The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

On Friday, Arthur had reached a decision. After the weekend, he wasn't in the best mood to follow through on it, but there were few reasons to let his mood interfere with what was, essentially, a duty of some kind.

The duty of survival. As Crown Prince, it was a real one.

Still, he thought, as he arrived in the salle, Dinah had best be grateful. And it was all tactics. His gut still twinged with the sting of clear betrayal, but his sense of morality was as confused on this subject as anything else ever was, and so he ignored it.

[[ open! ]]

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[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice dropped Reno a quite proper curtsy. One should always curtsy to one's card guards, especially the unpaid, volunteer variety.

"Good morning," she managed. There, she was quite sociable and entirely herself.

[raspberryturk]

Oh, yes. She completely was. Except for the fact that, to particular card guards who had stayed alive by knowing otherwise, she looked like she was trying entirely too hard to be quite sociable and entirely herself.

"Yo, Alice." And Reno was going to be mean and strike up a conversation, now. "How've you been? Some weekend, huh?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Quite," Alice said decidedly. "In fact, I spent a fair amount of time this morning trying to decide if everything since the harpies had been some sort of feverish dream. One can never tell, with Fandom."

[raspberryturk]

"Never been turned into a little kid around here, huh?" Reno was giving her that look that quite clearly said that he'd caught the 'everything' part of that sentence, and that he was already speculating as to what entirely that everything included.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Not that," she agreed easily. Far safer ground. "I've been a lost princess, and a quite provocative young girl, and a teenaged boy with my eyes. And I suppose a grasshopper and a giant, but neither of those were Fandom's doing."

[raspberryturk]

"Fandom's just fulla surprises," Reno noted, resting his baton on his shoulder. "So. What's new?"

Because clearly harpies and randomly turning into kids weren't news enough.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Not ... terribly much," she lied. Poorly. "And yourself? Anything particularly interesting?"

[raspberryturk]

"I managed to be six without messin' up my whole life, this year. See, there's this thing about weekends like this one that have this funny way of bringin' about aftermath."

Here was Reno, narrowing his eyes a little and looking over her face for signs of aftermath.

"What happened, Alice?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Nothing," she said, and it was less of a lie this time. "Nothing that should matter to anyone here. Perfectly ordinary. Only ... that I behaved in ways that are perhaps unbefitting a queen. Quite certain, they don't allow for one to be a lady."

Alice had little regard for the finer notes of etiquette, but this seemed a larger matter.

[raspberryturk]

Reno raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a little.

"You figure bein' a lady has anything to do with bein' a queen?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

The question surprised her, and she met his eyes. "I don't, usually," she admitted. "Queens must be ruthless and calculating, and propriety doesn't account for holding one's throne against all challengers. I know that I've long since past what is proper for a lady, but I shouldn't like to be an indecent queen."

[raspberryturk]

"And what you did somehow makes you less ruthless and calculating?"

What did propriety have to do with it? Reno's head was working overtime, trying to figure this out. "What's your idea of improper, Alice?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"No less ruthless or calculating," she said, setting her chin. At least she knew that for certain. "There was a soft place to land, and a quiet contentment, and those things aren't ruthless, but one hardly needs to be ruthless at all times."

[raspberryturk]

Oh, wow, Reno knew that tune.

"You worried about the fall, or the landing, or what people will think about you if they find out about either?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Closer to that one," she admitted. "Less what they might think, exactly. I suppose I'm wondering if perhaps their suppositions were correct, that such things are wrong or unspeakable or whatever else they would have said."

[raspberryturk]

Okay. He was sick of speculating, here.

"Alice? What happened?"

Because it was hard to be rational and helpful while grasping for straws, really.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice struggled, within herself, for an appropriate euphemism. Except euphemisms were quite tiring, and she was going to make herself say this as plainly as she could manage.

"I took a gentleman friend to bed," she said, her voice determined. It had been her choice; wrong or right, she would not apologize for it. "Although it was his bed, so perhaps it would be more proper to say that he took me. I don't mean that I slept in his bed, either, although I did do that, as well."

[raspberryturk]

Oh, hey.

Reno was actually kind of proud of Alice, right then. She was so worried about propriety and so on, but she managed to just up and say it without a bunch of fiddling and blushing and trying to hide from it.

He thought on that for a moment.

"There ain't no shame in it," he noted.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"It didn't feel shameful," she admitted. "But there are those who would disagree. He isn't my spouse. For that matter, I'm not sure what we are, if anything."

[raspberryturk]

"You feel close to him?" Reno gave his baton a little tap against his shoulder, mostly trying to figure out if the 'him' was someone he was going to have to keep an eye out for or not. "I mean, you got to know him, he got to know you, you didn't get pressured into somethin' you weren't wanting or nothin'?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I do," she said. "More so now. I don't know what our interactions would be classified as, but I care for him, and I'm certain he cares for me. He's been quite honest about his other engagements, as well. No pressure; I made my choice, although it was perhaps impulsive of me. Which is how I always choose such things."

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, I got no right to go around tellin' people not to be impulsive, yo," came Reno's easy reply. "And anyhow, there ain't no crime in bein' close to the guy you care for."

He gave his baton another tap against his shoulder, and then shook his head. "You feel any less Alice for havin' done it?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"No," she said. "Alice-Who-Jumped, Alice-in-the-Music-Store, Alice the Orphan, Alice the Queen. I'm any Alice and every Alice. I think perhaps I'm ... different, though. Older. Not because my body touched someone else's, but ... because I decided that, and don't regret it."

[raspberryturk]

"Alice-who-lives," Reno said, not so much as missing a beat. "Alice, who is Alice, has been Alice, and will keep growin' into whatever Alice it is she ultimately decides to be. An' if that Alice is Queen Alice, who got close to someone she cared for and ain't got no regrets? All power to you, yoto."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Alice-who-lives," she repeated softly, as though she was tasting the words. They had a light, fresh taste; clean and crisp on her tongue.

"I don't think I know yet how I feel about it, beyond that I don't regret it," she allowed. "Well, beyond the more obvious matters."

That it had been very enjoyable, to be blunt.