#‘oh what do you think the alien squid meant by ���this time i’ll beat you’ that’s so crazy’ comment)

[humming-fly]

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever

[azems-familiar]

She Who Dreams Ch. 1 (Edited)

Since I’m revising/editing She Who Dreams, I thought I’d start posting it on here. Cowritten with @the-voice-of-light-city.

Chapter One: Not Just A Locket

“Doctor, look at this.” The being sometimes known as the Doctor, legal name John Smith-now-Tyler, half-human clone of the last Time Lord, comes awake with a start. His Rose is sitting upright in bed, fingering something on a long golden chain, knees curled close to her chest. Messy blonde hair streaked with silver drapes over bare shoulders as she stares at the thing in her hands; he drags himself half-upright, suddenly concerned. “Yes, love?” She doesn’t look at him, hiding behind a curtain of hair; holds out the thing on the chain instead. “ Look. ” He blinks at the indistinct object for a moment, and then his gaze slides back to the delicate dusky lines of his wife. It’s dark, but his eyes are still mostly Time Lord, and besides he can always see her. “Rose, are you alright?” She turns toward him, finally; her eyes glint wide in the twilight. “Can’t you see it?” There’s a waver to her voice. “It’s the locket. My locket. I’ve been wearing it since - as long as I can remember.” She makes a funny broken noise. “I don’t think I can remember ever taking it off. ” “Rose,” he says, and then his hands are in hers, signaling telepathic [comfort] through the skin-on-skin contact. (Not as strong as a real Time Lord, but it’s enough for him--enough for both of them) “Rose, it’s all right. It’s just a dream.” They both have bad dreams sometimes - sometimes she still wakes up in a panic, reaching desperately for the dimension cannon, convinced that she’s still stuck jumping from reality to reality and never being able to rest - looking for him. And he, well, it wasn’t really him, but he still has the War.  She helps him, and he helps her; they make a good team, that way. “You’re safe.” She makes a wordless frustrated noise, thrusts the object at him again. “No, it’s not a dream, can’t you see it?” He frowns. “It’s just a locket.”

