Caltrops and Panic Rooms

Summary:
December 20, 2014: Constantine, Zatanna, and Mack work on how to properly ward the boat.

House of Mystery

John's Magic House


Characters

NPCs

  • Rufus (Mack's Dog)

Mood Music:
None


Bouncing back and forth between Mack's ship and the House of Mystery has made for an interesting living situation. John's sleep schedule is something awful, and as often as not he crashes on the leather sofa in his parlor without even bothering to head to his room upstairs.

So John is fast asleep minutes after sending a message to Zatanna, snoring loudly on the leather seat, wearing his usual ratty white shirt and black trousers, shoes off and an old afghan halfway tossed over him. Out in the lab, something's fizzling and glowing odd colors. The wiry wizard snorts once and rolls deeper into the sofa, as if willing himself to disappear entirely into the furniture. So when Zatanna knocks twice and the door opens to admit her, John is so fast asleep that the mild chime of a visitor to the House doesn't even wake him.

***

Zee is wearing her everyday cloths, today a pair of jeans, a blouse, blazer and a pair of knee high, high heeled boots. Stopping as she enters, she watches John sleep and smirks slightly. Choosing a more mundane method of waking him, she calls out loudly "Wake Up, John." and stands well back, just in case.

***

Mack has been trying to do her massive amount of magical homework. She's spent the last two days with her nose buried in books, specifically her grandfather's journals, taking notes as she goes along. It's slow going for the high school dropout, but there's plenty of time while navigating the Quint's Folly from place to place to trawl for cod. She finished off a bottle of cheap whiskey and threw several pens overboard in frustration before Constantine brought her back to his magical house and sent her to a guest room to get some work done. There may have been cursing and a pen thrown at him for that.

When the door knocking and visitor chime is heard, the fishing boat captain comes out of said guest room to peek into the parlour. "Yo, Chauncey, didn't you say not to open the door if someone kno..?" she starts, then freezes when she sees the gorgeous brunette. Fuzzy slippers, flannel plaid pajamas, and mussed up hair indicate she might have quit her research and zonked out early. "Um, sorry, didn't realize John had company."

***

John explodes out of the bed like a man of action and daring-do, except he kind of fails to find any purchase and his feet get tangled in the afghan, so it turns into more of a weak *polp* on the ground, though Constantine grunts in pain as he lands on his tailbone. "Blimey… oh, hey Zatanna," he says, squinting up at the leggy magician. He checks the time on his watch. "Bloody hell, you got here fast. I thought you'd be a few hours at least," he says, extricating himself from the afghan and rising to his feet with stiff muscles. When Mack cracks the door, Constantine looks from Mack to Zatanna and back again. "Oh- uh, Mackenzie, this is Zatanna. Friend of mine," he explains, looking briefly to the magician. "I brought her in to help me sort out some of your kinks. On your boat!" he hastily amends, "with the… wards, not…. warding."

Awkward silence, and Constantine lifts his index fingers up, ducking his head, and points at his lab. "Uh, shall we?" he says, moving with a deliberately unhurried step into the wildly unmanaged workspace off the parlor.

***

Zee smiles at the other woman and offers her hand. "Nice to meet you Mackenzie. I'm Zatanna, or Zee if you like." She looks highly amused at Johns antics and awkwardness and watches as he moves towards the laboratory. Cocking her head to one side, the young magician looks at Mack questioningly, "Your boat?" she asks pleasantly.

***

"Mack, just Mack is fine. Only granddad called me Mackenzie," Linden adds for Zatanna's benefit. "Wait, the stage magician? I think my gramps took me and my kid to see one of your shows a few years ago." She scrubs a hand through her short-cropped blonde hair and feels very underdressed as she follows the pair towards the workspace. The kinks comment gets a bark of a laugh. "You wish you knew my kinks," she quips at John with a smirk. "And I need a break from those journals. The words are all starting to blend together and spell things like scotch and cigarettes and coffee."

"Yeah, I have a fishing trawler where I live and make my living. Cod aren't real glamourous but they pay the bills," Mack explains.

