The Streets of Sidra, Morning, Thursday (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

They rode into Sidra proper around noon, Karla's silver and blue banner flying. The night before, they had debated heading in early, just before the sun rose, but Karla had refused. She was not going to skulk into her city like a thief. No, she was going to march in there, head high and shoulders back, and demand what was hers by right.

The last thing she could afford right now is the appearance of weakness. Let them judge her on her brazenness if they must, but they would never see her cower.

Of course, the time they had spent waiting and preparing had given the city a chance to prepare for their arrival, too. And they were hell-bent on showing Karla that she was not wanted.

Their parade was met with jeers and taunts, Blood lining up on either side of the street to heckle and toss garbage their way. Shields protected their entourage, but it was a sober reminder that they were in the heart of Hobart's own territory. Some people called her an impostor and tried to spit. Others hissed at the Hourglass she wore openly. Others just called her a liar, a bitch, a whore. Karla did not respond and only spoke to keep her Court in line. As much as their words and anger hurt, they were not her focus today. She had a meeting at the estate to get to.

Worse than the catcalls and the filth were the posters. Some enterprising people with a the ability to hold a pen and access to a printer had printed up hundreds, perhaps thousands of rude, salacious broadsides. Karla was, as to be expected, featured prominently in most of them, though if the Fandomites cared to look around, they'd see themselves represented, too--just not kindly or accurately.

By the third time they had passed a picture of Karla riding a chicken (no, not in a way that required a saddle or bridle), Julian had had enough. "Remove those," he snapped. "They are an affront to our Queen."

"Really?" Karla said, letting her voice be heard. "Well, I'll grant you the composition is trite and the merit slim, but I don't know if I'd consider myself affronted. More disappointed that with was the best they could offer. I had my hopes set on something a little grander to show their contempt."

[NFB, for those who are here with her.]

Comments

[furnaceface]

"Hate and fear," Jono noted, stepping up beside Raven, keeping his eyes ahead of himself. "I don't even need my old powers to know that they're swimming in it."

He glanced sidelong at Raven, offering her a tentative smile.

"This is crude," he offered, gently, "but ultimately, harmless. They want to bait us into proving their fears right, luv."

[trigons_child]

"They are wrong, and they will not succeed with their provocation," Raven said, but the tightness of her voice didn't make her words sound entirely convincing. She'd caught sight of some of the posters, and they were making her even more upset.

[furnaceface]

"They're wrong," Jonothon agreed, gently, offering Raven a small nod of his head. "But most of them are just frightened people following a crowd. We might've left most of the army behind, but the group they're looking at, us, we're intimidating all the same. Wrong or not, we're threatening the peace of their home right now."

Which probably wasn't the most reassuring speech he could possibly give, but it was something. A reason for the way these people were reacting.

[trigons_child]

Raven lifted a hand to rub her temple, as if she could somehow massage all the discomfort away. She wasn't used to so much fear and anger and hate battering against her shields, and it was affecting her more than she'd like.

"Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate," she said, quoting Anakin's words. "We must show them they have nothing to fear, and hope that that will dissolve their anger and hatred as well."

[furnaceface]

"Right now, I think the closest we can manage is to grin and bear it," Jono noted, hesitating for a moment, and then offering her his hand, offered her a more direct route to the decade of very practised calm that came from far too much time spent dealing with a very similar sort of situation back in his own world. "We're the outsider, here. We're the stranger, walking down their streets. Maybe someday that'll be different. Maybe someday, we'll be the heroes instead. But we haven't earned that yet. Not in their eyes."

[trigons_child]

She looked at his hand, hesitating as well for a moment before taking it, squeezing it with her own as she drew upon his calmness to quiet her agitation. It started to soothe her bristling Pride, and cool the anger coiled inside her.

"It will take time," she murmured in agreement. "And at least they are not throwing weapons."

[furnaceface]

"True enough," Jonothon agreed, nodding faintly. "Though their weapons wouldn't make contact with our little circus even if they did. They'd have a hell of a time getting through the shields, besides. They're not looking to cause physical harm, not yet. They just want us out of their home."

There was a pause, and then Jonothon was actually smirking faintly, in spite of himself.

"The posters aren't terribly flattering, but if you take them with a grain of salt, they're actually almost amusing. Apparently, I'm an ox."

A blue one. It was a shame there were no loggers on any of the posters, or else Jono would have had all the reason in the world to call Karla too American for her own bloody good.

[trigons_child]

"An ox?" Raven said, smiling faintly. "I have not looked too closely to see if there are any of me."

The ones she'd seen of Karla had been more than upsetting enough.

