A Trick Or A Treat

[laughing_girl]

Duela is by the sign with a big basket of mixed candies.

"So, time isn't always the same from one of the portals or doors to the next, which can be fun... I went trick-or-treating last night and it's February at home, and if I found the right portals maybe I could even go trick-or-treating every single day if I wanted to. But, the important thing there is it means I have candy now. And I will share it if you can help me solve something."

"I mean, I know who in my family I should ask when it comes to questions, but given the particular one that would just be double awkward. Because it's... Ok, I have a boyfriend. Or maybe had a boyfriend, because I still don't know what happened there near the end and he didn't come back after I shoved him off the roof. And then there was all the timesoup stuff so he sort of didn't exist for a while. But tommorow... well, I'd kind of not like for any of my parents to hit him with a crowbar and then blow him up... again. Unless he did set us up, and then I call dibs."

"It hurts thinking maybe he lied to me. But it feels weird thinking maybe he didn't and then he didn't come back. And, ok, he's probably not really any more sane than I am, but he's not crazy in the same way, and I think I could use some advice on how to make it all not awkward? Because... because I'm pretty sure I still love him."

Comments

Only just saw this, but what the hell

[mordredeschain]

I'm not very good at such advice as that, sai, but I'd think that a hug or summat couldn't hurt.

Re: Only just saw this, but what the hell

[laughing_girl]

"Yeah, probably not," Duela agrees, mind full of fragments of memories, not all in the right order.

Hey there, little red robin hood.

You brought Talon here?

Girl, just how out of your mind are you?

Blame it on the genes. You know what they say... like Joker, like daughter.

You're not my daughter.

[mordredeschain]

. . . you sure are lookin' good? *He shakes his head briskly. Clearing the cobwebs out, you might say.* No, that doesn't seem right.

[laughing_girl]

That does get a laugh out of her. "I didn't get to that line. Partly because 'wrong' Jaybird and it was kind of awkward enough already. That's not gonna get better when he's got all his memories in the same basket, either, and not just because of what daddy did with a crowbar and some explosives."

[mordredeschain]

So did I help enough ta get candy yet, sai? I be awful peckish, an' you'd not like me gettin' my own supper.

[laughing_girl]

"Aw, sure, go ahead. Though candy really isn't a good meal on its own." She'll offer the bag anyway, though she's thinking more of cheese puffs and chili dogs than candy as she starts humming to herself.

[mordredeschain]

Thankee-sai! *He grabs a handful and starts eating.* I like this nexus place, say true. I even got a job o' sorts.

[laughing_girl]

"Yeah, it's a real trip. I like the portals when I get bored, or homesick. Sometimes I can find other Gothams still, so that means there are versions other than ours that didn't go in the timesoup even though ours and a lot of ones did. Which is kind of weird, but cool. What kind of job? I've been trying to get a Titans group back together, though it was kind of mostly 'drafting my cousins and little brother into helping watch trick-or-treaters' so far."

[mordredeschain]

Rescuin' children like me.

The metal folken be quite kind, givin' me a job I be good at.

[laughing_girl]

She briefly imagines a room full of cribs with giant spiders in them, though she's almost sure that's not what he meant. She hasn't seen any metal people that she knows of. And her thoughts are still too much on other things anyway.

"Little kids are fun. There are lots of them on the island now. Maybe... maybe when the other Titans are back, I could be the team babysitter. Donna had a little boy, and Roy had a little girl." The writers forgot about her, and ages went wonky, so everyone else had grown up. Of course, it's hard to grow up and start a family of your own when the 'meeting the parents' stage of the relationship turns into a complete clusterfuck that gets people injured and killed.

She's trying to keep a smile on, but honestly... right now it's just hard.

[mordredeschain]

The lost an’ abused an’ unwanted, I mean, sai.

. . . be ya doin’ alright, then?

[laughing_girl]

And for some reason that sets off a short fit of unhinged laughter. And fractured memories of being forced into straightjackets and padded rooms, and a taunting male voice saying Hey, I tried to call you, Krusty, but you were in the middle of shock therapy so they wouldn't patch me through. I'm not kiddin'!

