12551/An Act of Gratitude

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An Act of Gratitude
Date of Scene: 23 August 2022
Location: Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis: Looks are exchanged in lieu of fanfic.
Cast of Characters: Terry O'Neil, Donna Troy, Rachel Roth, Gar Logan




Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's been a hectic week for one Terry O'Neil: hitting the ground running at the Planet after being gone for several weeks, starting up an investigation on strange mutant laboratory shenanigans... and doing something admittedly very weird for Lois' birthday- even weird by Janet Van Dyne standards- that gave him a bit of a reality check.

Which goes something like this:

'Terry,' he'd say to himself, if he were to verbalize his thoughts, which he sometimes does, 'You're just a weirdo, and you're just going to have to admit that very few people in this world are going to really 'get' your weird.' Awkward pause. 'Okay... maybe only one. And the fact that she's the Joker's ex-squeeze probably says something about you.'

Which put it in his mind that maybe he needs to take a week off, rent a pink Cadillac and drive across the country with Harley in a quest for self-realization, or potentially to just be in the company of someone who /doesn't/ double-take at the weird things that come out of his mind. A week to just be himself, because he's starting to realize that he has to Tone It Down around other people... including his own boyfriends.

But before he puts his To Wong Foo: Thanks For Everything (Julie Newmar) plan in motion for the ultimate gotta be me vacay, the Cheshire Cat has things to sort out.

One such thing is seeing Raven, now that he's more or less arranged the mess that his life was in after the two-and-a-half week absence. Mostly at the Planet and Starr Inc. There was a lot of writing that had to be done.

A /lot/ of writing.

<<Rae, this is Terry>> the Cheshire Cat says as he walks into the lobby, the most recent pizza order in his hands, neatly stacked in three boxes, <<Are you around? Got time for a chat? I've got the 'za from Giorgio's and heading up to the main room...>>

Donna Troy has posed:
    There are always conversations to be had. Donna's a little surprised that Rae hasn't had a long conversation with her about how every one of the Titans is a liability after the meeting with two Endless where everyone said things that were basically wrong and shouldn't have been said, and that nobody should be allowed to talk /ever again/. Perhaps it's because Rae suspects that Donna might agree with her, and that just wouldn't do. Or perhaps Rae would want to snark a little about Donna's own contribution in negotiating with Dream, but then Donna would probably just point out very reasonably that someone had to, and Rae isn't the best option when it comes to shouting down the rest of the Titans in a less than dramatic way.

    It's a much tamer conversation that Terry's message interrupts, and one that's somewhat one-way. Donna, from time to time, pretends to be a photographer rather than a superhero. She studied photojournalism and has even done a little bit of it professionally in her off hours, but the lack of time and a perhaps overly artistic sense for her work has steered her more into the genre of social documentary photography. She had an exhibition a little while ago at a gallery in Metropolis, but managed to miss her own exhibition because of being trapped inside a black hole. Apparently she has been offered another exhibition, at a new but rather prestigious gallery in Manhattan, and is excited enough by the prospect to talk incessantly about it to poor Raven.

    Thus it is that, for once, Raven may actually be /glad/ to receive a message from Terry. It's an excuse to change the subject, at the very least. What's more, even Donna seems to sense this, as she tilts her head Ravenwards with a smile, gives a little shrug, and says "Why not? I'm getting kind of hungry, I could do with a little pizza. Let's go see what the cat wants."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    For once, on the whole of it, Raven had been silent on the matter of the diplomacy they had undergone. Part of it, was simply the exhaustion that sets in after entertaining the cosmic forces that hold the universe together. There is... Stress, no small amount of it, involved in doing what the Titans had just done. Further, it was the kind of thing the /League/ rarely did. To have entrusted such a task to a group that consisted primarily of heroes just now coming into their own was... Beyond monumental. She was not happy with what was said- but she was not unhappy with the result, as it had been.

    So she'd been silent about it. Because as far as Raven is concerned, no news is good news, and that includes her having nothing to say on any particular matter. Donna had been talking up a storm, about some photography thing or another- and while Raven absolutely, dreadfully, furiously tries to listen to every last bit of it, to soak it in, to be supportive of her partner and every endeavor... Eventually you just want a break.

