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]

"I had to replace the bed linens!" Raven protested. They'd been horribly stained with blood, after all, after she'd healed Jono there.

Of course she'd also replaced the curtains, and the bed hangings, and half the furniture with plans for the rest to go as well. She'd found good homes for what she'd discarded!

[glacial_queen]

"You do realize that the maids would have replaced your bedlinens, right?" Karla teased. "There are whole wings of linen closets around here, I swear."

Or so it had seemed to a wee!Karla, once upon a time.

"Of course, they would have been white, not...what color are the ones on your bed this week?"

[trigons_child]

"...black," Raven said grudgingly. "They are what I had in storage. I did not want to bother anyone for replacements when I could easily furnish my own."

Really, that was her excuse.

[glacial_queen]

"Don't be surprised if one day you find them gone and another newly-dyed set has replaced them," Karla warned. "There's at least one maid whose job it is to wander through and find things that are worn out and need replacing. And she interprets 'worn out' very broadly."

In other words, she was the one person who probably agreed with Warren that wearing a pair of jeans four times meant they were ready to be discarded.

[trigons_child]

"That is not necessary," Raven protested. "My needs are very small."

Would they respect her color choices? Don't make her panic, Karla. She didn't want to return to her room to find it bright and white and gilded.

[glacial_queen]

"Welcome to being First Circle to the Territory Queen, darling," Karla said extravagantly. "Now you have staff to decide what your needs are and inform you of them."

She'd probably be safe from gilding, though. Karla was thisclose to outlawing the practice entirely.

"But if you ever get frustrated by it, just wander over and watch Jono fruitlessly argue with his staff. You'll feel better."

If you were like Karla and enjoyed schadenfreude, anyway.

[trigons_child]

"Surely the staff can be of better use elsewhere," Raven said. She was the one who did the fussing. She wasn't used to being the one fussed over. Perhaps it was the multiverse's way of getting back at her.

Maybe she could put an empathic whammy on her door to make people want to stay away....

[glacial_queen]

And then she'd have to deal with a Karla giving her looks. Or, worse yet, several very concerned Black Widows who wanted to know why she was feeling that way.

"If you want to tell the staff how to do their jobs, you go right ahead," Karla said, holding up her hands and backing away. "Just let me know when you plan to discuss this with them. I have plans in another Territory that day."

[trigons_child]

Raven was just going to give Karla a sorrowful look. After all they'd been through together, how could she make her suffer like this? Look at how woeful she looked!

[glacial_queen]

Karla returned it with a merry smile. After all they'd been through together, how could she not know that Karla was a terrible person?

"There there," she said, patting Raven's shoulder. "There. There."

[trigons_child]

"You are so terribly cruel," Raven sighed over-dramatically. "But I will do my best to endure...this."

She knew she shouldn't complain, though. It was just going to take awhile to get used to.

[glacial_queen]

"It could be worse, sweetheart," Karla said, relenting and putting a few of Raven's fears to rest. "They'll do their best to make sure that you won't even notice any of the things they change or replace. So you'll only have to deal with gaudy monstrosities like this when I'm feeling particularly bratty."

[trigons_child]

"I do not think my contract stipulated that," Raven said, wrinkling her nose at Karla.

Which reminded her -- "It has been a year now, has it not?" It had been May in Fandom, and it was November there now, and if time had been stable in passing twice as fast, then it had been just a few days over a year since they'd signed their contracts.

[glacial_queen]

"I can write it in," Karla said airily. "Under your list of responsibilities: dealing with fussing from members of the Circle and also the staff."

Just wait until they got to know you enough for moontimes, Raven. Just wait.

"It has," she said, understanding the reasoning behind Raven's question. "Guess what tomorrow's going to include."

Unless you said weetiny shenanigans, Raven, you'd be wrong.

[trigons_child]

"The renewing of our contracts," Raven said, nodding.

Quite possibly written in crayon.

"Will you be making them for more than a year this time?"

[glacial_queen]

They would say things like 'Not make Karla eat gross turnips' and 'kicking stinky boys!'

"If I say yes, will I finally live it down?" she asked, hoping but not really believing it. "And yes. Though yours is still blank. I could offer you a lifetime contract, but you remember what that entails, right? I could make it for, say, ten?"

See? She was checking.

[trigons_child]

Best. Contracts. Ever.

"I forgave you for that," Raven said. "And I understood why you did it. But even after all we have been through, I have not changed my mind."

She'd entertained some doubts, after what she'd seen, after what she'd done, but she hadn't changed her mind.

[glacial_queen]

"Mostly, I'm making sure you'll be okay with drinking a mouthful of my blood," Karla said frankly. "Gagging is not the best sign of things to come."

[trigons_child]

Right, she'd almost forgotten about that little detail.

"I will not gag," she promised, hoping she sounded as confident as she wanted to be. "It is not flesh, but blood, and blood is life. It is the way of your world, and this is my home now, and I will honor that."

And she was going to pretend it was wine.

[glacial_queen]

Wine that just sorta poured out of Karla's wrist! Man, that would be one Hell of a party trick.

"If you're sure...?" Karla said, nodding. "Then I'll have Mallory add that bit to your contract tonight. And we'll make Dinah hold something to drink that she can slip to you afterwards."