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thejusticelounge2015-01-01 06:07 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2015-01-01 06:07 pm
it's poetic
Kyle buys doughnuts for him and Zee. Just in case.
Zee eyes the donuts hungrily, “Jelly filled?”
Kyle points them out. Two are sugared and two are powdered. “These four. One has lemon curd - issat a jelly? The other is a purple jelly. And then the other two are your regular, ah, red jelly.” Kyle takes a Boston cream out and bites half of it. He talks as he chews. “We rrrrdy ter go?”
Zee selects a red jelly donut for herself, “I’m ready if you’re ready,” she smiles up at him, taking a big bite of breakfast, “Ow bahd cun ert be?”
Kyle smiles suddenly, as Zee looks up at him. “That’s the ticket! It’s - what. It’s just a house, isn’t it. Not like…” Okay so that sentence wouldn’t really make sense, considering Shadowcrest practically had a personality of its own. He swallows his bite and crams the rest in his mouth. “Mebbe your mama’ll wanna donut too. Lemon curd?”
"It’s just a house," she agrees, although she’s not really counting on the brownstone to act like a normal home should either. She laughs at the lemon curd donut, getting up to grab her coat, scarves, and gloves, "Mommy will love it, sure." as if she really knows what her mother prefers to eat.
Kyle laughs as well, but as he closes the box he watches Zee busy herself with her winter wear. It was…curious. Different. It wasn’t Zee before, the troubled girl who seemed both avoidant and overwhelmed at the same time. It was something else entirely. “You’re always Zee, but I still don’t know all of you, do I,” he muses, almost to himself as he gets his own coat, a woolen pea coat that Zee bought him.
Zee licks at her sugared finger before she grabs onto her leather gloves, “I’m always Zee, yeah, and maybe you don’t know all of me- but do I know all of you either?” she shrugs, tucking the gloves into her coat pocket before moving over to Kyle to button up his own, “Are you upset about it? That I sometimes keep parts of myself to me?”
Kyle constructs gloves over his own hands and lets them drop to the side as Zee tidily buttons up his coat for him, and adds a scarf for him as well. He gives that time to consider her question. “I…I don’t think so, no. I’m not upset by it.” He smiles. “I kinda love how mysterious you can be sometimes…maybe it’s kinda exciting. But. If - just say if you knew pretty much everything about me,” he takes her hands and holds them in hers, looking down at her. “Do you think - I mean. Would you find that, er. Boring?”
With Kyle buttoned up, Zee quickly adjusts herself for the winter weather, scarf and gloves in perfect place, “Maybe it’s a magician thing. I don’t like giving away everything, not unless I know it’ll lead to something even better.” She swings her hands with his, smiling up to him warmly, “If we’re to say that I know everything about you, which I highly doubt is possible- I know a lot about you but I can’t know everything- I wouldn’t think that makes you boring. It just grounds me in all my mystery. You’re my stability Kyle,” tugging on his hands she pulls him towards the door, “C’mon the longer we wait on this the more chances I have to chicken out.”
”Okay okay okay,” Kyle grips her hand tightly as she hurries them out. They catch - of course - a train into Gotham from Metropolis, and Kyle mostly draws things on the frosted windows to entertain Zee and keep the topic off of the brownstone for a couple hours at least. Kyle hails a taxi for them to pile into to get to Sindella’s townhouse. “Wow. I haven’t been in a taxi in ages,” Kyle settles in, and pulls Zee up against him. He kisses her neck. “Visiting in the day was a good idea. Somehow things seem less doom and gloom in the day. Even if it is /Gotham/ day.” Which, to Kyle, is practically night.
Zee giggles and smiles all the way- their train ride living up to nearly everything they’d imagined it would be together. Despite Kyle keeping off topic of the brownstone, Zee continually checks her purse for the small key every few stops, as if it’d disappeared from her bag on a whim. Once in the taxi, Zee tells their driver the address to her mother’s brownstone. “With the right people, taxis are probably my second favorite form of transportation. And you’re right, visiting in the day is probably for the best.” Patting Kyle on the cheek she laughs, “You know, I wasn’t going to say anything but you have totally started to lose your tan since moving east. We’re pale people together, living under smog. So sad.”
"Oh geez, am I?" Kyle makes a show of trying to look at himself in the taxi’s rearview mirror. "Ahhhh, I’m a ghost! You lost your tan too - you got a little brown from Italy. Like a sugar cookie." Kyle kisses her a couple times. They turn a corner, and the taxi slows until it comes to a stop in front of an unlit brownstone, sandwiched between a row of them on a rather quiet street. The taxi driver tells Kyle the fare with a certain expectation, but Kyle’s already stepping out of the taxi, leaving Zee to pay.
"Boyfriends, what can you do?" she jokes as she slides over the fare to the driver (accompanied by a generous tip). She takes her time sliding out of the cab to join Kyle on the curb. "Well, it doesn’t look creepy. That’s probably good, right?" Zee pulls out the key to the brownstone, slowly making her way up the stairs as she twiddles it in her hand, "Alright. Alright. Okay. Yeah."
Kyle puts a hand in his pocket and hops up the stairs a couple at a time to follow Zee. Was that—? Did he see something…move in one of the third floor windows? Nah. No Kreacher lurked here. From the outside the building looked cold and un-alive, but certainly it didn’t give off any weird vibes or bleed from the bricks or anything. “Zee, what. What - ” Kyle puts his free hand on Zee’s waist, coming around to her side to look at her as she holds the key to the lock. ” - what if it’s just normal? What if your mother was just interested in, uh, real estate?”
Zee presses the key into the lock, “Maybe she was. Who knows.” she laughs softly, turning the key, “I mean you’ve gotten to talk to her longer than I ever have.”
Pushing the door open she peers inside, the entryway is dark, but clean and carpeted, as if someone was still living here, “Well. It’s not disgusting, So c’mon time to explore whatever she wants me to have besides the brownstone.”
Kyle isn’t sure how to feel about what Zee says. Mostly because she’s right - in a way, he has spoken to Sindella, interacted with her more than her own daughter ever had…and through her own daughter. He shakes his head. There’s Lantern-weird and then there’s Zatara-weird. He blinks into the dark hallway, eyes adjusting to the dimness even as his ring starts to glow slightly. “Huh. I expected it to be more…cobwebby.” As they step in, a rush of cool wind breezes past them and to meet the cold outside. “Drafty like I expected, though.” Kyle takes Zee’s hand in his.
"Considering it’s been untouched for at least a decade as far as I can tell- it should be, Kyle. Thanks magic." Leading the way through the hall, they can see a sitting room to the right with darkly stained and intricately carved wooden furniture. Across from the sitting room is a staircase leading up to the second floor, which holds who knows what. "I think I see the kitchen…shit we need lights I think. The electricity’s been shut off for a while," clapping her hands, Zee casts, "palc no," sending small orbs of light floating up to the ceiling above them, "Better?"
"Thanks magic," Kyle repeats Zee’s words back, without the wryness. The light orbs hover in a friendly way above them, and Kyle takes comfort in them. "It feels like we’ve stepped back in time," Kyle says, as he looks at all of the decor - so exquisite, so rich. The very fact that it was fully furnished was somewhat unnerving; the idea of furniture - supposedly functional items for living - were just…sitting here for over a decade. Kyle realizes he’s been whispering too, and with good reason. "It’s so. It’s really quiet in here, Zee."
"You think so?" Zee turns back around to face Kyle, "I guess things do look a little older…antique? We’ll have to see if that applies to the rest of her place." Zee raises her eyebrow at Kyle’s second comment, "You’re whispering, and now you’ve got me whispering, Kyle. That’s what’s keeping things quiet," but Zee pauses, considering Kyle’s volume, "Actually- keep quiet. If something or someone is living here, maybe we won’t scare them." Turning back around she nods to herself, yes this is a good plan because meeting something magical feels all too possible here now that she has goosebumps blossoming across her skin despite staying in her jacket and scarf, "Yes- hey I found the kitchen!" she whisper-cheers back to Kyle, "It looks so cute, still antique. Come see."
"Cute?" Kyle sounds a little surprised, but also a little amused. Zee’s relaxed disposition (as far as Kyle can tell) is certainly helping Kyle to feel less wary. He follows her down the hall, entering the pristine kitchen. A thought occurs to him. "Well if something is living here, it’d need to eat, hey? Let’s see if we can find any vittles that aren’t a decade old…" Kyle starts poking through the cupboards, looking around to see if there was a fridge; but fully expecting to find something antiquated, like an icebox instead.
"Maybe they eat out?" Zee jokes, comfortably hopping up on a countertop as if she’d been in this home before. She lets Kyle poke through the cupboards and then the fridge- it’s an actual (although an older model) fridge, "Did you find anything? Or are we going to have to fall back on the lemon donut? I could actually go for another…" Zee’s thought trails off as she notices a pitch black cat wander into the kitchen, "I think we found a home owner- Kyle?"
Kyle busies himself with poking through the kitchen; seeing Zee sitting atop the counter brings back, almost absurdly, memories of their (her) Green Street apartment. Their familiarity, usually finding themselves in the kitchen, Zee on the counter while Kyle kisses her and rucks her shirt up under her arms — Zee calls out to him and Kyle turns to look over at her, and then at the movement on the tiled floor. “It’s - it’s a cat! Hi there, buddy…” Kyle approaches it, crouching down and holding his fingers out to the animal.
The cat sits down on the tiled floor, looking Kyle up and down but not moving into Kyle’s greeting hand, “What a sourpuss,” Zee laughs, “I guess it doesn’t like you that much, lemme try.” Zee approaches the cat slowly, a hand stretched out similarly to Kyle’s. The cat takes this greeting, nuzzling into her hand for a moment then moving out of the kitchen, turning back to Zee from it’s spot in the hallway, “You think it wants us to follow?”
Kyle grins, trying to keep up Zee’s jovial mood. “Ah, it’s because you smell like Toulouse, I’m sure.” He stands up, putting his hands in his coat pockets as he watches the cat stroll down the hallway, then turn to look at them. Another thought occurs to him and he looks over at Zee. “Mierda. Didn’t that kid have a cat? That magic kid? Remember when we were turned into kids and that kid….bum bum bum…the Witchboy?” Kyle points at the cat from behind his other hand, as if he’s hiding anything from the animal.
"Klarion the Witchboy." Zee fills in the blank, "That’s not his cat, his familiar Teekle doesn’t look anything like that cat." Although there was a possibility the cat was someone else’s familiar- her mom’s? No. "It’s fine. It wants us to see something, and it likes me because I have a cat that’s all." Zee stands up, extending her hand to hold Kyle’s once more, "Lets go see what the cat wants."
Kyle reaches out, lacing his fingers with Zee as he looks at her with a somewhat wistful smile, “That’s all. Totally logical, of course. No Klarinet, no Tinkle.” Kyle takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Okay! Alrighty, kitty, lead on. You just watch Zee - he’ll probably just be taking us to his food bowl. Meow. Feed me. I think I saw a can of Whiskas in one of the cupboards…” Kyle is just rambling now, filling up the silence as they follow the creature’s silent path.
"Totally logically. Yup. Even the Whiskas." At Kyle’s quip on the cat dish, the cat meows, almost a sound of protest to accompany it’s twitching tail. The cat leads the way up the stairs to the second floor, moving swiftly through the hallway till it stops in front of a shut door, tapping it lightly with it’s tail. In the dark of the hallway, the cat’s eyes seem to glow a bluish, similar to Zee’s own, blinking slowly as it stares up at Kyle and Zee waiting their move now. "We open the door." Zee decides without Kyle, swiftly turning the knob and pushing the door open. Inside there are stacks of large cardboard boxes scattered around a bedroom furniture set, styled similarly to the sitting room downstairs.
