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

[furnaceface]

//... That's amazing. I... I need to see this. I need to actually witness that this is a thing, with my own two eyes.//

There was a pause, and then he nodded toward the playpen.

//May I?//

He was on baby withdrawls.

[glacial_queen]

"Are you going to make a break for the door as soon as you pick her up?" Karla asked, even as she was nodding permission. "Don't make me beat you with Craft in front of my daughter, Jono. She's too little to see that much mayhem."

That was purely a second birthday treat.

In her playpen, Kayla was bouncing on her toes, whole body yearning Yes, come play with meeee! Under her shirt, her tiny wingnubs flexed and fluttered. She'd be fledging soon, Karla and Warren were certain of it.

Darkness help all of them.

[furnaceface]

Oh, there was SUCH a beeline happening, there. It wasn't that he didn't love you, Karla, but... Kayla.

And up she went, and now he was hugging her close and bouncing her a bit.

//I'll behave,// he promised. And he wasn't even crossing his fingers. //I mean, as much as I generally do. Which is... an amount.//

Sure thing, Jono.

[glacial_queen]

"Yes, but it's an amount usually in the negatives," Karla pointed out, while Kayla reached over to grab onto a lock of chestnut hair. "I should know, I learned how to behave from watching you."

[furnaceface]

And Jono... apparently had no self-preservation instinct, because he was leaning his face forward to let Kayla at his hair.

//Which explains all too much, really.//

[glacial_queen]

And now Kayla was tugging on it with joyful abandon. Though whether Jono cared beyond noticing that she was tugging his hair on beat with her little mindsong was another matter entirely.

"You know, Jon, we're trying to work on not yanking back home," Karla said with a sigh. "There are little Arcerians sometimes, and they outweigh her by a great deal and get snappy when someone hurts them."

Her life.

[furnaceface]

Okay, Karla, but could you leave Jonothon a moment or two to just revel in the fact that Kayla was exploring the correlation between the music in their heads and actual, physical actions outside of it?

Because he absolutely was. And his bouncing with her was picking up that rhythm, too.

//Well, then teach her not to tug on Arcerians. I'm not an Arcerian,// he said, reasonably. //Am I, Sunshine? I'm not a big kitty at all, no I'm not.//

Jono also turned into a blathering idiot around babies, apparently.

[glacial_queen]

"Big idiot is what you are," Karla grumbled, amused. "You do realize that not yanking is good for all sorts of scenarios, don't you? Not just with Arcerians?"

Kayla, though, was quite happily burbling at him in her mind. She recognized the word 'Arcerian' and was sharing with Jono many exciting adventures with them, like falling asleep in a litter of them and how warm and velvety their fur was and how rough and scratchy their tongues and walking through the estate clutching tails. Most of her sharings were sensory, so enjoy having the feeling of fur on your tongue, Jono, as Kayla relayed why we didn't try to give our Arcerian friends baths the way their mamas did.

[furnaceface]

... Well... that was a... a learning experience. Jono was somewhere between nodding along and trying not to make faces. Because if one of the first things he was tasting today was some poor, unsuspecting Arcerian kitten, complete with lingering fur feeling, and he couldn't even spit that out.

//Yes, well... you live, you learn...//

Was he talking to Kayla? Or Karla? Both? Who knew!

[glacial_queen]

"What is my daughter doing to you?" Karla asked, watching Jono's face perform interesting contortions.

[furnaceface]

//She's catching me up on everything I've missed in Glacia involving herself and Arcerian cats,// Jono reported, still nodding and listening intently to everything Kayla had to say. //So help me god, I think I just licked one.//

Help.

[glacial_queen]

Karla just leaned back on the couch and cackled. "Ask her about nursing," she suggested with gleeeeee.

Evil, evil glee.

There was no help coming, Jono. This was your choice.

"We had a delegation from Arceria stay with us for awhile," she added. "I'm sure she has plenty to share."

[Perfect fucking icon]

[furnaceface]

//... You know, I think I got the whole 'nursing' thing out of my system back when I was her age,// Jono replied, giving Karla a mildly horrified look. //I'm going to have to draw a firm line at anything that might involve me latched onto your bloody tit, even by proxy.//

 BECAUSE NO. NEVER. GOD. WHY.

[glacial_queen]

"What?" Karla yelped. "Ew, no, not me! The Arcerians, you nit! Like we were just talking about! Gah!"

[furnaceface]

//You say 'nursing' to a toddler and see what she thinks of first,// Jono countered. //I guarantee you nine times out of ten she'll switch tracks from the cat and leap on over to the one she's familiar with the most.//

And then, back to Kayla.

//Isn't that right, Sunshine? You love your mum more than some big smelly kitties?//

There would be tummy raspberries here, if he had a mouth. For the record.

[glacial_queen]

Of course she did! She was the Everything! Even if she was Mama out here and much less Everything than before.

She also loved you, Music! ♬ ☄ ♫

[furnaceface]

Baaaaaaaby. You'd have to excuse Jono now, Karla. He was right back to making nefarious plans to tuck Kayla under one arm and run.

//Lord, she's grown,// he murmured, holding her up and nuzzling his face against hers while he sent little chirps and coos and doodly-doos right back. //Can't believe how much growing she's done. Look at that head of hair she's got! And her smile is somewhat less gummy than it was, and...//

Augh, emotions.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was going to have to shield the whole room to keep him boxed in at this rate so he couldn't make a run for it.

"She's gotten so big," Karla agreed, wistfully. She had been there for all of it and she still sometimes couldn't believe this little girl was the same infant she'd cradled in her arms. "She'll be fledging, soon, too. Her wings are still forming, but there's no denying that they're there."

[furnaceface]

Jono's head tilted a little, and then he shifted her in his arms, enough to be able to pat at Kayla's back.

//... Well, look at that. Little mutant Queen, bringing the best of both worlds to the Sidra Estate, one licked Arcerian at a time.//

He cast a wry glance back at Karla.

//I have to hand it to you and Warren, you make good kids.//

[glacial_queen]

"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said about my Consort," Karla said, grinning. "And, I mean, I hate to overuse the word perfect, but..."

Well, just look at her.

"She's not going to grow up thinking any part of her is wrong or a mistake," she added softly. "She's going to be proud of both sides of her heritage."

[furnaceface]

//Don't get used to it,// Jono replied, bouncing Kayla on his hip. //Warren is still a tit.//

And nothing was ever going to change that.

//But... that's good to hear. Good to know. There aren't enough mutants in the world who get to be brought up that way. You know I'd raise hell of Kayla wasn't one of them.//

[glacial_queen]

"I'll be pissed if you don't," Karla told him. "Darkness knows I'm not perfect, but part of what makes me less afraid of raising her up is knowing that if I fuck up, there are plenty of people who will step up to make sure that I know it. And fix it."

[furnaceface]

//That's because we love you almost as much as we love her,// Jono shared. //And anyway, it's satisfying to give you a swat upside the head when you're really cruising for one.//

This was love, Karla. You'd do the same for him.

[glacial_queen]

Without thinking twice!

"I dunno..." Karla said, grinning. "It's been so long since I've had steak and fried potatoes, how am I supposed to remember what's right and what's wrong?"

[furnaceface]

Sigh. Jono was only loved for his cooking. He saw how it was.

//You drink a Carling for me, and I'll cook whatever you like for the rest of the weekend,// he decided. //Deal?//

Hannibal wasn't so big on the cheap beers, really.