16414/Titans 3023: Beginner's Lucky
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| Titans 3023: Beginner's Lucky | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 26 November 2023 |
| Location: | Troia's Time-ship |
| Synopsis: | Future Kian and Lucky drop some uncomfortable truths on present day Kian and Jinx. |
| Cast of Characters: | Jinx, Kian
|
- Jinx has posed:
~~ Now there are two of them ~~
Jinx searched from room to room until she found her future doppelganger. Suspicious eyes fall upon Lucky, the thousand year older version of herself. "You!"
Lucky looks up to the door and replies cheerfully, "Me."
"You're cloaked in magic. This whole ship is. I can't tell if you're pullin' a scam or if this is for real."
Lucky's expression tightens a little as she looks over her younger self. Still calling herself Jinx. Still filled with anger and fear. Still got a huge chip on her shoulder. She approaches her younger self and looks her over. There's something there—the echos of magical balance. She must have returned from Themyscira, from the near end of the world, from the—no that bit hasn't happened yet.
"The blood in the cabin made us feel sick to our bones yet there was a splatter of it that looked like a little starfish and for some reason that tickled us pink. We felt guilty about how that made us feel."
Jinx looks shocked. Her shoulders slump a little bit. Never in a thousand years would she have shared that thing with anybody. "…Fine. So you're old me. But hey at least we're not fuckin' Irie's mom. Hah. Suck it Cait."
Lucky smirks and with a flick of her finger a magical hand thwaps Jinx on the back of the head. "First of all don't wish ill of my best friend. And second of all, do not dismiss my lovely little bean #1 Irie. I helped deliver her. It was a whoooole thing."
Jinx rubs the back of her head and frowns at this older version of herself. She motions between the two of them. "This is a very unfair conversation. And weird. Caitlin? what the fuck? She's got a stick stuck up her ass."
Lucky nods her head. "She does not. And this conversation was always going to be. But I have some things to tell you. Important things. It's time for a new path—this one worked out well enough but I believe we can do better. Specifically—never ever date anyone named Kevin. Don't even date one thinking well may be Lucky from 1,000 years in the future didn't know what she was talking about. Kevins come in many shapes and sizes and they are all bad for you."
Jinx's mouth drops open, then shuts again. Of all the things someone from the future might say to you she never expected dating advice. "That's… that's it? That's your infinite wisdom??! I call BULLSHIT."
Lucky actually smiles again. "Kevins are indeed bullshit. But you were hoping for the big answers. You haven't asked. You're afraid to ask: Yes, I really am happy. I have been for a long time. I am at peace and I was even Sorcerer Supreme of Earth for some time. It took work. You too can do it if you apply yourself."
Jinx's face drops again as future her gives her the most tantalising gift she could ever possibly give her. The idea of… peace.
- Kian has posed:
«So, somewhere in the next 1600 years, I learn telepathic shielding so well I can keep myself out of my own mind.» Kían—of the present day—looks equal parts impressed and annoyed as he saunters alongside his future self, speaking in his own language.
Kían—of the future—shrugs. «Besides the fact that you already know there are telepaths who misuse their Gift, you must understand why I have to.» Future Kian glances up, noticing both Jinx and Lucky, and automatically switches to English. In fairness, he still has an accent, but it's much more subtle. Or at least some day it will be. "Foreknowledge might cause you to change an event in my past, and that could mean anything. Believe me, I am… we are happy in the time I come from. I'm happy, and since you're me, you're happy too. You can back me up on that, right, Lucky? And it's good to see you again. It's been much too long."
Present Kían instinctively seeks out the kinship of Present Jinx. "I don't dislike my future self," he says conspiratorially, "but I don't understand my future self either. How in the name of all the Gods can I not understand my own self?"
Future Kían genuinely smirks at his younger self. "That's because everyone changes, over time."
"You're… I'm… ai, c'Rhys'yw! That doesn't help, and I'm you, you owe me for surviving to become you! Be less cryptic!"
- Jinx has posed:
Lucky senses Kian approaching. Well, two Kians approaching—the one she knows well and the one from 1,000 years ago. Such very different people in so many respects. She looks up to the door. As is her tradition she lifts up her hand and summons a touch of magic to make a small pop of exotic particles for Kian to enjoy in greeting.
"It is true young Kian," Lucky says with a smile to the young bird man. "Kían is a person of many worlds and loved on them all." She pats a hand over her heart betraying a familiar Themysciran gesture.
Jinx double takes at that little flash of magic. "What was that? How did you do that?" She shouldn't be so surprised. Lucky did just tell her she was once Sorcerer Supreme. To be that you have to be very good at magic. Yet she didn't recognise anything in how it was done.
"That," Lucky explains to Jinx, "is a game that turned in to a greeting. Kían loves physics." Jinx likes Kian. Kian was kind to her for no good reason. But this she didn't even know about him yet.
"Huh," Jinx responds and then looks at Kian seeking out backup. She nods to him and folds her arms. "Yeah you're telling me. This one," she thumbs at Lucky, "seems to be a walking guided meditation or some shit."
Lucky barks out a laugh of amusement and walks over to future Kian. She wraps an arm about him and gives him a warm side snug. "The secret to happiness is in delighting your friends. Is that less cryptic for you, youngling?"
