'Dite's Suite, The Arms, Saturday

[blondecanary]

There were Alfred cookies, there was Beaver Buzz, coffee, tea, and little chocolates, and movies for watching.

All the things you need for a relaxing time with friends. If the friends aren't the sort to just... not relax.

[for two, but open for phone calls and texts to any of the three]

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[blondecanary]

"So, okay. When we left you--" Dinah got the milk out of the mini-fridge, and the eggs. "The big black cloud of Nothing was wiping out various worlds. You guys re-booted the universe from inside Special Collections. What happened in between?"

Not that Dinah didn't know part of it, but no reason to tell Karla's story for her.

[heromaniac]

"You totally could have called." Momoko had the flour! She set it on the counter next to the bowl of chocolate and went back to the cabinets. "I have, like, three phones. Do you see any baking soda? I only see baking powder."

[glacial_witch]

Karla sighed and studiously kept her eyes on the mixing bowl where she was measuring out flour.

"I talked to Morton a few days after I lost you, Momoko," she said softly. "From what he said, Sidra was the only part of Glacia left. And then..." She hunched her shoulders. This was going to be spectacularly unfun.

"Then I booked the last portal home."

[blondecanary]

Dinah found the baking soda, and floated it over to them, watching Karla's expression. There were a lot of things to say to that. But she figured starting with the simple stuff was best. "Can you tell us why?" she asked, voice gentle.

[heromaniac]

Meanwhile Momoko froze, her face falling as she suddenly remembered the argument she'd had with Karla over Leda. "Because she thinks it's a Queen's duty to kill herself."

Gee, Momoko didn't sound like she was happy-baking at the moment, especially when she then grabbed the baking soda and thumped it to the counter next to the measuring spoons.

[glacial_witch]

Bet that heart-warming holiday tale was taking on a few whole new meanings now, wasn't it, Momoko?

"Unfair," Karla said softly, putting her measuring cup down to face her friends. "The duty of a Queen is not suicide. But laying our life down for our people? It is."

She'd had enough people accusing her of being suicidal right after it made radio that first day.

"My people were about to be removed from reality," she said quietly. "Hobart was gone. They deserved the Queen they've been waiting for, even if it was just for a few days. Sure, they may not have known there was any danger, but I did. And I figured it was a worthwhile gamble. Either the people here would figure something out and I'd be back, or they wouldn't. And then it would have been my duty to see my people into the ever night."

[blondecanary]

Dinah listened, putting salt into the cookie mix, and chewing on her lower lip as Karla spoke. She winced as she said They deserved the Queen they've been waiting for-- because hello, familiar Karla Refrain. Then put that together with the fairy tale-- no, Witch tale from the night before. She slid Momoko a look, wondering if she knew something else, and said slowly, "Okay, I've got two questions for that. Serious ones, not rhetorical ones. So I do hope you can answer them, okay?" Dinah paused. "What was it your gamble was meant to win for you, and your people?" A breath. "And do you get why people were not on board with this?" Because seriously? She got wanting to stay with your home. But she wondered if Karla could see the other side of it.

[heromaniac]

"For her people, not with." Not only had she and Karla had this argument before, but Momoko came from a country with strong memories of imperialism. And Momoko technically still served an Emperor.

"They deserve a Queen who will fight to save them, not risk herself in a gamble." That Karla thought that was what her people wanted was disturbing but it wasn't the only thing Momoko was upset about. It was just all she could say at the moment.

And she totally wasn't shaking as she added the baking soda to the dry mix. Really. Probably an earthquake or something.

[glacial_witch]

Karla's jaw set at that. "You think I hadn't tried? You think that I hadn't spent days and weeks combing the library for the least information on how to fight this? That the whole island wasn't doing the same? We didn't find anything. Even at the end, we didn't suddenly discover the solution. Several people literally stumbled into the right place. And this was days after another group had gone into Special Collections and tried to search it. Or would it have been better for me to have gotten Nothing'd here on the island, like so many other people did? Because that nearly happened, too! If Warren hadn't saved me--hadn't gotten Nothing'd himself--I would have!"

