Summary:Jean calls in Zatanna for a tattoo consultation. Rachel screws up badly. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
   |
After Scott stormed off, Jean decided it was probably for the best to give him some space. Things were already strained enough - the arrival of two strangers purportedly from the future and claiming to be their children was quite more than enough. And in the interest of maintaining security, she took them both off campus. At least that way they might be able to keep it from the students while they figure everything out.
She also sent a text to Zee. 'Hey, so, you might want to give Scott a little space. Some weird stuff's been going on and I think his brain's kind of stuck in that needs a reboot cycle.' There was a pause, and then: 'Also, do you know anything about magical oathbreaker brands, because I might have a…situation…'
Storm King Park has plenty of trails and picnic tables, which is good enough for a chat. Jean takes a glance at her phone when she and Rachel reach the trailhead, letting out a breath. "So. Rachel, you said."
Rachel Summers felt more than a little awkward not to mention exhausted after her entrance to this time and place. Even so. The fact that there were more pressing matters at hand that needed to be dealt with meant she was going to put off a much desired nap for as long as she needed. It was hardly the first time she'd be pushing herself and this was far easier than a battle.
As Jean leads the way along to the park she trudges along with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her leather pants.
"Yep. Rachel. Or some people call me 'Rach' too. I'm okay with either." Rachel comes to a halt watching Jean look at her phone with a single raised eyebrow. "I feel like I should apologize for showing up like this. To be honest I wasn't really expecting to run into you or D… Scott." Best not to use those terms. It would be better if she didn't.
"Plus I didn't realize Nate would be such a blabber mouth."
Here's what happened when Jean texted Zatanna to maybe give Scott some space because he's dealing with stuff:
Five minutes passed.
Then Zee texted back: 'Ok'
And that was that. Zatanna seemed more expressive whent it came to the oathbreaker stuff, though. To the point that when she walks up to meet the pair, she's got some books tucked under her arm. Zatanna herself is in a black leather motorcycle jacket with a swishy black dress underneath, black choker, black heels, black fishnets. She's got her hair tied back in a messy bun but she still looks like she could be glamorous by accident if she wanted.
"Hey, Jean," Zatanna says, clearly not having heard the conversation as she was approaching. She goes in for a hug, and then looks at Rachel. "Oh, wow. Let me guess. Little sister? Nice to meet you, I'm Zatanna."
"I didn't get the feeling you had a lot of choice in the matter either." Jean smiles ruefully to Rachel, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. "But. We'll figure it out, one way or another." As Zee arrives, she turns toward the other woman, accepting the hug with…perhaps more warmth than she might have expected.
Notably, if Zee using any sort of magical sight, Jean has a great, big, glowing OATHBREAKER on her chest. Super fashionable this season. "This is Rachel," she introduces the girl to Zee. "Rachel, this is Zee. She's a friend. And, as it happens, the most magically-knowledgeable person I know, which is good because I've got a little bit of a magic problem right now."
"Not really," Rachel has to agree with a small sigh. "It's not a very nice place, where I come from." Her nose crinkles a moment with eyes narrowing as she tries to recall something she feels she forgot… but it's fuzzy. Faded. "I think it might have messed with my memory too. Just a little." The thought is shaken off as her attention turns toward the approaching Zatanna with eyebrows raising at the other woman. While Jean was fashionable and … Jean… She was currently wearing a studded leather top and leather pants and boots. Definitely a punk style going on here.
"Er, no actually, not her sister." There's only a small clearing of her throat at that. Dipping her head toward the brunette she introduces herself, "I'm Rachel."
"Oh! My bad. You two look a LOT alike." Zatanna grins at Rachel. "I bet you hear that all the time, though."
Zatanna turns, and looks at Jean, and… keeps looking. To those WITHOUT a degree of magical awareness it probably looks like Zatanna is just furrowing her brow and staring right at Jean's boobs. "…huh," she finally says, looking up to meet Jean's eyes. "What the hell did you get mixed up in NOW?" The question turns into a grin. "I brought these books thinking you just needed to know about brands, not that you… GOT one. Who'd you piss off?"
Zatanna shifts the books from under one shoulder to the other. "I've got kind of a full plate right now with some, uh, let's just say magic stuff. I even had to raincheck a date with Scott over it. But… this… I mean, I think I can fix it, I just might need a little time…"
"Rachel's visiting," Jean semi-explains to Zatanna, grimacing when she sees the staring. "Yeah. So. I mean, normally I wouldn't bother you for it, but I was told it sort of makes me a target for anyone who can see it, because it's basically saying I'm a very bad person who doesn't follow the rules so shouldn't be protected by them."
