10421/Absent Sisters Redux: Retcon Edition.

Absent Sisters Redux: Retcon Edition.
Date of Scene:	11 March 2022
Location:	Diana's Treehouse
Synopsis:	Donna seeks out Diana at her secret treehouse to discuss the revelation that there are other Amazons, and to talk about how small secrets aren't important and prophecies are basically nonsense best ignored.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Diana Prince

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Donna Troy has posed:
    (NOTE: This scene replaces https://heroesassemble.mushhaven.com/index.php?title=9905/Absent_Sisters due to rethinking some plot element stuff)

    There are other Amazons. A lost tribe, lead out from Themyscira hundreds of years ago by Hippolyta's other sister, Melanippe. A betrayal that had cost the Amazons dear, and triggered a damnatio memoriae amongst the Themyscirans, striking from record and memory the very fact that the queen had a fourth sister. But a memories can only be damned to forgetting on paper and stone, not in mind. So it is that forgotten as these lost sisters are from the record, they are not forgotten from the minds of the Amazons, just never talked about.

    Until today. Until the evidence from the Wakandan visitors had lead Hippolyta to conclude that the lost tribe must have survived in some degree, to establish centuries later the Dora Milaje of Wakanda, so Amazon-like in their ways. And led the queen to admit their existence to the two Themyscirans who /didn't/ have memories of their own of the lost sisters, Hippolyta's own daughters. It was a weird feeling for them both, to know that they had not been the ones to lead the charge into Man's World after all; that they had been preceded by centuries by sisters who had betrayed the Themysciran cause, and who were until today believed to have failed and passed into history.

    The two princesses had departed the palace to think things through, to try to understand what they had learned. And after a time, Troia had sought out Diana. Although Themyscira is not huge, it's large enough and full of quiet places to hide away if you want some peace to do your thinking in, so it has taken a while for Troia to locate her sister.

    Yet years ago, when she was very young and had not even met Diana yet, Troia had stumbled across the treehouse in the woods, abandoned for decades. She had considered making it a secret place of her own, but she had many secret places around Themyscira and when Diana had returned home after almost a century, Troia had realized this was /Diana's/ secret place. She kept away from it, though she knew of it. But Diana has not been found in the other likely places, so eventually Troia's search for her sister takes her to this spot. She walks out of the woods and calls up to the treehouse above, "Diana? Are you there? It's me."

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana had taken it as good as she could. She didn't like it that her mother kept secrets from her, but her mother had her reasons. It made her remember why she wanted to leave the island in the first place, however, that was for certain. The ... way that things like this are handled here, it is not how she would handle them... or so she thinks.

In the moment, there is noise up there, so Donna likely knows that Diana is up there. The noises are a familiar one, shuffling, swiffing, sweeping!

She pauses, and soon she peers over the edge. "Catch." Diana says, and drops a linen bag down to Donna, filled full with 'stuff'.

When Donna catches it, she'll find inside the bag is just all manner of detritus that seemingly is being 'thrown away'.

"It is a mess up here, but you are welcome to come up!" Diana says further, as the sound of furniture being drug across the floor up there can be heard now...

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia catches the bag, looks inside it, and then looks up at Diana with an expression of mildly baffled amusement. "What am I supposed to do with this?" she asks. "Did you mistake me for the department of sanitation?" With a laugh she closes up the bag, rests it against the trunk of the tree and hops into the air to float up to the treehouse proper and land on the balcony.

    She flashes her sister a wide smile, and leans casually back against the balcony to watch Diana work. The lack of any obvious curiosity about the place is enough to tell Diana this isn't the first time she has visited, though given how much Troia loves exploring the island, that was always a fair guess. "So...." Troia begins slowly, considering how to broach the subject. "Today was weird. I... honestly I don't know what to make of it. Not just the whole thing of the secret aunt, but that there's... there has been this hole in the history of Themyscira that I didn't know about. I don't... I don't like that thought."

    It's hardly a surprising reaction. Troia was always a careful student of Themysciran history, perhaps her way of trying to make up for the fact that she had been there for so little of it. She prides herself in having made a study of all that has been recorded of the Amazon's exploits, and back in America it's often she who answers the questions scholars visiting the Arts Center are so keen to ask.

