Check-up

[evillurks]

The Shadow has been splitting his time between the Sanctum and the apartment of James Rettigue, but only one of these locations is a place for guests. The coffee table is a solid mass of paperwork, although there are signs of order in the form of stacks. The furniture is sleek and black, modern even for its time. One wall of the living room is dominated by a tall picture window that overlooks the city, but the curtains are half drawn. From the kitchen the scent of fresh coffee drifts, but The Shadow is not used to entertaining. The spartan feel to the place, broken only by his paperwork, does not give a welcoming feel.

Comments

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

Most people would attribute what he does to obsession, but unlike the Batman, it is the activity of crime-fighting rather than the actual outcome that draws him to being a vigilante.

"What happened to you?" One eyebrow arches, and that gesture seems to draw his gaze up from the medical file. His curiosity is just that, impersonal, outright curiosity. She seems healthy enough.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"A sociopath shot me in the back," she replies flatly. It doesn't upset her as much as it used to, but it's not something she likes to dwell on. It helps that she hasn't seen the man who shot her in a long time. "The bullet severed my spine. Fortunately, a friend of mine was able to partially heal me, and then I was sent to the clinics. I was able to walk again after a few months of physical therapy." This, more than anything, is why she has faith in the Nexus Clinics.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

The description puts a scowl on his face, and he considers, briefly, asking if the sociopath has been caught. It seems likely he has been by now, and it would be breaking his personal rule to go hunting them down. That is one rule he will probably be breaking sooner or later, regardless, and the idea of someone like that running around the Nexus does not sit comfortably with him at all. "That's an amazing recovery..." The Shadow says slowly, with the air of one who is actively censoring himself. "I'm very glad for you, but it shouldn't have happened at all." His tone is quiet now, and very calm. His most dangerous form of anger tends to look cold and calm from the outside.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

Oh, Shadow, if you only knew. Death by Nexus mob, resurrected and soul-tied to one of Sarah's dear friends, and then heaven knows what else afterward. But Sarah would be flattered.

"It was in the Nexus... one of the areas that isn't covered by the anti-violence field. I'm more careful now." She still takes a risk now and then but she hasn't been shot or even LOLed in some time.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

If he knew, it would probably make his head swirl, and it would certainly offend his sense of justice. Because he knows that sort of situation proliferates in the Nexus, he has learned to be careful what he asks. She is an ally, now, however. If anyone injures her in the future, there will be repercussions.

"It shouldn't happen anywhere, to anyone." He sighs and coughs a few times, grimacing. "I always hope I'm at least cutting down on the numbers of incidents in my own city. I have my hands in three worlds now, but I know better than to try tackling crime in the Nexus."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

This is why she doesn't bother going into more detail. The Nexus seems to dole out its own version of justice, at any rate.

She smiles a little. "Obviously, you're doing work here. What are the other two worlds?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

The Nexus version of justice still may not meet his own ideas, which frequently involve a final word with a .45 automatic.

"Alternates... Myra's world, and one other, but I'm mostly hands off in the latter. And not because that's where I was shot in the chest." He smiles wryly, but there is little humour in his eyes. "My involvment in Myra's world is a little different, since there's an alternate of myself there."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

If only he had a gun that fired LOLs...

"That must be strange for Myra, working for two Shadows," she muses. "How do you and your alternate keep from stepping on each others' cloaks?" Well, she meant to say "toes" but she could resist a good joke.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Probably. We're very demanding." He allows a slim smile, but this time it is genuine. "Thus far I haven't worked in his world, and he doesn't in mine. The less we see of each other, the better, but I'm trying to aid him in changing the timeline. Their world is more or less my world some fifty years ago. For them, the second World War is looming, but me it's history."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"Do you think you -- that is, your alternate, can stop a world war?" She's not sure whether to be impressed or disturbed. "I really only know the basics -- the Strangers mixed the first and second World Wars into something of a jumble for us -- but that sounds like quite an undertaking."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

The Shadow closes the folder and lets it fall into his lap, settling back with a rattling sigh. He has his diagnosis now, and the paperwork can tell him little more that will be of practical use. The knotty fingers of his long hands are steepled together as he falls into the more comfortable topic of his work.

"I think there's a possibility, because sometimes very small pushes and pulls on events can turn the greater tide. In my own world, Hitler had almost abandoned a plan to invade Russia, when winter was coming on. It was a foolish plan, but through careful manipulations his mind was changed back, and he went ahead with the invasion. It didn't end the war, but it did go very badly for him, and delayed more dangerous actions until the American forces had joined in the fight. If he hadn't invaded Russia when he did..." He gives a mild shrug that belies how terrible that thought truly is.

