The Queen's Chambers, Sidra, Glacia, Sunday Afternoon (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

It had been a long and miserable two weeks. Just ask anyone who had had the misfortune of dealing with their Queen. Karla was a terrible patient; somehow managing to be a tyrant even when she was coughing so hard she could barely speak. It was a good thing her nasty chest cold had also kept her asleep a great deal, or it was possible she would have been overthrown by her own Court.

Now, however, she was on the mend. Which, on the positive side, meant she was feeling almost human again--and behaving that way. On the negative side, it also meant she was bored out of her mind. Morton and Julian had finally made good their escape after their third straight hour of playing cradle, her lunch lay untouched because she was tired of soup and toast, and the next person who came in to make her take another foul-tasting brew was going to get kicked in the face.

There was clearly only one thing to do. Call people and whine about how bored she was. Also, check up on anyone who had gotten tangled up in the latest bout of Fandom crazy, but mostly the whining and bored thing

Let's see. Who to call first?

[Open for phone calls, visitors, and them what live here. If you think Karla would have called you, she did!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

And Darkness forbid we should be anything close to 'informative'!

"If you visit Fandom and I don't get a phone call telling me when, I will...dammit, I don't have a good threat for this. Think of a suitable threat and then pretend I said it."

Yeah. That'd show him.

"So, what, you're going by Andy now?" She highly doubted it.

[endsthegame]

"Andrew, please."

Like he'd go for anything but 'formal and kind of longish' if he got to choose.

[glacial_queen]

Yeeeeah, Karla wasn't sure she was going to be able to do that. For one, he was Ender. For another, she was Karla.

"Ben's calling you Andrew now, too?"

This was something she'd have to experience to believe. And maybe not even then.

[endsthegame]

"While we're out here, yes," Ender said. "He's been having a hard time with it."

For obvious reasons.

[glacial_queen]

"Because he's known you forever and in that time you've never been Andrew?"

Sometimes Karla liked stating the obvious.

"Are you going to explain why? I've been sick and Fandom was stupid."

[endsthegame]

"Because public sentiment about my childhood actions has inverted somewhat," Ender said, dampening his volume. "Don't make me do this on the phone while I'm here, Karla."

[glacial_queen]

As soon as he put it like that, Karla understood.

"Ack! No!" she said quickly, words stumbling over themselves. "Got it, I got it. I just--ouch."

Yeah, she could see where this could be a little upsetting for him. Ender had never been easy with what he'd done, just as soon as he'd realized it had been real. Now this...?

"Dropping the subject now, Andrew" she said, stressing his name just the tiniest bit to affirm she did get it. "So, what are you and Ben doing on Alai's planet?"

[endsthegame]

"Passing by," Ender said, happy to be off the subject. "Valentine's writing up a history of the colonization process here so far. When she's done, we'll be moving on. But for the time being, we're just... idling."

Which may have been part of why he took Karla's call.

[glacial_queen]

"Ahhh."

Yeah, she was guessing that was the case. "Bet that's fun for both of you. If you're ever in the mood for a vacation from your vacation..." She shrugged. "It'd be nice to see you when things aren't falling apart is all."

[endsthegame]

"I probably shouldn't speak for Ben, but I doubt he'd object to seeing you," Ender replied. "We might have time before we venture down to Fandom for graduation - and otherwise we can see you after. I'll talk to him about it."

[glacial_queen]

"Yay!"

Aww look, Ender, you'd made a sick girl's day. Wasn't that awesome? Didn't you feel good?

"Before or after, either is good for us," Karla assured him. "It's summer now, which means you'll be able to see Glacia when it's not under a million feet of snow. Graduation will be around our version of September, so good weather still."

[endsthegame]

He felt... perfectly normal, honestly, with a twinge of doubt whether or not this wasn't just inviting more trouble into their lives.

Then again, it was better than being bored.

"That sounds lovely," Ender said. "The planet we're on at present is all sand and perpetual sunlight - I think we'd enjoy Glacia either way."

[glacial_queen]

Nononono! Karla was certain that it would be a very calm and relaxing holiday! It would almost be exciting in its lack of anything horrible happening.

"Warren and I are thinking about going to the island in a few days to celebrate our missed birthdays," she told him, even though Warren had not thought of any such thing. "Over the Fandom weekend, you know? We haven't made up our minds about graduation yet, there aren't many people there that we know anymore. But it's easy enough to just portal from Fandom to Glacia."

