Tales of the Ice Harpy from Glacia

The weekend was over and people were back to their old selves, at least if the lovely gifts Momoko had left outside her dorm were any indication. The dorm that a sopping wet Karla had marched to last night in high dudgeon. For reasons. Lots of reasons.

But it was a new day, people were back to normal, graduation was in less than a week, and she'd gotten a special package in the mail from Kaeleer. Banard was apologetic that they likely wouldn't arrive in time for her birthday, but just holding her set Jewels in her hands was enough to make her smile.

There was a cup of coffee in her hand, an ice cream cake with 'Happy Birthday' on it, and a clear view of the street so Karla could wave to anyone who wandered by.

[Open! Was going to be a townie post until I went crazy with the links!]

Karla had been packing for her move to Haven, to spend a few months being an unofficial Queen to a village full of refugee Black Widows. Had been, however, because 'packing' apparently meant 'getting chased of her chambers by Helene and several other maids while they packed because no guest leaving SaDiablo Hall would ever be seen unpacking the mess that Karla considered properly packed, which, for the record, she should be ashamed of herself for.' There had been more, but Karla had taken the better part of valour and scurried away to hide regally decamped to one of the gardens on the far side of the Hall.

Lesson learned: don't bundle up clothes and shove them into a pack. Hearth witches got testy about things like that.

She'd been hiding enjoying the sunlight for about an hour when the coven piled out of the Hall to find her. Apparently a package had arrived from Emma and if there was one thing they'd learned by now, mail from Emma meant embarrassment for some and hilarity for everyone else.

"Were you expecting anything?" "Is it from that store?" "Did she include a note?" "Open! Open it! Hurry! I want to see what she sent!" "Ten silvermarks says it's going to make the boyos blush!" "Too easy! Fifteen gold says it make ths High Lord put up an aural shield when he finds out about it." "Do you think this one runs on batteries, too? I want one like Karla has."

That last earned several scandalized gasps. "KALUSH!!!"

"What?" Kalush just laughed at them, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. "Not all of us get to enjoy a lover before the summer is out, Karla. Morghann."

At which point Karla managed to open the box before the conversation could involve any further mention of her own purchases from Dite's. There was a moment of hushed silence as they stared at the contents of the package. Karla was the first to break down into giggles, especially when she saw that Emma had made sure to include a special adornment to show that they were meant to be Kaeleeran, err, candies. Her laughter triggered the others and soon they were laughing so hard there were tears in their eyes.

"The second one is for you lot to split amongst yourselves," Karla said, wiping her face. "Who wants to borrow a knife from the boyos so you can divvy it up?"

"No, no!" Gabrielle said between gasps. "We should wait until they're around and then take bites off of it!"

"Dibs on the tip!" Morghann said.

"And look!" Kalush announced, snagging a smaller package within the box. "Emma sent batteries, too!" Which just set Karla to facepalming and the rest of them to laughing even harder. Yup. Embarrassing one, amusing to everyone else. Good show.

[NFB, open for folks in Kaeleer, phone calls, whatever! Second and third links NSFW!]

After the debacle of Agio (and the even more debacle-y aftermath), Karla had promised to keep Saetan, Lucivar, and Morton apprised of major events at Fandom. She might often interpret that promise as conveniently as possible, but there was no way that even she could spin the end of all creation as something other that a 'major event.' Which was why two months after reality had been repaired, she was standing in Saetan's office, telling them what had happened in stark and painful detail. Of course, since what had happened had affected all of Kaeleer, even if they didn't know it, Karla was not delivering her report to Saetan alone, or even Saetan and Lucivar. No, Jaenelle and several members of the coven and the boyos had all crowded in, too, and were listening to her clustered in the chairs at the back of his office.

It could have been worse. There might not have been a Kaeleer to return back to. Or the split between her and Warren could have been permanent, leaving her to stand in front of the High Lord's great blackwood desk alone while spilling out the story. It was comforting, having him beside her, so she could reach out and hold his hand for comfort at a few parts.

Karla had done all of the speaking up until this point, laying out all of what had happened in sparse detail. They had heard the entirety of the account, all the way up to remembering the universe back into existence without interrupting, but she didn't think that silence was going to last for very long, not as her story wound down to an end. From the shifting behind her and the faces that Saetan and Lucivar had made at various points in her tale, once she stopped talking, she was going to face a torrent of words.

( Most of them probably invectives. At least from Lucivar. )

[Preplayed with the wonderful not_a_parakeet. TBC in comments. Apologies, was supposed to be up yesterday (and completed), but I sort of failed at availability this week.]

Karla'd had an excuse why she'd missed the wrapped present on her bed Friday night. She and Warren had been awake for almost twenty-four hours, fought in a battle, had gotten hurled into a bridge, made up, and then she'd performed at the Showcase. Karla counted herself lucky that she'd managed to make it to a bed, never mind her own, before collapsing and sleeping like the dead. She'd managed to drag herself to Dite's suite the next morning for baking and cookies and a Conversation, and had blearily just tossed the blankets over the top of the bed and called it made without paying attention to what else might be getting covered: pillows, pilfered stuffed animals, presents...

