Rutherford B. Hayes campfire, Tuesday evening

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah got a fire going in front of the cabin after dinner by dint of a firestarter, some lighter fluid, and a lot of newspaper, then settled in with her laptop and downloaded Radio podcasts from the WiFi in town, to catch up on what she'd missed.

Pretty soon you could hear exclamations of "No way!" ... "What?!" and "Oh my god, Tony wasn't making that up?"


[open campfire is open]

Comments

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine never really planned to make a habit out of visiting other campfires, but it was a little hard not to notice the random bursts of exclamations coming from this one.

"Wasn't making what up?"

Inquisitive minds wanted to know.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah looked up, blinking and confused, and blurted, "Katina schmooping with Merlin this weekend at Chuck's party." She paused, turning red. "Hi, I'm Dinah, and I'll be your random reporter of gossip this evening."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine couldn't help grinning. "Hi, Dinah. I'm Valentine; I'll be your random recipient of gossip on people I don't even know yet. The names are familiar, though."

With that, she took a seat.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah started laughing, and said, "It doesn't make more sense if you know the people involved. Believe me." She stared at the podcast file, then cocked her head at Valentine. "So, anyone tried to convince you that secret squirrels listen to everything we do here yet?"

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Why would they have to convince me of something that's obviously true?" Valentine asked, cocking her head back.

It was still a little odd for Valentine, she'd have to admit, although not for the same reasons as everyone else, she imagined. When most of your exposure to squirrels involved finding their tortured and torn-apart carcasses in the words, you felt a little awkward around live ones.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I still have problems with it, and I've been here four months," Dinah marveled. "Except friends of mine do Radio broadcasts, and they don't have that kind of warped sense of humor. You're adapting way faster than I was, at this point." She paused, thinking, then snapped her fingers. "Valentine! Right, you did Radio with Turtle a week or so ago."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine still wasn't exactly up for lots of company, but she'd make an exception for Dinah, so she stopped off at Hayes when she noticed the other girl at the campfire.

The fact that Rutherford B. Hayes was not Theodore Roosevelt may have had something to do with the choice too, mind you.

"Hi," she said quietly, finding a spot on a log and smoothing her skirt over her knees.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah looked up, saw Francine, and immediately closed the laptop. "Hey." Oh, wow, what to say? Or not say? Francine didn't look like the weekend had been a jolly Love Gremlin prank all fixed now. "How're you doing?" she settled on, biting her lip.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I should be asking you that." And not only because it made an excellent deflection, but out of actual concern. "You had to go home in a pretty big hurry. Is everything okay?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which reminded Dinah of her own weekend craziness, and had her simultaneously relaxing and frowning a little. "Yeah, it is. Now. My sister did something really risky, and wound up in the hospital for three days. They had to induce a medical coma to make sure she'd be okay." Dinah poked the flames so sparks flew up. "And another family member showed up to help with the mess that started it, and he doesn't get along with Helena, and ... anyway. I spent half of Sunday asleep after keeping them from strangling each other all weekend. Didn't get back 'til yesterday." She rubbed her eyes, then smiled less anxiously at Francine. "It'll be fine now, though." She studied Francine, thinking. "You?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine was frowning all the way through that, at least until Dinah got to the fine now. When the question got turned on her again, though, she twisted her mouth wryly and nodded towards Dinah's laptop. "The squirrels didn't fill you in?"

[wantstodirect]

Tony sat down by the fire. "Hey, you actually got it lit!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I did!" Dinah said, giving it a proprietary poke with one of the sticks. "And it only took half a can of lighter fluid and a huge foooomph!"

[wantstodirect]

Tony snapped his fingers. "That was my problem. No foooomph!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Dinah said, giving him a grin. "So. Are you and Merlin doing the magic-y side of the Reserves organizing?"

[wantstodirect]

"That's the theory," Tony said. "I made posters."

[glacial_queen]

Karla stopped ranting about the inaccuracies in Shakespeare's depiction of witches long enough to greet Tony. She'd been meaning to talk to him all day. "Kiss kiss," she said with a grin.

"Tony, what are the Reserves? I saw a poster, but I wasn't sure what everything meant."

[wantstodirect]

"Hey, Karla," Tony said. "The Reserves are people who want to defend the island in case of attack."

[glacial_queen]

"And you need magic users?" Karla asked. There was nothing approaching an organized military in Kaeleer.

Which is why they get their ass handed to them when Terreille invades.

[wantstodirect]

"We can use them, if people want to help," Tony said. "Most people around here will fight no matter what. The Reserves are supposed to help us do that together, instead of in tiny, easily-defeated groups."

[glacial_queen]

Karla came out of the cabin, still holding Macgruff. "This witches are stupid," she announced to the world. "Any witch worth her salt would know better than to use a broom as transportation. They can't be comfortable at all! And what is with these stupid rhyming couplets? Who talks like that?!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had started laughing at the comment on the brooms, and was still giggling when Karla finished off. "Hey, Karla. Um. Shakespearean characters? And pretty much no one else. And I think the king at the time had a thing about witches, so that got thrown in to make him happy."

[glacial_queen]

"What? He wanted to make sure no one took witches seriously ever?," she threw herself down on the air, flipping through the play. "I mean, honestly! 'Double, double, toil and trouble / Fire burn and cauldron bubble'? Are they making stew? Is this like a coven meeting or something? And who in Hell uses bits of newt and a pilot's thumb to cook with." Karla made a face and a few retching noises. "I mean, I boil toast and burn water, that's how badly I cook. But even I know those are ingredients that do NOT go in stew."

She gave Dinah a suddenly suspicious look. "Or do they, in this crazy world of yours?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah shuddered, albeit still smiling. "God, no. It's supposed to be an evil brew for... evilness. A poison potion. Icky things for icky results?" she offered. "Like a visual metaphor of foulness." Funny how a full semester of this, and Cal patiently working with her through every line of Harry V had sunk in, so she could at least guess at the goal on the pages.

"And Shakespeare probably never met a real witch in his life, so he just threw together everything people thought worst about them, to have them as creepy outsiders in the play." She grinned, poking at the fire, and made her voice creepy and creaky. "Double, double... toil and trouble... fire burn and cauldron bubble..." Then she added in an evil laugh. "Muahahahahah!"

[glacial_queen]

"You sound ridiculous," Karla informed her. She tried to sound stern, but she had to keep fighting back a grin. "I thought this was supposed to be a tragedy. And I have brewed both poisons and potions and neither involve chanting inane rhymes or thumbs." She stuck an indignant tongue out at the book.

"I am enjoying it, though. I really like Lady Macgruff. I just don't understand why Macgruff keeps blaming his mistakes on her and the witches. Sure, they told him he would be king, but they certainly didn't tangle his mind and force him to do the deed. I think Macgruff is too stupid to be in charge of an entire Territory. They should just make Lady Macgruff Queen, and him Consort. It's the natural thing to do."

Karla had some definite opinions sometimes. Except, in this case, sometimes meant always.