reality_crossroads | A Trick Or A Treat

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A Trick Or A Treat

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."

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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."

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

"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.

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

"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."

Rescuin' children like me.

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

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.

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

. . . be ya doin’ alright, then?

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.

*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.

"Clock's countin' down to that fast," she says with a chuckle that has no real humor behind it.

She looks away for a moment. Her mom's been trying to get her to talk about the Titans. Everyone's suspicious, and she's seen them giving each other looks when she mentions her days with the team. They notice the gaps and the things not said, but the doors are there for reasons. She doesn't want to know what's behind them. Why should anyone else know?

"I was kind of homesick when I got up, so I went through a portal and found another Gotham. And it was Halloween, so I... I tried to be a normal person, because that's pretend dress up for me. I talked to Dr. Thompkins, 'cause her clinic was near the portal, and she was worried about kids getting hurt trick or treating... drunk drivers and stuff. There's nothing funny about that. And I had my old communicator, but... they never answer. Not even in a different universe..."

Hey, who's the mime?

"People forget, and they forget being a hero isn't always big saving the world stuff. But I had a backup plan, right? I was the only Titan around for the new world so far, so... that should mean it's ok for me to start things up again."

Some psycho who used to hang with the Titans. Duela Dent. The Harlequin. She thinks she's the Joker's daughter. Or is it Two-Face?

"So I called Enigma, and told her to get the others and we could get the tinies in on it too cause it wouldn't be over their heads. They couldn't get Jon out of his room though, which is sad. Halloween's always been especially his, but he's just not ready yet."

I live for the laughter, I live for the crowd. Without them I am nothing. What am I?

"And we split up a bit but it was fun, and we got candy too," she waves a hand at the bag. "But it... it kind of felt..." Wrong. Off. Like she cheated. How could she start a new Titans team when they didn't want her. When all she could do was get some of her younger relatives to show up because there might be free candy.

Look, Creepella, you take the comedy show on the road - or I'm gonna get tough.

"And we got home and that's when they told me Mom was going to get him... Jason... out next. And I was happy at first, cause I miss him bunches and it meant they weren't upset any more, and Mom thought it was funny and I was just taking after her in falling for the most screwed up guy I could find, and I told her I turned Roy Harper down... And... and then a bit later..." Too many things brushing against too many memories, and they just started to sneak their way open on her and refuse to shut.

"And then I came here, because... I dunno." Because she'd just ran and then she'd been by the Sign and why the hell not...

Duela suddenly bolting from home in a state of mental breakdown hadn't gone unnoticed, as there's a blond woman listening from behind a tree. She hadn't wanted to interrupt when Duela was actually talking about this, but... "Oh, baby girl..." She'll just make her way over to hug Duela. Even if that means hugging Mordred too.

*Mordred is as worried as he can get about anyone other than himself, so he's doing his best to hold the worst doors shut. Which doors are the worst is something of a guessing game, though, and for all his strength he has only so much he can bring to bear per door. It's a huge relief when Jeannie arrives and he doesn't have to hold it all together by himself.*

Her mind be fracturing, doors be openin' ta Red an' painful thoughts. Help her, for all our sakes!

If he gets a chance he might well notice there is some sort of pattern to the doors, and thankfully the very worst, the deepest-buried, haven't tried to open yet. It's almost as if these would have to collapse first, as if there's some order to the madness, or an order of events... The worrying part is that if these are that bad, what's behind those definitely isn't nice.

Noticing her mom's here seems to help calm Duela, which in turn calms the memories behind the doors and helps them be a little easier to shut for now. Family's an easier thought than friends. After all, so far they've all come back. And she knows none of them meant to leave or forget her.

"It's gonna be ok," Jeannie says. And when Duela tries to hide her face she frowns slightly. "Y'know, if I ever find out who told you clowns ain't allowed to cry, I'm gonna have words with them... with my mallet."

That gets a brief snicker from Duela that turns into a fit of hiccups.

I've seen sad clowns afore, sai, though not firsthand. Cryin' be all that keeps ya sane sometimes in any case.

*Mordred carefully lets go of the least dangerous doors, once things seem safe enough that he can stop and see the pattern. He's not used to keeping minds together, but he'll do his best until it isn't needed.*

"I don't want to be a sad clown, or a scary one," Duela says. Something glints off the door furthest in the back at how she sees a connection between the two, even without seeing the steps to it.

"Being sad doesn't mean all the time, sweetie. Everyone gets sad sometimes... even your dad." Jeannie's been in a unique position to see that more than anyone else over the years, no matter which name she was going by at the time. "And you know I'm not gonna push you on this, but you remember what I said about those doors... you keep botting up all the bad stuff, and it's gonna keep trying to explode out. Sooner or later, you're just going to have to face what's back there and put it in it's proper place in your head. And you know, I'm gonna be right here to help."

