BURN

the tournament

"Aren't you going to be hot?" asks Dot, taking in the all-black outfit as Agatha appears next to her in the Entrance Hall. "It's a lovely day."

Agatha turns to stare at her.

"Oh, right." mutters Dot. Agatha snorts.

"How does that work?" asks Dot curiously as they move towards the steps. "Like, do you feel heat but just not care? Or do you not register it at all? What about cold?"

Agatha shrugs.

"I can tell whether it's hot or cold, but since my body temperature is so high, nothing ever makes much of an impression." she says. "I do best in extreme heat."

Dot's eyes widen.

"So that's why you wear all this black? To try and be as hot as possible?"

"No, I just like black."

"...oh." Dot frowns. "What about extreme cold, then?"

Agatha shrugs.

"I'd like to see, but, frankly, I've never been anywhere cold enough to make an impression on me."

"Snow? Ice?"

"I just melt it."

"Aww. That's such a shame."

Agatha makes a vague noise of assent. She's never seen the point of snow. It's just inconvenient, and it doesn't look that nice.

They reach the bottom of the steps and are joined by Callis and Beatrix, who are, oddly, muttering together. Agatha can't help but thank her lucky stars for the conspicuous absence of Vanessa--

Oh.

Agatha turns away bad-temperedly when she sees Sophie lurking at the back. It hadn't occurred to her that Sophie would have to sit with them, as well.

"Agatha--" Sophie starts towards her--

"So," Agatha cuts loudly across her. "What are we doing today?"

"Like I said, going to watch a celebratory tournament." says Beatrix brightly. "It's not hard, all you need to do is sit in the royal box and clap when people win, and it's not even as if you'll have to school your expression. Just wave and clap and sit up straight."

Agatha, who thinks that sounds suspiciously like parades she's had to go to at home, isn't convinced.

"Right." she says. "Er, where is it?"

"Just in the grounds, we can walk there." says Beatrix brightly. "Come on!"

She sets off, and Agatha hurries to catch up with Callis.

"Where's Vanessa?"

"She's meeting us there." jumps in Sophie, rushing up to walk next to her. "Agatha--"

"Of course you know, lapdog." snarls Agatha, and barges past her.

Dot is right; it is a lovely day. Despite the constant, irking presence of Sophie bobbing along behind her, Agatha can't help but enjoy the sun beating down on her back as they make their way through manicured gardens and reflecting pools. Whatever Dot and Beatrix have given her to wear, it's a lot lighter and looser than her usual clothes, so, hopefully, she's not going to stop breathing properly thanks to the corset/veil combination and faint in public, like she's done before.

Callis has pulled forward to walk with Beatrix-- what are they talking about?-- and Dot is too slow a walker to keep up with Agatha, so she's forced to walk alone with nothing to distract her from Sophie's huffing as she hurries along, trying to keep pace with her--