2146/This one time, in Greenwich Village

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This one time, in Greenwich Village
Date of Scene: 18 June 2020
Location: The Wick
Synopsis: There's someone named Strange, in the neighbourhood. Who ya gunna call?
Cast of Characters: Sera, Zatanna Zatara, Jason Blood




Sera has posed:
Sera adapts fast it seems. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt that says on it 'Are you Heven a good time?'. In the corner table, a large tome set on it as well as a bottle of red wine. One glass is filled, Sera's. She is humming a song quietly to herself between sips as she waits for Zatanna Zatara to turn up.

Illyana made a portal to a door which contained a man named Strange. Sera idly twirls the business card Dr. Strange left her between her finger tips. Sera on the other hand texted the first person she ever got a phone number from, Zatanna. It's been quite a week and even though she helped form a secret society of magic users.. Zatanna was still the first magical person she met on Earth.

On the far side of the bar is a single musician with an acoustic guitar, idly strumming away between sips of water and unappreciated listeners passing by. Like last time, the place doesn't have too much business at this time of day, on this day of the week. It's a good time to talk shop and not be disturbed.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Like some of the other magic users, Zatanna Zatara can easily be anywhere, any time (well, the 'any time' is a bit trickier). However, Gotham is not far from New York so it's a simple matter of stepping through one of her own portals on a quiet side street and making her way to the bar in question. She's dressed down today: black slacks, white blouse, black calf-length Burberry trench. The latter is left unbelted, flaring behind her much like her raven-black hair as she walks. She's wearing a pair of slightly over-sized sunglasses as well. In the press of the city, it cuts down on how many people recognize her as she goes.

Thus, the Mistress of Magic manages to slip in without being besieged by any fans. She takes off the sunglasses and drops them into a pocket, striding easily across the bar to drop into a seat across from Sera. "I hope you're settling in well."

Sera has posed:
With a cheeky little grin she says, "Funny you should mention that. I have had quite the week already and let me tell you, this Earth place is way wilder and more chaotic than I ever imagined." The wine comes to her lips and she takes another sip. "Let me preface this by saying that Midgard is a bit of a myth to my people. It's where all our mythical tales are set. So to actually come here and see this wild mix of primitive societies, skyscrapers, bizarre uses of technology, untamed superpowers and magic all shmooshed together? well,.. it has not disappointed."

Fingertips wrap on the leather bound tome sitting on the table and she asks, "Before I deep dive in to any thing specific.. do you want the light heated stuff first or the 'oh my Goddess we're all going to die' first? I can go either way. There's plenty of wine.. someone is attempting music over there and I have all night."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"And your home is a myth to the people of Earth- of Midgard," Zatanna points out with a bit of a smile. "And there are plenty here who think all I do is... sleight of hand and special effects. While there is no denying metahumans, there are those who still reject the idea of magic." She does glance to the wine, pondering.

"Let's go with the lighter stuff first." She leans to pour herself a glass. "I'm no stranger to deadly scenarios, mind you, but I find once you begin to delve into the difficult stuff, you quickly forget about everything else. So, it's best left for last."

Jason Blood has posed:
As mortal mages go, Jason Blood is actually rather one of the non all-powerful sorts. And not strictly mortal, for that matter. Yet the variety of powers he can conjure up on his lonesome is actually rather limited. But what he does have is an impeccable talent for being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes, there's an actual vision or the like that sends him where he needs to go. Often enough, it's rather more a subtle sort of thing. For instance, just happening to also be visiting from Gotham at the same time as one of his compatriots, or happening to decide, as he wanders a busy Manhattan street, that this is precisely the place he ought to stop in for a pint.

"Hmm, nice enough place," he remarks after stepping inside and having the briefest moment to look around, as if somehow surprised (albeit pleasantly) by his own choice. The brief look around turns into a more focused one as he spots the more celebrated of their number. "Ah, now it makes sense." But first he goes to get himself a beverage, and only when that's through, ambles toward the other pair. "We're all going to die?" he wonders, oddly amiably. "Shame. No one told me."

Sera has posed:
There an encouraged nod and Sera says, "Well then, I'll start at the beginning." She interlaces her fingers and stretches them out as if preparing for something athletic. At that moment her eyes glance up to Jason Blood and she smiles, "You have keen hearing. I'm about to tell some tales."

