[ march / open ] you left me, you left me no choice but to stay here forever

[princessvegas]

Who: Julie + others + open
When: March
What: this month is A Lot (this post is a catchall)
Where: Cadens + the Horizon

[ bitchcraft or bitchcraft#2753 for a starter ]

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[nadine_he_loves]

You know, I'd wondered about that. What 'dating' even is on his world. I don't know. I think I have a weird conversation in my near future.

[Whatever the hell it is between them, they need to actually talk about it at this point. It's probably already gone on too long without addressing it as is. It'll probably be fine. And Julie's advice is good - no need to make a huge thing out of it. They're both adults, for goodness sakes.

When Julie finishes, she turns to look at herself. It looks good. Really good. Who knew some eyeliner could make such a difference? Well, eyeliner when applied by someone who knows what they're doing. She never could have done that herself. It's strange and exciting, the reflection that greets her.]

Yeah? Thank you. This...already looks amazing.

[princessvegas]

Well, I know he grew up rich, like important rich, so I'm pretty sure people like that just marry someone their parents picked out when they were a baby. [ This knowledge may be coming entirely from movies and bodice ripper paperbacks. The basis in reality is tenuous at best. ] I mean, I'm not sure how it goes when they decide to go make it on their own like he did. But I don't think there's such a thing as dinner and a movie for him. Maybe like... a picnic? I dunno, seems like the kind of thing he'd be into. Medieval Netflix and chill.

[ The whole time she speaks, she's loosening the ties on the black and white corset, which she then offers to Nadine. ]

Here, switch. I have a choker you can wear with it, there's a big blue flower on one side with some hangin' crystals.

[nadine_he_loves]

Wait, Jaskier grew up rich? He's never mentioned that.

[He's never mentioned his childhood or parents at all, and Nadine has never asked. In her experience, there's a reason if someone doesn't talk about those things. She's never speculated, just assumed he has reason not to talk about it.

She starts undoing the red corset as the conversation continues.]

I knew he was a famous bard and all of that, but he never mentioned he comes from money. If his world is anything like ours was, it's definitely a lot of arranged marriages for social clout. Rich important people have all kinds of rules about who you can marry.

[Nadine's frame of reference isn't too far off from Julie's, all those period dramas she consumed painted a very clear picture. But it makes sense. It's like she was talking about earlier - grow up in a restrictive environment and there's likely to be a celebration of the opposite when free from it. Jaskier is about as free a spirit as they come.

She slips off the corset to hand it off to Julie and take the other one, vaguely aware that this in itself - gossiping, for lack of a better word, in the changing room - is some oft-imagined experience that's come to pass. Again and again it keeps occurring to her that this is a starting over, a chance to do it all again despite her age. And to do it all differently.

Never in her life has she had a friend like Julie. Despite the vast differences in personality and experiences, Nadine would be hard pressed to find someone she trusts more.]

This was a good idea. Coming out today.

[princessvegas]

His first domain was a vineyard, it was real pretty. He said he based it on his family's vineyard, and they only spent summers there. I know he went to university too, and I don't think they got scholarships in his world. Besides, how many poor people do you know that get to do shit like try to make money off songs and poetry?

[ There's no world in which Julie can imagine her family being supportive of a career in art, and neither can she imagine the same for anyone she ever knew in her life. Art isn't a job, not for regular people. At best, it's a hobby that maybe someone will recognize as good, someday, but only the incredibly wealthy can afford to live like bohemian dunces. Normal people who try to live as artists end up like van Gogh and Poe, lost to tragedy and dying in obscurity. Either that, or they quit art and join the real world to feed themselves. ]

Anyway, Jaskier's a big ol' romantic fool anyway. I'm pretty sure you could pull any rom-com bullshit on him and he'd fall for it, hook line and sinker. Shouldn't be hard to get the idea of goin' out into his head.

[ Julie folds the red top and puts it with the gold, then steps behind Nadine to lace up the back of the next one. For Julie, starting over holds its focus in magic -- she'd had friends, she'd had family, she'd had a life of luxury by the end. None of it ever really fulfilled her, never quelled her frustrations with the world. And she doesn't know if what she's finding now does either, but something is different. Maybe it's just being dropped into a world without context to tell her that she's missing something, that she needs to use people to claw her way up.