"Zee I —" Kyle starts to say, but Zee’s already opening the door, heading inside. Kyle keeps his eye on the cat. After the sight of the pale electric blue of the animal’s eyes - eerily similar to Zee’s own eye colour - he doesn’t quite believe the cat is normal. Not that he did from the get go, but…it was nice to pretend for a while. The bedroom is clean like the other rooms, but the cardboard boxes to ping Kyle’s curiosity, despite his wariness. "Someone’s packing? Or unpacking?" He doesn’t let go of Zee’s hand as she surveys the room. "What’s in here kittykitty? A mouse?"
The cat remains in it’s spot, waiting for them both by the door as it watches. Zee moves to the closest box, trying to see if there’s anything written along the sides to indicate what’s inside. “Are you getting nervous?” she asks Kyle, “My palms are all sweaty, I think I’m getting nervous. But I wanna open these. I don’t know why- if it’s the cat or me but I wanna know what’s inside, but everything else is telling me like nah you’re chicken.”
"I’m only nervous if you are, but." Kyle raises his fist, his ring glowing. He glances over to the window - it’s large and wide, big enough to escape out of if needed. "I’m ready, sweetheart. If some ghost pops outta that box and says ‘boo’, I’ll have us outta here in two seconds flat." Kyle looks at the cat and suddenly wonders if it can understand what he’s saying. It just watches them right back, sitting in its spot. Kyle looks back at Zee and gives her a determined smile. "Okay. Open sesame, amor."
"Alright." Zee pushes her fingers underneath the opening flaps of the first box, pulling it open with a quick tug, "It’s…books?" Zee plucks one from the pile, it’s leatherbound and considerably thick. Zee opens the book to the first page, but her eyes scan up to Kyle suddenly before she even has a chance to skim over the contents of the page, "It’s a diary, my diary. I’m sorry, I know I’m interrupting you both, but I thought I needed just one more quick chat with you before I go." she smiles, "Don’t be upset, and do not hurt that cat."
"I….¿que?" Kyle blinks at Zee, but she’s not - she’s - the transition is so - Kyle’s breathing quickens and his ring glows brighter, more threatening despite it being Zee’s voice, Zee’s eyes, Zee’s hair and arms and hips. "….Suh - Sindella….?" Kyle was whispering before to not break the silence in the home, but now it’s not whispering; his voice comes out as small. His hesitation is only for a second before he takes a step towards her. "What’d you do to Zatanna??!"
"Hello Kyle. Good to see you’re catching on quicker this time." she lowers the diary, tilting her head towards his glowing ring, "Now is that really necessary? You know as well as I do that Zatanna is fine. I can’t hurt her without hurting myself. She’s fine, just resting right under the surface like I usually am," Sindella as Zee winces just slightly, "you’ll be happy to know, my daughter is actually fighting me some this time. What fun. Now, as my daughter so astutely pointed out I have spoken with you more than I ever will with her- and that’s about to change. So I thought it might be best to discuss what she’s just found with you, in case she doesn’t understand, or want to. Can we do that?"
Kyle watches Zee-Sindella carefully, unable to stop himself from visibly perking up at the thought of Zee trying to fight against the possession of her mother. He can’t hide his feelings; and although he feels a strange rush of pride for Zee, he also lowers his ringed fist and shifts out of the offensive. Kyle looks down at Sindella, taking a couple steps closer to her. His jaw is tight, squared hard when he finally speaks. “Okay, Sindella. We can talk. We can do that. Chances are I won’t really understand anyway, but. I know Zee’ll wanna know what you want to tell her, so. More books.” He licks his lips. “Talk.”
"You’re not destroying these." Sindella smiles up to Kyle, but it doesn’t quite reach her icy eyes, "These are as I said before, my diaries. Every box in this room- roughly a dozen or so- are filled with my diaries, and I need Zatanna to read all of them. It is very important that she read every last one because that is how I will leave her. Are you listening, I am going to leave her, and die in my own words. Each diary entry taking a little bit of my minor possession over a small portion of her away," she laughs to herself, "It’s a little narcissistic, but I need to stay in character don’t I? That’s what I need you to tell her. Do you understand, or are there some questions?"
"So she can’t just…I dunno. Zee can’t just stab all the diaries with a Basilisk tooth?" Kyle asks flippantly; but he feels a small amount of shame for being so callous. Sindella was…disturbing. Her perceptions about how mother and child should interact come off as completely strange and alien to Kyle. But the truth was, she was giving Kyle instructions on how to get Zatanna to, essentially, kill her. Kyle’s eyes thin slightly, unwilling yet to believe this, that this seemingly self-serving person could be volunteering to give up her life so suddenly. Such as it is, Sindella’s ‘life’. "Why?" he asks her suddenly. "Why’re you doing this? How’m I - how’s Zee supposed to believe that if she reads your diaries, that you’ll just, uh, leave just like that?"
"A Basilisk- oh honestly. That’ll make such a mess. Why would she even do that?" the reference is completely lost on Sindella.
She purses her lips, trying to think of how to reply to his question, “When I am inside Zatanna, I can only push and prod on her own desires. She has the idea to run away from her father’s show with a Parisian boy? I tell her to go for it and she follows my advice. She wants to play cat and mouse with some media morons, I whisper some encouragement and she follows. My influence only reaches so far, it can only be pushed on what she knows. And she finally knows about the brownstone. So I pushed on it till she went,” tapping her fingers on a box, Sindella shrugs, “As much fun as I seem to have- living as a parasite so you say- I have been waiting to go for a little over a decade. I want to go. It’s been lovely to get to know her this deeply, and the way I’ve chosen to die will allow her to do the same with my life. A give and take.”
Kyle now feels really bad. He rubs the back of his neck, letting his guard down a lot more now as he smiles a little ruefully at Sindella. He’s not trying to build a rapport but…her story, as bizarre as it is, does end up tugging on his sentimental heartstrings. “You’re more kind of an internal voice, I suppose. Not a parasite, Sindella. Other than giving everyone a freakout this summer during Zee’s tour, you didn’t really…” Kyle sighs. He’s not sure how to say ‘you’re hella freaky but you don’t really seem to mean any harm.’ So he shrugs and nods, relenting. “Alright Sindella. I’ll tell Zee, I’ll tell her what you said. She can’t hear you at all right now? Or you think…she doesn’t wanna listen? She’s told be before, she’s gotten /used/ to you, uh. Being there. With her. In your way.”
"Turkey was last minute business, which I’ll happily remind you, you ruined. Thank you for that. I didn’t really have a chance to say it then, but I’ll say it now, that book of spells was meant to be taken care of without me, but obviously it hadn’t been. I was just tying up loose ends while I had the chance to."
Sindella’s lips tug at Kyle’s question, asking for Zee- always Zee, “As far as I’m aware she can’t hear me, but if she’s able she might not listen anyway. So I just wanted to be certain I’d have you able to remind her what I’m telling you now.” Sindella folds her arms loosely across Zee’s chest, “My daughter might be used to what she perceives as my presence, but trust me. She does not need me, not any longer. She hasn’t needed for some time.”a sad smile grows, reaching Sindella’s normally icy stare, “She has you instead, and you are much better than me from what I understand.”
Kyle squints at Sindella sidelong, and then wags a finger at her. “Waitaminute. I know this schtick. I’ve seen enough of Zee’s romcoms to know when the mother-in-law is trying to pit the hubby against her daughter for some sorta nefarious yet comedic…sometimes romantic purpose. What if I tell her and then she…I dunno,” Kyle tries to think up some wild scenario. “What if she doesn’t wanna read ‘em? What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she asks me some question about you that I can’t answer? Then I’ll have to try to defend you and then Zee’ll be like ‘why are you taking my estranged possessing mother’s side, Kyle?’ and I’ll have to be like ‘just listen to me and your mother, Zee!’ and then. Yeah. Yeah!” Kyle shakes his head, looking around at the boxs and boxes of diaries. “No. Nope. Nuh-uh. I should just destroy ‘em all right now.”
"I still have influence. I can get her going, but it’s you that needs to keep that flame burning when I start to die, because it is going to take some doing to kill me, believe me." but with Kyle’s protest in mind, Sindella sighs, pushing past him to pluck up the cat still waiting patiently in the doorway, "Now I really, really did not want to have to rely on this, but if you’re threatening to destroy the only chance I have to truly die the way I’ve always wanted to, then you, son-in-law, are leaving me no choice.” holding out the cat, Sindella explains, “This is an Albastı. She has been keeping watch on these diaries as I have requested her to, and I instructed her the same way I am instructing you and she is in complete support of my choice. So, if you so much as encourage Zatanna to stray away from my diaries, then she will torment you as is her nature. Her spirit will enter your’s and will leave you exhausted, feverish, and unable to do anything to stop this from continuing until you give in. My death is not a punchline for you to toy with.”
Kyle clicks his tongue and steps away from Zee-Sindella now that she has the cat, which regards him with those same blue eyes. “I know your death isn’t - wait are you serious? I have the same significance to you as this mindless beast?” The cat makes a warning ‘mrowwing’ sound and Kyle holds up his hands in deference. “Okay, okay. You’re a fancy magical cat, I get it. And of course it’s come down to threats, I mean. I guess…I guess it makes more sense to me, for someone like you to be threatening rather than.” Kyle runs a hand through his hair, sighing. “I won’t destroy the books, Sindella. No need to sic the puddytat on my psyche. Your death isn’t a punchline. But it’s certainly been a….a performance.” He smiles a little, because, well. That was appropriate, wasn’t it? Given the Zataras and all. “Zee won’t wanna assist you in your euthanasia, Sindella. But I get it - that’s where I come in to give her the ‘prodding’ that you used to give her before. Except now you want me to prod her to end your life….such as it is. Oh boy. This is all so esoteric.” Kyle pushes both his hands into his hair, turning away from Sindella to look outside the window. It’s still just a normal day outside with normal people and normal Gotham brightly-dressed theme-related crime or whatever. “You sure this is what you want to do, Sindella? Can’t we find another way? Maybe store you in a bottle or, or, or put you in a magic mirror or a locket or something?”
Sindella smiles, “Good. She will still be following you. Just in case, I hope you’re not allergic.” Sindella lets the cat drop from her arms, the small creature curling beside Kyle closely, “It runs in the family. We’re all a bit dramatic as I’m sure you’re well aware of from my daughter alone. Why not die the way you lived, reading how you lived? It’s a bit poetic.”
As Kyle moves to the window the cat continues to follow- keeping a respectable but close distance between them. Sindella follows his movements with her eyes, but she allows the cat’s proximity to him to serve as her own, “I had a small bit of time to determine how I wanted to die when my physical body was destroyed roughly a decade ago, and this is what I chose then. I haven’t changed my mind in that time. Perhaps that’s because I no longer have a mind to change. So I suppose I am quite certain now that this is a real possibility.”
She laughs at the idea to store herself away in an inanimate object, “Do you really- truly want me looming around in a mirror? Do you think Zatanna wants that either? That’s a real punchline. I don’t want that. What I do want is a closure that’s is in my control. It’s a tad morbid and a task I don’t take lightly, particularly when thinking my daughter will be the one to undertake it, but I think it will allow us all some closure.”
