noitatnacni | 001 | Action/Accidental Video

001 | Action/Accidental Video

[So, being rained on in the woods makes it pretty clear she's not on the Watchtower anymore. There's a few possibilities: she remembers flying back with the force of Fate rejecting her spell, so maybe she hit her head. Or maybe it's some illusion caused by the rebound. A very real illusion, as she can feel her whole body ache as she sits up. But there's no way she's not hallucinating this.]

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in outer space anymore. [She mumbles the words to herself, unaware that anyone might be listening. The journal has gone beyond notice, though it's been silently broadcasting the scene since a minute or so before Zatana woke. Thankfully she's close enough to a tree that the rain falling on her is light enough to not be too much of a concern. Instead her eyes have wandered downward, taking in her change of clothing with a frown.]

Oh you've got to be kidding me. [Zatanna tugs at the collar of the dress she wears, clearly displeased by the slip.] Yeah, this has to go. Emit ot egnahc sehtolc!

[She lifts her hands over her head as she speaks the words, and seconds later a cloud of smoke flows up the same path to cover Zatanna completely. It doesn't last long, vanishing within moments to reveal the girl now wearing an outfit better suited for a magician. For some reason though, it makes the pain in her back worse, and her jacket feels far too tight. She shifts where she sits for a moment before shrugging off the outermost layer to reveal a pair of grey wings.]

What in the--?! [Zatanna gasps, eyes wide as she takes in the sight of the appendages now attached to her. Actually attached; they move when she thinks of moving them, and she feels it when she touches them.] Great. A fake world with bad taste in clothing and accessories. Just what I needed.

[She takes another look at the jacket, slowly shaking her head.] At least I've still got my magic. Dda seloh rof sgniw! [After another cloud puff, this only only around the jacket, she slides the coat back on--gingerly, since the wings still hurt.

She makes her way to her feet then, determined to find out what's going on. Hopefully exploring will give her the answers she needs to get back. If she's lucky, maybe she'd wake up and find out there could still be a chance to thwart Fate.

The only place she ends up, however, is in Luceti proper. With the advice of a few good samaritans in mind, Zatanna changes into something a little less battling-bad-guys ready using the same method as before. Not that the rain makes exploring easy, but there's not really much avoiding it. Luckily summoning an umbrella is easy enough to do, and gives her adequate cover as she wanders pretty much everywhere public, just trying to get some idea for where she is.]

{ooc: open action or voice to any; Zatanna will be looking around randomly, so feel free to catch her anywhere.}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh yeah. I lived there most of my life, although now I'm in staying in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. [Except Zatanna catches herself.] Well, not now, but you get the idea.

[Eeeee Happy Harbor, Mount Justice, cool fictional places, eeeeee]

Yeah, I hear you. Every once in a while I catch myself calling this place home. Kind of stings, but you get used to it.

No offense? But I’m kind of hoping I won’t be around here that long. [Although yeah, clearly there’s no way of controlling it. Zatanna sighs quietly, but rather than let herself get down, she turns back to Billy.] So what is there to do around here for a bored New Yorkers with magic at their disposal?

Well, uh. Mostly I go to school.

[He is only seventeen, after all.]

Besides that, though- or rather, specifically for magic users? I do a lot of practice, figuring out my powers. There's a training facility just south of here, and it pretty much works like a Holodeck, so you can recreate any scenario you want. Or do like I do and make it into a movie theater, because this place is seriously lacking in modern entertainment.

...Of course. Because who would use being in an alternate universe as an excuse for an extended summer vacation or something?

[Hey, Zatanna's only fourteen, and school is definitely not the first thing on her mind.]

Okay, so let me make sure I've got this right. They have something straight out of a sci-fi series, but instead of cell phones they're using books.

Okay, you got me there. But if you stay here long enough you kind of learn to appreciate what reminds you of home. At least, that's how it was for me.

[He did arrive near the summer, so there were a few months of shameless skipping.]

...Aaaand yeah. Even I don't have an explanation for the journals. On the flipside- magic books, right?

[She has to think about that for a second. Maybe it’s because every reminder of home she’s had in the past two months has made her sad, but Zatanna doesn’t know if she could ever feel that way herself. Still, it makes sense too—Zatanna had put up all the same posters in her room at Mt. Justice.]

I think I get it. Still don’t know if I’m eager to hop on board the going to school train, though. We were in the middle of winter break back home.

[Zatanna takes another look at the journal, then nods.] Magic books. And they seem pretty harmless. Guess it’s the archaic cell phone my dad would never let me have.

Well, it's almost summer break here anyway. And it's not like the truancy officer's going to come around. Honestly, I didn't go when I first got here, either.

