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[color=darkviolet]“…Okay good,”[/color] Zach breathed a sigh of relief after Thor started talking. [color=darkviolet]“You’re talking. Huge fan of that development.”[/color]

He scrubbed a hand over his face, adrenaline finally crashing now that the immediate crisis seemed… mostly handled. The illusions above flickered once, then slowly dissolved into harmless violet sparks? [color=darkviolet]“License plate? Yeah, uh…”[/color] Zach glanced at the sleigh, the unconscious Toyman, the reindeer, the green telepathic mystery guest, then back to Thor. [color=darkviolet]“Pretty sure it said ‘Ho-Ho-Homicide,’ but I could be misremembering.”[/color]

When Thor thanked him, Zach’s posture straightened. [color=darkviolet]“For the record,”[/color] he said, [color=darkviolet]“I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. That was like… ninety percent panic magic, ten percent sheer dumb luck.”[/color]

Then Starfire was suddenly there, warm hand on his shoulder, smiling like he’d actually done something heroic instead of barely holding it together. Zach swallowed, some of the bravado slipping. [color=darkviolet]“I’m… okay,”[/color] he admitted. [color=darkviolet]“Kinda fried. This much magic takes a lot out of a person… But I’m standing. Nobody exploded because of me. That feels like a win.”[/color] His gaze drifted back toward Thor, then the sleigh, then the sky where the fake lightning had been.

[color=darkviolet]“…This is gonna sound weird,”[/color] he added quietly, [color=darkviolet]“but not that long ago, my biggest concern was whether my livestream lighting made me look washed out. Now I’m the influencer who saved Christmas!”[/color] He let out a shaky laugh. [color=darkviolet]“But hey. If this is the new normal? I guess I’m in.”[/color] He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing between Thor, Starfire, and the unconscious Toyman. [color=darkviolet]“Soooo… What? Are we like a team now? Do we high-five? Call the authorities? Get hot chocolate? I feel like all three are appropriate.”[/color]