10 September, 1893 — Magical Portrait Gallery

Oz was at the portrait gallery that afternoon because he was tired of being out and about in public, honestly, but had been advised that it would hurt his campaign if he holed up in the laboratory at the Dempsey estate for days on end. He had also been advised that no one cared as much about the rumor that he was a slipshod inventor as he did, and that putting his efforts into proving them wrong with a flurry of new patents would not result in any more votes come October, but that was what he actually wanted to focus on. The portrait gallery was as close to solitude as one could get while still being sociable, interspersing conversations with sauntering walks and stretches of peering silently at art in apparent contemplation. If he was spending more brainpower thinking through the ins and outs of his weather-adjusting coat (which still had the unfortunate habit of melting when the temperature changed too abruptly, its final fatal design flat he had still to fix) than the paintings, no one was the wiser.

He'd been meandering for only ten minutes when he overheard a comment — something along the lines of but why doesn't he have children? Ozymandias might not have thought the women were referring to him — the oddities of his marriage to Thomasina were old news as far as most were concerned — but they looked away hurriedly when he glanced their direction, which was the surest sign that they'd been caught in the midst of gossip. He frowned, puzzled. He glanced at another person nearby who he suspected had heard the same thing he had. "Was that in relation to the election?" he wondered aloud. Given that there had been rumors circulating about his skills as an inventor it was perhaps unsurprising, but he had rather anticipated that more of the criticism directed at him during his political campaign would be — well, political.

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[Oz doesn't know this but Witch Weekly ran an article titled Ozymandias Dempsey and the curse of childlessness today]

  

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Philomen had a soft spot for art, though he had no actual artistic ability himself. It was nice to look at, anyway, nice enough that he found himself at the gallery after getting off work that day--that, and his current research was starting to give him a pounding headache, and he needed a break before he had a falling out with his true career passion.

(It wouldn't last long, mind. He was only being dramatic.)

He hadn't been paying nearly as much attention to politics as he probably should have been, but he knew enough to recognize Ozymandias Dempsey as a candidate when he passed the other man during his meanderings through the gallery. He was also in the right (or perhaps wrong) place at the right time to hear the ladies' gossip and was sympathetic enough to speak up when he came within speaking distance of Mr. Dempsey, "I believe there was something about it in Witch Weekly," he said with a grimace. Phil didn't read the tabloid himself, obviously, but he couldn't help hearing things when people talked about it around him.

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Oz's brow creased. "Oh," he said, and glanced around as though he might come up with an issue of the magazine to check the article in question, though of course none were at hand in the middle of the portrait gallery. He could look into it at home, if anyone had a subscription. It seemed like the sort of thing Sina and Phyri would have been too serious for, and Shalott and his mother too generally distracted for, but maybe Lycoris had a copy.

"Well. I wonder if they figured it out," he said with a diffident shrug. He imagined not, if the whispering women had still been asking themselves the question of why. "Imagine if reporters only published articles when they actually had someone to say."

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Philomen couldn't help a bemused chuckle. "I imagine they wouldn't be nearly so successful if they bothered with things like facts and research, Mr. Dempsey." He didn't know the point of Witch Weekly writing about the candidates, anyway, outside of maybe that they were currently the most potentially interesting to gossip about. Or, well, maybe he already had the answer there, actually.

"I'm sure there are worse things a tabloid can say about someone than pointing out childlessness," Phil said. "If that's consolation at all."

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   Ozymandias Dempsey

Potentially worse things for men, certainly, but in Oz's experience the barbed point of rumors like this was typically directed at the wife in question. He'd have to look into what exactly they had said and see whether any of it was the sort of thing to bother Thomasina — though fortunately she had thicker skin than many women did.

But in any case, he had never publicly been seen to care about his wife's feelings and he wasn't about to start now. He offered the other man (Huxley's younger brother, he thought?) a lazy smirk. "I suppose that's right. They could have discovered my hidden goblin heritage, my anarchist tendencies, or my ambitions to sell all our country's secrets to the Americans."

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MJ is the light of my life <3

That at least made Philomen laugh outright. "Those would certainly be more broadly interesting to read about." And, even if they were obviously a joke, at least relevant. Though Phil was willing to acknowledge that he was not the best judge of these what society thought was important. He spent too much time with his head in his books and his research and most of the people he regularly interacted with were too busy suffering their own problems. He wasn't completely inept, of course, but he would hardly call himself an expert. "Perhaps someone should write to the editors to suggest a new direction for their speculating."

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"Perhaps someone will, if the campaign keeps up this way," he joked tersely. "There's over a month still to go, and Merlin forbid we be reduced to talking about actual politics."

Of course, people did ask him about plenty of issues, but he rarely got the feeling that many of the people he met outside his club really understood the nuances of different political issues. Even his more scandalous campaign platforms, like voting reform, only garnered superficial questions. Tabloid style questions, really. Do you plan to let girls vote before they're even out in society? and things like that.

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Grimacing, Phil said, "Yes, well. I doubt Witch Weekly's intended demographic cares much for that." Not that he thought women couldn't--or necessarily shouldn't--care about politics, but he also knew enough about that particular publication to know what sorts of people it was aimed at, primarily.

"Perhaps things will change with the upcoming debate?" he offered. All of the candidates would have to answer questions then. For Philomen's part, he would be getting off work that night in time to catch the latter half of the debate, hopefully.

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Oz snorted lightly. "On that front I think the best I can hope for is for someone else to say something ridiculous." People did not talk about reasonable stances that argued articulately and persuasively. They might talk about flubs or errors, if it was egregious enough. He just had to practice enough that none of the flubs were his.

He considered the nearest painting. "Or if we're really lucky maybe someone will be interrupted by something scandalous. Find out Maxime is already married when his abandoned wife bursts in and starts railing in French," he joked. That would certainly get people talking.

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MJ is the light of my life <3

"Best not to go first then," Phil said. "To increase the chances." He was sure that a few social flubs was the best anyone could hope for, really. The election was important, of course--future of the nation and all that--but there was no denying that political talk got very dry very quickly.

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Oz chuckled. He didn't think he had any control whatsoever over the order of events, and he'd have to just answer questions as they were given to him by Minister Ross on the evening of. The committee who organized this hadn't even given them any clue as to the questions beforehand, so it was hardly as though they wanted him to come in well prepared and knowing what to expect. "Well, if they go alphabetically I'll only have Crouch beforehand," he said with a shrug. "And there's unlikely to be anything of interest there."

Aldous Crouch seemed impeccably capable, but also a touch... boring. Maybe that was just Oz's bias as someone who had existed in the wealthy circles of society for a long time; Crouch was sometimes invited to the same parties, but not really a member of the same circles, and so not often a topic of conversation. At any rate, he didn't expect the man would have a secret wife interrupting the debate to fling herself onto the edge of the stage.

"But anyway, let's cross our fingers for a scandal worth talking about," he said cheerfully enough. "I'll see you at the debate, I imagine."

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MJ is the light of my life <3

"I'm sure you will," Phil said. He'd at the very least make an appearance. Civic duty, after all. "Best of luck."

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