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."

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[mordredeschain]

*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.*

[laughing_girl]

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.

[mordredeschain]

Khef be water, an' in a desert water be everything. Ta share khef is ta be bonded, ta be hospitable, ta be true, As for ka-shume . . . *A sigh.* Ka-shume be the feelin' that a friendship be endin', a partin' be destined, a fellowship be breakin'.

[laughing_girl]

She still doesn't quite get it, but part of the explanation gets a laugh out of her. "Heh, wrong verb tense then, maybe. Things have been broken for a really really long time. I was just the only one that noticed." And when no one else notices, it's hard not to wonder if no one else cared.

[mordredeschain]

But you're not sure that your friend is gone from ya yet, aye? That's what makes it hurt. *He hugs her a bit more.* Don't worry, I'm here.

[laughing_girl]

Duela shakes her head, seeming almost weirdly lucid for the moment, like a swinging pendulum or as if the earlier breakdown has her too tired to be too crazy. "Still wrong way around. They haven't returned my phone calls for about a quarter-century worth of Christmases. They didn't remember me, unless I was right there... and even then it made their minds all fuzzy. Because the writers didn't want me there, didn't want us to be friends or me to be a Titan. And because they're sane, and sane people believe what Reality says is real... but I knew it was lying. So, what happens when they find out it was, too? The doors... that's all the places where Reality's lies hurt so much I had to lock it up to make it stop. Because people can't even say they're sorry if they don't remember what they did. And... I think those doors got open on me before and something pretty bad happened, but I don't want to think about that now. But what's going to happen, what's happening for everyone is like having all those doors yanked open when they arrive. It's easy to hate the truth when it hurts. And we all have parts of the past we just want to leave there. I might be something they don't want to deal with, like what's behind the doors, because having to remember something messing with your head like that... your mind and your life messed around with like that hurts."

Jeannie can't help but notice that Duela takes after her a bit as well. When they care about someone, they don't do it by half-measures. And a big part of what's tearing her little girl up isn't that the Titans had rejected her... but what might happen to them when they realized what happened. It still seems like a piece of the puzzle is missing, and she has suspicions about that 'something bad happened' that Duela mentioned. She thinks she was right... at some point the 'doors' broke down and Duela went full-blown Joker's Daughter on the Titans. And hero types aren't going to take learning they drove one of their own to that well, even if it was under some kind of authorial mind-control. What a mess. "Sweetie... I'm not going to lie... if they cared about you, it is going to hurt them to figure out they hurt you. But that doesn't mean anything really bad has to happen. We're all having to pick up a lot of broken pieces when it comes to the past, and even your father hasn't killed or hospitalized anyone in over a month..." He's really doing well, but they do take things one day at a time.

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred can't help being a bit amused by the seeming lowness of that bar, despite knowing just how high it must be for the Joker.*

It's understandable that you're so worried, but worrying will only make you even more upset. *With that he says to hell with it and gives her a bigger hug.*

[laughing_girl]

Duela hugs back. "I just.. I need to find something, and bumped into the wrong things up there looking 'cause it's hard to find what you're looking for if you don't know what it is until you find it."

But find it she had...

The sunset had painted the whole sky red. It reminded her of the Crisis, and she couldn't help finding that twisted irony funny. Except for stolen moments, she'd been practically a ghost since then... so it was only fitting that the sky be red now, too. Small feet crunched the occasional dead leaf, but she knew as long as she stayed away from the places being 'watched', no one would see her. Even if she was standing in plain sight. (She could never explain to the psychiatrists just who was watching or how she knew. They just gave her more pills if she mentioned it at all.) Eight-year old Lucy Quinzel was still careful to mostly hide behind one of the tombstones. She wasn't sure that rule applied to that guy with the red skin and weird facial hair... and it'd be embarrassing to die again while sneaking to attend her own funeral.

They'd come. She wasn't sure they would. And she knew part of the reason was because this was being watched... that the death of her teenage other-self was a setup by Reality to get rid of her, since she'd refused to leave. All the hers shared the same mind and memories, unlike everyone else she knew, but Lucy was the next oldest, and too young to even try to join the Titans.

But they'd come anyway. They were allowed to remember her for this, even if it was to say goodbye. And when the others - including current team members she'd never even really met - had wandered away except for Donna... he'd shown up too.

"Jason! I didn't expect to see you at anyone's funeral, let alone Duela's... ... I mean, you barely even knew her."

