flings comics across room bursts into flames

[thatbastard]

It's cute, you trying to figure out how my world works - as if there's some kind of underlying truth to it all, when you know it was cobbled together by idiots and charlatans and drugs. You want to figure out all the rules. Well, there aren't any. There aren't even any real secrets, as I've said. You want to write me down in proper neat little lines and say what I can and can't do. Hah. That's why you can barely play me. Write all you want - you'll never know.

Comments

[hexappeal]

You make an A-okay boogeyman.

[thatbastard]

Well, I've always wanted to menace children. And there she is acting like one, so it all works out.

[hexappeal]

You know, most people use this as a means to get what they want and to encourage good behavior. Not terrorize the one trying to give you a breath of fresh air.

I mean, living in our multiverse? We could use as much fresh air as we're allowed.

[thatbastard]

Got to go to school first, hasn't she? She's not even read about me saving the world by getting a tree tattooed on my arse. Vital information, that. It should be absorbed firsthand. Savored, even.

[hexappeal]

I wouldn't quite say it should be savored, but those were the days! You used to be so interesting!

[thatbastard]

Used to be a lot of things. She ought to see 'em all. Then again, you're still here.

[hexappeal]

I don't disagree. Of course, my history starts a good two decades before yours and that hasn't stopped mine from reading some of it. Can't blame her. I'm irresistible.

I have a higher tolerance for bullshit than most.

[thatbastard]

The two may be related. In fact, lookin' at your love life, I'm sure I don't speak for only myself. Among other charms, of course.

[hexappeal]

I am fully aware of my unfortunate attraction to assholes. As you may or may not know, it doesn't exactly pan out how I hope it does.

[thatbastard]

You know, there's someone you should really tell that to.

[ Help, the younger Zatanna is making him feel old and decrepit by existing at him. ]

[hexappeal]

If you're suggesting I apologize to Terrence, he knew what he was getting into!

[No, you can have fun with that. It's a boring alternate version of her that is like 15 or something!! Give her $5 and tell her not to spend it all in one place because she has no inclination to feel old, too. :I]

[thatbastard]

Wait, he's alive? Wait, he "got into" you? Thirteen?

[ Well, distracted from old&decrepit woes by this. Good enough. ]

[hexappeal]

You seem to find something hilarious about all of this. I know, I know. The guy that shouts at the sky about how magic doesn't exist, but...

He's one of my two very obvious types.

[family_roots]

Harsh words, but then again I think it's a family thing.

[thatbastard]

[ ... awkward. ]

Is it? Didn't figure the big green guy for that kind of thing. Your mum, sure. Justified, of course.

[family_roots]

My real dad? Not big on words much at all, and mom, well you know. I guess you know better than most.

So, how's my other dad?

[thatbastard]

I wouldn't say that.

[ Because she'd probably gut him, but surely that goes without saying. Which is why he's not saying it. Or much about Abby at all. ]

It's starting to get weird, I'll be honest. Somehow I didn't think I'd see much of you.

[family_roots]

I get that a lot. You wouldn't be seeing me at all except that there is this grand plan I'm supposed to help with. I've spent most of my time rebuilding the Parliament.

[thatbastard]

I probably wasn't told about this for a reason, just so you know.

[ A reason like "because he nearly ended the world not all that long ago."]

[family_roots]

I didn't really figure telling you would change all that much, you never came across as the team player type.

[A shrug and hands were jammed into her pockets.]

The way I see it I am the Queen of all mixed kids, demon, elemental, flesh, plant, Red, Green and everything in between. I think when it comes to laws of nature and fate I've bucked the odds pretty well. Long story short, I'm not worried.

[thatbastard]

Not entirely true. It's just that my "teams" tend to die messily and it's hard to recruit a new one after the word gets out.

Sounds grand. [Faintly sardonic.] Good luck, then. Look up Tim Hunter, maybe. He's probably much more your style.

[arbadacarba]

Oh, there are rules alright.

Sometimes tells me you're just the type of person to ignore them completely.

[thatbastard]

[ ... awkward. God this makes him feel so ancient. ]

Rules for your sort, yeah. That's the way the cape game goes.

[arbadacarba]

[Funny. She doesn't seem to have an issue with the drastic age difference.]

'Your sort.'

Why do I feel like I've just been insulted?