Her eyes dance to the gigantic wick by the bar for a moment and then in a slightly more hushed tone she tries to set the mood. "It was a beautiful blue skied day and I was scouting out a place called Metropolis."

The musician starts to play their guitar as if on cue, something a little Spanish with a touch of excitement and mystery. Sera couldn't have planned it better unless she'd orchestrated it or had seen the future. "I thought it was another part of New York City, as the geography of this planet is still a bit of a maze to my mind." She motions with a hand, flying across the table top. "Wings spread wide, why did I spy.. but a fellow with a grappling hook and a woman doing karate kick."

She brings her hand down, walking with two fingers across the book, "Battling a midget in a trench coat intent on stealing books.. from a library. A bounty was set and the grappling hook fellow wanted to collect. Alas, he was up against a mage who was quite familiar with this tome." Her fingers tap on the leather bound tome itself.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Blood," Zatanna says to the familiar voice before looking up to the man in question as she takes a sip of her wine. She gestures to the other seats at the table. "This is Sera. A visitor from, well... not our plane, really. She's new to Earth. Midgard, as she puts it." Blue eyes slide back to Sera, however, as the story gets underway.

When the tome is tapped, her gaze drops and she leans to get a look at it. "I'm familiar with Metropolis," the magician notes. "What library was this, do you know?"

Jason Blood has posed:
"Hello Zatanna," Jason echoes back, with an easy familiarity. "Good to see you, not that it's ever otherwise. Then again, I had a feeling I might bump into someone interesting in here." He readily joins them, setting his heavier glass on the table. "And a pleasure as well," he extends to Sera. The extra context Zatanna provides about the other woman's origin doesn't seem to strike him as surprising, although he does seem intrigued by it. "Why, you don't say? Do tell, what brings you to our humble part of existence?"

The rest of the story seems to provoke reactions more at the edges of the spectrum. To the mention of people doing karate kicks and messing about with grappling hooks, he just laughs. "Sounds like a normal night in Gotham. Good to know that we're not the only ones kept up by people brooding on our rooftops." But his attention seems far more piqued when she indicates the book. However, he doesn't pry: it's not polite to interrupt a good story. "Do go on."

Sera has posed:
Sera thrusts a finger high in to the air dramatically, "A //Public// library." Yeah, she has no idea. She takes the moment to have another sip of wine. Her hand is offered back to Jason, "Oh you know, escaping eternal servitude, the usual. Now you've been touched by an Angel." Her throat is cleared and she says, "Where was I.. oh yes. The midget with the magic. I struck a deal with the bounty hunter.. 50% of the earnings to aid. He accepted. Another came along too, a tall strong man shiny with magical energy but seemingly not knowing any magic himself. Midget used a spell to turn some stone gargoyle's and lions alive and attacked us with them. He even turned the bounty hunters bolas in to flowers. Adorable, I loved it."

"Smash smash punch punch kick kick.. the bounty hunter tried to grab the book off the midget so the midget turned him in to a chicken." She pauses for effect, lifting an eyebrow. "It was at this point I stopped worrying about the stone creatures and let the two punchy types deal with them. The midget was creating a teleportation spell to send us all.. somewhere not nice probably? who knows. So I reflected his spell back on him as the lady ninja type nabbed the book off of him. He disappeared.. and the book and chicken were left in my care."

Looking back and forth between Jason and Zatanna, "Long story short, chicken is a person again and would either of you like to buy a book full of magic spells?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Little person," Zatanna says suddenly. "Midget is a derogatory term here on Midgard. It's best to call them little people." She takes another sip of wine before glancing over the tome again. She reaches toward it. "May I? I don't use spells myself, but my father collected relics and artifacts and I've kept up the tradition." Particularly if they may be deemed dangerous.

"I also know someone-" a glance towards Blood. "We both do." A certain magical magpie by the name of John Constantine. "Who might be interested."

Jason Blood has posed:
"Not nearly the first time, I'm afraid to say," Jason remarks as Sera reaches to touch his hand. "Although yours is far kinder than most have been. I'm grateful for that." There's a certain deadpan humor to all of it, although Zatanna is more likely to appreciate it than his new acquaintance. "Throwing off the bonds of servitude, though, that's an old and familiar story. Hope it turns out well for you." More of the same, a little smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He probably finds this all extremely funny, although his expression only lets on to the smallest hint of it.

Also, there's one bit of her story he seems particularly amused by: "A chicken? Well, better than a pillow." Don't ask.