    Terry's call isn't the break she'd wanted, but it's the break she needs right now. "Hmm." she remarks, for a moment judging what will be worse, listening to whatever Terry has to say over pizza, or attempt to discuss the mundane half of Donna's existence, some amount of which irks her as there is a level of... 'We should be solving these problems, not just taking pictures of them,' but Raven has played this game of chess before, and knows well that Donna will have a retort prepared. She will not walk into that trap.

    Instead, she decides on the Terry Gambit.

    "Yes, let's go." And with that, Raven teleports them down to the main room. By this point, after the amount of time it has taken for Raven to deliberate and teleport, it is likely that Terry and any that accompany are already there.

    What is unfortunate of course is that there is a mild illustration that there is teleportation favoritism, if it wasn't evident before. Whereas Gar often gets teleported upside down, and Terry often flung sideways, the arrival of Raven and Donna is altogether placid.

    Seated with her feet under her upon the couch is Raven. Lain down upon the rest of the couch- against her will, perhaps- is Donna, whose head comes out of the teleportation resting in Raven's lap.

    "What do you need, Vorpal?"

    She asks, from the couch- a position that unless Terry was looking at a moment before, is surprisingly occupied out of nothing.

Gar Logan has posed:
As Terry enters the lobby, seeking Raven first and foremost, the place soon becomes a bit more occupied. Raven brings Donna, and Gar happens to fly down the open elevator shaft from somewhere up above in the tower, making a literal beeline toward the kitchen area.

Then, he pulls up short and takes a look at the others, returning to his usual self, hair as messy as ever. "Oh, hey. What's going on? You know me, just getting a bite."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
He's known Raven now... what? For two and a half years? And yet, he still jumps a little when her voice comes out of nowhere- the same nihilo that her body (and Donna's) has ex-ed itself out of. The pizzas are, miraculously, unspilled.

"JESUS CRISPI--- oh, hi, Rae!" Terry says, once he has done pivoting. "- and Donna!"

Donna's position isn't something he remarks much on. It's not like he hasn't been caught napping with his head on Gar or Kian's lap every now and then. As Count Orlofski says in Die Fledermaus: 'We Russians have a motto: chacun a soun gout!'

He brings the pizzas over to the coffee table across rom the couch for ease of access. "Hey, it's good to see both of you. Sorry I've been a little scarce. Had a lot to catch up on, because..." Wonderland. "And now that it's all caught up, I'm thinking of taking two weeks off... one to go on a road trip with Harl, and then we're talking with Kian to see if we can go to Birbworld for vacation... the whole team can join on that second one!" he says, smiling.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to invite them for the Harley one.

He brings plates from the kitchen, and ruffles Gar's hair as the green Titan comes in. "Hey hon, just gonna talk to Rae and Donna-" do they have a portamentau term in the media? Dae? Ranna? Terry will never use it. At least not in their presence. "Wanna join in?"

Sitting himself down after putting the plates down so that people can use them for slices, he takes a deep breath, holds it, exhales it, and then says...

"So... um. You went to talk to... Oneiros about... saving Wonderland. I realize that that was... a huge risk."

He pauses, "No, I'm gonna be honest, I can't /imagine/ how big a risk you ran doing that. Like, comprehend the full scope of it. I can't comprehend /him/- those eyes unnerved me..."

He goes quiet, "And yet /she/ scared me more. She was... familiar, and I've never even seen her before. But she smelled of... thrill. If I hadn't been half asleep, Rae, I felt like I could have just lost myself in her like a raindrop in the ocean. She's... /danger/ to me, and yet I feel like..."

He shakes himself slightly, and shakes his head, "... I can't fully comprehend the risk, only that tiny sliver, which I know is nowhere near the totality of it. That you two undertook... for the sake of Wonderland." He glances down at his toes, which seem self-conscious because his feet are drawn under him. "And mine, too. And that's kind of... it's a lot."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Judging by the lack of reaction to the teleportation from Donna, it should perhaps be understood that not only is Raven's teleportation subject to favoritism when it comes to the comfort of the journey, but that Donna is used to travelling in this fashion to a degree that even the other OG Titans, even ones who unlike Gar do not seem to always /purely coincidentally/ get the worst of any Raven teleport, cannot match. By now Donna is unphased.

    It might also be surmised, given how little disorientation she displays on appearing on the sofa with her head on Rae's lap, that indeed Raven may have simply just moved them both as a piece from where they were to where they are, and that Donna's head may well have been on Rae's lap before this transition. It's hard to be sure, though in the few months before Raven became whole again, when she was a distinctly more relaxed Raven, one more willing to display her affections in front of others, there were certainly hints that this shouldn't be a hugely surprising thing.

