It was bound to happen some time - OTA

[averygoodshot]

Aramis keenly remembers teasing Porthos when he had stepped through the door and become a woman. He had teased d'Artagnan and even Athos.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. He had not intended to do anything, really. He spent a good deal of his time praying, a good deal of time trying to atone for his sins.

Instead, this is what happens.

Much as his friends had, he has hitched his clothing tighter so that it may not fall down, and has fashioned something of a harness for ... well, for his new developments, as it were. He knows he could seek out Constance or even, if he was desperate, Milady, but he is not that desperate. He simply makes do and tells himself that God has a reason for everything.

He has always appreciated women and so maybe this is to test that? Who knows. Aramis does not question, at least not much. He is aware, though, that he looks a little foolish, his hair tied up, his clothing, baggy on him as a man, is like a series of large sacks on him, his boots far too big as he makes his way down the hallways. He smiles, though, not having a hat to tip, as he greets people. He knows he's not the only one who's suffered thusly. That's something anyway.

Comments

[temperamentalsteel]

He didn't need to ask or make guesses, not in this mad hotel. Either Aramis had just enjoyed an amorous encounter and let said encounter wander off into his clothes or he had, like the rest of them, finally encountered the tricky door that had plagued them all too.

"I would have thought you might choose something a little more tailored, Aramis," he ventured.

[averygoodshot]

"If I had it, I would. I may ask Constance if she has something I can use," Aramis says and yes, yes, tease away, d'Artagnan, tease away. Some of his old spirit returns as he says, "at least I am attractive in this form."

It's small solace, but still.

[temperamentalsteel]

D'Artagnan coughed, a little embarrassed of what he was about to admit. "I have some thins that may fit. Since I've fallen through that door more than once," he explained.

"And if you tease me for it, I'll leave you to wander the halls."

[averygoodshot]

"More than once?"

Oh, d'Artagnan. Mum's the word. Aramis merely reaches - and he has to reach up a bit - to squeeze d'Artagnan's shoulder. "Thank you."

[temperamentalsteel]

He couldn't pretend that he didn't enjoy having some height advantage. Even as men, he often had an inc or two of height on Aramis and Athos, but having the chance to loom over Aramis was a treat.

"Just say a prayer that none of us goes though that door."

[averygoodshot]

"That I will do." Though it hardly seems as prayer-worthy as the other acts that Aramis is trying to work off.

"And how is Constance, by the way?" Aramis asks, not having seen her in some time - his own fault, what with boxing himself up in his room.

[temperamentalsteel]

"About," d'Artagnan said, not without a little jealousy. "She seems to be the only one who's free to come and go as she pleases, unlike the rest of us." The hotel was always so very selective when it came to d'Artagnan's access.

[averygoodshot]

In this flash of a moment, Aramis wonders.

"Have you been back to Paris?" he asks d'Artagnan, curious. "Since we last spoke?"

[temperamentalsteel]

"Once and not long enough to accomplish anything," d'Artagnan said. The thought made his eyebrows furrow in concern. Here in the hotel, it was oddly easy to push aside thoughts of home. Or maybe that wasn't so surprising, given the way he might go insane with worry otherwise.

[averygoodshot]

"Ah." Aramis nods and smiles just a little. All right. Just as the others have done with him, he does not tell d'Artagnan what he already knows, too.

"Well. I have," he says. "And ... if it's any comfort, I'm here to tell the tale." Albeit in a woman's body, but still.

[temperamentalsteel]

"God tell me that it ends happily," d'Artagnan prayed. If he couldn't be the one to stab Rochefot through for all that he'd done, then it had better be the rest of them in his stead.

[averygoodshot]

"I think it does," Aramis says quietly and certainly. "For all of us." Or so he likes to believe.

His leaving for the monastery, after all, is for the best. Constance too is safe, as are the Queen and the Dauphin, and Rochefort is dead.

[temperamentalsteel]

It lacked in details but at least there was confirmation enough. "Thank God," he said. "No one was harmed? Constance? You?" After all, Aramis was the one who had the most to lose from all of this.

[averygoodshot]

"I will tell you more specific things if you wish to know them," Aramis says, "however, know that no, Constance is not harmed, and I am fine."

[temperamentalsteel]

"And Rochefort," d'Artagnan asked finally. He was as afraid of the answer as he was in desperate need to know. If all had ended well by their standards that meant he had hanged or some other fitting punishment.

[averygoodshot]

"Rochefort is dead," Aramis tells him. "He died alone. He will no longer be a threat to the Queen or Constance or France."

[temperamentalsteel]

It was, perhaps, unchristian to thank God for the death of another, but d'Artagnan looked heavenward all the same. "Thank God that that monster cannot harm us."

[averygoodshot]

Aramis can get behind that sentiment, though he does wish he had shown the man mercy after death. However, he had listened to the Queen and had acknowledged that.

"The rest, I will leave for you to figure out."

[temperamentalsteel]

D'Artagnan couldn't fault Aramis for it, not wanting to give away the details of his future. It didn't matter because, at least for him, reentry into Paris always seemed to dull his memories of the hotel until he simply thought them dreams.

"I'm glad, at least. Let's get you a drink. Some food."

[averygoodshot]

"I will not decline a glass of wine," Aramis tells him, smiling. "Thank you, d'Artagnan. After, perhaps, you lend me the clothes, however, as I feel wrapped in a kind of swaddling in all of this."

[temperamentalsteel]

D'Artagnan started and then laughed at himself. He'd been so caught up in Aramis' news that he'd utterly forgotten the scenario right in front of him. "Of course, my room is just here."

[averygoodshot]

With a grin, Aramis clasps d'Artagnan's shoulders and follows him inside. "Thank you."

[temperamentalsteel]

"Anytime, my friend." Quickly, d'Artagnan produced his key card and found his quarters. "This hotel has tricked me enough times that I've given in to pride and kept some clothes."

[averygoodshot]

"Best to be prepared," Aramis tells him, though the idea makes him smile. "At least, I do hope that you and Constance have made some entertainment of such a change?"

[temperamentalsteel]

With Aramis, that statement could mean anything and d'Artagnan turned to favor Aramis with an appraising look, his eyebrows raised. It was an expression he'd learned from Aramis himself, playful but revealing nothing.

"This ought to fit you," he sad, taking out a loose brown dress with an adjustable waist.