The Keep, Ebon Askavi, Kaeleer, Friday Fandom time

[trigons_child]

Raven had been at the Keep for about a month now, and she mostly kept to herself, reading or meditating in the rooms that had been given to her. Mostly it was Philia's needs that would draw her outside, but only for a short time.

And she may very well have been getting her brood on in a serious way.

She felt like herself, mostly, but then again, she hadn't realized it when her brothers had infected her with their power. Wrath, Lust, Envy -- it was all so easy to see how each had affected her now, but in the moment it had felt so natural to her. Her brothers had been cunning enough to merely amplify her own emotions rather than force them upon her. That she surely would've felt, but not the more subtle nudge to her own true anger, lust, or jealousy.

Her skin wasn't crawling as much as it had been when she'd realized what had been going on, but she still felt uncertain, disgusted and displeased with herself for allowing it to happen. She'd endangered the people she cared for most. How did she make up for that? And how did she prevent it from happening again?

[For them that are coming to visit, and for great slowplay.]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

That was the million dollar question, wasn't it? Karla thought that she and Jaenelle might have a solution to that, but she couldn't say for sure.

"Kiss kiss," she said from Raven's doorway, her smile of greeting not fully able to hide the worry in her eyes. "Taking visitors?"

[trigons_child]

"Of course," Raven said, looking up and managing a smile of her own. She was genuinely glad to see Karla.

[glacial_queen]

Karla should hope so! She'd be pretty upset if Raven wasn't.

"Sorry for not visiting sooner," she said, walking over to embrace Raven without a hint of hesitation. "Apparently, you vanish for two weeks without any way to be contacted and a ton of work builds up in your absence. Who knew?"

[trigons_child]

Then hopefully Karla would be completely understanding if Raven was just going to cling to her for a moment.

"I hope you mean the spring break trip and not something more sinister," she said, more than a little worry in her voice. If anything bad had happened and she hadn't been there for Karla -- well, that would be another thing she couldn't forgive herself for.

[glacial_queen]

Karla could completely understand Raven's need for clinging. "Oh, let me even tell you about Spring Break," Karla said, shaking her head a little bit. "It was billed as a cruise to Mexico. We were not told that it was a cruise to Mexico in the 1970s. There was more polyester and gaudy color schemes than you could shake a stick at."

To really drive home how awful it was, Karla added, "If you'd been there, you would've ended up having to dress in oranges and lime greens."

And that wasn't even touching on the leisure suits.

"The 70s also didn't have things like cellular service or the internet. So no one's phones worked. I though Warren was going to fly out of his skin, not being able to check his stocks for a week."

[trigons_child]

Karla! Raven had enough trauma in her life right now. There was no need to torture her with images of bright colors!

Raven shuddered. "That does not sound pleasant, but I hope you were able to have some enjoyment. I imagine Julian and Morton were very displeased about not being able to reach you."

[glacial_queen]

If they'd had money, Karla would have brought something back for Raven as a souvenir. Because she was evil. But luckily for Raven, most of their money had either been inaccessible in online banking institutions or on a credit card that hadn't existed in the '70s.

"Displeased is a very politic way of saying it," Karla said, letting go of Raven but sitting close enough to still hold her hand. "They and Mallory had a good time holding the baby while yelling at us, which was fun to deal with. But they're over it."

Because Karla had told them they were over it, dammit.

[trigons_child]

"And how is Kayla?" Raven asked, just a note of wistfulness in her voice. Yes, she'd missed Karla a great deal, but she'd missed Kayla, too, and not being able to fuss over her every day like a proper auntie should.

[glacial_queen]

"Drooling over everything," Karla said, trying to complain but sounding only fond. "She's fifteen weeks now, because it was a week for us in Mexico, rather than the two it was here. She's been smiling and almost laughing a lot, too. She's such a happy little girl. And she coos now. At everything. She's just so enthusiastic about the world and everything in it!"

Karla was prepared to go on a lot about what Kayla had been up to, complete with pictures. Of which there were roughly a million, especially with Kayla in swimmies on the cruise ship.

[trigons_child]

And Raven would be utterly delighted to ooh and aah over each and every picture and story.