Eventually, the story, with all its colorful twists, comes to its conclusion. Jason considers the book, and quickly echoes his counterpart's interest. "Indeed, I daresay I'd want a glance at it first. I am something of a collector as well, that's true, but unless it bears on a rather narrow range of arcane topics of personal interests, it would be more a collection piece than something to use. Maybe her friend-" he concedes, as Zatanna suggests another of their little circle. "-would get more out of it. As a rule, I try to avoid /encouraging/ any additional excess of arcane strangeness in my life. Plenty of that as it is. However, if neither of them have a more active interest, I might give it a place to collect dust."

Sera has posed:
Sera slides the tome over to Zatanna and takes another sip of her wine. "Little Person." She grins to Jason; "It does," she answers cryptically.

"Did I mention my Angela has arrived here too? she's not the magic type.. more the punchy stabby type. We used to be bounty hunters together when we were both younger. I think we might start doing that again. It seems hunting magical nar-do-wells might be a good business strategy." Her eyebrow wiggles up and down as the guitarist takes a short break to sip some more water. The timing is uncanny.

"She flew here by herself instead of taking the dark energy like I did. Fewer people noticed her arrival, so there's something to be said for that. Any way, that's not so much of a magical story is it.. so on to the next one."

As the first words leave her mouth the guitarist begins to play a few pieces from Satie, setting the tone to be a bit darker and more somber, "There I was minding my own business doing.. perfectly normal not at all strange things.. when I felt this //pull// toward Harlem. A cemetery. Now, I'm sure you're both well aware of this but it seems that Earth people have an obsession with my kind. There were statues of Angels everywhere in that place watching over the dead. This was not an appreciated irony I might add." She frowns a touch.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
There's a snort of amusement from Zatanna in response to Blood and his commentary. Oh, it's not lost on her at all, the bit of humor. She murmurs thanks to Sera as she draws in the tome and begins carefully looking through it. "I'm surprised there was such a thing at a public library," she muses.

Another sip of wine, then the glass is moved aside to keep it away from the book as she begins going through it. There is a bit of a chuckle when Sera mentions the angels. "Well, the Abrahamic faith -- specifically Christianity -- is very strong in the western hemisphere and angels factor quite heavily in the bible. That's why you'll see plenty of imagery around. People cleave to religion to answer the unknown and-" there's a glance up to Sera. "What more is unknown than death? Most see angels as a... soothing presence. Something warm, understanding."

Jason Blood has posed:
Waiting for Zatanna to look over the tome, Jason listens as Sera's story continues, although no doubt the twists and turns are... well, a bit twist and turn-y. "Oh, so there's two of you? Seems like it was quite the jail-break." He doesn't have any more amused commentary to add, but lets her go on with her tale, all the way to the graveyard. There is a nod at the explanation Zatanna offers, and he has his own bit to add: "If you think we're obsessed now, you should have seen us a millenia ago." He must be some kind of historian!

"But yes, I think that is precisely it. People have the tendency, in the world we know now, to look toward humanity as limited at its base. But faced with those limits- in knowledge or ability -people have always sought the bigger answers. It is an admirable trait, although one that can also lead in some... dangerous directions." This bit of philosophical wanking done, he turns toward Zatanna, leaning just enough to get a bit of a look at the book, albeit sideways-ish. "What do you think? Anything interesting?"

Sera has posed:
There is a nod to Zatanna, "Yes I was told.. at least three religions share stories of Angels. I presume at some point in Earths history my people visited here to collect some kind of bounty and left a lasting impression.. similar sounding words, similar sounding visages, or perhaps just very memorable. It is not the first time a more advanced society has left its mark on another world."

Her eyes regard Jason a moment and she elaborates, "Actually, Angela came to Hel to bust me out. It was a rather epic battle, a longer story for another time perhaps. Suffice to say we won and now we have come to Earth."

Sera continues her story, "A lady who creates ice staircases and slides. Another who teleports in the blink of an eye and a third who.. actually I'm not sure what she does but she certainly also turned up. We all felt the draw of this strange feeling in the air. It lead us all to a statue of an Angel, hands in front of her as she weeps for whoever was meant to be fallen. There was a blue light on the plot below her."

A small sip of her wine. "The moon was quite obscured by clouds that night. I had not been subtle in my approach, flying in. There was a question on peoples lips - was this my doing? I set them straight. I had nothing to do with whatever this was."