Kyle listens to everything Sindella has to say, as he peers out the window, looking at nothing. Finally he turns, regarding her for a long time. Zee, but Sindella. Sindealla, but Zee. “I can’t even pretend to really understand,” he admits, “But I’ve learned that sometimes I don’t need to understand, I just need to accept. I’ll tell Zee all of this for you. I’ll explain all of it, just like you explained to me. But I won’t make her do anything she doesn’t wanna do, Sindella. I won’t promise that.” Kyle looks down at the cat. “Maybe Miss Meow here can convince her, if she’s gonna be my friend for a while.” He isn’t sure how well Mar’i will take to Miss Meow, but that’ll be the risk the black cat will have to take. He looks back up at Zee. “There, I’m agreeing. I don’t got any more questions for you.”
"Thank you, Kyle, Miss Meow…she’ll be gone as soon as the diaries are completed. If they’re not, then yes, maybe irritating my daughter will be in order as well." she replies softly, "Seeing as this is likely our last time conversing in this way, I would like to ask you something, my apologies in advance for possibly trying to be a meddling mother. I’ve experienced your relationship only through my daughter’s eyes, and I see every positive and flaw she sees in you and how these reflect back on her and yet, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on your relationship. Where do you see this continuing? Zatanna can be quite fanciful when it comes to those ideas…and I’ve always thought hearing your side might be interesting to compare the two on my own. Please. This might give me something to think on in whatever time I have remaining."
"You’ve ‘experienced’ our relationship…?" Kyle repeats, turning a bit red around his cheeks and ears. He feels incredulous about her question, but swallows that down, figuring it wasn’t best to explode at the woman again. This was her strange, freaky way of caring, he tried to reason. "I see it continuing until it can’t continue any longer," Kyle says with certainty, looking Sindella-Zee in the eyes. "I’m committed to…to you. Your daughter. To Zee. She’s one of the best things in my life and I’d, well. I’m. I’m working on making sure it stays that way for us." He gives a side-smirk. "Satisfied, mom-in-law?"
"Bits and pieces, again, it has mostly been through her thoughts more than anything which has fed my curiosity," she takes a seat on the corner of the bed with a small nod, "So thank you, I am, satisfied with that. Yes." she pats the mattress, "This is just a precaution. I believe Zatanna fainted the last time we switched back, although it was a bit forceful then…so. Kyle, it has been a pleasure." shutting her eyes tightly, Sindella allows Zee back up to the surface- her body falling lax back onto the bed just as her mother had predicted. The first thing Zee- actual real Zee- asks Kyle when she opens her eyes is, "What did she tell you?"
Kyle flies over to Zee the minute her eyes shut, half laying across the bed to cradle her head and shoulders as she falls back. The cat - Miss Meow - leaps onto the bed, watching them both with interest when Zee looks up at Kyle, a Snow White who needed to rescue herself from her own self-serving magical mother. Kyle doesn’t answer her question immediately, because he needs to know for his own sake more than hers - “Are you okay?”
Zee shifts into Kyle’s arms, “I’m fine I’m fine, now what did she say, what’s with the face, you’re scaring me,” she turns to the cat, “And the cat is hovering, why’s the cat hovering what the heck? Kyle.”
"No, no no it’s fine! The cat - " Kyle turns and looks over at the cat, who tilts its head to watch him back, " - the cat’s a friend of your mother’s. She— ay dios." Kyle pushes his hand through his hair again, not sure where to even start with explaining. He almost wishes Sindella left him, like, a script or something. "Sindella wanted you to come here and find these - these boxes." Kyle gets off the bed once Zee’s sat up, moving over to one of the boxes and opening it. Just as Sindella said: neatly packed-away leather bound books. "All of these boxes are full-up with her…diaries, Zee. Diaries of her life. She…said she brought you here to find them so that you could read them all, every one."
"Of course the cat’s her friend, I should’ve known- I should’ve known she didn’t just want me to pick over her place and turn it over on the market or something normal. Nooo, it’s never normal with us," she throws her arms over her eyes, groaning softly, "Diaries, that I have no interest in reading. Not even one, let alone every one. It’s not happening Kyle." Zee raises up one arm in the air, a finger pointing to the ceiling, "But she thought of that, didn’t she! UGH she thinks of everything, dammit. What’d she threaten this time?"
Kyle puts his hand on his hip and rubs the back of his neck as he turns and looks at Zee, his eyes wide and bright. “Well….you know how she’s been, um. With you for these past few years….this decade? So she doesn’t - she /says/ she doesn’t wanna be…here any longer. She wants to…enter the Fade. Go beyond the veil. Fade into the west….y’know? And the only way she can do that is if you read all of her diaries.”
Zee frowns, “She wants to die, and I get to pull the plug. I almost want to call this as a win, but she’s making me read her damn diaries to do it. Seriously are you kidding me?! I don’t wanna know about her freaking life! I don’t care!” She sits up from the bed, petting Miss Meow (even if it’s aligned with the ‘wrong team’), “What do you think? You are the Sindella whisper after all.”
Kyle looks a little prissy and he sniffs, muttering petulantly, “I’m not a ‘Sindella whisperer’, I can’t help it if she gets all chatty ‘round me…” He bends down and picks up at diary, fanning the pages with his thumb and pausing to look at a sketch. He finds he can’t look at it too long because it starts to….slither on the page. He shuts the book and tries to smile brightly at Zee. “Well at least it looks like her writing’s pretty large. You’ll probably be able to finish one of these puppies on the train ride back to Metropolis. Easy reading…?” He ends that last sentence on a hopeful if unsure question.
Zee laughs, swinging her legs off the bed at Kyle, “You totally are, forever a mama’s boy, even with mamas that aren’t your’s!” With a small sigh, Zee holds out her hand, asking for the book, “Fine. I’m not that slow of a reader, and if it means I don’t have a meddling mother to deal with any longer it’ll be worth it. Do you think I should leave the rest of these boxes here, or send them home…or. I don’t know this is a ton of boxes and diaries.”
Kyle smiles a little sheepishly. “Well…yeah. Moms do always like me,” he admits. Kyle then sobers up a bit and returns over to Zee’s side, handing the diary he was holding over to her. “But Zee…does this mean. I mean. You’re okay with doing this? Reading your mother into…non-existence?” He tries hard to ask the question without sounding biased any particular way, but he’s not sure if he’s succeeded in that.
Zee leans onto Kyle, “Yeah, I think I’m alright with this. She asked you to get me to do this, and I never wanted her in my head in the first place. I can kill her if that’s what she wants. We both want her gone, just for different reasons I guess. But you don’t agree. Do you.”
Kyle winces slightly. He can’t help but feel a bit aghast that Zee’s so completely accepted killing her mother, right down to actually saying it straight out. He tries to imagine thinking or saying the same thing about his father and he comes up short. But he holds up his hands and shrugs at Zee. “Y’know this is you and that is me. I knew you and Sindella have a…complicated relationship, and so I don’t got a horse in this race, honey. I’ll…” He looks down at the floor, at her booted feet and he sighs. “I’ll support you.”
In a way the irony was palpable. Both Zee and Sindella agreed on this, but it was /Kyle/ having trouble accepting it. That, if anything, really put things in perspective for Kyle. He crouches down and picks Miss Meow up, stroking her. “Well. I guess we can pack ‘em up and drive them in a Rent-a-Rayner truck to your place?”
Zee presses a soft kiss against Kyle’s cheek, “Thank you. Even if you disagree, she has to go Kyle. She doesn’t belong in me. Maybe if I start reading these, you’ll get it more. I don’t want to share myself with her anymore- she was never there for me to begin with, but I guess I’ll be there for her end.” Zee smiles at Kyle’s suggestion for a construct u-haul, “Well, it won’t be as romantic as another train ride, but I guess it’ll do so long as you don’t mind driving. Yeah?”
Kyle relaxes from Zee’s kiss, and then more and more as she talks. He laughs to himself, shaking his head. “Damn, of course. You really do got this all worked out, you really - yeah. See? I shouldn’t’ve doubted you when you’re the one who’s been /living/ with her for the past decade. Yeesh, Rayner,” Kyle bops the side of his head with the heel of his hand. He reaches out and takes Zee’s hands, leaning in to give her a kiss. That she had been Sindella in the same body less that ten minutes ago doesn’t seem to bother Kyle, nor the idea of kissing Zee in her mother’s bedroom amidst all the diaries, with the cat watching between them. Maybe it was even a little naughty….Kyle grins a bit more against Zee’s mouth, but keeps the dirty-minded thoughts to himself. He pulls back and looks around. “Hokay! So. Let’s get these boxes downstairs.”
Zee rubs a hand along his upper arm as they kiss again, “Living really wouldn’t be the way I’d put it, but sure. We’ve been together. Too long,” pushing off the bed she picks up a box of diaries in her arms, “She didn’t scare you, did she? I’m really sorry about this, I should’ve been more prepared for her to pop up again. I was just trying so hard to be optimistic about this place and why she wanted me to have it I didn’t even think to consider anything worse would happen.” the cat weaves in between their legs as they load up the diaries into the back of the construct u-haul, “Hey- what is the deal with the cat, I mean You said it’s my mom’s friend so like it is just really protective of her diaries or lonely, or what?”
"She was scary as hell," Kyle says without hesitation. A trail of construct moving people tote boxes of books down the stairs behind him as he trots down with Zee. "I mean, she’s in your body, and I know - I /know/ this body, Zee. But when Sindella was talking it was like talking to a completely different person, who was still you somehow. Unnerving doesn’t begin to cover it." He shakes his head vehemently though. "But you - don’t apologize, Zee. When I started dating a half-human, half-magi, I figured you’d come with a schwack of unconventional family. But I get why you’re frustated. Woulda been nice to just shown up and realized you mom wanted you to, like, flip a house for the market, hey?"
Kyle nudges the cat gently as it rubs against his leg. “Miss Meow is here to make sure that I make sure you read all her diaries. Safeguard for a safeguard, I guess?”
"She’s scary…I’ll have to take your word for it. So, I’m just trying to picture it, it’s me talking to you but not because it’s my mother. Do I still sound like me, or is my voice different? Or my face? I mean, I guess it’s just like a different person pulling my strings. Yeah?" she laughs softly, shaking her head as she pushes in the last box into the truck, "Yeah flipping the brownstone. That’d…that’d be a lot easier than this. Although, I guess I have to figure out what I wanna do here too." Scooping up the cat, Zee sighs, "Well, Miss Meow welcome to my version of the family. It sounds like you know my Mommy well, but now you get to know me, and my Kyle. He’s so very good and so you better be as nice as possible to him, watchcat." Miss Meow purrs softly, her bright blue eyes blinking slowly up at Kyle. She is comfortable and watchful from Zatanna’s arms.
Kyle eyes the cat, feeling slightly fretful. “Do I feed magical cats? Oh geez. Does she have a magical litter box I’ll need to empty of magical poop? How do I do that?” His constructs pack the last box into the truck and Kyle goes around to the cab, opening Zee’s door for her and helping her up before going around and climbing in himself. “Your mother was…oh cripes this is weird. I’m describing your mother to you and she’s /inside/ of you…on a spiritual level or something. I don’t even know where to beg- oh! We’ll need a road map. From Gotham to Metropolis. My ring doesn’t do freeway GPS service.”
