Maybe it's some kind of character growth, or something, that Janet can admit to herself she's a little bit nervous. It's embarrassing, but it would be stupid to pretend otherwise. It's also bizarre, because she hasn't been nervous about a date since she was a first year at Brakebills and Sebastien from the five-zillion-generations-of-magic family asked her out. (He turned out to be a dick. Quelle surprise.)

Anyway. The point is, she's kind of nervous, because Susan is meeting her here in T-minus not that many minutes, and this is undeniably date number three, and Janet's not supposed to give a shit about how it goes, but she can also admit to herself that she really wants it to go well. She blow-dried her hair, for Christ's sake. That was the first blow-dryer she'd seen in years, but apparently the mansion could tell she needed one. She's still in jeans, but they're nice ones, dark wash and everything. Her blouse is wine-red and off the shoulder. Basically, she's taken the whole date night thing to heart.

She's in one of the nicer lounges, one with some atmospheric exposed brick and expensive-looking furniture. There's a bottle of what she's about ninety-seven percent sure is real Fillorian wine on the table in front of her, along with two clean and empty wineglasses. There are no words on the label of the bottle, but there is a sigil of two rams' heads, which makes her irritable and nostalgic at the exact same time. Her legs are crossed, ladylike as hell, and her boots are freshly polished.

[NSFW!]

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.

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.