the scent of ambivalence...

[bronze_ribbons]

catrinella? _lore? help me out? ... what perfume would Etude!Sinistra wear? Earlier today, I was standing between a cauldron of incense and a copper dragon with water dripping from its jaws, and it suddenly struck me that her hair would smell different. (Placet!Sinistra wears "Joy," but Etude!Sinistra's choice of scent would be darker and smokier...)

... which got me thinking about some of the other differences between Etude!Sinistra (ES) and Placet!Sinistra (PS), as far as I can tell:

(subject to change as the fics actually get written, of course)



(1) The chief difference (at least, the one that interests me most) is that PS admires the idealism, passion, and perfectionism she witnesses in Hermione Granger and Severus Snape, even though it is not a trait she herself shares with them, and by extensions has supported their causes. She was not a member of the Order during the Second War but valued what she knew of its efforts. ES, in contrast, is cynically neutral -- she's the descendant of survivors of the Second Muggle World War, and she knows that picking the side of the righteous is nowhere as clearly defined as shrill innocents like Granger would insist.

(1a) PS belongs to the England of Dorothy L. Sayers; ES is more a creature of the Medici or the Tudor courts. This is not unrelated to PS's love of both Handel and Vaughan Williams, whereas ES is all about Elizabethan doublespeak and heartbreak (which she professes not to take at all seriously -- and yet, and yet...) -- think Wyatt and Dowland...

(2) PS has idly fancied Snape and pursued Lupin (in tandem with Granger), but hasn't slept with either of them; her serious relationships have all been with women. ES has casually slept with both Snape and Lupin (with neither of them realizing it until "Etude") but isn't interested in a relationship with either; it's more that they've provided opportunities to satisfy her curiosity.

(2a) ES isn't actually interested in dominating Snape -- just manipulating him. That it sometimes happens to be for his own good is simply a bonus.

(2b) Same with Lupin.

(2c) Percy Weasley, on the other hand... (*nods to Cat* Not that ES is necessarily who we're going to write for yon redhead...)

(2d) Neither Lupin nor Snape have minded being used by ES. It's not as though either of them have ever been swarmed with options.

(3) ES is a Legilimens. Don't know about PS, but I'm guessing not. It doesn't take a mindreader to suss out what's going on with Placet!Hermione at any given time, even if canon!Ron was ever-lovin' slow on the uptake.

(4) ES is more of a badass than she tends to let on, since she wants people to leave her alone (except when she chooses to be noticed). PS is a badass and makes a point of letting everyone know it -- especially Gryffindors and Slytherins, who chronically annoy her with their tendency to underestimate Ravenclaws.

(5) PS's Patronus is an otter. ES's Patronus is a fox.