glacial_queen | Room 218, Friday Night

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Room 218, Friday Night

Karla was planning to head upstairs to Warren's room in a few minutes, she just had a few more herbs to mix for brews. It seemed less and less likely that this--whatever if was--was going to end in a fight, but she figured it would be best to be prepared anyway. The last of her spidersilk was spun into Healing webs, there were potions and tinctures and unguents prepared. Hopefully this meant that when it all went down, Karla would be ready for something.

[Open!]

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"I'm here," Karla said quietly. "Fandom's still okay. How're you? Can you get here? Tomorrow is the last day for portals, but there's a branch on the island now and we might be able to work something out..."

Please don't make her lose another friend, Jaime. She's kind of at her limit.

"I'm fine," Jaime answered. "Everything's fine here." He knew, at least, what he'd want to know first in her place.

"That's..." He had to pause to swallow. "That's why I wanted to call."

Another swallow. "To see if people needed a place to go." To stay. To hide.

"Momoko was going to--" send her sister, he'd intended to say. But Jaime really should have known he couldn't have begun any sentence with her name with any hope of finishing it.

There went the question of whether or not Jaime knew about Momoko. Karla felt awful about the relief that went through her at that. Telling Jaime about that would have crushed her. And him.

"I...I don't know if people can get portals still," Karla said. "Maybe? I think they're stopping all the portals tomorrow at 7pm. But I can get the word out? You think your world will stay safe?"

"Nothing's happened here at all," Jaime said after a couple of deep breaths. "So if anyone wants to get off the island, just... send them through. There's plenty of space."

Another deep breath.

"Is... everything okay? On the island, I mean?" Besides plenty of other people feeling like he did.

"I'll get that out," Karla promised. "I don't know how many people will take me up on it or how many portals will work, but...it's a good idea to get people away if they want it."

She idly wondered if she could convince some of her friends to go. Somehow, it didn't seem likely.

"Everything's okay so far," she added a beat later when she remembered that Jaime'd asked. Sorry, Jaime, Karla's brain was working on a hundred other things. "Nothing's vanishing here. It's just...everywhere else."

"Yeah." Jaime remembered.

But at least Fandom was safe. "Does anyone have any ideas about..." Well, things?

Jaime's own research had turned up precisely nothing useful.

"Not a clue," Karla said. "Momo--" She stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. "Momoko gave me some insight on things that won't work against it, but so far, all we have are things that it isn't. I guess if we keep doing that, maybe we'll find out what it is, but..."

Hardly the most efficient use of their time.

"Well, I've got a list of that, too," Jaime said quickly, hoping that the rush would keep him from thinking about Momoko.

It kind of worked?

"Do you--can I ask--I didn't think she was leaving--" How to ask this without saying Momoko's name? "What was she going to do? With your home, I mean?"

He'd started to say, then stopped, and who knows? Maybe it would be something useful to know?

"She..."

Jaime trailed off, spending a couple of seconds in silence while he tried to work around the massive lump in his throat.

He didn't trust himself to speak. Not more than a few words. So then he took a moment to figure out how to convey it in the fewest words possible.

"Her sister."

"Oh." Karla kind of hiccuped on the line--an unwanted sob, trying to make its way out. "I--I shouldn't have asked."

Especially since Jaime said Momoko 'was going to.' Which meant she hadn't. Which meant....ow.

"Are you--?"

This was a very eloquent conversation, yes.

Jaime shrugged miserably.

It didn't even occur to him that the gesture didn't transmit through the phone.

"I'm managing."

But managing to what wasn't something that even Jaime really knew.

Karla could accept that answer. She wasn't sure what she was managing to do, either. Keep it mostly together, maybe?

"And--and you know about Dinah?"

Aren't you glad you called, Jaime? Hugs and rainbows for everyone!

Yes. This had been the best idea ever. Clearly.

"I... tried... calling her."

So, yeah. He knew.

Karla bit her lower lip and scrubbed at her face. "I--I'm sorry. I should have called you. But there were--I kept having to add names to the board--and trying to research--"

She had a thousand excuses why she hadn't called. But they didn't matter. She'd owed him that phone call and she'd failed.

"I'm sorry, Jaime."

"It's okay," Jaime said quickly. It wasn't, of course, but that wasn't Karla's fault. "You have enough on your plate." That, at least, was true.

"And I'm fine."

Wow. Jaime had never been very good at lying. Clearly that hadn't changed.

Karla gave her phone a dubious look. "You don't normally try to lie to people, do you? Because, no offense, but you suck at it."

Jaime sounded about as fine as, well, anyone else who'd just lost a bunch of people he cared about in ways he couldn't do anything about.

"Fine-ish?" Jaime tried again, this time not trying to sound convincing, really. Just... truthful.

"At least my family and friends are all okay."

Karla winced at that. Not all of them, Jaime. Not all. "It's something," she agreed. "And you're sure there's nothing happening in your galaxy? From all reports, it started off really tiny and then bloss-- spiraled from there."

Blossom had been Momoko's code name. Ouch.

Even with Karla catching herself, Jaime's mind finished the phrase for her, and he hissed softly.

"Nothing detectable," he answered, choosing that rather than focusing on the loss. "The Scarab is really sensitive, and he tells me that there isn't even..." Jaime shook his head. "It's kind of complicated and involves microwave background radiation, but it boils down to no detectable problems."

Karla bit back a worried 'Are you sure?' She knew that Barbara's computers hadn't been registering anything amiss all that time, either. But the Scarab was more than a computer, so maybe...

Maybe Karla just had to trust that Jaime was right.

She nodded, even though he couldn't see it. "I'll let people know, okay? Maybe send out an email or something? Should they prepare for a stay? Or to kind of...settle down?"

There was a moment of silence. "That's up to them," Jaime eventually answered. "If they need a permanent place, we can find one." He wasn't sure how confident people were of being able to solve this one...

Karla was growing less confident every day. With every new picture on the board and every phone call she had to take from someone else saying goodbye.

"I'll let people know," she said again. "And see what they decide to do."

Maybe send money along with them, so if they needed funds they'd have it without straining the Reyes' family savings too badly. "I really appreciate the offer. On everyone's behalf."

"Thanks for passing it on," Jaime said, voice sincere. "I... well, it's nice to feel like I've done something useful."

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Room 218, Friday Night

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