She tries not to think about it. ]

Yeah. Y'know, I've barely been around the city at all. The dresses I got all came from one shop that I went to on the second day. It was just to blend in.

[nadine_he_loves]

I never got to see his first domain - he told me it was a vineyard, though. Not his family vineyard.

[Julie's right, though, it's the rare poor kid that was able to devote themselves to the arts. Some make it, of course, but she imagines it's even more difficult in Jaskier's world. Not that it matters either way. Whatever his upbringing, Jaskier didn't act spoiled or entitled. It's just an interesting fact she now knows.]

Yeah, he's already pulled a few rom-com moves on me, so you're right about that. I'm just going to talk to him about it, though, that seems the easiest thing to do. Dating's not that weird a concept to explain.

[Probably. Though she's aware she hasn't been the best at explaining things from her world to Jaskier in particular.]

There's a lot of it I still haven't seen, and I go out a lot. But it's mostly to work and the academy, so nothing too exciting. There's supposed to be a really great theater here, though. Maybe we should check it out sometime.

[princessvegas]

Yeah, it was really nice. Hope he puts it back someday. That's where I showed him fireworks. Literally, I mean. Not like, innuendo. I guess they don't have 'em in his world. Oh, by the way, he's not allowed to have soda anymore. Or anything carbonated.

[ It's a stupid story and she will not elaborate, but she's doing Nadine a favor by warning her. That domain is probably where Jaskier got the best semblance of primer to their world. Julie had shown him Vegas, fireworks, emojis, gave him a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. Tried to give him Dr Pepper. She hates that he changed it because he was sad. ]

I never went to see plays in our world, Nadine. My cousin was a lead in Guys and Dolls, and I left before the second act. Had to buy her a cookie cake for an apology.

[nadine_he_loves]

I figured you meant literally. I bet he liked those. And...that's good to know?

[Nadine looks over her shoulder and raises an eyebrow, but she won't ask for anymore explanation if it's not coming. Maybe she'll ask Jaskier about it.

That Julie is not a play person isn't much surprise. But Nadine only knows about so many things to do in Cadens, she hasn't exactly checked out the nightlife. She never even bothered to make the one hour drive down to Boston to check out actual nightlife, when that was an option.]

It's the closest thing to the movies they have here. I think. There's the museums, too, I guess one is full of weird skeletons. I haven't really looked into recreational stuff around here yet. But we should. It's a really big city, there's got to be tons of things to do. Maybe there's a zoo or something...

[princessvegas]

Oh, he loved 'em. Did you ever see one of those videos of showin' babies fireworks for the first time? It was like that except a grown man. Super cute.

[ Nope, she will not elaborate on why he is not allowed to have carbonated drinks. Technically, Nadine can give him one if she wants, but there's a decent chance she'll get sprayed in the face.

It's not that Julie expects the kind of nightlife that she's accustomed to. But in Nott, she'd had to work many nights in the tavern, and often spent the rest of her time in the Horizon, since it was where her friends were. The only other things she really did for fun were ride her horse, maybe sometimes go to the lake and just kind of watch it. So the idea of doing anything recreationally feels a bit strange, in at least this world. But she does seem to light up a bit at the idea of a zoo. She likes animals, as anyone who has ever met her menagerie of tiny fantastical creatures can attest. ]

Yeah, I'd go to a zoo! Or like, maybe some more interestin' museums? They only ever took us to terrible museums in school. Did you know there's a Pizza Hut museum in Wichita? That's where it was founded, so we would have to go every few years for history or econ or whatever. A Pizza Hut museum... and there was no food there. We hadta to go to this place and bring fuckin' sandwiches. It was just the worst.

[ Julie assumes that Nadine, as a teacher, can commiserate on absolutely dreadful field trips. ]

[nadine_he_loves]

Why wouldn't the Pizza Hut museum have food? It's the Pizza Hut museum! That's just cruel. Why would you do that to children? Even the science museum we'd go to had astronaut food and that space ice cream stuff for the field trip kids to try.

