[audio]

[backwordscompatible]

 [Cue the sound of a fifteen-year-old trying to play it cool and not sound nearly as nervous as she was starting to get:]


So...uh...shot in the dark here: is there anyone who's special abilities are acting a little...off?  [Because that was so specific]  Either the ones you've picked up from Jaunts along the way, or whatever powers you had before you got here?

[There might have been a slight emphasis on the latter, which was what she was more concerned with at the moment.]

No reason.  I was just curious, is all.

[She wasn't just curious.]

Comments

[backwordscompatible]

[Smart choice.]

What kind of magic ban?

[This was the first she'd heard of any such thing. While it might not relate to her current predicament, it was still something she felt like she should know about. Particularly considering, until now, she'd been able to use her own magic almost completely unrestricted. Maybe because it was different than theirs?]

[happyhalloween]

We can't make Furniture. And I can't make food that's good to eat yet.

[backwordscompatible]

[Oh. Huh. That...actually wasn't quite as bad as she was thinking.]

Weird. Meanwhile, there are people who say they've never been able to do that before, who can do it now.

Does that mean there's some magic you can still do?

[happyhalloween]

I can make things that aren't Furniture or food! And I know a couple cantrips! And I knew all the green magics when I was Green, but I'm not anymore and so I have to get Kanji to help me relearn them.

[backwordscompatible]

Remind me what the Greens can do again? That was the one that had to do with natural magics, right? Elements?

[So many colors of the rainbow. So many options.]

[happyhalloween]

Elements was Blue! Blue and a little Red. Green was growing stuff and animals and dead things and healing!

[backwordscompatible]

[So she wasn't too far off.]

How delightful.

The animals part does sound pretty fun, though. More than the dead things.

[happyhalloween]

There's nothing wrong with dead things.

[backwordscompatible]

[Are you serious?]

I could probably name one or two.

[happyhalloween]

[That was the wrong thing to say.] There isn't! We're just as good as alive things! You're mean!

[backwordscompatible]

[...wait, what?]

[How did this conversation go so wrong for her so fast?!]

You're dead?

You don't sound it.

[happyhalloween]

I've been dead for twelve years! And what do you mean, I don't sound it? [Are dead people supposed to sound some way she isn't sounding?]

[backwordscompatible]

[There is no way this is going to end well for her, is there?]

Okay, so...where I'm from? Dead people are usually either...really, really quiet...and unmoving...or maybe they grunt a little, if they're zombies.

They don't really act like they're still alive. Otherwise everybody would start getting confused.

[happyhalloween]

... that's because the dead people are in the world of the living. I'm only a piece of jaw in the world of the living. But I've been in the Golden Land! So I get to walk around like I'm alive there! But I'm not.

[backwordscompatible]

[Why does she keep saying all this like Zatanna was supposed to know this stuff?]

Well, sorry.

I've never even heard of the Golden Land. How was I supposed to know?

[happyhalloween]

[Because she's Maria.]

Not every world has a Golden Land. The Golden Land is only for my family. But doesn't your world have a land for the dead?

[backwordscompatible]

Not unless you count Cemeteries.

[happyhalloween]

... no Heaven or Hell or Yomi?

[Your world is a weird one.]

[backwordscompatible]

I mean, there is the Underworld.

[Because in her world = Greek/Roman mythology and gods and goddesses are a thing.]

But I've never been. And, last I heard, the dead stay dead down there.

[happyhalloween]

I'm still dead. I never said I wasn't dead.

[Really, how complicated is this?]

[backwordscompatible]

[...ugh...]

Okay, can I call a do-over yet? Or, even better, just quietly back away and pretend this whole conversation never happened?

[happyhalloween]

[...]

If you promise not to be mean about dead people. There's a lot of us.

[backwordscompatible]

...here?

[Somebody needs to make a list for her, so she doesn't end up offending even more "dead" people.]

[happyhalloween]

Uh-huh. Why do you think that one lady did a whole party for us?

[backwordscompatible]

I thought that was just a party for having a party's sake. I didn't know there was any specific reason.