Jean hops up onto the picnic table, sitting cross-legged on the edge. "I went to go help Hod look into this…thing that's going on with the Asgardian embassy. We were supposed to look into Thoth. But we got to where we were going, and there had been some very not good stuff going on. And his acolytes were super dead. In a super not good way. So he shows up, sees us there, and poof! Oathbreakers! And then he disappeared, threw some minions at us, and, uh…here we are."
"Well, uh…." Does she get that a lot? Rachel looks almost guilty at the remark, her gaze shifting over to Jean as if questioning silently. Maybe she was.
Should we tell her or…? I mean it's kind of up to you on this.
Thankfully there's more pressing matters at hand though. When Jean sits down to begin her tale, Rachels' arms cross over her chest with a growing frown. "So you're basically marked as a target. Great. Is there any way to hide it? Use your telepathy to block them from noticing you and the mark?"
"I mean, telepathy might actually work on some. If only to confuse 'em enough to give you a chance to get away. The problem is if something without a human mind comes after her. Or something without a mind at all." Zatanna sets the books down on the picnic table next to Jean. If Zatanna notices Rachel being weird, she's at least polite enough not to point it out.
"Friggin' Asgardians. Hold on." Zatanna takes out her phone and, without much of a warning, takes a photo of Jean's chest. Her phone case has what look like sigils etched into it. Someone unaware of Zee's vocation might just think it looks cool! "It's like in the last couple years, their magic has shown up everywhere, like weeds. I dunno what happened." Zatanna rolls her eyes, but her kvetching is good-natured.
"Also, I'd need to be aware that they could see it," Jean points out to Rachel. "And able to overcome their minds. And most of the things that are going to make good on that sort of threat are probably…not very weak-minded." She pulls out her phone, offering it over to Zatanna. "I took some pictures before we left. Fair warning, it's pretty nasty."
She glances to Rachel at the unspoken question, shaking her head ever so slightly. « Zee is…sort of also seeing Scott. And I'm trying to be a big enough person to let them both work that out themselves. So I'm pretty sure 'and here's our daughter from the future' is kind of cheating. »
"He's dating you both!?"
The blurt comes from Rachel as she wears the most difficult to read expression ever simply staring at Jean with her mouth half agape. Her dad was a player? Ew. EW EW EW. Instantly her eyes swing to Zatanna staring at her as well as this revelation turns over in her head. Really, at the moment it wasn't that different from Scott's reaction to finding out about her and Nate. It was taking time to process.
"Uh." Shit. She said that out loud. Suddenly Zatanna's earlier remark makes so much more sense. Maybe it just took awhile for it to click for her.
"Uh." Yes, so eloquent Rachel. "…So can you help her?" Eh. Heh.
Zatanna is looking at the phone images Jean is sharing and making a very, very serious frown at them. "Ah, Christ," she murmurs, which always sounds good to hear about stuff like magic patterns painted on floors. "Jean, this is really bad st—"
Zatanna stops, and s-l-o-w-l-y turns her eyes to look over at Rachel.
"I'm sorry?"
Jean winces when Rachel has her outburst, pinching the bridge of her nose between finger and thumb. "Thanks, Rach," she sighs, slumping just a little before she straightens up to look back at Zee. "No, it's not like that," she says, holding up a hand. "Sorry. Turns out things can get lost in translation even when you're both psychics."
"I…sort of told Scott how I felt about him right around the time you two started going out. But he had a date set with you, and you know, it's Scott, and…" Jean lets out a breath, shoulders rising and falling awkwardly. "So I told him- Wow, there is no way to say this that doesn't sound bad. Basically, I said he shouldn't not do things with you just because I have crappy timing and…Yeah. So we haven't been seeing each other or doing anything differently than we ever did."
Rachel Summers cringes. Rolling her haed back she stares up at the sky sighing heavily. "Sorry I wasn't expecting to hear that. I mean, telepathically…" Her hand lifts to gesture at Jean with another sigh. "I'm going to just shut up now. Today has been a very, very long day for me." There's a pause, and she adds, "For us all I guess."
Zatanna doesn't wait five minutes like she did via text, but her response to Jean is still to be awkwardly silent for a long beat and then say: "Okay."
Zatanna is silent for another long beat, and seems to have retreated inward, thinking about what to say or do here. Then… "Okay. No, seriously, it's okay. I'm, uh, I wasn't expecting that, but it's cool. I promise." Suddenly, Zee sounds self-assured, confident, and engaging. As if Jean had just confessed to liking sprouts or something. It's an encouraging thing as long as one doesn't remember that Zatanna Zatara spends a lot of her time on stage, doing patter, pretending.
