Dite's Decadent Delights, Monday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

The last place Karla wanted to be was at work (or, you know, on the island at all), but unlike people kept insinuating, she knew her duty and she did it. And she'd be damned if she was going to skulk about and hide in her room, regardless. So here she was, chin up and head high, inventorying the stock since it was doubtful they'd be getting any deliveries soon.

There were a few more snow globes left, but she was saving those. In case there were people about who wished to share their uninvited opinions about her actions the other day.

Comments

Re: Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

"I said goodbye to Leda as she walked over the Causeway back to her world," Karla said. "There's some male on the island with a book for me--a book she left behind so her people wouldn't be completely forgotten. I begged Momoko to come back to the island and be safe, but she said that she had to stay and fight the oncoming emptiness until there was no more her to fight."

She looked up at him and shrugged. "I would have argued with you against it, that's for damn sure. But I would have liked to think I'd've respected your choice in the end. I didn't drag you home before, either, as much as I would have liked to."

Re: Talk to Karla

[furnaceface]

"Hmm, true. And so far as I can tell, you didn't tell Raven about my being shot, or anything of the like."

Speared.

"If you don't mind my asking, what were you planning on doing once you made it back there?"

Re: Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Speared" Heh

"I would have spent the last few days there being the best Queen I could for my people," Karla admitted. No one had actually asked her that yet. "And I would have done what Momoko did. I'd've tried to fight it off or hold it at bay and reported that back. Probably wouldn't have worked, but I would have tried. And called people to let them know what did or didn't work until the very end."

Re: Talk to Karla

[furnaceface]

Jono's jaw clenched at that, if only a little. He clearly wasn't pleased at that idea, but he was hardly one to talk. If he'd run back, he would have wound up throwing rocks at it, or something.

"It would've been an unfortunate loss," he offered, instead. Because it was the truth, so far as he saw it. "Any plans now that you're here, instead?"

Not that anyone had been particularly big on plans, these days.

Re: Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

Karla shrugged again, trying to look far more casual than she was. "Avoid War...avoid him. Punch people in the face who try to berate me for my choice when they don't know a damn thing about me. Keep looking for some kind of fix to this bullshit so we can get our people back."

Just because she was stuck here, she wasn't going to do something idiotic like refuse to help. That was absurd.

"Keep running the store. Go to rehearsal. Same old, same old."

Re: Talk to Karla

[furnaceface]

That clenched jaw of his twisted into a slightly sympathetic smile.

"They worry," he offered. "Hell, I worry. I just happen to have no room to talk, myself. I probably would have gone back to my reality, if I'd been able to afford the portal fare."

Of course, Jono's self-preservation issues were no secret.

"I know nothing I can say is going to change a bloody thing," he ventured, "but I refuse to think that it's over just yet. We're still here, and these Auditors are going to have a hell of a fight on their hands if they have to face all of us at once." He tilted his head a little. "Not like there's a hell of a lot that I could do. Or you. Or any one of us on our own. But this island's strength has always been incomparable when we work together."

...

"Lord, don't tell anybody I'm speaking like that. I'd never live it down."

Re: Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Secretly, I've been recording you and intend on playing it over the intercom," Karla deadpanned. "You sound like a hero giving a call to arms."

Not that Karla doubted that Jono was a hero. She just knew he'd rather peel off his skin than be called one.

"I didn't go because I thought it was over. I wasn't giving up. I still expected every damn person who stayed on this island to figure something out and fight. I just chose a different battleground."

Re: Talk to Karla

[furnaceface]

"I know, Sunbeam." That little smile of his went a touch strained. Jono never was one for sustained positivity. "I'm the one prone to giving up, here. I'm not about to accuse you of pulling a stunt like that. Who knows? If your people knew it was coming, maybe you could've pooled your powers and held it off."

... Not helping, Jono.

"It... might've taken some convincing, mind. Logan thought I was going absolutely barmy when I spoke to him."

Re: Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

Karla gave him a bleak smile. No, that possibility hadn't helped, but the fact that he didn't think that she'd just skipped off merrily to die was still comforting. "That's one of the benefits of being a long-awaited Queen, especially for only a few days. I can get away with charmingly eccentric requests, so long as they don't seem hurtful."

Re: Talk to Karla

[furnaceface]

"I imagine that would have been a help, yes," Jonothon agreed. There was a bit of a terse note underneath all of that, something that was deeper and far more personal than he cared to delve into, that sank its claws into the fact that... well, they hadn't taken him very seriously even before all this.

They would hardly have been able to start taking him seriously now.

"But, now that we're stuck here..." His smile was just as terse. "If there's anything you need, Karla, just let me know?"

A shoulder to cry on, a night out drinking, someone to beat up Warren with a lead pipe. Jono was flexible that way.