7344/Age of Despair: Why did it Have to Be Apokolips

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Age of Despair: Why did it Have to Be Apokolips
Date of Scene: 28 April 2019
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Willow's research discovers something.. disturbing. She tells John, and together they hatch a plan that will hopefully tell them more.
Cast of Characters: Willow Rosenberg, Constantine
Tinyplot: Age of Despair


Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow let herself into John's house with the key he had given her. Being careful not to wander down any unknown hallways, or open any closed doors, she made her way first to the kitchen, where the broken teapot on the counter made her frown a little. No matter, she knew where the cups were, and while she waited for the kettle she tidied up his dishes.

Tea made, she found herself a nook in his library and settled down into researching something that had been bothering her. One search led to another.. and another.. and pulling books from his shelves looking for verification - her hands unerringly finding the right books.

The day passes with Willow ensconsed in John's library. Outside, the street lights come on. Her tea has long gone cold.

Willow? Willow is afraid. Very afraid.

Now might be the time to find John and have a little talk.

Constantine has posed:
John wakes as those lights illuminate the Bloodhaven streets. Staggering out of bed he pulls on his pants and a housecoat and goes looking for some tea. He finds the kettle not where he left it and knows he has guests. He heats the kettle quickly with a little help from some magical fire then brewing his tea in his cup wanders in the direction of the library.

"Oi, Willow, you here?" he calls as he passes through the doorway into the long and shadowy hall.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Timing, as they say, is everything, John's calling out for Willow coming almost immediately upon her thought that she should find John and spill what she's learned.

"I'm in the library!" Willow peeks her head outside the library door. "I was just going to come looking for you."

Constantine has posed:
John sips his tea. "Yeah? Whatcha need me for?" he asks glad Willow hadn't started her little search before his guest for the... well better part of the day had departed by portal.

When Willow's head pokes out of the library door, he gives her a wave then jerks his head towards the inside.

"Best go in, gonna need to sit in a minute," he says, not because he feared whatever she might tell him, but because he was tired and sore and more than a little hungover.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
John would be wrong about when Willow started her search. But that's likely just as well, as he might be just as uncomfortable trying to explain the situation to Willow as she would have been listening to him explain it.

"My tea is cold," Willow complains with a little pout. She even holds up her cup as though that will make it clearer to him and prove her point. Caught between going back into the library and wanting to freshen her cup. "And your teapot is broken."

Constantine has posed:
Oh the explanation would definitely be awkward, Willow knocking on his door would be even more so. As it is John's shirtless under his robe, but at least he's wearing pants.

"Alright, tea first then sit," he says turning about and heading back to the kitchen.

"So whatcha want to tell me? Or am I going to have to play twenty bloody questions?"

The remark about the teapot gets a snort. "Probably some rocks laying about too, eh?" he asks her. "I had a guest, long story."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Twenty bloody questions?" Willow echoes, padding after him to the kichen, popping a hand over her mouth. "Wait, that's a swear isn't it?" She looks fairly aghast with herself. "And what is it anyway?"

John earns a blank look over the rocks comment. "Why would you have rocks in your kitchen? Oh, I did your dishes. I was waiting for the kettle."

Her cold tea is dumped down the sink and she waits for the kettle to boil for the two of them. "You had a guest?" Brow furrowing. "Wait a minute. You had a guest /here/ while I was here?"

If John thought she'd looked aghast moments earlier, her newly freshened and even deeper look of disgust should be entertaining. "Ew, how could you?" Like he'd somehow insulted her personally, or known she'd be coming and had done this deliberately to mock her.

Constantine has posed:
Leading the way into the kitchen, John hand wobbles. "Not really, hear it was a big deal back in the 1600's now you can use it on TV," he says of the word bloody. "An' what is it? No clue, folks just say it. Probably a religious thing, lot of curses are."

He gives the whole matter a casual shrug before telling Willow: "Long story short, you're probably safe."

"Long story about the rocks, and thanls for doing my dishes," John says as he get the kettle on for another cup of tea.

As for his guest? John shakes head, "Nah, got it all wrong didn't have a guest here while you were here, /you/ showed up while I had a guest," he says with a grin as he turns the thing back on Willow. "An' it's going to happen again no doubt..." a beat. "Also maybe don't go in the sitting room without calling out first, you know, going forward."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Why would a religious thing be..?" Willow has no clue, and she's not run across it in her studies or spells or rituals dealing with supernatural creatures - and usually those things were chock full of religious connotations at some point or another.

