WHY BEING A DANNON IS INCONVENIANT

"Vania, what does 'blin gorlilly larmaty' mean?" Kayssandra looked a bit nervous. Her brother frowned.

"How am I supposed to know?" He went back to his book, ignoring her.

"It's supposed to be russian. Katia threatened me with it." He sighed.

"Repeat it." She did so. He considered it a while, factoring in her terrible accent. "Oh. Blin goreliy lahmaty. It's a swear phrase. Literally, it means burnt and shredded pancake. What context did she use it in?"

"She said that that was what I was going to become if I even thought of teaching the kid anymore russian songs." He looked quite amused.

"She knows your repertoire." She glowered at him.

"Not funny. Continue like that and I'll tell her that you helped with pronunciation."

"Ah, but I helped you with pronunciation. Not him. How was I supposed to know that you were parroting it back to him?"

"Like hell. You knew exactly what I was doing. You even pointed out the variation." He grinned.

"Who'll she believe, if she's hopping mad? I can be very convincing, you know, and Gellan's as much on my side as he is for anyone who's not Katia." She sighed, deciding that it was hopeless to argue further.

"D'you really think she'll kill me?"

"Are there stars in the sky?" She rolled her eyes.

"Maybe I could bribe Brian to teach him for me." Vania put the book down, giving her a patronizing look.

"Princess, seriously. Think. Brian, Gellan, in the same room… Does that conjure up images of peace and harmony to you?"

"Damn." She continued mulling this over. "No luck." He decided to propose something. He needed some entertainment and this looked promising.

"Bribe Brian to dare Morgan," he suggested. "She speaks better russian than you do and Katia will never be able to figure out who's behind it all. She'll go after Morgan, who'll say that it's Brian's fault, who'll say that you bribed him and you'll say that I paid you and I'll be repaying a debt to Morgan. It's a vicious circle. Any single one of us could be lying, or it could be all of us."

"Brilliant!"

"Be glad that you aren't a Dannon," Katia grumbled to Ginny, sliding into a chair next to her friend in the mess hall. "My family is evil."

"Well it doesn't take Shannon to figure that one out. What's up now?"

"They've been teaching Gellan dirty russian songs without telling him the meaning. And they're all saying it was the other's idea. I suspect Kayssandra, but I have no proof."

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Katia considered this.

"You have a point. Um, if anyone asks, I'm not killing my sister. I'm elsewhere. Yeah, that's it…" Ginny watched the berserker leave, shaking her head.

"That's one screwed up family."