Room 218, Friday Night

[glacial_queen]

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!]

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

"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.

[glacial_queen]

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.

[weldedtomyspine]

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

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

[glacial_queen]

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.

[weldedtomyspine]

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."

[glacial_queen]

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?"

[weldedtomyspine]

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...

[glacial_queen]

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."

[weldedtomyspine]

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