[furnaceface]

"Yours haven't been too terrible," Jono offered, and then tilted his head a little. "Might've exaggerated your breasts a touch, mind."

... Of course, when you had proportions like Raven, a slight exaggeration went a long way.

"Haven't found you having a romp with any barnyard creatures yet, though. It could happen yet, I suppose. They're definitely imaginative in Sidra, I'll give them that."

[trigons_child]

"I suppose it is a good thing they do not know of my heritage here," Raven said, trying to find a bright side. Azar knew how creative they'd get with that.

She did risked a glance around to see if see any posters, and frowned. "My Soul-Self has never done that," she said. "And it does not have tentacles."

Well, except the one time.

[furnaceface]

"I saw it sharing an intimate moment with the one I conjured up during the battle to block those arrows, about a block back," Jono offered, actually amused by the posters, more than anything. "Pulled it down, added it to the collection in my pocket, right along with the one where I'm doing Julian from behind."

Something about the Master of the Guard and the Grey Giant leading a landen army being in bed with one another.

"I suppose if nothing else, seeing your Soul Self and my copy of it shows us without a doubt that Fetya still has rats in her army. I don't imagine tipping us off to that was the intended effect of these posters, but it's helpful."

[trigons_child]

"I convinced several to return to their homes during the battle, but I know not where they went or to whom they reported from there," Raven said. "I was just relieved that they would stop attacking and go. I needed to put my attention on healing those who were injured so I did not think much about it."

She smiled slightly again. "I saw what you did, copying my Soul-Self. They worked well together to deflect the attack."

[furnaceface]

"There certainly could have been a good many more casualties than there were," Jono noted, nodding faintly. "Caught off-guard as we were and not knowing where the attack came from, if you hadn't sent your Soul-Self up and given me the idea to play mimic to, we would've been bloody decimated back there. A move for us to keep in mind in the future, I think?"

[trigons_child]

Raven nodded. "Most assuredly," she said. "I do not often use my Soul-Self in such a way, but is effective. I can either deflect an attack or absorb it into the netherverse, whichever might be more suitable."

Her Soul-Self was solid or non-coporeal or a portal at will. Just go with it.

"If we are ever in a similar situation and you would like me to do it one way or the other, you need merely tell me."

[furnaceface]

"And I'll be sure to," Jonothon replied. "My constructs are only good for deflection, since there's really no netherverse involved in making a big blue bird out of hard light."

... Probably for the best. The things that Jono would keep in there. Honestly.

He gave her hand a little squeeze.

"Feeling any better, luv?"

[trigons_child]

"I know nothing of tactics, so I will bow to your wisdom," Raven said.

She smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Yes, thank you," she said. "It is a good distraction to talk to you, so my thoughts do not wander where they should not."

[furnaceface]

"Any time you need one, luv, you know where to find me," Jono replied, still smiling faintly. His ability to ignore the garbage that was flying in their direction was already earning him impressed murmurs among a few of the other people in their procession. "I'm a master of coming up with useless nonsense to talk about, after all."

Just get him started on music. Dare you.

[trigons_child]

Raven would happily take that dare at some point. It took so much arm twisting for her to talk about music, after all.

"Hopefully this type of behavior will not be an ongoing thing," she said. She didn't sound terribly optimistic, though, as hard as she wanted to believe it. "Once Karla is Queen, and they see her for who she truly is, someone who cares for her people, all of them, not just a privileged few."

[furnaceface]

"They'll learn to love her," Jonothon agreed, nodding. "Once Hobart is gone and there's nobody left to feed them lies about her, they'll see her for who she is. For not only the sort of Queen she is, but the sort of person."

A beat.

"Which at least in most cases should be a good thing."

Look, this was still Karla.

[trigons_child]

Raven ducked her head, smiling. "I do not know what you mean," she said. "Karla is always so patient and kind. Her disposition is as a gentle spring day."

With a chance of sudden thunderstorms.

[furnaceface]

"The calm before the storm," Jono chuckled, shaking his head. "Spring gives way into hurricane season, after all."

Hurricane Karla. It had a certain sort of ring to it, didn't it?

[trigons_child]

Raven pressed her fingertips of her free hand to her mouth, unable to keep from giggling. "Hurricane Karla," she said. "I do not think they have used that name on Earth. They must have saved it for Glacia."

[furnaceface]

"Well, that solves that, then. Clearly, today is simply the start of hurricane season. Hurricane Karla is moving in from the North, showing no sign of slowing down."

This was probably Jono's new favourite metaphor.

... It beat being portrayed as an ox, anyhow.