[blondecanary]

"Hey hey hey," Dinah said, reaching out for Karla's arm and sending, C'mon, calm down. It's over now. "I get why you wanted it." She frowned at Momoko. "And I get why Warren saved you, and why Momoko wanted you to stay here and keep fighting... so just breathe, okay? That wasn't my question, remember?" She took a deep breath herself. "So, basically, you just wanted to be with them? You were convinced nothing else would help?"

Dinah watched her, then said more carefully, "Why's it make you so angry, that Momoko and Warren aren't good with that?" She frowned. "And how the heck did you get a portal that would take you back that late, anyway?"

[heromaniac]

"So you gave up." Momoko was really trying to calm down, promise Dinah. "I trusted you and you gave up and dare to call it 'duty'." Was it time for the chips, cause Momoko was throwing them into the bowl now.

[glacial_witch]

Momoko was not helping Karla calm down, Dinah.

"I didn't give up!," Karla snapped. "You think I was going to go home and twiddle my thumbs and wait for the Darkness to overtake me? Jaenelle stille existed; Morton still remembered her. So did Saetan and Lucivar and Andulvar. They are the strongest members of the Blood and with me there to explain things to them, maybe we could have fought it back. Maybe we could save people! After all, that's why you stayed, wasn't it, Momoko? So you could fight it? But when I want to do the same thing, suddenly that's cowardice and giving up? You wanna explain that one to me?"

There were other things she could have said, but she throttled down her temper and turned back to Dinah. "Portalocity still worked on the island until that day. I had a couple of stops--London's Blitz-travaganza thing, some weird Roman town called Pompous, I think, and Paris during a revolution. It was surprisingly cheap for so few stops."

[blondecanary]

Dinah wanted to head-table, but maybe they needed to yell this out a little. It wasn't like they didn't both have points. She put vanilla extract into the mix, and then stopped to stare at Karla. "Pompeii?!... Karla, was that around 79 B.C. or something?" She facepalmed. "There was a reason why that was cheap. You never would have gotten home that way."

[heromaniac]

"They didn't know anything was happening! It was all normal to them; it still is! We told you that. I told you that! How would that have looked, the queen seeing imaginary monsters and talking about people and places that didn't exit, never had?"

"And I stayed," Momoko took a deep breath herself, not sure why no one understood this part. "So I could keep it from leaving my world. So it wouldn't go after anyone else. I was fighting to keep you alive. That's my job. I don't fight just to do it. I fight to keep people safe. Everyone. Including the Queen."

[glacial_witch]

"I would have, too!" Karla said to Dinah. She produced her itinerary and handed it over to her friend. "See? I had a ticket and everything!"

And while Dinah perused that, it gave her plenty of time to argue with Momoko. "They could have made them believe!" she snapped. "Jaenelle would have, if no one else. My world understands portents and prophecy and that some people know more than they do! I am a Black Widow--if I speak of a great darkness that's coming, they'll think I'm speaking in metaphor but they'd believe me. And, newsflash, guess what Momoko? It didn't stay in your world. It was already in mine by the time you fought it! So how dare you blame me for trying to do the exact same thing you did! Do you think I wanted to keep my people safe any less than you did?"

[blondecanary]

"Hey. Both of you. Take it down a notch." Dinah's voice hit the sempai-big-sister, do-not-mess-with-me tone. There was yelling it out, and there was getting close to saying stuff that couldn't be forgiven. She held up the itinerary. "We'll talk about this in a minute... Momoko, you do get what Karla was trying to do. Karla, I'm glad you had an actual plan. I don't think it would have worked." Her voice was quieter. "Any more than it worked for Momoko, and for the same reasons. But if you honestly felt like you could do some good, and this wasn't a Witch-like attempt to sacrifice yourself, then that was your call."

She paused. "You told people here that you were doing this, right? Explained how you were going to pull in Jaenelle? Why you thought it would work? Showed them your portal plan? Promised to come back to Fandom if it didn't work?"

She would bet a million dollars that was a big no. For one, she knew Karla. For another, anyone not from Kaeleer would have seen that itinerary and kept her here no matter what.