***

"All the basic food groups," John quips, smirking at Mack. He moves to the large table and gestures at the little diorama he's built- a crude imitation of Mack's ship, with small minnows to represent… whales, at that scale, swimming around the large tub. "I'm working on a way of warding her ship off against hostile spirits," Constantine explains to Zatanna. "I figure a shield is going to light it up like a bloody Christmas tree, and a determined attacker is going to punch right through it anyway. I want to hide it, somehow, but the bloody matrices," he says, flicking an irritated pebble at the floating ship, "aren't stable over water. The ship's half a home and half a bloody industrial vessel. I can't get the spell to lock down, and I need a set of fresh eyes on the problem. You got any ideas?" he asks Zatanna, resting his hands on the edge of the work surface.

***

"Mack then…" Zee smiles back and swallows her own chortle at the kinks comment. "I hope you enjoyed the show, if it was mine you came to see." The raven haired woman says modestly "Maybe I could get you tickets for you and child to one of my shows here, when they run."

Moving to the diorama, Zee looks at carefully whilst she listens to John talk. "Well that sounds about right, magic is kindof unstable over water … and a boat… is over water." she replies thoughtfully. "Show me the layout of the boat, are there clear distinctions between the home part and the industrial part, or are they interweaved?"

***

"So all the hocus pocus you do on stage, it was the real thing?" Mack asks, looking curious about the fact she might have seen real magic before she ran into John effing Constantine and it seemed to come looking for her. She looks over at the diorama with a critical eye. "Is that supposed to be the Folly?"

She smiles at Zatanna's offer but it's a tight expression. "I only get to see her a few weeks a year, so it might be hard to nail down a schedule. She'll be here the day after Christmas for a week, which is why I really need those wards up and running. A boat is rough enough on a six year old without demons trying to eat her mother." Mother, not mom.

Mack gestures to the areas of the pseudo-trawler where the cabin, galley, lounge, and crew quarters are. "Those are the places I live and where the crew congregate. The deck, wheelhouse, and the rest of the areas are pretty industrial. I was attacked here." She gestures to where the mechanical room housing the winch motor for the nets lies.

***

"Yeah, but it's all /yours/," Constantine says, hands gripping the air in frustration. "That's the rub of it. And yes, that's the bloody Folly. I'm a magician, not a model maker. I needed something scaled down to work on, because walking all over your bloody ship making changes to the wards was taking forever."

Constantine dips a finger in the water and a magical 'wave' of energy crests out, but instead of the boat bobbing atop the crest it send the waves radiating away. "See? The wards aren't working and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong," he tells Zatanna. "It's a lot of home, but there's a lot of blood and sweat tied up on the docks- her and her crew's, and her granddad's. Like trying to wall of an apartment complex. I've got no bloody threshold to work with to keep the spells stable for more than a day or so."

***

Allowing herself to be distracted from the problem momentarily, Zee looks back to Mack and shakes her head. "Most of what you see in my show is simply stage magic…" she smirks a little and adds "Sometimes I throw in a bit of real magic, but not often." Cocking her head at the information about the daughter, Zee frowns faintly. "Well, after Christmas is a bit difficult, but I'll keep you in mind when I get a show together here."

The boat now gets her full attention and Zee frowns, moving around the model to get a better look at it. "Surely… " she muses "There are thresholds all over the boat. Like to the different rooms and stuff. What about a series of wards that build on each other?" She pauses for a bit "It's a bit more work up front and we would still have to look at whether we could stop something breaching the ummmmm sides of the boat, but would that work?" The young magician looks to John.

***

"Maybe you can make some, I dunno, panic rooms? Like safe spots on the boat I can go to get away from bad things?" Mack asks. "If you can't ward the whole thing, maybe a couple specific places to use as magical bolt holes, in places I am a lot or can get to easy?" She doesn't know squat about how any of this works, but she's trying to be helpful. A large ball of fur comes trotting into the room and squeezes against the captain's side. Rufus is a Leonberger, a 170 pound dog who serves as the boat's water rescue. He sure ain't a guard dog from the way he runs away from all the bad things. Mack scratches his head gently.

***

Constantine mulls that over for a few moments, actually stepping back and putting his chin in his hand to regard the miniature Folly, as if it's a full-sized replica. "Those both aren't bad ideas," Constantine says, reaching for the little model and holding it in his fingers, water running down his wrist. "I can't make the wards stick in the work areas because they're common ground. Humans do more damage to wards than any spirit will," Constantine explains to Mack. "But… a panic room. That's not a bloody bad idea. At least it could hold an entity off for a while- give you time to duck and run. You'd have to set them up as places you use, though- places you regularly visit and relax in, make them a bit homier than otherwise. And if we set up some caltrop wards on the bows…" He turns away, mulling the notions over in his head. "Blimey, I wish Strange was here. Wards are really his baliwick. I'm more of a 'shoot first' sort of bloke," he says, staring at a wall.