"There's more important stuff, anyway, like your new chest tattoo. At least it's not as trashy as animal paws or a keyhole between your tits or something." Zatanna grins. "We'll get it sorted out. But this?" She wags Jean's phone, still with the sigil photos on it. "Someone summoned something, Jean. Someone summoned something big, and bad, and not from here. And I'm not talking about they're from Australia. I'm talking not. From. Here."
"It's not your fault, Rachel," Jean assures the other girl, setting a hand to her shoulder. "Really. It's…It's okay." She, unlike Zee, is not entirely convincing. And she gives Zee a long look of her own as well. "Hey," she says quietly. "I get that it's weird and it's super awkward, but…I mean, at least it's a normal kind of weird, right?" Her smile flickers, awkward, and then she moves on to the other topic.
"Any idea what sort of thing? Aside from the easy logical leap that it's not something good if it likes the blood of innocents and is summoned in that particular way, surrounded by murder, and the sight of its summoning causes an ancient Egyptian god that Hod referred to as a 'nerd' to basically magic-shame me into my own murder."
Rachel Summers nods solemnly even as she slumps against the park table herself. Again her arms cross over her chest though her gaze turns to the phone being passed around curiously. Better to focus on The Issue and not… that other issue. "Do you know what? Or is there a way to tell by the photos? I don't know much about magic other than that it can hurt me a lot." A faint smile is offered to the pair and she seems content to just be quiet for now otherwise.
"Normally, I'd be able to tell you, but… think of it like a gun with the serial numbers shaved off. All the proper identifying characteristics got rubbed out." Zatanna is taking the liberty of using Jean's phone to text the photos to herself, and then hands it back to Jean. "Which means either they screwed it up and didn't do the summoning, or they already did the summoning and are half-assedly covering their tracks. I'm gonna guess the latter, because one, it's more likely, and two, that kind of magick" Zatanna all but pronounces it with a 'ck' there, like it's a different word entirely, "is too dangerous to just assume it's all okay."
Zatanna sighs, puffing her cheeks out for effect. "It can hurt a lot of people, Rachel. This kind of stuff especially." Zatanna folds her arms and taps her fingers on her elbows, like she's trying to do math in her head. "Come by the house, Jean. When you get a chance. I'll try to get that brand off you there. It'd be a little weird in a park."
Jean laughs, though there's not much humor in the sound. "Yeah. Well. It's been a weird few days, so." She takes her phone back, slipping it back into her pocket before reaching for Zatanna's shoulder. "Thanks, Zee. I'm sorry about the weirdness. And…I don't know, I'm just kind of sorry about my entire life right now, but I'm glad you're a part of it no matter what." If Zee will let her, she'll lean in for a hug, though she doesn't press the matter. "If you ever need a favor from an Asgardian, Hod is going to owe me big time."
Rachel Summers takes a deep breath while Zatanna explains the issue with identifying what was going on. Mention of assuming the worst just earns a nod of approval from her. "Generally best to work with the thought that 'bad things are coming' so you can try to prepare," she agrees before falling silent again. There was a lot for her to take in with this time and timeline. Most of which she wasn't familiar with at all it would seem.
When the two work out arrangements to help Jean out with the Oathbreaker brand, she shifts her weight bak to her feet stepping away from the table. "Right. I'm going to get some air and do some thinking. It was nice meeting you Zatanna." A strange look is cast back toward Jean as she offers her a wavering smile. "Jean." Then she lifts soundlessly off the ground into flight tossing a wave down at the pair before heading up into the sky. She needed to clear her head.
"It's magick. Even when good things are coming you still need to prepare," Zatanna says, sounding like she's making a joke that's not really a joke. She does at least take that hug from Jean and return it in kind, with exactly the same warmth that she offered earlier. No awkward flinching or back patting or anything.
"The books are copies from my library, stripped of any of the bad juju on 'em," Zatanna says, once the hug releases. She taps the books next to Jean. A couple slim volumes on brands and sigils and oaths and other basic magickal concepts. The only hitch with them is that the language is from, like, the 15th century. "It's not easy reading, but it might help you understand a bit. Or it might make you more confused. It's your die to cast." She grins. "Rachel, good meeting you. Jean, swing by anytime. I gotta get back to work on my thing. I'll be seeing you."
With that, Zatanna walks off. She passes behind a tree and never comes out the other side. It's a more subtle way of teleporting away, but she had to do it quickly because otherwise Jean would start to realize just how loudly Zatanna is screaming inside.