Room 218, Tuesday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

It was Valentine's Day and so Karla was celebrating the best way she knew how--a giant box of expensive chocolates and a brand-new trashy romance novel. There might be other, more traditional celebrations later in the evening, but Karla's first introduction to the holiday was through chocolate and she wasn't about to give up such an amazing custom.

Mmm. Chocolate. And a bodice-ripper. Karla was a witch of simple tastes.

[Primarily for one, but open! With a looooot of SP warnings.]

Comments

[endsthegame]

It was Valentine's Day, and Ender... had spent most of his time with Ben so far. There were plans for later, too - just because Luke had gotten in the way didn't mean they were going to get out of null-g nookie a quick jaunt into space.

But right now, he had a mission - one Ben wasn't as swiftly inclined to embark on, but that was important. Much more important than what they'd been doing these past few days, enjoyable as it might have been.

And so there was Ender, knocking on the door. "Karla?" he called. "I have a favor to ask."

Might as well be direct.

[glacial_queen]

Talk about words that had her tossing her book and her chocolates aside and she jumped up to open the door. Ender didn't ask for favors often, at least, not those of a personal variety. His favors tended to be more along the lines of 'please don't threaten Topher in my defense' or 'please stop and think before doing something painfully stupid.'

...It was possible that Karla was trying to think if she'd done anything recently to make him ask for that kind of favor from her.

"Of course," she said, opening the door. Greetings and happiness about them being back could wait. "Come inside and talk to me."

Then, to prove that she wasn't always slow, she asked, "Did Luke do something stupid?"

IT WAS AN EASY CONCLUSION TO LEAP TO.

NFB from here, please.

[endsthegame]

Ender stepped inside, and then reached out and shut the door behind him. The less the squirrels heard about this, the happier he'd be.

"How good are you at healing scars?" he asked quietly, avoiding her question.

Re: NFB from here, please.

[glacial_queen]

Karla winced. That was not a question she wanted to hear. "I can do it," she said quietly, looking Ender over carefully. He seemed fine, which likely meant--

"It hurts, though," she said. "Scars means that the body has already healed. I'll have to reopen the wounds to make them Heal properly." Everything had a price. "I can take some of that pain onto myself, depending on the size of the scars in question, but if there's too much, I'll lose my focus."

And considering the number of scars Ben had anyway, for him to want to lose whatever new one he had acquired...

Re: NFB from here, please.

[endsthegame]

Ender sighed, and rubbed at his forehead. "Luke asked for help dealing with an old evil called Abeloth," he summarised quickly. "Ben wanted to help, so we went."

At this point, Ender no longer had the inclination to say no to that.

"Luke led us straight into a frontal assault on Abeloth and a large group of Sith. Ben was tortured briefly in the ensuing chaos. It's left... a lot of marks, and he's not dealing with them very well."

Re: NFB from here, please.

[glacial_queen]

Karla had started facepalming as soon as Ender said, 'Luke asked for help.' By the time he got to 'Luke led us straight into a frontal assault,' she was groaning quietly and trying to hide her face with a pillow.

And her knuckles were white when he got to the part about Ben being tortured, however briefly, and the temperature in the room dropped significantly.

"I see," she said quietly, taking a moment to rein her temper back in.

"I am going to punch Luke in the balls if he shows up for graduation."

Because that was helpful!

Re: NFB from here, please.

[endsthegame]

Ender... could not really begrudge her that impulse, actually.

He didn't hate Luke, but he was having some trouble reining in his anger. Which bothered him.

He watched her for a moment. Chose not to go into it. Yet. He had to be the sane one here, as he always was. "Ben has a checkerboard pattern going up his back all the way onto his face," he said. "He's said he wants to get rid of it. I thought I'd explore his options."

So Karla was the first healer he'd come to. If she couldn't do it, he was fairly sure their options were limited.

Re: NFB from here, please.

[glacial_queen]

See Karla. See Karla inventing her own Serenity Now prayer. See Karla throttling back her rage at Luke and channeling it into something productive.

Ben needed Healing. That was vastly more important than planning to turn her Luke doll's head into a pin cushion.

"I may need to do it in shifts," she said. "Depending on how thick and extensive they are. But I can start with his face and work my way down. They're not too old, though he probably swam in bacta for awhile, which make things a little harder. But...I should be able to do it."

Re: NFB from here, please.

[endsthegame]

"Sorry," Ender said. "I thought commandeering a shuttle and getting him a bacta treatment was a better idea than letting him run bleeding into the next fight."

So apparently he was still angry about that. He ran a hand through his hair.

"I didn't realise it would complicate this."

[life_inshadow]

"Karla?" Tara asked from the doorway. "I have a ques -- ooh, you have candy."