[Though it was nearly summer for him, as well. September had felt like a better time to start after he'd experienced the weird sensation of missing it.]

You weren't allowed to have a cell? That's just tragic. I've even got one here.

Really? [Sure, Zatanna’s noticed it’s warm, but summer? She looks around, shaking her head.] It was New Year’s Eve a few hours ago for me. So what day is it here?

[When he admits that he skipped out at first too, she grins.] So you’re not entirely hopeless? Good to know.

[But then she groans.] Don’t get me started. My dad was bound and determined to make me wait until I was eighteen. Four more years. Isn’t that insane?

Today's the first of May. And I'm not... usually hopeless. Whatever verdict you might get from the general public.

[His boyfriend might think otherwise, eh-heh.]

It's kind of insane, yeah. I'd go crazy without my phone back home- I need unlimited texting in my life.

Wow. Four months, just like that. [Zatanna shakes her head, still finding a little hard to believe.] Crazy.

[Teasing Billy helps take the edge off, at least.] I don’t know. Public opinion can be pretty convincing. Is there any other gossip I shouldn’t listen too?

[He’s got a cell phone with unlimited texting? Oh that’s just not fair.] Man, I am so jealous.

Mm... some of the stuff people know about our oh-so-generous captors is wrong, I think. There's a laptop in the tunnels that can summarize everything we know. Or at least what's more or less confirmed. Going from personal experience, they're not all bad. But your mileage may vary when it comes to that.

[He can only go by the fact that hey, helping them out occasionally gets him stuff, so someone's doing things right upstairs. Then again, there's their treatment on the drafts...]

Yeah, well. I really don’t think I’ll be holding my breath waiting for the decent side to show up. [Because so far Zatanna’s heard a lot of bad, although yeah, some people have tempered it. She’s definitely interested in this laptop, however.] So if someone wanted to check out the tunnels, how would they get there?

Oh, actually- it's right over here, I'll show you.

[He gestures for her to follow, leading the way around the fountain to the fences-off hole in the ground not far off. There's a ladder leading down into the dimly lit tunnel.]

It's not exactly the most welcoming place ever, and once you get down there all powers are completely shot, but otherwise it's not as bad as it looks.

[Well, she can at least agree with the first part of what Billy says; this particular hole in the ground looks like the last place Zatanna would want to go. She goes from staring down at the entrance to looking at Billy again as he continues, though.]

What do you mean, powers are completely shot?

Pretty much just how it sounds. Something about the place nullifies powers. No magic, no super strength, nothing. I can't even teleport myself down there.

Oh, well. Now I just can’t wait to go down into the dark hole in the ground. [Way to sell the attractions to the tourists, Billy.] You wouldn’t happen to know why that’s the case, would you?

[What do you expect, with what he has to work with, here.]

I wish I could tell you. I think it's got something to do with the barriers, but nobody's given us a clear answer on that one.

[No excuses, Kaplan. Work on your sales pitch.]

And no one here’s been able to figure it out without outside help? [Because sure, even if powers don’t work, there’s got to be someone where smart enough to analyze it through science or magic, or even some combination of the two. The thought that they don’t know anything is about as bad as thinking there was a place where her magic would just be—gone.]

Not as far as I know. You might just be asking the wrong person. Anyway, it's only while you're down there. Here, I'll show you-

[He swings a leg over the edge, calling his magic out in one hand and keeping the other on the ladder to gently float himself down. Once he gets maybe halfway to the bottom, the magic fizzles and vanishes, and he just barely catches himself with a foot on the next rung down. Pulling himself back up for a few moments by hand, he's finally able to call his magic back to rise to the top.]

-See? Comes right back. It's really weird.

[Zatanna moves to the very edge of the entrance, watching carefully as Billy gives her a demonstration. Somehow seeing how easy the transition is doesn't really reassure her.]

And the Malnosso are the ones who put this in place?

[Billy lands with practiced ease and goes back to looking like a normal kid instead of a man-sized blue firefly, peering down the hole with a frown.]

I... think so? Honestly, it was like this when I got here. That's pretty much the extent of what I know.

It’s still more than what I knew. [And it definitely doesn’t make her eager to go down there, although Zatanna strongly suspects she should.] So aside from the laptop and the creepy no powers rule, do you know if anything else is lurking below us?

Far as I know, nothing. Laptops aside, the tunnel's just a pathway under the mountains to the ocean. And we've got teleporters for that.

Teleporters—you mean like zeta tubes? [Then again, Billy probably doesn’t know what those are.] They just kind of zap you from one place to another, but with science instead of magic.

001 | Action/Accidental Video

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