Room 218, Thursday Evening

[glacial_witch]

Karla, to put it lightly, was in a miserable mood when she stormed into her room, all swirling black Widow's Weeds and residual bad temper. She was tired, bitchy, hungry, and pissed off at every vampire ever who thought it was all right to kidnap and feed off her friends in some kind of obscure power-play

Comments

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren had spent a few more days worrying about Karla, you bet. And naturally, the thing to do when you were worried about somebody was to knock on their door every night until they came back, until you knew for a fact that they were either in need of rescue, or home safely, right?

Warren's knock did come a bit tentatively, of course. The possibility that there would be no answer was kind of freaking him out, in that deep-down place that he wouldn't let anyone see, unless they were paying particular attention to the way his feathers were prickling closest to his shoulders.

[glacial_witch]

"This had better be important," Karla snapped through the door. "I am--" The door opened and a very disgruntled Karla stood there. The disgruntlement didn't last longer than it took for Karla to realize who was standing there. And then she was wrapping her arms around Warren and clinging to him tightly. "Hi," she breathed. "I missed you."

[not_a_parakeet]

Arms and wings folded around Karla, and Warren let himself start breathing again. Never letting go. He meant it, this time. He'd glue himself to her the way he'd glued himself to the wall that one time, and that would be that.

"Bad week?"

Shot in the dark.

[glacial_witch]

"I don't know if you heard anything after I left a message," Karla said, resting her head on his chest and unknowingly agreeing with his determination to never let go again. "But it turns out that Sookie was kidnapped by werewolves as part of some sick game of vampire politics."

She shook her head a little. "They fed on her nearly to death. Twice. Raven and I Healed her but...Darkness, I can't imagine what she must have gone through."

[not_a_parakeet]

Vampires, werewolves, and Warren's head was spinning a tiny bit.

"God, Sookie," he murmured, clinging to Karla a little more tightly. "That sounds like the worst kind of nightmare. You got her back? She's okay? Are you okay?"

[glacial_witch]

"I'm fine," she said, since she couldn't answer about Sookie. Not yet, anyway. "Can we go inside? I want to shut the door on the world for a bit."

Pretending nothing else existed beyond her and Warren sounded like a really good idea right now.

"I'm just tired and cranky," she admitted. "I tried very hard not to overdo it--I hid when the werewolves attacked, even." Her shoulders slumped at that. That part was very hard to say. "And then we found out that the creepy vampire Bill had arranged Sookie to be beaten up the first time they'd met so he could insinuate himself in her life and Eric knew the whole time and it was one giant fucked up game of politics..." She his her face in his shirt. "Why are people so cruel?" she asked.

[not_a_parakeet]

"I... want to say that I wish I knew," Warren replied, once they were inside her room. "But I think... understanding it would involve getting insights into something really, really ugly."

People, as a whole, were a terrifying thing. Warren had spent half his life staring down at them from behind panes of glass, hiding from them. Any world where a life like that was necessary...

[glacial_witch]

"I wish I did know," Karla retorted stubbornly. "We see just as much horror dealing with the effects and if we at least knew the cause...maybe I could fix it."

She tugged him over to her bed to sit down, her hands immediately going to his wings once they had. Absently scritching at his wings helped sooth her, oddly enough. "I would like to just say it's the vampires, but I've met enough people to know that it isn't true."

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren heaved a heavy sigh, leaning in towards her slightly as she started to move her hands through his feathers.

"People are going to be people, no matter what shape they are," he agreed.

"And you did it again," he added, a moment later. 'Maybe I could fix it.' "You know, you're not alone, right?"

[glacial_witch]

"I did what?" At first, Karla had no idea what he meant. She stared at him blankly for a moment, then she flushed as his correction sank in. "I--oh. Right. We."

Hell's fire, why was she so bad at this?

"I don't mean to forget."

[not_a_parakeet]

He gave his head a little shake, leaning over enough to bump her gently with his shoulder.

"No, I know you don't. Habits like that are hard to break, I know. You want to... to make everything better. And people don't exactly line up for that sort of thing, so you do it yourself, because if you don't, then nobody ever will, right?"

[glacial_witch]

"It's not always their fault!" Right. Because these hypothetical people really needed you to protect them, Karla.

"Sometimes I'm the only who can," she said, head bowed. "But is it so wrong to want to do that? Make things better? Protect everyone?"

[not_a_parakeet]

"Everyone... is a lot of people," Warren said, after a long pause. "I don't think any one person could ever be responsible for everyone."

[glacial_witch]

Well, Jaenelle could. But then, she was speshul.

"I don't mean everyone-everyone," Karla protested. "But I'm a Queen. And a Healer. Taking care of others is what I was born to do. I don't know how to shut it off."

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren considered that for a few moments more than he'd intended to, carefully picking at his words.

"Maybe you don't have to shut it off," he said, slowly. "Just so long as you know when it's time to ask for help balancing it all."

[glacial_witch]

"And have people around who can poke me when I forget?" Karla asked, curling closer. "You know you can, right? Poke me at need?"

...That came out slightly dirtier than she'd intended. Oops.