The Estate, After Lunch, (Morning Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

When Mallory had been asked by Queen Ilyse and Prince Audric to come tutor their young daughter, he had been honored and delighted. Several months later, the shiny had been rubbed off both the honor and delight, but he had become fond of enough Karla to continue to teach her for years, up until the tragic accident that had claimed her parents' lives and gotten her shipped off to live with the local Hourglass coven her aunt Kay had been a part of. When Hobart had announced Karla's 'death,' Mallory had spent a week mourning the spoiled, yes, but also sweet, imaginative, and precocious child he had taught.

In the years she'd been gone, time and nostalgia had blunted the worst of her childhood antics, helping him forget that classes were just as often characterized by biting, kicking, crying, and arguing as they were learning, studying, and behaving (Darkness bless behaving.) All that had come rushing back to him over the past four days, dealing with her much-younger self--and her much-younger friends. Even being the Steward to the headstrong and still impetuous Queen and her entire Court was easier than this.

Mallory couldn't help but reflect on these facts as he pulled Karla down the hall by her ear. He'd caught her in his office a few moments earlier "playing" some kind of game that had involved a jam sandwich and a great deal of ink all over his desk, his chair, and the floor. Coincidentally enough, those were the same places he could see much of his paperwork, also under the ink. Any last ideals he'd had about respecting the Queenly dignity she was due as an adult when flying out the window (possibly with more of his papers) as he'd grabbed her ear and began dragging Karla towards her room, a bath, and the tender mercies of anyone who was not him.

What neither of them had been expecting, however, was for the filthy, shrieking child was to suddenly return to being an equally-filthy-but-less-inclined-to-shriek adult halfway towards their destination. It was Mallory who ended up yelping when the ear he was pinching shot up two feet in the air.

"Karla!" he said, half-surprised and half-thrilled. "You're back!" Before she could respond, however, he was grasping her shoulders with a hissed, "Don't you move or I will throttle you," and running off to find Julian, Morton, and anyone else he could find. Their Queen was an adult again. They were going to get this bloody coronation over with before something else could happen, come Hell or high water.

[NFB, open for folks what are here, SP is gonna be a thing, pls to be waiting for OCD]

Comments

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at him. "I would worry at your excessive anthropomorphizing, but I suspect you've simply been around too many children for too long."

He quirked a smile at him. "And I would like to say thank you, very much."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"Bitte sehr," Jonothon replied, returning that little quirk of a smile. "I'm just thankful we managed to find a way to communicate. Lord knows I haven't actually used German in ages."

He'd been stranded with Kurt in the Alps, the last time he could remember. And even then he'd only said the German equivalent of 'I'm fine, thank you,' just to make it clear that he knew what was being discussed with him sitting right there.

"And really, the anthropomorphizing generally only seems excessive until you've lived on the island for a while and learned just what a spiteful bint she can be."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled.

"I'm only glad I started other languages at a young age." He grimaced. "Does this sort of thing happen frequently? Of the strange things I've experienced on the island, none have ever actually changed me before."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"... Do you want me to give you the honest answer, or the one that's easier to cope with until the denial comes back and bites you in the arse?"

Did that just about answer that, Hannibal?

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

"I shall take that as a yes," Hannibal answered dryly. "Any other interesting experiences I should be looking forward to?"

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"I really can't speak to some of the things that happen on the island from time to time. I don't think anything really disastrous has hit since you started teaching there. But in the time since I first moved to Fandom, I've been female- twice. A child once, myself. I've spent weekends as several people that both were and weren't myself, including a bloody cowboy by the name of Jono Hex and a younger me who... didn't go through certain difficult things I did, apparently as some sort of karmic trade-off for living in a reality where a mad mutant god has destroyed or enslaved most of baseline humanity."

A beat.

"And I've been a pony. Twice."

Not a fan of that one, as could be evidenced by the rolling of his eyes.

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

If Hannibal looked a little pained, it was only because he was. "I suppose I should teach Lithuanian next semester."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"Might not hurt," Jono replied in what was probably not the most reassuring response ever. "There are usually a few people around that don't change on any given weekend," because for some reason it was most often the weekends that did it, "but I can't promise the next time people are turning into children again, I'll be one of them."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Who was the boy who spoke Yiddish? Jan?" He couldn't remember anyone with that name from Fandom, and the only blonds he knew here were Warren or female.

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"That would be Jack Priest. I don't personally know him very well, but he's rather close to Emma- the blonde woman who also didn't change to a child this weekend."

Which Jono was thankful for. Knowing two different versions of Emma Frost was something he'd gotten used to. Having to babysit one of them would've probably broken his brain. Or his heart. Or both.

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

"Ah." Hannibal smiled. "I've met him before, then; I wasn't aware he was here. We share an alma mater as well."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"Is that so?" Jono tilted his head curiously. He really didn't have a post-secondary education to boast about, unless one counted an unfortunately disastrous week at Empire State University, but it was always interesting to learn where other people got their start. "Small multiverse, I suppose."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

"In some ways," Hannibal agreed.

He eyed Jono's exhausted face. "I should let you get some rest before the bustle that I'm sure is about to come. But when we get back, I will owe you a dinner." He held out his hand. "Your choice of food."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"I will happily take you up on that," Jono decided, reaching and clasping Hannibal's hand. "Even if I hadn't just spend the past four days herding small children about, I would. After all, your cooking is always a delight, and I enjoy it far too much to refuse."

The fact that he'd spent years on end spitting fireworks and unable to taste really only cheapened that statement slightly, didn't it?

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

It didn't cheapen the statement at all; it only meant his enjoyment was all the more keen. "Thank you." Hannibal smiled. "In that case, I will see you later."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[furnaceface]

"I'll see you at the coronation," Jonothon agreed. "I suspect the rest of Karla's First Circle will be pushing to get this over with as quickly as possible, before something else happens."

Re: And all around the estate came chaos...

[sharp_as_knives]

"Probably a wise decision."