fandomhighdorms | Magic Reserves, Wednesday Afternoon, Preserve Near The Cabins

There was even more food piled on the tables than usual today. Karla had taken the term 'comfort food' to new and interesting heights--specifically the tower of cupcakes from J,Gob. There was also a new beverage joining the ranks of coffee, tea, and juice: mulled cider, kept warm by little tongues of witchfire. There wasn't the traditional alcohol in there yet, but after the meeting broke up, if there was any left, odds were pretty good she'd be adding some.

"Hey everyone," she said, trying to sound friendly and enthusiastic and falling rather flat. "Good to see you. Uhhh..."

Having quickly run out of words, she looked to Tony or Merlin to take up the conversation.

Merlin stepped forward, smiling in hopes of distracting people with his ~~ears~~ bit of the speech.

...alright, and his ears.

"We'll be learning from you today, those who volunteered last week will be sharing a little bit about their abilities. Won't that be
fun?" He asked, sounding a bit like an overly excited pre-school teacher.

"Or at least useful, we hope," Tony said. "... okay, I feel like we should have an animated logo and jingle here. 'The More You Know!' But think about ways these guys' abilities could work with yours, or see if you can come up with an unusual way for them to use their powers."

Karla was confused by the reference, but wasn't particularly concerned. "In that case, I'd like to welcome Raven and Leda to come up and share. Also, you guys totally get first dibs on the cupcakes for being brave."

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She did and she was just going to stand there for a moment, hugging him very, very hard. "I just wanted to say hi is all," she said into his shoulder.

"Well." Merlin nodded with utmost sincerity, not letting her go yet. "Carry on."

"Thank you, Commander," Karla mumbled, still into his shoulder. "You are very good at hugging, you know."

"It's one of my terribly important powers," Merlin assured her. "Below 'washes laundry rather well' and above 'levitates cupboards'."

"Well, based on the quality of hugging and my firm belief that laundry is a waste of time, I'm raising it to be at least equal in importance to washing. Your pay should be upgraded accordingly."

Karla had no guilt over increasingly the salary that Arthur was paying. She only wished she had some way to enforce it. "Levitating cupboards stays where it is, though. Sorry."

"Cruel woman," Merlin grumbled without meaning a word of it. He pulled back just a little to look at her properly. "Do you want to talk?"

"I lost control of myself," Karla said, very, very quietly. "I learned something horrible back home and came here and just--lost control. I went cold. I don't even remember all of what happened. And then I just ran away. From myself. Dinah and Francine and some others went into my mind to find me and bring me back and they underwent some of the worst experiences in the world to do it." Karls shuddered and broke into goosebumps. "I--don't want to talk about it. Not here. Maybe not ever. It was more horrifying than anything--"

She just stopped, unable to really go much further. "If Francine wants to talk about it, tell her she can. It's okay. She might need to." Someone had missed the memo about Homecoming.

Merlin nodded in something like understanding, closing his eyes. "It's alright. Just--I am here. In case. Have a single room and all that if you ever need someone to help bake cookies at some ungodly hour of the night."

"I don't know if the Common Rooms will ever forgive us, but I might take you up on that sometime," she said, grateful. "I'm--not sleeping particuarly well yet."

Or eating particularly well, either, but that was only for the best when it came to cookies.

"You are such a good male, Merlin." If he wasn't so damn devoted to Arthur, she'd offer him a contract in a minute.

"I try," He admitted, ducking his head to catch her eye. "Would taking you out for ice cream help?"

Karla shook her head mournfully. "Not now," she said, then amended to, "At least, not yet. I'm kind of having trouble eating. I'd want to save an ice cream date with the Commander for a time when I'd do more than just watch it melt."

She rubbed the bridge of her nose again. "Though if we were to talk about having tea some time soon, I think my answer would be different."

Though she'd probe it before every sip. Even if she made it herself.

"Tea would be good too," Merlin replied. Because he was still British and tea solved everything from a bad day to a bomb threat.

"Sometime soon, then," Karla confirmed. "Peppermint and chamomile, I think. Nice and soothing."

Magic Reserves, Wednesday Afternoon, Preserve Near The Cabins

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