fandomtownies | Co(n)ven(ien)t Garden Flower Shop(pe), Thursday, July 2

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Co(n)ven(ien)t Garden Flower Shop(pe), Thursday, July 2

Dinah was not usually one to mope-- in fact, that was antithetical to any religion she might have-- but the bad dreams on Arrakis, argument with Merlin, and now Tony leaving for a semester had left her in a definite mental place to play the blues.

Therefore, the plants were listening to Roy Orbison today.

Covent Garden Flowers

Eliza Doolittle, prop.
Fresh flowers from nosegays to bouquets!
Delivery available upon request.

Covent Garden Flowers is open.

[ooc: the OCD is too bummed to show. ze post is open anyway.]

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Well, as soon as she'd heard that Tony was leaving, there was really only one thing she could do: go find Dinah and give her a hug. If Karlahad been a little saddened by the news of his departure, then Dinah would surely be upset. And a good ~~Queen~~ friend took care of the emotional needs of her ~~Court~~ errr, friends.

"Kiss kiss," she called into the flowershop. "Dinah, you around?"

Roy was wailing "Crying" and Dinah was pouting and re-potting a little strawberry plant for Reno. "Over here!" She came out, and smiled half-heartedly at Karla. "Hey. How's it going?"

"I am well, thanks," Karla answered, shooting dubious glances at the radio while she walked to the counter. "But I doubted you were. So here I am."

"You heard, hunh?" Dinah quit trying to look cheerful, and just looked downcast. "It's a really really cool job for Tony. And he was so bummed they had to give it to someone else earlier this summer, 'cause he wasn't eighteen yet." She plopped the strawberry plant down on the counter and sighed. "Still."

"I stopped by his room to talk briefly about magic reserve stuff and he was packing. It seemed a little much for just a weekend trip." Karla gave Dinah a gentle smile. "You don't have to pretend to be cheerful about it. I'm not Tony and I'm not going to tell him. You can be as grumpy and miserable as you want right now. Once you get it all out of your system, then you'll be able to actually be happy about it, the way you want to be."

"Okay then: wah," Dinah said defiantly, and scowled. "I want him to stay and not go back to Vancouver for so long. Even if it's selfish. And he'll have fun and get paid and all. It just reminds me we're going to be doing this for real in another year, less, even."

Karla winced to hear that, but pushed that thought away. Now was for Dinah. "Of course you don't. He's your dearest friend. It's hard to go months without seeing your best friend. If you weren't so upset about him leaving, you wouldn't be such good friends."

"I promise not to tell a soul that Dinah Lance took a few moments to be selfish," Karla teased.

Dinah made a face, then laughed at herself a little, ruefully. Roy segued into "Mean Woman Blues." "Yeah, I know. It's just been a rough week anyway, and this is one more thing, you know?" She sighed. "I ended up dreamwalking half the people on the Arrakis trip, because that Spice effects me so strongly."

Ouch. "That...couldn't have been fun," Karla said. "You okay?"

"Mmph. Mostly." The whole Merlin thing was too complicated and messy to get into, but... "It just makes me realize that even with stuff I've dealt with in my life, a lot of people have it worse. Death and blood and more death." She shook her head. "Francine helped. She's kind of awesome that way." She was quiet a minute, then said quietly, "I meant it when I said I don't want more powers, that way. Or to be Emma."

"Francine strikes me as a soothing person to be around," Karla said, nodding. "Almost maternal, in a sense. And, no, I wouldn't want Emma's powers either. The Blood can read thoughts, of course, but generally we have to get behind another's inner barriers to do so. And shielding our minds is something we learn practically as we're teething."

Karla noticed that Dinah seemed a little more peaky than she would with just a run-in with a few bad dreams. Karla also knew that Tahiri had been on the trip. Which meant..."You saw something rather traumatic, didn't you." It wasn't a question. "And now you're wondering how anyone can be that cold. That heartless."

Dinah's eyes widened, and it was on the tip of her tongue to ask Karla if she'd talked to Merlin, before she clamped down on that hard. He'd hardly been the only one, really. Just the most vivid, the one she recognized. "Yeah," she whispered, tired. "I'm not naive, Karla. I swear I'm not. I'm not some sheltered baby. But I don't get it. Cruelty like that-- it's like the exact opposite of Francine, and makes me wonder how they can co-exist, or if I'm going crazy, misinterpreting the whole world."

Karla gave a bitter laugh. "I know you're not. You don't have to be naive not to understand it, Dinah. I don't get it either. But coming face-to-face with it, watching it work, seeing them doing horrible things and not feeling the least bit of remorse, well, it changes your worldview. Down is up, night is day...and then you wonder how someone who has been through that can just walk around, like nothing happened."

Karla reached over to pat Dinah's hand comfortingly, making sure that only warmth and reassurance would pass through the link. "If it makes you feel better, I'll be working with her," Karla said quietly. "She'll get through this."