    "Hey Gar, hey Terry," Donna says, giving them a casual wave. "Terry has provided a bite, Gar. Or at least so he promised. I heard tell of pizzas from Giorgios. Honestly Terry said something about having an important thing to talk about, but we only came for the pizzas."

    There are indeed pizzas. Donna can clearly see and smell that there are pizzas. She's snarking. Too much time spent with Raven.

    "Yeah, you kind of don't want to mess with people like... them." That appears to be the totality of comment she has to offer on the nature of the beings the Titans had been dealing with, for now at least. She knows Raven will have considerably more to say, but it remains to be seen how much of it she will actually say.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    The colloquial has been Gomette and Morticia ever since the louri incident.

    Raven has, in the time since their arrival, conjured a small book. She is back to wearing her sweater, though her boots have been left upstairs. They are uncomfortable to sit on, and so it can be seen that her leggings end in a form of band that wrap around the middle of her feet. Like stirrups. Leggings are comfortable, and she's back to wearing them. She can be fought over this, but due to the nature of how leggings fit a person, that fight would probably include Donna.

    For most of Terry's expressed sentiments, there is a neutral expression combined with a raise of her brow. Her left hand, unburdened by the book, idly slips into Donna's hair. It seems, in some fashion, that while liberated from her soul self, Raven has become ever so slightly more comfortable with PDA. Her book has not yet been opened, but it is the same book that she was given not long ago: Poe's collected works.

    She may have reacted violently, but she never said the book was bad.

    "I broke into the ethereal dimension of the lord of dreams using my own abilities and the last remaining handful of his own sand. We essentially broke into the bank with a magical four-inch drill, firearms, and the owner of the bank's personal security code. It was... Ill-advised, at best."

    There is a moment of silence, there. "But, we did it because we knew there could be another way. Hushed whispers are at the best of times all that is spoken of these entities. There is a story once that forbidden sorcery was used to trap the lord of dreams. All of those involved no longer live. I am... Very happy that we did not catch the attention of his eldest sister."

    

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan ducks the hand in his hair, which briefly strikes paydirt, mainly so he quickly retaliate prior to moving toward the food already brought in. "Pizza? Now you're singing my song." So it is that he claims a few slices in order to rapidly devour them. No topping falls or is forgotten.

He stops to make note of how each one is dressed, what they have on them, and everything. He's in costume. Whatever his business was before getting here must have called for it.

"Oh, yeah. That whole..thing. I'm just trying to pretend it never happened. All a great big, uh, dream. Or something." Gar doesn't exactly look reassured at the way Terry describes his encounter, and he adds, "I know it was important and dangerous, so..thanks."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"... he has other sisters?" Vorpal blinks, briefly derailed by the implications of this. He is a nerd. He wants to try and guess what that sister might be named. Having absolutely no frame of reference, he tries his best. "... Aperion?" he asks, tentatively. He's completely off, of course. The remaining thoughts about Mania causes him to shudder a little, so Gar suddenly finds himself with a Cheshire Cat leanng on him for comfort.

"... that was a lot to risk for Wonderland and me. I know there's no possible way I can totally convey my thanks for doing what you did, Rae, but I'd sure like to try in whatever way I might be able to, however small..."

He doesn't reach for pizza. Not yet. There's important stuff to talk, and he gets distracted with food.

"And the Three Favors that we owe... I wish the whole team weren't in on it. But... you know, if there's a favor that could be done just by me, I think it should be fair to do so. I mean, it would be /fair/..." he pauses, as if a thought has just occured to him. "Wait. When we agreed to do it as a team... does the contract only involve those who were in the team at the time... or does it involve new members like, say, if Freddy becomes a full team member, suddenly he's part of it?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It's the /team/ that owes the favors, not everyone in the team individually," Donna replies. "Honestly I thought I was taking a tough bargaining position, and I was a little surprised he agreed. It shows a degree of... confidence, I guess, in us. Or rather a combination of confidence and lack of confidence. A confidence that we meant what we said, a lack of confidence in our ability to handle situations so serious that us failing will bring too high a price."

