The Creepy, Once-More-Unduly-Filled-With-Children Mansion in the Woods, Saturday

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana had spent the night in Innistrad; the geistmage she'd borrowed from Olivia had wanted to get some preliminary readings and measurements from the Chain Veil. While the night had been long and tedious, the following morning (late morning, to be sure) saw her Planeswalking home again, full of smiles and empty of stomach. Her staff at the estate had offered to make her breakfast before she'd left, but she'd waved them off. After all, she was certain to return home to a paramour cooking up brunch in the kitchen, and why ruin her appetite for that?

Her blithe assurance of how her day was going to go crashed around her ears when she swept into the (oddly quiet and scentless) kitchen, with a cheerful "My darling, what culinary delights have you prepared for my delectation this morning, I'm positively starved!" only to find a child sitting in her breakfast nook.

Specifically, the child her paramour had once been, and had returned to for the weekend.

"Bloody hell," she said, looking at the sandy-haired young boy with undisguised dismay. "This island's timing and humor are atrocious."

[For the gentleman, of course, but also open for any wandering adults and children because a Liliana-run daycare sounds hilarious.]

Comments

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon had woken up in the place with the fluffy cat again, and had wasted quite a bit of time playing with her. But eventually he'd gotten bored and gone for a walk. And there were woods here! Woods were always fun to walk in.

Oo, a spooky house? That definitely needed exploration!

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana was just going to watch the boy case her house like a tiny burglar, sipping her cocoa with something like slightly baffled amusement. By this point, she was simply waiting to see how long it took him to notice she was watching.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Tiny Jon was much less conscious of being watched than adult Jon, so it would be a while. He was already climbing up one of the windows before he noticed Liliana inside, squeaked, and dropped back down.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana opened the window she was watching from. "Having fun...?" She narrowed her eyes, trying to match the face with the ones she had seen as a child herself. "Jon?"

She thought that was correct.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon stared up at her wide-eyed and chagrined. If she knew who he was, she must know his gran. Or his reputation for wandering off.

"Um...uh...yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, I thought it was empty here and it looked interesting and I just wanted to see what was inside!" He paused for a breath. "Don't call the police, please, or tell my gran! I'll just go away."

[deathsmajesty]

"I don't know your gran and I have my own, far more effective ways with dealing with intruders," she informed him. "I suppose you're starving and need feeding? Yes, yes, come inside. And don't touch anything

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon's eyes went even wider when she mentioned dealing with intruders. That didn't sound good!

But then she invited him in, which didn't seem bad? He chewed his lip uncertainly. He was hungry, but he'd eaten some biscuits when he'd fed the cat, so he wasn't starving, and he didn't really know this woman. But this place seemed safe...

He brushed himself off as he stood up, still watching her a little nervously. "If you try to kidnap me, I can yell really loud," he warned. "And kick."

[deathsmajesty]

"Darling, why in the Abyss would I want to kidnap you?" she asked, looking down at him. "Do I look like a woman who enjoys the company of children? Showing you that I live in a normal home will deter you from continuing to climb my house probably falling and breaking your leg and also something of possible value off my house."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon narrowed his eyes at her. "Fair," he decided. "This is not a normal house, though. It's huge!"

[deathsmajesty]

"It's a normal house for me," Liliana conceded. "I like my space. And my belongings. And I don't like people, which is why the exterior remains the way it does. Now come along. You may ask questions, at least until I get tired of answering them."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon's eyes lit up at that. Look, there was a reason he was so well aligned to the Eye.

"How big is it? How can you even use such a big house?"

[deathsmajesty]

She gave him the square footage of the house, then broke it down by how many floors and the number of rooms. "And I have a great many rooms that I use for only one thing," she said with a laugh. "A ballroom, a gaming room, a conservatory, a formal dining room, guest rooms...We redid our upstairs so any guests could have their own suites."

And no one would think they were free to use her bathing chamber. Hannibal had warned her about that.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"What do you conserve?" Jon asked. "Why do you need a whole room for it?"

[deathsmajesty]

"Plants, mostly," Liliana said with a smile. "It's...mmm, consider it something like a greenhouse, but attached to the house. A lovely room to relax in, with a fountain in the middle, and it's always warm."

Warm was very important to Liliana and her body that was so cold, her breath didn't steam in the winter.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Colour Jon skeptical. "Like fruits and things? So they don't die in winter? We went to Kew Gardens with school last year. It's got a bunch of greenhouses. The Palm House was the first place to use wrought iron that much, and all the panes of glass are hand-blown. The Temperate House is much bigger, though. It took over thirty years to build! It's the biggest Victorian glass house still around. There was one called the Tea House, though they didn't use it for tea, I don't think, but the suffragettes burned it down. And they've got the tallest flagpole in Britain! It's all one big tree, though it's rather cheating because the tree is from Canada. I suppose they are technically part of the UK, but it's not exactly the same."

[deathsmajesty]

"You know a lot of facts, Jon darling," Liliana said, said with a smile. "As you grow up, some people will tell you not to just rattle them off, that you'll just come off as a know-it-all. But do you know what I think?"

She gave him a conspiratorial smile. "That's just because they're boring and jealous they don't know interesting facts about the world. There's nothing sadder than someone who isn't curious about the world and nothing more tedious than someone who uses their energy to try to put out the spark of curiosity in others." She patted him on the head. "Never choose boring, Jon. It doesn't suit."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon scowled a little at first, but as she continued, but he was grinning by the end, even though he rolled his eyes and squirmed out from under her hand, straightening his hair (for some value of "straightened").

"I don't want to be boring. Learning things is exciting! Even if the police don't think so. They're awful."