Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[MzHyde]

Looking through the menu, Kay noted all the kinds of dishes available. She was aware that John took barely any time at all to decide what he wanted, and of course, she was the last one to pick something. Which ended up being just basic mixed vegetable noodles. She really didn't want to push her luck with too much flavours at once to begin with. Not only that, for someone who loved to cook and mess with ingredients, she was pretty basic when it came to what she ate sometimes. She went through phases where she'd try something new all the time, then she'd be that person who would go to a pizza joint and just order cheese and tomato and be boring.

When she decided, she put the menu flat on the table, and glanced out the window before back at the current company they had, crossing her feet over one another under the table.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"So what's the deal with this place?" John asked, to break the silence mainly. It was a kind of vague question, he was half referring to the unusual choices of furniture, and half to why here above any other place. "This is the place where nearly broke students go, both for the cheap student deals, and the fact they let you study with the food in the upstairs seats." "Also it was set up by business students who dropped out, they were also broke, so a lot of this stuff is the product of extensive dumpster diving."

"But it grew over the years, became a chain thing, but only for this particular country. And they haven't forgotten the broke student roots, but as an adult who has money, you are obliged to pay full price, even if you've been getting student deals here for years. Almost everybody knows everybody here." "So, what're you two having, just easiest if one of us orders instead of having to go through a whole series of awkward transaltion." John had decided on a stir fry with a mix of meats, both Earth and Attili.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay internally sighed with relief when John broke the silence with a question to create a conversation. She listened to how it was all set up and how it came about and thought it was pretty cool that some kids had the idea. Dumpster diving or not, the fact that some.kods thought 'we need an affordable place to eat and study in relative comfort' was impressive. She knew most students on earth wouldn't be nearly that forward thinking.

Kay told Cal what she was having after being asked, the reasoning making a lot of sense to her that one of them should just order everything. She noted how John was alot more open to trying Attili foods than she was. Deep down it actually amused her how they were so different in so many ways but worked so well together.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cal ordered for them all, and chatted with the waiter (who she and Cliff seemed to know well), before turning back to John and Kay. "These places are also pretty chill if you wipe out and collapse on a table because you've been working for sixty hours straight on a paper." "Does that happen often?" "Near exam times, it's a guarantee, but during the rest of the year, it's a pretty regular occurance too." "There's a wall of shame... If you want to call it that. It shows everybody whose fallen asleep here along with the date. And yes, I'm on it"

And that is how the conversation went until the food arrived, trading random questions about life on their respective planets and the differences between them. Cliff and Cal were both curious about Earth and life on it, and vice versa with John and life now on Attil. Elliott's telling of it was through the lense of childhood and trauma.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay listened to Cal and Cliff as they spoke about the place, and she got the impression they were fond of the place and that's why they seemed to be regulars. Of course, John spoke more than Kay did, but she did chime into the various conversations about earth and it's differences enough to be sociable. She just found the information about Attil more interesting to talk about, than life on earth.

Life on earth for her wasn't fantastic before she met John and co. So she didnt feel she could say much, other than life before she was on the run. Of course, life on the run came up in talks as she spoke about all the interesting ways she'd spend nights to hide from demons. Some of which were amusing like she hid ice cream cafes or cinemas, whilst others were just plain disgusting like having to climb down and sleep in sewers or share a tent with homeless old men. Some.l of these things she hadn't even told John before.

(Sorry for late reply, was in a bollocks meeting)

 

[_gallifrog_]

John tried to give a balenced discription of Earth before saying ah fuck it and straying into the general grottiness of his life and the weird things he'd done with his life. He recognised some of Kay's stories, others he didn't. Quite a lot of his stories were stupid thing he'd done in that period between being a teenager and entering Ravenscar. Cal related stories from her childhood, both times when Elliott was around and whne he wasn't. They included stealing bikes and illegal street and off-road races that she had Elliott cover for her on. She'd always had a rebellious streak it seemed. She also told a few from her time living in the storage locker, she'd become nocturnal and turned to a life of crime to survive.

Cliff told some of her childhood stories from her home planet. Her life had been pretty mundane in her opinion, but she'd grown up on a waterworld dotted with little island settlements. Due to this she spent a lot of her time free-diving, and harpoon fishing, and was also the proud owner of a set of retractable gills stretching along her arms, which she showed them seeing the curiosity. She'd also learned archery for both above, through and in water. The most notable story involved the high speed waterbike her older brother had engineered that git the two of them stuck in the middle of a shark infested reef.

