The Gardens of SaDiablo Hall, Thursday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

Karla had been packing for her move to Haven, to spend a few months being an unofficial Queen to a village full of refugee Black Widows. Had been, however, because 'packing' apparently meant 'getting chased of her chambers by Helene and several other maids while they packed because no guest leaving SaDiablo Hall would ever be seen unpacking the mess that Karla considered properly packed, which, for the record, she should be ashamed of herself for.' There had been more, but Karla had taken the better part of valour and scurried away to hide regally decamped to one of the gardens on the far side of the Hall.

Lesson learned: don't bundle up clothes and shove them into a pack. Hearth witches got testy about things like that.

She'd been hiding enjoying the sunlight for about an hour when the coven piled out of the Hall to find her. Apparently a package had arrived from Emma and if there was one thing they'd learned by now, mail from Emma meant embarrassment for some and hilarity for everyone else.

"Were you expecting anything?" "Is it from that store?" "Did she include a note?" "Open! Open it! Hurry! I want to see what she sent!" "Ten silvermarks says it's going to make the boyos blush!" "Too easy! Fifteen gold says it make ths High Lord put up an aural shield when he finds out about it." "Do you think this one runs on batteries, too? I want one like Karla has."

That last earned several scandalized gasps. "KALUSH!!!"

"What?" Kalush just laughed at them, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. "Not all of us get to enjoy a lover before the summer is out, Karla. Morghann."

At which point Karla managed to open the box before the conversation could involve any further mention of her own purchases from Dite's. There was a moment of hushed silence as they stared at the contents of the package. Karla was the first to break down into giggles, especially when she saw that Emma had made sure to include a special adornment to show that they were meant to be Kaeleeran, err, candies. Her laughter triggered the others and soon they were laughing so hard there were tears in their eyes.

"The second one is for you lot to split amongst yourselves," Karla said, wiping her face. "Who wants to borrow a knife from the boyos so you can divvy it up?"

"No, no!" Gabrielle said between gasps. "We should wait until they're around and then take bites off of it!"

"Dibs on the tip!" Morghann said.

"And look!" Kalush announced, snagging a smaller package within the box. "Emma sent batteries, too!" Which just set Karla to facepalming and the rest of them to laughing even harder. Yup. Embarrassing one, amusing to everyone else. Good show.

[NFB, open for folks in Kaeleer, phone calls, whatever! Second and third links NSFW!]

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[furnaceface]

Someday, Jonothon would come to regret his timing, when it came to finally getting around to getting in touch with people. But at the moment, there was a finch flying around overhead, and a black cat giving chase, chased, in turn, by a wildcat.

So, really, he'd take just about any distraction he could get.

Ring ring, Karla. But not like the ones on those chocolates.

[glacial_queen]

Perhaps Jono would realize his horrible timing when Karla answered the phone in a fit of giggles that she couldn't stifle for the first ten seconds of the call.

"H-H-Hello, Jon!" she replied, managing to form words through the laughter. "How're you?"

[furnaceface]

"Er..."

He was a bit baffled, Karla. Could you tell?

"I'm... Uh?" Spit it out, Jono. "What in the world are you carrying on about, Karla?"

Yeah, you didn't even get an answer. He needed to know.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack was at loose ends that day after finishing a few arrangements for the club, and what better way to fill the time than a few friendly phone calls?

So he dialed Kaeleer, planning to feign annoyance Karla was gone before he'd gotten to town.

[trigons_child]

Even though she'd worked at 'Dite's before, Raven still turned beet-red when she wandered into the gardens to see what all the giggling was about. "What is so -- oh."

She would assuredly not be taking a bite herself.

[glacial_queen]

"JACK!" Hello, Jack. Have some barely restrained hysteria, would you? "Jack! Did you see what Emma sent us?"

There were a chorus of 'Hello, Jack!' from the coven, as well as a lot more laughter.

You had only Emma to blame, Jack.

[glacial_queen]

But it was dark chocolate, Raven! Filled with Williams pear liqueur fondant!

Maybe some of the Ring, then?

Still giggling, Karla waved Raven over, scooting a bit so there was room for her. "Emma sent us a treat," she announced. "I'm not sure if it was more for us, or the boyos."

[bitten_notshy]

"She didn't show me," Jack said suspiciously. "Is it dirty Japanese things? I did see those."

He grinned at the chorus from the background. "Tell them hi back, whoever they are."

[glacial_queen]

Pictures were worth a thousand words. So Karla hung up, took several pictures of her package from Emma (including one of Jaenelle holding one up and while Karla had her mouth open to bite it) and sent them as texts to his number.

Call me back when ur coherent.

