Blast from the past. PG. ttm. Lamia.
Fandom: None. Original.
Prompt: prompt 46-lamia
Warnings: Umh. None.
Rating: PG
Summary: Jay, Jackie and Madeline visit a museum and get a history lesson. lol. Yeah, that sucks as a summary. You better just read it, makes more sense.
A/N: These are char's that have been rattling in my brain for a while now, and I've written another story but that one is still being polished and this is just what I wrote today. Yay, I still got it. lol. I just made up the museum, artistic licence and all that. ;)
Banner credits: Melissa George, Sarah Shahi (Google) and Raza Jaffrey (Tv.com). Font is Fely by Cristina Pais @ Dafont.com and background is by kisuncha
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"Why are we here? Are you being all nostalgic again, because if so why do we have to be here for it?" Jay asked Jackie who was looking at the old paintings on the walls of the place they were in. They had been on their way to find something to eat, and then Jackie had noticed that this museum wouldn't close for another hour which resulted in her dragging them with her into it. Any moment now Jay's stomach was going to start growling from hunger.
"Do you three want a guide? It's so much more fun because I can tell you all sorts of things about the paintings that are not on the plaques beside it. Those only say things like the name, year and artist. Not much the history of the people in it or anything." A brunette woman with a little sprinkle of freckles asked them as she stepped up to them and gave her best polite smile. In reality you couldn't get a guide this close to the closing time but she was seriously not in a mood to go home at the moment so she saw the group and decided to try her luck. Believe it or not, but some people did not react well to be asked if they wanted a guide.
"Sure, it can't hurt. Lead the way." Jay told the woman who had unintentionally cut into his conversation with Jackie who just looked relieved that she didn't have to answer him and used his most charming smile to go along with it which made her smile right back at him with a little tint of red in her cheeks. The guide, Gabrielle just could not keep the thought from her head about how Man, that guy's hot as they walked up to the first painting of many.
"This first painting is off King Louis XV. He became the Dauphin in 1712 after the measles dragged his parents and older brother to death. Actually his older brother could have survived if the royal doctors hadn't bled him several times. They meant well, because they thought this would help him but it only made things worse. Louis's Governess, Madame de Ventadour saved him by locking herself in with him and three nursery maids. Refusing to let the doctors near him. He became better and became king three years later after his great-grandfather, Louis XIV died." Gabrielle told them as they looked at a painting of a young boy in some very heavy-looking clothing. Poor kid, that seems like a lot of responsibility for someone so young. Jackie though didn't seem to be interested in what Gabrielle had to say as she was still looking around the room they were in.
"What about that painting over there?" Jackie suddenly spoke up and pointed at a painting that was on the opposite wall a bit farther down. Maybe it was not obvious to her two companions but to Gabrielle it felt as if this exotic looking (at least to her she was exotic looking) woman was trying to steer them off course for some reason. Maybe for fun or she was bored or something. She got these people all the time.
"That's the painting of a Lamia. If we were to go closer we would see that she has shedded snake skin around her waist. It's from a Greek myth about a woman that Zeus had an affair with and Hera mad that he had cheated on her once again, made poor Lamia eat her own children. After that she became insane obviously and got the taste for children. The snake skin is because she had the head and torso of a woman but her lower body was that of a snake. It's very twisted like all Greek myths are. Should we go back to where we left?" Gabrielle asked them and motioned so with her head in the direction of the painting next to the one of Louis XV.
"Who is that? She's beautiful." Jay told Gabrielle, as he saw the painting up close and saw it was a woman in a beautiful and intricate white dress looking of into the distance inside the painting. Possibly a window or something, they would never know. Not unless they could time travel and yeah, that was one thing they doubted could ever be possible. Though Jay heard Jackie sigh and look away. What was up with her, she was the one who dragged them in here in the first place.
"That is Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, or Madame de Pompadour. She was a very accomplished woman. Courtesan and a mistress of Louis XV. He really fell for her and had her legally separated from her husband and everything went pretty fast. Only a few months after meeting at a royal masquerade ball she moved into Versailles. He bought her 6 residences, the first being Pompadour and after being separated from her husband was presented at court. Later she didn't have much direct political power but behind the scene's was a diffrent matter. She knew Voltaire and was very much one for literature. We could spend a lot of time just talking about her, but since we are closing soon we might have to cut that short. But in the end she was blamed for the Seven Years War but the king staid devout to her until she died at 43 years of age. Kind of sad." Gabrielle told them, and looked away from the painting to the man and the two women.
"Wow, that was interesting but we've gotta go now. We have a reservation and such. Thanks for the history lesson." The exotic looking lady told her and tugged on the man's arm and the red haired lady smiled at her like she was saying 'sorry for her behavior' and Gabrielle could hear the fake pleasantness in the other womans voice and saw that her eyes were blank as she smiled at her. Some people just were so damn fake.
But then Gabrielle couldn't have told them much about the next painting anyways, since there wasn't much known about the woman in that painting. She had only been put next to his one because she bore the same last name of Poisson. Jacqueline Poisson, but Gabrielle had never even read a single thing about her in history books and she wasn't even sure they were related because well, Madame de Pompadour was painted white and this Jacqueline was...not. Kinda weird, but maybe out of wedlock kid or relative. There was that one brother of hers that not much was known about. She just getting a headache thinking so much about that. Now she was ready to go home and get some sleep.
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"I don't get it, Jackie. First you drag us in there and then you drag us out of there. What's with the mood swings?" Jay asked her, as they came out of the museum and headed in their original direction before Jackie had dragged them into that cute little museum.
"Well, if you hadn't accepted that woman's offer of a guide things would have been nice. But I didn't exactly want her to see my freaking portrait. How would we explain that?" Jackie asked him, as she looked at him with eyes shooting daggers at him. She had really wanted to show them that because it had taken days for it to finish and her to pose for it. hard work in those days to get anything like that, not like just pushing a button on a digital camera.
"What? Why would there even a be a painting of you there?" Jay just asked her and reminded both her and Madeline of how he was much, much younger than them and of a diffrent nationality. And were they really going to get into who they were when they were younger out in the open like this? Not a good idea, by the way.
"We'll tell you later, we promise, don't we Jackie?" Maddie asked her counter-part and gave her that 'promise' look Jackie couldn't say No to however many times she had tried to.
She only nodded and Maddie smiled at them both. Good, that was resolved and they could get on their way for some food.
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The End.
Finished: 08.06.2007