"Alright? When have I ever been that?" She tries to slam the doors in her head shut again, suppress the memories she doesn't want to think about in favor of finding one where that was true. There's a moment in one timeline, sitting in the park with her mother. Though she couldn't call her that, because mom was still pretending she was 'crazy aunt Harleen' and she, Lucy, wasn't supposed to know the truth. But the other hers in other timelines did, so she did. She went along with the pretend anyway, and they sat there in the sun, putting tutus on toy cars... She tries to use that memory as a shield to block out the others.

"I don't know why he didn't come back." Was it because he really had lied to her, set them all up to be killed? Or was it just that he didn't want anything to do with the crazy girl any more. Hah, I know a pretty big club he could join there... And there's another hard shove at the doors, which don't want to stay shut today, what with having to literally face at least some of what's behind them loomimg on the horizon.

[mordredeschain]

*He puts an arm around her shoulder, then does his best to hold her mind together.* Praps he had to, sai. An' even if not, it be better not to think about such until he's in front o' ya.

Have ya spoken ta thy parents of late? It seems like that might help thy mind a bit, at least ta me.

[museicalmarty]

"Never thought of using the portals to cheese holidays," Marty comments, coming up to the sign. "Pretty cool idea, though. And did you see the candy shower? That was something else."

The actual question is pretty serious, though, and he takes a moment to think about it. "I dunno if there's any way to make it not awkward at all. . .I mean, when the last time you saw someone was when you shoved 'em off a roof, there's -- gonna be awkward." He runs his fingers through his hair. "I guess the first thing to figure out is if he did lie to you or not. Because if he didn't, and he still loves you too. . .well, it's still gonna be awkward, but at least you'll have a reason to get through the awkward?"

He shakes his head. "I think I'm gonna need a little more on what happened. Why did you shove him off the roof? What's this about a set-up?"

[laughing_girl]

Duela forces on a smile, and nods. "Thanks, and yeah I guess this place likes to celebrate holidays too... though I kinda wonder how it picks what calendar to use."

"The whole 'meet the parents' thing went really badly," she says, looking uneasy. Beginning, start at the beginning. "Y'see, Jason... he kind of worked for the Owl, which was a bad thing, but I'd been a bad influence on him... or maybe something was the other way around. And... we made sure we weren't followed, but... things didn't go like I thought they would. And we left... in kind of a hurry. And then the ol' Owl's friends attacked my family's home while the Owl started chasing us, so I grabbed Talon and I went, well, kind of sideways and over to that other timeline with the Titans."

"And he said he didn't know how we were followed, and he started taking apart some of his gear looking for bugs. And then one day he said something about how we were better off anyway, and I don't know if he was just... heh, y'know Jason... open mouth, insert foot, am I right? But I didn't take at well, 'cause I thought everyone was dead, and I shoved him off the roof. And he didn't come back. And I couldn't find him. And then I got shot, and he was there when I died but it was the other Jason. And then the world ended. So, I really don't know where things are now, but they were awkward already and they're gonna be worse when he has all his memories in one basket. And not just because of the crowbar thing."

[museicalmarty]

"I dunno," Marty admits with a shrug. "Maybe it depends on how many places are celebrating the holiday? I know time runs at different speeds for different places, so maybe enough of 'em gotta sync up. . .that's kinda a question for Doc, not me."

"Jason -- Todd?" Oh. Ooooh, that explains why she was worried about crowbars and explosions "again." Marty sucks in a breath. "Okay, yeah, there is no avoiding the awkward there. For -- lots of reasons, it sounds like. I mean, I knew how he -- bit it, but I didn't realize you guys had a lot of history in the 'mirror' verse." He rubs his head. "Really gotta find some of those comics. . ."

He paces for a moment, thinking (in a way kind of reminiscent of Doc -- seems he's picking up a habit or two). "If he's coming in through the time soup, Jeannie has to treat him like a patient, right? That means no hitting. So that's a little plus right there. And the 'better off anyway' line. . .yeah, that just sounds like him saying something stupid in the heat of the moment." He stops and looks at her. "It sounds to me like he wasn't in on anything that happened. I mean, if he was, I don't think he would been running with you from the Owl. . ." He sighs. "From what I remember of Jason as Robin, he was kinda rebellious, so I bet that would carry over to the mirror verse. . .but it's tough to be sure without, you know, asking him."

