fandomtownies | Luke's Diner, June 6 (Monday)

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Luke's Diner, June 6 (Monday)

Lacey had gotten a new blend of organic fair trade coffee in today; this was a good way to start the week, if you asked her, and it put a spring in a step and a lilt in her voice for about the first hour of the day.

When she happened to overhear the kitchen staff in the middle of a spirited discussion about whether anyone would notice if they replaced the fuel in someone's tank with the (as it turned out, really potent) coffee, it deflated her bubble a little -- which put her back down to about normal, tolerable levels of Lacey-chipper. So really, that all worked out.

She'd be keeping the coffee under close surveillance, though.

Today's Specials
Slow-cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Cobb Salad
Grilled Chive Potatoes

NOW HIRING - See Manager for Details
Saturday shift available

Luke's is open. And not any kind of filling station, thank you very m-- well, technically, if you counted stomachs . . . oh, all right.

[OOC: Pff, OCD.]

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Dinah had crashed out hard in 'Dite's suite after the long, long weekend, and was only awake about half an hour before noon. She gave Momoko a call at Ms. Cabot's law office, and offered to take her out to lunch.

She felt a pang of nostalgia walking into the diner, missing Priestly there, then settled in to wait, looking at the menu.

It was Monday, so Momoko fairly skipped into the diner, looking for Dinah. She stopped when she found her, though. "Ah! Dinah! You look horrible!"

Well, okay, she probably didn't to anyone who didn't know her, but, well, this was Momoko.

She slid into a seat at the table and frowned at her friend. "Spill!"

"I hate weird Fandom weekends," Dinah grumbled, signaling a server and rubbing at her eyes. "And I didn't sleep between Saturday morning and Sunday night, so I'm still a little sleep deprived. Anything weird happen to you?"

"Not really? Just weirdness-watching for me this time. A friend almost got bit by a vampire, though!"

Momoko gave her order, then looked back at Dinah expectantly. "But... What happened to you? Sleep deprived?"

"Karla, Raven and I all got pulled into one of those universes where they have a future kid. Together," Dinah clarified. "In Glacia. And we were on a rescue mission for most of the time. Future Karla and future Warren were in trouble." Dinah was not about to mention that it was from future Raven, nope. "Vampire? Aaaaack."

"Apparently Kate was a vampire or thought she was." Momoko said off handedly, staring at Dinah. "You actually went to somewhere else for the weekend? That's... never happened, has it? And what kind of trouble? Was this another universe where I'm all stupid and ignoring my friends? I'm so sorry! Is everything okay?"

"Poor Kate." That had to be one of her nightmares; Dinah still remembered her reaction when Dinah mentioned the vampire world to her, two years ago.

"And yeah." She sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "I don't know, we didn't have time to try to call you... older you. We were in crisis mode. I didn't even remember to call me until after. Not that you could've gotten there in time, and God, Momoko." Dinah was quiet, expression glum. "Everyone got out okay, but we really screwed up."

Dinah thinking she'd messed up?

"You didn't do it on purpose; you were totally trying to help." Momoko got up and shifted to sitting beside Dinah. "Whatever it was. I know it."

Dinah leaned against her, needing the contact, but still feeling the depression of realizing how badly things could have gone. "I meant to help. We all did. But." She shook her head, jaw gritted. "You wouldn't forgive me if I let Kuriko come along on a rescue mission, right? Even if she really, really wanted to go? If it was dangerous?"

Edited 2011-06-07 00:41 (UTC)

Ouch. Something like that had happened? That totally didn't sound right, though.

"Dinah." She put an arm around her. "You're not stupid. You wouldn't take Kuriko along even if she really really wanted to go. You don't even like taking me on some of your trips, and Kuriko hasn't any powers or training. She'd be one more worry, not a help."

"What happened?"

