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."

[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.

[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]

"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.

[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?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"So you're saying I should've caused more destruction on my way out of the dimension?" Dinah attempted to clarify. "I think there's pubs left standing in Southern Glacia, I could do that this weekend too." She hefted the china one. "Hey, pay your taxes on time, get a free statue?"

[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."

[glacial_queen]

"Don't you mean, 'Pay your tithes late and get a free statue'?" Karla corrected. "I don't want to have to chase down every family that went into hiding rather than be given one of these."

She pointed to the figurine in question, not wanting to actually touch it.

"My treasury is in enough trouble, thank you."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snickered, and in the process, may have knocked a limb off Miss China. "Ooops." Okay! Time to hide her behind the other guy. "So! How's the work of being Queen going, how're the people handling the transition now, it's been what, two months for them?"

[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!

[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]

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."

[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?"

[glacial_queen]

"Saw that!" Karla crowed. "You broke it, it's yours!"

Serious questions could be answered later, after she was finished pawning the hideous decorations off on her friends. "See what happens when you play with things?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"But they're right there!" Dinah protested. "All shiny and horrible! Look at this face!" She shoved it toward Karla. "Are we sure someone didn't turn people into little statues over the last ten years?!"

[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.

[wwiii]

"Photos," Warren offered. "Or maybe just scraping off the gilding and repurposing it into coins. We can always use more gold, right?"

Right? They just melted down the contents of the treasury in order to make this travesty in the first place, hadn't they?

[wwiii]

"I was thinking maybe the money could go into a fund for proper therapy for all of the people who have had to actually sit in this room for extended periods of time," Warren admitted. "This is awful."