She stabs a finger to the table top dramatically as the guitarist plucks more emotively, "It was at this very spot, this very moment.. that one of our number suggested perhaps we might become The Ladies Book Club. A joke, one that stuck. And so.. we have established The Ladies Book Club.. as a cover for mystical gatherings. Such a delightfully devious ploy. We have not struck any particular rules but I see no reason why you two shouldn't join."

"The statue then spoke to us, forcing us to use our brains at this unhealthy time of night.. riddles. They were vague enough that I had to give two potential answers. We passed the test though and the statue crumbled in o dust revealing a case beneath it. Inside the case.. a mystery. A location for a clue to a book that the statue implored us to destroy before those who come by wings get it."

A sly smile, "Obviously not referring to myself I suppose.. but the book club intends to seek this thing out. A less exciting story than one involving a chicken. But it does segway nicely in to the most important of the three stories I have to share with you tonight...."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Just the Lady's Book Club? Might be difficult to get a website. Why not the Harlem Lady's Book Club? Though that might be taken, too." Zatanna remains glib as she goes through the tome. "Lot of magical books on your table recently, Sera." She does angle the book enough that Blood can get a look at it as well, glancing over to him. "Haven't decided yet. Nothing that stands out as needing to be kept out of the wrong hands. Might be why it was in a public library. But then, Metropolis has never been the most... mystical of places."

Too many aliens, maybe.

She does look back to Sera, tipping her head a bit. "By wings could mean a number of things. The location and... statue imply angels or things posing as them, but not necessarily."

Jason Blood has posed:
"Collecting bounties?" Ok, this is sounding a *little* different than the Heavenly Host Jason's familiar with. And he IS familiar with them, let's not mince words. "Hmm. That's a story we'll have to explore another time, I think. Life's just full of surprising little mysteries." But he's willing to leave all the contradictory mish-mash of religions and space nonsense for another time. Especially because:

"Ice stair cases and slides." He repeats, amusedely, and then shakes his head. "Let's hope it's a little more than that, or I'd feel just terrible for the poor girl. Frosty 'Shoots and Ladders' is a bit of a poor draw, as the super-power lottery goes. Then again, I'm sure there's a few in Arkham even more ridiculous."

"In any event, I am a great proponent of literacy, so the Book Club idea sounds marvellous, even if I'm not invited." At the latter, he manages to feign sounding injured, but only briefly. "Indeed, if you ever want to borrow a tome, you might look me up. Keep those shelves from getting too dusty." He does turn his eyes to the book when Zatanna pushes it over, to make his own quiet study. "Figuring out the who might not be as important as the where, in any event: if you're to destroy it before they get there, it doesn't really matter what sort of winged-creatures they are. Long list that it is."

Sera has posed:
Sera nods to Zatanna's assertion, "Possibly. Heven was cut off from the nine realms a long time ago. That doesn't mean some of us weren't left behind.. who knows. May be they're seeking to open the way back home. That'd be bad particularly bad for Asgard. And me."

To Jason she says, "Well, there's no charter for the ground, so whose to say you're not invited hm? As for actually reading books - I have been lead to understand that there is rarely any actual book reading going on in a book club. Just chatting and alcohol."

"I had ignored the magical pulse the first time passing it off as nothing terribly note worthy." The musician stops playing again and she glances over at him with annoyance, like it's his fault he missed her story beat.

"The second time, and especially after the cemetery incident, I decided not to ignore it. The book club might be interested in it after all. So I found myself wandering around Greenwich Village trying to locate the source of the disturbance. This green light descended from the sky and met with another coming up from below."

Sera stops to take another sip of wine and then glances over at the guitarist again who has wandered away from his guitar and to the bar to get a drink of his own. "Really??"

"I flew up, and saw one of the book club there too. A third person joined us.. a bit cold looking. But, well, these lights joined and this Romanesque dressed man was there. He floated on the air and called himself the Air Walker. He told us that Earth would now be part of 'The Great Cycle'.. which the Russian sounding one of the book club.. Illyana I think is her name? warned us this meant rebirth.. destroying what's here now to ash so new life can grow in its place."

"Now, I've only been on this planet for a few weeks but I really like the place. It's so quirky.. so I'm not a fan of someone suggesting it should be blown up. The others seemed to think it would be foolish to simply attack the messenger. Air Walker referred to 'his master'.. and I agree that this master is probably a great deal more powerful than the messenger."

