The Gardens of SaDiablo Hall, Thursday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_witch]

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

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[apocalipped]

Someday, Jonothon would come to regret his timing, when it came to finally getting around to getting in touch with people. But at the moment, there was a finch flying around overhead, and a black cat giving chase, chased, in turn, by a wildcat.

So, really, he'd take just about any distraction he could get.

Ring ring, Karla. But not like the ones on those chocolates.

[glacial_witch]

Perhaps Jono would realize his horrible timing when Karla answered the phone in a fit of giggles that she couldn't stifle for the first ten seconds of the call.

"H-H-Hello, Jon!" she replied, managing to form words through the laughter. "How're you?"

[apocalipped]

"Er..."

He was a bit baffled, Karla. Could you tell?

"I'm... Uh?" Spit it out, Jono. "What in the world are you carrying on about, Karla?"

Yeah, you didn't even get an answer. He needed to know.

[glacial_witch]

Pictures were worth a thousand words. So Karla hung up, took several pictures of her package from Emma (including one of Jaenelle holding one up and while Karla had her mouth open to bite it) and sent them as texts to his number.

Call me back when ur coherent.

[apocalipped]

Jono had taken a moment to look, affronted, at the phone after Karla had hung up on him.

And then he'd flipped through the pictures.

And the bark of laughter that he loosed was enough to spend the manic menagerie all scrambling for cover. He wasn't stricken down with a debilitating case of the giggles or anything, but the photos were definitely amusing.

Mm, chocolate.

There was Jono, calling Karla back. Smirking faintly as he did so. Honestly, Karla. Honestly.

[glacial_witch]

"Kiss kiss!" Karla said, managing to have composed herself slightly in the interim. "I'm going to have to hang up again when the boyos show up. Ems will never forgive me if I don't get pictures of their expressions."

[apocalipped]

"Fair enough," Jono replied, sounding still just a little bit amused, somewhere in there. "If you're terribly busy, I can find another time, though. I don't have anything too important to discuss, really. I'm just calling to annoy you and to waste your phone's battery."

Well, that was just flat-out not true.

[glacial_witch]

"You're never a bother," Karla said immediately. "Nor a waste of battery life. It's good to hear from you, Jono! What's up? I've tried to call The Boards a few times--never as often as I ought, I admit that--and you've been gone. Jono, are you rediscovering the joys of a social life?"

Her question was teasing but there was a thread of concern beneath it as well.

[apocalipped]

"Something like that," Jono allowed, after a moment's pause. "Putting on a costume and running around New York with a bunch of other costumed vigilantes counts as a social life, doesn't it?"

He didn't imagine that she'd do something like run off to tell his world's Tony Stark that he was one of the New Warriors that was causing him such a headache or anything like that. His world's Tony Stark was an ass.

"You'll be pleased to know that I haven't been horribly mutilated yet."

[glacial_witch]

Karla had to raise an eyebrow at that. "You're back to running around with an X on your belt?" she asked, not sure whether this was a good development or a bad one. "I thought that fell under the umbrella of stuff you'd never do again."

"...But the not horribly mutilated's a good thing," she added, almost as an afterthought.

[apocalipped]

"What? Oh, Christ, no. No more letter X. Not a bloody chance."

Seriously, Karla. Get with the program!

"No logo at all, unless you count the graffiti that we're leaving wherever we make an appearance. The government's gone and made being an unregistered superhuman into a criminal offence, Karla. Punishable by a one-way ticket to imprisonment in an alternate dimension. I take issue with that."

[glacial_witch]

"They've what?!" Karla yelped, getting the coven's attention. She shook her head at them, waving them away, then walked a few feet back to better concentrate on what Jono was saying. "They're trying to make you register?! That's stupid! Insane! Dangerous!"

[apocalipped]

"All of the above," Jono sighed, lifting a finger and putting it into his ear with a wince. Ow. "Not that it'd be the first time the word 'registration' has been a... thing. America had a Mutant Registration Act for a while, there. I didn't manifest until after that mess blew over, but I do remember reading about it, back in London. Thankful I was nice and far away from it."

He was quiet for a moment, remembering how he'd recoiled at the propaganda posters, of pictures of children, a little boy at the end stamped over with a bright red 'MUTIE,' and a 'Do you know what your children are?' caption over the whole thing.

"This isn't just a name in the little black book thing, though. This is... it's forced subservience. It's superhumans giving up their right to a secret identity and a safe life for their families. It's the option to either become one of their weapons, or to submit to life imprisonment."

Karla probably remembered Jono's feelings on being used as a weapon.

[glacial_witch]

Yeah. His reaction was...memorable. To say the least.

"That's...WHY IS YOUR WORLD SO DAMN BROKEN, JONO?" Oh. He hadn't put the phone back to his ear, yet, had he? Oops? "It's horrible! Awful! Whose bright idea what this?"

Karla had some serious shin-kicking to do.

[apocalipped]

"... Nobody that you'd be able to get to," Jono replied, frowning a little more.

The boy on the island... wasn't the same Tony Stark. He'd been telling himself that a lot, lately. Kept him from hunting the boy down and throttling him into next month for something that he might do someday.

"Doesn't matter. It's just... it's a mess."

[glacial_witch]

Fine. If Jono wouldn't let her kick whoever was in charge, she was just going to think about taking over the planet and setting it right instead. So there, Jono. So. There.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Besides leaving graffiti?"