Guidance Counselor's Office, Tuesday

[solarhippie]

This... was an odd state of being for Karolina, yes. She supposed it was that for everyone, of course, given that it looked like the entire island was now fully black-and-white. But she was also pretty sure that as someone who was regularly all glowy pastels, maybe it was a tiny fraction extra weird for her? But anyway, at least today her brain had adjusted to it enough that she didn't feel constantly on the verge of a headache. And she'd take this over the last couple of weeks of creeping horror, especially the one before last - being trapped under a dome under the ocean had hit her pretty hard, given that all that pastel-y glowing was actually solar-based.

So this week counted as 'normal enough' in her book. So she was in her office, getting things in order for the second summer term and just generally making herself available for chats. She'd also been pleased to catch Sparkle's Pride posters on her way to the school, and she'd taken a couple of his leaflets and brought them with her to work, just in case someone came in who needed the info.

You couldn't really tell, but there was a pretty big Pride flag on the wall of her office today, too. Duh.

[ooc: Open office!]

Comments

[notallbluemonks]

Hey, Beau had said she'd be Karolina's designated coffee delivery person, and here she was with coffee, because what were girlfriends for?

"This week has to be super weird for you," she said as she came in with the usual double chocolate mocha for herself and Karolina's vegan latte. "But an improvement mostly, huh?"

It had also occurred to her that she should probably mention what she'd discussed with Fjord yesterday.

[solarhippie]

"I'm not worried anything's gonna eat the kids or completely drain me of my energy?" Karolina agreed (yes, agreed, even with that question mark there) as she very, very gratefully reached for the coffee. "But the lack of colors is..."

She trailed off.

"I've been here for too much of my life to call things here 'weird' as much as I do."

[notallbluemonks]

Beau handed the coffee to her readily, then went ahead and took the liberty of sitting on the edge of the desk, idly looking over one of the flyers as she did.

"Well, it's kind of been a steady stream of constantly changing weird lately. It's kinda exhausting."

[solarhippie]

Karolina nudged nudged the flier a little so that it'd be easier for Beau to read. Not even from any particular desire for her to read, the action just came automatically to her.

"Yeah," she sighed, before a sip of coffee. Mmm, latte. "You'd think we deserved some kind of a break by now."

This was the break, Kar.

[notallbluemonks]

"This might be as good as it gets," Beau said, a little distracted by the flyer. Huh. That might be cool. "Last week was . . . pretty rough. On a lot of people."

[solarhippie]

"I bet," Karolina replied, with a pout that might've looked ridiculous on some faces but somehow looked purely empathetic on hers. (At least if you were biased enough.) "It always is, when it really gets, like... all up in your insides."

Not even remotely dirty.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau was biased enough! Also biased enough to think it was adorable, and merited leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Yeah," she said slowly, and she was distracted enough that she didn't even think to laugh. "It's got Fjord all messed up right now. Like, bad enough that he wants to go home."

[solarhippie]

"Oh?" Karolina asked, and the slight remnants of the pout were joined by a frown. "Do you think it'll help him heal from whatever it was?"

And no, it wasn't a physical kind of healing because that was just rarely what it was about, when someone wanted to go home.

[notallbluemonks]

"Who knows?" Beau reached her free hand out toward Karolina's, frowning a bit herself. "There's this big fancy magic academy in the Empire he wants to go to, to figure out more about his powers? He was trying to get there when he ended up here, and I told him I'd help him out with that. If we can ever figure out a way to get him, you know. Back to Wildemount. Getting a portal seems like it's impossible, so far."

She chewed on her lip for a moment.

"But if we find one, it's probably not going to take him directly into the Empire. He'd have to road trip it all the way north to Rexxentrum, and I can't let him do that alone."

[solarhippie]

The expression on Karolina's face as she listened was open and compassionate. And then Beau got to the end, and, well. It was still open and compassionate, yes, but it was like a veil of worry suddenly fell over it.

