Toffee Cabin, Alcove B4

[glacial_witch]

After a day like yesterday, all Karla wanted to do was relax. However, that was apparently not to be. She'd had several calls to make, both of which were probably going to lead to Discussions. Actually, she was rather hoping they did--she missed Jack utterly and, well, when it came to the whole Gaia/Edge/Midgar thing, she really needed guidance.

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[blondecanary]

Dinah had her sapphire bracelet on as she knocked on the doorframe to B4. "Hey, you. Up for visitors?"

[glacial_witch]

"I've always got Dinah-time, remember?" Karla teased, from where she was lounging. Her talk with Elena (and the drinking that had accompanied it) had mellowed her out a little, so she was able to offer Dinah a genuine smile as she patted the bed next to her. "Unless you brought that book. In that case, I'm dreadfully busy."

[blondecanary]

Dinah snapped her fingers. "Nuts. Totally forgot it." She flopped down on the bed, and did the bendy thing of having her knees up around her shoulders, head cradled on her arms. "So. I talked to 'Dite." She paused. "And yelled at her a bit."

[glacial_witch]

"This is probably where I should say something like, 'Oh, Dinah, that's not necessary' or something," Karla said candidly. "But I won't." She wouldn't go so far as to say she was glad that Dinah had, but...there was no denying a tiny bit of her was. "How'd she take it?"

[blondecanary]

"Fairly well." Dinah tilted her head. "People don't yell at goddesses very often, you know. I don't know how seriously she took it, entirely." She considered. "She screwed up. Bad. Everything came out of that 'denying her power' thing. When she had no idea what she'd turn into if she did."

[glacial_witch]

Karla looked a little puzzled. "Denying her power?" she asked. "I mean, she mentioned that, briefly, when we talked in the park, but she said it was more because of what Cupid and Bliss said to her, I thought." She tried to remember back to their conversation, focus on exactly what the goddess had said. "I had asked if this had all come about because of a disagreement...she said, 'Yes, in a way.' Perhaps she meant..." Karla gave up trying to remember the details verbatim and shrugged. "Hell's fire, I have no idea what she might have meant. She could have spent a lot more time explaining that part than what Bliss and Cupid said, I guess is what I'm saying."

[blondecanary]

"I think she's not dealing as well as she'd like to. That argument made her angry and she still hasn't dealt with that; she did something very stupid, and she's feeling ashamed.... She's sick that she hurt you guys, and doesn't know how to cope with that." Dinah paused. "I'm not making excuses for her. I'm saying it's going to b a while before she's back to 'normal' 'Dite." She sighed, and swung her legs around and sat up, reaching out for Karla's hand, slipping her bracelet off for the time being. How are you doing with all this now?

[glacial_witch]

*Mother Night, I don't even know,* Karla admitted. *Everything's just so knotted up in everything else. You remember how I asked for a quiet weekend? And then our dead parents show up, and my mother mistook 'Dite for my aunt, which meant we had to go in and chat and...it's hard to remember if I'm sick at heart because of this, or that, or the other, you know?*

She sighed a bit, bringing up her knees to rest her chin upon. "I'm kind of wary around her. A little frustrated because she doesn't seem to get it. And it's not even something I can really articulate."

[blondecanary]

I know. Oh, man, do I know. Dinah nudged her with one toe, and said, "Understandable. It's all tangled up. She wasn't herself, but it was part of her. You were trying to help, but it didn't work. You could have walked away sooner, but you had no way of knowing if that was a good idea or not. She wants to say that she didn't meant to hurt you, but you did get hurt, and that doesn't go away." She poked again. "What'd I miss?"

[glacial_witch]

One part of Karla wanted to go on about how 'Dite seemed to think that because of how bad it could have gone, how bad it actually was was somehow lessened for them. But a much bigger part of her just wanted to move on, to work on forgiveness and let it go.

Instead, she just shook her head and focused on Dinah's bracelet. "Never mind all that," she said. "You said you had questions about the bracelet? Having trouble shielding now that we're back in the cabins?" She didn't think so--she doubted such a thing would have been 'too personal' for them to chat about the day before, but it was a conversation starter if nothing else.

[blondecanary]

"No," Dinah said, hesitant. She opened and closed the clasp on the bracelet, and then held it out to look at it, sparkling in the light. "So. You said I could be heard with this on, if I needed to be, in an emergency. Right? Otherwise, nothing should get through, in either direction?"

[glacial_witch]

"Right," Karla said, unsure where this was going, but willing to wait and see. "It's the difference between talking and screaming, kind of. You can get through, but it would take a lot of extra effort on your part. Is something not working right?"

[blondecanary]

"It's not that." Dinah put it on, cheeks flaming, unsure how to explain. "I want-- I need to keep Jaime out. Sometimes. When we're close."

[glacial_witch]

"You need--?" With the bracelet on, Karla couldn't switch to psychic threads, so she continued on aloud. "You mean like...really close? Intimately close? Why would...don't you want to know...is he thinking something rude?"

That last didn't sound like Jaime, but Karla was kind of at a loss, here.

[blondecanary]

"Oh God no," Dinah blurted. "Opposite problem. He's-- he's a gentleman." She paused, trying not to flail. "Which makes it sound like I'm protecting him from me, and that's not it either, it's that.. uh." Ohhh, boy did she want to just sink through the floor here. "Together we're, um. Incendiary." She let out a breath. "Very very.. yeah."

[glacial_witch]

"..."

Karla still wasn't seeing the problem here. "Are you guys worried about being in public together or something?"