fandomhighdorms | Second Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

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!]

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"Possibly? It's still too early to tell," Karla said from her perch. "I'm not old enough to start offering contracts yet and, honestly, they're a little shy, you know? Easily spooked? So I kept things simple. I don't want them thinking I want anything more from them than I'm willing to give."

"There are contracts?" Sookie asked, eyes wide.

Karla looked confused. "Of course there are," she said. "Why wouldn't there be? Serving in a Court is a job like any other. Your contract stipulates how long your tenure of service is to last, how much you'll get paid, a rough idea of your duties...This way, even a selfish or greedy Queen can't get away with skimping her Court or overworking them or forcing them to do jobs that are demeaning or something."

Why was everyone so confused by this? What kind of Courts did this world have?

"They don't just...hang out and be your courtiers?" she asked, confused.

That was how it worked in books!

Karla shook her head quickly. "Mother Night, no! Ugh, who'd want to be? What would stop me from working them all the time? How would they get paid?"

"...don't they just get paid in like, the honor to serve you?" Sookie tried.

Karla snickered. "Who in Darkness would want to get paid in that? Leaving aside for a moment that I'm prickly and kind of a pain in the ass, honor doesn't put food on the table or clothing on anyone's back."

She frowned. "Besides, wouldn't that just open the whole thing up to corruption and the like? I mean, if I wasn't paying them, they'd have to get money somehow. Bribes, blackmail...even less savory things. That's no way to run a functioning Court."

Sorry for destroying your illusions, Sookie.

"...this is not at all like courts in books," Sookie decided. "Those always have chivalry and knights with their ladies fair, and they joust and wear favors and all that. And probably aren't under contract. They're just courtiers for the love of...courtiering."

"Then they either have independent wealth," Karla objected, "which means the Court would be limited to a limited subsection of people, or they're making their money some other way. Of course, jousting and wearing favors doesn't sound too hard, so maybe they all have other jobs?"

"They go on quests?" Sookie tried feebly.

"Well, that sounds like a waste of time," Karla said, wrinkling her nose. "Don't they have responsibilities? What good does questing do when there's a government to run?"

"But...I don't know, there are princesses and horses and stuff?" Sookie offered helplessly. "And lots of duels!"

"We haven't anything so pretty as your duels," Karla said softly. "Not when two Warlord Princes in a temper could slaughter an entire Court. That's why we have Protocol. It explains the proper behavior one engages in so as not to risk the wrath of the darker Jeweled Blood and higher castes." She paused. "And why we have no laws against murder."

"What if someone in a higher caste gets mad anyway, despite your protocol?" Sookie wondered.

Karla hesitated before answering. Sookie almost certainly wasn't going to like it.

"Depends on whether it's hot anger or cold," she said, which was mostly a dodge. "And who is around when it happens."

That was a lead-up to the long answer, of course. The short answer? People died.

Sookie raised an eyebrow. "What's the difference? I mean, I know the difference between hot and cold anger, but what does it mean for y'all?"

Second Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

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