"Oh," she said again, except this time not as a question.

[notallbluemonks]

"Yeah." Beau's shoulders slumped a little, and she looked like she was kicking herself for making Karolina get that worried look on her face. "But as soon as I make sure he gets there in one piece, I'll be back. I don't want to go back there, but I promised him, you know?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina nodded, because she did know. She'd gone across galaxies and traveled through time to help people, so she knew.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

[notallbluemonks]

Yeah. Beau had had a feeling she would get it, and Karolina got a small but grateful smile for that.

"I mean, my plan was to yell at people at Portalocity until they came up with something, but maybe you could try and sweet talk them? Like the good cop bad cop routine."

[solarhippie]

"I can try," Karolina promised. Offered? Something like that. "I'm pretty good at smiling at people."

To no one's surprise.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau was so shocked. Really.

"Definitely more your strength than mine," she noted. "I mean, I don't know. When all this is gonna happen, assuming it even does, I just . . . I needed to make sure you know." Because it was very important to her to not just disappear, for multiple reasons.

She looked down for a moment, twisting the cardboard sleeve on her coffee cup, before she finally looked back over at Karolina and asked, quietly and uncertainly, "Are you . . . You're not mad about this, are you?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina's eyebrows pulled up from their frown a little. "What? No." She shook her head. And squeezed Beau's hand reassuringly. "Of course not. You have to support your friends. I get that. I've done that."

[notallbluemonks]

". . . yeah, I guess you would," Beau said after a moment, laughing sheepishly. "What a dumb fucking question, huh?"

Really, that had probably said a lot about Beau's childhood, that she immediately jumped to that conclusion.

"I just." She squeezed Karolina's hand back, held onto it. "All of that shit about you making sure I know you're not going anywhere and now I'm the asshole who might have to take off for a while."

Was it an excuse to beat up on herself some more? Yes. Yes, it was, but that was one hard habit to break.

[solarhippie]

"It's not the same and you know it," Karolina told her gently. It was better than confronting the whole 'beating herself up abut it' thing straight-on, though you could rest assured Karolina was already guessing at that, too. "There's a difference between taking off with the intention of coming back, and just plain taking off."

[notallbluemonks]

"I'm coming back," Beau said, her determination turning the words into almost a growl. "That's not even, like, a question. I didn't run just so I could go back there. Besides, you're the best incentive."

She set her coffee down so she could wrap Karolina's hand in both of hers.

"But I'm kinda getting ahead of myself." And getting self-conscious about being that emotional, and trying to change the subject. "This thing on Saturday, are we doing that?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina was going to let her get away with changing the subject.

"Would you like to?" she asked, smiling up at her, just a little. "I went last year."

[notallbluemonks]

"I've never done anything like that before, so." Beau's responding smile was tiny and lopsided, but genuine enough. "I'm totally down for checking it out, yeah."

[solarhippie]

"It's gonna be weird, this year," Karolina noted lightly, brushing her thumb against Beau's hand. "You know, if this black and white thing persists through the weekend, too? I've never seen a Pride happen without color before."

It was going to make the flags a nightmare.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau glanced up toward the flag on the wall and huffed a small laugh.

"Yeah, that seems like it's a huge part of the experience. Plus you can't be all thematic." She shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe we'll get lucky, and it'll go away? But I'm less worried about you than I was the last couple of weeks, at least, so, y'know."

She'd been really worried the week they were underwater, yes.

[solarhippie]

"Oh, babe," Karolina replied softly, almost reflexively, "I was okay."

Well she'd come out of it on the other side okay, anyway? That counted for something!

"I think I've seen worse."

[notallbluemonks]

"You're too badass to not be okay," Beau said with a soft chuckle and an almost dopey little smile. "I know that. But I care, so I'm gonna worry, and that's just the deal, sorry."

She tilted her head and made a thoughtful noise.

"Like . . . do I want to know how much worse? Probably not."