    She tilts her head up to meet Raven's eyes, a moment of unspoken communication passing between them, then tilts around so she she can look at Gar and Terry properly. "Don't worry about the sister Rae mentioned," she says. "Don't worry about any of it. You'll probably not meet any of them again, until... well. The point is that if you do, keep in mind that they are not the kind of beings you mess around with. I mean you might be thinking that you interviewed the being who called himself Archangel Michael and helped to defeat him, but that's not the same. Beings like that are bound by very complicated rules. The rules binding Michael's behavior was very much in our favor. He could have won that war as easily as lifting his little finger if he had not been bound by rules forbidding it."

    "The two siblings who visited us are perhaps not quite as powerful as he is, but they are older than the gods. They are powerful to a degree that it doesn't make any sense to describe it as power. They are /fundamental/. But they are also, kind of, people. They can sometimes be kind, but they could as easily be cruel. They may chose to be irrational. They should not be annoyed."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    There's a lot to unpack there. The first thing Raven does, though, is wave Gar off. Her expression is somewhat stern, but the message it delivers is less so. "No, no gratitude. There's no need for thanks. There are the favors to perform and... Any one of us would have done it for any others. No matter the risk. It's just what we do."

    As far as the favors are concerned, there is a moment of genuine pensivity to her. A long period of thought. "I believe that it would be folly not to just assume that it extends to all Titans, and all who would call themselves such, until the favors are done. Not just because of the fact that we would be daring the Endless' definitions, but also because... I don't think anyone who would call themselves a Titan would just let these matters be. We tend to draw in people who want to help. As a result, they'll want to help, when and if they can."

    At that mild contradiction of Donna's statement, Raven's eyes meet hers for a moment, and she hopes to impart understanding. The Titans work together, whether it's the best idea, or not.

    "There are seven, in total. It isn't important to know of them, or all of them, or to even consider them in your daily lives. This was... Hopefully, a singular, and fleeting, encounter. Favors included. They are... Above, in terms of hierarchy, all but one thing that I have even read of. Their dealings are their own. Their rules their own, and their abilities are... Impossible to describe."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan paces, indicative of an underlying energy that is frequently in need of being dealt with, or it simply being part of his nature as a part-time one-man zoo. Raven is flashed a double thumbs-up. "That's what I'm talkin' about, Rae. It's what we do! I've been saying that for years!"

Then comes the sobering up part. "I'm really not looking forward to dealing with any of those people again," air quotes for 'people,' "but a deal's a deal and I'm not doing anything to get them mad at us if I can help it. Soooo we'll just have to deal with all that when we get there." He makes sure he's also including Donna in this as he speaks.

The leaning Cat gets an arm around the side for the moment. No good if he just falls over on the spot. "Told you we were gonna get you back somehow."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
You don't do this to Terry. Telling him that There Are Seven of the Endless. There is now an entire section of his brain that is busy trying to come up with names for them, like a very strange version of the Seven Dwarves. So far he has come up with Entropy, Gravity and Synergy. He is less convinced about Colicky and Frolicky, though...

"You did," Terry murmurs, nuzzling Gar briefly on the cheek, "And I'm done getting lost in other dimensions. Twice is e-" he pauses, and counts. "Three times is enough for me."

"But I do think I should at least offer some measure of thanks, Rae. If it hadn't been for you, it wouldn't have happened. You are the one who had knowledge of..." he trails off and ponders, remembering that Donna told him that Raven visited her through the Dreaming, when they were lost. Had she met Oneiros then? He wants to ask, but he shows a measure of common sense in that he /doesn't/. Instead, he retakes the thread.

"It was you who had the knowledge. And in doing so you attracted the attention of someone you don't want to piss off, so..." he lets go of Gar, and holds out his hands.

A Rabbit Hole deposits something. It is a relatively thick book, bound in blue leather.

"I thought... well, there isn't really much that I can give. Then I realized that there /is/." He walks up to the sorceress and, with a slight smirk, he offers the book. "I was originally going to burn them. Then my mother decided it was a bad idea and had them... well, bound into this. So... I thought this is the best gift I could give you."

He clears his throat. "Raven, if I /ever/ do something as mind-numbingly stupid as kissing my doppelganger and endangering the team without an actual /good/ reason and I am not under some sort of mind control... I give you full permission to publish these all over the internet. And everywhere else. With my name. Because after everything we have been through... at this point I /should/ know better." He glances at Donna.

"Right?"

