Hannibal's house (in which Jono is probably still on Cloud 9), Sunday evening

[sharp_as_knives]

It really had been a lovely trip, but it had brought up a few questions. Now that they were back home, Hannibal had some phone calls to make. (Jono did, too, but he was still what passed for "giddy" for him, so Hannibal had a feeling his calls would be waiting till later.)

So, he retired to the study with the list of off-island people they'd sent announcements to, prepared to call as many as he could to verify they'd actually gotten them.



[OOC: Open post! If you want Hannibal to have called you, he will!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla was putting the last few touches on Kayla's new room. It had taken a lot of convincing to explain that the new baby would need the nursery now and that Kayla was old enough to move into a big girl bedroom, like Cora and Nyles both had. It was only after reassuring her that, yes, she could take all her toys with her and, yes, Dujae would come and paint her a new pretty wall that she could help design, too, that the topic was able to be broached without any tears at all.

Parenthood was exhausting. Why had she signed up for this again?

So having her phone ring was practically a gift from the Darkness. "Hannibal!" Karla said fondly as she answered her phone. "Kiss kiss, darling. Are your psychiatric powers so good you could sense I was cracking from Fandom?"

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled. "That sounds serious. What sort of cracking have I saved you from?"

[glacial_queen]

"The kind where we've allowed Kayla some limited choices in her new room's decoration and she somehow found those hideous ponies of Raven's from a few years back," Karla said with a shudder. "Warren and I keep trying to talk her out of them, but she's convinced they're 'booful'."

Her child might be possessed, Hannibal. Was that something you could help with?

[sharp_as_knives]

"Oh, dear. The ones she painted when we were children?" That was both adorable and horrifying. "Perhaps you could offer her something better to replace them."

[glacial_queen]

"I'm about to offer her a real pony if she just lets me have the ones she's found," Kathy grumbled. "They have little dead eyes and they're hideous."

Let's no one ever discuss Karla's own taste in things at two and a half. Jono could attest to her fashion sense at six and it was still terrible.

[sharp_as_knives]

"If that doesn't work, she's certain to grow out of it," Hannibal said. "You can only offer her an example of good taste to grow into."

[glacial_queen]

Which was much easier without the boyos in Naboo explaining to her the concept of turnips and veganism, just to be spiteful.

"Darkness knows, I try," Karla said. "Perhaps I'll ship her off to her uncles for summers to get an idea as well. From one of you, anyway."

Because, yes, she'd met Jono.

"So if not to advise me on my incipient pony-related breakdown, what can I do for you, darling?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"It is in fact about those uncles, who would be delighted to see her," Hannibal said. "We sent out announcements several weeks ago, but as it turns out, nobody seems to have gotten them. Did you receive one?"

They hadn't heard the squealing, so Jono seemed to think not.

[glacial_queen]

"Wait, Jono didn't tell you?" Karla asked. "He asked Dinah about it, who confirmed she and Priestly had never gotten them. Then Dinah asked me and I hadn't heard anything from anybody! And then I was going to call after I got home, but..." She trailed off. Why hadn't she called?

"Right! The bloody Little Terreille trade negotiations fell into my lap and I completely forgot! Hell's Fire and Mother Night, Hannibal, I'm sorry! My mind is like a sieve these days unless I write everything down!" Beat. "...The important thing to take away from this though was that Jono was told weeks ago that the announcements never arrived."

That thump that could be felt was the bus driving merrily over Jono as Karla waved out the window.

[sharp_as_knives]

"He said he had told Dinah; I wasn't aware she'd mentioned anything to you," Hannibal said. "But you have heard, then; I worried you hadn't."

[glacial_queen]

"I hadn't heard anything officially by either parties involved," Karla sniffed. "Which means it barely doesn't count. I think I should be informed properly."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled. "Karla, my dear," he said, "you probably haven't heard, but Jono and I are engaged to be married."

[glacial_queen]

Jono had warned Hannibal to take the phone away from his ear after telling her that, right? If he hadn't, it was his fault that Hannibal's eardrum was now bleeding down his head, not Karla's. Because her reaction was entirely as expected.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!"

[furnaceface]

Jono was in the other room, throwing paper airplanes to entertain the cats, when his phone buzzed with Karla's photo of Kayla.

It was another several minutes still before he bothered to reach for it.

And that was about the point where his voice could be heard all through the house and probably halfway down the street.

//Aaaaaah! Wings! Tiny baby wings! And cheeks! Her cheeks!//

Jono's one true weakness. Adorable children being adorable.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal sent a burst of mental laughter to Jono when he heard that. Once he was done with his call, he came out to say something, and paused when he saw the floor littered with paper airplanes, one of which Joni was battling.

"I hope you aren't planning on folding your own wings. I have a feeling that would end poorly."

[furnaceface]

Jono was still wide-eyed when Hannibal came into the room, phone in hand.

//I-- no. No? No, definitely not. That would be-- oh. I'll pick these up, I was just playing with Joni when I got, ah, distracted.//

He was still riding that high from earlier, which was apparently not helping him fire on all cylinders now.

[sharp_as_knives]

It was, however, making him both frustrating and adorable.

"So I see. And heard. Kayla is growing up rather nicely, isn't she?"

[furnaceface]

//Wings,// Jono stressed, not even remotely intelligently. //I mean, I know that's not really a surprise. We've known Kayla had wings for years before she was even born, but... she has them now. She's growing up, little mutant-Queen, and she has wings.//

He was waving his phone around again, for emphasis.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smirked. "So if I tell you that Karla has offered - or threatened - to leave her with us for a week or two in the summer, you wouldn't be averse to it?"

[furnaceface]

There was a long pause there, and somehow, Jono's eyes went a little wider still.

//... We get to borrow the baby?//

The wide eyes this time around were because he was perfectly willing to start begging, for the record.

[sharp_as_knives]

"No," Hannibal corrected. "The baby by then will be Nommy. Or whomever else it is. But we'll get to borrow Kayla."

He grimaced. Dear lord, the childproofing they would have to do. "We should probably put in a lock on the music room." Just for starters.

[furnaceface]

//Kayla will always be the baby,// Jono countered. //Just because there is a second baby in the picture doesn't mean that's changed. Kayla will be a baby at least until she's thirty-five.//

So there.

//... But a lock on the music room wouldn't go amiss.//

Another pause.

//At least until she learns to walk through walls and such.//

Hopefully that was a life skill to be picked up later, rather than sooner.

[sharp_as_knives]

"By the time she has the strength and control for that, she should be able to keep from accidentally destroying our instruments," Hannibal said, perhaps optimistically.

He paused.

"Bob owes me for our vacation. I'll see if he can enchant the walls to prevent it." Just in case.

[furnaceface]

//... And now I'm curious to see how his magic holds up to Blood Craft,// Jono mused. Before looking down at his phone again.

And going right back to making stupid faces at the baby photo.

//If it makes the house safer for her, though, it's absolutely worth a shot. Look at her, Hannibal!//

Jono, he'd seen.

[sharp_as_knives]

"She sent me the picture as well." Hannibal shook his head and sat by Jono, laying his arm along the sofa behind him.

"You plan on indulging her shamelessly, don't you?"