[Nadine can most definitely sympathize with crappy field trips. She'd gone on way more than she'd ever have liked, but it wasn't like she got to pick most of them. That was the administration.]

But honestly it still sounds better than the Shaker Village I had to take my class to like every year. Which such fun activities for the kids as...box making and sweeping lessons! If it had been up to me we'd just drive the extra hour down to Massachusetts for the much, much better historical village that had a petting zoo and games and a cannon.

[Much better for the kids, who always tend to pay more attention when learning is fun. Maybe that's something to keep in mind when suggesting things to do with Julie - she isn't interested in anything educational, why would she be? She's a grown adult and her leisure time is her own.]

I only know about the one with the skeletons, here, I think it's like a natural history type museum. But I do know there's dozens of different ones in the city.

[princessvegas]

Girl, you're preachin' to the fuckin' choir. Even worse, the museum is the first restaurant, they just don't have food now. But it ain't like Kansas has much more to offer. We already had to drive an hour just to get to Wichita. Pratt, where I'm from, had three museums: an art museum that was just one family's collection they donated, a history museum of like, random Old West shit, and a military museum at the base. Three dinky museums, but twenty churches for a town of six thousand people. I think that about sums up Pratt in a sentence.

[ It is also probably prudent to keep in mind that Julie is from somewhere that didn't have any fun to offer in terms of education. The idea of the two being connected at all is pretty foreign to her. She has never had the opportunity to learn and have fun at the same time, not more than any single teacher took it upon themselves to try combining them. Most didn't. Her trial and error at magic is one of the most fun experiences she's ever had while learning, and it's not coincidental that it's also the longest and most dedicated she's ever been to studying anything. ]

I always wanted to go to the really famous museums back before Captain Trips. MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Academy Museum. I had a crazy dream to go to the Met and see the Costume Institute, like they do at the Met Gala. [ This is also probably not surprising, that she would gravitate toward art and fashion and entertainment museums, instead of history or hard sciences. The kind of things that rural Kansas has little time for.

Julie finishes lacing up the corset, then stands back, hands on her hips, looking at Nadine's reflection. ]

I know we're tryin' for color, but I think this one is a keeper too.

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, New Hampshire wasn't exactly rife with interesting museums, either. I sort of regret I never bothered to take the train to New York and see some of the stuff there. I don't know why I never did, it was cheap and just a couple of hours away.

[But Nadine, for reasons she herself can't quite articulate, had stayed very close to where life put her. Until the plague, obviously. But she'd never ventured very far beyond New Hampshire state lines, just a few school excursions down to Boston where there was more to do.

Julie's choices in places she'd like to visit don't seem strange to her, those sound like things Julie would enjoy. She wonders if there are any reasonable equivalents around here.]

That's not crazy at all. But I figure almost any museum here is going to be a lot cooler than museums back where we came from. Other world monster skeletons are neater than dinosaurs, I think. And I bet they have art museums, and maybe even fashion museums. There's supposed to be a big fashion scene in one of the other cities here. We should do some exploring.

[She gives herself an appraising look in the mirror and nods, agreeing with Julie. Yeah, this one is also a keeper.]

[princessvegas]

I think it's kinda scary to go someplace really big all alone, if you never have before and you ain't used to it. Even when I would go to Wichita for concerts and stuff, I would always sorta have to brace myself for how many people would there. It was just more than I was used to. It was always my biggest dream, to go to New York, but I don't know that I could've done it all alone, not the first time.

[ It was hard enough to get ready for Vegas when it was only a fraction of the size it had been before. As much as she wishes she were fearless enough to waltz into a city of eight million people all alone, just for fun, Julie isn't sure that she is. But that was the thing -- in her dream, she'd never been alone. She had family, friends.

With a dry chuckle, she begins to loosen the laces again, so that Nadine can change back out of it. ]

We may think they're neater, but when I showed Geralt the t-rex, I near thought he'd pass out. I didn't even make it full-size. So I guess it's just what you're used to that makes it interestin'. Ciri said she'd take me to Aquila one day, but it's like a week in a wagon to get there. But she said the fashion is amazin', that everyone there wears lots of bright colors and makeup.