sweetly, those will come

[faking]

Who: Alois (faking) and 'Maddy' (fridgetothefire).
When: Wednesday the 18th!
Where: Alois' faaaabulous mansion, of course.
Summary: Tea invite turns to a promise of a lavish dinner.
Warnings: None to be thought of!

He's excited to greet her - new friend, new someone and something. Alois Trancy wants desperately to impress this girl, to endear her, and then they'll settle down in a field of flowers and watch the sky and understand each other, ...or something. Well, he fantasizes a lot. But his offer was serious, and it's definitely upheld: ten minutes before seven, the platters are placed out. It's not a particularly large dinner because not everyone is eating - the household has such a varying schedule. But it's rich for certain, and there's wine off to the side, and then a cart with bottles of juice on ice.

He's eager and antsy, clicking round the entrance hall in his boots, trying not to bite his fingers. If he were six years old, this would be his equivalent of a play date. It's going to be the best ever, he decides.

Comments

[fridgetothefire]

Halfway to Sector Six, she almost gets off the bus and turns right around before she even realizes she's nervous. What if it's a trap? Or worse, what if it isn't, but as soon as she gets there, Alois realizes she's just a useless country bumpkin? What if he laughs at her? She stares at her hands, willing herself to stay in place until the bus rumbles away from the stop, only to notice they're shaking.

She can't remember ever having a real friend, before. Anya doesn't know how to begin confiding in one. Fred was so amazing and nice to her, and Anya had even told her little snippets about her life, but then Fred vanished. It doesn't have to be a big deal, she tells herself sternly. It's just dinner, and tea. A night off from taking care of herself.

She twists her fingers together, working through the wiring diagrams of some the broken-down hotel rooms in her head to calm herself down. She'd fix that tomorrow. By the time she gets to the door, she has her sweetest face on, the one she uses to charm mutants who look at her more like a cute pet than annoying vermin. She neatens her hair one more time, smoothes down the old-fashioned yellow polka-dot dress she bought with her very first paycheck, and makes sure the bow is hanging straight. She takes a deep breath, smiles, and rings the bell.

[faking]

Generally a servant opens the door, and more generally that servant will be named Claude Faustus - Alois' personal butler - but this evening Alois had pushed him, and stamped his foot, and said, "This one is for me!" So he was granted the privilege of answering the door himself, and he does so with a flourish. His shorts are short, his stockings are high, and his blouse is properly lacy. More importantly, he's pink-cheeked from excitement.

"You found us after all!" is what he exclaims first, and then steps aside to let her enter. "I knew you would. Come in, Maddy, your dress is really cute and we have lots ready to eat."

[fridgetothefire]

"Oh gosh, um, thank you," she manages, blushing a little as she follows him in, her smile quirking into something that feels much more natural, for all that she's worn it only very rarely. A real smile. "I feel so strange when I wear so-called 'modern' clothes every has here. I know they're the new normal, but they just don't quite feel right, you know?"

[faking]

"I find they're uncomfortable," Alois agrees, and his eyebrows draw together dramatically. "They really aren't quite right, there's something off about just - I don't know! You're right, and I usually I wear clothes I would wear at home. But there are some outfits I really like..." He waves his hand and leads her through the main hall, towards one of the minor dining areas. "But everything's a little off when you're a little ahead of the times. Before this manor, I lived in a little apartment, and it had electricity and a refrigerator and all sorts of weird things, the first time I'd seen any of it. The cars, too, those just scared me for a long time. I feel like things change completely every decade or so."

The dining room they enter has a table that would probably seat ten. Dinner's set up at the left end - salmon steaks, lemon rice, dumplings and gravy, salads. And the chandelier is a little strange; it's equipped with light bulbs, but candles as well. Alois tilts his head back to face them, and smiles, almost nostalgic. "For a long time, I had to keep saying to myself, Get your shit together! Everyone else knows what's going on!" Half-laugh. "Now sometimes people ask me if I'm going to learn how to drive, and I'm still totally against it."