She's not buying it's a safe word, though. "I don't know. It sounds bad. I better not say it." Which seems to settle the matter for her.

When John tries to explain his guest, though, that furrowed line of brow she gets while puzzling things out reappears. "I don't think it works that way?" It wasn't the when of it all that had her disgusted but the what of it all. "Wait, what? Don't go in the sitting roo---ewww. That's gross. How am I supposed to study here now? Besides, I thought you said I might have to stay here."

Willow gearing up to get stubborn on him.

Constantine has posed:
"Ask the French," John answers cryptically why religious things could be swears.

"What? Got a swear jar you have to fill or something?" John asks as he leans against the counter.

John just grins through the ews, "An' true, I did say that, mainly if the Enchantress and her lot come looking for you, but the rest of the time, probably best you stick to the library," he looks around. "An' the kitchen, an' if you have to stay here we'll talk about the rules for guests."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"No," Willow says of a swear jar. "I just don't like swearing. It makes me feel.. dirty."

Which was almost hilarious given all the sort of things she's otherwise done and been exposed to. There are certainly worse things in life than four letter words.

Willow is patient as John starts naming safe zones in the house. "It's not really nice to punish me because you're having guests." She says the word carefully, like she'll catch something from him by merely saying it. "Why can't you just stay in your ro-- I AM NOT HAVING GUESTS!"

If a shocked denial is what John was aiming for, he got it. Willow might not be a prude per se (one can hardly be a pagan and be a true prude) but her personal guidelines for behaviour haven't yet extended to casual overnight guests, or in the case of what John is laying out there, mid-afternoon sitting room liasons.

Constantine has posed:
Shaking his head, John chuckles, "Swearing is supposed to make you feel dirty, that's the bloody point!"

John's chuckling stops as he takes the kettle from the stove. "Wait? Who said you were having guests?" he asks glancing back over his shoulder. "I meant the rules for when I'm having guests."

Though seeing an opportunity to make Willow squirm a bit, he says: "That said if you do want to bring a guest, knock yourself out, y'can even use the sitting room."

There is a slightly sly grin then as he waits Willow's reply.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Sam and I are not that kind of friends," Willow says firmly. Even if her cheeks pinken because they had shared a bed. "And weren't you interested in what I found out?"

Because she had no intention of talking about her (non-existent) love life with John Constantine, who seemed to have enough love life for both of them.

Constantine has posed:
The pinkening cheeks are noted. "Uh-huh, bet you aren't," John says with a bit of a leer. "He's the dumb one right?"

As for what she found out, he nods, "Yeah, of course, what'd you find out?" he asks as he nods for her to bring her cup for some hot water.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow tilts her head to one side, "The dumb one?" Because of course she has no clue Castiel and John are friends. "He was in law school. He's very smart." Maybe not as smart as she is, but smart enough. "And we aren't those kind of friends. We just - it's complicated, okay? And there was a snow storm. We didn't even take our clothes off!""

John now having thoroughly discombobulated her.

Thankfully, he moves to safer topics. "I was trying to track down the magic and tech signature, and it got me thinking - who actually combines those things?" Willow knew that she was fairly unique in her combining the two of them together. "I don't think you or anyone else is going to like what I found out."

They might be playing twenty questions after all.

Constantine has posed:
"Engh, it's what his angel calls him," John says about Sam being 'the dumb one'. "An' how smart could he be, goin' to law school on purpose." The bit about the bed gets a grin, "Ah, just some dry humping then, fair 'nuff." John could go on but he's teased her enough by his estimation.

Then it's down to serious business. "Tech and magic, yeah, few enough of those," he says. "In most cases they don't get along so well. So, who is it then?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow makes a face at John, "Why are you like that anyway? No. None of..that." That being his very explicitly stated dry humping. "We got stranded in a snow storm while trying to find something. He was going to sleep in the and I felt bad." Adding, "He's very tall." As though that explains everything.

She gets serious then, "That's just it. We were there, John. Well, you were. And everyone else. I wasn't. I really do hope that's not why they keep trying to convince me to go with them. Like you know, like they need me?"

It's clear she's as intrigued by this thought as she is bothered.

"The ancients on Apokolips - they used both magic and technology together. Their old gods haven't been for a long time. Their whole society split in a war and bad things happened. I just don't think it's a co-incidence that that is where they had him."

