Tales of the Ice Harpy from Glacia

One of the most difficult skills one needed to cultivate as Queen was the ability to look interested and focused on anything, even while your brain was elsewhere--in Karla's case, hundreds of leagues away, fretting over several small villages that had been covered in an avalanche. While all she wanted to do was remain at the estate, continuing to go over emergency relief plans, she was here instead, smiling and nodding and being overall a gracious and sociable Queen. Raven's luncheon for the caretakers and staff of various Sidran orphanages and children's homes had been a rousing success, raising funds from aristos who wanted to be seen as 'charitable' and raising morale for the people who actually did the hard work in the institutions themselves. Several grinning orphans were there, too, lucky enough to have earned a lunch with their Queen and the Court Healer, the woman who was putting in all the real effort into making things better for children across Glacia.

This was a good event and an important one, one that Karla and Raven had both been looking forward to for weeks, but right now it was all Karla could do not to gnash her teeth in impatience. How much longer did they have to stand here and smile and glad-hand when there were actual lives in danger?

And if this was how Karla was feeling, how much worse was it for Raven, who could teleport up north with a thought and start healing people immediately, if only they didn't have to be here right now?

( Meanwhile, up in the mountains... )

[Part 2 of 3. Thanks to both furnaceface and trigons_child for their wonderful help with this preplay. NFI, NFB, OOC is enjoyed. Warning for violence and NPC death].

Another day, another stupid Court function that Karla had to deal with. She wasn't even sure what this one was for; Lord Mallory was under strict instructions not to tell her unless it was for something important. Otherwise, he had to deal with her scandalized, "We're having a function for this?!?!" and no one--least of all Lord Mallory--wanted to deal with that.

Tonight, however, Karla found she minded Court shenanigans far less than usual. She was wearing a rather severe black gown, very different from her usual attire, but perfect for showing off her latest accessory. Jono might not appreciate being worn around her neck like a boa, but she hadn't appreciated spending all day with a headache and an upset stomach the day he'd turned into a snake and bitten her.

As a precaution, she'd milked his fangs that afternoon before getting ready. She couldn't guarantee he wasn't going to bite anyone (and didn't actually want to), but she wasn't going to let him accidentally kill someone either. Because that would be a right pain in the ass to deal with.

Her Fandom friends all got a picture text that said Me and a snakey selfie. Lookit his grumpy little face! Can you guess who? before she headed down to mingle. Because destroying Jono's dignity one snapchat at a time was pretty much her life's work.

[For Glacia residents and anyone who got a snapchat]