“No it’s not,” she repeats, almost desperate now. “It’s got to be - a, a perception filter, or something. Look at it. Really look.” And she squeezes his hand, sending back a quiet scared [please] through the telepathic channel he keeps open for her. He looks. He - He blinks, and takes a careful breath, the beating of his single heart suddenly loud in his ears in a way it hasn’t been for decades. “Rose…” “I know,” she says, but her voice is unsure. The thing she’s holding in her hand - hard to look at still, but getting better, as if the perception filter’s slowly fading - is small and round and made of a heavy golden metal, covered in delicate circular engravings, lines and angles and clockwork-like gears intersecting across the surface. Even to his halfling timesense, it glows with pure artron. It’s a fob watch. “Is it...?” she asks, her voice shaking just a little, as he takes it out of her hand, handling it carefully. “Yeah,” he says, slowly. “A chameleon arch. You remember I told you about the Family of Blood - with Martha?” “Of course  I do,” she responds, hand still holding tight to his. “There’s a - a Time Lord in there. All the memories. All the regenerations.” She swallows. “A Time Lady,” he corrects softly, and looks up at his Rose, eyes unreadable. “And it’s yours.” “I’m a Time Lady,” Rose says, after a moment. She giggles, a little deliriously. “Right. Okay.” She takes a shaky breath. “And if I open the watch. I’ll remember?” The Doctor nods. “You - you’ll be the person you were then again. You’ll remember Rose, but you won’t be her.” Something flickers in his eyes, for a moment. “Not really. If you open the watch.” She looks up suddenly, eyes urgent. “Did you know? When you - the other you - found me? Did you know I was from Gallifrey, too?” He shakes his head, and then he shakes it again, an edge of joy creeping around the shock. “No,” he says, delighted, and then there’s a smile on his face. “No - I didn’t know - but you survived, Rose, somebody else made it past the Moment - you made it.” There’s something like relief there, too; the weight of a thousand thousand lives lifted by just a little bit. He pulls her close, radiating [happiness] through their linked hands “Somebody else survived. I’m not alone.” “You never were alone,” she whispers, then pauses. “Do I - “ she starts, and chokes, and he freezes - pulling back. “Do I do it now?” He hesitates for a single moment, and then he shakes his head, voice soft. “Not if you don’t want to, love.” “But if I’m a Time Lord--Lady--too,” she says shakily, the words spilling out fast and jerky. “Shouldn’t I - if you - “ “Rose,” the Doctor interjects, firmly, grinning that same old idiot’s grin. “I’d love you if you were a human or a Time Lady or a - giant squid, alright? If you want to, and not sooner.” “But,” she tries, and now there really is fear there. “You said - Professor Yana was good, too - what if I’m one of the bad ones?” The Doctor laughs, softly, happily. “Oh, no. I can read the inscription, Rose. And you’re not.” He whispers it, rocking her back and forth. “You are very, very good.” [=|=] She’s not crying. She’s not screaming. She’s not bleeding. That’s the worst part, of course. Rose Marion Tyler rocks back and forth on the same bed in the same room but alone, and the sheets don’t even smell like him. She tried. He always said that Time Lords have no scent, but it wasn’t true, or not really; there’s that faint hint of sparks, something like electricity and dust and sunset, that peculiar taste that was only him. And it’s gone. It was a Torchwood mission. Predictably. Of course. He threw himself into a conflict with three different alien species, always at the center of everything, somehow holding everybody frozen with sheer force of will - oh, there were other agents, but nobody could ever do that, that magic he does with words and symbols and empty hands. He spins through the room, talking so fast your brain can barely keep up, thinking even faster. He finds a way to save everybody. He walks the line, a tightrope so high and yet he dances so easy, running circles around every other mind in the room. He was immortal - maybe not literally, not anymore, but everyone believed it anyway. You can’t kill a legend; you can’t kill a force of nature; you can’t kill a trail of artron sparks. You can’t kill the Doctor. The Doctor never dies. And then when all three species stood down, when this universe’s Shadow Proclamation had been called, the refugees waiting on their towering miles-long island ships parked in the Pacific, UNIT negotiating. When all three leaders laid their weapons down. When everything was going to be alright, as always. The Doctor grinned, still standing on that pedestal-like engine tower in the middle of the ship’s cargo hold - and then said “In that case, I think I’m going to-“ He never finished the sentence; he blacked out instead, and would have fallen the fifty feet to the cargo floor if she hadn’t caught him. And that’s when everybody figure out that at some point during the whole adventure he’d been stabbed in the side with a two-inch wide sword, and never bothered to mention it. “I’m dying,” he told her, in the hospital bed. She was still crying then. She could still cry then. But he was smiling, and he looked so exactly the same - he’d aged a little, more than the Time Lord Doctor ever had, a few grey hairs around the edge - that it hurt. They were going to live forever, together, and die in each other’s arms. “No you’re not,” she tried to say, but couldn’t; choking on the words. He knew it anyway. “I am,” he said. That was all he said. “Rose - “ “D - d - “ and then she gave up, squeezed his hand tighter instead. [i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love] “Rose,” he whispered, still smiling, and then he coughs (the doctors say he’s punctured a lung and it’s too close to that one heart and even surgery might not help the doctors say his systems are too alien and too unstable, a barely-functional patchwork being made of two races that couldn’t be more different no matter how similar they look, the doctors say they’ll try but they don’t know). [rose, your locket.] She tried to respond, but all that came out was a tangle of raw emotion; she can’t quite manage sentences, even after all these years of practice. [when i’m gone - he needs you.] [who?] and [i love you] and [don’t go] [the doctor,] he said, and coughed again. [the…. real one. he needs you. he needs… to know he’s not alone] “ You’re the real Doctor,” she snapped, and it came out harsher than she meant but she doesn’t have time to care. “I won’t leave you. I won’t ever leave you. ” She took a desperate breath. “I’ll save you there must be some way I will save you - “ He couldn’t laugh, not really, but the bubble of simple joyful [amusement] stopped her anyway. [Oh, Rose, my Rose.] He blinked, once, eyes unfocusing. [You already did. ] A faint, curve of a smile. [So many times.] His eyes slipped shut; the last thing she got was one signal so strong it shorted her mind out for a moment - vision gone, grief gone, nothing but an endless timeless space made of pure [love.] They wheeled him into surgery. He never woke up again. And now she’s sitting here, wondering what being a Time Lord - Lady - is like. Do immortals have to feel? Will she care about the Doctor? Does she want to care about the Doctor? He’s still out there, though, isn’t he? If she’s a Time Lady, can she find him? All she wants is to hear him say ‘Run,’ again. He won’t replace her Doctor - nothing could ever do that - but if he needs her. If he still wants her. There’s nothing for her left here - Mum and Dad are both gone, Tony’s married the cute superspy from UNIT, his name’s Viktor or something, and they’re living on the other side of the world, she doesn’t know anybody else from this universe, not well. She clutches the watch close to her chest, staring at the almost-hypnotic under-the-skin-of-the-universe golden glow of it, wondering what dying feels like. Rose Marian Tyler screams, and throws the locket at the wall hard. No. NO . Take a breath; imagine his hands in hers. It’s going to be okay. It isn’t dying; it’s just being someone else, someone who doesn’t hurt like this. It’s okay to grieve, it’s okay to be scared, but the other Doctor needs her, somewhere. She rocks back and forth for a little longer, and maybe she finally starts to cry. And then she goes to pick it up. She writes three notes before she goes. One of them’s for the Torchwood operatives, so they know where she’s gone, in case the new her doesn’t feel like sticking around. One of them’s for herself, after she’s changed, to make sure that the new her remembers. And one of them’s for the Doctor, from the human her, so that even if it is like dying she can say goodbye. She puts the first note on her bed and shoves it against the wall, making space - she’s not sure how this works and she doesn’t want to accidentally incinerate anything if this is like the Doctor’s regenerations. She considers the second note for a moment, and then she pins it to the wall in front of her, so it’ll be the first thing she sees either way. The third note she puts in the pocket of her Torchwood leather jacket, and hopes for the best. She stands straight. She holds her head high. She takes one last long slow breath. The watch clicks open. And then there is light.

