Dite's Suite, Arms Hotel, Monday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Anytime there was an overnight trip to the island these days, it was traditional for people who'd been given a key stayed over in Dite's Suite. During reunion weekend, there were several such people--and all their friends--but while that meant that sleeping quarters were a bit cramped, it reminded Karla of the giant slumber parties she used to throw in the dorms, roughly a million years ago. And it was good to be able to look around and see so many people she loved in one place.

Other than her meeting with Ino later, Karla had no plans for the day. She'd probably go out and make one last round of the island, though she was loathe to disturb Kayla from where she was playing quietly in her playpen. Hmm, maybe she could just see how many people she could get to visit the room instead. The Arms had excellent room service, after all, and food plus friends equaled a party.

[For anyone who thinks they stayed in Dite's Suite and anyone else who is inclined to visit and/or thinks they'd get an invite from Karla. Soo...basically anybody, good job me. SP is loved and late pings welcomed! I DON'T WANT TO SAY GOODBYE TO ANYONE YET]

Comments

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

The brief vacation was almost over, and Leda was already feeling somewhat nostalgic for High School. Odd how one could gloss over the bad parts of their past.

But she wanted one last hang out with old friends, so naturally she was here.

With coffee ice-cream. Because of course.

[glacial_queen]

Karla had started the weekend off being nostalgic for high school. By the end of the weekend, she was probably going to be sobbing her eyes out with all the goodbyes.

"Still haven't imported milkshakes into Faerie yet?" Karla asked, shaking her head. "You've had--what? Forty years to do so?"

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Hey for most of that time we didn't have access to other realms and their tech." Leda said defensively. "Though it's entirely possible there's some mystically recorded footage of my early attempts to mimic a blender using magic. It got messy."

[glacial_queen]

"You can't buy one of those little battery powered ones and use that?" Karla suggested. "Nutella milkshakes and Jono's steak and fried potatoes are literally the only way I survived pregnancy."

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"No either the batteries refuse to work in Faerie or the electronics in the blender short out. About the closest we've gotten is melting the ice cream and then stirring in whatever we want to mix it with."

Occasionally Leda wished she drank, so she could try those mudslides and white russians she'd hear so much about.

"By the way are you hinting that you have a blender on the premises?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla lazily pointed to the kitchen. She was half-buried under a plate of food and had no desire to get up. "It's in there, but I've been banned from going any closer than the doorway," she said, sulking. "So I can't give you better directions than that, sorry."

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Wwwwwhyyyyyyy are you banned from the kitchen? Is it some specific rule for you or should we all steer clear?"

[glacial_queen]

"Because supposedly I am a 'menace.'" Yes, there were actual fingerquotes there. "You blow up one tiny kitchen and suddenly everyone has a problem with you."

Karla, the Hall could not be considered 'tiny' under any consideration. And that was hardly the only issue you'd ever had.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, now that Karla mentioned it, hadn't that been a thing with her? Being a bad cook?

"I now seem to recall a running gag actually. Well at least I'm not banned, so I can go play with the blender and ice cream and espresso beans." Remember to put the lid on the blender this time Leda. "I'm certainly not a menace as long as I'm not on edge and no one sneaks up on me while I have a carton of frozen treats in my hand."

[glacial_queen]

Well, only if you asked every other person in the world. Karla maintained that she was fiiiine.

"Sounds like there's a story there," Karla said, grinning. "If you want to use my blender, you have to tell the story. Fair's fair."

Also, good job using espresso beans and not plain coffee beans. Karla had done that once.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Leda had tried using coffee once. Didn't work either. Then someone had informed her that people did sometimes just eat espresso beans.

"Okay, well let's see. Have you heard about my Great Great etc. Grandmother Mab?"

[glacial_queen]

"Not unless she's the same as the Shakespearean character," Karla called. "But even so, she's only referenced, she doesn't appear."

She took a moment to remember the lines and quoted, "O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman, "

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"She's, at least on my Earth, the inspiration for that, yeah. Big famous Faery Queen in Ireland back several centuries. Well, among many things, she is one of the first Vampires ever. She died looooooooong ago, but Corwyn's less charming nephew used magic to bring her back. That was part of why future me showed up. The spell cast like, ripples through the time-stream.

"Well as luck would have it, Mab is intensely family-loyal so she took my side, not Little Nephew Lankin. Still, Vampire. Which for reasons I'm sure you can understand, freaks me the fuck out.

"Well while recovering from my recent uh, adventure, she decides to come pay a surprise visit, in the middle of the night after I've just had one hell of a nightmare. Pegged her right in the forehead with a pint of ice-cream."

Actually Mab had succeeded in dodging said projectile. But this made a better story.

Dunno if you watch face-off, but someone made that character for the challenge. Twas odd because all the other choosable characters were actually in the plays.

[glacial_queen]

"Yeah, I think we all have a little residual vampire trauma from that summer," Karla said. She could still feel the ghost of fangs on her neck from time to time, even if she had a few vampires among her genial acquaintances now.

Maenads, though, fuck those guys.

"I take it Great-Grandma didn't appreciate getting beaned with ice cream?" she asked. "And what about Lanky? Is he still among the living?"

Not that Karla could talk much about leaving enemies alive, considering Hobart was still at large.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"She was understanding when she found out it wasn't just her I was freaking out about." She still had never told Mab the full story about precisely why she wasn't too keen on Vampires.

"And yeah unfortunately he's out there somewhere. Neither the Elven territories or Bordertown have the death penalty. The maximum penalty in both places is banishment. That's why he was in Bordertown in the first place. He was even too evil for Corwyn. Well after we broke his power base in B-Town he lit out for parts unknown. Given his contempt for humanity, I doubt he went to Earth, meaning that he probably went off into the Never Never."

[glacial_queen]

"What's the Never-Never?" Karla asked. "I swear, the realities in your world are like nested dolls. Every time I think I found the last one, there's another tinier one I just found out about."

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"The Never Never is kind of hard to explain. It's the area surrounding Bordertown. The magical energy created by the Border appearing kind of...warped reality around the city. So there's this ever changing wilderness. Wolfboy goes out there all the time and he says it's never been quite the same. Like, if you try to find a specific place there, you'll get hopelessly lost, but if you just let the road take you where it will, you'll get to where you want to go."

Momoko had experienced this effect not too long ago.

[glacial_queen]

"And how does Faerie link up to this?" Karla asked. "Through the Never Never? Same for the mortal realm?"

It all seemed very complicated, but considering how her own Realms worked, Karla wasn't able to really talk.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"We used to think Faerie only linked up at Bordertown itself. There's a gate and everything. But when Eli came through, he escaped right from Corwyn's lands into the Never Never. So I guess you could cross..." A look of dawning horror came over Leda's face. "Well shit, Lankin might have gotten back into Faerie after all."

Ah, the joys of the character realizing stuff at the same time the Mun does.

[glacial_queen]

Glad I could help!

Karla sat up straight. "Call your people," she said immediately. "Make sure they know this. Was it known that you were visiting for the weekend? Either way, they need to take precautions."

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"We didn't publicize it but it wasn't a secret." Leda already had her phone out. "I definitely need to warn Mab. She took over Corwyn's castle and she was instrumental in Lankin's defeat. That's a recipe for a vendetta if I've ever heard one." She was confident that Mab could handle it, but forewarned and all that.

"Strider," she said as her friend picked up. "Remember how I said we fucked up when we didn't expect anyone else to figure out that magic worked on Earth? Yeah we did it again."