At some point during this the food arrived. Cliff's dish was a meat mix, but with various varieties of fish, and pineapple that had been genetically engineered to be different colours to th bog standard yellow. Cal's chosen dish consisted of a sort of beef stir-fry.

 

[MzHyde]

Through sharing stories, it seemed they all had done stupid things both illegal and legal in their time. Which Kay found positive as it meant they all actually got on really well. When Cliff spoke of her archery, it lead to Kay sharing stories of when she was in Seattle and her adoptive dad taught her how to shoot both modern recurve and traditional bows, taking her out into the woodland area of Lake Washington. It was his way of bringing Kay out of herself, whilst her adoptive mother and Sam used art as a way of helping her. It would no doubt be obvious to John just how many sides to Kay there was, that he never knew before.

When the food arrived, she realised properly just how unimaginative her order was, but she didn't care and did find it really good. It was going down well and she felt positive that it'd stay down. She could understand why both Cal and Cliff liked the food.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The more they talked, the more the conversation began to flow between them. The fact that they all had the common past of breaking rules, doing stupid crap, and getting really injured in the process just made everything easier. It definitly wasn't the typical grown up conversation. Shortly after the meals themselves arrived a message came through from Chas and Jay, they'd succeeded in getting the communication rig up and running. It was accompanied by a photo of Cal's kitchen table which had been taken over by an array of five laptops, many keyboards, aerials and a wiring system that was a quote unquote 'work in progress'. Now both were looking for food recommendations.

So Cal gave the directions, and a while after the two showed up, pulled up some chairs and ordered. The conversation drifted back to stupid crap done in their lives with John and Chas retelling some of their escapades together, and griping over details. Then Jay surprised them, by telling the story of the time she used to do drive by motorbike muggings and ended up getting catapulted into a lion cage. She knew how to spin a story, and all four were laughing by the end, as she'd ckeraly begun to ad-lib and make crap up.

 

[MzHyde]

As the conversations went on, Kay felt more and more comfortable in her surroundings. When Chas and Jay showed up after doing what they needed to at the apartment, she was happy to see the conversation just continue to flow. Like the others, there was things that Jay said that surprised and amused Kay. She knew Jay was rebellious and had got into trouble numerous times from their previous vague chats, and the fact she was in prison for a while, but she never would have penned Jay for doing half of what she talked about.

She also had to give to Jay for being good at story telling, even if alot of it was fabricated just for the sake of making the story good. This had to be the most comfortable she had felt in a few days considering everything that had occurred in their journey to Attil.

 

[_gallifrog_]

They were all having a great time, and actually bonding over experiences in life, and it felt like for the first time since being on the ship that Jay actually joined in with the group. And to her it felt like the first time she had actually belonged. Nobody (maybe bar Cliff) had any idea about what parts of Jay's words were true, but they all appreciated the opportunity to be able to laugh like idiots. And Jay herself enjoyed spinning tales and embedding fradments of the truth within them while also telling some stories that from start to end were true. She'd led a different and varied life as a nomad, which in her context meant flying in ships from system to system.

There was one particular story she told which not only involved her, but her brother too. She'd never directly spoken about him before, and a testament to how relaxed she felt at that given moment that she was willing to speak about him. It was clear that they both possessed a rebellious streak and an adrenaline addiction, and combining thta with the fact that they were twins made them extremly competitive. Through some unknown miracle and by taking a hell of a leap of faith Chas managed to persuade her to show one of the photos she had of the two of them together. The photo was an old one, it showed two teenagers, tall and skinny around seventeen or eighteen. Both had black hair, dyed with blue, purple and silver streaks and held back by aviator sunglasses. It was damn obvious they were identical twins. Jay's was braided back, while her brother's wasn't quite long enough for that to fully work. The two were leaning against motorbikes, laughing at some joke or another. The similarities between teenaged Jay and Rinaa were startling, they had the same build, and their hair even flowed in the same way.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay may not have known which parts were lies or truth, but she certainly noticed how much more comfortable Jay was feeling with the group. Jay definitely belonged, there was no doubt about that. Everyone had humerous and interesting stories, showing what layered people every one of them was, which is what gripped Kay the most. Hearing the stories being shared, really showed that there couldn't be anything one of them would do, that would bring judgement upon them.

