Momoko's Rooms, Sidra, Glacia

[heromaniac]

After fleeing Karla's chambers, Momoko and Dinah had returned to Sidra a little calmer and just in time for Hobart's trial and sentencing. Dinah hadn't stayed much longer, though. Hadn't been able to stay and know that Ludmilla was going to be executed for crimes she had confessed to but never committedMomoko... Momoko had wanted to leave just as

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[not_a_parakeet]

Warren was a little iffy about making this stop. After all, it would be so easy to just let the opportunity pass, let Momoko go back to whichever reality she was calling home these days without another word between them, maybe give things a little more time to settle before speaking up. But... Momoko was a good friend, and Warren wasn't the sort to just let important chances pass. He'd spent too much of his life doing just that before ever actually flying. Never again.

He did hang around outside of her door for a few moments, just running over what to say in his head before knocking and promptly forgetting all of it.

He was going to have this conversation as Warren, not as Glacia's Consort. What was there to rehearse?

[heromaniac]

Momoko ran to the door and threw it open. Even if it was the Steward, she'd been waiting forever and at least it was somewhat closer to talking to Karla...

"Ah!" Warren? "Uhm. Hi?"

She would be here hugging her door for a moment. Warren didn't look as upset and ready to attack as he had last time! That was good!! And Momoko no longer felt like she wanted to punch him for not understanding; also good!

But was he here to talk to her... or to tell her something?

[not_a_parakeet]

These were the great mysteries of life, weren't they?

"Hey," he greeted, giving her a little nod. It wasn't half as awkward as it would have been months ago, in a similar situation. It still wasn't entirely confident, either. "Rolf tells me you've been hugging the ceiling outside of Karla's rooms lately."

[heromaniac]

"Blabbermouth." Momoko went pink. "I am totally telling Julian that he mocks Sticks users," she grumble-pouted.

But starting like that, it didn't sound like Warren was here to ask her to leave - as Consort or as Warren - so Momoko calmed herself a little and pulled away from the door. Her smile was still as good as missing as she invited him in, leading the way to the chairs by the small fireplace. "I was... hoping to talk, but you both were still asleep."

[not_a_parakeet]

"We were both exhausted," Warren replied, nodding a little. "Karla was exhausted. We might have won the war, but we're not exactly feeling much like winners, these days."

So far, the one big difference between now and a few weeks ago was that now they got to sleep indoors.

Oh. And they didn't have any real closure to look forward to.

[heromaniac]

There was always the chance that who ever was behind Hobart would think he was a liability? That was a sort of closure they could look towards?

"It still doesn't really feel like it's over. I feel like maybe we're just in another town, waiting to finish the assignment and then move on."

[not_a_parakeet]

"It's not really over, that's the thing," Warren sighed, inspecting the chair she'd led him to, and then arranging himself in it with his wings slightly splayed forward. Comfortable chairs weren't really made with sixteen-foot wingspans in mind. "We have no way of knowing if we've found all of Hobart's cohorts, and Glacia as a whole has so many pieces to pick up again. It would be easy if we were handed a blank slate, if things just reverted to the way they were before Hobart took over, but that's not how it works. We've won a broken Territory."

Lucky them.

[heromaniac]

"And a broken people."

Momoko knew that possibly better than Warren.

"It's not going to be over for a long time, if you look at this from that point of view."

[not_a_parakeet]

"That's the point of view we need to look at it from," Warren noted, softly. "This is home now, this is our problem to fix. And it's really not over until we can look around and be satisfied that people aren't suffering needlessly because of neglect or abuses from the Queens and Courts that are supposed to take care of them."

[heromaniac]

Momoko took a moment to look at him. "You know that's not going to happen, right? Ever? I mean, I hope it does. I really do! It's what I fight for every time I put on this costume. But..."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I know it's not." The corner of Warren's mouth twitched, though even he couldn't quite decide if it was meant to be a smile or a frown. "If it was something that could be fixed within a lifetime, or within a hundred lifetimes, there wouldn't be a need for Queens like Karla. Glacia's in better hands than it's been in for years, but even before Karla's parents were murdered, there were problems. I mean, just speaking to the Territory's landens..."

Being landen himself.

He shook his head.

"For Karla and I, it's not going to ever be over. But we're finally at a point where we can look at our armies, at people who took time away from their homes and livelihoods and families, and we can tell them that there aren't any battles left for them to fight. That's almost the same thing, to most of them."

[heromaniac]

"You keep doing that. Making it sound like it's just Karla and you."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Karla and I are the only people I can speak for. And even for Karla, I shouldn't," Warren replied, shrugging a little. "Morton is in it for life, too. He signed himself over to Karla entirely. But everyone else has the option to go when their contracts are up."

He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, sighed, and then shook his head.

"I don't mean to say that it's just us... obviously it's not. But I'm not going to assume that people are going to stay forever, either. Not everybody's future begins and ends in Sidra."

[heromaniac]

"I have no contract and yet my future is totally filled with Sidra. With all of Glacia." Haaaaa. Momoko sank a bit in her chair and let her hand cover her eyes. "At least I hope it still is."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Pretty sure that's up for you to decide," Warren noted with a little tilt of his head. "... You're not worried Karla's going to kick you out for disagreeing with her, are you?"

... Well, it had been a pretty intense disagreement.

[heromaniac]

BULLSEYE!

"I'm worried she thinks that's what I was doing. Like you do."