Second Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[glacial_queen]

After a long day out fighting creepy zombie piranha fish, Karla had fought her way to the castle, beyond the goblin city to Pizza Planet, in the vague hopes that perhaps someone had decided to go in early and gotten stuck. Or something.

Much to Karla's surprise, Pizza Planet was actually open and mostly staffed. The denizens of Fandom were even more jaded by the invasions than the students, and apparently decided a paycheck was more important than the piranhas.

They hadn't been particularly happy to see her. Probably because it had been a very light day for them, work-wise.

But she'd shown up and hadn't moved until they completed her order and now Karla had a giant stack of pizzas to feed people along with a few two litres of soda and a giant salad. After a long day of fighting (or even not), she figured that fresh, hot food that didn't come from a microwave would be appreciated.

She was still debating turning on cheesy horror movies like she'd talked about with Ben, though. That might be a bit much after today.

[Open!]

Comments

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Then I think I will still stay away from the windows," Elphaba said. "I have no desire to parade myself like a bun in a bakery window."

She eyed the pizzas. "What strange food is this?"

[glacial_queen]

"It's called pizza!" Karla said, cheerfully from her spot in the chair. "Feel free to take as much as you'd like."

Cause Karla wasn't about to get up and serve her. She was sore. Stupidly sore.

"It's dough with sauce, cheese, and other toppings. There's just cheese, vegetables, meat, both, even more than that..." Karla's own was covered in pineapples. "It's really good. If you try no other food of this world, try this."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba's face twisted for a moment, then shook her head. "Thank you, but no," she said. "It sounds quite appealing, and I'm sure it is part of the culture."

She, on the other hand, went to scrounge up some fruits and veggies in the kitchen area.

[glacial_queen]

Karla had mentioned the veggies, right? There were totally veggies!

"You'll give in eventually," she said with a tired smile. "Attend enough parties and things, and they eventually become unavoidable."

"There's a really big salad in the fridge, too," she added. "I watched them cut up the veggies and everything."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"You thought of everything," Elphaba said, peeking into the fridge. She smiled a little when she saw the salad and served up a small serving for herself. But her expression quickly turned serious again. "I suppose I had been hoping these sort of things would not happen for a long time."

[glacial_queen]

"Not on this island," Karla said. "Sometimes we can go as long as a month without something odd happening, but..." She trailed off, realizing that wasn't at all comforting. "Perhaps this will get nasty invasions out of the island's system for awhile and we can just enjoy the invasions of cute little things that get underfoot?"

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Where do they come from?" Elphaba wondered. "And where do they go? These creatures... maybe they're just scared and lashing out because they've been brought to a place so strange and unfamiliar?"

[glacial_queen]

"Raven tried taking their aggression from them," Karla said, shaking her head. "And I know others have tried communicating with similar invasions in the past. Usually, the invading creatures are pure hunger, aggression, and mean-spiritedness."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Suddenly eating at all didn't seem like a good idea. Elphaba settled in to a seat and frowned. "That such things could exist is awful, then," she said. "And it makes you wonder why they are all drawn here."

[glacial_queen]

"I think it has to do with the island being a dimensional nexus," Karla said. "All those dimensions meeting in this one place, it makes sense that there is spill-over. Thank the Darkness, we have people here who can handle it, which means I'm glad they end up here and not like...in some landen village or something."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I suppose I'm troubling myself needlessly," Elphaba said, still not eating. "We are all safe and sound, and that is what matters right now."

[glacial_queen]

"Not eating isn't going to make anything better," Karla said, gently. Then added, "Huh. Is this what it's like to be on the other side of that? Odd."

And so as to not leave Elphaba completely confused, she explained, "I'm usually the one being nagged at to eat. So if you say you're not hungry, I'm not going to force the issue."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "It is not as if my salad is going to get cold," she remarked. "I was merely turned off the idea for a moment. The idea of cruelty often sours my stomach."

[glacial_queen]

"But it could get warm and wilt," Karla pointed out. She leaned forward and tapped Elphaba's bowl. Frost laced the side, curling up and around to meet on the opposite side from where she'd pointed. "There. Now neither is a concern."

It was that or admit to Elphaba that idle cruelty had long since been able effect her like that. Which was a bonus, or Karla might have starved to death before she'd gotten out of Glacia.

"I think cruelty requires a higher nature to exist," she said thoughtfully, sinking back into her chair. "These things seemed to lack any such. They acted according to their nature, like locusts or something. They lack the intelligence to be cruel."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"A poor choice of words," Elphaba said, but thinking that she had meant more than simply the fish. "And thank you again."

She touched the frost, just to see how cold it was. "I see you have great power within you. Sorcery springs forth so easily."

[glacial_queen]

"It's the birthright of my people," Karla said easily. "Craft is what separates the Blood from the landens. Being a witch defines me as a person. Even moreso than being a Healer, a Black Widow, or a Queen, I think. Well, I couldn't be any of those things if I weren't a witch first, so I guess it makes sense."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I see," Elphaba said. "It's not strange that it would define you. But I guess your Craft must be very strong for it to put you above so many."

[glacial_queen]

Karla shrugged, her relative strength a bit difficult to describe where no one really understood the individual Jewel ranks. "Our Jewels--" she tapped on her Sapphire again, its weight a familiar presence around her neck "--hold a reservoir of power that our bodies cannot contain. There are thirteen different Jewels that one might wear and that Jewel is an indicator of the strength of your Craft and the power at your disposal. The darker the Jewel rank, the more powerful." She took a bite of pizza, chewing and swallowing it completely before adding, "I wear the fifth-darkest Jewel, the Sapphire. In a few years, I will make the Offering and come away with an even darker Jewel, representing my mature strength."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mean in the sense of magical power," Elphaba said, though she was grateful for Karla's explanation. "I meant in the sense of power of the people. You are deemed fit to rule over other just because you are magical."

Though really, she should have known better than to say that. It was, after all, how the Wizard got into power.

[glacial_queen]

"All the Blood are have Craft," Karla said. "It was the gift given to us so we could be the caretakers of the land. All members of the Blood, human and kindred, share that birthright."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Everyone?" Elphaba repeated. "Everyone has the power of magic in your world?"

She wasn't sure if she was understanding that correctly.

[glacial_queen]

"Not everyone," Karla said. "There are the landens, the non-magic people of each race. And it is true, they do not rule. But that's because the gift of Craft gives us a connection to the land that they lack. Those of us born to the Queen caste, for example. Any daughter, born to any Blood family, however humble their origins, can be born a Queen. She belongs to that caste because she was born with the ability to feel the land, know what's wrong with it, and Heal it at need."

She shrugged. "I'm not saying that it's pure altruism that allows us to rule. We have a power the landens cannot match. But that power was given to us for that exact reason: to act as caretakers for the land and the people in it."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"So they are considered less important, simply because how they were born," Elphaba said, not exactly liking that idea.

[glacial_queen]

"I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a world where that isn't true," Karla said blandly. "Why? How are the leaders in your world chosen?"

Hopefully, that came out sounding more like curiosity than a challenge. Karla was interested in how other worlds handled politics.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Probably," Elphaba admitted. "But I've never had a chance to discuss it with anyone else in a position of power, with the exception of my father."

She sighed. "It's very much the same, really. Except magic has little to do with the ruling of the individual kingdoms. The Wizard rules the capital of all of Oz, though. And that was through replacing the royal line."