A Private Dining Room, The Estate, Glacia

[glacial_queen]

The small dining room that Karla had set aside for her 'out of town' guests to dine in tonight was one of the ones they hadn't gotten around to denuding of Ludmilla's and/or Hobart's horrible taste in decor yet. Karla had chosen it deliberately, figuring her friends might get a kick out of how completely hideous it was. Everyone knew that extravagantly tacky surroundings aided digestion, right?

Well, Karla was a Healer. She's swear to it, anyway.

And, who knew? Maybe she'd give everyone a souvenir or something! 'I came to Karla's coronation and all I got was this ugly figurine.'

This was how they knew she cared!

Tomorrow was for long, boring speeches and painful formality. Tonight, she was looking forward to just hanging out with friends, having a good time, and threatening to make people sleep in some of the bedrooms that had thus far escaped redecoration.

Any question where Glacia's treasury had wandered off to?

[Open for pretty much anyone who wanted to be invited for the coronation that's absolutely not happening tomorrow! Up early for mega SP, because SP is wonderful. NFB for off-island shenanigans.]

Comments

[trigons_child]

"This room hurts my eyes," Raven said, looking around the dining room. She was used to her own room, and other rooms that had been de-Hobarted.

[glacial_queen]

"You just don't like anything that's bright and cheerful," Karla said pleasantly. "Don't think that I haven't noticed your room getting progressively darker as you have more time to decorate."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was now acting out Barbie Death Theater with some of the figurines. They'd reminded her of the ones meant to be 'keys' in that dungeon dimension last year.

"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly date you... you're china, I'm metal, it would never work out."

"You're just saying that because my eyes frighten you."

She contemplated the little (http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/w225/m/mKPt69tcboDmh9kRpAeWelg.jpg) figures (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8uajzA_36uvnLlyhXa11KhQo3SED9quVxY5FdyRMk2Ak2MxK8Eg) and shook her head. "Hey, what's the betting that there were hallucinogens involved in the decoration here?"

[glacial_queen]

"Keep playing with them and I'll give them to you," Karla threatened offered. "A reward for all your hard work in service of Glacia?"

[wwiii]

"Why haven't we lit this room on fire yet?" Warren only looked a little horrified as he realized, a little too late, just what room Karla had chosen to entertain their company in this evening. "I mean, that's really the only cure for this, isn't it? Fire?"

It should be noted, Warren was by no means a pyromaniac. But sometimes extreme measures needed to be taken.

Very extreme.

[glacial_queen]

"Warren, we're pretending we're grown up and don't solve all our problems with fire," Karla said, slipping her arm through his. "Besides, how can we convince everyone of the justice of my cause if we take away all evidence of the horrors that came before my reign?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"If you melted it down I think you'd deserve a medal. And you could always give the proceeds to people with bad taste," Dinah suggested only half-seriously. Public service all around!

[warren-jr.livejournal.com]

If Warren's father looked at least slightly out of place, it probably had a fair bit to do with the fact that he appeared to be sitting in the most gaudy room he'd seen in a long while (and in the circles he traveled in, he knew of some particularly gaudy dining rooms), in a world that appeared to be a couple hundred years behind modern technology, surrounded by children, absolute strangers, or both.

Warren Jr. fared well around absolute strangers, but he was at least somewhat out of his depth when it came to people his son's age.

At least he was being civil. Which, for the most part, was synonymous with 'silent.' He'd been seated quite some distance away from his son at the table, which meant that the one person in the room that he was at least accustomed to speaking to was well out of range for polite conversation.

He suspected that was on purpose.

[glacial_queen]

"Mr. Worthington," Karla said, giving him a small, but genuine smile. "Thank you for coming. We weren't sure if you'd be able to make it."

She'd been tempted to call him 'Dad,' just to see what he'd do, but their last meeting had gone very well and their supplies were coming at a decent clip, so she figured she could be polite.

"I saw you appreciating the dining room," she added with a twinkle in her eye. "It's the first room we managed to decorate since we won the war. I think it came out wonderfully, don't you?"

Polite did not negate trolling.

[heromaniac]

Momoko was used to pubic functions in Tokyo City, and by now she could recognize someone who was trying desperately hard to fit in but who visibly just didn't.

And as a red-headed Asian in a world of blonde Caucasians, Momoko could sympathize with feeling different tonight.

"Hello," she smiled at the elderly man, holding out a glass of wine to him. "Are you enjoying yourself so far tonight?"

