💚 true love's kiss / magic kiss / healed
i got you anon! sorry this took a while.
💚 true love's kiss / magic kiss / healed for supercorp*
ask meme
THIS ABSOLUTELY RAN AWAY FROM ME IM SO SORRY
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"your true love is an alien."
well. there's certainly a lot to unpack from that, isn't there?
let's try.
first. this short and frumpy old lady with both hands on her hips is standing in front of her desk, somehow able to bypass security and her assistant, jess, who is mysteriously absent from her desk.
second. aliens aren't real. right? (right?)
third. the concept of true love is laughable. this is the 21st century and subscribing to these silly fairytale notions of true love is a lot of bullshit. let alone the idea that there is someone even out there for lena in that capacity. nevermind that apparently the only possible candidate for such a title is someone who isn't even human.
fourth. what does this even all mean? and why is she allowing her conference call to madrid get completely derailed by this woman who looks like she's more suited for the kitchen of a small hole in the wall italian restaurant and not the middle of a fortune 500 corporate office.
(all this to say that when lena eventually looks back at her life, she'll think that this is probably not even top five of the weirdest things to happen to her. it might just barely squeak into the top ten, though.)
still, she's faced with a strange predicament at this time. like how to get this lady out of her office.
yet instead of shooing this lady out, her mouth opens to say, "what's next, are you gonna tell me that magic is also real?"
the old lady in front of her just shrugs. "true love is magic, dearie. keep up, mm?"
when she opens her mouth again, she's just about to dismiss this lady, but it doesn't even matter because as soon as she blinks, she's alone.
-
something saves her.
no wait, it's someone. someone saves her.
her helicopter is crashing, the pilot is dead and dying beside her, and they're plummeting.
until, of course, they're not.
because someone is carrying her burning helicopter down on a hellipad and yanking the door out to check on them. lena's heart is in her throat and her lungs are somewhere in her stomach and she doesn't know if she's still even alive. but this someone is definitely hovering before she's holding lena securely.
"hi," the woman says, tentative, blue eyes and blonde hair and armsarmsarms and a red cape and--
something inside of lena's heart changes-transforms-evolves.
and then she passes the fuck out.
-
when she wakes, it's to dim lighting in a hospital room, the beeping of her heartrate monitor. distantly, she hears very little outside which means she's in a much more private wing of the hospital.
she sits up a little when a nurse comes in holding a tray.
except it's not a nurse at all. but the same lady from before.
"you."
"hello, dearie."
so many questions jump at the forefront of her mind. understandable and reasonable questions like hey lady what the fuck are you doing here? how did you get in? what do you want from me? are you here to kill me? stuff like that.
except the flashes of earlier appear in her mind and she recalls blonde blue red. she gasps.
the old lady smiles. "very good, dearie. they did say you were smarter than the others."
"what do you want from me?"
"nothing."
"then what are you doing here?" she asks, her voice gaining strength, her hands balling into fists by her side.
"just consider me an invested party."
before she can voice anything, the old lady places her cup of jello and plastic spoon by her thigh.
"take care, dearie. tell her i said hello, mm?"
lena's brows furrow, questions crowding her mind as she attempts to make sense of everything but failing to do so. the last she hears is a snap of fingers and she falls into a dreamless sleep.
-
when lena next wakes, she's back in her office. a week after the failed assassination attempt on her life.
the buzz of her intercom signals jess's voice. "miss luthor, your 2pm appointment is here. would you like me to let her in."
"go ahead."
she stands by her desk and brushes at her skirt just as the door opens to reveal a beautiful and bespectacled woman with her hair pulled in a ponytail.
blonde blue red.
lena's mouth dries and her insides do a somersault. she remembers the helicopter, the hospital, the old lady. the words your true love is an alien pinballing in her head (in her heart in her heart in her heart).
"hi, miss luthor. thanks for meeting with me."
lena looks at the offered hand. strong hands that have held her before. on a burning helicopter.
"of course..." she says, waiting for the woman to fill in the blanks.
"kara. kara danvers."
"well, kara, call me lena."
it takes five eternal seconds for them to let go of each other's clasped hands.
-
lena finds out about kara bit by bit. through interviews, through professional coffee meetings, through informal coffee meetings, through casual walks around downtown and the city parks, through casual lunches and dinners and desserts.
congregating around food so she holds a fork or a burger or an ice cream cone in her hand while she fights the urge to hold kara's hand.
lena learns about who kara is. a reporter by day (who moonlights as a superhero, lena muses, but kara doesn't share that information). an avid pop music lover and movie buff. a regular buff with hard cuts of muscles. arms arms arms arms--
kara is lame. a dork. goofy. foolish. beautiful. quiet. pensive. perceptive. deep. kind. loving. oh, so loving. so very loving.
kara is a hugger. a holder. an engulfer. an overwhelmer. she is the ocean and lena is the lone driftwood that crashes against waves. lena wants to be washed ashore only for the ocean to capture her once more because the ocean can't be denied.
she doesn't want to deny kara.
