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[rehandle]

@stephen.strange | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

For Aerie AU event texts.

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[batricide]

Nightly.

[ He doesn't so much as flinch while Stephen does what he needs to do, but he looks annoyed at the fussing. ]

Where are you employed?

[rehandle]

[ welp ]

Currently? Nowhere.

[ just keep gluing, just keep glu~ing ]

[batricide]

And how are you paying for this place?

[rehandle]

Had a little put aside from my last job. I'll be moving out next month.

[batricide]

Wouldn't it make more sense to just get another job?

[rehandle]

I don't need this apartment, I do need flexibility. Once the safehouse is up and running, Markus and I intend to be a guaranteed presence.

[ so long as he's got his basic needs covered, he can do without spending money. and home comforts. and privacy. ]

[batricide]

[ Please. ]

Living in close quarters with your teammates is asking for disaster.

[rehandle]

Thanks, Pops.

[ a couple of seconds and another suture strip placed over a wound held firmly in place by two fingers of a lightly trembling hand later - ]

If it doesn't work, I'll get a job and I'll find somewhere else nearby. It'll be fine.

[batricide]

[ He scowls. Well, scowls harder.

But in close proximity, he's noting the unsteadiness of Stephen's hands. ]

Don't say I didn't warn you.

[rehandle]

Oh shoot. That was exactly what I was going to say if it didn’t work out.

[ 😏

and with that, he’s finished the patch up job, stepping out of Hafid’s personal space without so much as a pat on the shoulder. wouldn’t want to push too far. ]

[batricide]

[ ROLLING HIS EYES. look at how grateful for the help he is. ]

What did you do before you got here?

[rehandle]

[ ... ha. that's a question.

but it's not as though he's been keeping it a secret, it just doesn't tend to come up. so. ]

Defend Earth from extra-dimensional threat.

[ as he wanders off to the kitchen to remove his gloves and put the kit away. ]

[batricide]

So all of this is familiar territory for you then.

[ He figured as much. ]

[rehandle]

Almost all of it. The power loss is new but otherwise it's not as much of a shock to me as it has been for others.

[ running water hitting glass, and the soft clunk of metal on metal. ]

The situation itself is outside of my usual remit. I don't tend to work on a human level - guns and abductions and political intrigue aren't my usual wheelhouse.

[ but the general skills have proven largely transferable. ]

[batricide]

[ Welcome to superheroing, where your life is basically a nightmare and you pick up the skills as you go. ]

Heroes need to politicize eventually.

[rehandle]

[ he's got an undue number of issues with that word, but sooner or later it's going to have to be a case of "if the shoe fits" ]

Here, sure.

[ not so much at home where his work is only tangentially related to world affairs, but he can agree on this score.

ah, hark. bubbling water. ]

[batricide]

Here, there. Any world. People like to know they're being taken care of by the right people.

[ Tilting his head back to see what he's even doing. ]

[rehandle]

People don't like to know there are otherworldly entities waiting just out of their observable surroundings to cross into their dimension and destroy reality as they know it. We tend to keep a low profile and leave the hero duties to the heroes.

[ there are two cups on the countertop. the bubbling is getting gradually more aggressive.

this time, there shall be tea. ]

I assume you've heard of the Avengers by now.

[batricide]

[ what if he just left RIGHT NOW and you'd have done all that for nothing.

but he won't. he will (reluctantly) get a little more comfortable. ]

Kate's mentioned them. [ "Kate" not "Bishop". ] Though I can't say the "entities" in my world share your sentiments on keeping their distance.

[rehandle]

[ Kate. it's been a while since he's been in contact - it's a good reminder. easy to let people drop off the map sometimes, especially when they're adjacent to your universe but not represented in it. ]

No, ours neither. That's what myself and the other Masters are for. You have people responsible for that where you come from?

[ dealing with those impolite extra-dimensional intruders? being aware that they exist ought to imply some knowledge of how they're combated. ]

[batricide]

They tend to be showy themselves, so no.

[ And then they break the people who can actually keep the balance. ]

They leave most of the handling to the rest of us.

[rehandle]

[ Stephen turns away from the boiling kettle to squint over, clearly displeased, unaware of his own early miscommunication. ]

There are people whose job it is to maintain the balance between your dimension and the rest and they just let things through?

[ incompetence!!! is not!! cute!!! ]

[batricide]

[ Well.

He's not... wrong. Zatanna, Constantine, Klarion and the rest were so painfully inept it nearly got them all killed. Damian tips his head back. ]

Well, they rarely keep things in check. [ plus ] Then there's the Gods, the scientific tampering between dimensions, the egotistical magic users that continually play with life and death.

[rehandle]

[ he's

mad about it

it makes itself evident in a long, disgusted pause and then a slight raise of the volume of noise as he yanks the tea infusion out of its jar and stuffs it into a teapot. ]

Sounds like a blast.

[ what are these chumps doing!! Stephen nonchalantly threw Loki to Norway, scientific dimensional tampering has had a close eye kept and magic users are either on their books or off them and closely monitored/dealt with if they start causing trouble. none of these things should be problems. ugh. ]

[batricide]

[ There's Doctor Fate.

But he's Doctor Fate and he's useless. ]

Their carelessness let interlopers from another dimension in. That's what screwed us in the end. [ He's biased. ] Sounds like you might actually have a handle on it.