"What if we throw up caltrop wards on the hull," Constantine says to Zatanna, a bit of eagerness creeping into his voice. "We can't hide the boat, but we can at least slow down something that tries to slip in through the hull. Then we set up a few of your panic rooms," he says, looking to Mack. "One in the for'ard hull, and the other being your cabin. Easiest thing in the world to secure, that. The hull wards will at least keep a demon or something from just ripping the hull open or bursting in, and should give you long enough to run and hide, no matter which section of the ship you're on."

***

Listening to Mack and John talk, Zee is thoughtful and nods occasionally, pursing her lips as she does. "Hiding the boat is a bit of an undertaking, slowing things down is definitely better." Looking at Mack and then John, she gestures a little "What about a teleport spell or something in those panic rooms." She nods at Mack, and blinks as that monster of a dog appears "Mack, and whoever, can get to the rooms but then what? What if they had a way of getting completely to safety? Of course, that would depend on how many people we're talking about."

***

"That sounds like a good idea," Mack agrees with Zatanna with a nod. "So do, caltrop wards, whatever they are. If I can have time to get Rufus here and I to safety, along with the 2 hands I have on board from time to time, then I'll feel better. This is the only living I know, and I can't just up and leave it because something might come after me." She grimaces. "Thanks for doing this, by the way, if I haven't said thanks yet." She looks between the two as Rufus wags his tail contentedly. "I should let you two, uh, get your work done and go back to Frank's journals." She gives punch to John's arm in thanks, and a small wave to Zee, before she leads Rufus back to the guest room.

***

Constantine nods, rubbing his face and finding the one chair in the room to flop into, bonelessly. "Blimey. I can rig it, but it will be a one-shot thing," Constantine tells Zatanna. "And it can't bloody come here- I don't need some parademon rampaging around House. The bookworms are bad enough," he mutters. "Maybe just… somewhere on dry land. A police station might be a good place- there's a lot of spirit of order in there. Plus some of the cops are in the know, magically. Hell, I could just ask Pezzini if she has a safe room she can drop them in where her people can keep an eye out." Constantine reaches under the chair and fishes up a bottle of whiskey, taking a swig from the bottle. "They'll be mostly safe there, at least until I can stop in and get Mack somewhere more secure."

***

Zee waves to Mack as she wanders off, she's distracted by the problem at hand. Blinking at Johns words the young woman turns to see him flop in the chair. Finding a surface she can lean comfortably against, she does, and folds her arms. "Of course, teleporting the danger away is smarter…. Police Station seems most appropriate, give them some instructions for when it happens" she shrugs "Seems like you've got a handle on it now."

The Mistress of Magic looks long and hard at Constantine before continuing "So what's the deal with Mack getting these visits anyway?"

***

"No idea, luv," Constantine says, slouching comfortably in the seat. "I don't quite know how to tell her, though, but she's got one bloody massive magical artifact inked into her back. Some bloody Jap calling himself the Hori-shi," he says, using the declarative form of the word, "jumped her one night when she was sheets to the wind and drew this thing on her back. Now I'm suspecting her grandad saved the life of someone in this tatooist's family, back in the day, and he probably did a favor for a seriously world-class conjuror living in a squalid little shithole off the Japanese coast." Constantine takes another belt from his bottle of whiskey. "If this is reparations, it sucks, because she's getting attention from all kinds of ghosts and ghouls, and she keeps blundering into the middle of that spate of demon summonings that are brewing in Gotham. Gel's gonna get herself killed soon if we don't get a handle on this."

***

Zees lips start to form a direct straight line, her concern obvious "Just tell her, John. Mack deserves to know the whole story… and it needs to come from you." She shakes her head "Will the wards really help if the conjurings or summonings are linked to something tied to her person?" The young woman looks at Constantine with slightly narrowed eyes, considering the question herself.