But her brow did wrinkle in confusion for a moment. "How are we going to keep track of her birthday between time here and time in Fandom?" she said. "Just keep to the day regardless of her being older?"

These things were important!

[glacial_queen]

"Until she's a year, we're going to have to pay close attention to how much time she's actually lived, regardless of what the calendar said," Karla explained. She'd thought about this a lot. "There's a huge developmental difference between one week and the next. Once her birthday rolls around, a few handfuls of unacknowledged days here and there will be less important. And by three, it won't make a difference at all, really. We'll call her a year next January 25th, regardless of whether she's a whole fifty-two weeks yet or not. It just gets too complicated otherwise."

[trigons_child]

"It is hard enough sometimes to keep track of our own ages," Raven said, nodding. "But it should not be as difficult for Kayla. At least until she learns to keep track and tries to insist we celebrate her being another year old sooner than we intend."

Not that would stop her from having presents ready for both Kayla's physical age and her calendar age.

[Time to sleeeeeeeep.]

[glacial_queen]

"The important thing is that you're always older than I am," she teased.

[trigons_child]

Raven made a face at her. "Not if I spend more time in Fandom," she said thoughtfully. "Then you will catch up."

[glacial_queen]

"Pffft, I'll make some kind of Queenly decree that says otherwise," Karla declared regally. She was best at being regal when she was being completely absurd.

"How've you been?" she asked, voice swinging back to serious. "The Keep treating you well?"

[trigons_child]

"Of course," Raven said, "though if any of the staff claim that I am not eating, they are merely exaggerating. I will admit to not having much of an appetite, but I do not need to eat as much as they seem to think I do."

That wasn't quite answering the question, Raven.

[glacial_queen]

"They're basing it off your chakra," Karla said, nodding at the gem in Raven's forehead. "Assuming it works the same as the Red."

And then she gave Raven a pointed look. "How've you been?" she asked. Again.

[trigons_child]

"Lonely," Raven admitted quietly. "Afraid. Ashamed. I have not felt any more manipulations of my emotions, but I did not sense them in the first place, so how can I be sure?"

[glacial_queen]

"That's what Jaenelle and I were working on before I came to see you. She's been monitoring you while you were here. Did she mention that?" Karla wasn't even sure if Jaenelle had had a chance to talk to Raven or if her attempts to find a way to keep Raven's siblings out of her head had consumed all of her time and attention.

[trigons_child]

Raven shook her head. "We have not spoken at great length," she said. It hadn't helped that she'd been avoidy and hiding in her room. The fact that she hadn't sensed Jaenelle monitoring her caused her a second of displeasure, but it was Jaenelle, and she knew Jaenelle's power, so she shook that of easily.

"What did she say?" Raven asked, more than a little anxious hope in her voice.

[glacial_queen]

"She said that she couldn't sense your brothers in your mind anymore, though traces of them still remain," Karla said. "Like...tracks, showing where they'd been. With your permission, she thinks that there's a way to seal your mind and Self away from their influence forever."

[trigons_child]

"Of course," Raven said without any hesitation. "What must I do?"

[glacial_queen]

"The way she explained it, it's like a door," Karla said, settling in. "Or more like a series of roads, perhaps? Never mind, the precise analogy doesn't matter. Since you're linked to the Netherverse and the Netherverse is a great cosmic crossroads, you can get to anywhere--and, sometimes, things can get to you. Like your brothers, you know? She's not sure if it's because they're linked to you by blood, or by Trigon's powers, or if they have rudimentary access to the Netherverse, too, but if you walk through a door to get to them, they've figured out how to open it from the other side to get to you. Follow me so far?"

[trigons_child]

Raven nodded as she wrapped her mind around that. "Yes. We must lock the door against them."

It was the ties of blood, she suspected. Their shared demonic heritage. Familiar enough that she hadn't felt their influence.

[glacial_queen]

"Possibly more than lock it," Karla said gently. "Bar it, barricade it, possibly even set it on fire." She took Raven's hand and started rubbing it. "It will likely hurt. It might even change you in subtle, but fundamental ways. It's impossible to say without more data or more time to observe, but that kind of thing could take years."

Karla swallowed heavily and tried not to drop her eyes. "You...you don't have to say yes."

But there would be consequences if she didn't.