The Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer, Monday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

The Coach arrived on the landing web with a slight thump. Lucivar frowned a moment and then sighed. "So, I'm not a professional Coachman."

Karla looked up innocently. "I didn't say anything."

"But you were thinking it, witchling. I could tell." He hopped out of the Coach and opened the door for them, helping Karla out first. "Ready for your first view of SaDiablo Hall?" he rumbled at Warren.

From the landing web, only a side of the Hall could be seen, towering over acres of thick, lush lawns, gardens in a riot of colors, and even the hint of some not-so-distant woods.

"Show-off," Karla muttered, though she couldn't deny a bit of pride, either. "Let's go inside. They're probably waiting on us, I'm sure."

[Up late, but for SP goodness! Still for one, and nfb. Karla and Warren will be back on the island tonight.]

Comments

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"And I've heard Morghann when she gets going, that's another two at least!"

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

"Gabrielle and I can handle at least as many walls and Karla and Morghann," Jaenelle added, eyes sparkling. "So we're up to...ten, now?"

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"Speaking as the owner of this Hall and a father to almost half the people at this table, I'm just going to have to forbid any and all destruction to the walls of this house." He winked at Karla. "Sorry to ruin all your fun," he teased.

[glacial_queen]

"I don't actually go around toppling walls on people's head all willy-nilly, you know," Karla protested. And then turned to fling her napkin at Warren. "Look what you started!"

[wwiii]

The napkin bounced off of a hastily lifted wing, and then Warren, eyes sparkling and a grin on his face, peered out from over the top of it.

"I never did say anything about willy-nilly," he pointed out. "But if it was willy-nilly, I think I'd have to be sorry that I couldn't help out."

Yes. With the wall-toppling.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"Great," Morton complained. "Now they're both going to go back to the island and randomly drop walls on people's heads."

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"Not my house, not my staff I'll have to answer to," Saetan replied, grinning. "Have fun, children."

[glacial_queen]

"But it is our heavily-armed principal you'll be dealing with," Karla pointed out. "I think she might be less cavalier in her response to willy-nilly wall-toppling."

[wwiii]

"And the vice-principal," Warren added, just as pointedly. "He might actually appreciate the wall-toppling, though. It's always difficult to tell, with him."

Him and his tights and his weird allusions to the color blue.

[glacial_queen]

"Yeah, but first you'd have to understand him," Karla said with a grin. "I mean, the individual words he uses make sense, but the way he strings them together sure as Hell doesn't. It's like our reality and his are crazy Venn diagrams that only barely overlap."

Deadpool hadn't helped with the 'Mother Night, I'm in the Twisted Kingdom' thing Karla'd had at the beginning of her Fandom tenure.

[wwiii]

"He said something about me turning blue," Warren shared, raising an eyebrow. "I still haven't figured that one out."

And he probably never would.

... It was for the best.

[glacial_queen]

"It's probably best not to try," Karla said. "It's like being delirious with fever. The only way it's going to make sense is if you're feverish, too."

[wwiii]

"One of these days, it's all going to become suddenly, painfully clear," mused Warren. "We'll all wake up and blink at the ceilings with some sort of creeping realization that, wow, Deadpool was right."

He doubted it.

[glacial_queen]

"And that's how you know the world is doomed," Karla said philosophically. "That or it's another weird opposite day, where I'm painfully meek and shy and all of Deadpool's ramblings make sense."

Of the two, Karla was betting on it being a harbinger of the Apocalypse.

"Don't worry," she added with a laugh. "If it is the first one, I'll let you come stay in Kaeleer."

[wwiii]

"Well, just so long as the end of the world doesn't follow us here, I'm all for that," Warren decided, laughing a little as well. "Will there be more awkward dinners?"

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"I'll have you know, boyo, this is a perfectly normal dinner," Lucivar drawled. "Actually, we're being fairly polite."

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"I hate to admit it, but he's correct," Saetan said, shaking his head. "Jaenelle hasn't had to threaten her brother even once this evening."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"I've emerged similarly unscathed," Morton said, cracking a smile. "Has Karla threatened your life yet?" he asked Warren.

DAMMIT! So bad at this macho thing!

[wwiii]

"Not that I can recall," Warren chuckled. "Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"With Karla?" Morton asked, rubbing the back of his head, "It's kind of hard to tell."

She threatened those she loved and hated with equal abandon.

And then Morton remembered to glower at Warren. "Not that you'd better give her a reason to threaten you," he said. "At least, not for real."

Later, he'd ask Lucivar for pointers for this kind of thing. Lucivar kind of exuded menace just by breathing, whereas Morton...didn't.

[wwiii]

It was probably bad form to have to chew on the inside of your cheek at dinnertime just to keep from laughing when you were supposed to feel intimidated, wasn't it?

Well, Warren was going to chew on the inside of his cheek for a moment, anyhow. He had a sneaking suspicion that Morton wouldn't appreciate him giggling at the sudden attitude change, for whatever reason. In fact, he managed to plaster a serious look onto his face before he worked out a reply.

"The last thing I'd want to do is put Karla into a position where she'd feel the need to threaten me," he replied, and he meant that. "I try to avoid putting anyone into that position. But I like Karla."

And that part was out of his mouth before his brain caught up with his tongue.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton glanced first at Karla, who was being grilled about schoolwork and the at Lucivar, who was arguing with Jaenelle about well, something. It was hard to tell, they kept using Eyrien words that Morton was fairly certain were curses.

No one was listening, it was just him and Warren. "Like her?" he asked quietly, locking gazes with Warren. "Or like her like her?"

[wwiii]

"I..." And here was where Warren became suddenly and acutely aware of two things. First, that Morton had gone from amusing to kind of intense in about two seconds flat, and second, that he was on his own.

He took a deep breath, furrowed his eyebrows, and held on to Morton's gaze. "I like her, yes."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton would be the first to admit that he wasn't very intimidating. Especially not compared to Saetan, who practically wrote the book on quiet menace, and Lucivar, who wrote the series on very loud, very violent menace. He just wasn't wired that way. But when it came to defending and protecting his cousin...well, that was something altogether different. It still wasn't proper intimidation, but more an acceptance of the fact that he would do anything to keep her safe. And a full knowledge of what that anything could entail.

Of course, that didn't mean he was at all prepared for a conversation like this. Especially since his first instinct was to ask 'why' or maybe 'how?!'

Mother Night, how to do this? "Does she know that?" he asked at last.

[wwiii]

That... was a very good question.

"I don't know," Warren admitted, poking idly at a piece of carrot. "I haven't exactly just told her, or anything."

Now dinner was awkward.