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[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly stopped into the bar. It had been a while, and coming here was a bit of surprise to her. She had her sketchbook with her, so she ordered a vanilla milkshake from the bar, and found a booth nearby. She sipped on the shake, and sketched. Looked like a self-portrait, only while it was her in Faerie, there was also flames in the background, and

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[timsbooks]

The guy at the next table catches it epertly, without looking up from his scribblings. There are some rather odd books around him, and a big ole pile of dice. And is he drinking mountain dew?

"A good likeness."

He remarks, without opening it.

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly glanced over, and just said, "It's an old likeness. Surprised I found myself drawing it."

She then got up, and stood before him with her arms folded in front of her.

"...Well?"

[timsbooks]

He takes a moment to finish off the current paragraph, some kind of room description if she looks, then use that sheet to mark his place in the dungeon masters guide. and closes it.

"Well?"

Looking up at her.

[gaelic_fae_girl]

"Hellspawn told me what you were up to. Did you do it already?" She was calm at the moment, but it seemed controlled, with some of that famous O'Reilly temper brewing under the surface.

[timsbooks]

He begins to gesture towards the books, then thinks better of it.

"I'm, uh, putting some work into it, actually."

[gaelic_fae_girl]

"Why?" She fired back. "You don't have to do this."

[timsbooks]

"I think I do. I think I may have already done it... Er.. tell me, did your Tim ever tell you how he beat the Other?"

He's pondering some enlightenment here.

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly shook her head as she remembered, "...Not really. I got a letter from him saying that he was breaking his promise to me to not make bargains with demons. Saying how he ran away, and how he let someone else be Tim Hunter so he would make the deals, and lose himself to Barbatos. Become Mr. Wrong, this version from the future who traded his memories away, and kept cloning copies of me, and then discarding them when they pissed him off. I wanted to hate him, but he was too pathetic by then to hate."

She sighed, and said, "Anyway, the letter said how he was going to sell a memory to Barbatos after all, and how he wanted to say goodbye. After that, things happened. I went to therapy, and was told I was crazy because of Faerie and Tim, then Paris for art school, and I didn't see him until a couple of years later."

[timsbooks]

"He did sell that memory. The Real Tim is the one who came back as Mister Wrong. That's where things get tricky. When you and I left Barbatos in that future Book, he eventually got out. And wound up starting to heal people, and all sorts of other nice things, in Hell. Such a shame. You see, when he ate my memory, I invested myself into him. Infected him witha part of me he would never corrupt."

Tim hasn't actually done this part, but it's easier to speak this way.

"Got him to the point where he had to time travel, to stop himself from eating my memory. But he couldn't. I absorbed his body, made it real, made it human. And destroyed him, completely in so doing. And so I ended up right back where I started, without having to live that horrible future, despite my already having done so."

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly was out and out staring in shock at that.

"You...what? Barbatos and you...?" She added in a small voice, and seemed a little wobbly (but not the Wobbley of course) on her feet all of the sudden. "I think I need to sit down..."

[timsbooks]

"But that body became true human. At that point, he had the ability to do that. So, the real Tim led two lives."

He makes a face.

"life, huh?"

There is a chair beneath.

"But, I now know I do not have to go back to fix it."

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly slowly sat down, trying to take it all in.

"Not sure if I understand. He was Mr. Wrong AND Barbatos?"

[timsbooks]

A shake of the hand, then a nod, thena shrug.

"He was in Barbatos when Barbatos was guiding Mister Wrong, but he wasn't active then, he was holding it in reserve until he could take over completely."

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly stared at him, "Still sounds confusing as hell."

[timsbooks]

"Yeh."

Tim shrugs.

"Welcome to my life?"

[gaelic_fae_girl]

Molly quietly replied with a slight smile, "Thought I already was. And not like my life isn't already confusing."