    "How... how are you doing? I mean... I haven't really figured out what I think about this yet. But... " she stops herself with a shrug. "I don't know. Are you okay?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana laughs softly at the comment about the bag. "Of course!" She shouted back before Donna was up joining her on the balcony's edge, with the elder Princess being inside the 'home' up there. The topmost of the 3-story tall tree house. She did expect Donna knew of the place, unlike Cassie, who had recently visited and been quite impressed with the layout of the place, who wouldn't be? It's nicer than some of those tree houses on that television show all about them!

At Donna's words, and inquiries, Diana shrugs her shoulders, but just keeps sweeping under the furniture just inside the doorway.

"It makes me want to use the lasso on the Queen, and make her spill her beans on everything that which she has kept from me." Diana states, using 'spill her beans' which is... so 'rest of world' in terms of phrases!

She pauses then and looks up to Donna. "What she further keeps from /us/, actually." She corrects herself then as she leans on the old, but still in good shape, handmade broom.

"It is... beyond /frustrating/ that we are still treated like we need to be sheltered from such truths. How are we supposed to help all of the island, if she keeps hindering how ability to help to the level that we... have rightly earned."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia tilts her head and bites her lip, watching Diana as she works, and then stops working to lean on her broom. She's not offering to help the cleaning up, at least not yet. After a while she looks away, staring out over the canopy of trees. "I know what you mean. It's... frustrating. But I don't think it's about sheltering /us/, Diana. I think it's about sheltering herself. You saw how upset she was about the whole thing. Her sense of betrayal. Like it was just... it was something she never wanted to think about again."

    She looks back from the trees to give Diana a slight shrug. "What kept coming into my mind when I was thinking about it was... every time we have told her that she's wrong to keep the Amazons detached, every time we have said that the Amazons should be playing a greater role in Man's World, she must have been thinking of those arguments she had with her sister all those centuries ago. And she must have feared that our actions might cause a schism in the ranks of our sisters, as her own sister's actions did back then."

    "You always told me how reluctant mother was to let you go. To let you learn to fight, even. Perhaps this is why. Perhaps she has always feared that your determination to be a champion to man's world would trigger some dissatisfaction amongst the people of Themyscira. That those who believed we should take a more active role in the outer world would treat you as a figurehead for their cause, and drive a wedge between you and her."

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana pulls a rug off the table she moved back, and drops it upon the clean(er) floor. She starts to unroll it with her feet then, stepping across it as she rolls it back out upon the hardwood floor. She listens to Donna's perspective on the matter of their mother, and then pauses to look up at her.

"She has ruled this island for so long... It is a wonder how she is as sane is she is, admittedly." Diana says in a lower tone of her voice. She then smirks over at Donna.

"You are wise." She tells her sister then, showing another quick smile. "But. Still. I believe that ... were Antiope still with us, mother would keep nothing from her. Yet, you and I? She holds back. What /else/ is there? Is the island actually built on the back of a turtle, and we are just yet to sweep deep enough to find his shell?" She asks then, clearly toying around, at least a little. She's trying to be more relaxed about all of this, which likely has come in-part with her time away from the island in the past century too.

Diana approaches the table and leans her right hip against it.

"I just want... her to ... tell us ... all of it. So that we know the full legacy of our own people. If something were to happen to /her/ what..." Diana stops herself then as she exhales sharply, releasing the tension that all these thoughts had brought up within her.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia raises an eyebrow with amusement, then looks over the rail to the ground below. "A turtle, you say? When I was... six, seven... I set myself the task of digging a hole to check for myself if the world was truly a globe. I figured that if I dug deep enough, I would find either the underside of a flat world, or another island on the opposite side of a globe. Alas my experimentation was discovered before I was able to make the determination. Nikomache found me at the bottom of a six-foot hole at the foot of one of her olive trees and scolded me quite severely, warning me that if I undermined her tree and made it fall on my head I would have nobody to blame but myself. She made me fill in the hole. Perhaps another afternoon's work would have revealed the turtle's shell?"