[laughing_girl]

"Yeah, no smacking with the mallet." She chuckles at that for a moment and shakes her head. "Mom said I must be taking after her. That I found the most screwed up guy I could and fell for 'em. But I told her I turned Roy Harper down."

A wistful half-smile as she adds, "We wired firecrackers to the ignition of Owlsey's car once. It was a real blast! But, yeah... Sometimes, he never seems like he knows what he's running from, or to, am I right? It's like, no matter which timeline, he's always on the wrong side of the glass, wondering if he oughtta just punch it down and see what's on the other side. And sometimes he does, and sometimes he dies, and sometimes he goes crazy... and sometimes all of the above."

"Reality hated him almost as much as it did me. It never let him find where he fit."

[museicalmarty]

"Unless they really, really deserve it," Marty jokes, then nods. "Oh yeah, PSA Harper. . .hope he's doing better these days. I never followed Green Arrow or him that much."

"Oh, bad pun," Marty mock-scolds, before nodding in agreement to the rest. "Yeah, he never got a real chance. . .I mean, back when I got yanked out of my world the first time, he was still a Dick Grayson clone, which I thought was boring, so I didn't pay much attention to him. And then I heard he was revamped after I got back and started living with Doc, so I looked him up, and. . .you know, you think givin' him his own personality would have been cool, but apparently a lot of people hated him? And, if you believe Wikipedia, one asshole who found a way to spam a phone number is the reason he died in that little crowbar incident. Reader poll, and him dying won by less than 100 votes." He shakes his head. "Frank Miller thought them killing him off was bad, so -- yeah. Screwed up."

[laughing_girl]

"Well, the one I know currently doesn't exist these days, does that count? And I had to work with the guy... we were with the Titans at the same time. I hope he'll do better too, once he's around. Maybe he'll let me babysit. I heard he has a daughter, which... it's weird how everyone else kept having birthdays and getting older and they kind of forgot about me, haha. I can be the official team babysitter if we all get back together."

"I heard about the rigged vote. I dunno how he's gonna take that. Jaybird, I mean. On one hand, they had a vote on it like it was... ok, it was cheesy entertainment and a cheap money-grab. Which is even worse than when I heard and thought that Daddy'd somehow found out despite getting timelines mixed up in my head. On the other hand, the vote was rigged. He never should've died in the first place even going by that. And..." something in her expression shifts in a way that makes her paternity a lot more believable, "whoever that guy was? He'd better hope I never find out his name or how to get to him, or he'll wish I'd brought just a crowbar and explosives."

The momentary viciousness pops like a bubble. "But, yeah, the whole thing's a mess and all I can do is hope it'll be ok, which is a lot to try to hope for when... it's never been ok before. And I always wanted it to be. But everyone thinks Romeo and Juliet is romantic and they wanna forget it's a tragedy and they end up dead in the end. Maybe, though, we're past that part now. I mean, we can both check 'attended each other's funerals, left flowers' off the bucket lists. Kind of wish I'd been dropping by with some that other time, tho... I'd have definitely brought him a shovel." And lots of careful hugs, and called for an ambulance and all that stuff. "I mean, really, how did it work for Batsy to have alarms set up to warn of vandals that didn't go off when someone has to break themselves out of a coffin? That... that was just the writers being complete and utter kick-the-wounded-puppy jerks on top of everything else!"

Yes, she did just compare Jason Todd to a wounded puppy.

[museicalmarty]

"Uh. . ." Marty shrugs. "I think he'd prefer existing. But yeah, new world, new start. Probably in his best interest to get and stay clean. Especially if he has a kid. . ." He tries not to grimace at the reminder of Duela's abandonment by her teammates when reality decided it didn't like her around. She really does need to talk to her mom about that. . .but it's not his business to force anything. "Yeah, maybe."