"lena?"
she blinks back to her present, washing away the cloud of her thoughts. right. they're at dinner. her fork held midair just before her mouth. they are in kara's apartment.
"yes, darling?"
kara smiles at her, though there is concern in her eyes. "where'd you go just now?"
she wants to say she went to the ocean but it's true either way when she offers her best smile to kara who mirrors it easily, breezily.
"i was just thinking that your cooking has gotten better."
kara ducks her head, her smile turning shy. "thanks, lena."
lena doesn't want to deny kara.
-
briefly, distantly, lena thinks that perhaps there's an inevitability to this moment.
this moment being:
kara is standing in front of her with her button down shirt opened to the fifth button where lena sees the S emblem over kara's chest.
"i wanted to tell you. f-for so long, i just--" she stops herself and takes a deep breath. "i'm sorry, lena."
lena is quiet. her vision unable to focus on any one thing. she looks at the blonde of her hair out of its regular ponytail. at the blue of kara's eyes. at the red of the symbol atop her chest.
blonde blue red.
"you're an alien." she announces it for the first time, despite the truth have sat carefully under her tongue for months.
kara swallows, then nods. "lena-"
what did that old lady say? she can't remember right now because her brain is buzzing, her heart is thumping, and the overwhelming urge to melt into kara is all she can think about.
she propels forward, pushing up on the tips of her toes, and kisses kara.
kara's arms are around her, hands holding her, body engulfing her.
soft lips slide against hers, press upon her, permanently transforming the chemistry of her body with the way that kara is now part of her.
when they break apart, she only grins at the dazed expression on kara's face.
"you...you like me too?"
she is beaming because of course she likes kara too, likes her more than like. so she answers by kissing kara again.
-
for their first date, kara takes her to a small italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
"this is my favorite italian spot in the city. in the state, actually. maybe even the country!" kara exclaims, excitedly talking and gesticulating but making sure that their hands stay interlaced with one another.
when they get there, they're seated right away, a young woman seating them in the back booth.
"hi, kara. table for 2?"
kara nods and lena watches. "you come here often?" she asks.
"yeah. i hit this place up at least a couple times a month. good thing my metabolism allows me to eat as much pasta as i want. the chef in the back makes it fresh every day."
amidst drinking wine and twirling their forks in their pasta, kara is leaning closer to her, the two of them sitting adjacent to each other, their elbows grazing each other on the corner.
when they finish, kara pays, insists on it, and asks if they can stop by the kitchen to pay compliments to the chef. with hands still intertwined, kara pushes the swinging door forward, and calls for chef nina.
lena watches as kara releases her hold of lena and approaches the short and frumpy old lady who only wipes her hands on a stained white apron before opening her arms up to receive kara's hug.
over kara's shoulder, the old lady winks at lena.
and lena?
well, she just laughs and laughs, kisses kara on the lips, and hugs the old lady.
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So, here's the thing:
Tango knows that Zedaph is this close to staging an intervention.
He lies against the wiring for Decked Out and stares at the ceiling. He should probably be more concerned about that. Early-season Tango would be concerned about that; a situation getting bad enough that Zedaph, of all people, is ready to stage an intervention is normally a sign it's gotten pretty dang bad. But he's close. He's so close. And it's not like he's worried, not anymore.
He'd been worried, once? Like, he'd been scared, at some point of what the Frozen Citadel was starting to do to him. But now that he's there--
If he's asked, Tango will say it's mutualism, and not elaborate, because if anyone stages enough of an intervention to stop Decked Out from finishing what it's started, he's probably going to scream. He's probably going to always wonder. Worst of all, he won't finish the game on time. So like, so what if it's eating him a little? Or a lot? Or basically completely, given that he's pretty sure the damage is irreversible at this point?
Anyway, it doesn't matter. Start of the season Tango probably would care more, but like, it's mutual. Decked Out gets to eat Tango. Use him as an appropriate game piece. Sometimes as a processor. To do repairs. Whatever. It's important for the whole process. And Tango gets a sick game. Which, for some, sounds like an absurd trade-off, but it's not just the game, okay?
