fandomhighdorms | Fifth Floor Common Room [Sunday morning]

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Fifth Floor Common Room [Sunday morning]

After so many requests for pancakes from her own children yesterday morning, Sookie figured that might be a theme for the weekend. And when she woke up, and Henry wasn't gone, at least, she'd run out to get a few supplies before returning to the common room to see what she could put together. (Though, of course, Henry had insisted on coming with her once he realized she was Going to the Store and he might Get Stuff.)

It clearly just wasn't her own children she was worried about, here, Drake/di Glacia/Stackhouse appetites aside. Sookie had bought enough things to make breakfast for pretty much any kids (and parents) who showed up. She was setting to work on the pancakes, but in other pans she was busily scrambling eggs and frying up some bacon. She'd also made a point to buy orange and apple juice and milk both chocolate and white, because there was no way in hell she was letting more of those kids just drink coffee. She didn't care if it was for a weekend, it was just irresponsible.

[open common room! come have breakfast!]

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"The little wolf-pack will have ravaged the pancakes in the time it took me to blink," Karla muttered. "If you're related to Jaenelle, you're Ben's daughter, then?"

And not hers. The Darkness was kind.

Though Karla did notice she didn't sound like any child she'd ever talked to before. She leveled Val a searching look. "And your other parent?"

Note how she didn't say 'mom.'

Valentine was starting to think she could probably earn money selling name tags to kids, if she was interested in that kind of thing. "Would tell me not to get you a bottle of tequila, even if you give me puppy dog eyes," she said, "And Ender tends to know what he's talking about on that one."

Because she tended to evaluate parental edicts one by one.

Now how'd he know--oh, wait. Right. It was Ender. He always knew.

"Did he say tequila specifically, or are all bottles of high-proof alcohol out of the picture?" What? Karla needed to know what she was working with here. "Also, are you susceptible to bribery?"

If puppydog eyes weren't going to be enough...

"And does he know what I'm dealing with here? I'm pretty sure seven children might be worth a rethinking on that stance."

"I'm pretty sure he expected me to interpret that one in the spirit it was given, not the letter," Val said, "And taking bribes probably doesn't set a good example." She craned her head towards the seven others. "Though I think he sympathises."

Again, she got why. That's why she was sneaking out and keeping the pressure off.

"How's he handling things?" Karla asked. "I don't think fatherhood was...ever in his plan," she finished as diplomatically as she knew how. "At least, not this version."

"There's also Olhado," Val said, with false cheer, pointing towards the twelve-year-old with the metal eyes watching from the edges of the common room. "It's not a surprise Dad's playing his part perfectly."

Karla glanced over to the boy Valentine had pointed to, mostly to stop from reacting to the girl's phrasing. "Playing his part perfectly." Yeah. She could imagine.

"How's Ben handling it?" she asked.

"Repressing," she said, with a little shrug. "They get less bad about this later on."

Which meant how bad they were about it now kind of made her want to wince a little.

"If they got any worse about it, they'd cease to be functional," Karla snorted. And then remembered she was talking to a child. And then remembered she was talking to a Wiggin, which meant 'child' was relative.

"Will you tell me about them?" she asked. "And you? I'd like to know how they finally realized the blatantly obvious."

Val flashed Karla an apologetic smile. "I don't know how this works out on the timeline," she said, "I don't really want to break the universe."

"That's fair," Karla said with a sigh. "I suppose my curiosity will have to continue on unabated. Can you at least let me know if you're happy? All of you? As happy as can be, at least?"

"We're doing pretty good," Val said, "But I'm horribly biased."

She fidgeted with her shirt, before adding, "If it helps, apparently I happened because Ender got 'broody'."

Across a portal, someone just facepalmed and said something about not letting her spy on conversations again.

"Surprised you don't have more siblings then," Karla muttered. "Still, I'm glad. But then, I'm horribly biased to."

"Well, good," Val said, "Someone's got to knock those heads together."

"I take it as my most solemn duty while we're in school," Karla said with a laugh. "I promise you that."

Of course, Ben and Ender did their fair share of keeping her on the right path, too, so it all evened out.

"I suppose asking you if I'm still around sometimes, bothering your dads, is another one of the timeline things?" she asked. "I mean, I can't be around much, I'm sure, but..."

Ben and Ender were two of the friends here closest to her heart. She'd like to know that she was still there to torment them sometimes ~~and not leave it all to stupid Jane~~.

Valentine squinted at her.

"Well," she said, "I know who you are, you're not wearing a name tag and I'm not that psychic..."

That was vague enough, right?

Karla could point out that she had no way of knowing just how psychic Val was, but she was far too happy with the answer to nitpick.

"I can handle that," she said, giving the girl a bright smile. "Huh. You know what? Name tags would be brilliant this weekend. You could probably make a bundle..."

You know. In case Val hadn't had that same thought hours ago.

...It was kind of a toss up between whether it was harder to be a Wiggin around everyone else, or harder to be everyone else around a Wiggin.

"Yeah, I know," Val said, waving a hand at her, "But I figured that would get boring, and it's not like I need the money right now."

The nets were free!

... the nets in Ben's universe were free and didn't know about Demosthenes or Locke!

"And I would try to keep them split up," she added. "Divide and conquer, and so on."

"Advice on tactics from a Wiggin-Skywalker? I'd be an idiot to ignore that," Karla said, settling further into the chair. "Are you sure I can't convince you about that tequila rule?"

Val wondered whether it would be relevant to point out that Ender said hyphenated names gave him hives. She erred towards the side of 'no'.

"And pair up the quiet ones with the loud ones," she said instead, "Might be a good influence, and you don't want the loud ones beating each other up. Unless you're actively trying to tire them out, but then you should probably use the upstairs room."

She wasn't going to dignify the tequila thing with a reply.

"There's always the 'foist the children off on their other parent and spend the next few days hiding' option," Karla noted. "I do like that one."

Jaenelle Mara ran by chasing Bobina and yelling something about hair-pulling. Karla could guess why Valentine hadn't suggested that option.

"They'd find you," Valentine said, simply.

Of course they would. They had her gifts. And Jaenelle Mara was strong enough to notice a blank spot if she tried to use Craft to hide her location.

Darkness, she hoped that child wasn't born until well after she'd made her Offering.

"Balls."

What it lacked in eloquence, it made up for in heartfelt sincerity.

"It's just going to be a couple of days," Val pointed out. "You're about halfway there, if what I picked up back home holds out. And I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

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Fifth Floor Common Room [Sunday morning]

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