tushanshu | ✦ 012 ✦ [VIDEO] ✦ Network Cafe ✦ (Encrypted from Jack)

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✦ 012 ✦ [VIDEO] ✦ Network Cafe ✦ (Encrypted from Jack)

[For once, Zatanna isn't broadcasting from her room. She doesn't even bother trying to hide the Guilt on her face as she appears on screen, the clear signs of a random cafe in the background. It would have been a stretch to say she hadn't really slept much since returning from the bottle, but she's certainly not taking any joy from the memories playing over and over in her mind.]

[Memories she needed to get away from, if only for a little while. And there was really only one way to do that:]

Does anybody have a place I can stay for a few days?

[By not being in her suite.]

PRIVATE - Korra

Hey.

Thanks for the chocolates. I really appreciate it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He answers somewhat later than when the post first put up, if only because Kaldur has had to do some thinking of his own. Dying was not the most pleasant of experiences. It wasn't the first time he had experienced it, but it was the first time that he had felt the pain of it as he had.

To die was not as easy and some would say.

But Zatanna asking for help is enough to pull him out of his thoughts. He doesn't know what happened to her during the battle against the dragon--he had not seen her to know if she had been all right. That she is seeking a place to get away means something went wrong.]

If you would like a place to think alone, I know of an unused suite that you could stay in. [Queen Mera stays with Arthur, so he believes she would not mind allowing someone else to use it for a few days.]

[She tried to force a smile for her former teammate and leader, not having seen him almost since the ritual. And, once again, it was more to request a favor on her behalf.]

You're not using your suite? [Her first assumption. She didn't really know where Kaldur slept or what his living conditions were precisely. She'd never even been to his place.] Why not?

[She will always be a member of his Team to him, and so Kaldur will do whatever he can for her. They do not have a deep relationship, but she is still important.]

Ah, no, it is not my own, although it is in the same area. Queen Mera has returned, but as before her suite is left unused for she stays with Arthur. Aquaman. [He's come to think of him more as the former rather than the latter.]

...she's back?

[Oh. Wow. She'd missed that. When did that happen?]

[The slip of the tongue when it came to Aquaman's name barely registered in her mind; she, too, often found herself thinking of those she had come to know far more personally than when they first met. Worlds didn't even matter anymore.]

I guess that makes sense, since they're married and all.

Kind of makes you wonder why the kedan don't bother to check that sort of thing before assigning rooms.

Yes, she returned some weeks ago. It has not been that long, considering all that has happened in that time. [It is easy to miss when people are jumping into a bottle to stop an evil shadow from taking over a dragon.]

The kedan do not know us very well. They simply assign us where they believe we fit best, I assume. But as she returned, they also returned her to the same apartment, which made it easier for them and that it enough to be thankful for.

[Man, talk about your magic tricks. Mera could've been a great illusionist if she wanted to be.]

That seems like more than just a coincidence, but whatever. If she's happy, and he's happy--[And he's finally shaved that beard of his]--then that's all that matters.

...do you think she would mind anyone staying there? I mean, married or no, it must be nice knowing she still has a place to go on her own if she really needs. In case she and Aquaman ever get into a fight or something?

If there was a disagreement between them, it would not be Mera who would be needing somewhere to go. [Anyone who has spent anytime with them can tell Mera is the one with the real control in their relationship.]

She rarely ventured into the suite when she was here before, so I do not think it would be an issue.

[She smiled at the not-so-subtle implication. Right. No surprise who wore the pants in that relationship.]

The quiet might be nice. Maybe.

[By the time Kaldur contacted her, she already had options. And the problem with having options was that she actually had to make a decision, something she wasn't fully capable of at the moment.]

Korra already offered to let me go crash with her for a bit. But if that doesn't work out...how long is the offer open?

[There is a smile, but it is somewhat...off. If only because the answer of that question is "as long as Mera and Arthur are both here." Should either leave...it is not something he wants to think about so soon after what happened.]

If you need it, it should be available. I will speak of it with her so that she is aware. [There is a pause there because he does not know what else he can do, they are not that close, acquaintances that could become friends, but not there yet.] Should you need an ear, that offer will also always be available.