Jinx scoffs, "You did NOT just call Kian a youngling." Young and stupid she draws back a hand. Pink magic appears and then… fizzles out. Lucky is watching the magic attempt and then lifts up a finger and waggles it back and forth.
"You are not balanced. Your technique is sloppy. And do not fling magic like that around on Troia's time-ship," she chides her younger self like the 1,000 year old grown up she is. As second in command of the Titans for OH so long she is used to putting the young ones in line.
- Kian has posed:
"I think she called both of us younglings," Present Kían says, "which really is not inappropriate considering. I mean, that version of me—" He indicates Future Kían with a flick of his wing. "—is almost 1700 years older than me. Uh, 1700 Akiár years by Akiár counting. A thousand Earth years."
Future Kían smiles and nods at his younger self, and curls a wing around his old friend Lucky. "Ever precise. I always was, but then, science and math are under our Lady Kiáre's wing, aren't they?"
The younger birdman, without even really thinking about it, curls a friendly and protective wing around Jinx's shoulders, without even realizing it. It's almost like the Present is squaring off against the Future, and Present Kían says quietly to Present Jinx, "Where are Gar and Tarík… uh, Terry? Why aren't they with our older selves?"
Not quiet enough. "They were… are mortal. I'm… we're not, my younger self. If there's any one lesson I want you to learn, it's that. Although maybe it's better if you forget all this once it's all over with. Acting without foreknowledge doesn't put your future and my present at risk."
- Jinx has posed:
Jinx double takes at the mirrored wing motion and looks affronted that their future versions are calling them out. "This is so fuckin' weird."
Lucky corrects her Kian, "I'm old, not immortal. Sorcerers throughout the ages have sought out the elixir of life. Perhaps I finally cracked the code hmm?" She is teasing. She does that a lot. Future Kian knows this well.
Jinx studies Lucky a little more and then also future Kian and the way he holds his wing compared to how her Kian does. "There's something off about you two. Not just that you're hiding shit from us—I dunno. Can't put my finger on it."
Lucky suggests, "Perhaps we are being careful not to rock the time boat too much. Speaking of which this ship is responsive to emotion. I kindly request you both calm your minds." She says it like she knows that the two young ones are in mental and emotional turmoil over all this. How could they not be. Can Lucky read Kian's mind??! Jinx wonders if that means she's reading her mind!?
"Oi! Out of our heads. Not cool," Jinx insists.
Lucky clucks her tongue. "You are projecting it. There is no reason for me to trespass to know what you're thinking. Kían taught me how to protect my thoughts. It was not easy to learn. It is a worthwhile venture young-me."
- Kian has posed:
"They're not reading our thoughts. I would know," Present Kían says to Present Jinx. "It's fair to say that if they really are our future selves, they should know us pretty qokh well."
"As we should," Future Kían says. "We were once you. I haven't forgotten all the confusion and all the fear of trying to figure out living on Earth rather than Kyshan. Or, I should guess," he continues, glancing to Lucky and wrapping an arm around her middle in a friendly way… and fixing Jinx with a startlingly hawk-like gaze, "trying to figure out how to get along with a group you once wronged. I don't think I'm giving anything away at this point," he adds, giving Lucky a smile, "that you figure out how to do that successfully."
Present Kían looks at Present Jinx a little blankly. "Donna said you deserved a chance," he explains, but does not elaborate. And while he's holding his mind back despite the physical contact, Present Jinx can sense that essentially, Present Kían does trust her.
Even so, he fixes his older self with a surprisingly steely glare. "But you won't tell me what happens to Tarík and Gar, will you?"
Future Kían chuckles softly. "You're not going to "dancing duhón" me," he says, "and in any case, there isn't anything I could've done… you can do about it. Telling you about the difficult times to come won't make them not happen."
- Jinx has posed:
Jinx furrows her eyebrows. She can read between the lines far better than Kian. She's not going to say it out loud though because that doesn't seem fair. She lets out a soft sigh.
Lucky glances at an empty wrist and says, "Oh my look at the time. We have a the everything to save." A gentle familial hipbump to her Kian. "Game face. It's been a while since we've all worked as a team. Let's show these whipper snappers how 3023 Titans get it done."
Just to show off, perhaps, she waves her hand in front of the two younger Titans and the two older Titan's disappear with a shimmer. Jinx narrows her eyes and steps forward, waving a hand through where she thought they should be.
"Not balanced my arse." She turns back to Kian. "Ignore them. They're just old and bitter at our youth and unwritten futures. I gotta do my magical kata to balance my magic otherwise I'm going to be useless in this battle. Give me… 5… 10 minutes. See you in the main room?"
She pauses and tries to say Kian's name properly, "Kian… Kyien. Kyan. KeAn." Flicking her tongue out she shrugs. "I dunno how she said that. I'll work on it."
- Kian has posed:
"They're not bitter," Present Kían says mildly. "They really are us. I don't like being handed evidence that maybe I really am a Rhyták, but being almost two millennia years old—Akiár years and Akiár counting—is evidence I find hard to reject. And I know for absolute certain that's me. I know my own mind."
He curls his wings a little tighter around Jinx's shoulders before she can go. "And I'm happy to know that even after a thousand years… or two thousand, depending on the counting and the year… we are still friends." He grins, and delivers himself of a honk worthy of an Untitled Goose.