[soulbore]

@chanceofpunching​​​ ━━ SAVED THREAD - below the read more is all the past writing from google docs━━━━ ⌈  Kara & Kara ⌋

“Thanks.” Kara pops up the small little device in her palm, eyes searching the familiar interface for similarities. And a few glaring differences. “Well, I don’t know how this works, but I know how mine looks, and yours has things that mine doesn’t that are…definitely broken.” Her smile turns apologetic as she offers it back up to the other Kara, “Which makes me wonder if that’s the…time part. The Legends?” A curious question, chin tipping backwards, “I’m twenty seven. Well…turning twenty-seven. Why? How old are you?” They look…the same but Kara’s starting to realize that doesn’t hold a lot of weight with Kryptonians. Not on Earth. “You know, you’re…the closest me–I mean…Kara. That I’ve met to me. Out of all of the universes I’ve seen, I’ve never seen another one where Alex and I aren’t sisters which is…hard to imagine.”

And easier to divide herself between them. It’s easier to look at herself in such a different world and imagine that it’s not her, because it isn’t with such a huge part of her life gone.

Seriousness settling: “Everyone’s okay, right? You’re not in an emergency to get back to…wherever you were going? Apocalypse, giant man-eating squids, Nazis?”

━━━━

Kara watched her one way home taken from her, but she could trust her. Or...herself. KAra? Wow, yep, she was still trying to get used to this. Kara chuckled, pushing her lips together and nodding. “That it is, I don’t know what happened between the travel but something caused it.” Kara’s own smile brighten as she nodded. “Yes, the legends! Sara found someone to fix it up so if they needed me I could just pop into whatever time they needed instead of them always coming over here. They also have the ability to travel to different dimensions too.” 

Twenty Seven….

Oh boy.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

“I’m...thirty nine,” Kara said, realizing how far into the past she went. That was a good twelve years. “Yeah, there’s a lot of versions...and a lot of… yeaaaah,” Kara reached up to rub the back of her neck, chuckling a little at the history on her mind. “I have an Alex, still kicking and handling me getting into trouble 9/10ths of the time,” She said and then heard the question. 

For once, nothing was an emergency. “Not that I know of, Barry just wanted to talk so I was heading that way and well… wound up here instead. Though, I’ve been through too many apocalypses, Nazis, and… haven’t dealt with a man-eating squid. That’s a first,”