[A nod, followed by a sign. Instinctively, she checked the connection. It wasn't encrypted, but then, there was only one person she wanted to avoid seeing all of this, and he didn't know how to hack.]

The bottle.

Do you remember what happened when we went inside?

[At least he was not wrong in believing what this had to do with what transpired in Kithika.]

We were sent to get rid of the darkness infecting the dragon there, but it was not all that...occurred. The darkness influenced us as well. [He does not want to push her so he waits to see what she will say.]

[Vague, but enough for her to make an educated assumption.]

So it happened to you too, then? With the statues?

The statues? [He had seen them but not touched them himself. He had kept his distance while searching with Mera and Arthur.] No. But I am not surprised to know there was an object causing the changes in others that I encountered. There were those of us who were altered so much as to be nothing like themselves.

...Was that your experience?

[Okay, so maybe her assumption was wrong. She made a mental note to ask Kaldur precisely what 'darkness' he had been referring to once she was done telling him about what had happened to her.]

That about sums it up pretty well.

The moment I touched one of those things...it was like I was there, but I wasn't. Watching and knowing exactly what I was doing, except I didn't care who I was hurting or how wrong it all was. I think I even liked it.

[The look on her face said it all.]

Even my magic...it wasn't my father's style. It was...I don't know what it was, but it wasn't my magic.

[So her change was like that of Superman. Being so drastically different from who he was. He feels for her, because to have yourself warped and altered that way will affect you more deeply than can be see physically.]

They manipulated your mind. Made you think and act in a way that is not true to yourself. It may have felt like it was you but Zatanna, if you could hurt someone and not care, it could never truly be you. We are not as close and you and Robin are, but that is still far from the you I have come to know.

[Exactly like that of Superman, in almost every way.]

I know, Kaldur. I know it's stupid to feel this way when it wasn't just me, and people would know...but...

[She took a deep breath. This was basically the core of the matter.]

...Jack was the first one to find me. He'd been affected too.

[Ah. This is likely going in a direction Kaldur had not expected, but he should have known that Jack was likely involved considering how close they are.]

I take it this was not a simple meeting.

No. It wasn't.

[How to explain this, exactly?]

Have you ever...stopped and realized just how much power we have? I mean, really stopped to think. You know Atlantean sorcery, right?

[He wonders what she means at first. Does she mean about the power of his sorcery? Or the power that they are heroes carry in general. Their skills and their abilities and the power we have with the people they protect.

He thinks of Superman and Jor-El. How it felt to die by that power.]

...Yes, I have. The power we carry is not something to be taken upon or used lightly. Some of us have more potential than others to do harm, but we make the choice to use what we have for the benefit of others instead.

[In a way, it was a mixture of both.]

I never did. Not really.

I mean, some part of me always knew. But I never realized that I could hurt people...nearly kill somebody if I just stopped caring.

[And this realization does not seem to have helped her in the least.]

You are young, and were still new to what we do before you came here. It was less necessary for you to understand. I am sorry that it had to come to you this way. [Being manipulated and turned against your own nature.]

Do you wish you did not know, now that you do?

[Too little, too late]

I wish I knew before I nearly killed my best friend. For what good that would have done me, the way we were acting at the time.

[This is a delicate situation and Kaldur does not want to say anything to further upset her. He cannot imagine truthfully what it would be like to be in her position.]

As you said yourself, even had you know, it would not have changed what happened. Superman knows his own power more than well and yet he still...was changed by those statues. [And killed many.] You cannot blame yourself for something you never would have done willingly in any other situation.

I'm pretty sure I can, since that's more or less what I've been doing every since I got back.

...Then perhaps you should ask yourself if blaming yourself for what happened is helping you or him. Will it change what occurred? Does it negate that you were manipulated?

[He understands blame and guilt very well--and is hypocrite about it--but Zatanna is not at fault.]

You were a victim in this, Zatanna. The darkness in that world used you to further its goals.

✦ 012 ✦ [VIDEO] ✦ Network Cafe ✦ (Encrypted from Jack)

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