Zee lets the cat rest along her shoulder as she settles into her seat, “Alright, magical creatures can usually do their own thing, but she’ll probably just need some food and a litter box to take care of herself, I guess. Since she’s magical, I guess if she tries to pester she’ll be fairly clear as to what she wants if you start doing things wrong? I mean, think of this cat like Pot or Tah maybe. They’re a little magical, and they let you know what they want don’t they?”
At Kyle’s request for directions, she pulls out her phone, her gps app instantly rattling off step by step directions to her apartment in Metropolis, “Who needs a fancy ring when you have a phone?” she jokes, “Alright, directions handled. Now please tell me what it’s like speaking with my Mother. I’m super curious, please!”
"Okay, um…" Kyle carefully pulls out into the road, heading back into the more busier roadways as he loyally follows the GPS’ instructions. "She’s very…she’s eerily calm and she always seems slightly amused. I dunno how but her eyes always seem brighter and her mouth seems thinner. And your face seems thinner, too. Everything about you seems slimmer, really. Like…willowy, like an elf. And taller, too. Like my height. And she’s always kind of smiling, but it never reaches her eyes, like. There’s ambition or…determination or I dunno. Steel. There’s steel in her eyes. She’s a lot more closed than you are, that’s for sure." Kyle glances over at Zee, to see if what he’s saying is going over well for her. It’s a lot to take in - her boyfriend describing the mother inside her. It’s loca.
Zee sinks slowly in her seat as Kyle describes Sindella in ways that she’d never been able to imagine on her own. Miss Meow fusses by the movement until she’s moved to Zee’s lap, the small cat pushing on the first of her mother’s diaries, resting beside Zee, “It’s weird, thinking we look similar, but still aren’t quite…” she laughs softly, flipping pages through the diary, but never quite settling on a page, “So she’s skinnier than me, I guess I get my curves from Dad’s side. I guess, it makes sense that she’s closed off to you in comparison to me, we’re very familiar to one another Kyle. Like…shoot. Was I ever like that with you? When we first met maybe? I don’t think I’m always warm and fuzzy.”
"You know that stereotype of the ‘icy blonde’? Yeah. Sindella’s kinda like that except, like. Icy-hot. Not hot like caliente hot," Kyle rushes to add, glancing over at Zee again. "More like…gah I dunno. Like she can easily burn you, with all of her intense pleasantness. It wasn’t really pleasantness though, was it. No, just…." Kyle trails off as he gets them onto the highway, doing a lot of shoulder-checking as he merges.
"Ahh, well, yeah! When we first-first met you were kinda standoffish but that was an extraordinary circumstance, we were just tryina get outta that dimension. When we met again you were really sweet. Warm and fuzzy. And…when we um, went through the troubles, us in different relationships and commitments and all, you were." Kyle thinks about it for a moment and then nods. "Yeah. Yeah you were definitely icy-hot. And hot-hot, but not in a creepy way." He adds with a slightly crooked grin.
"Icy-hot…well that sounds pretty accurate for her, and I guess maybe sometimes for me too then, haha. If the circumstances are just right." Zee let’s Kyle drive, keeping quiet for some time, watching the Gotham skyline from the passenger window. "You know this is going to sound silly, but I’m a little jealous I haven’t gotten the chance to meet your parents. I mean, I get that it’s a little difficult for the both of us, and the circumstances around meeting my Mom has never been the best, but. Hey look at me, I’m still jealous. I wanna know what shapes you, or does like you sort of can with me and my Mom. The woman didn’t even raise me, and yet you can tell we’re related. It’s cool, or at least I’d tell someone who’s not me going through this it’s cool."
Kyle looks curiously over at Zee, listening to her observations. “You really think so? I mean. If Sindella was Sindella and not Sindella-in-Zee, you think I’d be able to tell you guys’re related. I’m not sure…I’m a pretty visual person. And even with a totally different person calling the shots in your body, it wasn’t some kinda Orphan Black total transformation. Maybe I could still see Zee because you /were/ Zee….honey. What’s this all about?” Kyle reaches his hand out, giving her knee a little squeeze. “You wanna find some sorta connection between you and Sindella now? Some sorta…mother-daughter kinda ties?”
"Well, I guess we’ll never get the chance to see if you could or not. I’m going to kill her," she replies softly, "I’m not sure. I think I’m trying to find a silver lining or something," Zee reaches out her hand to meet Kyle’s, "I never got a chance to know my mother, and by the time I was old enough to try to I didn’t want to anymore. Maybe that’s what she’s giving me all these for. I’ve done everything in my power to push her away, but the only way to get rid of her for sure is to know her. It’s pretty twisted, but clever."
"Yes and yes," Kyle has to agree. "I can’t imagine what this supposed life of hers is like right now. If you can call it that. I just keep thinking about…Voldemort - I know! I know it’s just a silly book, I know." He grins a bit, stroking her knuckles with his thumb rhythmically. "I’m just saying…yeah. Anyway. If trying to make a connection is your reason for reading alla her diaries, if that puts the control back in your hands instead of her puppeting us both from beyond the grave, then I’m all for it. Build a rapport with the woman while she seeps herself out of you." Kyle is quiet for a moment and then he says, "You do know I think this is one helluva messed-up situation, right? Zatanna Zatara, you live a complex life." He brings her hand up, kissing her fingers. "I wouldn’t have it any other way."
"I’m reading these to get rid of her, but I’m looking forward to finding a possible connection. Somehow I don’t know. It feels safer. I don’t have to meet a person to meet her, I just need to read about her life in the way she’s written it. It’ll build something between us while she’s on her way out," Zee sighs, "You know the worst part about all of it is that she keeps dragging you into things, like you don’t need to deal with all this crazy but at the same time I don’t think I’d be able to get through any of this on my own. So thank you, for being able to deal with this complex life of mine. Maybe next year we’ll have to sort something out from your life. A nice trade off?"
"I like dealing with your complex life of yours, silly," Kyle waggles her hand. "Makes me feel all macho and manly, you know. Takin’ care of my lil’ woman an’ her troubles." Kyle puffs his chest out and looks over at Zee a couple times, grinning. "But you know if you really wanna, we can trade and you can be the macho manly woman takin’ care of your lil’ man’s troubles."
He’s happy to joke about it, because deep down, he’s more than a little wary of involving Zee too much in his Lantern business. Not just because of space but because of his own superstitions and fears. He switches the subject to something else he’d been avoiding talking about, but now seemed less daunting. “No seances for mom, please. She’d just weep about me using witch-craft to bring her out of the Lord’s embrace. And as for my father…” Kyle shrugs, his jaw tightening slightly. “I don’t even know if he’s dead or alive. So. If he’s not alive, you can seance him.”
Zee grins right back at him, “Of course I wanna. I can be your macho manly woman, taking care of little old you. I’d be great at it, don’t you think?” At Kyle’s change in topic, Zee pulls her hand from his, moving to smooth it along his peacoat gently, “No seances, for Maura. Although, damn here I am so anxious to try and prove her wrong, that this witch is totally good for her lapsed Catholic boy.” she picks up on the tenseness in Kyle as he mentions his father, and maybe he’s seen her act similarly in regards to her own mother before, “You want me to look into your father then?”
Kyle drives quietly for a long time staring ahead at the road. Other than the occasional tilt of his hands on the wheel, he’s still like a statue. When he moves, it’s sudden and heaving, like he’s jumped in from a marathon. “Nah. What’s the point? He’s never—” Kyle bites his words, then tries again, glancing over at Zee with a warm smile. “I’m not trying to make this parental issues olympics, but. Your mother wants you to know her. And even if it serves her own selfish purpose, she’s been sorta with you for a third of you life. My dad won’t ever get in contact with me. When he left, he left for good. And speaking to him once was enough. I don’t want him in my life.” He laughs loudly. “I’d rather a seance for Maura, honestly! She’d love you, Zee. She would. Eventually…” He grins cheekily.
Zee lets Kyle be on his own in the quiet of the cab for some time, feeling just a tad bad for pulling this up for him, but maybe it needed to be thought of. Who knows, it’s not like they spoke about this often, “It’s not the parental issues olympics, we’ve both got our own issues. That decade she’s spent with me isn’t really what I’d consider mothering in the least, but. It’s been something I guess. If she’d never infected me, and kept to herself like she had been for two thirds of my life? I’d give you the same answer you’re giving me about my Dad. So I get it, Kyle. We don’t have to poke around.”
Zee grins back at his sudden confidence over his Mom loving her, “I find that hard to believe, that she’d like some bimbo witch dating her son suddenly dragging her away from the good graces of the Lord just to say hello- but trust me. I can tell your mother was a sweetheart without having to meet her. She raised you after all. That’s proof enough for me.”
"She was the best," Kyle gushes, nodding, more than happy to talk about his mom. He can talk about his mom. "I mean I’m sure you and your dad had your ups and downs, just like me and mom, but. She really was the best, I couldn’t ask for a better mother, the way she took care of me." Kyle shakes his head in admiration. He licks his lips, then looks over at Zee, completely forgetting to refute her ‘bimbo witch’ comment. "D’you think. D’you think you’ll be able to make peace with Sindella someday? Even after everything she’s done? And everything she didn’t do?"
Zee smiles at him, loving to see him gush over his mother as much as she enjoyed hearing stories about the two of them together. Watching the way his face lights up just thinking about her, had her thinking that she speaks about her father in a similar way. Zee laughs, “Oh yeah we did. What teenage girl isn’t going to have her moments with her parents? You’re right though, I couldn’t have asked for a better Dad. No one was as patient as he was with me.”
Looking down at the first diary, Zee shrugs, “I don’t know. I think I have to get to know her before I have a chance to try and start forgiving her for so many things. She failed me a lot. Nearly every conceivable way she could’ve failed me, she did while my Dad triumphed. I mean seriously can you imagine having to give a thirteen year old girl The Talk, and discuss womanhood? He had to do that. I don’t know how, but he did it, and I wasn’t embarrassed.”
"She found all sorts of ways to fail you. New and interesting and bizarre and unique," Kyle adds on, congenially. He’s still grinning; the topics are a mix of heavy and light, and Kyle prefers to keep the trip light until Metropolis. "Awwww Zee! But you musta known already, before he gave you The Talk? Unless there’s some other The Talk that girls get at thirteen. And don’t get me started on awkward teen years with different-gender parent. My mom was very good about, ah, washing my sheets without any comment." He nods widely. "And very good about knocking first. Well, after that one time she barged into my room, she got good at knocking afterwards…heh. Oh my teens." He grins over at Zee. "Never again."
"Oh I knew, I did- he sort of reached me a little late with the birds and the bees portion of it- but it was more fielding the ‘how exactly do I use a tampon’ and ‘why exactly does this happen to me monthly and hurt’ questions raised during The Talk that he really had to shine through." Zee laughs loudly at Kyle, as well as with embarrassment for him, "Oh my god, oh god! You didn’t, KYLE! Oh geeze, oh NO! You didn’t think to do it in the shower? No clean up, and no nosey Mom’s!" wiping away tears, Zee giggles some more, "Oh I am so so so so glad I am not a teenager anymore. Never again is right."
"Look - look - it’s complicated," Kyle holds up his hand between them, turning red as his grin gets wider and more embarrassed. "It’s complicated!! It’s more about sleeping and morning and - ahhhhhhhhh. Never again, never ever again! I say that but I’ve been de-aged twice already in my life, guuhhhh. But." Kyle takes hold of Zee’s hand again, lacing his fingers with hers. "Anyway. Anyway. Yeah. Once we drop the books off, let’s grab something to eat and then just chill on your couch and watch cheesy movies. Something ridiculously normal, huh?"
