morganknight | Inbox for Avalon

...dick. [Come on. Who could abandon Steph, let alone in an earthquake? She's the sort of girl who'd either be running out to help people in a serious one, or -- well, look, Morgan always has an undercurrent of naughtiness running through his head. He can't help it, he's got a lot of physical energy to put to use.
If he were better at hiding his thoughts, that might be more excusable.] I sure hope your standards have gone up since then or I have some serious self-reflection of my own to do!

[ Steph scoops up the last of the melted bits of her ice cream as she wonders what he's thinking about. ]

...I dunno. Robin was kind of a jerk too, but I'm not exactly blameless there.

[Hopefully she won't be horrified, come the day when she finally figures out what that particular look in his eyes means. But skipping that for the moment...]

If it helps, I have really, really good taste in girls. Figured that out pretty quick after a couple of idiotic mistakes of my own. So you can rest assured you're a member of really elite company!

[ She raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. ]

Not the most convincing endorsement.

[ She's in too dark a mood still to smile, even though she isn't especially serious. ]

You wouldn't say that if you knew my first real love and my wife. You'd be all, 'Damn, I'm on their level? I'm one of the greatest girls in the history of girldom.'

[He might be phrasing it silly, but he's not joking. Truth is, Steph actually beats both of them handily in a few areas, making for a sort of very easy and very comfortable compatibility that Morgan likes quite a bit.]

[More seriously, though, Morgan smiles her way.]

I don't think you're perfect or flawless, but I really do think you're pretty damn terrific. You have qualities I really like, and ones I really admire, too. No joke, no lie, no exaggeration.

[ Her lips quirk in what might be a smile by comparison to her previous expression. She doesn't think he's lying, not really. But it could be exaggeration, or just seeing things that aren't really there. ]

Well, you don't have to worry either. I've gotten very good about punching jerks.

[Maybe it is... but if she can reconcile Morgan's general attitude and behavior to that sort of delusion, more power to her imagination. If nothing else, he has absolute confidence -- in himself, and by extension, in his own beliefs and perceptions. Including, especially, about her.]

If only dumb little voices inside your own head could be punched, you'd have no problems at all, then!

That's what ice cream is for.

[ She points her spoon at him in emphasis before returning to that all-important task. Nothing like frozen sugar to soothe a troubled mind. ]

A brain freeze is not the answer to mental health, Steph!

[Of course he knows that's not what she meant!]

I dunno, I'd say I'm coping pretty well, all things considered.

[ She gets the joke, but her capacity for humor right now is nearly nonexistent. ]

I mean, my first choice was brooding on a rooftop somewhere. And even that's a whole hell of a lot better than pretending to be dead.

I'm glad you came over.

[Really, he is. He likes to think he can help, but... if nothing else, she cares about him and respects him and trusts him, and that's all to the good. Sometimes those qualities are what you need most in life.]

You're not allowed to pretend to be dead, though. I've had too many people I cared about actually be dead for that to ever be okay.

[ She's glad she did too, even if her familiar gets most of the credit. It's hard to reach out when you're suffering because people you care about mistreated you.

She grimaces at his comment, then huffs a sigh. ]

I probably wouldn't have agreed to it if I hadn't been more than half dead to begin with.

[ She refuses to feel guilty for a decision she doesn't even clearly remember making. Especially not when it turned out to be exactly what she needed. ]

I'm personally invested in keeping you out of that state to the best of my ability anyway.

[The past is the past, and involves him not at all. Why feel guilty about it? It's the present, and to as much extent as practical, the future, that concerns him.]

By the way, speaking as not a segue at all unfortunately, I'm one hundred percent on board with your opinions on necromancy.

[ There's not much she can say to his first statement. She appreciates the sentiment, but they both know that things don't always work out. She lives a dangerous life, and she can't seem to change that even when she wants to.

In context she's not really sure how to take the comment on necromancy. An hour ago she told someone if she was ever raised from the dead she'd punch the person responsible but... it just hits sort of weird coming from her boyfriend.

She chooses to ignore the feeling. ]

I'm glad. Even if losing people does suck.

[ She also feels a little weird saying that when almost everyone she knows back home is dead. But still. ]

[Morgan nods his agreement, but then straightens up slightly.]

And it's life. I wouldn't trade a moment of the time I had with anyone I cared about to spare myself any amount of pain at all.

[A hard-learned lesson. But a vital one. Especially here, where friends could vanish without warning. He'd come into this world, and particularly this relationship, with that knowledge... and like he said. He wouldn't trade a second of it.]

[ She manages the tiniest of smiles, just for a moment, but it's definitely upwards of totally flat. ]

I think... I'm probably the same. I dunno. All I can remember right now is the bad stuff.

That can be the hard part, yeah. Tell me something that makes you smile. A memory of someone.

[ She has to think about that for a long while. Obviously memories of Avalon don't really count for their purposes. She'd thought about it after Truth or Dare, too, but had given up after a few minutes of consideration. So many of her memories of being happy just remind her of how things went wrong.

It really shouldn't be this hard to think of happy memories with her friends from home. There's definitely something wrong with her. ]

...I took Supergirl out to see the old black and white Dracula one time. Then somebody's science experiment went wrong and 24 cape-wearing Bela Lugosis jumped out of the screen and started attacking people. We spent the night hunting them down and staking them. That was pretty fun.

[ Her tone is smiling, even if her face isn't. ]

...I'm glad we're together, Steph, because I don't know what I'd do with a girl who didn't consider that a good time. [Morgan giggles slightly, because the mental image is absolutely terrific.] I hope none of them managed to sock your blahd!

[ She manages another of those tiny smiles. His mood has always been pretty infectious. ]

They sort of tried. Mostly they made a lot of very dramatic speeches.

[Sometime that's all it takes to influence someone's mood.]

Really, you let them get that far into them? I'd assume as soon as one started going on about how he was immortal, bam, well-timed stake.

We did go out to be entertained.

[ She scrapes the last of the ice cream from her carton, then reaches across the table to grab the second carton. ]

[Morgan nudges it over. Don't get sick, Steph.]

Good point. Sounds like my kind of night, too.

[ Hey, you can't think about the past while you're fixated on your stomach. She digs in without reservation. ]

Being Batgirl did have its moments. But I guess that's why I kept coming back, in spite of everything.

I still admire you for that intensely, y'know. You don't forget that, if my opinion means anything.

[He says this fairly casually, but his eyes belie his intensity. He's not joking. If anything, he's understating it.]

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