Haha! Oh, sister, if only you knew how funny that was!

"I knew her well enough to try to save her, and feel like crap when I couldn't."

Sorry 'bout that, Jaybird. Love ya bunches anyway, no matter what.

"Besides, checking out funerals is kind of a hobby for me... I even had one once, remember?"

Hahahaha! I know! I brought flowers! And I'd've brought you a shovel, too...

Donna hadn't been as amused. "Go on."

"All right... after she died, it got me thinking about what that alien said... About how Duela wasn't even supposed to be in this reality in the first place, you know? And neither am I... I mean, if not for that whole mess with Bizarro Lex Luthor, or whatever, I'd still be dead. And then there's you, Donna... No one's ever been sure about your past... not even you. Maybe you're not supposed to be here, either. I guess I just wanted to be around someone else who might know how it feels... to be living on borrowed time."

Duela smiles at Mordred. "I know how hard it is for you to be close to people, what with about half what you are making you register humans as tasty snacks... so I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you being here. I.. I think I'll be ok now. And when Jason gets out, he's going to need me. Even if it's just 'he's gonna need me to hold him down so he doesn't shoot Daddy...'" She laughs at this and shakes her head, making sure to let her mom know, "Last I heard he's still kinda sore about that whole crowbar thing."

"Oh, well, your dad's still making up for that time he shot me off in a rocket, too," Jeannie says with a fit of giggles. "So we'll just have to think of something."

[mordredeschain]

I’m doin’ my best not ta bite anyone who doesn’t deserve it, sai. No matter how good I’m thinkin’ that you’d be.

*He lets go of her carefully, trying to stop thinking about what she’s reminded him of.* Have ya summat ta eat by any chance?

[reality_warper]

Duela chuckles. "You shouldn't eat clowns, anyway... I've heard we taste funny." But since she only has the candy she brought, she looks to her mom.

"I oughtta ask if you've got requests, but I'm pretty sure I can guess what's gonna make the top of the list," Jeannie says. Still, she has a sort of understanding with the chaotic nature of this place, and could likely make something randomly appear.

[mordredeschain]

*He chuckles slightly, but nods about the guess.* I cry thy pardon, but I have got demon blood.

[reality_warper]

"Ya can't help genetics," Jeannie says with a Harley-ish grin and a chuckle. "All you can help is what you do with the hand you've been dealt... and some of us get more wild cards than others. I know in at least one of those timelines, baby girl here was born with green hair." She giggles and nudges Duela, who makes a bit of a show of looking more embarrassed than she actually is.

Duela's Aunt Evie had had to dye her hair in that timeline, what with a turned-evil Superman who might well have killed her if he'd found out the Joker had a daughter.

Jeannie seems to look off at nothing for a bit, poking at the air as if there's something there. Then she gives the nothing-something a little tug... and a slightly mangled corpse in a police uniform drops out of thin air onto a nearby couch.

[mordredeschain]

*He blinks at it a moment--and then a great spider is crouched upon the offering, fangs in its throat.* (Thankee-sai for the meal. Did ya make it out of nothin'? There's no thought ta be found in it, just food.)

[reality_warper]

"Honestly, I don't know if I make things here or just... pull them out of all the leftover bits from stories or something." Jeannie says, wriggling her fingers and looking at them before she shrugs. "It's kinda a chaos thing, so it works better the less I understand how it works."

Duela, for her part, doesn't seem phased by any of this, from the suddenly appearing corpse to the giant spider dining on it. She thinks it's great that her mom can make food appear for her friend without all those tricky moral issues.

[mordredeschain]

(Whichever's the case, I be thankful ta thee.)

*He does his best to eat quickly, for all that she's unfazed. It just seems the polite thing to do.*

[laughing_girl]

"You're welcome," Jeannie replies.

Duela's just humming to herself now, and amusing herself with random funny thoughts of ways to make sure Jason didn't shoot her father until they could have a little chat about that nasty buisness with the crowbar and explosives...

"I think we should go home now," Jeannie says. After all, she had to get to 'work'. And she knew Duela would want to be there afterwards.

[mordredeschain]

(Then may your days be long upon the earth, sai, an' thankee once more.)

[reality_warper]

"You're welcome," Jeannie says, and Duela starts to wave bye before they simply disappear as if they were never there. Well, except for whatever might remain of the uniformed corpse for evidence.

(And fade there, I think)

[mordredeschain]