Chilly Boulder, Monday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

The weekend was over and people were back to their old selves, at least if the lovely gifts Momoko had left outside her dorm were any indication. The dorm that a sopping wet Karla had marched to last night in high dudgeon. For reasons. Lots of reasons.

But it was a new day, people were back to normal, graduation was in less than a week, and she'd gotten a special package in the mail from Kaeleer. Banard was apologetic that they likely wouldn't arrive in time for her birthday, but just holding her set Jewels in her hands was enough to make her smile.

There was a cup of coffee in her hand, an ice cream cake with 'Happy Birthday' on it, and a clear view of the street so Karla could wave to anyone who wandered by.

[Open! Was going to be a townie post until I went crazy with the links!]

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

Jack had only a vague sense Karla's birthday was around the end of April, but if she'd asked:

"Of course," he said. "And to that end, might I observe you are looking usually lovely and ready to take on the world?"

[glacial_queen]

Pssht, she didn't mind. The important thing was when she'd asked, he'd said 'yes.'

"Why, thank you, darling. That's much better than I was doing yesterday," she told him, "when I was pissy and ready to set fire to the world."

Someone did not like weekends when everyone else turned crazy and she didn't.

[bitten_notshy]

hat went wrong?" Jack asked, but warily. "I spent the weekend as some woman with too many tattoos who swore a lot, so I know it wasn't my fault."

[glacial_queen]

"Pure bratty selfishness," Karla assured him. "Between my Offering Friday and my birthday yesterday, this was supposed to be my weekend. Including a trip to Hawaii! But, no. I woke up next to the Warren from the reality with Umbridge, who ended up sleeping with the bitchy female Dinah turned into for the weekend, who I then got into a fist-fight with in the duck pond after taking a swing at Caritas."

Not her best weekend ever, no.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack hid a laugh behind his fist. Only Karla...

"So in short, not a good way to start a new year of life," he said. "Did you at least hurt Dinah good? Is that a terrible question?"

[glacial_queen]

"She won, because she was actually these nasty evil Fae who could turn her face into some horrible nightmare fuel," Karla said, "but up until then, I was kicking her ass fairly well. She had to break the big guns out first, so that's almost like a win, right?"

Karla was going to cling to that, yes.

"She also threw a flamingo at me."

[bitten_notshy]

"Well, naturally," Jack said blinking. "What else would she do? And how did Warren feel about all of this?"

[glacial_queen]

"I don't know," Karla said softly. "I left him fighting on Selkie Peak with Momoko, over whether or not he's been brutally murdering young women with a striking resemblance towards me."

[bitten_notshy]

"Oh." That was a fast way to wipe the amusement from Jack's face. (Way to be a buzzkill, Karla.) "That's -- I'm sorry. I didn't know."

[glacial_queen]

Hey. He'd asked. She hadn't been lying when she'd said it had been a crappy week.

"If it helps any, I think Momoko is the crazy one?" she said, having not yet spoken to Warren this afternoon. "That version of her is all...twisted and wrong, threatening to blackmail him."

Who knew, really.

"Ice cream cake?" It helped with the brain-breaking, Jack! Really!

[bitten_notshy]

"Please," Jack answered. "It helps remind me none of that was real. But I'm still sorry the rest of you went through it."