[sharp_as_knives]

It was hard to miss the only other person in the room who was visibly over forty. Hannibal watched for a moment, then nodded in greeting. "Good evening."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal walked into the room and barely restrained himself from walking back out. Lavish was one thing (which he quite approved of), but somehow taste seemed to have escaped this decorator.

[wwiii]

"Awful, isn't it?" Warren actually looked fairly apologetic as he stepped over to greet Hannibal. "I still haven't entirely figured out if Karla chose this room in order to highlight just how horrible the former regime was, or in hopes of distracting people with the decor just long enough to snatch extra helpings of dessert off their plates when they're not looking."

Possibly both, with Karla.

"Glad you could make it, Doctor Lecter. Come in and make yourself... as comfortable as possible? There's slightly less glare on the other side of the table."

Slightly.

[glacial_queen]

"Terrible, isn't it?" Karla asked, laughing. "My uncle was fond of murder, including good taste. I promise, your chamber will be much less horrific."

She didn't want to give her guests nightmares, after all.

She held out her hands to him. "Welcome to Glacia, Doctor Lecter. Please don't judge us on this one room."

[trigons_child]

"Hello, Doctor Lecter," Raven greeted him. "Welcome to Glacia. I hope you have been well."

[bitten_notshy]

As soon as Jack and Emma had gotten to the estate, Emma had peeled off for some errand she was being exceedingly mysterious about. He suspected she was doing something she knew would make him sigh.

So Jack was alone as he stepped into the dining room. He rubbed his eyes hard at all the gilt and fripperies. "I thought I left this style back in the nineteenth century."

[glacial_queen]

If it made him feel any better, the odds were fairly good that it would make Karla sigh, too?

"Jack!" Karla bounded over to him to grab him in a tight hug. "Are you saying you don't like it? But I had picked this room out just for you!"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime didn't really know what one was supposed to wear to a coronation. Hopefully suit jacket and tie wasn't going to be out of place? Of course everyone else seemed more casual... maybe that's what Karla had meant when she'd said dinner was casual?

It was possible...

[glacial_queen]

"Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaime," Karla called, grinning at him. "Kiss kiss. Thank you for coming."

He could probably guess that her grin somehow boded trouble. But he probably wouldn't be able to guess just what flavor that trouble would come in. Like, say, which chambers his luggage was being transported to on her express orders.

"You look quite handsome tonight."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Dude. Dibs on the sad clown statuettes when we play catch after dinner."

Hey, Jaime.

[heromaniac]

Don't worry, Jaime. Momoko not only had a few things packed in her bags for you, but she knew of an awesome tailor a few towns to the West who totally owed her a favour.

"Hey handsome." She grabbed hold of his hand and tugged him down for a kiss on the cheek. "You look thinky again."

Later that evening (and after dinner, duh)

[heromaniac]

It was late and Momoko was yawning herself, so she was fairly sure that Jaime was exhausted; he'd had classes before they'd left, if she remembered right!

So, after a moment to locate and chat with Elsa, the head housekeeper, Momoko bounced her way to Jaime's side again. "Hey you. Want to sneak away for the night, now? Because of my awesome influence here, I just happen to know where you've been placed, so you don't have to ask a servant to lead you to your room."

[heromaniac]

"How are we supposed to eat when these are all STARING at us?" Momoko was going around and turning the little statuettes around.

She had a sneaking suspicion they were all magicked, though, since she could have sworn she'd turned this one around already. "And why do they all look like they're planning something?"

[glacial_queen]

"Because decades of horror movies featuring horrific figures like this has prejudiced your mind against them," Karla said, waiting until Momoko's attention was elsewhere before surreptitiously turning it back around again. "They're the real victims here. They could have been good decorations if things had been different."

[furnaceface]

It wasn't that Jono was terribly antisocial. It was just that there was nothing about this dining room that he found particularly comfortable. At all. So if he was trying to keep as close to the door as possible, well, that was because...

... Because he was trying to keep as close to the door as possible, and what business was it of anyone else's if he just so happened to take a seat near that particular end of the room?

Though, in retrospect, he really wasn't terribly fond of the hallways here, either. God, why was being antisocial and irritable so much work?

[glacial_queen]

"Hello, grumpy-bear," Karla said, dropping a kiss on Jono's cheek. "Don't you look sulky and miserable at the same time. D'aww."