Constantine has posed:
"Like what?" John asks the picture of innocence as he sips his tea. By the time he's finished his sip he adds, "I bet he's very tall," in a way that suggests he's not talking about the height so much as length.

Though when they move to topics of magic the tea is set down and his lips draw into a more serious line. The news though fractures that line having it curl down at the edges as he blinks with surprise. If that was true of their old gods then that all made sense, the magic, the tech and why they were trying so hard to woo Willow to their side.

"Where'd you find all that out?" he asks her. It's not a question born of doubt but of the need to know more.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Oh, some magical texts and ritual items that can be used to open the doors of hell. But I lost the trail. And then this thing with Superman happened, and oh wow. I really have to talk to Sam. I think I know what I was doing wrong." Perhaps something about her searching on this case helped her remember a tidbit about that other,

Where is simple.

"Oh, I looked it up. I figured there couldn't be a lot of us who used both, so I narrowed my search parameters by that sort of a signature, and got a few hits. And then I sort os just let my fingers do the walking in the library to see what books felt like they wanted to be looked at. It's really not good. If they're trying to summon an old god, it isn't going to be pretty. And it won't be easy to stop, either."

Constantine has posed:
"Wait? What?" John says of the items to open doors to hell. "We're definitely coming back to that bit," he says before he moves on to the rest.

"Neat trick," he says. "An' that fits what I felt last time we were with Big Blue, there's something pulling on him, maybe to take his life force, maybe to use as a vessel either way is bad news, but at least now we know who we're dealing with. Don't suppose this god's got a name in any of those books?" John could do a lot with the right name.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow happily lets the matter of the book and ritual items go for now, and continues on, "Well, that's the thing. I don't know if it's pulling on him - it might be? But it could be they're using his essence as part of the summons. Maybe even want his body for the god to inhabit." Which would be really, really bad if it keeps all of Superman's inherent abilities.

"I think he's bound back to Apokolips somehow. Maybe that place they had him lying on? I nkow I thought maybe this was a test, but what if that was the summoning altar, and there's something there still keeping him bound to it. It's also probably letting them keep tabs on him" - and by extension everyone else, including her, when they're around him.

She shakes her head, "I didn't get that far yet. I came out looking for you once I figured this much out. I didn't think it was good to wait."

Constantine has posed:
John settles back against the counter rubbing his chin.

"Makes sense, we dropped in for our visit mid way through their ritual. Maybe enough got done to anchor him there. In which case we need to break that anchor. Jus' need the right tools and the right opportunity."

His mind was already turning over options there, most of them involving finding the right magic do-dad and giving it to the Flash to run through a portal for them.

He rises from his thoughts though to nod, "That was the right call," he agrees. "Care to lead me to those books? We need to find out more about this god, who he is and more importantly who his enemies are. We're going to need allies I think an' you know what they say about the enemy of my enemies."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
The steeping tea is eyeballed, because she's not intending to go back without that. "Uh.. sure?"

Waiting for John to finish making it.

"I bet you could find more books now that you know." She's assuming his library has a greater affinity to him than her and might be more helpful if he seaches too.

Constantine has posed:
John nods, "Gimme a sec then," he says in regards to the tea it was all but done anyhow. Once it is he hands off a cup to Willow and then nods in the direction of the hallway.

"'supose it might, yeah," he agrees of her supposition. "Wonder how many books I've got on Apokoliptan gods..." he wonders but then the library had surprised him in the past. He suspected it, like the rest of the House was malleable and changed to fit the needs of the House.

"Anyhow, we'll take a look, see if we can't find something to get us over on this god."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Smiling now that she has her tea, Willow head back to the library.

"Oh, you have a couple." She knows. She's read them. "I'm not sure how helpful they are, but there's some information."

Constantine has posed:
John nods, heading down the corridor and into the library.

"Well," he says as they arrive and he looks over the rows of books. "Let's see if we can't find some more then, eh?" he says as he moves towards one of the shelves, trusting in the House and his own luck to find what he needs.

"Anything else you learned so far?" he calls to Willow as he begins his search.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Now that John is here and looking, Willow sits in her chair, with her surrounding pile of books, and sips at her tea. "Well, that's about as far as I got. I think if we found out what ritual they're doing I could do something about it, but that generally goes better for me if I have something connected to it."

She looks over, "I definitely need to know what sort of ritual I'm needing. I'm pretty good at those."

Understatement.