Duela's hestitant on that. Her dad had blocked memories out for decades. Ok, granted, even he said that was a bad idea now and a big bit of what made the Joker, well, the Joker instead of how he was now. But things are topsy-turvy for her, and especially... "Not now. I just... What do you call a riddle without an answer?"

"A riddle by itself," Jeannie answers, almost reflexively, before putting it together. There was already a lot of suspicion that quite a few of those doors had to do with Duela's time with the Teen Titans... or rather with the time after she wasn't with them any more, because the writers and the Crisis and all the retcon stuff made them literally forget she existed unless she was right in front of them. "You don't want to think about it until your friends are here," she says. Because locked up with all the horrible stuff was some kind of question only the Titans could answer. Jeannie has a bad feeling about what at least some of that question might be, and fully intends to ask it herself before she ever lets any of them near her daughter again. "And that's what upset you, isn't it? Because Jason Todd's got an answer for at least one of those doors." It wasn't too hard to guess. After all, almost all of the times the Joker had tried to kill her had to do with her accidentally getting too close to what was behind some of the doors in his head at the time. THough sometimes she wonders what would have happened if those had come down - if he'd recognized her, would she have been able to remember too? The end of the world might well have come a bit sooner!

A riddle without an answer be a mystery, o' course.

I have plenty o' random nonsense in my head that I ignore, say true. Though that's mostly not my nonsense or memories. Probably not so good ta lock them up if they be yours.

Iffen ya want someone to protect thee, I'm more than willin' ta stand by thy side when the day comes.

And that sends a sharp twitch of fear through Duela's mind, and Mordred might get the hint of the reason for those locked doors... she doesn't want the Titans, or Jason, to be hurt. She just wants her friends to still be her friends. Titans Together, right? But things behind those doors throws all of that into question, and excuses like 'Reality made them forget' and 'the writers did it' only go so far. They keep her mostly stable (though certainly never 'sane', she considers that a nasty four letter word), but they're not real answers. And opening the doors without finding out why the things behind them had to be that way lead to... well, she can't really remember with the doors shut, but it involved Timmy-bird-Robin and a gun. She shakes her head. "They're my friends. I don't want them hurt." I don't want to hurt them.

Jeannie caught that twitch, and fits it into place with the rest. They pushed you away one too many times, didn't they... and found out in a bad way that they shoulda believed you about who your dad was. "You know I'm gonna have a long talk with them first, right? Remember that nice quiet place with all the fog? None of 'em, Jason Todd included, are gettin' out of there until I'm happy with the answers they've got, no matter how long that takes." And since time was a lot more mutable there, it would still only be a 'day' on the outside if she wanted it to be. Something she's pretty sure Duela would remember from how long it had taken to get Jack stable enough to not be a danger to others. "So don't worry about it, baby. It's going to be ok." She was going to make sure of that, one way or another.

*He nods.* No bitin' thy friends, I promise. No matter how much I say want to, seein' thy pain as I be.

*He looks to Duela's mother and nods slightly.* (Tell me what ta do here, sai? I'm not so good at keepin' folken sane, child o' the Prim that I be, but I'm fond o' thy daughter an' I want ta help. If I could crawl under yon doors or chain them shut or anythin', what would help best? Or would it be better ta leave them be?)

(Sooner or later she's gotta face what's back there, hopefully on her own terms and in her own time... she won't be able to do that if someone else locks it down, tempting as that thought is.) Jeannie's reminded of something else as well. before their world had fallen apart and had the pieces stolen and remade... the old writers were never going to let her actually help Jack. The Joker was one of their headliners. So she'd gone crazy to match, because the only thing worse than that was letting him go through it alone. (Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone, sometimes the only thing, is just to be there. Even if you can't really understand what they're going through or just how they feel, just be there for them. Even if they just need to cry for an hour at 3 in the morning. Let them know they matter, and they're not alone.)

Duela, meanwhile, is thinking of that quiet foggy place her mom mentioned. She'd had plenty of time to look all around it while mom was trying to get dad a little less on the Joker side of the chaotic good to chaotic evil scale. It wasn't a bad place. Speaking of places, the erratic time near the sign means she's in two places at once... and feeling safer here is helping her be a little 'saner' over there. And she thinks of Robin... the first one, not her Jaybird. They'd had a long-running gag of her showing up in various costumes and him unmasking her. Like at the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon. She'd even stolen his mask once way back at the start, and figured out who he was. It was part of how she'd gotten him to let her join the Titans. He was like an unofficial big brother, like Donna was an unofficial big sister. And then there'd been Donna's wedding... Her thoughts brush the edge of one of the doors.

