HEXAPPEAL

Zatanna Zatara || 26 || Magician 'Hey pay attention to me! I'm fascinating!'

[laeppaxeh-archive]

[laeppaxeh-archive]

[laeppaxeh-archive]

[laeppaxeh-archive]

[justcallmehawkeye]

Kate nods. “That’s Clint Barton to a tee,” she says with a laugh, then brightens. “You remember? Yeah, it was, and you were totally amazing!” She’s pleased that Zatanna remembers, and she feels flattered to be honest. “It was probably my best birthday party, really,” she says with a laugh.

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“Honestly I don’t do many birthday parties, no one actually wants a magician anymore, I think I’m right above clowns in the desirability list, which, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Joker, but clowns? Not really too popular. I think Clint called them satanists?”

[smol-red--robin-blog]

“…Are you asking me something? Instructions unclear.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“I mean, I don’t know if that counts as instructions? But I did ask how you were. Does that count?”

[purrfect-crime]

Zatanna Zatara. It was a name she wouldn’t forget, that much was certain. Felicia shook her hand firmly and then released it, wrapping her fingers around the strap of her purse. “Hopefully I’m not distracting you if you’re on your way to work.” It was a light prod for more information; if this Zatanna was rich, she was certainly going to keep her close. After all, kitty needed a massage after the trauma she’d just endured. 

[laeppaxeh-archive]

Zatanna shook her head,dismissive, screwing up her face into a mockery of a frown. “Nah, don’t worry about it, I’m on a sabbatical. Kinda.” It was true, she was on a forced leave as a bid to make people, well...want her to come back. The article may have ruined her life a bit, but honestly, the advertising that come from it certainly shot her through the roof. She shrugged, tone light, “besides, even if I wasn’t I wouldn’t be headed in for another--” she checked her watch, “4? 4 hours. What about you? I mean, don’t let me keep you, you looked like a man on a mission before you slipped.”

[theoneandonlyredhood-blog]

Jason breathed out a sigh – of relief – or maybe the prospect of staying somewhat anonymous in this new city for a little while. The glimmering promise of new life and endless possibilities surrounding him here, making it all the harder to accept that his past life would always catch up with him…in one way or another.

He was just happy that she seemed just as satisfied with leaving the past in its place (for the moment, anyway).

At the offer of food, Jason grinned again, because who wouldn’t pass up that sort of deal? Not him; he had had enough hungry nights during his childhood to keep him starving for years. “Pizza!” Jason instantly blurted out. If it were a toss up, it would be that or burgers, really. “New York’s known for their pizza, right? I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on some of that.” Rubbing his hands together in excitement, he murmured the next words in a sort of rush:  “Yeah, I just arrived in town. I’ve been bouncing from place to place for awhile, so here’s hoping New York’s the one that sticks.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

Zatanna laughed, glad the awkward feeling had eased, if only somewhat she wasn’t exactly good at awkward. She wasn’t sure if it was a magician thing, or just a her thing, but she wanted -- needed to be the most clever in the room, needed to be sure foot and this made her off kilter, pushed at her until she was unbalanced. 

She nodded sagely, a smile turning the corner of her lips up as she nodded sagely. 

“Ah pizza, the food of New Yorker’s and tourist’s, it’s just about the only thing we can all agree on.” She shrugged, “not that I’m a New Yorker. I’ve been hopping all over the american continent and half of Europe, occupational hazard I guess.” She took a deep breath, exaggerated as she looked around her, at the admittedly dingy area of town, not so polished as time square, “New York made me settle down though, I’ve been here for oh, months now? It’s my home away from home, which, don’t let other’s know, they’ll call me a west coast traitor, but I’m from San Francisco originally.”

[justcallmehawkeye]

She grins widely. “Sounds like dating to me, you know.” She’s almost tempted to break out into childish song, but she’ll save that for Clint.

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“For someone who keeps things simple he makes things so complicated. So complicated. Wait, so you’re Kate Bishop, as in, I think I did a performance for your sweet sixteen. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sweet.”

[theoneandonlyredhood-blog]

“No problem,” Jason replied with a shrug. His eyes roamed over her for a moment, a small fire of recognition attempting to ignite in the back of his mind. Smiling faintly, he realized that this had happened a lot lately, and would probably keep happening at the rate things were going. This was the reason Jason left Gotham and those he knew before:  to disappear and start anew.

New life, new identity (of sorts). But here he was again, with that little niggling of recognition teasing him. This happened with all those small interactions and brief meetings from the past – the hardest ones to recover after the Lazarus Pit. Awkwardness piled unto awkwardness. He debated on whether to mention it, a nervous hand running through his hair. “Hey, you know any good places to eat around here?” he decides to skirt over it, hoping that either the feeling would go away or she would acknowledge it on her own volition.

[laeppaxeh-archive]

Zatanna’s smile dropped when the guy glanced over her, it wasn’t the sort of look she got from fans, with her face all over magazine’s since the magical debacle she’d become accustomed to the face. He was trying to place her, she had to swallow the urge to frown. The guy in front of her though, when she looked at his face and pocketed her keys, well, he looked familiar, not someone she knew but maybe. Maybe someone she might have known, it had her chewing the inside of her lip when she pasted the smile back in place.

At his question Zatanna relaxed minutely hoping he’d given up and wouldn’t make a big deal out of this, whatever it was. She grinned, something a bit more natural, the corner of her lips curling upward. “Yeah, I, uh, know a few places, I’m kind of a foodie. What are you feeling? I think we can figure something out, you new to the big apple, or just new to the area?”

[smol-red--robin-blog]

“You’re the one that brought it up!”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“I did not! Okay. Maybe I did. Shhhh. How are you...Tim. I had to think about that. I was about to call you ‘not-stalker’ which seems a bit rude.”

[justcallmehawkeye]

“Are you serious?” Kate throws her head back, laughing. “And you ended up dating him? That’s really amazing, actually, I’m proud.” Well, she can see why Clint likes her enough to date her, really, Kate really likes her already.

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“I didn’t ask him if he was Ironfist, I was like, trying to figure out if he was, and then he told me to fight him and uh...things got weird from there. We’re not dating!...I don’t think. We’re just going on dates, which is a weird distinction and we watched puppy bowl together! Which, was really really cute.” 

[purrfect-crime]

“Hexappeal,” she repeated, shifting her weight from one hip to the other, “I like it. It suits you somehow. Mysterious and kinda clever.” She offered a gloved hand to the dark-haired woman. “Felicia Hardy.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

Zatanna laughed shaking her head and unconsciously covering her face with her scarf, trying to warm the cold tip of her nose. “I’m about as mysterious as an empty paper bag, I’m an open book.” She thought of all the magazines trying to get interviews with her and the Torch article about her use of magic, and she scrunches her nose, moving her scarf away to take her hand. “Zatanna Zatara.”

[smol-red--robin-blog]

“…I thought you were talking about your bladder control issues.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“Oh god, not this again.”

[smol-red--robin-blog]

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“What? Excuse. There is no protesting here, this is me, protesting that I protested. Wait. No. Okay but I’m just saying that magazine’s are evil and should never be trusted.”

[justcallmehawkeye]

“Oh, god, yeah, he does that. That’s just Clint. I’m Kate Bishop. I just feed his dog. And I know you’re Zatanna Zatara. We run in the same circles. So, how’d you meet Clint?”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“Um...I asked him if he was Ironfist?”

[smol-red--robin-blog]

“It’s not my fault if we both lost our train of thought.”

[laeppaxeh-archive]

“Get thee to a punnery!”