━━━━

 “You’re—” Kara pauses, fingers curling a little around the device before it’s handed back fully, blinking a little before she laughs. Smiles. “Oh. Well...I’ve never met an older me, before.” A beat, adding, “Actually...I don’t think I’ve ever met...a nice me, before. I’m pretty sure I prefer this to someone trying to, you know, um...cut out my heart.” She rushes through the last part before she shakes her head, “But I’m glad you have Alex. And, trust me, man-eating squid? Not as fun as it sounds. Still kind of cute, but will make you smell like Red Lobster for weeks. Without the biscuits. I don’t recommend it.” Her smile is a little easier, though, now that she knows there’s no emergency. No other world on fire--no other danger--no one else potentially hurt. It’s a rarity for both of them, probably, and Kara works through it, “So...right now we don’t actually sound that different. The only difference is age, I’ve unfortunately wrangled a giant squid, and you’re...married.” She shrugs. Totally not a big deal, despite that persistent ache in her chest. Definitely an alternate universe. “Practically the same,” A sheepish laugh, reaching up to curl fingers around her...own shoulder before nodding, “Well, if it’s not an emergency, we can go get lunch, catch up because I really want to know if you have flying cars, and then contact our Barry. Cisco might be able to vibe you back to where you need to go. Does...your Cisco do the vibe thing? They’re really great.”

 ━━━━

   Kara grinned as she nodded her head, taking the device back and putting it into a pocket. “I’ve met a few different...mes?” Kara stumbled on the word, a smile on her lips as she chuckled because it sounded amusing. “Not all of them are bad, some are just...misguided,” Oh… the cut your heart out deal. “Yeah, that was a bit nerve wracking…. Overgirl?” Kara questioned, seeing if they had a similar timeline. In a way, she was sure they must have had the same life, the same design, but little things were different with each one. “I think I’ll stick with my dragons. They sound nicer than a man-eating squid,” 

Kara shifted her boots as she moved up beside her, still amused that for one the whole, Kara having a hidden identity came in handle here. Kara chuckled. “I am, for a year now,” She added and placed her hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Maybe one day for you too. Trust me, there’s someone out there, if we are the same well, I know the feeling before,” The feeling that she couldn't be with anyone, the fear of hurting someone, the idea that she was meant to be alone. Though, Kara wasn’t sure if this other Kara felt the same way or not.

“We don’t… have flying cars?” Kara said, a slightly confused look. “Well, unless you count alien cars. Nothing too special just yet, though I’m sure Lena is trying to come up with the up and coming cure for cancer,” Kara added and then nodded. “Cisco does! Though, it's just dimension jumping and some offensive attacks and lal. No time travel. Cisco and Ray on my world worked together to make my device,”

━━━━

      "Well, there goes my bet with Alex." A laugh, kind--friendly--and, okay maybe a little disappointed because flying cars would be pretty cool. Inefficient and likely horrible for the environment, but at least then Alex could commute into work next to her, most mornings. The thought of passing her sister over her morning bagel and coffee through the clouds is enough for eyes to soften underneath her laughter. "Ohhh," It's a wistful sigh of a near groan--anticipatory. Playful jealousy at its best, "I want dragons, let's switch and...wait." 

Kara pauses, hands raising up, "Was that actually what she called herself? Overgirl? We...weren't really on a name basis. Well, we were, but--you know what I mean. Anyways, yeah, I'm sure Cisco will be happy to get you back home, then. Or...wherever you're going. We'll figure it out." 

No rush. It's still a little weird. And kind of nice.

The soft of far softer shoes than boots brush along asphalt as Kara Danvers walks beside her older superhero mirror and her voice is quiet when she finally pipes up, "I'm glad you found someone. I think I--well, I don't know. Maybe it's just...not in my cards. Everyone else--" A beat. A pause. Trying, voice a little more serious, unknowingly a little firmer. Steel underneath the soft sound of her shoes along the ground. "It's probably not a good idea for me. What's it like, though? Are you happy?" She turns towards her, steel bending. Softer. Smiling, "How long have you been together?" 

━━━━

   A chuckle came from her lips as she knew all too well these bets. "Hopefully your best wasn't with food, that's a hard blow to the stomach. You could always stick a pony in her room, she'll forget about the bet pretty easily," Alex still hasn't let her down about it. Kara couldn't hold back the laugh as she looked over to her. "They might be around, somewhere. He's an absolute sweetheart!" She said and then paused.

"Well, she didn't actually call herself that. Cisco has a thing of naming people and he called her that. It was better than saying Supergirl Doppelganger or copycat or something odd." Kara nodded her head, hoping it would take long. She rather not disappear again. She's done that one too many times. "hopefully not too difficult," Then again, this tech was twelve years into this future.

Oh, da jevu. How many times did she say that? That she wasn't meant for this. "I've said that far too many times to count. You got plenty of time, don't cut yourself short yet. Who knows, maybe she's hiding in the ocean," Kara teased a little, but it troubled her a little bit. Because Kara didn't give herself enough credit and.... Rao. Now she could see what Cat was meaning. 