    She suddenly grins her familiar wide grin and finally steps inside from the balcony to join Diana in the shelter of the house itself, walking around to survey Diana's handiwork. "She has ruled so long, and no longer has the wisdom of her sisters to guide her. She would not hide things from Antiope, no. But Antiope must have been in agreement with her that this black mark on Themysicra's history was something to be forgotten rather than remembered. Perhaps aunt Antiope opposed the idea and believed you should be told. From the stories you have told me, Antiope and Hippolyta did not always see eye to eye on things, and argued a lot. Yet she would have agreed in the end, or we would already know about this."

    She gives a shrug and stops her circling of the interior to stand in front of Diana, smiling a little sadly. "I wish I had the chance to meet Antiope. From what everyone has told me of her, she was quite a woman. I think I would have liked her. I hope she would have liked me too. I think we would have got on well."

Diana Prince has posed:
The 3rd floor area is all for creative learning in various professions on the island that Hippolyta wanted Diana to partake in, in hopes it would push her youthful curiosity away from 'fighting' and 'training to fight!' and 'riding horses to train to fight on horses!' and 'Kangas, Mother!'

It hadn't worked. Sure, Diana has a lot of projects that are even still found here, some finished, others not so finished. All tucked away in to the drawers, cabinets, and trunks found up here... but her heart had gone where it went, and she couldn't be swayed.

Diana pauses after what Donna says. "She would've adored you..." Diana tells her sister, staring at her a lingering moment, before showing another smile. "She was... secret, the one I wished I was the daughter of, when I was very little. Likely the same age as when you were trying to prove Flat Earth." Diana adds with a sly grin.

She turns to oen of the stools, and settles down upon it, leaning the broom against the table beside her.

"Antiope was... much more straight forward. She would take what seemed to be the more reasonable route, and just rush forward, striving to complete tasks, where mother would spend time analyzing every possible, in and out, outcome. I think that is why I felt more connected to Antiope, at times, anyway. Not that I did not have connections stronger with mother, than with our Aunt... But, you know. It is easier to be the 'great' Aunt, than the 'great' mother."

Diana places her left elbow upon the edge of the table, then pinches her chin with her thumb and forefinger in thought for a second.

"I am sure that losing Antiope, has only made mother more reserved.... Even if you, and I, are pushing forward, like Antiope would want us too." She says, showing a little smirk then toward Donna.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia smiles and nods her head, testing the table with her hands to determine how sturdy it was before taking a seat on it. "I have been told by more than a few of our sisters that I have Antiope's impulsiveness," she says with a soft laugh. "I remember mother once telling me that I even play /petteia/ much the way our aunt did. Apparently she could never beat Hippolyta either.

    She tilts her head to the side, studying Diana carefully. "Our mother... is also the queen. And that means she is mother to all the Amazons, not just to us. It must be hard for her to balance that, sometimes. You could wrap her in your lasso and make her tell you all she has not yet told you, but I don't think that would be wise. I cannot make someone speak the truth, but I know when they lie to me. Mother does not lie to us, Diana. She just... omits things. Sometimes we might disagree with her reasons for doing so, but they are not without reason. And I do not think those reasons are to shelter us, I think they are because she must balance being a mother with being a queen. Sometimes those two things are in conflict, and that pains her."

    "You remember after Doomsday... I was... it took me a while to entirely forgive her. I was on guard duty at Doom's Door when the news came to Themyscira. She did not tell me that two of my friends were dead, not until my duty was over and I had returned to the palace. By that time they were already in the ground. It... it hurt. But in time I understood. She had to make a choice between treating me as a daughter, and treating me as an Amazon. As an Amazon, my duty was sacred. If I were to abandon my post, in that duty of all duties, could I truly call myself an Amazon? Yet as her daughter she ached to give me comfort, to protect me from my hurt. I could see... I could see the logic of me remaining at my post. And the importance of not telling me, because if she did -- would I have stayed? No. I would have gone to America, to say goodbye to my friends. Yet that would not have brought them back. I said goodbye to them later, in my own time."

    "It took me a while to look past my own pain and realize the pain it must have caused to her. To chose to set aside the immediate feelings of her daughter like that. But she, in her way of analyzing every possible outcome, feared that if she told me I would abandon my duty. What impact would that have? I would no longer be an Amazon, and she knew how important that was to me. And so for three weeks while I stood guard at a doorway, she sat on her throne feeling guilt, feeling like she had betrayed me, because she made a decision that logically she knew was better for Themyscira, and in the long term would be better for me, too."

