10454/There's Always A New Normal

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There's Always A New Normal
Date of Scene: 13 March 2022
Location: A hipster coffee place, but one that's actually pretty cool.
Synopsis: Donna and Raven discuss the potential impermanence of particular types of happiness, even if other types of happiness are lasting.
Cast of Characters: Donna Troy, Rachel Roth




Donna Troy has posed:
    The Cellar is a coffee house with attitude, or pretention, depending on your point of view. It's got something of the look of 1920's Berlin about it, less the cigarette smoke. It serves 37 varieties of single estate coffee, and each one is prepared in a different way -- the owner is an award-winning barista, and the business model is pointed very definitely towards the cofficionados of the world. They do also serve alcohol and pretty good light meals, though. They have live jazz two nights a week, an open mic night that's best avoided if you value your sanity, and a resident comedian who's got an excellent line in dark sarcastic satire.

    It is this combination of sarcasm and coffee that lead Donna to bringing Rae here. If Rae is going to be more open to leaving the tower and doing at least vaguely social things, Donna will at least try to make them Raven-Acceptable things.

    The comedian has finished her sarcastic set. There are a couple of plates of snacks on the table the two Titans are seated at, that have been nibbled but not destroyed in the whirlwind of food consumption that generally takes place if other members of the Titans involved. Significant quantities of good coffee has been drunk but Donna, at least, has moved on to alcohol, and has a bottle of beer now. Best of all, nobody is bothering the two Titans, though whether that's out of politeness or just that nobody has recognized them in the dimly-lit interior, who knows.

    Donna leans back comfortably in her chair, gently spinning her beer bottle on the table with one hand, and smiles at Raven. "So, acceptable?" She asks. "Somewhere you might want to visit again?"

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven has been opening up, more and more. Not only is she much easier to persuade to leave the tower- now with what seems to be... coy, cursory objections rather than the normal hard refusals, which is probably somewhat spooky- but she is also even venturing out on her own on occasion. In fact, as odd and out of character as it is, when Donna explained to her the concept of the place, she actually seemed... Intrigued. Curious. /Eager./

    For some, that probably isn't the kind of thing they're comfortable with seeing.

    While there, Rae is using more or less any excuse to stay close to Donna- not exclusively clinging to her, but being a touch more physical than she would normally be- expressing herself more and more as time has gone by. It's clear: She feels safe, now. No longer do things have to be restrained or controlled. No more limits. She's free.

    She's eaten more than she normally does from the snacks offered, actually enjoying herself rather than lightly pecking at them and letting the other Titans consume the bulk. She even- dare it have happened- chuckled a bit at a joke told by the comedienne, which is frankly unprecedented.

    "Yeah. This is acceptable. I think I might come here again. I /know/ that /we/ will come here again."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Though it may make some of the Titans uncomfortable, it obviously makes Donna very comfortable. It's not that she ever really complained before, tThough she did always push Rae a little to try to step out of her comfort zone. It is however clear that she is happy with the changes that have occurred. To put it simply, Rae is enjoying herself. Rae feels free. Donna approves.

    Nor of course is Rae's tendency to physical closeness something Donna is anything other than happy with. Not that physical closeness hasn't been a thing as long as they've had a relationship, but for it to continue when there's any chance of another human being witnessing that closeness is something that had rarely happened before this last half-year since the trip to Tartarus that changed everything. No, Donna revels in it. It would take a particularly slow observer to fail to notice that these two are a couple.

    She greets Raven's positive reply with a characteristically wide grin, and nods her head. "She was pretty funny. The coffee is good. Nobody is bothering us. What's not to like?" she says. Then reaching her hand out to find Raven's, she adds "Oh. And the company's pretty good too." The grin softens into a happy smile.

    "And uh -- there's no... reaction? No sign that anything's amiss? I mean I don't exactly /trust/ Hekate." Of course, being Donna there is joy at Rae's new found freedom. And being Donna, there is concern about the bigger picture.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Though her empathy is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be- and she can even turn it off, which is new- Raven is caught in a kind of comfort feedback loop. Donna's happiness makes her happy, which makes Donna happy, and on and on. It's the kind of thing that can be seen just by looking at her. A level of /content/ that isn't present any other time, with any other person.

    It leads to situations like this, where one used to be able to perhaps, if there were oblivious, deny that Raven and Donna were Together. Now? It's undeniable. The way they talk to one another, the small gestures, the places that hands go, the physical proximity besides.

    Raven gladly takes Troia's hand in hers. "You were right. The coffee is excellent." There's a sly grin that creeps upon her features, a thing that most would testify is supposed to be what you see immediately before death. "I suppose the company is acceptable. To be fair, it's the /peace/ and /quiet/ that gets me the most."