Constantine has posed:
John nods, "Yeah, the ritual would definitely help," he says. "Shame we can't ask Supes what he saw and heard, might make this whole process a lot easier."

He thumbs through some books, stopping on one old tome, with strange writing on the spine. He pulls it from the shelf and brings it to Willow's table. "This one feels right," he says as he takes a seat and starts flipping.

"As for something connected to the ritual, we've got Supes at least, because I imagine anything else is going to be hard to get."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Oh, we probably could if we had someone who could look into his mind, you know. It would all be there. I bet he's in there anyway - I mean, he's reacted around me before. Remember? He grabbed Asa when she was trying to tempt me as Incubus."

She's ever so matter of fact about it all like she's not just dropping revelations here, as though these things are so bloody obvious they all should have thought of them sooner.

"I'm not sure he counts, you know, for - actually, if we could get someone to do that, we could find out more."

Constantine has posed:
Johns considers that approach. "Not sure touching his mind's a smart idea right now, whatever's got him's gonna know..." then it hits.

"But what if we used him as a focus of a spell instead, peer back into his past and see what they did to him. Prolly safer than messing with his mind," John reasons. "Time magic can be nasty but in this case it might be worth it."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Not me!" Willow protests, shaking her head. "I don't do that kind of magic. But some people do. And they don't need him to be conscious to make it work." Which also might be best.

John's other suggestion gets a thoughtful look, and then a slow nod. "Just looking, right? Not actually going there." She'd seen shows and movies. And read books. That, and the math was pretty scary when you got down to calculating some things. It wasn't an arena of magic she wanted to enter.

Constantine has posed:
"Not my cuppa either," John says of mind magic. "Maybe Zee could manage it..." he begins before he his mind jolts down a new path.

"Yeah, definitely jus' want to peek, would do to /actually/ go back an' end up in the middle of the bloody ritual," he says beyond the immediate bad news of being surrounded by those Apokoliptan bastards there was the whole changing the timeline thing to worry about. "So yeah, what we need is a temporal fold, one we can look through and see what they did to Supes. From there, we can figure how to undo it."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Zee?" Willow echoes, not following. Pointing out, "Time travel is really dangerous. I mean, when you have to sit and calculte the positions of everything involved at that precise moment in time and space and it's not all relative to the here and now based on an ever expanding universe and the subtle shifts created by the fact of our movement itself. Though I suppose that not enough time has passed since that a huge variation would have occured yet - so maybe small errors wouldn't be quite so catastrophic, but can you imagine showing up just a bit to the left of where you wanted and embedding yourself into a wall?"

Constantine has posed:
"Zee's, Zatanna the bird who should be doing all this magic business for the League," he says. "You might know her better as the leggy dame in the fishnets who does magic on TV." He says of the League's other resident magician and John's frenemy.

"Might be like that if you're using science, magic cheats, luv. It's all about intent, and seeing where you want to go, see it clear enough, say the right words and got the juice to back it up, you'll get where you're going, but it's a bloody lot of juice. Most don't bother. What we're doing, looking into the past, is what most of 'em do, safer and doesn't end up with all those paradoxes like going there yourself."

He frowns, "Even so, we'll have to be quick with it, or bloody subtle, bet at least one of that lot will be able to sense us peeking before long."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
John just earns a blank look for his explanation. "Why didn't they ask her, then? I mean, I'm really kinda surprised I got a call. That was pretty confusing. Maybe they don't know about her?" She didn't.

And while she's all behind magic, Willow isn't all that sure she wants to trust magic cheating on time travel. Besides, "Where they took him, they probably cheat, too. It would likely still be bad. But I guess you might have a point about it." He's right about the other - if they peek now, they were peeking then, which means the people there had a chance to notice them already and do something about it.

Constantine has posed:
"No bloody clue," John says with a shrug. "Anyhow, since we don't need mind work I am not going to worry about it. We can handle the time stuff alright ourselves."

John gets up and goes searching for a new book, one that will lay out the spell they need. As he looks, John rubs his head. "Cheating is what I do best," John assures her. "Not wild about messing with time, but it might be our best shot at bringing ol' Supes back to the land of the living."

Well it was the first step, once they knew the ritual then they had to counter it and break Big Blue's link to that god awful place.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"I still don't like it," Willow says quietly, but if cheating was John's forte, more power to him. "We should probably have a backup plan in case this doesn't work."

She's content to let him research in peace, though.