(Untitled)

[notamagician]

"What is wrong with you?"

Two men wearing identical business suits walk through the door. The bigger one seems to be raging a little bit at the smaller man.

"Who the hell falls asleep in a box?" Penn demands, shoving Teller slightly. "You trying to screw this up for us

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[chronodisplaced]

She's seated somewhere in the middle of the bar, slouched on a stool.

He's so damn loud -- that she lifts her head up, eyes drawn. Watches and purses her lips into a dissatisfied expression. She scrubs a hand over her cheek, rubs the spots on the newsprint where there are smudges, and waits.

"Bar, if he's going to be a jerkface, don't give him anything."

[notamagician]

It would seem as though he's only a jerkface to Teller. When he sees Alba, his expression lightens almost immediately and he wanders over in her direction with his can of cola in his hand.

"It's always nice to see a familiar face around here," he says easily. "Especially one that isn't always trying to sabotage me."

[chronodisplaced]

". . .I tried a sabotage.

Bar wouldn't listen to me." Beat. "Familiar faces. Even if the time-lines blur. This time, when you aren't yelling at your partner, how are you?"

[notamagician]

"Oh, don't worry about him. He's fine," Penn insists.

He leans against the bar. "I'm better, now that he's out of my face."

It was so clearly the other way round. Even Stevie Wonder could have seen that.

[chronodisplaced]

Without (much) rancor, she shares what the rest of the class so clearly knows,

"Au contraire, mon ami, you were the one who was being the jerkface. . ."

She rests her head in the crook of her arms, and shrugs one shoulder.

"Sorry to say."

[notamagician]

"You only saw half of the argument," Penn points out. "You didn't hear him yelling at me."

He laughs.

"You ever see Teller get so mad that he starts to yell? Man, it's hilarious."

[chronodisplaced]

With a tiny smile.

"Hear him yell? No, thank you. I do not need that experience when you are loud and hilarious enough."

[notamagician]

Penn laughs. "It's great. He's got this really thick accent, and I can't understand him, and that just makes me laugh even more, which pisses him off even more. It's like a perpetual motion machine. Except that a perpetual motion machine doesn't exist, but Teller does."

[chronodisplaced]

She shakes her head at him, "Ouch."

[notamagician]

Penn is not exactly quiet, so it's no strain for Teller to be able to over hear this conversation. He gives Penn a very dirty look before moving somewhere else, far out of earshot.

Penn sees this and just laughs, pretending to throw an invisible baseball at him.

"See what I mean?" he asks. "He totally started it."

[chronodisplaced]

". . .Careful. He might make you the next one in the box. Or, clean up something wonderfully messy - like the bar's dishes again. Or get you jailed.

It would ruin the suit." She mutters, shading her eyes against the overhead lighting by shuttering her eyes closed.

[notamagician]

"No, he's a lot more subtle than that," Penn says. "And by 'subtle,' I of course mean finding a way to pour ice on me while I'm in the shower."

[chronodisplaced]

". . .Hm-hm. Put industrial strength adhesive on the toilet seat."

Pause, to consider. Then wincing, "Nevermind. "

[notamagician]

"That's just mean," Penn says. "A good prank has to really get your heart racing at the time, but have no lasting damage."

[chronodisplaced]

"Now, I know that.

I really had no idea what I was doing at the time --"

[notamagician]

He laughs, his wild cackle drowning out most of the bar noise.

"You did that to someone?" he asks. "I gotta hear this."