Diana Prince has posed:
While Donna speaks, Diana's eyes are out the open window that a nice breeze is filtering through. She's watching the birds flitter about in the tree branches as the forest continues to live its own life around them. She looks back to Donna about midway through what the other is saying, and just gently nods her head to the wisdom of those words.

"Yes. She made the right call. As hard as it must have been." Her words trail off for a moment before she picks up again.

"That being said... sometimes, these calls are derived from counsel with her trusted chosen, of which, I very much would appreciate being involved in more." And those words are said with a quieter tone.

Diana stands up again then, her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth. She takes a few steps as her fingers lace together from one hand to the other.

"I am not here enough, though, I suppose. Nor, are you, these days." She says, casting her stare back over to Donna. "Maybe we do not need to know everything, until a day comes where we decide to be on the island, more, than we are now... A price of moving ourselves to the main land, so to speak."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head in agreement, but she looks distracted. "There are those who wish you would return to the island full-time, sister. And sit on the senate, as one of the decision-makers of Themyscira. You would be acclaimed to the senate in a moment, you know."

    She blinks at Diana, and bites her lip, perhaps an unconscious echoing of Diana's own behavior, then quickly looks away, her eyes returning to the canopy of trees beyond. "Diana... " she begins, speaking slowly. "As long as I have understood where I come from, of being adopted, of what that meant, I have asked myself why. Why me. I am far from the only child to have washed up on these shores. By all rights, I should have been taken to the educators, taught of the ways of Themyscira, then returned to the World of Men as one of our agents, as the ritual of Sending Forth requires. Instead, mother chose to adopt me. If I ask her why, she is always vague. She says... mom things, about how she looked and me and couldn't resist my smile, things like that. And yet somehow, for some reason, here I am. Adopted by the queen, a princess, an Amazon. With a wonderful family I had no call on, endless opportunities, and granted gifts by the goddesses far beyond those of our sisters. Why? It seemed so inconceivable."

    Her lips curl up into a sudden grin, but her eyes are still lost in memory. "Caitlin once tried to suggest that mother must have seen something in me. Babies are just... babies. I think Cait just wanted... you know, to be reassuring. But it doesn't make sense." The grin fades again. "As I grew older and people started telling me I looked like you, I figured that perhaps I just reminded her of you. That she saw me and was reminded of the daughter she loved so much who was so far away from her. But it never..."

    Her eyes swing back to find Diana. "Diana, there's a prophecy about me, isn't there? I've been... I'm pretty sure there is. There have been hints. Things like... how Kate described what happened when Cassie went to speak to the oracle, there was something up there, wasn't there? Something about... I don't recall exactly how Kate put it, but something about words being spoken before. And in Tartarus, when I met the Lampad... well, she pretty much just came out and told me. So... So I figure that's why it happened. That it wasn't something I did, or that I looked like you, or just... random chance. That I was adopted for some...." she struggles for words, then shrugs her shoulders and looks away again. "For some strategic reason. "

    "But it doesn't matter. If mother... if you... know this, and don't tell me, you have a reason. I don't need to know. You know why? Because I know she loves me. I know you love me. You have both given me... so much. And I trust you both. "

Diana Prince has posed:
The bit about the Senate has Diana showing a quick, brief, smile. "Maybe if we get the teleportation platform activated." She jests in good fun.

But as the subject moves more toward Donna's history, Diana looks a little more seriously at her sister and starts to walk toward her. "Donna." She says in that empathetic way of hers. "Prophecies are little more than suggestions on how to alter the course of your life to achieve an outcome, or avoid an outcome..." She states, shaking her head side to side two vague times. "They are little more than advice, shared in a way that often comes across as if they are some kind of foretold truth that is unavoidable. Which... is... irresponsible of anyone to do, at their very best."

She puts her hands out to rest them upon Donna's shoulders. "What has brought this on?" Diana asks then.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia smiles up at her sister, resting her own hand on Diana's. "Nothing. I mean... well. The discussion. Secrets being kept, whether that's something we should... whether we should be resentful of it. The last couple of years... since I returned to America, things have been pretty wild. And... I guess I've been putting things together. About who I am, about my role in the world. There's a lot I still don't know, but... the truth is I don't care. I'm Troia. I'm Donna Troy. I'm your sister, I'm mom's daughter. Those are the real truths. Anything else is just details."