[thatbastard]

[ She'd hardly expect him to be a different age, what with not existing in that world. ... right? Oh god. Help. Does London even have a punk scene anymore. ]

Just a statement of facts, isn't it? Superheroes have rules. When they don't, tears are shed, minds are wiped, you know how it goes.

[ Brusque, but she makes him uncomfortable. So young! He could be infecting her with Poor Decision Vibes right now. ]

[arbadacarba]

[There's always a punk scene somewhere. London, New York, Happy Harbor....]

[The Brusque, she can brush off easily enough. Too many years spent either raised by a man who followed a strict regime, or allying herself with an even stricter Team. The urge to rebel at times was strong. She was 19. Thrust into the public for the first time in her life. A member of the Justice League. And a part of her missed those days when she could grab a friend and go riding through the city streets at night, looking for the worst kind of trouble.]

No, actually, I don't.

Why don't you enlighten me a little bit, Mr...?

[And she just called you "Mr."]

[thatbastard]

[ A TINY PART OF HIM DIES

"MISTER"

Outwardly, he just looks irritable and defensive, like he wants to be left alone to smoke in peace. But if he really wanted that, he shouldn't have been here. ]

It's not enlightenment if I'm bludgeoning you over the head with truths you don't want to face. Or maybe it is, I've never been that interested. Either way, you're a superhero first and a magician second. We don't live in the same worlds, you and I.

[arbadacarba]

[It's going to take more than the scent of cigarette smoke to send her away. Not now.]

Like you know all about me.

[Actually...]

Newsflash: you have no idea what truths I might be willing to face. And you're the one who brought up, so you might as well cut blowing smoke already. I'm a big girl. I promise I can take it.

[So she thinks.]

[thatbastard]

I know enough. [Said shortly, but with less edge than before.]

It's not a mystery, I've said it. Grasp it, don't grasp it, agree, disagree, the concept is straightforward: superheroes have rules and codes and lines. Magic doesn't, not in the same way.

[arbadacarba]

...and just what's that supposed to mean?

[Something about what he said before. About them being from different worlds. She thought he'd been referring to her age, but...]

[...no, that couldn't be right.]

You think it's impossible to be both.

[thatbastard]

I said you're both, didn't I? But you're more one than the other. Anybody can see that.

[ More so if you're John Constantine, but let her think it's the condescension of an adult. He's not going to talk about himself much if he can help it. ]

Magic only has one rule: you pay for it. And the cost is high.

[arbadacarba]

[She can't help glancing away for a fleeting moment at this. No use letting him see the pain in her eyes at the memory; moments like these, her poker face wasn't that good.]

Yeah, tell me something I don't know.

[She'd already paid it.]

[thatbastard]

[ He almost says something more, but no, he doesn't have the right. This isn't Gemma or some hopeless crowd of self-congratulatory wannabe magicians. Young or not, this is Zatanna. She could magic him into a hat, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind her back.

But of course, he's a mean old bastard who knows she wouldn't without sufficient reason. No need to take advantage. ]

So he's gone, then. Your dad.

[arbadacarba]

[To say she was caught off-guard would be an understatement. He wasn't just making some shot-in-the-dark wild guess, either. That tone of his. He knew.]

How did you--?

Okay, out with it. Who are you, and how did you know about my dad?

[No one knew about Zatara and the Helmet outside of the original Team and Justice League.]

[thatbastard]

I know what happened in my world. You're a bit younger than I remember.

[ Short, unsatisfying answers, but he's relieved that he can't have had anything to do with it, this time. ]

[arbadacarba]

[Suspicions confirmed, she falls eerily solemn. Her eyes narrowing, though this time, the glare is not aimed at him. Not directly.]

And you're a bit not anyone I've ever seen before in my life.

Which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage here, you realize.

[thatbastard]

We're not well acquainted. [ Anymore. Ahem. Yeah, not telling a teenager anything about his relationship with the Zatanna he knows. ] Maybe I don't exist, or already died. Can't say it's really a pressing matter.

[arbadacarba]

But you knew about my father sacrificing himself for me. Because of a stupid decision I made when I was 14.

[She assumes the worlds paralleled in their explanation, as he still associated her loss with her apparent age.]

[thatbastard]

It happened differently where I'm from.

[ Which he really is not keen to talk about, and he's certainly not saying "well that Zatanna didn't do it." He should probably say something supportive, but it's an awkward situation. ]

It's something that happens. And the bills don't stop coming. I'm sorry. That's magic. So maybe being a superhero's better.