The arcana headcanons and imagines

Portia's first impression of Lucio

"Have you heard? The count is back!" one servant exclaimed as she watered the flowers that decorated the hallway.

"But how?" Portia asked, putting the ribbons on the doors, "Hasn't he been dead for 3 years?"

"Remember that magician?" the servant asked as they cut off the wilted roses.

"Oh, the one Nadia hired to find Il-Julian, right?" she corrected herself before her friend could notice.

"Yes, yes," servant nodded as they threw the wilted flowers away, "Well, guess what? Chamberlain said that they are the one who most likely revived the Count!"

"No way!" Portia looked at the girl in disbelief, "Isn't that like, complicated? I knew they were good, but I didn't expect them to be that good."

The servant just shrugged as she didn't know much about magic herself, "And get this! Apparently, the Count himself said that the doctor didn't kill him!"

Portia's eyes shone brightly with hope, "Really? Are you sure? Like, one hundred per cent sure? It's not just a rumour?"

"Yeah, they should declare his innocence this evening!"

"Oh, thank god," Portia sighed in relief.

"Hm, why does it matter so much to you?"

"Oh, well, no reason, you know? It's just that..." she stopped for a moment, deciding whether she should admit that Ilya is her brother or not, "I'm glad that an innocent man won't die."

"Yeah," the servant responded as they cleaned the floor, "Same. Personally, I believe that hanging a man was a bit too, gruesome, you know?"

"Agreed."

They would continue with the chit chat if the Chamberlain didn't disturb them, "Could you please clean the Count's room? He would want it to be clean when he comes back," Chamberlain asked Portia, "I know it might be a handful, but someone needs to do it."

"No problem," she smiled as she picked up her mop, "Also, where's your feather?" she asked, gesturing at his hat.

"It's..." he frowned, looking away from Portia, "Complicated to say the least."

"Alright, keep your secrets then," she chuckled as she left the hallways, climbing up the stairs to got o the Count's room.

'I remember when this place was haunted,' she smiled at the thought, 'Oh, how scared Babouche when he came running to me, claiming he saw a ghost of a goat!' she giggled, "Maybe, now that the count is alive, the place isn't haunted anymore? Guess I'll have to find out."

She walked into the room, almost choking at the dust and ashes.

"Good lord," she gasped, letting more dust go into her mouth. After a loud cough, she examined the room, covering her mouth with a hand.

"This place looks like it hasn't been cleaned for years!" she started mopping the floor, "Makes sense, though. No wonder even Chamberlain called this place a handful."

She looked at the room even more, with disgust clear in her eyes, "Everything is so dirty...Wait, are these books?" she walked next to the shelves, examining it, "Those are books. But wait, if there was a fire, shouldn't have these books burned already?" she frowned as she read a title of a book, Hundred Fairy tales, "Isn't the Count illiterate? Why are there books in the first place? How is the count even illiterate? This doesn't make sense." she massaged her temples, "I shouldn't think much about this, it'll make less sense the more I think about it."

She cleaned the floor, frequently wetting the broom with water, "I'll have to change the water soon," she thought, "Great..."

As she was about to leave the room, she noticed the painting. She turned back to it, tracing the torn cloth with her fingers, "Shame," she said to herself, examining the remains of the painting, "It looks expensive. Wonder how it got ruined this badly."

She picked up a bucket of dirty water, leaving the room. Others have been working non-stop on decorating the palace for the Masquerade, only stopping for a moment to greet Portia.

"Still cleaning Count's chamber?" her friend asked.

"And I'm not even halfway done," she chuckled.

"Did you run into any ghosts?" Babouche asked her jokingly as he helped her change the water.

"Oh, yes, it was so crowded I thought the Masquerade has already started!" she joked as she took the bucket, going back to the dirty room.

It took her two hours to clean the whole room and, by the end of it, the room was unrecognizable. The old duvets are changed with the new, expensive velvet sheets, the ones that Nadia never wanted to use. As for those childish books, they were cleaned, she especially made sure not to rub them too hard so that she wouldn't damage the old covers. It was clear that the Count wouldn't even appreciate it, but she always wanted to give her best at everything she did. As for the desk, she tried her best to clean it, however, there seemed to be some scratches on its sides, some smaller, some deeper, other's older, some newer. She knew she couldn't do much about it, so she just cleaned the dust and ashes off. Overall, she was surprised by how the furniture wasn't damaged by the fire. It seemed that after a couple of good scrubs, the room looked as good as new. But she decided to brush the thought off, after all, nothing about the Count made any sense at all, so why should his room be a rational thing about him.

"What did you do to my chamber?!?"

"Your chamber?" Portia turned, surprised, just to meet with the count.

There were no paintings of count left in the palace, so it was difficult to picture the image of a count, but still, this was not the image she had in mind. At first glance he was tall, however, the only thing that contributed to his height were his ridiculously tall heels. Even though he was around the same age as Nadia, the only thing that gave it off was the receding hairline.

As soon as she realised she was talking to the count, she took a deep breath, making sure her mannerism was on point.
"I cleaned it, sir, and redecorated it to what I was told was your liking."

"But it's not even close to my liking!" he started complaining, but stopped as soon as he saw her devastated expression, "Er, I mean, it's not so bad for a newbie..."

"I've been working in the palace for three years," Portia clarified, pissed at his comment. She didn't let him say anything, no, she was going to give him a piece of his mind.

"I took my time off of putting on the decorations for the party, which was big talk for weeks," she continued talking in a more composed tone, not wanting to get fired," To clean your room. It took me quite a lot of time since nobody hasn't gone inside the room for as long as I have worked here. If some things are not to your liking, I'll make sure to fix it, after the party." she looked at him, trying to estimate if her response was good enough.

Lucio wasn't pleased, she was sure of that, however, everything he was about to say seemed to disappear as soon as he caught a glance of a certain magician, "Just add more white and red fabrics," he didn't bother to look at Portia as he said that, instead, he walked away, following the magician, "And gold, don't forget the gold!"

"Um..." she watched the count walk away, leaving her alone in his room, "Sure?"

Portia didn't know how to react. As she was leaving Lucio's chamber, joining other maids, she thought about the count. He was... unique, to say the least. But the only thing she couldn't decide was whether or not count is as bad as everyone said he was? Sure, he is a bit over the top, but he is still the reason her brother won't be hanged. Though she was sure that this party will be like no other, with the count as the main attraction. How fun!