The question made her smile just at the thought. "I am, we both are. I've known her for about fifteen years. Though only married for one year, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Except for the whole...kidnapping, experiments, locked in the black mercy, and yeah, those messes in a half,” Kara really couldn’t even count how many times they had problems in a half. 

━━━━

A laugh--bright and loud, "Do I want to know what happened to the pony? Oh, Rao." And there Kara's mind goes, faster than like, zipping through possibilities. Fifteen years. Just because they have enough similarities doesn't mean there aren't probably some glaring differences. Like...knowing someone for fifteen years that she'd wind up married to. The math is quick, easy and Kara laughs a little hard, unable to keep it hidden, when she imagines it being someone like Lucy. That would make Thanksgiving pretty awkward. She doubts anyone else could be more awkward to bring around Lois than that. 

Kara's cheeks darken. Moving on from that thought. Maybe it's someone she doesn't know. Never will. Alternate universes are...funny that way. So why does Kara suddenly feel a little sad behind the softening smile? "Her? Well, at least this time it wasn't Oliver. Felicity might have let it slide once. Um...twice? Right past funny into...very awkward territory. It...sounds like--" The smile dims into something understanding, "You've been through a lot with them. Don't...you ever get tired of it? You know. The…" A suck of air through teeth that might be too sharp if glasses didn't temper it. "Putting them in danger. Not that...you have, I just mean I--you--we--" A beat, wincing. "Sorry."

Because that thought lingers, knowing what it's like to have a black mercy who she cares too much to let go. Was that...this Kara's? Was it another Krypton? Was it losing someone else she loved? The thought made her a little nauseous. 

━━━━

   Kara paused for a moment as she thought about it. It bothered her, all the time. Cat risking her life for her, and she no doubt would risk her own life for Cat. And, perhaps at the beginning it terrified her but now, well.... maybe it's because they have both been through so much, and they have both promised to protect each other. Cat has done it on multiple occasions. "Don't be sorry, its logical. I've thought about it plenty of times before as well. But Cat, she's... stubborn."

The thought just made her chuckle, but at the same time she took a breath and looked over at Kara. "Its hard, that's no lie, and I'm sure you understand that. But, when you find your shesur zrhytherevium, it's just like... the risk are known, but your heart cares far more than the risk. I think the best way to explain it is like protecting earth, in a way. Even knowing the risk, you do it anyway," She'd risk everything for Alex, and everything for Cat. Just as she would do anything to protect the earth.

"Are you alright?" Kara questioned, stopping as she shifted to look at the younger girl.

━━━━

For a moment, Kara wonders if her super hearing is off. If maybe, for a moment, words mean different things where this Kara is from, or if she just hit a traffic light while flying through the city very, very hard with her head. Because there's no way she just heard--

"Ms. Grant?!" Okay. Because there's no other Cats that--who she--

Kara slowly, slowly blinks, "How did--why w--when--nevermind." Both palms shoot up because that blush definitely burning deeper. And...deeper. And-- Stammering, more than a little...surprised is a good way to put it. "My...boss for years, journalist, feminist icon...Cat?" 

━━━━

   Kara started to giggle a little, realizing this is how she must sound so many times over. “Mrs. Grant,” Kara responded, as she tilted her head slowly. “Its a long story, a very long story. Like I said, fifteen years of time,” She allowed more of the words to stammer out of her mouth. “Careful, Kara, you look like your about to lose your ability to talk,” She couldn’t help to tease herself (is this what it was like when Alex and Cat teased her???) and nodded her head.

“Sounds like we have the same Cat, yes, that boss. Assistant for about 5 years, friendship for 3. Before anything even came around romantically, she helped in more ways than one. And if she’s the same Cat here, I think you know what I mean,” Kara couldn’t imagine a world where Cat Grant didn’t help Supergirl in some way.

“Which reminds me, what do you do here? Just curiosity sake,”

━━━━

Another blink, eyes still wide. Voice still catching as she-- what does she do? "Well it's not Cat!" It's a practical octave above her regular pitch and replaying her own sentence back only flares cheeks brighter than the cape curved around older shoulders. "That's not what I--I mean I didn't--that's so not what I--" A series of embarrassed, particular words tumble out of her mouth beneath her breath, because this is a thousand times more...everything. Than Oliver had been. 

"Please ignore I said that. I--that's--" Lips part. Close. Open again before the idea (and that memory of a ring) settle, "Wow. Okay. Ms--Mrs...Grant. Right. That is...so much more unexpected than anything else you could have said. Here. Sorry. You just...wow." 