Dinah frowned, paused, then said, "Okay, I think I didn't see whoever you're talking about. At least not to recognize." Slowly she added, thinking of Tahiri, "But I think I can guess anyway, since uh. People do talk to me, sometimes." And sent a quick image of Tahiri, with a question mark next to her face.

"Oh. I--oh." Karla's expresion turned confused, then morphed into chagrinned. She nodded a bit. "Exactly. Well, then who--" she broke off. "Never mind. Forget I asked. Asking you to break confidences is wrong. Don't mind me, I'll just be leaping to conclusions over here."

"It's okay," Dinah said, shaking her head. "Um. She told me about stuff that happened to her a while ago. And people she lost. You're helping her?" she asked, hopeful. "Because that would be so awesome. I had no idea what to do, other than listen."

She grimaced. "As for mine, there was more than one person who's been through or done something I can't understand. And I don't even who know some of them were." She could guess at the demon with the jewel being part of Fiona's dream, but who was the person running through space? And who had blown up a thousand space ships? "Although I'd love to know was sniffing the line of Santas. That was just weird."

"I am," Karla said. "I even already have a few ideas that I think will help. It's what Black Widows are trained to do, and it's not like I was lacking in practice before I came here."

"...What's a Santas?"

"Awesome," Dinah said in relief, then had to laugh. "Um. Santa Claus is this mythical elf, the spirit of Christmas-- remember, I told you we had a winter holiday kind of like yours? He's supposed to reward good little kids with extra presents, and leave lumps of coal for the bad ones. Christmas Eve he's supposed to climb down the chimney to do it, and then climb back up and fly away on his magic sled drawn by reindeer." She grinned. "People dress up as him around Christmas time to ask for donations to charities, or to give out presents. Someone was dreaming they had to sniff a whole line of Santas to see who smelled like Chinese food, and that one was guilty of some crime. I have no idea."

"Wait--is he an elf like Leda? Good and bad children? Is that another religious thing?" Karla asked. "All the really weird things people talk about here have to do with religion."

She still didn't understand the allure, really. And she certainly hadn't completely followed Dinah's explanation, with chimneys and deer made of rain and Chinese food.

"Not like Leda, no. Just magic for a world without it. It's a way to get little kids to behave, at least toward the end of the year. The parents pretend to be Santa and leave presents from him," Dinah explained. "And if you're bad, you're not supposed to get any. Although I never heard of a kid that actually happened to." Not that Pam and Ted had thought she still believed in Santa Claus anyway. There had been presents, but nothing from Santa. She hadn't much cared, that first year without her mom.

"And kind of? He's based on a real person, Saint Nicholas, about four hundred years ago, who left presents for little kids who were poor on their doorsteps, I think, to celebrate Christmas," Dinah said, not sure she was getting the details right. "And Christmas is the birthday of that major religious figure I mentioned, Jesus. A lot of people just celebrate it as a family day now."

"Jesus!" Karla said with a smile. "I know about that. Leda told me."

Well, Leda mentioned it was a word one used to indicate surprise or alarm. So it was kind of an explanation.

[I legit got coal from Santa one year.]

"Right!" Dinah had no idea Karla wasn't getting it. "So yeah. His birthday is December 25th, about six months from now, and Santa Claus supposedly does this stuff the night before, and people dress up in red coats with white fur and fake beards for half of December, and somehow someone was dreaming that and getting it mixed up with crime investigation and food in my head. So odd." She tilted her head, reminded of something else she'd been wondering. "Do we need to have another slumber party soon? With all the new kids coming in?" She reached out with her fingers to lightly add, In all their unnerving newness?

[awww! *laugh* *gives candy cane*]

What a nice guy, delivering presents on his birthday. Karla approved.

"A slumber party in July sounds like a great idea," Karla said. At the same time she sent, I drank a special brew that suppressed June's moon-time. I won't be able to do that again this month, she grimaced.

[It's okay. He made a special trip back that summer to trade it for a doll. *takes the candy cane anyway*]

Dinah winced and sent back, New girls slumber party it is, adding aloud, "Just let me know when it's happening, and I'll bring party foods and such. Not in the next week or so?" She grinned. "And just think, this weekend, *you* get to be an Old Kid."

"I'll be gone this whole weekend," Karla admitted. "I'll be leaving partway through the newbie picnic."

Which made her realize that she might not need Dinah to throw her a slumber party at all. She still hadn't made up her mind if she was going to come back from Kaeleer on a permanent basis or not.

Not that she would say anything right now about it, though. No reason to get anyone upset until she knew for sure what she was doing.

"I'm gone even earlier than that," Dinah said. "But I should be back Monday afternoon. So come find me then, 'kay?" She smiled and said, "Thanks for coming by when you knew I'd be down. It helped."

"I will," Karla promised. "And you're welcome," she added with a grin. "I've got to run to Triela's room, she left me a message. But I'll hopefully see you before we go. If not," she leaned over the counter to give Dinah a hug, "have fun."

Dinah hugged her back. "Thanks, and you too, and next time? I want photos of everything!"

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Co(n)ven(ien)t Garden Flower Shop(pe), Thursday, July 2

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