"It was at this point that I remembered you'd given me your number.. so I sent you the message Zatanna. Illyana though, she made a portal to somewhere and out come this man named Strange with a hyperactive cloak." She places his business card down on the table. "Dr. Stephen Strange. He wants as many magical types to come to a meeting of his to discuss this threat to the world." The card has the NYC address of his sanctum sanctorum.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Since she hasn't had a drink in a bit herself, Zatanna leaves the tome for Blood's perusal and leans back to sip at her wine. She doesn't seem as perturbed by the guitar player stopping to have a drink. Maybe she wasn't impressed!

Listening to the tale, she tilts her head side to side. "The Great Cycle could mean a number of things, honestly. Yes, the one that comes to mind is the cycle of death, life, rebirth, but that doesn't always mean -destruction-. Sort of like how the Death card in the tarot deck isn't, well, -death-. It's renewal. The rise and fall of cultures upon Earth are part of a cycle, but none have," yet, "destroyed it. Another definition, you could say, of the Great Cycle is that of storytelling. There's a common theme to all stories, going back to the dawn of mankind, and that's referred to as some by the great cycle. While it'd be odd for some strange being to refer to it as that, most of our references -- literally speaking -- for the cycle come from Rome and its mythos."

She gives a shrug, finally. "However, I'd be curious enough to know more that I'd be fine coming to this meeting. Jason?"

Jason Blood has posed:
"Oh, is that what they're for?" Jason wonders back about the hypothetical book club, in his typical vaguely amused fashion. "Frankly, invited or not, I'd probably be a terrible boor. So you're better off without." A touch antisocial, perhaps. It's clearly not a lack of interest in drink- he's made quick progress with his -or with reading, as he carefully draws the tome over once Zatanna is fully finished with it to take a more careful look through it himself. Subsequently, he converses without looking up from the text:

"It is a common motif," he agrees with Zatanna. "Although not, notably, among our angel-loving compatriots. They're big on beginnings and endings, certainly, but generally less keen on going back to square one when it's all said and done with." He turns a page, nonchalantly. "I'd also tend to agree that it's not automatically cause for alarm of world-ending destruction. The idea that we'd just -now- become part of some cycle... many systems assert that we already are, and that we're -always- destined for some kind of destruction and renewal." His casualness suggests that he's either not wholly convinced, or not bothered by the potential outcome.

And only after all of that does he finally shut the book, and look up from it. "But there's no harm in having a bit of a chinwag about it all. I'm curious to see who shows up, if nothing else."

Sera has posed:
Sera nods and finishes off her glass, pouring more out of the bottle. "I am quite curious to meet more sorcerers. I gather we're quite rare on this planet by the looks of things. But.. also easily drawn out by weirdness, like moths to the flame." She smirks a touch, including herself in this category. "It seems quite a macabre concept. It's not a motif that is familiar to me back where I'm from. Perhaps it's something that evolves for species who have a limited life span. Come from something, set period of time passes, return to something.. sort of thing."

She takes out her starkphone and taps it awake, "Oh that reminds me. I have a number now Zatanna. But, perhaps you have that now that I have sent you a message. Hm. I'm still getting an understanding of this Earth technology. It is culturally divergent from what I'm used to."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"There are many names for it. The most simplistic, perhaps, is the 'call of the void.' I'm not sure if it's something you'd have experience, Sera, but we humans-" even if she's one of those side-steps from human if one wants to get -technical- about it, "do. It's that sudden strange desire to do something fatal. Leap off a cliff. Drive or walk into traffic. It comes without warning, it's not something you -truly- wish to do and obviously you don't, but the thought comes anyway. It doesn't make a person suicidal, but it's that lure of the unknown. It's the same reason even non-practitioners are drawn to magic-" she gestures towards the tome Jason is now perusing.

"What makes humanity so great is our boundless curiousity. And the thing that comes beyond -- death, renewal, the cycle you might say -- is truly the one thing we cannot know. Not for ourselves." Because, after all, many have come back from the dead. And many -- herself included -- have interacted with ghosts and spectres (including THE Spectre, that dick).

"Like Jason, I'm curious to see what comes of it, but I don't think it's a... world-ending scenario." But trust someone associated with the Justice League to have a very warped view of 'world ending.' Take with a grain of salt. Or a whole salt lick.