Yet it was the story about Jay and her brother that surprised and interested Kay the most, and how she knew Jay was more comfortable with them. It was a massive jump forward from shutting them out on the ship to letting them in. The photo once shared, was a great one. Seeing Jay so happy was a nice feeling to Kay. The similarities between teenage Jay and Rinaa were remarkable. Kay knew, if she had photos on her of Sam, she would have shared them also, remembering how amused John had gotten when she showed him. Even if it was mostly at her choice of outfits that Sam shoved her in.

 

[_gallifrog_]

They all saw the similarities between Jay, her brother and the noticeably absent Rinaa, but nobody remarked on it. The subject of her brother was a delicate one, and nobody was quite sure how to approach it. They all by now knew that when Jay had received the black box recording of her brothers last moments, it had told her that it was sabotage that had killed him, and she wasn't to blame for it. She was slowly getting used to this idea, and trying to dispel the survivors guilt she'd carried with her for years. But she was getting there.

Eventually it was time to leave, and Cal took two more meals for takeaway along with what little leftovers they had. She also payed, a logical choice as none of them besides Jay actually possesed the correct currency to pay. It was early evening, but the sky was staring to darken slightly, there had been nothing from Elliott or Rinaa, so she presumed they were still talking.

 

[MzHyde]

Considering how Jay was on the ship over her brother, it was no surprise to Kay that no one wanted to touch on the subject of the similarities. It wasn't the time or the place, and Jay deserved to have some things kept to herself after all. It was also no surprise that it's taking time to comprehend it wasn't Jay's fault and she was working through diminishing that survivor's guilt.

Kay walked with the rest of them supposedly back to Cal's apartment, like before, arm looped through John's, she didn't really know but it was a guess. She took in the dusky sky as time had moved along quote a bit since they went to eat. She always loved that time of day that was twilight for some reason. There was just something about it, especially if there was a sunset tinting the sky. She always put it down to the artist in her. Kay wondered how they'd spend the evening, whilst Elliott and Rinaa were still having a talking moment, which she had a feeling they'd be most of the day. She was glad they were taking their time to know each other.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cal diverted back to the forge, saying that she'd meet up with them again in a few hours. Cliff continued back to the apartment with the rest of the group, and the extra food. Opening the door, two things were evident immediately. One that Jay's system was in need of some serious wiring refinement. There were cables sticking out everywhere. The other thing was that the view from the apartment was spectacular, and well worth paying the price for.

Jay returned to her re-wiring work,pulling on her headphones and turning them up high. Cliff dumped her hearing aids in the bowl by the door, before disappearing to the mezzanine level where she fell asleep, with strict instructs that nobody was to wake her unless it was absaloutly necessary. Now seemed like as good a time as ever, for Chas and John to have their long overdue chat.

 

[MzHyde]

Walking into the apartment, Kay noticed instantly the state of the wiring of Jay's little system she was making. She decided there and then she most definitely was going to stay clear of it and Jay, unless it was utterly necessary to get a drink. Otherwise, she's not going anywhere near her, and let her just work. Kay also took note of the strict instructions from Cliff about not waking her before going to the mezzanine to get some well deserved sleep.

So that left her, Chas and John. She walked over to the couch and sat down, taking her jacket off to feel more comfortable. She was well aware this would be the best time for that chat and hoped that she wouldn't be in the way or not wanted in the room. She would indeed leave and go into the bedroom she was using if it came to it, but she knew the chat that was needed did involve her and she wanted to be around for it.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"Remember your old 'friend', Giovanni Zatara?" was Chas's opening phrase, and not at all what John had been expecting. Zatara was a mage, but he was the kind who played by the rules. He was also an enormous arsehole for various reasons, and didn't like John at all, even though he had had a hand in John's training. "Zee's father? The arsehole extraordinaire? How could I forget him." John scoffed with a roll of his eyes that conveyed his distaste. He had no idea what Zatara could have to do with anything, espescially considering he had been dead for many years. "What's 'e got to do with anything? Let me remind you, 'e's dead, and in his rightful place in Hell."

"I'm well aware, and he doesn't have anything to do with this, at least....not directly." John had no idea where this was going, so he let Chas speak. "Remember what he did to you, when he dragged you out of Ravenscar to be his unwilling pawn in his chess game." John nodded, slowly, not liking where this was going. "And what he did to your memories of the information he told you?" "Yes......Chas.......no" The 'no' wasn't in the context of 'no I don't', it was in the context of 'oh no, please don't tell me that you are trying to tell me this.' "You're not really saying......that the book......" John ran a hand over his face and through his hair "Yeah, I am" Chas sighed.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay had never been told about this Zatara character. She remembered John telling her about some guy who trained him in some of the magic stuff he knew but it was vague and she never pried about it. She could tell it was always a sensitive subject and knew when not to overstep her mark when it came certain subjects. Now he was being mentioned, she was utterly confused where the conversation was going and what this guy had to do with anything.