Zee eyes the donuts hungrily, “Jelly filled?”
Kyle points them out. Two are sugared and two are powdered. “These four. One has lemon curd - issat a jelly? The other is a purple jelly. And then the other two are your regular, ah, red jelly.” Kyle takes a Boston cream out and bites half of it. He talks as he chews. “We rrrrdy ter go?”
Zee selects a red jelly donut for herself, “I’m ready if you’re ready,” she smiles up at him, taking a big bite of breakfast, “Ow bahd cun ert be?”
Kyle smiles suddenly, as Zee looks up at him. “That’s the ticket! It’s - what. It’s just a house, isn’t it. Not like…” Okay so that sentence wouldn’t really make sense, considering Shadowcrest practically had a personality of its own. He swallows his bite and crams the rest in his mouth. “Mebbe your mama’ll wanna donut too. Lemon curd?”
"It’s just a house," she agrees, although she’s not really counting on the brownstone to act like a normal home should either. She laughs at the lemon curd donut, getting up to grab her coat, scarves, and gloves, "Mommy will love it, sure." as if she really knows what her mother prefers to eat.
Kyle laughs as well, but as he closes the box he watches Zee busy herself with her winter wear. It was…curious. Different. It wasn’t Zee before, the troubled girl who seemed both avoidant and overwhelmed at the same time. It was something else entirely. “You’re always Zee, but I still don’t know all of you, do I,” he muses, almost to himself as he gets his own coat, a woolen pea coat that Zee bought him.
Zee licks at her sugared finger before she grabs onto her leather gloves, “I’m always Zee, yeah, and maybe you don’t know all of me- but do I know all of you either?” she shrugs, tucking the gloves into her coat pocket before moving over to Kyle to button up his own, “Are you upset about it? That I sometimes keep parts of myself to me?”
Kyle constructs gloves over his own hands and lets them drop to the side as Zee tidily buttons up his coat for him, and adds a scarf for him as well. He gives that time to consider her question. “I…I don’t think so, no. I’m not upset by it.” He smiles. “I kinda love how mysterious you can be sometimes…maybe it’s kinda exciting. But. If - just say if you knew pretty much everything about me,” he takes her hands and holds them in hers, looking down at her. “Do you think - I mean. Would you find that, er. Boring?”
With Kyle buttoned up, Zee quickly adjusts herself for the winter weather, scarf and gloves in perfect place, “Maybe it’s a magician thing. I don’t like giving away everything, not unless I know it’ll lead to something even better.” She swings her hands with his, smiling up to him warmly, “If we’re to say that I know everything about you, which I highly doubt is possible- I know a lot about you but I can’t know everything- I wouldn’t think that makes you boring. It just grounds me in all my mystery. You’re my stability Kyle,” tugging on his hands she pulls him towards the door, “C’mon the longer we wait on this the more chances I have to chicken out.”
”Okay okay okay,” Kyle grips her hand tightly as she hurries them out. They catch - of course - a train into Gotham from Metropolis, and Kyle mostly draws things on the frosted windows to entertain Zee and keep the topic off of the brownstone for a couple hours at least. Kyle hails a taxi for them to pile into to get to Sindella’s townhouse. “Wow. I haven’t been in a taxi in ages,” Kyle settles in, and pulls Zee up against him. He kisses her neck. “Visiting in the day was a good idea. Somehow things seem less doom and gloom in the day. Even if it is /Gotham/ day.” Which, to Kyle, is practically night.
Zee giggles and smiles all the way- their train ride living up to nearly everything they’d imagined it would be together. Despite Kyle keeping off topic of the brownstone, Zee continually checks her purse for the small key every few stops, as if it’d disappeared from her bag on a whim. Once in the taxi, Zee tells their driver the address to her mother’s brownstone. “With the right people, taxis are probably my second favorite form of transportation. And you’re right, visiting in the day is probably for the best.” Patting Kyle on the cheek she laughs, “You know, I wasn’t going to say anything but you have totally started to lose your tan since moving east. We’re pale people together, living under smog. So sad.”
"Oh geez, am I?" Kyle makes a show of trying to look at himself in the taxi’s rearview mirror. "Ahhhh, I’m a ghost! You lost your tan too - you got a little brown from Italy. Like a sugar cookie." Kyle kisses her a couple times. They turn a corner, and the taxi slows until it comes to a stop in front of an unlit brownstone, sandwiched between a row of them on a rather quiet street. The taxi driver tells Kyle the fare with a certain expectation, but Kyle’s already stepping out of the taxi, leaving Zee to pay.
"Boyfriends, what can you do?" she jokes as she slides over the fare to the driver (accompanied by a generous tip). She takes her time sliding out of the cab to join Kyle on the curb. "Well, it doesn’t look creepy. That’s probably good, right?" Zee pulls out the key to the brownstone, slowly making her way up the stairs as she twiddles it in her hand, "Alright. Alright. Okay. Yeah."
Kyle puts a hand in his pocket and hops up the stairs a couple at a time to follow Zee. Was that—? Did he see something…move in one of the third floor windows? Nah. No Kreacher lurked here. From the outside the building looked cold and un-alive, but certainly it didn’t give off any weird vibes or bleed from the bricks or anything. “Zee, what. What - ” Kyle puts his free hand on Zee’s waist, coming around to her side to look at her as she holds the key to the lock. ” - what if it’s just normal? What if your mother was just interested in, uh, real estate?”
Zee presses the key into the lock, “Maybe she was. Who knows.” she laughs softly, turning the key, “I mean you’ve gotten to talk to her longer than I ever have.”
Pushing the door open she peers inside, the entryway is dark, but clean and carpeted, as if someone was still living here, “Well. It’s not disgusting, So c’mon time to explore whatever she wants me to have besides the brownstone.”
Kyle isn’t sure how to feel about what Zee says. Mostly because she’s right - in a way, he has spoken to Sindella, interacted with her more than her own daughter ever had…and through her own daughter. He shakes his head. There’s Lantern-weird and then there’s Zatara-weird. He blinks into the dark hallway, eyes adjusting to the dimness even as his ring starts to glow slightly. “Huh. I expected it to be more…cobwebby.” As they step in, a rush of cool wind breezes past them and to meet the cold outside. “Drafty like I expected, though.” Kyle takes Zee’s hand in his.
"Considering it’s been untouched for at least a decade as far as I can tell- it should be, Kyle. Thanks magic." Leading the way through the hall, they can see a sitting room to the right with darkly stained and intricately carved wooden furniture. Across from the sitting room is a staircase leading up to the second floor, which holds who knows what. "I think I see the kitchen…shit we need lights I think. The electricity’s been shut off for a while," clapping her hands, Zee casts, "palc no," sending small orbs of light floating up to the ceiling above them, "Better?"
"Thanks magic," Kyle repeats Zee’s words back, without the wryness. The light orbs hover in a friendly way above them, and Kyle takes comfort in them. "It feels like we’ve stepped back in time," Kyle says, as he looks at all of the decor - so exquisite, so rich. The very fact that it was fully furnished was somewhat unnerving; the idea of furniture - supposedly functional items for living - were just…sitting here for over a decade. Kyle realizes he’s been whispering too, and with good reason. "It’s so. It’s really quiet in here, Zee."
"You think so?" Zee turns back around to face Kyle, "I guess things do look a little older…antique? We’ll have to see if that applies to the rest of her place." Zee raises her eyebrow at Kyle’s second comment, "You’re whispering, and now you’ve got me whispering, Kyle. That’s what’s keeping things quiet," but Zee pauses, considering Kyle’s volume, "Actually- keep quiet. If something or someone is living here, maybe we won’t scare them." Turning back around she nods to herself, yes this is a good plan because meeting something magical feels all too possible here now that she has goosebumps blossoming across her skin despite staying in her jacket and scarf, "Yes- hey I found the kitchen!" she whisper-cheers back to Kyle, "It looks so cute, still antique. Come see."
"Cute?" Kyle sounds a little surprised, but also a little amused. Zee’s relaxed disposition (as far as Kyle can tell) is certainly helping Kyle to feel less wary. He follows her down the hall, entering the pristine kitchen. A thought occurs to him. "Well if something is living here, it’d need to eat, hey? Let’s see if we can find any vittles that aren’t a decade old…" Kyle starts poking through the cupboards, looking around to see if there was a fridge; but fully expecting to find something antiquated, like an icebox instead.
"Maybe they eat out?" Zee jokes, comfortably hopping up on a countertop as if she’d been in this home before. She lets Kyle poke through the cupboards and then the fridge- it’s an actual (although an older model) fridge, "Did you find anything? Or are we going to have to fall back on the lemon donut? I could actually go for another…" Zee’s thought trails off as she notices a pitch black cat wander into the kitchen, "I think we found a home owner- Kyle?"
Kyle busies himself with poking through the kitchen; seeing Zee sitting atop the counter brings back, almost absurdly, memories of their (her) Green Street apartment. Their familiarity, usually finding themselves in the kitchen, Zee on the counter while Kyle kisses her and rucks her shirt up under her arms — Zee calls out to him and Kyle turns to look over at her, and then at the movement on the tiled floor. “It’s - it’s a cat! Hi there, buddy…” Kyle approaches it, crouching down and holding his fingers out to the animal.
The cat sits down on the tiled floor, looking Kyle up and down but not moving into Kyle’s greeting hand, “What a sourpuss,” Zee laughs, “I guess it doesn’t like you that much, lemme try.” Zee approaches the cat slowly, a hand stretched out similarly to Kyle’s. The cat takes this greeting, nuzzling into her hand for a moment then moving out of the kitchen, turning back to Zee from it’s spot in the hallway, “You think it wants us to follow?”
Kyle grins, trying to keep up Zee’s jovial mood. “Ah, it’s because you smell like Toulouse, I’m sure.” He stands up, putting his hands in his coat pockets as he watches the cat stroll down the hallway, then turn to look at them. Another thought occurs to him and he looks over at Zee. “Mierda. Didn’t that kid have a cat? That magic kid? Remember when we were turned into kids and that kid….bum bum bum…the Witchboy?” Kyle points at the cat from behind his other hand, as if he’s hiding anything from the animal.
"Klarion the Witchboy." Zee fills in the blank, "That’s not his cat, his familiar Teekle doesn’t look anything like that cat." Although there was a possibility the cat was someone else’s familiar- her mom’s? No. "It’s fine. It wants us to see something, and it likes me because I have a cat that’s all." Zee stands up, extending her hand to hold Kyle’s once more, "Lets go see what the cat wants."
Kyle reaches out, lacing his fingers with Zee as he looks at her with a somewhat wistful smile, “That’s all. Totally logical, of course. No Klarinet, no Tinkle.” Kyle takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Okay! Alrighty, kitty, lead on. You just watch Zee - he’ll probably just be taking us to his food bowl. Meow. Feed me. I think I saw a can of Whiskas in one of the cupboards…” Kyle is just rambling now, filling up the silence as they follow the creature’s silent path.
"Totally logically. Yup. Even the Whiskas." At Kyle’s quip on the cat dish, the cat meows, almost a sound of protest to accompany it’s twitching tail. The cat leads the way up the stairs to the second floor, moving swiftly through the hallway till it stops in front of a shut door, tapping it lightly with it’s tail. In the dark of the hallway, the cat’s eyes seem to glow a bluish, similar to Zee’s own, blinking slowly as it stares up at Kyle and Zee waiting their move now. "We open the door." Zee decides without Kyle, swiftly turning the knob and pushing the door open. Inside there are stacks of large cardboard boxes scattered around a bedroom furniture set, styled similarly to the sitting room downstairs.
