The Estate, Glacia, Sunday Fandom Time

[wwiii]

In Glacia, it was cold.

This generally went without saying, what with it being a place with a name that sounded suspiciously like 'glacier' or 'glacial' or even just the French word for 'really fricking cold,' but it was that sort of cold now that indicated that they were just starting to push past Winsol-and-Christmas and into January, and Warren was doing that thing he did where, so help him, it had been storming out for the past three days and he needed to do something to help get his mind off the fact that he hadn't been able to fly in at least as long.

So he was setting up a swing set.

Indoors, yes.

For a little girl that still wasn't quite a year old yet.

But it had a nice wooden frame, and one of the little kind-of diaper-shaped seats that could be swapped out for a proper swing seat later, and he was more or less caught up with his paperwork for the day.

So, a swing set. Kayla would appreciate it, he was sure, and it would help to get his mind off of the whole claustrophobic feeling of being stuck indoors. That one that had him half-tempted to book a portal to the island to just enjoy a few days of summer, Consort duties be damned. Now, if only he could get Karla's pet out of the way while he was working. The little guy kept zipping around the room, perching on his shoulder, on the toolbox, making a game of seeing what he could get away with.

"Nemit, I will give you extra crickets if you stop trying to steal these screws." Beat. "And stop rubbing it in."

[OOC: Just realized I haven't touched this boy in a while. Open for calls, or people who might happen to be in Glacia, or texts or whatever!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

"You're still not allowed to foist our fussy daughter off on me for the entirety of not-the-party, either," Karla informed him. "Speaking of fussy...have you felt her back lately?"

[wwiii]

Warren kind of fumbled the phone a little, at that.

"I wasn't going to say anything until I was absolutely certain it wasn't just wishful thinking," he admitted, holding his breath. "You noticed, too?"

[glacial_queen]

"I've been wondering if that might be what all the crying and fussiness had been about for over a month now," she admitted. "But hollowing bones isn't the kind of thing that Craft would pick up on. But--yes. I'm pretty sure I felt little knobs on her back. Almost like teeny bone spurs. But..."

She didn't think it was bone spurs.

"Depending on how long the process takes--she might be fledging around the time you start molting."

And wouldn't that be fun for everyone?

[wwiii]

... Pardon Warren. He needed to shudder at that thought.

"My own wings came in pretty fast, so we might still dodge that bullet," he offered.

Hopefully.

Because wishful thinking was pretty great like that.

"And if we don't, I solemnly swear to not complain too much."

...

"Probably."

[glacial_queen]

"If that happens I'm leaving her with you to go become a professional drunk," Karla informed him. "It will be glorious. All the cheap gin I can guzzle and my headaches will be from hangovers, not whining."

It should be noted their daughter was not yet capable of whining.

[wwiii]

"If you're leaving, you probably don't need to add a drinking habit to the mix," Warren noted, giving the swing a little push, and then a sharp tug, just to make certain everything was sturdy.

If he couldn't yank it down with those well-developed muscles of his, the weight of a bouncy baby (with Schrodinger's hollow bones) sitting in the seat most certainly wouldn't.

"If it gets that bad, I'll even make certain you have somewhere to retreat to. Hawaii again, maybe?" A beat. "Or up in the mountains. It's nice up there in the spring..."

[glacial_queen]

"Are you seriously suggesting I go camping up in the mountains, darling?" Karla asked, giving him a fond smile. "I think of the two, I'll take the drinking habit. 'Night Coach' sounds like an excellent vintage, don't you agree?"

[wwiii]

"It does," Warren agreed, "but 'camping' wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

He was looking totally innocent. Really.

[glacial_queen]

Karla raised her eyebrows at him. She didn't trust that innocent face. She was pretty sure he'd learned it from her, after all. "Oh?" she asked. "So you're planning on sending your Queen into the mountains in early spring without even the comfort of a tent? Darling, there are easier ways to commit regicide."

[wwiii]

"Hey, we've roughed it before," Warren pointed out, but there was a smile that said he was mostly just teasing. "But no, I had something else in mind. Remember that trip I took up north a few months back to check on how things were going with the rebuilding efforts?"

[glacial_queen]

"Yes, and I remember surviving only because I traveled with the handsomest down blanket I'd ever met," Karla drawled at him, fighting off a smile. "I've gotten spoiled by luxury again. But yes, I remember. I was practically swarmed by status-climbers who were certain that your absence spelled out trouble in paradise."