***

"How? 'Hey, you'll be a target forever by any punk wizard with a pair of magical wands to scrape together?'" John quips, snorting. "For now I'm going to be happy if I can just keep her alive for a day longer. Short term problem," he says, "short term solution," he finishes, gesturing at the floating model. "Long term problem," he says, gesturing at Mack's guest room, "will get a long-term solution. The thing will have to come off," he tells Zatanna matter of factly. "No bloody way around it. But right now, the best I can do is try to put up as many barriers between her and something bad as I can and hope she's quick enough on her feet to get to safety. I can't have her bloody living here," he mutters.

***

Shrugging Zee looks over at John "Your call, just remember that when she slugs you one." Zee is more than certain Mack is capable of doing that, and will do it. "Get her to take some self defense training. It should help…" Zees' recommendation is voiced lightly. "And yes, removing the thing seems to the best solution… if the most difficult." The young magician does not comment on the living arrangements.

***

"Wouldn't be the first time a woman's popped me in the mouth for getting cheeky," Constantine says, with an insoucient grin. "You slapped me… what, ten minutes after we first met? Worked out all right in the end, though. You know, aside from your dad telling me he was going to twist my head off." He rises to his feet, whiskey bottle dangling from his left hand. He stops a pace from Zatanna, jamming his right hand into his trouser pocket. "I can life with Mackenzie being cross with me. But I don't need to live with another dead body in my wake," he says, a bit more seriously. "If the price of that is that she decides she rues the day that John Constantine crosses her… er, onramp, then I hope she has a long and happy life in which to do so."

***

The raven haired woman watches as John stops a pace from her and smiles, almost sardonically "Dad still wants to twist your head off… and it was five minutes not ten. You truly are insufferable, John" Zee shakes her head "I get it, but… I still think you should tell her. She'll just hit you earlier than not." She's still leaning, with her arms crossed.

***

John glances down at Zatanna's crossed arms, her somewhat closed posture. "I'll tell her," he says, finally, looking away at the concession for a moment. "I don't want to overload her with too much reality, but she might as well know going in what's in store for her. Maybe she'll rally up and decide to take some matters into her own hands," he says, sounding a bit unconvinced of his own theory.

He looks at Zatanna again, then tilts his head a bit to the side. "How about you, then? I know we've not talked much about that little dustup we had in Ipswich. And I know we didn't leave it on the best of terms. You still feel like you need a pound of flesh?" he asks, the hand with the bottle in it rotating in a flickering gesture.

***

Standing up straight, Zee drops her hands to her side and looks up at John and nods, looking approving "Telling her, will be good." His question about Ipswich gets a small smirk "Nah… I'm over it. I don't need a pound of flesh, as you so charmingly put it. But next time we work a case together, you share everything with me, got it?"

***

"Well, we're working together now, and I'm sharing," Constantine says, both hands rising up and gesturing at the room around them. As if remember the bottle in his left hand, he eyes it, then extends it to Zatanna. "See? Sharing," he says, sounding as if he's only half joking- though, the subtly playful and irreverent side of the Hellblazer shines out. Just a little.

***

The smile Zee gives John is slow and mischievous, underscoring her 19 years. Taking the bottle, she holds it up in a 'cheers' type motion and takes a small sip before handing it back. The sip is enough to cause her eyes to water slightly and she stifles the cough that starts. "So you are… sharing." she says.

***

Constantine smirks and takes the whiskey bottle back, downing a full measure of it and hissing between his teeth in a hoary exhalation. "Well luv, didn't say sharing was easy /or/ fun," Constantine says in that bantering tone, holding the bottle where Zatanna can reach for it if she rallies and wants more. "Surprised you don't have a taste for whiskey, though. Your dad liked a good single-malt scotch in the evenings. I used to bring a bottle by when I was in town on business. Gio and I didn't see eye to eye on much, but we got on well enough professionally. Mostly because we liked the same drink," he says with a lopsided grin.

