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

[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."

[heromaniac]

"There is totally no way that any of these could have been good, Karla." Momoko chuckled as she picked up the next one, supposedly a shepherdess and... "Is this a dog or a horse?"

She set it back on the sill, facing the wall. Well, sort of. The horse dog thing was now staring blank eyed into the room, since it was twined around the shepherdess's skirts (and what shepherdess wore clothes like that??) "If this makes the food taste different, I am totally going to cry at you. Did you just not get to this room? This isn't real gold, right?"

[glacial_queen]

"Oh, it's real," Karla said heavily. "Very real. You honestly think Ludmilla and Hobart would be so tacky as to use gold plate when they could be using the real thing?"

Didn't so much more of the difficult economic times around the Territory make sense now, Momoko?

[heromaniac]

"Honestly? I totally would have said she couldn't tell the difference." Sorry.

"It makes me sad." Momoko sighed, taking in the room decor with a new eye. "And even happier that you're in charge now." She reached out to Karla for a hug. "How's it going? Fitting in, yet?"

[glacial_queen]

"Oh no," Karla said, shaking her head, even as she hugged Momoko back tightly. "Ludmilla was dim about a lot of things--" a lot of things "--and her taste was atrocious, but she could spot the difference between the real thing and a fake in minutes." She nodded to Warren and to Hannibal. "I bet they can, too. It's part of growing up wealthy. Having that kind of thing drummed into you."

There was an aura of quality to expensive things, almost like a special kind of shine that the ridiculously wealthy or spoiled learned to spot early on.

"It's been two months, but I still feel like we're in crisis mode. There's just so much we have to do. Every morning is a race to get as much done as we can before something else falls into our lap."

[heromaniac]

"Ah." Momoko was like that about food and people... she just didn't get it when it involved things that were ugly.

"It's only been two months," Momoko shrugged. "He had years to make this place a mess. You've done wonderful to get so far so quickly. The feeling here is totally different."

She pulled back to look carefully at Karla. "Do you want me to come back for a few months to help out? I'm still only partway through the first of the books Warren loaned me, but I'll do what I can?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla reached for Momoko's hands. "You're always welcome," she said firmly, making sure there were no doubts between them. "Though I don't want this to interfere with school and Blossom's work in El Paso."

[heromaniac]

"Helping a friend in trouble is never an interference. And Blossom's work is wherever she's needed." Momoko squeezed Karla's hands. "So's mine. But if you can afford to quibble, I'm totally going to guess you don't actually need me. I'll come as often as I can and you'd better put me to work if there's stuff I can do to help."

...

"Especially like redecorating. I have friends in the fashion industry, Karla; I'm not sure I can be seen with some of this stuff."

[glacial_queen]

Karla pouted at Momoko. "Are you saying you don't like what I've done with the place? But I worked so hard to make it beautiful!"

[heromaniac]

Momoko raised a hand to cover that pout. "Don't even try it. I totally know these are not your style. They're in horrid clothes, for one thing."

[glacial_queen]

"Not enough blue for another," Karla laughed. "And I would have had it all done in white gold. Yellow gold just washes me out."

[heromaniac]

"Oooh. Some of these would actually look somewhat decent in white gold!" She cast an eye at a golden cat-sized rearing unicorn that appeared to be solid. please don't let it be solid!

"Be honest, you're going to be able to get the money back, right? Many of the towns are going to have problems raising tithes for a while."

[glacial_queen]

It was solid, yes.

"We're melting what we can," Karla assured Momoko. "And selling off what we can't. Apparently, there's a huge market both on Earth and in other Territories for hideous gold kitsch."

If Momoko wanted in on the 'Sell Ugly Shit for Ca$h' plan, she was more than welcome to take some of it home with her.

[heromaniac]

Sorry, but Momoko didn't know anyone with enough money and little enough taste.

"Good. And next time you get a few days, we'll go to Tokyo City and get some decent things. I can totally see this room with some bonsai..." Momoko frowned a moment and looked about the room. "Are there any plants in this room at all?"