[wwiii]

"Well, weren't they surprised? Especially because none of them are ever going to get you a Winsol present like I'm giving you this year."

He pulled out his phone, flicked through a few pictures, and then handed it over to her for her inspection.

[glacial_queen]

"Oh?" Karla asked, curiosity well and truly snagged now. She took the phone and looked at the picture he'd pulled up. A spacious room, with large windows and high ceilings, rustic and elegant in equal measure. It didn't look like any room at the estate. Or the Hall. Or the Keep. Too big for anything in Haven, too, and no hints of technology that would suggest it was in another world. "Warren?"

[wwiii]

Warren just grinned a little and nodded to the phone again.

"Flip to the next one, now," he said, looking kind of weirdly excited, a bit like a little boy just hoping that the present he'd prepared would be appreciated by the recipient. "It's a view of the outside."

The very jaw-dropping outside.

He was so proud of this. And if it wasn't well-received... well, at least he'd have a getaway, he supposed. Being the landen Consort in a world ruled by Blood sort of necessitated something.

[glacial_queen]

Huh. The jaw-dropping descriptor was literal. Good to know. "Warren," Karla breathed, looking at the image of the front of a--a--a small mansion in the woods. It looked like it incorporated several of the largest and oldest trees nearby to prevent them from needing to be cut down. A small stone bridge crossed over the river that led to the front yard and the photo captured the gold of the sun glinting off the glass of the bay windows. "It's beautiful! Where--what is this?"

[wwiii]

"It's, um, I've been calling it the aerie," Warren admitted, feeling kind of silly about it and at least having the good grace to blush. "A sort of home away from home, for us and whoever we want to invite along. Something a little less..."

He shrugged. He loved the Estate. He did. But it wasn't really theirs the way he kind of wanted somewhere to be.

This way, they could get away from the Estate now and again without completely abandoning Glacia.

"Less official?"

[glacial_queen]

"The aerie, huh?" Karla asked, moving onto the next picture in hopes it would show more. "Naming our new getaway after an eagle's nest? I thought you were trying to minimize bird comparisons."

She loved it.

"Just a place for us, then? With lots of room for you to stretch and deep in the land for me?"

[wwiii]

Warren shrugged his shoulders a little.

"I'd just start announcing to the world that I am a bird if it meant I could fly for a while, right about now," he decreed. "But... yeah. Yeah, just a place for us. I think it's something maybe we could both use, these days?"

[glacial_queen]

"Yeah," Karla said softly. "It feels like it's been months since we talked sometimes."

[wwiii]

"Weird, right?"

How did that sort of thing even happen?

"So..." Warren shrugged and gestured to the phone again. "Aerie. For you, and me, and the kids... The people who actually count."

[glacial_queen]

Opposing schedules and a metric fuckton of responsibilities that never seemed to end, no matter how hard they worked?

"Where we don't have to be Queen and Consort," Karla said, voice dreamy. "Just Karla and Warren. In ways we haven't been since high school."

[wwiii]

"Momoko's invited us to visit San Antonio on Independence Day," Warren shared, "but I was thinking maybe we could make our way out to see the aerie for ourselves after that? Provided things aren't too crazy out here, that is. If weather like this keeps up, though, I can't see many people seeking our audience any time soon."

Even Glacians didn't like going out in Glacian storms. They were adapted to live in it, they weren't insane.

[glacial_queen]

"It's not going to be covered in snow?" Karla asked, unable to pinpoint the aerie's exact location from the pictures. "You know the north gets even more snow than we do."

[wwiii]

"Two sides of it are shielded by the mountains," Warren explained, "so the valley where the cabin itself was built actually gets less snow. The snow through the rest of the mountains means people don't often bother trying to get there on foot during the winter, and there's only one Wind that passes by there, so nobody with a Jewel below the dark opal tends to wander by for months and months. And we could opt to stay in Hawaii longer, but Glacia's still moving double-time to everything else, so 'longer' would still have to be cut short."

He shrugged.

"Anyway, there are more reasons to go camp out in a secluded, well-heated, insulated cabin in the mountains where nobody will find us than just getting away from the snow."

[glacial_queen]

"I just wanted to make sure we could even get there," Karla laughed. "Instead of having to turn around halfway because it was impassible." She dimpled at him. "But do share. Why else are we going to go camp out in a secluded, well-insulated cabin if not to escape the snow?"