"Zee I —" Kyle starts to say, but Zee’s already opening the door, heading inside. Kyle keeps his eye on the cat. After the sight of the pale electric blue of the animal’s eyes - eerily similar to Zee’s own eye colour - he doesn’t quite believe the cat is normal. Not that he did from the get go, but…it was nice to pretend for a while. The bedroom is clean like the other rooms, but the cardboard boxes to ping Kyle’s curiosity, despite his wariness. "Someone’s packing? Or unpacking?" He doesn’t let go of Zee’s hand as she surveys the room. "What’s in here kittykitty? A mouse?"
The cat remains in it’s spot, waiting for them both by the door as it watches. Zee moves to the closest box, trying to see if there’s anything written along the sides to indicate what’s inside. “Are you getting nervous?” she asks Kyle, “My palms are all sweaty, I think I’m getting nervous. But I wanna open these. I don’t know why- if it’s the cat or me but I wanna know what’s inside, but everything else is telling me like nah you’re chicken.”
"I’m only nervous if you are, but." Kyle raises his fist, his ring glowing. He glances over to the window - it’s large and wide, big enough to escape out of if needed. "I’m ready, sweetheart. If some ghost pops outta that box and says ‘boo’, I’ll have us outta here in two seconds flat." Kyle looks at the cat and suddenly wonders if it can understand what he’s saying. It just watches them right back, sitting in its spot. Kyle looks back at Zee and gives her a determined smile. "Okay. Open sesame, amor."
"Alright." Zee pushes her fingers underneath the opening flaps of the first box, pulling it open with a quick tug, "It’s…books?" Zee plucks one from the pile, it’s leatherbound and considerably thick. Zee opens the book to the first page, but her eyes scan up to Kyle suddenly before she even has a chance to skim over the contents of the page, "It’s a diary, my diary. I’m sorry, I know I’m interrupting you both, but I thought I needed just one more quick chat with you before I go." she smiles, "Don’t be upset, and do not hurt that cat."
"I….¿que?" Kyle blinks at Zee, but she’s not - she’s - the transition is so - Kyle’s breathing quickens and his ring glows brighter, more threatening despite it being Zee’s voice, Zee’s eyes, Zee’s hair and arms and hips. "….Suh - Sindella….?" Kyle was whispering before to not break the silence in the home, but now it’s not whispering; his voice comes out as small. His hesitation is only for a second before he takes a step towards her. "What’d you do to Zatanna??!"
"Hello Kyle. Good to see you’re catching on quicker this time." she lowers the diary, tilting her head towards his glowing ring, "Now is that really necessary? You know as well as I do that Zatanna is fine. I can’t hurt her without hurting myself. She’s fine, just resting right under the surface like I usually am," Sindella as Zee winces just slightly, "you’ll be happy to know, my daughter is actually fighting me some this time. What fun. Now, as my daughter so astutely pointed out I have spoken with you more than I ever will with her- and that’s about to change. So I thought it might be best to discuss what she’s just found with you, in case she doesn’t understand, or want to. Can we do that?"
Kyle watches Zee-Sindella carefully, unable to stop himself from visibly perking up at the thought of Zee trying to fight against the possession of her mother. He can’t hide his feelings; and although he feels a strange rush of pride for Zee, he also lowers his ringed fist and shifts out of the offensive. Kyle looks down at Sindella, taking a couple steps closer to her. His jaw is tight, squared hard when he finally speaks. “Okay, Sindella. We can talk. We can do that. Chances are I won’t really understand anyway, but. I know Zee’ll wanna know what you want to tell her, so. More books.” He licks his lips. “Talk.”
"You’re not destroying these." Sindella smiles up to Kyle, but it doesn’t quite reach her icy eyes, "These are as I said before, my diaries. Every box in this room- roughly a dozen or so- are filled with my diaries, and I need Zatanna to read all of them. It is very important that she read every last one because that is how I will leave her. Are you listening, I am going to leave her, and die in my own words. Each diary entry taking a little bit of my minor possession over a small portion of her away," she laughs to herself, "It’s a little narcissistic, but I need to stay in character don’t I? That’s what I need you to tell her. Do you understand, or are there some questions?"
"So she can’t just…I dunno. Zee can’t just stab all the diaries with a Basilisk tooth?" Kyle asks flippantly; but he feels a small amount of shame for being so callous. Sindella was…disturbing. Her perceptions about how mother and child should interact come off as completely strange and alien to Kyle. But the truth was, she was giving Kyle instructions on how to get Zatanna to, essentially, kill her. Kyle’s eyes thin slightly, unwilling yet to believe this, that this seemingly self-serving person could be volunteering to give up her life so suddenly. Such as it is, Sindella’s ‘life’. "Why?" he asks her suddenly. "Why’re you doing this? How’m I - how’s Zee supposed to believe that if she reads your diaries, that you’ll just, uh, leave just like that?"
"A Basilisk- oh honestly. That’ll make such a mess. Why would she even do that?" the reference is completely lost on Sindella.
She purses her lips, trying to think of how to reply to his question, “When I am inside Zatanna, I can only push and prod on her own desires. She has the idea to run away from her father’s show with a Parisian boy? I tell her to go for it and she follows my advice. She wants to play cat and mouse with some media morons, I whisper some encouragement and she follows. My influence only reaches so far, it can only be pushed on what she knows. And she finally knows about the brownstone. So I pushed on it till she went,” tapping her fingers on a box, Sindella shrugs, “As much fun as I seem to have- living as a parasite so you say- I have been waiting to go for a little over a decade. I want to go. It’s been lovely to get to know her this deeply, and the way I’ve chosen to die will allow her to do the same with my life. A give and take.”
Kyle now feels really bad. He rubs the back of his neck, letting his guard down a lot more now as he smiles a little ruefully at Sindella. He’s not trying to build a rapport but…her story, as bizarre as it is, does end up tugging on his sentimental heartstrings. “You’re more kind of an internal voice, I suppose. Not a parasite, Sindella. Other than giving everyone a freakout this summer during Zee’s tour, you didn’t really…” Kyle sighs. He’s not sure how to say ‘you’re hella freaky but you don’t really seem to mean any harm.’ So he shrugs and nods, relenting. “Alright Sindella. I’ll tell Zee, I’ll tell her what you said. She can’t hear you at all right now? Or you think…she doesn’t wanna listen? She’s told be before, she’s gotten /used/ to you, uh. Being there. With her. In your way.”
"Turkey was last minute business, which I’ll happily remind you, you ruined. Thank you for that. I didn’t really have a chance to say it then, but I’ll say it now, that book of spells was meant to be taken care of without me, but obviously it hadn’t been. I was just tying up loose ends while I had the chance to."
Sindella’s lips tug at Kyle’s question, asking for Zee- always Zee, “As far as I’m aware she can’t hear me, but if she’s able she might not listen anyway. So I just wanted to be certain I’d have you able to remind her what I’m telling you now.” Sindella folds her arms loosely across Zee’s chest, “My daughter might be used to what she perceives as my presence, but trust me. She does not need me, not any longer. She hasn’t needed for some time.”a sad smile grows, reaching Sindella’s normally icy stare, “She has you instead, and you are much better than me from what I understand.”
Kyle squints at Sindella sidelong, and then wags a finger at her. “Waitaminute. I know this schtick. I’ve seen enough of Zee’s romcoms to know when the mother-in-law is trying to pit the hubby against her daughter for some sorta nefarious yet comedic…sometimes romantic purpose. What if I tell her and then she…I dunno,” Kyle tries to think up some wild scenario. “What if she doesn’t wanna read ‘em? What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she asks me some question about you that I can’t answer? Then I’ll have to try to defend you and then Zee’ll be like ‘why are you taking my estranged possessing mother’s side, Kyle?’ and I’ll have to be like ‘just listen to me and your mother, Zee!’ and then. Yeah. Yeah!” Kyle shakes his head, looking around at the boxs and boxes of diaries. “No. Nope. Nuh-uh. I should just destroy ‘em all right now.”
"I still have influence. I can get her going, but it’s you that needs to keep that flame burning when I start to die, because it is going to take some doing to kill me, believe me." but with Kyle’s protest in mind, Sindella sighs, pushing past him to pluck up the cat still waiting patiently in the doorway, "Now I really, really did not want to have to rely on this, but if you’re threatening to destroy the only chance I have to truly die the way I’ve always wanted to, then you, son-in-law, are leaving me no choice.” holding out the cat, Sindella explains, “This is an Albastı. She has been keeping watch on these diaries as I have requested her to, and I instructed her the same way I am instructing you and she is in complete support of my choice. So, if you so much as encourage Zatanna to stray away from my diaries, then she will torment you as is her nature. Her spirit will enter your’s and will leave you exhausted, feverish, and unable to do anything to stop this from continuing until you give in. My death is not a punchline for you to toy with.”
Kyle clicks his tongue and steps away from Zee-Sindella now that she has the cat, which regards him with those same blue eyes. “I know your death isn’t - wait are you serious? I have the same significance to you as this mindless beast?” The cat makes a warning ‘mrowwing’ sound and Kyle holds up his hands in deference. “Okay, okay. You’re a fancy magical cat, I get it. And of course it’s come down to threats, I mean. I guess…I guess it makes more sense to me, for someone like you to be threatening rather than.” Kyle runs a hand through his hair, sighing. “I won’t destroy the books, Sindella. No need to sic the puddytat on my psyche. Your death isn’t a punchline. But it’s certainly been a….a performance.” He smiles a little, because, well. That was appropriate, wasn’t it? Given the Zataras and all. “Zee won’t wanna assist you in your euthanasia, Sindella. But I get it - that’s where I come in to give her the ‘prodding’ that you used to give her before. Except now you want me to prod her to end your life….such as it is. Oh boy. This is all so esoteric.” Kyle pushes both his hands into his hair, turning away from Sindella to look outside the window. It’s still just a normal day outside with normal people and normal Gotham brightly-dressed theme-related crime or whatever. “You sure this is what you want to do, Sindella? Can’t we find another way? Maybe store you in a bottle or, or, or put you in a magic mirror or a locket or something?”
Sindella smiles, “Good. She will still be following you. Just in case, I hope you’re not allergic.” Sindella lets the cat drop from her arms, the small creature curling beside Kyle closely, “It runs in the family. We’re all a bit dramatic as I’m sure you’re well aware of from my daughter alone. Why not die the way you lived, reading how you lived? It’s a bit poetic.”
As Kyle moves to the window the cat continues to follow- keeping a respectable but close distance between them. Sindella follows his movements with her eyes, but she allows the cat’s proximity to him to serve as her own, “I had a small bit of time to determine how I wanted to die when my physical body was destroyed roughly a decade ago, and this is what I chose then. I haven’t changed my mind in that time. Perhaps that’s because I no longer have a mind to change. So I suppose I am quite certain now that this is a real possibility.”
She laughs at the idea to store herself away in an inanimate object, “Do you really- truly want me looming around in a mirror? Do you think Zatanna wants that either? That’s a real punchline. I don’t want that. What I do want is a closure that’s is in my control. It’s a tad morbid and a task I don’t take lightly, particularly when thinking my daughter will be the one to undertake it, but I think it will allow us all some closure.”
