The Garden, Saturday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Karla wasn't surprised when she woke up and couldn't find her Mommy or Daddy. They were often gone for hours and hours and hours, doing important Court stuff. What was weird was that she didn't recognize anyone in the castle, and there didn't seem to be any servants around to feed her.

So, rather than stay in the room she'd woken up in (also not her room--had they caught the Winds after she'd fallen asleep?) Karla had decided to go looking for people. Someone had to be taking care of her, right?

Her search had lasted right until she'd gone outside and found the garden. It was a good garden, filled with lots of healthy looking plants and deep, rich soil.

The perfect kind of soil for mud. Specifically, mud pies.

Karla forgot all about trying to find someone. Instead, she was sitting in the center of the garden, spattered with mud, patting the mud into rough pie shapes and decorating them with pretty rocks and leaves.

[Open! Come and get dirty!]

Comments

[wantstodirect]

"Hi Jack!" Tony waved.

[bitten_notshy]

"Hello!" Jack said, and trailed off since he had no idea who the brown-haired boy could be, but if Karla was anything to go by, he would seem to be one of his schoolmates. "Are you having fun in the garden?" he tried instead.

[wantstodirect]

"I just got here!" Tony said. "Wanna play Space Battles? I'll be Duke and you can be Yoga Latte!"

[bitten_notshy]

"What does Yoga Latte do?" Jack asked, logically enough.

[wantstodirect]

"He's the teacher!" Tony said, in a "duh" voice. "Haven't you seen Space Battles? They're the best movies ever!"

[bitten_notshy]

Er. Jack tended to ignore movies unless Mitchell or Tony was trying to convince him to care about them. All the ones with people fighting in space blurred together.

"I might not have," he admitted. "I can pretend, though, if you want. is that all right?"

[wantstodirect]

Tony frowned briefly. "You should see more movies," he advised. "When I grow up I'm going to see every movie ever. And make my own! But I guess we can pretend for now."

[bitten_notshy]

"Noted," Jack said dryly. "Thank you for letting me pretend, Tony."

He was guessing, but it was Tony's accent, and there were only so many boys on campus who'd want to talk about movies to him.

"So, how would I pretend to be the teacher?"

[wantstodirect]

Tony frowned again. "I'm s'posed to carry you around on my back. But you're too big!"

[bitten_notshy]

"I could carry you," Jack suggested, mildly chuffed at being 'too big' for something for once. "I'm the teacher, so I should be older, shouldn't I?"

[wantstodirect]

Ah, the eternal debate of canonical accuracy versus piggyback rides. It only took Tony a moment to decide. "Okay!" he said. "But you have to pretend to be green!"

[bitten_notshy]

... green? Really?

"All right, I'm green," Jack said gamely as he knelt. "Hold on tight."

[wantstodirect]

Tony climbed up on Jack's back. "All right!" he grinned. "Now you carry me around the swamp and teach me wisdom."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack's shoulders shook with silent laughter. "And off we go," he said.

Hopefully they'd find someone with a camera phone who could film them as they went. Jack definitely wanted footage of this for posterity.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah wandered over when she saw this, because *how* could she resist? "Jack? Who's your new friend?" She was already fishing in her pocket, and grinning. "Would you guys like me to take your picture?"

[wantstodirect]

"Dinah! Dinah!" Tony waved.

[bitten_notshy]

"It's Tony," Jack said, bouncing him a bit. "I'm ... the teacher in Space Battles. I'm so glad you're here to capture this for posterity, Dinah."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Tony?! Hi Tony!" She started chortling as she adjusted the zoom. "And oh, so am I. So am I. And who's Tony supposed to be?" Oh, this was priceless. Better than the tiger cub!

[wantstodirect]

"I'm Duke Starskidder!" Tony declared. "And you can be the space princess I rescue!"

[bitten_notshy]

"Dinah, what do you say?" Jack queried. "I know you've always reminded me of a space princess."

He was going pink from suppressed laughter.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was torn between mock-glaring at Jack and not laughing, not laughing! so ended up choking out, "I'm honored. Really. Thanks, Duke." *CLICK!* And now that photo was there to remind her of this special moment. Ahahahahaahah! "Sooo. I should probably call for help, hunh?"

[wantstodirect]

"I think you're s'posed to be in a bikini," Tony said doubtfully. "But bikinis are stupid, so you don't hafta."

[bitten_notshy]

"You could just take off your top to give us a bit of the effect," Jack said. "If you're dedicated to your art, that is."

He might get hit for that, yes. It was worth it.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Jack!" Whap! Yeah, that was a no-brainer. "Small children! Who don't wanna see that!" Ahem. And then try not to giggle. "And not that dedicated!" She grinned at Tony. "Usually I'm self-rescuing. But just this once..." Yeah, the camera was at the ready for whatever the next bit was.

[wantstodirect]

"You should be tied up," Tony decided.