[fridgetothefire]

"I definitely want to learn to drive," she admits. "I'd never have been allowed to at home. But I can see how it'd seem crazy if you weren't used to it."

Her eyes widen a little at the opulence of the dining room, but she doesn't stare, sweeping into an available chair gracefully.

"For what it's worth, I think you've adjusted plenty," she tells him, her eyes flicking to the electric-and-candle chandelier with a grin.

[faking]

Like a proper host, instead of a clingy one, Alois sits across from her (rather than right next to, all up in her business... he's been admonished for that). Almost immediately, he cements himself as orally fixated; his spoon's in his mouth. He does move it enough to speak clearly, at least: "I had help. I'm only half this manor's owner, after all."

With a moment of consideration, he removes the spoon fully, and sets his chin in his hand. "I like filling a house up with people, anyway. Different people from different places... sometimes it's like going to all the places myself. I want to! So if I have to stay where I am, I at least want to hear stories."

/slowest sob orz

[fridgetothefire]

"I think building a home with somebody else might be even harder than doing it yourself," she observed quietly. "And, well, either way, it's lovely."

She sits with the sort of unthinkingly perfect posture that comes from being harshly reprimanded whenever one slips, and avoids being prim only by dint of her expressions, a little warmer, a little more shy than the composure of her body language. She starts on the salad, musing between bites.

"Our house was always filled with people, at home, and most of them didn't really like me, but I liked to listen to them when I could. It was the same way, it was like - at least I could get glimpses of the world, you know?"

pfff that's me!

[faking]

You know? she asks, and Alois fiddles with his fork, wondering if he does know. The son of the late Lord Trancy ought to, but Alois has to think of his supposed past on the fly, sometimes. Finally, his mouth opens, but it hangs that way for a moment before he speaks.

"I think... Yes. That's the way it is now. My household - they're not really mine, or, they don't know how they are. They don't much like me either, I think. I'm tolerated... but we share things, right? These people and me? I guess that's what makes a household. You've got the same air in common, the same sense of space and being."

Loose shrug, and he puffs out his cheeks, toying with his food in a way that any Manners Mistress would weep for.

"But it's difficult, being young... when grown-ups rule the world."

/skips off with. Slowly.

[fridgetothefire]

"It's a nice thought," she murmurs, even though it isn't, really. "At home it was always - we did share the same air, but it was very...there was resentment, the sense that it didn't mean we had anything in common, that I shouldn't presume too much on their toleration. But there's more give and take here, I suppose, you have some leverage if you're even part owner, and then - you can work with that, build together." She frowns, her mouth twisting more a moment into a dour shape before she takes a gulp of water and tries the salmon, momentarily distracted with a little moan.

slowly but surely!!

[faking]

He can't help but stare just a little, and wonder. When Alois leaves the house, he's a crowd-watcher by nature, and often he enjoys planning their lives for them, and coming up with their pasts. It's admittedly difficult not to do that to people he knows... even people he knows well, as though he's deciding he has the right to rewrite all the time they've spent. Maddy, though, is new enough that he can mold her background pretty freely in his mind. Was it mostly terrible? Or were there lots of lovely things, to match her face?

But secretly, he wants to know her truths instead. That's the danger of meeting people here.

"I like your air!" he announces suddenly, with a little start. "I would share it! And I wouldn't resent it, either. So—" But he squirms a little in his seat, suddenly staring at his fork, instead, slightly wide-eyed in embarrassment. "You're right, though. And I didn't realize it before, but wanting something feels better when you're giving something too. I don't know, you sound wiser than I do."

onward brave taggers

[fridgetothefire]

She laughs, ducking her head and blushing a little again. She doesn't say that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, because even if it's maybe true, it's still far too revealing. But she smiles when she looks back up at him, bright and real, happy crinkles in the corners of her eyes.

"You're really sweet, Alois," she says instead. "I'd like that. And...I don't know if I'm wise. I spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff to myself, and now I finally have someone to share it with, that's all."