22 Phoenix Place, Monday evening

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had settled on an impromptu dinner party mostly out of curiosity as to what had happened to everybody else this weekend. He hadn't had much time to prepare, of course, but his "last minute meals" were anyone else's gourmet, so he wasn't too worried.

He set the food out around the room more or less buffet style, opened the bar, and set out good bottles of wine and home-brewed beer. It was a fairly educated guess that some of his guests would need it.

[OOC: If Hannibal knows you, you're invited for dinner. NM, no OCD or I'll never get this up for looking at food. Mod gourmet things and mingle!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla had yelled at her a million times about storing evil in her Netherverse...

"Those things that you have done...how many of them have happened because you were you?" Karla asked. "As opposed to Fandom making you someone else? Or you being manipulated by someone else? Look at all the good you have done. The good you do when you're you. Even with your darker side, I know who you are and you're someone I trust implicitly."

She raised an eyebrow. "And Jaenelle does, too. And if you think you can pull the wool over Witch's eyes, I think you're drastically overstating your own powers of deception."

[trigons_child]

"And I never wish to betray that trust, or Jaenelle's," Raven said softly. "I just cannot help but worry and fear that dark part of me. I have these...these urges to feed on emotions. Pain and despair are in my blood. What if one day I am not strong enough to resist?"

She did her best to keep her fear out of her voice, but she squeezed Karla's hand harder. "I have done things in my dreams that would make you hate me. They are just dreams, I know, but...what if they are not?"

[glacial_queen]

"They are just dreams," Karla said firmly. "Because of your anxiety and worry. Darling, I've seen those futures where you go dark. I know what you're afraid of. And I'm telling you now that it's worth the risk because I love you far too much to ever push you away for what might happen. I'm here to help make sure it doesn't."

[trigons_child]

"I am trying very hard to believe that," Raven said. "I truly am. I do not want that fate, and I will always fight it as hard as I can, I swear it. But I have just been unable to shake this feeling of dread and inevitability. It lingers in me like a sickness I cannot heal."

[glacial_queen]

"If you want, I can weave a tangled web for you, like I did a million years ago? We can see if there's anything to watch out for. Do you think that would make you feel better?"

[trigons_child]

"I do not know," Raven said hesitantly. "That is how you first drew my father's attention, and while he cannot harm you now, what if it somehow drew my brothers? And...what you might see could make you hate me."

Then again, Hannibal had gotten a glimpse inside her head, and he certainly hadn't run away from her.

[glacial_queen]

"Nothing can make me hate you," Karla said firmly. "If the whole shebang with Rook didn't do it, nothing will." She clasped Raven's hand and squeezed, willing Raven to feel her care and concern and rock-solid friendship through it. "If something bad is coming, we'll prevent it. If your brothers show up, we'll take them out. You've got an Ebon-Jeweled Queen on your side, sweetheart, and the rest of us are nothing to sniff at, either."

[trigons_child]

What she picked up from Karla was warm and comforting, and she tried to draw strength from it. "I know," she said. "And I do not mean to discount your power. There is just so much conflict in me. Who I wish to be and the hungers that burn inside me. The pull of Pride and the shame I feel. I think that is the cause of my distress, and I do not know how to resolve it."

[glacial_queen]

"You keep working with Hannibal to find out," Karla said, wrapping her arms around Raven. "And until you do, I'll be here supporting you however I best can."

[trigons_child]

Raven closed her eyes, drinking in Karla's emotions, though part of her was still tense lest she begin pulling too hard on what was offered. She nodded against Karla's shoulder. "That means so much to me," she said. "I do not know what I would do without you."

[glacial_queen]

"You are never, ever, ever going to find out," Karla promised.