The Dorm Lawn: Monday afternoon

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

It was cold enough that Karal was bundled in a long cloak, and it was weird enough that he'd spent most of the day with Trenor - first hiding in the stables and then on a long, rambling ride around the island.

Now Trenor was grazing on the front lawn while Karal sat on the picnic table, holding his lead and staring vaguely off into space.

[ooc: Open of course, but may be subject to flurries of SP and unexpected moments of AFK.]

Comments

[solo_sword]

Sometime after stopping in to see her grandfather, Jaina headed out to just take a walk, clear her head about some things. Or banish some things from her head, more like. It was luck that she saw someone she'd been wanting to talk to. "Having fun wherever you are?" she greeted Karal.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Trenor was far more alert than Karal, and he lifted his head, ears pointing at Jaina, and whuffled.

Karal slowly blinked back to here and now and smiled sheepishly. "Hello, Jaina," he said. "I don't think I was anywhere."

[solo_sword]

She took a moment to rub Trenor's side affectionately, asking, "Should I leave you to it?"

[Omfg lj.]

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Trenor sighed happily and nosed her hand, making Karal smile. "I'd much rather you stayed, if there's nowhere else you need to be." He studied her carefully. "How are you?"

[solo_sword]

There was a long pause where she focused on Trenor, when she was trying to figure out how to put it. "Rotten week," she said simply. "You?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"The same," he said quietly, watching Trenor, whose ears were flopping out to the side as he basked in the attention. "Thank Vkandis it's over."

[solo_sword]

"Feel normal yet?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes yes, sometimes no." He looked up with a tiny smile while Trenor nudged Jaina's foot, dropping his head to graze again. "You?"

[solo_sword]

With one more little pat, she came closer to where Karal was sitting. "Well," she said. "I finally crashed after the memorial for about twelve, thirteen hours, and then woke up to everyone being twice my age, so, not really. Thank you for being you, by the way."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal dropped his head in his hands. "That happened to me as well. Aravis is pregnant with her second child. Gavin has five children. I had no idea what was going on until Luke told me they were here for a reunion." He paused. "No, I still have no idea what's going on."

[solo_sword]

"My boyfriend's thirty-six now," Jaina informed him, hopping up to take a seat on the picnic table. "I'm going to smile and nod until it all goes away or I'm going to end up rocking back and forth in a corner."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Do you think there might be room for me in that corner?" he asked, nudging her gently with his shoulder. "I spent last night pretending everything was normal while my friends told me about the twenty years they'd lived since leaving Fandom." He glanced sideways. "Finding John twenty years older must have been very...disconcerting."

[solo_sword]

"And yet disturbingly normal. Yeah. I don't know," she admitted. "I'm just hoping whatever if is wears off soon so it's at least a little less confusing."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Sunlord, I hope so," he said fervently, looking down at his hands, then added quietly, "I miss my friends. I'm very glad you are still you."

[solo_sword]

She bumped his shoulder lightly. "They'll snap out of it soon. If not, I'm going to get frustrated and I'm not good when I'm frustrated. Until then, at least we can boggle at each other."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal nodded. "Boggling is good. And it is Fandom Weirdness, it will pass," he said determinedly. "Frustration is to be avoided at all costs. Do you think they'll remember?"

[solo_sword]

"I've got people here from about my timeline now," she said slowly. "So I kind of hope they don't."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Oh." He hadn't thought about that. "Maybe, twenty years in the future, our versions are wandering around, wondering why the school got so old," he ventured hesitantly. "And when the Weirdness stops, they'll change places with the ones that we have here, and all will be as it was."

[solo_sword]

"I like your explanation," Jaina decided thoughtfully. "Hope you don't mind if I adopt it."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"It is yours," he said, smiling a little. "I wonder if our versions are meeting us, twenty years older."

[solo_sword]

She really liked this version better than the one she'd come up with so far. "They'd better be. And wondering what's wrong with everyone else."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"And boggling, just as much as we are here," he added, relaxing as he thought about it. "I wonder what we're like?"

[solo_sword]

"I'd like to think we're not that much different," Jaina said, thinking about it. "Except that we probably know everything."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"I'll still be a priest, at least," he said, smiling as Trenor decided this would be a good time to wander over to see what they were doing. "I wonder where I live." If he had performed Aravis and Seely's marriage, maybe he'd never returned to Karse. "This is so odd."

[solo_sword]

"You know, I spent the last day playing along with everyone's questions so I wouldn't freak them out, and every time someone asked me something, I had no idea how to answer it," she said.