[trigons_child]

Raven settled beside Karla, swishing her skirt around her legs. "Perhaps a little of both," she murmured, still blushing. It was so lifelike and...chocolate.

[furnaceface]

Jono had taken a moment to look, affronted, at the phone after Karla had hung up on him.

And then he'd flipped through the pictures.

And the bark of laughter that he loosed was enough to spend the manic menagerie all scrambling for cover. He wasn't stricken down with a debilitating case of the giggles or anything, but the photos were definitely amusing.

Mm, chocolate.

There was Jono, calling Karla back. Smirking faintly as he did so. Honestly, Karla. Honestly.

[glacial_queen]

"It's the coven," Karla said, waving a hand. "Jaenelle and the rest of our friends. You might have met them the last time you were here?"

Or maybe not. Hard to say. They certainly knew a lot about him, but that's because Karla liked to gossip about Emma and Jack and how wonderful they were together.

Shut up they were!

"Not Japanese," she continued, giggling. "Chocolate, And according to the packaging, cream-filled."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was already looking forward to running her tongue over the ridges just as soon as the boyos showed up. Trufax.

"She's terrible," Karla announced, not meaning a word of it. "Poor boyos won't even know which way is up for the first three minutes. I'll have to get pictures."

[glacial_queen]

"Kiss kiss!" Karla said, managing to have composed herself slightly in the interim. "I'm going to have to hang up again when the boyos show up. Ems will never forgive me if I don't get pictures of their expressions."

[furnaceface]

"Fair enough," Jono replied, sounding still just a little bit amused, somewhere in there. "If you're terribly busy, I can find another time, though. I don't have anything too important to discuss, really. I'm just calling to annoy you and to waste your phone's battery."

Well, that was just flat-out not true.

[trigons_child]

Raven would be hiding her eyes in the corner by then, no doubt. Azar, Karla!

For now she just facepalmed a little and shook her head. "You are incorrigible," she said. "And so is Emma."

[bitten_notshy]

"I have," Jack confirmed. "It's just ... been a while."

He'd had a long few years.

Still, he wasn't so decrepit that he didn't recognize what Karla was alluding to. "The ... phallic chocolates. Those were foul," he protested. "The real thing's so much nicer."

[glacial_queen]

"You're never a bother," Karla said immediately. "Nor a waste of battery life. It's good to hear from you, Jono! What's up? I've tried to call The Boards a few times--never as often as I ought, I admit that--and you've been gone. Jono, are you rediscovering the joys of a social life?"

Her question was teasing but there was a thread of concern beneath it as well.

[furnaceface]

"Something like that," Jono allowed, after a moment's pause. "Putting on a costume and running around New York with a bunch of other costumed vigilantes counts as a social life, doesn't it?"

He didn't imagine that she'd do something like run off to tell his world's Tony Stark that he was one of the New Warriors that was causing him such a headache or anything like that. His world's Tony Stark was an ass.

"You'll be pleased to know that I haven't been horribly mutilated yet."

[glacial_queen]

"Well, I'm not going to argue about the real thing being better," Karla objected with a laugh, "but calling them foul? Hardly fair! They're quality dark chocolate!"

She shouldn't have kept talking, but her mouth didn't always listen to her brain. "Cock-snob."

[glacial_queen]

"That's part of why you love me," Karla informed her, shaking her chocolate cock like a chiding finger. "Admit it. You love me best when I'm a brat."

Possibly because Karla had no other settings.

[trigons_child]

"I always love you," Raven said, managing a light laugh even as she drew back from the chocolate cock. And since Karla was always a brat, that meant she was technically correct.

[glacial_queen]

Karla had to raise an eyebrow at that. "You're back to running around with an X on your belt?" she asked, not sure whether this was a good development or a bad one. "I thought that fell under the umbrella of stuff you'd never do again."

"...But the not horribly mutilated's a good thing," she added, almost as an afterthought.

[glacial_queen]

Karla noticed Raven's withdrawal and set her chocolate down. Aaaand maybe put a shield over it because SOME PEOPLE (Gabrielle) couldn't be trusted not to steal dark chocolate, no matter what shape it was in.

"That's because you've got the patience of a goddess," Karla said, shaking her head fondly. "More patience than that, actually, because we know a few and they're not always that patient."

[furnaceface]

"What? Oh, Christ, no. No more letter X. Not a bloody chance."

Seriously, Karla. Get with the program!

"No logo at all, unless you count the graffiti that we're leaving wherever we make an appearance. The government's gone and made being an unregistered superhuman into a criminal offence, Karla. Punishable by a one-way ticket to imprisonment in an alternate dimension. I take issue with that."