roped my flatmate and I into celebrating indoors instead." She rolls her eyes. "Some of the boys had been collecting penny bangers from the newsagents; I believe George even tried to light them in the bathtub until Ingrid prevailed upon him to not be an idiot." She takes a sip of her champagne. She's in a good enough mood that this memory doesn't hurt. "Edmund, my younger brother, stopped by for a book. I'd forgotten he'd planned on visiting. He certainly got an eyeful." She shakes her head, still fond. "He avoided my flat for weeks, after."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Lulled into a bit of contented fuzziness by the warmth of the water and the prosecco, Janet barks out a startled, delighted laugh at the introduction of Edmund into the story. She immediately remembers, a sharp twist in her gut, what happened to Edmund -- but she doesn't let that show or deter the rest of her laughter. "Oh my God," she says, delighted. "Oops. Maybe it's a good thing my parents decided they were bored with kids after me."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah, but it's so fun to scandalize your siblings," Susan says, easily, buoyed from any potential bad mood by the bubbles - of the tub, the prosecco, and Janet's company. She purses her lips. "I do think Ingrid was the worst offender, though. Edmund was never interested in women. I don't know if it's because he preferred men or solitude, but Ingrid... well. Let's just say she was shameless in her flirtation."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I just had to scandalize my babysitters, I guess." Janet laughs again, a quieter and more comfortable kind of laugh. "Ingrid sounds like a piece of work. I mean, you have to admire the tenacity, but..." She trails off evocatively.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"She's a psychoanalyst," Susan says, as if that explains everything. She has little to say to Janet's babysitter comment - more often than not, she was the one babysitting her siblings.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Psychoanalyst?" Janet can't help the glance of incredulous amusement. "Like... Freud?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Among others," Susan says. She finishes her glass of prosecco. "She's familiar with his work, of course, and trained briefly under Anna, but I believe she's part of the middle group now."