video

[backwordscompatible]

[Zatanna appears with a smile on her face and a...rabbit on her head.   No, not the same one that seems to have been going around from person to person.  This one was actually stuffed.  Cute in its own right, but very much nonliving.  Still, she didn't want to feel left out in the festivities.  Plus, she had her own reasons for donning it.  One that, believe it or not, involved neither tophats not magic tricks.]

Funny story.

I checked the calendar, and it looks like national all-you-can-eat day is coming up   [Translation: Thanksgiving.]  It's a great opportunity for me to flex my amazing cooking skills...but I'm almost starting to run out of ideas.  Want to keep things fresh each year, you know?

Anybody here got any favorite recipes that might offer a fun challenge?  I'm open.  I'll even cook meat.

[She won't eat it, of course, but she'll cook it.]

Comments

[deadclumsy]

[Tonks seriously thinks she's missing something here.]

I'm not sure it did. It's a kedan holiday?

[backwordscompatible]

Technically...no.

Although they've probably heard about it once or twice from us the last couple of years. It's a Holiday from the world I came from. Well...from part of the world.

[deadclumsy]

[After a bit of silence, Tonks narrows her eyes, more in curiosity than accusation.]

Thanksgiving? Are you talking about Thanksgiving?

[backwordscompatible]

Oh, cool, you have heard of it!

[...even though she probably would have "heard" of it sooner if Zatanna had used the actual name. No matter now. And Zatanna didn't seem all that phased, either. She knew what she called it before, and she was perfectly willing to stick by that name.]

[deadclumsy]

Well, yeah - but it's -

Isn't that at the same time as Christmas?

[backwordscompatible]

Not...the last time I checked?

[Granted, it had been a few years, but she was fairly certain she would have remembered when two of the biggest holidays of her year were.]

Dad and I always celebrated Thanksgiving in November. Christmas is at the end of December. At least, where I'm from.

Why? Is it different in your world?

[deadclumsy]

Not in my world, I guess. Only we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in England, it being an American holiday and all.

I could've sworn someone told me it was what you do for Christmas instead of Christmas. Funny, that.

[backwordscompatible]

[That would explain it.]

Yeah, I grew up in America. Lived in New York before I was brought here.

I don't suppose you remember who told you that? Was it someone here?

[deadclumsy]

Ah - no. My mum, probably, or a friend at school. It's just one of those things you hear, or mishear. You know, something not too important that you might've heard mentioned in passing, but it sticks in the back of your mind.

I hear New York's nice.

[She knows about as much about New York as she does about Thanksgiving. It just isn't something she's ever talked much about.]

[backwordscompatible]

It was.

Not quite as exciting as Gotham...but, then, I don't think anywhere was quite as exciting as Gotham.

[She didn't even care that Tonks most likely didn't know where Gotham was. The point was still valid.]

[deadclumsy]

Is Gotham - that's the one in Massachusetts, near Salem, isn't it?

[ Salem, she knows. Boston? Not so much.]

I've got a cousin in Salem, I think. Maybe.

[backwordscompatible]

Mmm...no, I think it was closer to Jersey, maybe?

[Though her ears certainly perked up at the mention of Salem. And not in a good way.]

Ugh. Don't remind me of that.

I'll never forget the first time I heard those stories. I had nightmares for weeks. Every time my dad lit a fire in the fireplace, I would cry.

[deadclumsy]

[Tonks cocks her head slightly at this, intensely curious now about what Zatanna might have been told.]

What's that about fire, then?

[backwordscompatible]

...you never heard about the Witch Trials?

[deadclumsy]

[Yes, it was what she'd suspected.]

Sure. They never burned anyone at Salem, though. Hanged them, pressed them to death with rocks, some died in the prisons.

All the burnings happened in Europe.

[A beat.]

Sorry. I'm not helping, am I? Listen, if it makes you feel any better, they only managed to kill one actual witch in Salem, and most of the burnings - well. Harmless to witches and wizards. Bloody fools only hurt innocent Muggles.

[She frowns, her thoughts turning inward for a moment, because really...]

It's terrible either way, if you ask me.

[backwordscompatible]

[Didn't matter to her; she had been a little girl at the time, and with all the stories entering her highly active imagination...well, if some of the details got crossed along the way, the point was that she'd been terrified at the time.]

Umm...I'm sure I got most of that, but I should also point out that I am, in fact, flammable.

[deadclumsy]

[Slightly relieved, she takes the opening for levity.]

I hear that's a common affliction, flammability. Best not to play with matches.

[backwordscompatible]

Yeah, trust me, that's probably the one warning my dad didn't have to give me as a kid.

[deadclumsy]

Why so worried about the fate of a few humble folks from three hundred years ago, anyhow?

[backwordscompatible]

Because some habits die hard.

And some baseline humans aren't the biggest fans of us metas. The last thing I need is for them to be getting any ideas about history repeating itself.

[deadclumsy]

"Metas"? Is that what you're calling yourselves in New York?

Last I heard, it was - [She ponders for a moment.] You know, I never actually heard what witches call themselves in New York. Just what you were calling Muggles before they were Muggles.

[backwordscompatible]

Well, it's not just magic user-specific. Metas is something we call anybody who has special powers of any kind. Me, I'll go by most anything. Witch. Magic User. Sorceress. The Great Zatanna...

[Okay, that last one was more of a potential stage name.]

...though I don't recall ever using the term Muggle before. Are you sure that's not a British thing?

[deadclumsy]

Could be that. People used to say 'no-maj' in New York, I think. Any roads, it's people without magic. I guess you're calling them 'baselines' now.

'The Great Zatanna'? Really?

[backwordscompatible]

[She didn't bat a single eyelash.]

Unless you've got a better idea for a name?

[deadclumsy]

Well, 'Great' is a lot to live up to, I'd say.