Jason Blood has posed:
"And 'rare' is relative," Jason tacks on to the discussion of general mortal sorcery. "Generally, baring special gifts," and he even lifts a hand to indicate Zatanna, "it is a skill like any other, and like with any other, masters are rarer than amateurs. But amateur practioners do abound," he asserts. "Since the lure, the call as she puts it, or just that mortal curiousity, can be quite intense. And compared, say, to a middling-quality plumber, they tend to be a lot more dangerous."

"Well, I know a little," he counters Zatanna's claim about what lays past death, with another mild smile. "As do many of our kind. But even I suspect that's only a part of things. Or at least, I really do hope so."

Now well and truly finished with the book, he offers it back to Sera. "At a glance, it's not a volume I need for my specific research, so the prior offer will stand: if you don't find someone with more specific use for it, I'll purchase it for preservation. I can pay generously enough, if that's the case." And since they're passing around contact information, he reaches inside his jacket and produces a card, laying it atop the cover of the tome. A little old fashioned, compared to trading texts, but when you're as old as he is, keeping within a few decades of 'up to date' is an accomplishment.

Sera has posed:
There is a nod to Jason and Sera takes his card, adding it to her now collection of two. "Delightful. I will keep you in mind should no one else take an interest in it." She moves the tome back to her side of the table and then smiles. "Thanks for listening to my stories. It's fun to share with people about it. I can't imagine having no one to talk to about this stuff."

"I tried telling some of these stories to a lady I met in a shop. She was old and wrinkled with grey hair. She called me satan and stormed off.. apparently 'fleeing from Heven' means I'm satan. I don't get the comment but, whatever." She shrugs her shoulders. The bottle of wine now empty, she sips the last of it from her glass and places down real money on the table this time, not magically duplicated money. "I should have invited you to the Asgard Embassy opening. That was quite the party. The drink was much stronger there.. Asgardian Ale is nice." She smiles to Jason, "Sorry I didn't know you yet, but I'd invite you too if there was to be a next time."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Reaching into her pockets, Zatanna rifles around for a moment. It doesn't look like there's much in there. The likelihood she has the same sort of enhantment on them as she does some of her tophats is -very likely- and she's actually reaching into a pocket dimension that serves as the world's most convenient purse. Men's pockets, eat your heart out! Finally, she surfaces with pen and notepad. Something is scribbled down and the page torn off. This is slid across to Sera.

'John Constantine' and a number.

"I think the number is still good. He might be interested in the book." And he'll probably curse Zee for giving out his information and that suits her just fine. Giving the Brit a hard time is one of her pasttimes.

"A lot of people think anyone claiming dealings with the occult, no matter how many times we save their city or even their lives, are dealing with demons." She casts a sidelong glance to Blood. Ahem. "It's quite all right. I heard of the party. But, to be honest, I like my downtime quite a bit."

Jason Blood has posed:
"If I can say anything with certainty, it is that you're not Satan. We're acquainted." And Prince of Lies though he may be, it's hard to imagine the Morningstar ever holding a serious conversation about someone being turned into a chicken or a lady who could make 'ice staircases.' Jason pauses in consideration, and then ammends: "Well, -probably- not."

Reassuring as such a statement probably isn't, he seems satisfied, and is left to simply sit his drink while regarding Zatanna and perhaps pondering the extra-dimensional geography of her wardrobe as she fishes about. Some things are beyond the ken of lesser men.

Returning his attention to more earthly things, he likewise waves off any worry over the party they've missed. "It's quite alright. I'm much the same as she is: I tend to prefer smaller, more intimate social engagements. They're both more engaging and... safer for everyone involved." That latter bit is added as he returns Zatanna's knowing look.

Sera has posed:
Sera is happy to add a third card to her collection. It is growing nicely. "Thank you thank you. John Constantine. A delightful name, I bet he's a delightful fellow. I will give him a call and see what he thinks of the book." Ah, such positivity! Sera isn't even that drunk yet. She finishes off her glass and then peers up in to it with a sigh. "Well, that's probably it for me today. I hope to see you both at this strange meeting.. I can introduce you both to the other members of the L.B.C."

Slowly standing she stretches out and says, "Lovely to have met you Jason. Great to see you again Zatanna. I expect I will continue to run in to all manner of weirdness on this world. Until next time.." she moves to head out of The Wick.