open post: further up and further in

[magicianking]

Eliot hasn't been depressed, per se, because it's sort of impossible to be depressed in Fillory. There's too much to do, these days: rebuilding Castle Whitespire, helping Josh and Poppy with the baby, and generally trying to run a post-apocalyptic-but-now-pretty-much-fine magical kingdom. Being High King of Fillory is, not to be totally cliche, Eliot's calling, and he's found a peace that he never had before. But it still sucks absolute balls that both Quentin and Janet are gone.

When Janet had first disappeared, Eliot had devoted all of his kingly resources to trying to find her. None of their world-jumping buttons had been missing, so he'd promised a knighthood and a castle to anyone in Fillory who found the missing Queen Janet.

"She won't love being treated like a damsel in distress like this," Poppy had told him.

"Well, if you have a better idea," he'd snapped, and that had been that, until a letter had arrived in the gazing pool. It had been frustratingly contextless, but obviously from Janet.

"Where is she?" Josh asked at the next meeting of the monarchs.

"I don't know. She's trapped, but she seems more annoyed than in danger."

"So she's in another universe? Since she had to use your telegram thing?" Poppy asked.

"Seems likely."

All of them had lapsed into silence.

"Should we call off the Queen hunt? Some of them are getting a little Don Quixote out there," said Poppy.

"No," Eliot had decided. "Just in case." Damsel in distress, Janet was not; but hell if he would ever be the one to give up on finding her.

--

Eliot's on his way to check on the progress of Castle Whitespire, wandering up the path from the comfortable townhouse he's been staying in, when the ground changes abruptly beneath his feet. He stumbles, and when he looks up--Dorothy, he is not in magical Kansas any more. Not in Oz any more? Whatever. The energy of wherever he is is totally different. He doesn't think it's Earth, either, despite the fact that he's in front of a huge Earth-style mansion.

"What the fuck," he mutters, and opens the door.

Comments

[untamedantinous]

"I have heard a little more of the play than the novel," he says, somewhat bemused. "Who wrote it, if I may ask?"

[magicianking]

"Oh, Victor Hugo. Really long-winded guy."

[untamedantinous]

Despite himself, Enjolras cannot help but laugh. It changes his face entirely, he looks less forbidding and stern, more like the young man he truly is. "Hugo? The poet?"

[magicianking]

The smile makes Eliot automatically grin back. "Yep, the very same. Did you actually know him?"

[untamedantinous]

"Not personally, of course, but my friends are great fans of some of his work. He recently wrote a novel about Notre-Dame de Paris." There's a beat. "Well, recently for me, I suppose."

[magicianking]

"Right, you're from olden times," Eliot says. "How are the modern conveniences of this kidnapping mansion treating you?"

[untamedantinous]

He looks amused. "I have grown used to them over time. The hot water and electricity is delightful."

[magicianking]

Eliot pictures Enjolras taking a shower. Delightful is definitely the word. "I sometimes miss electricity, in Fillory," he admits. "It's even less technologically advanced than your time. But I'm a magician, so light and hot water aren't a problem."

[untamedantinous]

He nods. "There are some here who work magic as well -- ah..gods and the like, though some magicians also. A friend was learning some from one of them."

[magicianking]

"Gods? Oh, shit." Eliot has not, historically, heard good things about gods. "They aren't hurting people, are they?"

[untamedantinous]

"Oh, no. The angel and demon are quite kind, if slightly odd. The gods -- well, I have not spoken to them overmuch; but Apollo is for the most part a good deal kinder than his depictions would have you believe. Dionysus as well."

[magicianking]

"Straight-up Greek gods? Interesting. Any Dionysian orgies?"

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras promptly turns slightly pink. (It's probably quite fetching, if he cared to think about that sort of thing.) "If there are, I would not know."

[magicianking]

Oh ho. "More of a one-on-one kind of guy?"

[untamedantinous]

"And why must you know?" An eyebrow arch.

[magicianking]

"Thought I'd shoot my shot. What do you say? I'm definitely down for one-on-one."

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras snorts. "French republicans are more known for beheading kings than bedding them, I am afraid. My apologies."

[magicianking]

"Damn. Well, I guess I have my answer on the gay fanfiction thing."

[untamedantinous]

"Mm." He dismisses that line of questioning, in favor of: "There is another from my home here. Have you met Grantaire?"

[magicianking]

"No, not yet," Eliot replies, interested. "So thinking about gay sex made you think of him, huh?"

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras' eyes flash briefly, and he frowns a little. "This is getting rather familiar."

[magicianking]

"My bad," Eliot says easily. Damn, his chances of sleeping with a Les Mis character are as dead as a doornail. "What made you think of him, then?"

[untamedantinous]

Perhaps he should have tried speaking to the other one if he wanted to have any sort of chance. Enjolras shrugs a bit. "He is here, is all."

[magicianking]

"Sure, sure. People often come in twos?"

[untamedantinous]

"Not as such. But we are, I believe, the only two who have arrived that died at the same time. Even though we arrived separately."