A cautious meeting

[reality_warper]

From Jeannie's perspective, it's been less than two weeks since she and Jack had met the Clark Luthor version of Ultraman in the Nexus. Give or take an unspecified amount of time, given all the weirdness of their current living situation. She'd honestly expected to get to this sooner, but Pamela's kids had been more of a handful than she could have predicted. Things had finally settled somewhat and she has a place all prepared... so its a matter now of sending a text message off via PINpoint and arranging to meet Mr. Luthor in the Nexus to do something about those scars.

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[clark_luthor]

Meanwhile, Clark has been rather busy with LuthorCorp, and while he hasn't forgotten about their meeting in the Nexus, he also hasn't been holding his breath waiting for a call. He raises an eyebrow as he sees the text message. Part of him expected that he'd never hear from her again.

Still, he's not going to complain. "Doc, postpone my two o'clock meeting. Something's come up." He leaves Zara napping in her eletrically-warmed sandbox, and leaves for the Nexus.

[reality_warper]

He'll find her next to a door that seems to be standing in its frame and leading nowhere... not too uncommon a thing in the Nexus. She's not in greasepaint, but identification shouldn't be too difficult. Not too many adults prefer that hairstyle, and he did see her in plainclothes when they met as well. She'll smile as soon as she spots him. "Hello, Mr. Luthor."

[clark_luthor]

"Harlequin," he greets her - she's not in costume, no, but she didn't really give him a better name to call her, the first time they met. "Your schedule's clear already, I see."

[reality_warper]

She doesn't seem to mind answering to that out of costume, just nodding. "My best friend's kids finally decided to settle down and quit trying to poison people on purpose, and my brother-in-law's next on the list... and he kind of has a cross-timeline habit of getting hit in the face with heat vision, so it seemed a good idea to do this before he's around. Not that anyone's going to be able to see into or out of the little room I set up."

And she'll open the door to a dome-shaped room with plain white walls. Featureless, apparently lead-lined, and possibly made out of something a lot stronger than concrete.

[clark_luthor]

Even though they discussed her solution to the potential-invasion problem, now that he's faced with it, he's not exactly eager to enter a room that fortified. "Could you possibly have made it more clinical?" It brings to mind bad memories of Lionel testing certain types of kryptonite on him, under the excuse of needing to know their effects on him.

[reality_warper]

"You're right," she says. "I should have put a little more thought into the decor." Duela couldn't stand rooms with plain white walls either, after all. Harlequin gives the room a look for a second as she steps through the doorway... and the second she sets foot inside it changes. The floor is now a checkerboard of white and black marble. The walls sport a grey and dark red harlequin diamond pattern on the wall that decreases in scale on it's way up the curved walls to a circular ceiling light. That and a couple floor lamps have the room well lit, and it's additionally furnished with a couple black leather armchairs. "Is that better, Mr. Luthor?"

[clark_luthor]

It's not the decorating scheme he would've chosen, but it's better than just stark white. "Much. My thanks." He's still wary, although he's fairly certain she's not laying a trap for him. None of this shows on his face though, thanks to years of practice.

[reality_warper]

At least she'd curbed some of her usual preferences enough to keep the place from looking like the inside of a circus tent. "You're quite welcome, Mr. Luthor," she says, as she settles into one of the chairs.

Despite the rest of the reinforcement, the room isn't particularly soundproofed - at least not enough to counter Kryptonian hearing. If he tries, he might be able to identify the sounds of nineteen other people outside of the dome-shaped room. The large majority of them are children, with a small scattering of teenagers. Jeannie is currently one of only three adults in this little pocket of semi-reality.

[clark_luthor]

The faint sounds do catch his attention, but as they're not a threat, he doesn't care enough about them to really focus on them at the moment. He takes a seat across from her, quite at ease in the armchair she created. "So. Where do we begin?"

[reality_warper]

"Well, we could indulge in some silly small talk... how've you been, how's Bruce been, are Metropolis and Gotham both still standing..."

"Or, we could just get down to business. I know you're a busy man, it comes with being a Luthor. And I'd rather not give my best friend enough time to start thinking of ways to get away with killing my husband." While she's hoping they're all past that, well... Pam still didn't trust Jack.

[clark_luthor]

"To business, then." Clark appreciates dealing with someone who gets straight to the point sometimes. The word games are interesting sometimes, but trivially easy.

[reality_warper]

"Well, then... You mentioned some scars you'd want rid of. I shouldn't have any problems doing that here, without having causality get its knickers in a twist."

[clark_luthor]

"Yes." He shrugs out of his suit jacket, and unbuttons his shirt cuff and rolls up the sleeve. On his forearm, there's a large raised scar, deliberately carved into his flesh in the shape of Lex's personal crest. If left to his own devices, it's fairly obvious that it will never heal any more than this.

[reality_warper]

Figures. Great writing skills, and Lex had to go and waste it on petty torture. What was with some guys?

"Okay, this might kinda tickle a little... Or it might not. I really don't know," she admits, as she thinks about changing things so the scar isn't there. It won't erase the event that caused it from causality, but it's easier anyway to just convince reality - such as it is here - that it should have completely healed.

[clark_luthor]

Clark watches very closely. He's still a bit wary of this whole thing, but he's committed to it now, and the benefit might outweigh the risks.

There's a strange sensation, almost like the gentle heat of sunlight, concentrated around the area of the scar. It doesn't hurt, exactly, but it's not entirely comfortable either. Bit by bit, the dark lines fade, until there's little left but silvery white, not really noticeable unless you're looking for it.

[reality_warper]

"Ta-da! And there ya go."

[clark_luthor]

He examines his arm, frowning. "It's still there." He wasn't sure how effective he was expecting this to be, but he can't help but be a bit disgruntled that it wasn't a hundred percent.

[reality_warper]

Truth be told, Jeannie's a little disappointed it wasn't herself. But, "I guess I coulda tried harder... but you'd be more upset if I accidentally made your arm disappear. Raw chaos is funny stuff, y'know."

[clark_luthor]

He gives her a look, pretty much sure that she's not joking, but you never know. "If this is leading up to a 'disarming' joke, I'm going to be very disappointed in you."

[reality_warper]

And she laughs. "Much as I'm gonna kick myself for not thinking of that one before you did, no... I meant it. Working with chaos is a lot like... I don't know if you ever watched cartoons, but if you have, you know the chase scenes where someone runs off a cliff. And they're perfectly fine as long as they don't look down. You can do a lot... as long as you don't think too hard about how."

[clark_luthor]

Clark has never watched a cartoon in his life, nor has his pop culture knowledge been the greatest. He vaguely knows what she's talking about though. "I was under the impression that control, such as it is, came through greater concentration, not less."

[reality_warper]

"Most things, maybe. But that'd be logic, and logic and chaos are like oil and water. Think about it too much, and thinking just gets in the way of letting stuff happen." Luckily, she's an expert at doing things without thinking about them too much... maybe not a good thing in most cases.

[clark_luthor]

"I suppose I'll have to take your word for it." He's a meticulous planner, so the idea of letting chaos just... do things... is rather antithetical to that.

[reality_warper]

She just nods. She really hadn't expected anything else. It wasn't hard, in the whole scale of chaos to order, to peg him as being firmly on the order side. "I guess there were reasons why I usually only used to do it if I was... knocked out, or worse. Nothing to get in the way of instinct."

[clark_luthor]

"Instinct has its place. Survival is certainly one of the appropriate scenarios."