Beat.

"Who do you know graduating this year?" she asked, just realizing how odd that was.

[endsthegame]

Ender's mouth quirked briefly, though she couldn't see it. "Somebody pretty important," he said, "All in all."

They'd only sent Cade back on his way a week ago, and Ender was of two minds about revealing his identity to Karla even now.

[glacial_queen]

What was she going to do with it?

...Other than possibly demand when he and Ben were gonna settle down and have babies?

Though likely not even that, not after the most recent bout of Fandom madness.

"That was a completely illuminating answer," Karla said wryly. "I'd forgotten your propensity towards overshare."

[endsthegame]

... Considering the recent conversations Ben and Ender had had, Karla might not really have to wait long.

Ender stewed over the possibility of giving her more information for a moment longer. "I'm not obligated to illuminate you," he said finally. "But that aside - it turns out Ben and I have a grandchild attending Fandom at the moment. I'm not telling you who it is, so don't bother asking."

[glacial_queen]

BABIES!

...Karla was going to find a way to show up in your universe for a baby shower, just you wait.

"A grandchild?" Hello jaw drop. "That means--one day--!" Her smile could power whole towns at this moment. "I mean, err, that's interesting. I'm sure that's made for a lot of fun conversations."

See, Ender? Karla could be cool! She was being totally cool right now.

...Ignore the happy dance she was doing. You couldn't see it, it didn't count.

[endsthegame]

"It has," Ender said dryly.

He couldn't ignore the happy dance. He knew the happy dance was happening. He'd met Karla.

(He wondered, for a fleeting, nostalgic moment, if Glacia allowed for movie nights.)

[glacial_queen]

Of course it did! She had movies and everything, even.

They'd have to watch it on a laptop, rather than a full size TV, but there would be popcorn and snacks and snarky commentary aplenty.

"You know this just means I'm going to eavesdrop on conversations at Fandom to see who uses 'astral' and 'kuso' in the same sentence," she threatened.

Granted, she'd have better luck holding up her Luke Skywalker plushie and offering up free hits to see who took her up on it.

[endsthegame]

She could also consider screaming 'THE JEDI ARE COMING FOR YOU' very loudly and observing who ran away really fast!

Ender sighed. "Please don't," he said. "You'll embarrass the grandchild in question, which is what we're trying to avoid."

He didn't want to be responsible for siccing a fully-deployed Karla on Cade.

[glacial_queen]

Well, sure, if she wanted to have to choose between Atton and Cade as the most likely Skywalker-Wiggin candidate.

Which, ahahahaha, not an easy choice there.

"Don't worry, Ender. I solemnly promise not to use any of the six ways I can think off the top of my head to locate your grandchild, or any way I subsequently come up with," Karla said obediently. "I'll keep my sunburned nose out of it until given permissions."

Beat.

"Though why any grandchild of yours doesn't grow up used to being fussed over by Great-Auntie Karla is a mystery to me."

And we have the real root of Cade's deathstick habit, right here.

[endsthegame]

Nah, if Great-Auntie Karla had been around, Cade would've gotten into the good drugs.

"It's a complicated story," Ender said, after a short pause. "A complicated story that feeds into why we're trying to make sure we don't scare this person off."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "They're not in the best shape."

[glacial_queen]

Only because Great-Auntie Karla was hardly going to let her grand-nephew slum around!

"Well, they don't have long to shape up if you're going to their graduation," Karla said. "Don't worry, I won't interfere unless invited."

Beat.

"Though I may end up baking you congratulatory cookies anyway, so there."

No she wouldn't. Her cook would never let that happen.

[Apologies for the break! Remicaid & crazy over here.]

[endsthegame]

"I'll pass them on if you do," Ender said.

Always full of tact, this one. After all, he wasn't going to tell her what he'd pass them on to.

"But we'll try and see you either right before or right after," he added. "Though we'll factor in a few days on Naboo while we're at it."

[[ never need apologies for that! ]]

[glacial_queen]

"If you do, I might have to invite myself along," Karla threatened. "I think the Landing Strip misses me."

Karla was planning on having her bachelorette party there, whenever she and Warren decided to actually do something with the whole engagement thing.