The excuse for missing it last night was a little thinner. She'd fallen asleep on top of her covers, reading a book and had been mostly asleep by the time she got cold enough to crawl under her blankets.

But the second thing she'd noticed when she'd finally woken up this afternoon--the first being the adorably fluffy baby penguin who'd managed to sneak into her room and cuddle with her--was a wrapped gift half-hidden under one of her pillows. All the possibilities she'd come up with for what it could be--a gift from her roommate before Gabs had left? A gesture from Warren? Random Fandom whimsy?--had not prepared her for the bloody horror within.

Her little penguin friend vanished out the door in a flurry of tiny, grey feathers as Karla opened her present and began screaming.

[Warnings for a hideous--but non-bloody--horse head statue in the last link]

Karla had come back from Panem, in a mood. After her conversation with Katniss and the bombs and Prim and...Darkness. She wasn't entirely certain if she had helped anything. Anything at all. And there was still Glacia to go back to.

Some vacation.

So rather do anything productive, Karla had spent all day in her room moping brooding, building herself up into an awful mood. She'd been on her way to a completely awful despondency, when her voicemail beeped.

She listened to it. Once. Twice. Again. Staring in shock. She was listening to it for a fourth time when she got another call. She missed it and the next call that came in while she was listening to Bobby's.

By the end of Tony's, she was on the phone herself to Ben. And laughing so hard she thought she might pull something.

Guess it was her week for it.

[Mostly establishy but open if anyone wants to pop in or call!]

Post 1. Prologue: In which a message is delivered.
Post 2. In which our Heroines awaken in a strange yet oddly familiar place. Naked.
Post 3. In which our Heroines head to the Keep for some answers and find more than they bargained for.
Post 4. In which Dinah receives a confidence she is not entirely ready for.
Post 5. In which our Heroines endanger a child for the good of all.
Post 6. In which Karla rescues the captives and finds them to be unlike what she was expecting.
Post 7. In which Dinah keeps Rook safe from Raven's creatures.
Post 8. In which Raven battles Raven.
Post 9. In which our Heroines save the day but find it's not as complete as they would like.
Post 10. In which everyone returns to the estate and there is much painful conversation.
Post 11. In which Dinah and Queen Karla speak.
Post 12. Epilogue: In which Warren speaks to several Karlas.
Post 13. Epilogue: In which Raven is home and cuddles Jono.
Post 14. Epilogue: In which Karla is also home and cries on Warren

After the debacle during breakfast, Karla had shoo'd her other children to go find their parents or someone to play with or an activity that didn't involve breaking things or getting hurt and then dragged Raven and Rook down the second floor to her room to sort things out. Raven's room had been closer, but Karla's was empty and she didn't want Rook panicking anymore than she already was, being this close to her mother.

"Okay," she said quietly, shutting the door and setting out a small bottle of rum to keep the squirrels occupied. "What's going on here? Rook? Darling, you need to explain to us why you're so frightened of your mo--of Raven."

[For those mentioned and while it's okay to say they talked, comments are NFB, please. Rook's story will involve violence and dark themes, so a trigger-warning in effect for comments.]

After watching a movie with the boyos, Karla came back to her room to leave a message. She didn't really understand everything that had happened (and the scene with the lepers would probably scar her forever), but she had to give the movie bonus points for creating a truly beautiful and tragic love story. Judas eventually betraying Jesus to his death, all out of jealousy and a misguided attempt to save him? That was just lovely. And their last kiss being one of betrayal--that had just been amazing.

She'd never realized the religions of so many of her friends had been founded on such an epic love story. Maybe she could try to talk to Rilla about this sometime. Find common ground and all that.

After hanging up with Warren's voicemail, Karla realized she had several messages of her own. Several very bizarre messages, in fact. All of which she had to respond to, of course.

Even after eventually figuring out what was going on (and trying to explain it by calling someone), she still kept getting caught by the calls and trying to call back to explain.

Of course, the worst part? Was when she realized that her message to Warren had probably gone to someone else. Hell's fire and Mother Night.

[Mostly establishy & linkdrop, but open.]

After her conversation with Roy yesterday, Karla had been...thinking about some things. specifically, thinking about the toy she'd picked up for Dean's class, now safely vanished away where no one could see it or know she still had it. But as much as she'd been able to ignore it since buying it for her assignment, talking to Roy had reminded her it was still there, waiting in all it's unopened glory.

( Now it was there. Staring at her. )

After a day like yesterday, all Karla wanted to do was relax. However, that was apparently not to be. She'd had several calls to make, both of which were probably going to lead to Discussions. Actually, she was rather hoping they did--she missed Jack utterly and, well, when it came to the whole Gaia/Edge/Midgar thing, she really needed guidance. Between her vow of silence and her worry of royally screwing up an entire planet's future, there wasn't a whole lot she could say. And she doubted Cloud was okay with what little she'd been able to tell him at 'Dite's yesterday.

You know, all this on top of yesterday. And the weekend. And the summer.

So Karla was just going to spend some quality time fretting, at least for a little while. Because that was productive, yes.

[Karla's expecting one, but open for cabinmates and friends anyway. SP warning in effect, as tonight is game night.]