War Camp, Glacia, Autumn,

[glacial_witch]

Between what Dinah and Momoko had found and the fact that winter was very, very close now, it was time to take serious action. There had been skirmishes up and down Glacia ever since they had fled the capitol, but nothing definitive. Karla still held the north, Hobart the south. And with winter practically breathing down their necks, things were

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[apocalipped]

"I thought staring at those bloody things until I couldn't see straight anymore was my job, luv," Jonothon noted, quietly stepping up to peer down at the map that Karla was trying to focus on. "This one doing any tricks for you yet?"

[glacial_witch]

"No, but I'm hoping that if I stare at it a few more minutes, it will," Karla told him. "If I have my way, I'm going to make it sit up and beg."

Or maybe that was her plans for Hobart. One of those.

[apocalipped]

"Mmmhm. How about telling me what you have in mind with this mess, then?" Jono raised an eyebrow, giving her a wry smile. "Maybe I can throw in my own two cents here, luv."

[glacial_witch]

"Winning all the things forever and then being ushered in on the shoulders of the people who spat at us last time?" Karla offered, not at all helpfully. "Though, I suppose, that's more like my endgame than an actual plan."

[apocalipped]

Yeah, that raised eyebrow wasn't going to be lowering any time soon, at this rate.

"So, you're handing me the map now, right?" Just checking. "And then getting some sleep?"

[glacial_witch]

"Yes," Karla deadpanned. "I invited everyone here to watch me nap. I'm thinking I'll fall asleep on the table so you can all crowd around me and take notes."

[apocalipped]

"Seems like a good plan," Jono replied as he crossed his arms over his chest, looking fairly unimpressed. "When's the last break you took? Be honest with me."

[glacial_witch]

Karla bit back a sulky snarl. It was her own fault that people kept asking. If she hadn't acted like a git for the entirety of high school, people wouldn't be harping on her now.

And, truth be told, it was mostly out of worry for people harping that she took her breaks now. She had not yet reached the point of enlightenment where she did what she was supposed to because it was right.

"Yesterday," she said. "Warren made me read a few chapters of a romance novel he scrounged up somewhere. And then when he thought I was zoning out instead of reading, he made me read it aloud. With us taking turns reading the dialogue. Again, out loud."

It had been utterly terrible. But they'd laughed, which was good enough.

[apocalipped]

"Then after this meeting, you're taking another one," he informed her, with the air of a man who was fully prepared to enforce that decision. "You took it upon yourself to thump me upside the head when I got to doing the same bloody thing. Consider this my way of returning the favour."

He'd met you.

[glacial_witch]

"Fine," Karla sulked. "But you and Warren get to read the stupid dialogue out loud. I'll just listen and laugh."

Ooh! Or better yet, Jono could read the narration. Help them puzzle out which body part went where. The author seemed to sometimes forget herself.

[apocalipped]

... Were they going to have to act that out to keep it all straight? Because Jono was going to have to point out that there were just some things that he was never going to do with Warren outside of creepy fiction linked to him by Deadpool.

"So long as you're laughing at th'right parts, I think I can be amenable to that," he noted. "It means you're actually paying attention, instead of drowning yourself in maps that have stopped making sense to you hours ago."

[glacial_witch]

"I learned it from watching you," Karla retorted, though her voice held no heat. "How're you doing, by the way?"

[apocalipped]

"I suppose that would depend. Me, personally? My troops? My power packs? I'm hurting for a recharge, and I could use a good night's sleep sometime soon." He frowned a little. "I hear we've got deserters. I'm not surprised, but it's admittedly disheartening."

[glacial_witch]

"Not deserters," Karla said sharply. "I don't know what we're gonna call them, but not that. They're not leaving us because they're losing heart or hope," at least she hoped not "but because they're farmers and parents and winter is coming in. They're worried about their families being snowed in without them, worried that they won't get that last crop of winter wheat in. They're worried about the survival of their families and friends and communities, and that's understandable."

[apocalipped]

Jono just sighed at that, and gave his shoulders a shrug.

"Not deserters, then. Either way, we've lost good men and women. I'm going to have to call together groups, now. Shuffle people around. If we've lost farmers here, we'll be losing them from all of our groups across the Territory. I'm going to need to take stock of our losses."

And that was exactly what they were. If they weren't dead or deserters, at the very least they were losses. Not quite casualties, but the effect was the same.

[glacial_witch]

And that was a point that Karla couldn't argue.

"So, let's back up a moment, before we start figuring out how to deal with these losses. How are you, Jono, doing?"