Room 528 -- Wednesday Morning

[icecoldfrost]

It was lucky for Emma that ermines likes burrowing into things, such as blankets. Because it meant when she woke up person-shaped (and without clothes) on Wednesday morning, she wasn't freezing or in a hideously embarrassing situation. Well, no more embarrassing than being a rather cuddly ermine had been in the first place.

Blanket firmly wrapped around herself, Emma hopped out of bed and headed over to her dresser to pick out some clothes and find her shampoo. After a week of being small and furry, a hot shower and something to wear that wasn't a blue ribbon sounded fantastic.

[OOC: For the roomie, should she wish, and open to other visitors once Emma is happily clothed.]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Which Karla cheerfully took as such. "But what if it's a limited time offer?" she teased, letting herself into the room. "We might go out of business and then where will you be the next time you become an ermine, huh?"

She called in the bag of donuts she'd bought from J,GoB and handed it over. "These are better," she said, grimacing at the pop tarts in Emma's hands.

[icecoldfrost]

"Hopefully there won't be a next time," Emma replied, snatching the bag and starting to dig through it. Foooooooooooood. "And if there is and I don't have my powers, I might be rather vexed."

Six days. No telepathy. Emma had been going softly mad.

[glacial_queen]

Karla shot her a 'yeah, right' look. "This island lives to vex us," she pointed out, leaning over to snag a donut for herself. "I think the more fervently we deny it, the harder it tries."

*You okay?* she sent. No reason to make Emma admit to vulnerabilities aloud. *I remember how frustrating it was to be an Arcerian kitten with only basic Craft. And I was one for a much shorter amount of time than you.*

[icecoldfrost]

<<It was...unsettling, especially at first, and it got very frustrating very quickly not being able to communicate,>> Emma replied, keeping her mental-tone light and deliberately not dwelling on the sheer panic she'd felt when she'd realized her powers were gone.

"I was lucky to have Beka and Pounce about when it happened."

[glacial_queen]

That was not a quick twinge of jealousy, Emma. It was...a weather balloon. Or marsh gas. Yes.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to help," Karla said, sticking to vocal speech for the moment. "I was in the future, listening to two idiots talk about how babies are made as if they were the first people to discover it."

[icecoldfrost]

"Well, Pounce could understand Angry Ermine, so it made translations a bit easier. Yes, I am Emma. Yes, I appear to be an ermine. No, I don't know why, and if you don't feed me right now, I shall bite." Emma laughed, guessing at the root of Karla's sudden 'marsh gas.' "If I'd had my powers, you'd probably have heard me screaming for you and Sookie at the top of my lungs."

[glacial_queen]

"And I would have come running," Karla said, brightening just the tiniest bit. "Not only to get away from the idiots, mind you. But since you couldn't, I'm glad Pounce was here to translate. Not that it stopped you from biting people, I'd wager."

[icecoldfrost]

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course it didn't." This was Emma. She bit just to say hello.

"Now, what sort of shenanigans were the Wiggin children up to that required an intervention, and why were babies involved?"

[glacial_queen]

"Good," Karla said, nodding once in approval. "If you weren't feisty, even as an ermine, I'd be worried."

She settled back against the bed and tried not to roll her eyes too hard. "Well, I've pretty much determined that Peter can't possibly be related to Val or Ender. He's far too stupid. Did I tell you about Achilles, the sociopath serial-killer who managed to start, like, three wars on his own? Peter decided he wanted him as a pet."

[icecoldfrost]

"Well, if one is going to have a pet, it might as well be an interesting one?" Emma suggested.

[glacial_queen]

"Only if you're smarter than it is," Karla countered. "If Ben hadn't warned Peter's parents in time, Peter would have been killed. As it was, he had to flee his private compound with his tail between his legs."

Okay, Bean might have helped with that, but who cared?

"He got played. And he was surprised at getting played. By a male known for doing the exact same thing to three different countries! Jackass."

[icecoldfrost]

"Boys will be boys, and boys are morons," Emma pointed out. "Poor Peter. I suppose it's too bad that Valentine and Ender got all the personality, brains, and the looks."

Well, privately Emma felt that Valentine was by far the cleverest of her siblings. Emma hadn't even met Peter, but it seemed the right thing to say.

[glacial_queen]

"I think all of his ambition comes from wanting to be as good as his siblings at something," Karla sniffed. "Too bad he's incompetent at that, too."

There was a polite tap on Emma's shields. *I had to let him know about himself,* Karla said, offering Emma a peek at the memory of Karla berating Peter in his own office.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma slipped in to explore the memory gently, looking at it from all sides.

<<Not helpful, Karla,>> she chided silently. <<There's more effective ways to deal with people like that than public humiliation. Next time be a bit more... subtle.>>

[glacial_queen]

*It wasn't public,* Karla sent, not at all sulky. *I kept it in the family. Just me, Ben, and Suriyawong.* She tossed her hair. *It wasn't like he was being helpful anyway.*

[icecoldfrost]

<<You undermined him in front of a lackey and a stranger, darling, and rubbed salt in the wounds to boot. Next time, keep it to a single, pointed, cryptic comment, that references something you should have no way of knowing. And don't reveal how you know,>> Emma advised. <<The way to make a point with people like that is by beating them at their own game before they realize you're playing.>>

[glacial_queen]

Karla was subtle like a brick to the face. *I didn't have a chance to beat him at anything. We weren't there long enough. I didn't even think I'd ever see him again and he was being deliberately unhelpful.*

[icecoldfrost]

Emma knew bricks more subtle than Karla. At least bricks could camoflauge with other bricks. Karla was more like dropping an anvil on the cartoon coyote.

<<And he had to put effort into it, didn't he? Talking constantly. One comment to undercut all his preening; that's all you need to take the wind out of his sails,>> she pointed out. <<There isn't always time, or a place, for actual justice, darling. It can be...inconvenient. In certain circumstances. You need to pick your battles sometimes, Karla.>>

[glacial_queen]

Karla could camouflage! Totally camouflage! Assuming, of course, that she was deafened, struck mute, and deliberately hidden by someone else.

...Emma still loved her though, right?

*Still felt good,* Karla muttered. *Are we going to have to trade lessons in flirting for lessons in subtlety next?*

Somewhere in Hell, Karla's mother's Steward was clasping his hands and thanking the Darkness.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma just smiled. "We can do both," she replied aloud, tranquilly. "They can help each other out very nicely, and there's a certain joy to the more detailed machinations."

Emma was so very much a Frost at heart.

[glacial_queen]

"Am I going to practice the first under your tutelage?" Karla asked, mouth quirking upwards, "Or--" she glanced quickly at Beka and switched back to psychic threads. *Or are you going to grade me on how I flirt with George?*