Alex will never let her hear the end of this. 

Kara clears her throat and rolls her shoulders back--smiles despite the faint blush still on cheeks. "Okay, so...you're...married to Cat. Congratulations." Congratulations??? A faint wince. "I mean, you sound happy." A sheepish laugh, "Right, I'm...a journalist. If that's what you meant. What do you do?"

━━━━

Kara's eyebrows rose, staring at Kara at the sudden outburst and even she wasn't sure how to deal with that. "O...k. I never meant that?" Maybe she said the wrong thing, she tried to think back to the sentences she just used. "I meant in the, boss of CatCo, kind of...Cat. I'm sorry," Kara offered, not sure how to rectify her poor speech. She's still trying to get a handle over the idea that this world practically reflects her own.

"If it helps, I didn't see it coming until it hit me in the face?" Kara stated, still remembering how the feelings just came about slowly, and it wasn't anything Kara ever expected. A chuckle left Supergirl's lips as she heard the congratulations. "Thanks, I think. And I am." No matter what seem to hit the two, she was. 

"Same, still. but I'm also the Editor-in-Chief. I don't know if you have someone named Snapper on your earth, but on mine, he retired a few years back and well, I got a promotion," Snapper may have been a jerk now and again, but he was good at what he did and he was a good person deep down. Just very very rough around the edges. But he helped her many times over and she wouldn't be where she was without Cat and Snapper's persistence in pushing her in the right directions.

━━━━

“I know you didn’t--I mean I didn’t mean to--” Kara stumbles enough over her words quickly enough that she might break the sound barrier with sharp breath before she laughs a little, nervous and sheepish, shaking her head. Because it’s...her standing in front of herself, not actually Ms. Grant, who won’t suddenly materialize to give Kara that look while she’s nervously stuttering and somehow, knowing that both makes it better and worse when she raises her hand. Apologetic, “You shouldn’t apologize, I should. I’m sorry. There’s...an infinite number of universes, apparently, I can...well, I’m surprised but…not for the reasons Alex is definitely going to tease me about in around an hour.” Her laugh is a little easier, overcoming the shock in favor of something else, entirely. A smile. At least some version of her out there is…happy. And making it work. It’s a little uplifting to the romantic, maybe—makes it a little easier to breathe in a way she hasn’t felt in…years. Like maybe it isn’t all hopeless if there’s a world where she winds up…not fighting giant squid and somehow keeping a relationship together for—

 Long enough to get married. It hurts, a little, but…it’s nice, too. Maybe hope is always like that, a faint little ache that she’d always rather have, than not.

 “It’s actually more surprising Snapper retired.” The laugh is a little brighter—friendlier—because…well, it’s easy to feel comfortable around someone she’s theoretically known for decades. “So…” She leans a little closer, eyebrows raising, “That has to mean he finally at least gave you one story, right? Maybe there’s hope, after all.”  It’s easier to bury her hint of a sigh after that—bury it behind the smile as she slowly starts to continue walking back down the street, towards food. Hopefully. “Do you like it? Editing.” 

━━━━

   "Kara," Supergirl said softly as she pulled to a stop and touched her shoulder. "Relax, its okay. Your just talking to....yourself? I get it," She said with a smile, trying to calm down her younger self. "I do the same thing from time to time," A grin crossed her lips as she looked down and then back up toward her. "It could be worse, way worse." Kara glanced around, everything looking completely familiar to her (and the stares and smiles from those in National City were always familiar). "Where is this food place you wanted to go to?"

CHuckling, KAra nodded her head. "He, quote unquote, said he needed a very long vacation away from the magical alien mumbo jumbo. But somehow manage to compliment me at the same time. I don't know how that man manages both to being insulting and complimenting at the same time." She nodded her hand and looked over to her. "Several. I've gotten 2 pulitzers which caused him to crack a grin. It was scary, in its own way. But, he is proud of those who work under him. You'll see. Arrogant, grumpy, cranky, but he's a good guy. Just don't buy him bear claws," 

Putting her hands behind her back, walking as she thought about it. "I wouldn't say its the editing I like, but more, the other journalist I get to help. I think that's what I like the most, helping the others the way I was helped. Though, a bit nicer,"

━━━━

[tokiiku]

Also, Shadow telling Maria her wish creates a paradox of sorts. Maria will likely tell Shadow her wish because she knows it has a strongly positive impact on him even fifty years after her death.

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever