Toffee Cabin, Tuesday Evening

[glacial_queen]

It was a soot-covered Karla that arrived back in Fandom that evening. There hadn't even been enough time for her to get washed up before she'd been tossed into a Coach for home.

After Jaenelle had released her shield over the Hall, Lucivar, Saetan, and several other burly male servants had rushed out into the wreckage of the kitchen--and skidded to a stop when they saw a pair of very guilty witches surveying the damage and trying to figure out how they could spin this.

Saetan's lecture--and Lucivar's laughter--had been cut short when Holt came running up from the drive. "Coach!" he said, pointing. "From Halaway! Sylvia! Beale! Mrs. Beale!"

Terror galvanized them all into action. Saetan had practically tossed Jaenelle at Lucivar, barking, "Ebon-Gray Wind to the Dea al Mon. Now!" Before they'd even had a chance to catch the Wind, Saetan was doing the same thing to Karla. "Take the Red Wind to the Coaching station," he ordered Holt, who'd caught her.

One very uncomfortable Coach ride later (Holt had kept trying not to laugh the entire way) and one hastily-ordered emergency portal back to Fandom, and there was Karla, looking for all the world like a chimney-sweep.

"Kiss kiss," she said tiredly to the cabin at large.

[Mostly establishy, but open for cabinmates and friends. SP warning in effect, as we'll be heading home...sometime?]

Comments

[furnaceface]

//I'm hardly equipped for that, luv,// Jono reported from where he'd sprawled out on the living room couch. And then he did a double-take. //You look rather like I've felt for th'past few days.//

[glacial_queen]

"I...got into a little bit of trouble," Karla admitted, running a hand through her hair and leaving trails of soot behind. "There might have been a slight explosion."

[furnaceface]

//Slight,// Jono echoed, actually sitting up and staring at her, wide-eyed now. //You look as though you've been rolling in it, luv.//

[glacial_queen]

"I wasn't? It more...rained on me." She sighed and looked at Jono. "Jaenelle and I blew up a kitchen. To the point where ashes are all that are left. Ummm...literally."

[furnaceface]

//Explosions seem t'be the theme for this weekend,// replied Jono, projecting just a hint of a sigh to go with that. //I've had a few days to clean off, at least.//

So he didn't look like he'd been rolling around in soot. Anymore.

//Remind me not to let you do any cooking for me, luv.//

That was a joke. Har har.

[glacial_queen]

"I don't think I'll be doing much cooking for anyone for awhile," Karla said sadly. "What else exploded this weekend?"

In Karla's defense, there was no real reason to assume 'Jono.' She was thinking more along the lines of buildings and landscape, not people.

[furnaceface]

To his credit, Jono didn't answer with, 'if you find any teeth or ribs in the immolated clearing in the Preserve, I'd like them back, please.'

Instead, he hesitated, and then went digging through his coat pocket for his camera phone. He'd been looking forward to actually using it for what it was intended to do, but... Well, at least it took decent pictures. He flipped to one he'd taken of himself, just because he could, and then he handed it over to Karla.

... Or, well, held it out so that she could look. He didn't want ashes all over his phone.

[glacial_queen]

"Who is--ooooooooooooooooh," Karla said, realization dawning. She looked quickly from the image on the phone to Jono and back. "Was there another bout of Fandom crazy that I missed?" she asked, delicately.

[furnaceface]

//No,// Jono replied, looking at the picture for a moment, squinting at it as though he was trying to convince himself that he ought to be angry at his phone for making him look so bloody good with a face, and then closing his phone and pocketing it again. //No crazy with the exception of my own. I... let Raven heal me. It worked wonderfully, for a bit.//

[glacial_queen]

"How is that crazy?" Karla asked. "Forgive me, but, as you said, it did work. If only for a little while." She looked up at him, sympathy in her eyes. "It's not crazy to hope, Jono."

[furnaceface]

//Maybe not,// Jono sighed. Or, well, thought in a way that suggested that he would be sighing if only he could. //But it worked about as well as I was afraid it might. I'm just...//

He winced, and then shrugged, and then he was right back to nice, casual conversation. Totally fine.

