Toffee Cabin, Tuesday Evening

[glacial_witch]

It was a soot-covered Karla that arrived back in Fandom that evening. There hadn't even been enough time for her to get washed up before she'd been tossed into a Coach for home

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[trigons_child]

Raven felt Karla's presence as soon as she returned to the campsite, in large part because she'd been waiting for her to come back. She really needed to talk to her friend.

She hesitantly poked her head into the cabin. "Karla?" she called softly. Blink. "What happened to you?"

[glacial_witch]

Karla offered Raven her best 'unsure-but-game' grin. "I tried to cook a casserole for Hayley?"

[trigons_child]

"Are you all right?" Raven asked. She didn't seem to be injured, but the being soot-covered was a concern.

[glacial_witch]

"I'm fine!" Karla said brightly--and then deflated. "The Hall's kitchen isn't, though."

[trigons_child]

"Oh," Raven said, relieved. "I am glad you are well, and I hope the hall can be repaired."

And then she burst into tears.

[glacial_witch]

Karla paused a moment to blink once or twice--just how attached had Raven become to the Hall during the trip--and then immediately reached out and pulled Raven into her sooty embrace. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened?" she asked, already trying to maneuver them into her alcove.

[trigons_child]

Raven gladly let Karla lead her, not wishing anyone else to see her breaking down. She couldn't speak just yet; she was starting to hyperventilate. She'd already broken down in private over what had happened, and she'd been longing for Karla to return so she could talk to someone about everything that had happened.

[glacial_witch]

Well, since it was far too late to worry about getting Raven dirty, Karla did the best thing she could think of: she sat down on her bed, tugged Raven down next to her, and just held the empath close as she cried. "Hush, hush," she soothed, certain Raven would understand she wasn't trying to silence her or stop her tears. "I'm here now. Tell me what happened, darling."

Had she and Andy--?

[trigons_child]

Raven didn't care about getting dirty at this point, and she clung to Karla. Between sniffles and sobs and trying to explain, she managed to get a few coherent words out, namely "Jono" and "healing" and "Andy" and "hates me."

There, that would fill her in.

[glacial_witch]

"Wait," Karla said, utterly confused. "Andy hates you because you Healed Jono?" She was certain that couldn't be right--mostly because she'd talked to Jono when she'd come in and he was just as on fire as he normally was and because Andy didn't seem to be the kind of male who'd get up in arms about a little bit of Healing.

If he were, he was so dating the wrong female.

[trigons_child]

Raven wiped her hand across her eyes and tried to compose herself. "No, that is not it," she said. "Andy does not hate me. I think his brother does not like me, though. And...I healed Jono. But it did not last and now he is as he was and I am an awful person for giving him false hope and making him suffer again and...." She realized she was babbling again and tried to settle herself again.

[glacial_witch]

"So, we're talking about two different things?" Karla checked. Hey, cut her some slack. Her ears still rang intermittently. "You're concerned that Andy's brother doesn't like you, and you tried to Heal Jono." Immediately, she corrected herself. "No, you did Heal him, but...for a limited time only?"

The bit about Andy's brother was still a bit beyond her--honestly, she was far more used to people disliking her more than the other way around--but the aftermath of a 'botched' Healing, that was something she could understand. "Tell me about what happened," she commanded gently. "You're saying you're an awful person because you tried?"

[trigons_child]

"I truly thought I could do it," Raven sniffled. "And I did! It was difficult but I healed him and he was so happy." She paused a moment, trying to catch her breath and gather her thoughts. "That was Friday afternoon," she continued. "But Friday evening...he changed again. He exploded as he had done before. And it hurt him so much."

[glacial_witch]

"Raven, darling, that's not your fault," Karla said, tipping Raven's face up so they could look look one another in the eyes. "Jono is a mutant; his flame and his power are built into him on some kind of cellular level."

Or so she'd picked up, via conversations with Emma.

"You would have to change him on that kind of level to make his fire go out. And to be able to do that, you'd first have to think of mutation as something wrong, something that needed to be fixed or cured."

[trigons_child]

"I could have taken it into myself," Raven said, though she wasn't as sure as she had been before. "I tried. I took so much of it. I could have taken more." Though it probably would have killed her.

[glacial_witch]

"Why should your body be any more prepared to handle that kind of flame than his?" Karla asked quietly. "We know he can survive with the adjustments his body made to accommodate the flames. Can yours?"