Re: In-person: Zee/John
[She smiled at his rusty voice and the scrutiny of her palm, as if secrets lived there, as if he actually had to look at the lines upon her skin to know her. It was no disrespect for the art, and Xanadu had taught her just how dangerous knowledge of future things could be. Zatanna could call those things. In silence, she could bring them to her like possible truths on a string that she tugged with nimble fingers. But she didn't live with them always. They didn't share space in her soul, and she didn't envy Xanadu that burden. She wasn't strong enough for that gift, and she tried not to wield it. She was, when the light shone bright upon her truths, just a girl. A girl shouldn't have that much power, and she was glad the universe acknowledged it. Though putting it within her grasp was a teasing test of her strength, and she knew that well.] You don't need to hear that, John. You believe it without me opening my mouth.
[She watched his thumb upon her skin.] I'm always philosophical. [Said as he looked up, and she'd always thought him preternaturally beautiful. Like the Morningstar, and the universe liked to put beauty in places it seemed unlikely. She knew his soul as well as he knew her palm, and she didn't think time or place mattered there. It was simply as it was, and this place with its different intersections was teaching her that they were all connected, strings beneath their breastbones that tied them to each other, and versions did not matter.
Like Morningstar, he was no angel.
She drew her hand back, but there was no rush to it. He hadn't burned her with the touch, and it wasn't a recoil. She considered his question, and it answered some for her. Wherever he came from, their story hadn't been graced by fate with a happy ending. She'd expected nothing different.
She drew her legs back, and she crossed them like a girl on a playground, pigtails and jacks between herself and a friend, and she looked at him for a long and intimate time, decisions.] I'd rather talk about that than the evils of two nights ago. [Though she'd get there; it was why she'd called him to her, after all.] We met as teenagers. My father had left me, heeding a prophesy like the one you just uselessly wielded. I left Gotham to find him, but I found Nick instead. He was powerful, older, and he wanted to teach me everything, from magic to sex and everything between. You were his best friend. Does any of that overlap?
[It was better, she thought, not to start with the war.]