//Raven showed up just in time, when I lost it all again. I came... entirely too close to hurting Didi.//

To killing Didi. But that was not quite as easy to say.

[glacial_queen]

"You're hurting," Karla said. "And the physical's not even the worst of it. You feel hurt, upset, disappointed, maybe even a little cheated. And right now you're thinking that maybe it would have been better not to try at all, maybe?"

Hopes dashed were bitter, indeed.

She wasn't sure how Jono felt about being touched, but she slid a tentative hand over to him anyway, going to take his hand if he didn't move it away first. "I'm so, so sorry," she whispered.

[furnaceface]

His hand, that was okay. People could touch Jonothon's hands. Jonothon's hands had never turned into uncontrollable waves of psionic flame. If they'd ever hurt anybody, it was in stupid moments during bar brawls, years ago. Nothing so big and terrifying as what he was.

//I could have killed her,// he said, closing his eyes. //I don't care about this anymore. I'm used to this. But I could have killed Didi.//

[trigons_child]

Raven felt Karla's presence as soon as she returned to the campsite, in large part because she'd been waiting for her to come back. She really needed to talk to her friend.

She hesitantly poked her head into the cabin. "Karla?" she called softly. Blink. "What happened to you?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla offered Raven her best 'unsure-but-game' grin. "I tried to cook a casserole for Hayley?"

[trigons_child]

"Are you all right?" Raven asked. She didn't seem to be injured, but the being soot-covered was a concern.

[glacial_queen]

"I'm fine!" Karla said brightly--and then deflated. "The Hall's kitchen isn't, though."

[trigons_child]

"Oh," Raven said, relieved. "I am glad you are well, and I hope the hall can be repaired."

And then she burst into tears.

[glacial_queen]

Karla paused a moment to blink once or twice--just how attached had Raven become to the Hall during the trip--and then immediately reached out and pulled Raven into her sooty embrace. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened?" she asked, already trying to maneuver them into her alcove.

[trigons_child]

Raven gladly let Karla lead her, not wishing anyone else to see her breaking down. She couldn't speak just yet; she was starting to hyperventilate. She'd already broken down in private over what had happened, and she'd been longing for Karla to return so she could talk to someone about everything that had happened.

[glacial_queen]

Well, since it was far too late to worry about getting Raven dirty, Karla did the best thing she could think of: she sat down on her bed, tugged Raven down next to her, and just held the empath close as she cried. "Hush, hush," she soothed, certain Raven would understand she wasn't trying to silence her or stop her tears. "I'm here now. Tell me what happened, darling."

Had she and Andy--?

[trigons_child]

Raven didn't care about getting dirty at this point, and she clung to Karla. Between sniffles and sobs and trying to explain, she managed to get a few coherent words out, namely "Jono" and "healing" and "Andy" and "hates me."

There, that would fill her in.

[glacial_queen]

"Wait," Karla said, utterly confused. "Andy hates you because you Healed Jono?" She was certain that couldn't be right--mostly because she'd talked to Jono when she'd come in and he was just as on fire as he normally was and because Andy didn't seem to be the kind of male who'd get up in arms about a little bit of Healing.

If he were, he was so dating the wrong female.

[trigons_child]

Raven wiped her hand across her eyes and tried to compose herself. "No, that is not it," she said. "Andy does not hate me. I think his brother does not like me, though. And...I healed Jono. But it did not last and now he is as he was and I am an awful person for giving him false hope and making him suffer again and...." She realized she was babbling again and tried to settle herself again.

[glacial_queen]

"So, we're talking about two different things?" Karla checked. Hey, cut her some slack. Her ears still rang intermittently. "You're concerned that Andy's brother doesn't like you, and you tried to Heal Jono." Immediately, she corrected herself. "No, you did Heal him, but...for a limited time only?"

The bit about Andy's brother was still a bit beyond her--honestly, she was far more used to people disliking her more than the other way around--but the aftermath of a 'botched' Healing, that was something she could understand. "Tell me about what happened," she commanded gently. "You're saying you're an awful person because you tried?"