***

Zee does rally and takes more, swigging a small sip down. "I'm nineteen John, haven't had much opportunity to get the taste, as you say. Particularly here in the US… drinking age and all." Handing the bottle back, the young woman pushes a stray lock of hair back over her shoulder. "No, you and Dad didn't see eye to eye on much… which is why he wanted to take your head off more often than not"

***

Constantine chuckles at that, ducking his head ruefully and running his fingers through his un-combed, spikey hair, which immediately falls back to precisely where it had been. "Blimey. Yeah, he and I did things very different. But, one thing I got from him was that touch of showmanship," Constantine says, accepting the bottle and taking another sip. "You know- a flash of the hand, a flick of the wrist, hey presto, have a bouquet of flowers," he says, miming the gestures. "Did wonders for dealing with the riffraff I run into. I think he took a bit more exception to me teaching you demonology than he did my attitude towards legerdemaine. Well…" he trails off. "…yeah." He sips more whiskey, reaching across with one hand and flicking an errant strand of hair away from Zatanna's brow as it curls out of place.

***

Zee smiles and nods vigorously "Presentation matters… it certainly helps me. People rarely see past the package… and I know I'm competent, but without the showmanship, all people would see is the young girl." Stilling as he flicks the strand from her face she smiles a little more faintly "As to you teaching me demonology, it had to be done at the time… Dad eventually agreed with that, but he'll never tell you."

***

Constantine actually looks taken aback at that statement. He looks at the whiskey and sets it next to Zatanna and walks to the chair, dropping back into it and looking a bit surprised. "Well, blow me down. Never would have guessed Gio would admit to me doing anything right," Constantine says with a chuckle, running a hand from his forehead to his chin and propping his elbow on the chair's arm. "I guess if you keep doing something long enough, sooner or later you're bound to do at least one thing right, eh?" he asks, looking distantly at the back wall of the workspace.

***

Taking the Whiskey bottle, Zee sips again and moves towards John, bottle held out. "Oh he only agreed when we did a case together and I could identify the who / what and why… all thanks to what you had taught me." The raven hair mage grins "Don't get too cocky, John. It was a series of happy coindences." Stopping near him, she hands John the bottle

***

Constantine looks at the bottle for a moment, then puts his fingers on it, eyes travelling back up to Zatanna's face. "Well," he says, feigning nonchalance. "I've lived this long predicated on my stunning good looks and infinite knowledge failing me entirely, and relying on pure blind luck to get me out of a tight spot. What can I say? I live dangerously," he chuckles faintly, taking a swig of the hootch. "Some coincidences turned out a bit happier than others," he adds, leaned back in the seat and looking up at Zatanna with his usual self-deprecating smile- though, lingering in the back there, is a measure of warm sincerity.

***

"You're a character, John" Zee grins down at the man and holds out her hand for the bottle. She's noted the sincerity though and that makes her smile warmly "That is true, and we can only hope that we have more happy coincidences than others."

***

"A character?" Constantine's eyes glitter with amusement at Zatanna's words. "I thought I was a 'smug bastard' and a 'snot-nosed know-it all', depending on which Zatara I was talking to that day," the magician quips, passing the bottle back to the woman. His prolonged drinking seems to be finally relaxing him, as his normally ferret-like energy and wire-strung muscles seem to be melting with the drink and Zatanna's encouragement. "Hopefully I can keep this run of happy coincidences up. Reaching out to an old friend seems to be a good start, though."

***

Zee takes the bottle, takes one last swig and grins wrly. "I think that's enough for me… teleporting under the influence is probably an offense somewhere." Looking down at Constantine, Zee notes his relaxed posture and the grin softens to a smile "I'm glad you reached out and I'm happy to help, John. I think you've got a result for Mack and if I can provide assistance again, you know where to find me." Flicking her hair back again she smiles "Was there anything else?" Zee holds out the bottle for him to take.

***

Constantine takes the bottle in his fingers, but doesn't pull it away from Zatanna immediately, considering the subtle bridge by which it connects them. Before it becomes awkward, though, he plucks the bottle into his hand and smiles up at Zatanna. "No," he lies effortlessly. "I wouldn't want to keep you from… whatever it is you're dressed to the nines for. I'm plum knackered, anyway," he says, getting to his feet with a lurch and stepping past Zatanna, lingering in her proximity for a microsecond before stepping around the worktable. "Got to get Mack's ship proper taken care of so she's not using my guest room and that bloody dog isn't stinking it up."

***

Zees noticed the odd behaviour and frowns at John as he moves past her. "I'm not dressed up for anything but this meeting, John" she murmurs. Seeing him return to his work, she waves though she doubts he'll see it and moves out through the door, where she'll teleport herself back home.


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