    She gives a little shrug, her shoulders moving slightly under Diana's hands. "And this is the same. With these... with the Bana Amazons. They're not our sisters, the Amazons of Themyscira are our sisters. They are the ones we were raised among. They are the ones who are family. So this thing about these other Amazons -- it's interesting. I want to know more. There is much we have in common, and knowing they are out there, that opens up possibilities. But before, when we had no reason to know they were still alive... well I don't blame mother for keeping that a secret. Because then for us to know about it... it changed nothing, except to hurt her. If it helped her to not feel that pain that she has kept this from us for our whole lives... well, I don't blame her for it. She has so much weight on her shoulders already."

    She looks down again, grinning. "As for prophecies... yeah. I don't care Diana, I really don't. I mean the Lampad told me the prophecy was a joke, and that when I found out what it was, I'd laugh. So why should I care? If it is the reason why I have had the life I have, I can only be grateful for it. Has anyone ever been luckier than me? It would be foolish for me to question why I have had the fortune I have. I remain amazed and hugely admiring of Cassie that when I was missing she thought to ask the Oracle, and that's really the only part of any of this prophecy nonsense I give a damn about."

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana drops her hands from Donna's shoulders after the subject of their mother goes on a bit further. She steps over to grab that broom once more that she uses to lean on now with her hands up near its end. Her eyes remain on Donna's though as she listens closely. The bit about Cassie has her showing another quick little smile.

"You are so young still..." Diana says in that annoying way that only an older sibling can, not that she means it to be.

She even shakes her head at herself, smiles, and exhales a little laugh.

"You have done so much... in such a small amount of time. Just imagine what you will have accomplished by the time you are ..." Big, big, inhale, shoulders rising, then falling, and Diana laughs a little once again. "/My/ age!" She says with a shake of her head and a glance away at the rest of the room she needs to attend to to clean it up.

"You are Troia. You are my sister. I love you. I love our mother. I love our ... bombastic younger sister too." She grins then.

"Let us focus on being thankful for the good that we both have, shall we? How 'lucky' we both are? Aaand, let us clean this place up a little better... So that when I bring a whole host of little children to the island, some time soon, to visit, and explore... maybe this place will be a positive memory for them, and not a terrifying one, at the mess!"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Your age?" Troia repeats in mock astonishment. "It's... inconceivable. You're so /old/ Diana!" She bursts out laughing and gets to her feet, following Diana over to where she stands with the broom, and wraps her arms around her to give a hug that even Diana might feel was a /little/ strong.

    "Bombastic is a good word for her, but I think I prefer 'awesome'. Cassie's just the best. And so are you, and so is mom. That's why... that's why none of this bothers me, Di. I'm so /happy/. So what that mom kept a secret or two from us. It's like... someone gives you a Playstation and complaining because they only gave you three controllers with it. Or all of your friends throw a party for you and one of them is ten minutes late. You know?"

    She releases Diana from the hug, but keeps her hands on Diana's upper arms for a moment. "Just one question though, Diana. This... all of this. Coming here to do your thinking. Was it all just a clever scheme to get me to search the island for you and eventually find my way here, so you could persuade me to help you clean up your mess?"

    She breaks into another bout of laughter, letting her arms drop to her sides. "Well I guess it can't /all/ be exciting space battles and defeating armies of zombies. How about I trim back some of the overgrown branches and you keep up the sweeping?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana removes one hand from the old, but somehow still really cool looking, broom, to share in the hug with her sister. When they part again, she just smirks at the bit about the age differences, then at their mother. She nods her head softly a few times before she just cracks a smile at the last bits. "Oh yes, you figured me out. My lure to get actual reliable help out here. I have been foiled." She says with a big grin before she nods her head then. "I'll finish up on this level, and move down to the next. It... has more leaves in it than this one did..."

She turns then to go get the last corner fixed up on the third floor, and as she starts to sweep again.

"I am more of a Nintendo person..." She says then, almost a full minute later. "It's just so much better! Yoshi is my favorite."

Now she's just talking to herself! But how does she even know who Yoshi is?! Wonder Woman clearly has her secrets too...