The moment of "oh yeah this is definitely the Joker's daughter" is spooky, but -- well, Marty doesn't think it's entirely unwarranted either. "He's probably gonna be furious, and I don't blame him. Cheesy entertainment is already bad enough, but then to find out you might have made it through if it hadn't been for one dickhead. . .your Mom might want to ask for a punching bag ready on the day she tells him that. I'd want one."

"New world, new start," Marty repeats, smiling faintly. "I mean, it's kind of up to him whether it's okay or not, but the fact your parents want things to go better this time is going to have to help. Your dad's definitely all about not rocking the boat, any -- wait, what?"

He blinks as the rest of what Duela said catches up with him. "Jason had to -- okay, yeah, seriously, the hell?! Isn't the whole thing about Batman is that he's prepared for anything? I mean, it was the 80s by the time Jason kicked it! You think he'd be used to people suddenly coming back because the writers weren't finished with them!"

[laughing_girl]

She laughs at that. "And a back-up bag for when he breaks the first one. Oh! And maybe we could see if there's somewhere around here that rents those clay pigeon launchers. And a few tons of clay pigeons and ammo."

She nods at mention of her parents. Wanting to get Jason out of the timesoup tomorrow was kind of showing they, well, maybe sort of approved, or at least weren't upset any more. Pending on whether or not he'd aided-and-abetted trying to kill them, of course.

"Yeah. He had to dig himself out. Nobody showed up, no medical care, nothing. I wish he'd known to call me, but, haha, we know par for that course, am I right? I guess they thought it was funny to have him stumble around homeless and brain-damaged and get picked up by that bitch Talia al Ghul. And while some of that was a good thing in terms of fixing some of the bad things, now I've gotta look forward to having words with an immortal ninja-bitch about statutory rape laws and my boyfriend. Or just figure the writer should have been on some of the meds they made me take a few times... 'cause whoever thought that was ok actually needs a straight up shot of anti-psychotics."

"And all because Batsy somehow managed to find an alarm that can't detect someone breaking out, but would have been set off by someone trying to dig their way in.

But there's still the other elephant in the room. "If.. if he didn't have anything to do with it... if he didn't set us up and trick me so he could lead ol' Owlsey right to our door... Then why didn't he come back?" He'd left her, like too many people had. Too many things she tries not to think about. And while he'd sort of come back, had been there when she died, had left flowers at her grave... that had been a different him. She's pretty sure he wouldn't have really known how much it mattered for him to be there.

[museicalmarty]

"Sounds like a plan," Marty agrees, chuckling. "Heck, I'm pretty sure he's not the only patient who's gonna want to shoot or punch something -- just a good idea to have some stuff on-hand."

"Yeah," he huffs, glaring at nothing in particular. "And yeah, the more I talk with you guys, the more I realize just how screwed-up some of the stuff I read in the comics was. Though, given what I've been looking up, seems like I skipped the worst of it in the 80s and 90s. . ." He shudders. "I don't know what the heck they were thinking. 'Edgy' and 'adult' and shit like that, I guess. Though you'd think they'd know better than to -- ewwww." He shudders. "Don't envy you that conversation." And makes him doubly-glad that at least he avoided getting practically Frenched by his own mother, unlike his movie counterpart. Ugh. "Gotta love plot convenience, right?"

"Come back -- after you shoved him off the roof?" Under other circumstances, Marty would have considered the why to be obvious, but -- this is Jason Todd. Dude is known for coming back from the dead, in a world where people don't always stay dead anyway. "I dunno. Maybe he was worried something else might happen to you guys? You said he was trying to figure out if any of his equipment was bugged. . .or maybe it was reality screwing you guys over again. We already know the writers liked to yank you around, and if the world you escaped to already had a Jason. . .maybe they didn't want to bother with a second one." He thinks it could have made for some interesting stories, but previous conversations have already proved the writers could be lazy. And not interested in doing the research.

[laughing_girl]

"They never should've let Miller off his leash. You'd think the guy having the same name as a brand of beer would be enough of a warning that too much of him leads to bad things. Not that some of the others were any better..."

To Duela, the idea of a trained Talon being killed falling off a rooftop is so ludicrous that the idea of it being taken as a legitimate attempt to kill him has never crossed her mind. It's like shoving a friend in the deep end of the pool during a fight when you know they're a good swimmer.

