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[portalling]

Comments

[tlucco]

Eugh. Unfortunately.

Lame as fuck pick-up lines, mansplaining slight of hand, and trying to poach my turf. Until he learned I was better than he was (not hard!) and begged for an apprenticeship.

[portalling]

Tell me you turned him down and this isn’t just an excuse to foist him back onto the Masters of the Mystic Arts. We already expelled him once.

[tlucco]

Actually, I agreed that he could be part of the show for six months. Watch and learn.

He makes a great dove.

[portalling]

Don’t let the dove wield the saw.

[tlucco]

Doves don't have hands, Doc.

[portalling]

More things in heaven and earth, Zatara—

[tlucco]

You want to tell me that?
Not to diminish your experience or office, but I was making my teddy bear dance around the room when I was five.

[portalling]

A lot of my experience didn’t make it onto the resume.

[ Subjective eternities experienced dying over and over, a snake eating its own tail, timeloops nested in on itself. He’s very tired. ]

That said, yeah, I’m relatively new to the post, my predecessor considered. I can truthfully say I’ve never made a teddy bear dance.

[tlucco]

Dad taught me.

[ zatara. giovanni zatara, a fellow bright enough that the masters of the mystic arts occasionally sought him for consulting. why he was never brought into the order fully is anyone's guess. ]

Followed in his footsteps in more way than one.

[portalling]

How’s his spirit doing these days?

[ The magician’s passing had, of course, made the bulletin for magical New York, ripples through the ether and word being passed along through the Bar With No Doors. And Strange is equally familiar with these everyday spirits and hauntings; his own ghost dog’s currently snoozing under the desk. ]

[tlucco]

Constantly on the run from demons set to torture him for all eternity.

[ so, not great. ]

We play Canasta on Wednesdays.

[ so, the same. ]

[portalling]

He should come to the Tormented By Demons support club. Nightmare’s been a particular pain in my ass lately.

[tlucco]

The demon or the abstract concept?

[portalling]

The literal demon. Fear Lord and perpetual ruler of the Nightmare World, horrible realm within the Dream Dimension, 0/10, would not recommend.

[tlucco]

And I thought dealing with Fuseli was bad enough.

The dream imp, for the record. Not the food.

[portalling]

Don’t think I’ve had the particular pleasure— what’s up with that one?

(Still the dream imp, not the food. There’s an Italian restaurant up by Lincoln Center, though, does an amazing squid ink fusilli.)

[tlucco]

Minor nightmare demon. Talks a big game, but he's just a little asshole.

[portalling]

Could sic him on the other one; he’d probably get eaten.

[tlucco]

Not worth it. He's useful sometimes.

[portalling]

What, like a pet imp?

[tlucco]

Finding suppressed memories. Shaking somebody out of a nightmare coma. Little things.