    There's a soft sigh, and Raven detaches for half a moment in thought. "I don't know. Nothing like a rash, to be sure- magical, or otherwise. But... Something is amiss, just- In a good way. I know what's missing. None of my personality, but everything that requires my immense caution. I feel a pull, as if a magnet, towards where it is. A pull I will never follow. I don't want this to end." A short silence. "These past few months, I have been the weakest I have ever been. But I have finally been able to express to you the love that I've wanted to for /years./ It's been the best time of my life."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I've never doubted it for a second, Rae," Donna says with a smile, entwining her fingers with Raven's. "Just so you know. You may find it easier to express now, but I never doubted. Before... you expressed it in a different way. In your own way. It was still clear to me. It's... it's a matter of scale. Before you had to keep yourself closer. You had to be cautious, so you expressed yourself in smaller amounts. But it was still there. Just harder to see."

    She breaks, momentarily, into that now so familiar playful, almost challenging, borderline teasing expression. "It just means people had to look at you more closely to see it, Rae. And I rather enjoy doing that." Playful though it is, there's an obvious truth to it. Where the gloomy armor Raven had drawn around herself had discouraged most from getting close, as was its intent, Donna had wanted to look past it to see the person behind the armor. That's why they had become close.

    "I'm happy that you're happy," she says, stating the obvious. Putting into words that feedback loop of comfort. "I don't want this to end either. But if... if it does, Raerae... I want you to know that /I'll still know/. What that immense caution requires you to conceal won't be concealed from me. I knew before this happened how you feel. I shared those feelings with you then, too. And even before this happened, you made me very happy."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    "I know you didn't." It's that kind of... Matter-of-fact tone that is reassuring. Raven /knew/ Donna was genuine from the word Go. If not just because Troia tends to wear her heart on her sleeve a bit, then also because you can't mask those things around Raven. She knows the genuine people, from those who tell only little lies, to those who can't spend a sentence without spitting out a falsehood. Even so, there is a level of comfort that the statements from Donna bring, that cannot help but lift her expression into something approaching warmth. "I've always known."

    Truth be told, Raven is used to being... Looked at closely, to turn a phrase. She Outgrew the sorceress outfit she used to wear, and despite only being half-demon, they don't really craft a demon like Raven that isn't meant to be appealing... And her father would not construct a daughter that did not have more than her fair share to be Proud about. All the same, the truth of it is that Donna was looking past the physical- despite that Raven could practically taste the attraction, even back then. What mattered is that Donna did not consider her a riddle, did not want some closure from finding out just how Raven she was, she wanted to /know/ her. That was all Raven needed to shift the metaphorical armor just a touch, to let Troia in.

    "You're allowed to do more than look." In the quiet of the place, it's still unlikely that their hushed tones will be overheard, but even then, that is braver than Raven typically gets outside of closed doors. Such has been the hallmark of these past six months. They're just scant few inches from one another, but holding that gaze may as well be as much as taking one another into an embrace.

    "If it does. I mean..." Raven sours, momentarily, "It all ends. Things like this, these moments of happiness, they all come crumbling down. Perhaps best to say /when/ it does." She lets out a sigh, for a moment seeming as if she just came to the realization that for all the history they have, these moments, these times, are always brief. Perhaps that is why Raven is so intense when there is passion. It passes, perhaps all too slowly, but it passes, and she is back to Donna's eyes, then.

    "That's all that matters." It would be a lie to say that Raven has not often felt like a miserable partner- like she is cold and distant too often. That's why she doesn't say anything about it- putting all of those thoughts to the back of her head and burying them where, perhaps, they belong. Hopefully, forgotten. Instead, she just uses the surprise of any motion to pull Troia in- or, really, perhaps merely pull herself /to/ Donna, considering- and press her lips to the other woman's.

    What words cannot say, this gesture can.

Donna Troy has posed:
    And the gesture is welcomed with the warmth of one who is indeed used to wearing her heart on her sleeve, and who does not need closed doors to hide the feelings she wishes to express. The closeness, the physicality of the kiss, is something Donna lets herself sink into, and lets the rest of the world fade to irrelevance.

    The kiss is not a moment that comes crumbling down, though end it does. Instead it ends with a postscript of a second, much briefer kiss, as if to promise that this is not and end but merely a pause, to promise that later, behind closed doors, there will be more. And when it is done, Donna leans her forehead gently against Raven's, smiling with deep contentment.

    "Don't say that, Rae. If, when, neither is important. I love this. But far more than that, I love /you/. I don't know why Hekate has given us this time. Perhaps it will be brief, perhaps it will last forever. Maybe it's some temporary gift she gave to us because it pleased her in the moment, or maybe it serves some deeper purpose of her own and she will fight to maintain it for eternity. But I loved you before it happened, and if it does end, I will love you after it is over. That I promise you."

    She pulls away eventually, sitting straight and taking a swig of her beer. "I don't trust her, Rae. Hekate is... I'm not sure anyone really knows what she is. She's strange. But whether this ends tomorrow or lasts a million years, I'll still thank her for it. For giving you this time when you could simply... relax. Be yourself, without having to worry what that entailed."