She'd wanted to talk-slash-brag about the Rebecca thing, but she was easily distracted.

[OOC: SP is my favorite.]

[glacial_queen]

"Kiss kiss, Tara!" Karla said, putting her book down. "And Happy Valentine's Day!" She held the box of chocolates out enticingly, "I'll be happy to share," she added.

Because Tara needed to be coaxed, yes.

"Come on in?"

[life_inshadow]

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Tara echoed, going in and plucking a raspberry-centered chocolate from the box. She thanked Karla through a full mouth, then lowered her voice before speaking again.

"So, uh ... mind a little girl talk?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla's eyes lit up at that. "I loooove girl talk," she assured Tara, moving over so Tara could have plenty of space on the bed to sit down. The door closed itself, so no one wandering past the hallway would be able to listen in, and she gave Tara an expectant grin.

"Shaaaaare," she said.

[life_inshadow]

Tara giggled behind her hand, feeling far girlier than she normally did. "Okay, so ... y'know, I've been single for a while, right? So ... I went to the three minutes dates thing at the bar Sunday. M-mostly for something to do, right? And..."

And she needed another chocolate before she could go on.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was practically shoving chocolates at her. "...Aaaand?" she said, grabbing one for herself and devouring it like she would at a particularly suspenseful point in her book. "You met someone?"

[life_inshadow]

"Well, that's the thing," Tara said, sounding the tiniest bit conflicted as she took a caramel. "I mean, I kind of ..."

There was no kind of about it, Tara. "I mean, I did go home with somebody. A girl." Because that point needed clarification. "And, you know, it was fun, but ... um. I .. maybe don't know where it's going?"

She'd gone to breakfast with Rebecca. She was hot, but they weren't exactly soulmates.

[glacial_queen]

"A girl?" Karla squeed. Forgive her, Tara, she'd get to your main point eventually. But, "Eeee! A girl! Is she nice?" AHAHAHA, NO, KARLA. "Pretty? Fun?"

[icecoldfrost]

It had come to this; Emma needed someone to talk to, Kennedy wasn't answering her damned phone, and if she called Alex, she'd never hear the end of it. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it was Alex, but Emma had a witch-y friend who might be able to offer some perspective before she endured the good-natured (and lewd) razzing from Karev.

So, safely back in her dorm, she dialed Karla's number and waited for her to pick up.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was right in the middle of an amazing chapter when her phone rang, but all thoughts of windy moors and forbidden loves were chased out of her head when she saw whose name had popped up on the Caller ID. "Kiss kiss!" she said, breaking into a giant grin. "Emma, hello! Happy Valentine's Day!"

[icecoldfrost]

Emma actually had to think about that for a second. "It is the 14th, isn't it?" she mused. "Happy Day of Copious Pink Decor, darling. Why are you answering the phone instead of using it as an excuse to have your Warren naked?"

[glacial_queen]

"Because Warren has been sent off to get me enough food that we won't have to move for a few days when he gets back," Karla said, because oversharing was how she rolled. "And now I'm upset that you've forgotten, because it means my delivery has not yet arrived."

Damn it. She'd have to call the company and complain.

"What's up, darling?" Karla'd thought she'd been calling to thank her for the flowers, but since that wasn't the case...color her intrigued.

[icecoldfrost]

"Just a hypothetical question for my Healer and favorite witch," Emma replied lightly. "If I hypothetically woke up in bed with someone who is hypothetically normally male and of the werewolf persuasion, only wasn't male that particular day, how likely is it that the curse might have been passed through some quality time?" Not that Emma was exhibiting any symptoms, but it was best to check. And if she asked Ronan, he'd just innuendo at her.

Beat.

"And tell me you people had some gender issues a little while back, or I have even more to deal with on this end than normal."

[glacial_queen]

"Guh." That was some nice imagery right there and the island was making her that much more appreciative right now.

Dammit, Emma! Now Karla had to drag her brain away from that lovely image and try to put it to use with thinking. Argh.

"Umm, that is, err, yeah, we had some gender shenanigans awhile back. Warren was a girl and...unf." She hadn't meant to make that noise in your ear, Emma. Sorry about that. "But, so, okay? So he was female and you two...enjoyed yourself!"

[icecoldfrost]

"Brain, Karla, gutter," Emma said dryly. "Focus on the question, please, and don't sound quite so excited about the idea."

[glacial_queen]

"Sorry, sorry," Karla said quickly. "It's just...you know, that week on the island."

Which meant it was a totally different from what her normal response would be. Really.

"Okay. Do you know for certain it's spread through sexual contact? Fluid emissions?"

See? She could be technical!