*Mordred nods helplessly. He’s still better at telepathy than ordinary reassurance, after all. But he’ll try.*

I be here, my friend. I don’t want to leave. If they aren’t kind ta thee, just ask and I’ll make them be kind. And don’t forget that you’re loved, for you be much loved and much lovely.

Jeannie gives Mordred a bit of a smile to reassure him. She's had her worries about things ever since Duela let something slip once about electroshock. Arkham's 'off label' uses aside, more legitimate places in modern times only used ECT for severe clinical depression that didn't respond to other treatment... If the Titans did do something to put her daughter in that kind of state, Mordred's not likely to get a chance at them. They'll never get past a short and very angry 'Harley Quinn' with realty-bending powers, a very large mallet, and pretty much carte blanche to leave anyone dead that she thinks would be too disruptive in the new timeline.

Duela manages a chuckle through sniffles. "Yeah, I guess the writers we had couldn't make you forget too... we didn't have the same ones, and they don't matter any more anyway." She'd shown up at Donna's wedding in a fatsuit and with about a quarter-inch of rubber latex on her face. And Dick Grayson had forgotten the gag. Hadn't even been able to see past the lies of 'reality' to put together that since they'd been Titans at the same time back when Teen was still part of the team name, she couldn't have been more than twice his age.

My Harlequin days were fifty pounds ago, to say the least. Ahh, those were good times with the Titans, weren't they, hon? Silently begging him to notice, to remember, but watching as he just looked at her with a glaze of numb idiocy as if he'd been drugged.

Yeah, they were fun. By the way, speaking of Harlequin - I realized something a while back... You're too old to be Two-Face's daughter.

It took you this long to figure that out? Tsk, tsk, the Batman would not be happy. She'd pinched his cheeks, like he was a little kid. She'd wanted to slap him.

So what's the truth?

Maybe, Dickie... just maybe I'll tell you... One of these days, that is. Ta ta. Had to leave, had to get away...

But, Duela...

That's just the shape of the surface of a door, the memory that makes up both the lock and the key... Duela hesitates, but she doesn't open it. Grayson isn't likely to be out for a while. But Jason will...

*He may not get to eat any betrayers alive, but their bodies will never be found. Mordred's had few enough moments of acceptance, and half of them came from this broken girl. Anyone who breaks her further is not to be tolerated.*

Nothing's going to harm you while I'm around, sai, and anything as tries will have me ta deal with. Mordred protects you an' yours, an' that be a powerful protection indeed.

Would ya have me stay a while yet? I can weave for thee, or speak with thee, or simply stay at thy side.

Duela sniffles and rubs at her face, unintentionally proving that her family buys good-quality water-resistant makeup but it is makeup that makes her that pale. "I... I'll be ok. But... I'd like it if you stayed, at least a little longer."

Numb shock and running, so much running, the Bat... no, Owl, need to keep it straight now, need to remember where/when she is at the moment... hot on their trail. Can hear him catching up, no matter how sneaky he is... footfalls and swish of cape fabric. Next to her as well. Move your ass, bird-boy... dead end... only one option. "Close your eyes." She'd never done this with anyone watching, and now wasn't the time to experiment. Hah, there's a joke... she'd never taken anyone with her, either.

"What?"

"Do it. Trust me."

And he had. She heard the Owl drop down to ground level, thinking he'd cornered his prey... and then the footfalls and sounds of his costume vanished before he rounded the corner, as she grabbed Talon's arm and rounded another sort of corner and reality bent and changed. She looked up to see the Bat-Signal in the patch of Gotham's cloudy sky that could be seen from the dead-end alley and knew they were safe for now. "Ok, you can look."

Talon was practically squirming wanting to before she'd given the all-clear. Of course he'd noticed the missing sounds of pursuit too. And then he looked up. "What the hell is that?"

Edited 2017-12-12 03:57 (UTC)

*He nods, then carefully embraces her.* Try not ta think about ka-shume just yet, sai. We've enough khef for today; when tomorrow comes we will hunt for tomorrow. So said Kipling, who was surely kas-ka-Gan. *And then he sighs, knowing he'll probably have to translate at least two quite difficult terms.

*The rest he makes no mention of, in case it isn't something she can stand.*

Edited 2017-12-12 04:55 (UTC)

Duela almost pieces it together from context, but still looks puzzled enough, that, yes, he probably will have to explain two of those terms. And it'd be hard to miss the brief flare of anger at the third. She remembers that word for writers, and it's the writers of the multiverse they'd come from before all this that she tries to really blame for things. After all, with someone yanking their strings, how much of it could really be anyone else's fault. That oddly blank look on Dick's face at Donna's wedding when he hadn't remembered their old gag, that practically screamed of some kind of mind control looking back at things.

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(Not wrong journal, just used Jeannie's)

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