As Chas kept talking, as she saw John was just as confused at first, she listened. Then John started to put the pieces together and was figuring whatever it was out, but the bit that piqued at Kay's curiosity the most was the mention of the book of phoenix history and that had mentioned all about her in it. "Tell me if I'm overstepping here but care to elaborate? I'm still confused what the book that spoke about me has anything to do with Zatara?" She spoke up, wanting some kind of clarification on what was being said.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"If I understand it right, that's not the case. There's this mage I know.....well knew, by the name of Giovanni Zatara, absaloute and utter arsehole. He has a daughter, Zatanna, an old friend...enemy.....pain in the arse." Chas rolled his eyes, this was far besides the point. "So Zatara knows he's gonna be killed and sent to Hell, but in the future, his daughter is going to be part of the League Dark, tasked with magical problems and fixing them, and that they are going to get into serious shit with Circe, Hecate and a whole host of other deities including Modru and the Lords of order and chaos. So he knows that his kid is gonna need guidance through this, but he won't be there to do it. So the next best thing is to have somebody else. So he finds this skinny British punk who fancies himself a mage, drags him out of the asylum and trains him up, with this specific purpose of helping his daughter in mind"

"But he's a crafty old bastard" John tapped the side of his hard with a wry grin "and doesn't want his daughter knowing anything before it's necessary. So he fucks around in this mages head, and locks the memories and the knowledge away. He knows its there, knows what exactly it is and how crucial it is, but cannot access it, say it or communicate it in any form. So said mage has the answers but cannot access them. It's a bloody nasty hex." Chas nodded in agreement, John understood now.

"What Chas is saying... I think, is that this book has done the same thing that Zatara did to me, to him." Chas nodded solemnly. "Exactly, the books magical, and can predict the future. It knew ai would read it, it stated so in the first few lines, then explained that the knowldeh was jex locked, and I'm only able to access future events when the time is right. So all the knowledge is up here" He tapped the side of his head. "but I can't get at it." A fact that was frustrating him immensely.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay listened carefully to the story John was telling her, explaining how he met Zatara and what was done to him. It was a lot to take in and comprehend but she was understanding it just about. When it was all summarised band then linked back to the book, it all fell into place in her head and she understood it better. She nodded when they both finished talking. "Right..so..more frustrating bollocks that just makes finding all the pieces about my history and in turn our" she gestured between her and John, "connections even harder and more troublesome" she summarised.

"Why am I not exactly surprised in the slightest?" She sighed. "Did you get anything out of it?" She asked Chas. The fact she had even seen her name in the book on the page that she had opened when she handed it to Chas, she figured there must have been something. She also still hadn't forgotten the look that Chas gave them both when they announced her pregnancy that just screamed 'we need to talk properly about this'.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"I got brainwashed by a bloody book" Chas sighed in annoyance. A book had gotten the better of him. "The book knew I would read it, and was spelled specifically so it would hex me. And I read everything I could, and it's all in my head, so yes, I did get a lot out of it. It's mostly about you, but John's in there too.... but you'd have to ask the right questions to trigger the answers." John sighed in frustration. "Of course this wouldn't be straight forwards. Bloody Hells!" "This is just as annoying for me too, you know. I have all this information, that ye need, but unless ye can trigger it properly, you'll get nothing from me."

"There are some things I can tell you straight off the bat. John, you are physically unable to read the book without breaking reality or something equally hideous like that. Kay, I think you can read it, but it's damn dangerous to know your own future, let alone change it. And The House is always safe for Kay, so long as you don't lose ownership of it, and the same applies for its twin."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay really felt sorry for Chas. She wished she never made him read the thing, and just had the guts to read it herself. She could see just how frustrating it was for Chas that he had been hexed and she truly felt like it was all her fault. "Chas I'm so sorry..." She apologised. She listened to things that Chas could tell them both, and hearing that John wasn't able to read the book at all, just annoyed her on his behalf. It was a good enough reason but the fact that the universe was determined to keep him the dark on a subject that involved both of them, annoyed the hell out of her.