((All of this is, in fact, a neatly-written Shadow comic.))

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

Sarah nods, listening. This sounds like a more plausible scenario than stopping the war completely. "And you'd like your alternate to do the same thing?" She remembers something that she learned from reading an accurate history book. "I... I don't suppose there's any way of saving all those people he systematically killed. Hitler, I mean."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"His world, Myra's world, hasn't reached that point yet. The Concentration Camps haven't seriously begun. I'm hoping they can nudge the right leaders and influence decisions that will prevent Hitler from ever getting that far, yes." It's a monumental undertaking, and they all know it.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"I wish you luck." She smiles sadly. "I once helped to try and alter the world of my boyfriend's alternate. We were... we were all a little too naive, I think. It didn't end well. But we had to try."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Thank you. It's very possible something far worse than I could ever imagine will come out of my meddling." He sighs, but that risk was weighed on both sides before the project was begun.
"But I understand the need to try, all too well. I don't think I could take watching the war happen all over again for them."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"That's always the risk you run when you try to change the future." She looks at him thoughtfully. "Did you fight in the second World War?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"It is, but it's worth the risk to prevent the holocaust." Her question actually puts a faint smile on his face, and he looks almost... flattered. "Not as a soldier, no. When I was a young man, I fought in the First." That might have taken him for younger, even by a decade, is a pleasant thought.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"You have to try," she agrees. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"Oh... what was the first one like? Were you The Shadow back then?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"That's kind of you to offer. I'll keep you in mind if my alternate finds himself without someone to patch him up." He smirks wryly, aware that may not be quite what she had in mind.

"No, not yet. I was a pilot." He shrugs, while a myriad of memories flow through his head. His position in the Secret Service, the altering of his name for anonymonity, the shrapnel that damaged half his face; all these are secrets he intends to take to the grave. "It was a mess. All war is, from the inside."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

No, that wasn't really what she had in mind, but she nods politely anyway. A sudden thought occurs to her. "You should tell your alternate to find some way to protect his lungs. Maybe he can avoid taking on so much damage." She feels a little guilty bringing the conversation back to the original topic, but since the Stranger seems all about changing timelines, perhaps this is something else that can be changed.

"Can you still fly a plane?" She asks, curious.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"I've warned him to stop smoking..." He frowns faintly, "But I doubt he'll take advice from me any better than from anyone else. I don't think I would have, at his age." He is honest with himself, at the very least.

As if he could simply forget how to fly. "I keep my license valid, yes. I have an autogyro, and a small plane. They come in handy for my work sometimes."

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"He'll quit at some point, won't he? You did. You could try showing him the pictures of your lungs. That might turn him off." Because the Shadow's lungs are kind of yucky-looking.

"They do sound useful... I used to fly. For a short time."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"...He will, but Cranston smoked, and he's still spending a fair amount of time pretending to be him..." The idea of hypnotizing Lamont Cranston into quitting smoking does cross his mind. Certainly it doesn't do him any good either. "And thank you for that charming suggestion." several pictures, taken by different imaging means, are included in the folder. He has not lingered over them, yet.

"Did you? What did you fly? Why did ever stop?" This topic seems to interest him particularly. Beneath the impassive exerior, there lurks a passion for aircraft.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

"Get him to quit, too. It's bad for everyone." She sighs, a little frustrated. "I always knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad until I started reading modern medical literature. I've been trying to start an anti-smoking campaign. Perhaps without a huge tobacco company lobbying against me, I'll have better luck."

She smiles shyly. "I flew myself. I was a swan." That's probably not the answer the Shadow was expecting. Or looking forward to. Oh, well. "I still dream about it. Is it hard to fly a plane? It must be hard." All those gauges and switches... it was so simple to spread her wings and do what came naturally.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"It wouldn't hurt him to quit younger..." The Cranston of his own time is not doing well at all, although even at ten years younger he's lived a full life. "And good luck. The kids find things other than tobacco to kill themselves with, here."

That she's been a bird was the last answer he expected, but he takes it with expressionless calm, reminding himself of the LOLs of which he has yet to experience one. "That sounds like a fascinating experience. Airplanes vary in difficulty. As time goes by they get more and more complicated, but safer, too. There's something to be said for an open cockpit, though." He looks briefly nostalgic. They don't build them like they used to, out of wood and painted canvas and badly leaking oil that streams onto the goggles of the pilot exposed to the wind. There are good reasons, of course, that they don't build them that way anymore. He'd be hard-pressed to figure out the workings of a jet or a modern commercial airliner, though.