It's not just--
If it were just "I need to let my accidentally very sentient and very large base eat me to finish the game", he might do it? But he wouldn't, like, be actively conspiring to hide the fact that he's starting to be physically incapable of breathing like, normal oxygen and stuff. He wouldn't be conspiring to hide just how literal the shop item allowing you to control the gamemaster is. He wouldn't be trying to hide how close he is to just--being another part of Decked Out. Not being a "Tango" as an individual, but being a part of the machine. Basically a really fancy redstone component.
If it were just "he's really proud and he'd be sad if it took longer", he wouldn't have hung a sheep on the outside of the building to make sure some part of Decked Out knows that Zedaph is its friend, once there isn't a Tango to remind it of that properly. He would have asked Zedaph to actually do that intervention he's planning.
He didn't. He acted like he had several more weeks than he probably did. But it's fine. Decked Out ate the fear, anyway, so he can't feel it, and whatever sense of desire to like, not be redstone component was probably eaten also, and. And.
He's not sure how to describe it in a way that doesn't make him sound insane, but--
It's so close. Decked Out is so close to eating him completely. And that should be terrifying, if that weren't the first thing that got dissolved away, if he hadn't been scared since forever. Maybe, somewhere, there's part of him that is scared. There's a lot of him that knows he should be.
But those moments, the ones he's having more and more, where he forgets he's Tango. Where he forgets he's anything but part of the machine. And he's part of something big, and great, and he has a specific use, and he's aware for all of it but not aware of being himself, and he can feel exactly how he's important to the great machine and he does his job and absolutely everything else fades away entirely and he is the Game Master and even that's not an individual identity it's part of a whole it's part of something beautiful it's part of something so, so alive while not being alive at all and, and then--and then he's not done being eaten yet. And the Tango comes in. The fear, the insecurity, the, the flaws.
And he'd just lie there, and he'd feel it. The almost-just-a-part. The sense of just--being, and not being anyone in particular, but being. The lack of self. He'd feel the voltage from the redstone wires and try to capture it again, and be unable to, not on his own.
Not while he's left as Tango, at least a little bit uneaten.
So. Uh. He told you he didn't know how to describe it without sounding insane. But he'll never forgive himself. Never forgive himself if he doesn't find out what happens when it's done. What it's like to just--be a part of Decked Out and nothing else. What it feels like to give in completely.
Therefore. Zedaph. Intervention. Pretend he's better than he is so Zedaph doesn't do that. It shouldn't be long now. The amount of time he's aware and Tango is--less. The amount of fear is--it's entirely gone now. The amount he thinks "gee beginning of season Tango would say this is a bad plan" is almost zero.
The game is almost ready to open.
If he can just hold out that long, then there won't be anything anyone could do.
They'll be too busy having fun with the game, anyway. With any luck, no one will notice.
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I was wondering more about the very interesting choice for the show runners to have the time on the train reflect real life. There are many shows, movies, and books that all decide to have the "adventure dimension" on a different time scale as the real world. Like in Narnia. where irl times freezes, allowing the children to grow into adulthood and then return to their children-selves when they exit the wardrobe. Infinity train doesn't do that. The amount of time that passes on the train is exactly the amount of time that passes in the real world. THAT is very interesting! It got me thinking about the aftermath of being on the infinity train, and the possibilities of that.
There's the inherent angst of people going missing for weeks, months, and even years, and not really being open about where they were. Maybe they try explaining, but since "a magic train took me" is an insane answer to "where did you go for [weeks, months, years]", it ends up just causing arguments. Depending on the circumstances, it could go away. And you time on the train just a Weird Time in your life that only you know about, and your loved ones are sad to think that you won't let them in. Maybe you went missing for years, and in a dramatic twist, the search for you spread across the country. One of those missing children's cases that make True Crime Podcast hosts excited to make a new episode. You're a cold case. Presumed dead. Maybe you try to return home, but find that your family left. they moved, or died, or who knows? How long were you even gone? Do you know? You have no life. In some cases, you grew up on the train. You don't remember how the real world works. You talk to animals, expecting them to respond.
Take this to an even further extreme: do you try to go back? You had friends there, and even a life. Sure, it would be dangerous, but the real world isn't your home anymore. Research on the train leads to dead ends. Nobody knows what you're talking about when you ask about a train that "goes on forever and had magical cars that can have anything in them." Or maybe-
There is a less angsty option, in my mind, where the internet allows people to talk about these things in blog posts and diaries, and as news gets around with stories like "all the child said was a magic train picked them up and they met a talking dog who helped them", more and more people start connecting and talking about the train. Maybe they have a forum. They meet friends. They start this sort of underground group of people who all visited the train because "Finally! Someone Understands Me."
It's just- the aftermath of the train. You go home after seeing all this stuff and what? You're supposed to be NORMAL? No, I refuse. I wouldn't be normal.
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