But she shakes her head and makes sure the locks are tight on a few of the worst doors in her mind. It helps her be calmer here that she's having most of the breakdown in another Nexus time loop - unlike most, she's aware of those and used to being in more than one place at the same time. Or more than one time in the same place? So she almost looks mostly sane when she says, "Maybe any of those things, maybe all of them, and maybe he... maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just someone no one wants to be around, and forgetting just gave them an excuse. And... I'm scared of what the real answer is going to be. With everyone gone, I can pretend really hard it'll just be because they forgot."

[museicalmarty]

"Yeah, well, that Liefield guy had how many books around the same time?" Marty reminds her. "And I've seen the way he draws, and. . .I dunno. It's like everybody had a collective brain fart in the 90s and decided the best thing to do was act like really violent and dark six-year-olds."

While Marty is used to the idea of people dying by falling off buildings in comics and cartoons, so it's easier for him to believe that could genuinely be Jason's end. At least for five seconds. Again, Jason Todd.

Duela suddenly getting so real, so vulnerable, throws Marty for a brief loop. He wasn't expecting her to admit that she was frightened that it was her -- that her friends didn't really care about her. What does he say to that? "I -- yeah, I get that," he finally starts, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, not from the same angle, but. . .okay, you know how my backstory includes being abducted by fairies? Well, when that happens, they usually leave behind a Fetch -- a fake version of you that goes to live your life. And. . .and I know I'm not special, that it happens all the time, that's how they keep getting away with kidnapping people, but. . .when I got back and realized nobody knew I'd been gone, that everybody just thought the other Marty -- who's into classical music instead of rock -- was me. . ." He takes a deep breath and lets it out, the old sting throbbing again. "It sucks to think that you're that replaceable. Even by your own family. I wondered for a while if any of them actually cared -- if they'd ever known me at all."

He steadies himself with another deep breath before continuing. "But you know what? The people who do care, the people who really matter -- they're still here. I've got Doc, I've got Victor, I've got Alice -- I've got all you guys in the Nexus. I know they've got my back if shit goes down. And -- you know, I don't know how Jason or the Titans are gonna react once they come out of the soup. Maybe some of them are gonna be assholes who don't give a shit. But I honestly don't think none of them cared about you. I mean -- think about it this way. You introduced yourself to the Titans -- to Robin -- as the daughter of the Joker. They still let you join."

[laughing_girl]

She doesn't ask if he needs a hug, but just reaches to offer one. "Well, they never really believed me about that. Y'see, when we first met I had a gag going of showing up in all kind of getup... I think I even dressed up as ol Pengy once, haha. But always the clown getup underneath. I'd break into places and Bird-boy'd show up, and he'd figure out it was me again an pull off whatever mask I was wearing, and then I'd set off a smoke bomb or something and get away, leaving him to find out nothing actually got stolen and nobody was hurt. It was kind of our running gag, like the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon. And then I swiped his mask... let him know I knew who he was, and I wanted him to introduce me to the Titans." Yes, she did just admit to sort-of-blackmailing her way onto the team.

"Last time I talked to Dickie-bird, he only just figured out I wasn't Uncle Harvey's. He thought that for years, just cause of the last name. I didn't have the heart to tell him how far off he was when he first thought he'd figured that out... and besides, I guessed he needed some kind of 'mutually assured destruction' reassurance that I wasn't going to tell anyone who he was. Plus, that made it kind of a riddle, so it just would have been wrong to tell someone the answer if they hadn't figured it out. And that kind of got to be a gag too. I even got that timeline's Uncle Harvey to go along with it."

"But then he... Donna got married, and I didn't get an invite so I crashed. And I wore about a quarter inch of rubber latex makeup and a fatsuit. I looked like someone's nutty old maid aunt. And... he didn't pull the mask off. He acted like he thought it was real. He forgot the gag. And even if he wasn't remembering things right, we were both Titans when 'Teen' was still part of the title. He should've at least known I couldn't be more than twice his age. Heh, basic math and logic fail's as bad as not knowing the difference between classical and rock, am I right?"