"I was a moron," Dinah muttered, then scrubbed at her face. "Rookie, Karla and Raven's future little girl. We needed to pretend to trade her to find out where they were holding Warren and Future-Karla. And to follow her as a connection there, outside Kaeleer, this other dimension... anyway. We told here she'd have to come right back. She could teleport. We thought it would be okay." That was the first part. "...then way more minions than we expected came out of the walls, and she exhausted herself with a psychic scream, and she couldn't leave, and Raven was way too busy to get her the hell out of there, and why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I think 'oh, maybe they'll have way more back-up'? Why did I think the three of us could handle one bad guy, when bad guys always have thugs and sidekicks and muscle?"

Because she was stupid. And let Karla and Raven's urgency infect her to the point of not-thinking.

Momoko didn't facepalm. She did pull Dinah closer. "You..."

Yeah.

"Dinah, I'm sorry, but... that was a totally stupid plan." She sighed, not letting Dinah out of the sideways hug. "Depending on a scared little girl who wants to save her mom? With only people that don't usually fight, let alone fight together? And no back-up or a back-up plan?"

Momoko's was trying to keep her tone from being too harsh. Dinah didn't need that, but really, what could Momoko say? She hoped Dinah caught the concern more than anything else, though. "You totally didn't think that out, did you?"

Dinah's wince was on the verge of a cringe. "No."

Honestly. What else could she say? Her own fear for Older Karla had been driving her too. What Jaenelle had said only seemed to back it up. Everything she'd thought about Older-Karla being stupid to try to rescue Warren on her own applied to all three of them. Her pale skin was as red as a tomato as Momoko spoke. "The only defense I've got is being stupid. Not calculating, but... that's not much. I thought it would be okay, and I thought Rook wouldn't be in danger. But I wasn't actually thinking. I was blinkered."

"You don't need a defense," Momoko gave her a small shake. "Learn from it; it happened. Don't let it happen again. Everyone's okay, right? Do we need to go back and rescue Rook-chan?"

"No," Dinah sighed. "No. She came through it the best. Warren and Karla are safe. And... the kidnapper's not going to be a threat again." Or at least, Raven would be very far away. She couldn't help hoping that she got better, stopped aching, and was able to talk to Rook again. But it was one story they'd never get the ending to.

"It makes me scared for the future, though." She was silent a moment, and her voice lowered. "Older me was in Vietnam. I found out after."

Vietn... ah, she'd been looking for Sin.

Momoko hugged Dinah closer. "You know this much now. You'll know even more in the future."

"And you'll call me." That might have been a bit chiding. "You can never have too much firepower, remember?"

"Yeah. Oh, yeah." Dinah sighed, and tilted her head to Momoko's shoulder. Thought of the Skull-men she'd killed, and closed her eyes. "I'm going to be replaying this in my head forever."

"No. Just only as long as you can learn from it." Momoko's voice was a bit sad. "We'll get more to make us forget. We're heroes; we don't get to have it easy, remember? That's totally for other people."

A thought that almost made Dinah want to cry. She was almost craving New Gotham, with simpler challenges, straightforward criminals who didn't have to be killed to survive them (for the most part). New Gotham with Barbara and Helena, and hopefully they'd be able to trust her after she told them about this screw-up.

"Sometimes I wonder if I am. I never say I am." Dinah sighed. "Heroes... are heroic, aren't they?"

Momoko'd had this doubt before, herself, when she'd had to give up her powers in the battle with Him. "Our pure desire to save people is what makes us heroes, Dinah... Some of us are just lucky enough to get powers."

Dinah's eyes stung, and she cleared her throat, hugging Momoko. "Good answer," she said, then took a breath as their food arrived. You're both heroes, and you save people. I want to join!

Yeah. That was still true.

Mid-hug, Momoko reached over to Dinah's plate and stole a fry, waving it in her friend's face as she pulled back, then chomping on it.

"So. Let's change the subject. Did you know judges can refuse to allow a DNA test to be introduced as evidence? It happened in this totally evil case I'm helping Ms Cabot on..."

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Luke's Diner, June 6 (Monday)

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