Kyle listens to everything Sindella has to say, as he peers out the window, looking at nothing. Finally he turns, regarding her for a long time. Zee, but Sindella. Sindealla, but Zee. “I can’t even pretend to really understand,” he admits, “But I’ve learned that sometimes I don’t need to understand, I just need to accept. I’ll tell Zee all of this for you. I’ll explain all of it, just like you explained to me. But I won’t make her do anything she doesn’t wanna do, Sindella. I won’t promise that.” Kyle looks down at the cat. “Maybe Miss Meow here can convince her, if she’s gonna be my friend for a while.” He isn’t sure how well Mar’i will take to Miss Meow, but that’ll be the risk the black cat will have to take. He looks back up at Zee. “There, I’m agreeing. I don’t got any more questions for you.”
"Thank you, Kyle, Miss Meow…she’ll be gone as soon as the diaries are completed. If they’re not, then yes, maybe irritating my daughter will be in order as well." she replies softly, "Seeing as this is likely our last time conversing in this way, I would like to ask you something, my apologies in advance for possibly trying to be a meddling mother. I’ve experienced your relationship only through my daughter’s eyes, and I see every positive and flaw she sees in you and how these reflect back on her and yet, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on your relationship. Where do you see this continuing? Zatanna can be quite fanciful when it comes to those ideas…and I’ve always thought hearing your side might be interesting to compare the two on my own. Please. This might give me something to think on in whatever time I have remaining."
"You’ve ‘experienced’ our relationship…?" Kyle repeats, turning a bit red around his cheeks and ears. He feels incredulous about her question, but swallows that down, figuring it wasn’t best to explode at the woman again. This was her strange, freaky way of caring, he tried to reason. "I see it continuing until it can’t continue any longer," Kyle says with certainty, looking Sindella-Zee in the eyes. "I’m committed to…to you. Your daughter. To Zee. She’s one of the best things in my life and I’d, well. I’m. I’m working on making sure it stays that way for us." He gives a side-smirk. "Satisfied, mom-in-law?"
"Bits and pieces, again, it has mostly been through her thoughts more than anything which has fed my curiosity," she takes a seat on the corner of the bed with a small nod, "So thank you, I am, satisfied with that. Yes." she pats the mattress, "This is just a precaution. I believe Zatanna fainted the last time we switched back, although it was a bit forceful then…so. Kyle, it has been a pleasure." shutting her eyes tightly, Sindella allows Zee back up to the surface- her body falling lax back onto the bed just as her mother had predicted. The first thing Zee- actual real Zee- asks Kyle when she opens her eyes is, "What did she tell you?"
Kyle flies over to Zee the minute her eyes shut, half laying across the bed to cradle her head and shoulders as she falls back. The cat - Miss Meow - leaps onto the bed, watching them both with interest when Zee looks up at Kyle, a Snow White who needed to rescue herself from her own self-serving magical mother. Kyle doesn’t answer her question immediately, because he needs to know for his own sake more than hers - “Are you okay?”
Zee shifts into Kyle’s arms, “I’m fine I’m fine, now what did she say, what’s with the face, you’re scaring me,” she turns to the cat, “And the cat is hovering, why’s the cat hovering what the heck? Kyle.”
"No, no no it’s fine! The cat - " Kyle turns and looks over at the cat, who tilts its head to watch him back, " - the cat’s a friend of your mother’s. She— ay dios." Kyle pushes his hand through his hair again, not sure where to even start with explaining. He almost wishes Sindella left him, like, a script or something. "Sindella wanted you to come here and find these - these boxes." Kyle gets off the bed once Zee’s sat up, moving over to one of the boxes and opening it. Just as Sindella said: neatly packed-away leather bound books. "All of these boxes are full-up with her…diaries, Zee. Diaries of her life. She…said she brought you here to find them so that you could read them all, every one."
"Of course the cat’s her friend, I should’ve known- I should’ve known she didn’t just want me to pick over her place and turn it over on the market or something normal. Nooo, it’s never normal with us," she throws her arms over her eyes, groaning softly, "Diaries, that I have no interest in reading. Not even one, let alone every one. It’s not happening Kyle." Zee raises up one arm in the air, a finger pointing to the ceiling, "But she thought of that, didn’t she! UGH she thinks of everything, dammit. What’d she threaten this time?"
Kyle puts his hand on his hip and rubs the back of his neck as he turns and looks at Zee, his eyes wide and bright. “Well….you know how she’s been, um. With you for these past few years….this decade? So she doesn’t - she /says/ she doesn’t wanna be…here any longer. She wants to…enter the Fade. Go beyond the veil. Fade into the west….y’know? And the only way she can do that is if you read all of her diaries.”
Zee frowns, “She wants to die, and I get to pull the plug. I almost want to call this as a win, but she’s making me read her damn diaries to do it. Seriously are you kidding me?! I don’t wanna know about her freaking life! I don’t care!” She sits up from the bed, petting Miss Meow (even if it’s aligned with the ‘wrong team’), “What do you think? You are the Sindella whisper after all.”
Kyle looks a little prissy and he sniffs, muttering petulantly, “I’m not a ‘Sindella whisperer’, I can’t help it if she gets all chatty ‘round me…” He bends down and picks up at diary, fanning the pages with his thumb and pausing to look at a sketch. He finds he can’t look at it too long because it starts to….slither on the page. He shuts the book and tries to smile brightly at Zee. “Well at least it looks like her writing’s pretty large. You’ll probably be able to finish one of these puppies on the train ride back to Metropolis. Easy reading…?” He ends that last sentence on a hopeful if unsure question.
Zee laughs, swinging her legs off the bed at Kyle, “You totally are, forever a mama’s boy, even with mamas that aren’t your’s!” With a small sigh, Zee holds out her hand, asking for the book, “Fine. I’m not that slow of a reader, and if it means I don’t have a meddling mother to deal with any longer it’ll be worth it. Do you think I should leave the rest of these boxes here, or send them home…or. I don’t know this is a ton of boxes and diaries.”
Kyle smiles a little sheepishly. “Well…yeah. Moms do always like me,” he admits. Kyle then sobers up a bit and returns over to Zee’s side, handing the diary he was holding over to her. “But Zee…does this mean. I mean. You’re okay with doing this? Reading your mother into…non-existence?” He tries hard to ask the question without sounding biased any particular way, but he’s not sure if he’s succeeded in that.
Zee leans onto Kyle, “Yeah, I think I’m alright with this. She asked you to get me to do this, and I never wanted her in my head in the first place. I can kill her if that’s what she wants. We both want her gone, just for different reasons I guess. But you don’t agree. Do you.”
Kyle winces slightly. He can’t help but feel a bit aghast that Zee’s so completely accepted killing her mother, right down to actually saying it straight out. He tries to imagine thinking or saying the same thing about his father and he comes up short. But he holds up his hands and shrugs at Zee. “Y’know this is you and that is me. I knew you and Sindella have a…complicated relationship, and so I don’t got a horse in this race, honey. I’ll…” He looks down at the floor, at her booted feet and he sighs. “I’ll support you.”
In a way the irony was palpable. Both Zee and Sindella agreed on this, but it was /Kyle/ having trouble accepting it. That, if anything, really put things in perspective for Kyle. He crouches down and picks Miss Meow up, stroking her. “Well. I guess we can pack ‘em up and drive them in a Rent-a-Rayner truck to your place?”
Zee presses a soft kiss against Kyle’s cheek, “Thank you. Even if you disagree, she has to go Kyle. She doesn’t belong in me. Maybe if I start reading these, you’ll get it more. I don’t want to share myself with her anymore- she was never there for me to begin with, but I guess I’ll be there for her end.” Zee smiles at Kyle’s suggestion for a construct u-haul, “Well, it won’t be as romantic as another train ride, but I guess it’ll do so long as you don’t mind driving. Yeah?”
Kyle relaxes from Zee’s kiss, and then more and more as she talks. He laughs to himself, shaking his head. “Damn, of course. You really do got this all worked out, you really - yeah. See? I shouldn’t’ve doubted you when you’re the one who’s been /living/ with her for the past decade. Yeesh, Rayner,” Kyle bops the side of his head with the heel of his hand. He reaches out and takes Zee’s hands, leaning in to give her a kiss. That she had been Sindella in the same body less that ten minutes ago doesn’t seem to bother Kyle, nor the idea of kissing Zee in her mother’s bedroom amidst all the diaries, with the cat watching between them. Maybe it was even a little naughty….Kyle grins a bit more against Zee’s mouth, but keeps the dirty-minded thoughts to himself. He pulls back and looks around. “Hokay! So. Let’s get these boxes downstairs.”
Zee rubs a hand along his upper arm as they kiss again, “Living really wouldn’t be the way I’d put it, but sure. We’ve been together. Too long,” pushing off the bed she picks up a box of diaries in her arms, “She didn’t scare you, did she? I’m really sorry about this, I should’ve been more prepared for her to pop up again. I was just trying so hard to be optimistic about this place and why she wanted me to have it I didn’t even think to consider anything worse would happen.” the cat weaves in between their legs as they load up the diaries into the back of the construct u-haul, “Hey- what is the deal with the cat, I mean You said it’s my mom’s friend so like it is just really protective of her diaries or lonely, or what?”
"She was scary as hell," Kyle says without hesitation. A trail of construct moving people tote boxes of books down the stairs behind him as he trots down with Zee. "I mean, she’s in your body, and I know - I /know/ this body, Zee. But when Sindella was talking it was like talking to a completely different person, who was still you somehow. Unnerving doesn’t begin to cover it." He shakes his head vehemently though. "But you - don’t apologize, Zee. When I started dating a half-human, half-magi, I figured you’d come with a schwack of unconventional family. But I get why you’re frustated. Woulda been nice to just shown up and realized you mom wanted you to, like, flip a house for the market, hey?"
Kyle nudges the cat gently as it rubs against his leg. “Miss Meow is here to make sure that I make sure you read all her diaries. Safeguard for a safeguard, I guess?”
"She’s scary…I’ll have to take your word for it. So, I’m just trying to picture it, it’s me talking to you but not because it’s my mother. Do I still sound like me, or is my voice different? Or my face? I mean, I guess it’s just like a different person pulling my strings. Yeah?" she laughs softly, shaking her head as she pushes in the last box into the truck, "Yeah flipping the brownstone. That’d…that’d be a lot easier than this. Although, I guess I have to figure out what I wanna do here too." Scooping up the cat, Zee sighs, "Well, Miss Meow welcome to my version of the family. It sounds like you know my Mommy well, but now you get to know me, and my Kyle. He’s so very good and so you better be as nice as possible to him, watchcat." Miss Meow purrs softly, her bright blue eyes blinking slowly up at Kyle. She is comfortable and watchful from Zatanna’s arms.
Kyle eyes the cat, feeling slightly fretful. “Do I feed magical cats? Oh geez. Does she have a magical litter box I’ll need to empty of magical poop? How do I do that?” His constructs pack the last box into the truck and Kyle goes around to the cab, opening Zee’s door for her and helping her up before going around and climbing in himself. “Your mother was…oh cripes this is weird. I’m describing your mother to you and she’s /inside/ of you…on a spiritual level or something. I don’t even know where to beg- oh! We’ll need a road map. From Gotham to Metropolis. My ring doesn’t do freeway GPS service.”
Zee lets the cat rest along her shoulder as she settles into her seat, “Alright, magical creatures can usually do their own thing, but she’ll probably just need some food and a litter box to take care of herself, I guess. Since she’s magical, I guess if she tries to pester she’ll be fairly clear as to what she wants if you start doing things wrong? I mean, think of this cat like Pot or Tah maybe. They’re a little magical, and they let you know what they want don’t they?”
