Room 218, Sunday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Just a few months ago, Karla would have fired off a text to a bunch of people, saying something useful like Hobart's killing all the B Widows. Going to stop him. Hugs & kisses, K and run off into the wilds of Glacia with no plan but a burning desire to stop the bastard in his tracks. But that was a few months ago--she'd learned a few lessons since then.

And one of those lessons was 'you do not simply text you friends when running into danger.'

So rather than making Ender and Emma sigh defaulting back to old habits, Karla had returned to the island, placing a number of handwavey calls to people letting them know she was back and needed to talk to them before she left the island again. See? That was like a step in the responsible direction.

Besides, she had to pack up most of her clothes. She wasn't sure how long she'd be gone for, but she she doubted it would be measured in days--probably closer to weeks or even months.

What a sobering thought.

[Door and post open! Also, if you thought you got a call, you did! Note to squirrels: Karla and Tony's conversation about Peter is all NFB, please!]

Comments

[trigons_child]

"What can I do to help?" Raven asked. "I know nothing of building, but I can transport materials or people, of course."

Heavy lifting, teleportation style.

[glacial_queen]

"We're going to need tools and supplies and all sorts of things," Karla pointed out. "We'll need to build up a whole village from the ground--and probably more than one. A completely self-sufficient village. I don't think we'll be lacking for things to do. And that's not even counting how to get people out of Glacia in the first place. Or how to keep us hidden and safe while we do."

[trigons_child]

"If I can get to them, getting them out of Glacia is easy from there," Raven pointed out. "If they will trust me."

A strange woman telling them "Come with me if you want to live" might not go over so well if they didn't have a way to recognize her intent to help them.

[glacial_queen]

"And if we can trust them, too," Karla said. "I'm not so naive as to believe that every Black Widow will be trustworthy."

The odds that this was just an elaborate trap to lure her from hiding were fairly high, actually.

[trigons_child]

"Some might be in league with your uncle?" Raven said, frowning. "If he seeks to destroy them, why would they do such a thing? Do they think that would save their lives?"

Likely only until he no longer had need of them.

[glacial_queen]

"Why are there Queens who are willing to listen to the lies he spreads about how males should be in charge because they are the stronger gender?" Karla asked. "Even Black Widows can't understand the vagaries of human behavior, or be immune to some of them."

She shrugged and added, "If nothing else, there's always the possibility that he could get his hands on someone they care about and offer a trade. Them for me."

[trigons_child]

"If any come near you with any ill intent in their hearts, I will sense it," Raven promised. Someone with enough Craft could cloak their emotions, true, but they might not anticipate the strength of her empathy.

[glacial_queen]

"I don't doubt it," Karla smiled. "Though I'm less worried about me than I am about the rest of the Black Widows. I know Morton will put up a fight before he lets me step foot in Glacia. So if anyone untrustworthy is spotting me, they've probably everything."

[trigons_child]

"I hope it will not come to that," Raven said. "But you will have many people watching out for you, I am certain." Which would make her feel better when traveling back and forth between Karla's world and Fandom, because she still had responsibilities on the island as well. Fortunately teleportation made that easy.

"I have Joni with me now," she said, speaking of responsibilities. "But she will remain here. I can be here often enough to give her care and attention, and Ariel likes her, too."

[glacial_queen]

"Jono left Joni?" Karla asked, feeling unaccountably sad on Jono's behalf. He loved that little kitten and leaving her behind must have been hard. "No room for her in the mansion?"

[trigons_child]

"He was uncertain when he would arrive there," Raven explained. "Apparently there would be stops along the way, and cooped up on a plane is no place for a cat. So I offered to take care of her until he is settled."

She had to wonder now if she should tell Karla she saw Jono's Warren and he was blue. What was it with his world and turning people that color?

[glacial_queen]

She would be the third person to mention a blue Warren to Karla, actually. It was enough to make a female paranoid, even if one of the others was Deadpool and three-quarters of what he said was crazy anyway.

Talking to Deadpool had been a little bit like talking to Tersa, actually.

"No, it's better to leave Joni here with you," Karla agreed. "Besides, 'Dite's has felt a little lonely since Herc left. It'll be nice to have a kitty around again."

Not that Karla would really be around to benefit from that.

[trigons_child]

Clearly, there was something in the water. Except Jono didn't drink. Hmm.

"And it will be nice to have a part of him with me," Raven said with a tiny smile. "I know I have been fortunate enough to have seen him several times since graduation, but it feels like longer. I think perhaps because time passes so much more quickly for him than it does for us here."

She gave Karla a concerned look. "That be a problem between your world and Fandom as well, will it not? I do not wish to leave you for a few hours only to find that several weeks have passed when I return."

[glacial_queen]

"It's not that fast," Karla assured her. "It comes out to roughly two days in Kaeleer for every one spent in Fandom. That should be fine for any trips back to the island you need to take."