As Chas spoke more about how he thought she'd be able to read but how dangerous it was to know her own future, let alone change any of it, it just kept making her think about how Did contacted them telepathically which made them both learn about them having a kid before it even happened. Hearing about how The House will always be safe for her did make her sigh with relief, as long as John keeps ownership of it. At there was that slight positive bit of information.

"Knowing where I'll always be safe is something...I guess" she commented. "I'm gonna guess that our daughter was in the book...because it's happened too fast to not be in there." She thought out loud. Then something that Chas said properly dawned on her, "wait...you said "let alone change it" when it came to the future. Did you mean generally speaking or you read something in there that'd make me wanna change something I shouldn't?" She queried.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John was delighted to hear the one bit of positive information, that so long as he had ownership of The House, Kay would be safe there. Which meant that if it all came to that, house arrest would work. "As crazy as it sounds, It was supposed to happen.... me getting brainwashed, I mean. There's a note in the margins that says 'sorry about this Chandler, but it has to be done. You'll figure it out' " Chas recalled, mentally straining to see the pages in his mind. John pulled a face at that, it didn't sound like a note he'd write and there was nobody he knew who called Chas 'Chandler' to his face. It was almost as uncommon as calling him 'Francis'. "Well, that's just creepy" "And another thing, who says that note was written in the past, I've seen enough of these magical books to know that they don't obey the laws of space and time all that well."

He nodded at the next part "Yeah, she's in there, but again, I can't say much without specific questions being asked. Think of it like three questions, but with unlimited questions, if that helps. Though you two do decided to double-barrel her surname."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay could sense the delight in John when they were told she'd be safe in The House. Of course, she was happy about the information as well that she'd be safe, but the idea of that being a more viable option in John's head did give her conflicting emotions. Which irritated her because earlier she was coming to terms of that possibility. She listened to what Chas said, even if it was meant to happen, it still made her feel guilty for finding the book in the first place. Even she found it strange that whoever wrote the note called him Chandler. He's always just 'Chas' to her and John.

She nodded in agreement when John said that was creepy. If it was written in the future, then who the Hell wrote it? Kay knew it'd have to be someone who knows them. Thoughts went through her mind about who it could be, though she didn't think it could be Fia, mostly because she was certain they'd both raise her to call him uncle Chas. Though it could still be possible, as a tactic to hide it's her.
As he said about not being able to say much without specific questions, she nodded, it made sense. The last bit about her name made her glance at John before back at Chas. "Huh...." She said in a tone that showed she found that interesting. She didn't think she'd have thought to do that, and would have just given her John's name but double barrelling it? She liked it, as she ran the full name through her head, "Fia Hale-Constantine...." She spoke out loud. "I like it".

 

[_gallifrog_]

John raised an eyebrow at the whole name thing. He hadn't given it any thought, but now that Chas mentioned it, he ran through the name options in his heads. The double-barrelled one did sound significantly better. Fia Hale sounded like it was all Kay, and he'd had no role to play. Where as Fia Constantine was a cursed name. Anything with Constantine as a direct surname would attract a hll of a lot of attention, but a double barrelled surname was safer, his sisters kid was technically double barrelled, but they went by her husband's name to avoid any of John's troubles seeping into their lives. "So do I"

"Not that it matters, but I like it too." Chas raised an eyebrow at the first name, with a face that clearly said please explain the origin of this name to me. That either wasn't in the book, or he couldn't access it. Jay was hearing none of this, far too engrossed in her work and music. She hissed slightly when she accidently electrocuted herself, but for the most part, it was as if she wasn't there.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay could see John was running his mind through all the ways the name could be, just like she was before she said her thought out loud. To her, Constsntine-Hale didn't sound right or flow right, which is how she came to Hale-Constantine. The more she thought it over, and when John said he also liked it, that just made her feel better about it as she was aware of how he felt about his surname and the ties it seems to draw with trouble.

She looked over at Chas when he said he liked it, but his facial expression said so much to her. It was then it dawned on her, that the whole first name was only discussed between her and John. "Right..the first name..it just came to me when I went out for air at the forge on my own. When I say 'just came to me' I mean, it felt like she was telling me her name. It's weird and I can't fully explain it. But it makes sense really because my birth mother's name was Fira and it's a thing with phoenix kind to have the female named something that relates back to their element of fire. I don't get it personally, but it's so close to my mother's name I can't seem to accept any other name" she explained.

"I also found out from Rinaa that her nickname for our kid is Celtic deer, which lines up to the name" she added.