At Kyle’s request for directions, she pulls out her phone, her gps app instantly rattling off step by step directions to her apartment in Metropolis, “Who needs a fancy ring when you have a phone?” she jokes, “Alright, directions handled. Now please tell me what it’s like speaking with my Mother. I’m super curious, please!”
"Okay, um…" Kyle carefully pulls out into the road, heading back into the more busier roadways as he loyally follows the GPS’ instructions. "She’s very…she’s eerily calm and she always seems slightly amused. I dunno how but her eyes always seem brighter and her mouth seems thinner. And your face seems thinner, too. Everything about you seems slimmer, really. Like…willowy, like an elf. And taller, too. Like my height. And she’s always kind of smiling, but it never reaches her eyes, like. There’s ambition or…determination or I dunno. Steel. There’s steel in her eyes. She’s a lot more closed than you are, that’s for sure." Kyle glances over at Zee, to see if what he’s saying is going over well for her. It’s a lot to take in - her boyfriend describing the mother inside her. It’s loca.
Zee sinks slowly in her seat as Kyle describes Sindella in ways that she’d never been able to imagine on her own. Miss Meow fusses by the movement until she’s moved to Zee’s lap, the small cat pushing on the first of her mother’s diaries, resting beside Zee, “It’s weird, thinking we look similar, but still aren’t quite…” she laughs softly, flipping pages through the diary, but never quite settling on a page, “So she’s skinnier than me, I guess I get my curves from Dad’s side. I guess, it makes sense that she’s closed off to you in comparison to me, we’re very familiar to one another Kyle. Like…shoot. Was I ever like that with you? When we first met maybe? I don’t think I’m always warm and fuzzy.”
"You know that stereotype of the ‘icy blonde’? Yeah. Sindella’s kinda like that except, like. Icy-hot. Not hot like caliente hot," Kyle rushes to add, glancing over at Zee again. "More like…gah I dunno. Like she can easily burn you, with all of her intense pleasantness. It wasn’t really pleasantness though, was it. No, just…." Kyle trails off as he gets them onto the highway, doing a lot of shoulder-checking as he merges.
"Ahh, well, yeah! When we first-first met you were kinda standoffish but that was an extraordinary circumstance, we were just tryina get outta that dimension. When we met again you were really sweet. Warm and fuzzy. And…when we um, went through the troubles, us in different relationships and commitments and all, you were." Kyle thinks about it for a moment and then nods. "Yeah. Yeah you were definitely icy-hot. And hot-hot, but not in a creepy way." He adds with a slightly crooked grin.
"Icy-hot…well that sounds pretty accurate for her, and I guess maybe sometimes for me too then, haha. If the circumstances are just right." Zee let’s Kyle drive, keeping quiet for some time, watching the Gotham skyline from the passenger window. "You know this is going to sound silly, but I’m a little jealous I haven’t gotten the chance to meet your parents. I mean, I get that it’s a little difficult for the both of us, and the circumstances around meeting my Mom has never been the best, but. Hey look at me, I’m still jealous. I wanna know what shapes you, or does like you sort of can with me and my Mom. The woman didn’t even raise me, and yet you can tell we’re related. It’s cool, or at least I’d tell someone who’s not me going through this it’s cool."
Kyle looks curiously over at Zee, listening to her observations. “You really think so? I mean. If Sindella was Sindella and not Sindella-in-Zee, you think I’d be able to tell you guys’re related. I’m not sure…I’m a pretty visual person. And even with a totally different person calling the shots in your body, it wasn’t some kinda Orphan Black total transformation. Maybe I could still see Zee because you /were/ Zee….honey. What’s this all about?” Kyle reaches his hand out, giving her knee a little squeeze. “You wanna find some sorta connection between you and Sindella now? Some sorta…mother-daughter kinda ties?”
"Well, I guess we’ll never get the chance to see if you could or not. I’m going to kill her," she replies softly, "I’m not sure. I think I’m trying to find a silver lining or something," Zee reaches out her hand to meet Kyle’s, "I never got a chance to know my mother, and by the time I was old enough to try to I didn’t want to anymore. Maybe that’s what she’s giving me all these for. I’ve done everything in my power to push her away, but the only way to get rid of her for sure is to know her. It’s pretty twisted, but clever."
"Yes and yes," Kyle has to agree. "I can’t imagine what this supposed life of hers is like right now. If you can call it that. I just keep thinking about…Voldemort - I know! I know it’s just a silly book, I know." He grins a bit, stroking her knuckles with his thumb rhythmically. "I’m just saying…yeah. Anyway. If trying to make a connection is your reason for reading alla her diaries, if that puts the control back in your hands instead of her puppeting us both from beyond the grave, then I’m all for it. Build a rapport with the woman while she seeps herself out of you." Kyle is quiet for a moment and then he says, "You do know I think this is one helluva messed-up situation, right? Zatanna Zatara, you live a complex life." He brings her hand up, kissing her fingers. "I wouldn’t have it any other way."
"I’m reading these to get rid of her, but I’m looking forward to finding a possible connection. Somehow I don’t know. It feels safer. I don’t have to meet a person to meet her, I just need to read about her life in the way she’s written it. It’ll build something between us while she’s on her way out," Zee sighs, "You know the worst part about all of it is that she keeps dragging you into things, like you don’t need to deal with all this crazy but at the same time I don’t think I’d be able to get through any of this on my own. So thank you, for being able to deal with this complex life of mine. Maybe next year we’ll have to sort something out from your life. A nice trade off?"
"I like dealing with your complex life of yours, silly," Kyle waggles her hand. "Makes me feel all macho and manly, you know. Takin’ care of my lil’ woman an’ her troubles." Kyle puffs his chest out and looks over at Zee a couple times, grinning. "But you know if you really wanna, we can trade and you can be the macho manly woman takin’ care of your lil’ man’s troubles."
He’s happy to joke about it, because deep down, he’s more than a little wary of involving Zee too much in his Lantern business. Not just because of space but because of his own superstitions and fears. He switches the subject to something else he’d been avoiding talking about, but now seemed less daunting. “No seances for mom, please. She’d just weep about me using witch-craft to bring her out of the Lord’s embrace. And as for my father…” Kyle shrugs, his jaw tightening slightly. “I don’t even know if he’s dead or alive. So. If he’s not alive, you can seance him.”
Zee grins right back at him, “Of course I wanna. I can be your macho manly woman, taking care of little old you. I’d be great at it, don’t you think?” At Kyle’s change in topic, Zee pulls her hand from his, moving to smooth it along his peacoat gently, “No seances, for Maura. Although, damn here I am so anxious to try and prove her wrong, that this witch is totally good for her lapsed Catholic boy.” she picks up on the tenseness in Kyle as he mentions his father, and maybe he’s seen her act similarly in regards to her own mother before, “You want me to look into your father then?”
Kyle drives quietly for a long time staring ahead at the road. Other than the occasional tilt of his hands on the wheel, he’s still like a statue. When he moves, it’s sudden and heaving, like he’s jumped in from a marathon. “Nah. What’s the point? He’s never—” Kyle bites his words, then tries again, glancing over at Zee with a warm smile. “I’m not trying to make this parental issues olympics, but. Your mother wants you to know her. And even if it serves her own selfish purpose, she’s been sorta with you for a third of you life. My dad won’t ever get in contact with me. When he left, he left for good. And speaking to him once was enough. I don’t want him in my life.” He laughs loudly. “I’d rather a seance for Maura, honestly! She’d love you, Zee. She would. Eventually…” He grins cheekily.
Zee lets Kyle be on his own in the quiet of the cab for some time, feeling just a tad bad for pulling this up for him, but maybe it needed to be thought of. Who knows, it’s not like they spoke about this often, “It’s not the parental issues olympics, we’ve both got our own issues. That decade she’s spent with me isn’t really what I’d consider mothering in the least, but. It’s been something I guess. If she’d never infected me, and kept to herself like she had been for two thirds of my life? I’d give you the same answer you’re giving me about my Dad. So I get it, Kyle. We don’t have to poke around.”
Zee grins back at his sudden confidence over his Mom loving her, “I find that hard to believe, that she’d like some bimbo witch dating her son suddenly dragging her away from the good graces of the Lord just to say hello- but trust me. I can tell your mother was a sweetheart without having to meet her. She raised you after all. That’s proof enough for me.”
"She was the best," Kyle gushes, nodding, more than happy to talk about his mom. He can talk about his mom. "I mean I’m sure you and your dad had your ups and downs, just like me and mom, but. She really was the best, I couldn’t ask for a better mother, the way she took care of me." Kyle shakes his head in admiration. He licks his lips, then looks over at Zee, completely forgetting to refute her ‘bimbo witch’ comment. "D’you think. D’you think you’ll be able to make peace with Sindella someday? Even after everything she’s done? And everything she didn’t do?"
Zee smiles at him, loving to see him gush over his mother as much as she enjoyed hearing stories about the two of them together. Watching the way his face lights up just thinking about her, had her thinking that she speaks about her father in a similar way. Zee laughs, “Oh yeah we did. What teenage girl isn’t going to have her moments with her parents? You’re right though, I couldn’t have asked for a better Dad. No one was as patient as he was with me.”
Looking down at the first diary, Zee shrugs, “I don’t know. I think I have to get to know her before I have a chance to try and start forgiving her for so many things. She failed me a lot. Nearly every conceivable way she could’ve failed me, she did while my Dad triumphed. I mean seriously can you imagine having to give a thirteen year old girl The Talk, and discuss womanhood? He had to do that. I don’t know how, but he did it, and I wasn’t embarrassed.”
"She found all sorts of ways to fail you. New and interesting and bizarre and unique," Kyle adds on, congenially. He’s still grinning; the topics are a mix of heavy and light, and Kyle prefers to keep the trip light until Metropolis. "Awwww Zee! But you musta known already, before he gave you The Talk? Unless there’s some other The Talk that girls get at thirteen. And don’t get me started on awkward teen years with different-gender parent. My mom was very good about, ah, washing my sheets without any comment." He nods widely. "And very good about knocking first. Well, after that one time she barged into my room, she got good at knocking afterwards…heh. Oh my teens." He grins over at Zee. "Never again."
"Oh I knew, I did- he sort of reached me a little late with the birds and the bees portion of it- but it was more fielding the ‘how exactly do I use a tampon’ and ‘why exactly does this happen to me monthly and hurt’ questions raised during The Talk that he really had to shine through." Zee laughs loudly at Kyle, as well as with embarrassment for him, "Oh my god, oh god! You didn’t, KYLE! Oh geeze, oh NO! You didn’t think to do it in the shower? No clean up, and no nosey Mom’s!" wiping away tears, Zee giggles some more, "Oh I am so so so so glad I am not a teenager anymore. Never again is right."
"Look - look - it’s complicated," Kyle holds up his hand between them, turning red as his grin gets wider and more embarrassed. "It’s complicated!! It’s more about sleeping and morning and - ahhhhhhhhh. Never again, never ever again! I say that but I’ve been de-aged twice already in my life, guuhhhh. But." Kyle takes hold of Zee’s hand again, lacing his fingers with hers. "Anyway. Anyway. Yeah. Once we drop the books off, let’s grab something to eat and then just chill on your couch and watch cheesy movies. Something ridiculously normal, huh?"