The book, of course, is The Collected Fanfictions Of Terry O'Neil, Ages 13-17, collected by one Agatha.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It extends to all Titans," Donna agrees. "Because the Titans are a team. It doesn't mean that if we're given a task we have to round up every single member of the team without exception, though. It means that we must do our collective best, rather than everyone doing their individual best. I proposed this distinction directly because the question of whether this required each of us individually to agree, so... this is the way it was understood. "

    She smiles up at Raven, before turning the smile on to Gar and Terry. "By accepting, he acknowledged that. That we are a team. That it was the Titans as a team that had fixed the problem with the Jabberwock, the Titans as a team that were proposing to them this next course of action to preserve Wonderland, and the Titans as a team that would make the deal they required to agree to it. That... means quite a lot."

    Of /course/ Donna would see things that way. It's honestly surprising she's not saying something about how she bets the Justice League hasn't yet been acknowledged as above all a /team/ by one of the fundamental powers of the universe. Back in the early days of the Titans, she might well have.

    Donna eyes Terry's book for a few moments, then looks up at Rae with a grin. "Terry," she says. "You realize that you giving her permission will have absolutely no bearing on whether she chooses to do that or not, right? Also..." she turns to grin at him instead. "I do hope you cut out the story with Rae in it that you mentioned to me that one time before handing it to her."

    It's a war without end.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Everything Raven could have said before about the Endless or to assuage Terry's fears about the Titans facing this as a team, both new and old, whether related inherently to the goings on and not- that all sort of leaves as he hands her a book containing essentially every embarrassing thing he's ever written.

    She stares at it, for a long time. There are ways you can hurt a person, some are physical, some are mental. This is a way for Raven to hurt Terry in an intrinsic fashion that he will never, ever be able to get rid of. Once it is on the internet, it's there forever. She doesn't even consider it.

    "I am not accepting this." she begins, bringing the hand off of Donna to push the book away. "I am not embarrassing you on the internet. I am not dragging you through the mud because you make a mistake. We are all going to make mistakes. We have all made mistakes. In what we do, sometimes these mistakes have costs. Horrible, terrible costs, more often than not. But I won't destroy you for them. For every mistake you have made, you have done something to help someone, more often than not, you've done more than one thing to help this team. You are a /Titan./ That comes with risk. Sometimes, all that occurs to you is a stupid decision that is the only thing you can do. Sometimes it doesn't work."

    She looks down at Donna then, which really is only possible because you lean back on couches, waiting for the woman to acknowledge what she's saying applies to the both of them as well.

    "But making mistakes doesn't matter, as long as you learn from them. As long as you keep fighting. So far, you haven't. Even in the face of the worst things you've ever imagined, you've kept fighting. Sacrificing, when you thought you needed to. You haven't done anything wrong. It's just a hard, hard road."

    Raven's hand returns to Donna's head. "I'm not done punishing mistakes- but I won't let you be torn down by them- much less will I do that myself."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan raises a finger when /that/ collection is brought out, and before he can make use of that filter from brain to mouth he's saying, "Well, most of that will probably be up by the end of the week, so--"

Wait. Raven said no? Thanks but no thanks? She turned it down? Here he was just beginning to snap-point at Donna, starting to raise a hand her way, and it abruptly lowers as soon as it began its vertical climb.

"That's, uh, good. Yeah, good. Besides, the internet really doesn't need to see some of what's in there and she's right. Embarrassing someone that badly for making a mistake isn't the Titans way, either. I've made more mistakes than a lot of us, and it's hard to embarrass me." That's how he sees it, anyway.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
A moment of panic flashes across Terry's eyes. He had, of course, forgotten about /that/ story. The one with Raven and--- ok, back then Terry clearly knew very little of Raven. He almost misses what Rae is about to say, remembering that that story is /there/, but he does pull back to reality then, and acknowledges what the sorceress says with a nod.

"I appreciate what you say, Rae... and Donna, I honestly have absolutely and completely totally no idea what you are talking about, I think you might have accidentally gotten a memory from your alternate version mixed up because all of the stories in this book are totally only about-" quick, pick something "Gar's butt. Yes. Exactly."

After Raven rejects the book, he shoves it Garwards, hopefully not hitting the green Titan with it. It's a sizable tome, it could be added to the team armory as a bludgeoning weapon.

"Well... thank you. Rae and Donna."

He stays silent for a second, purses his lips, and then says, "So, like I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be gone for a week starting... maybe next week? I have to get together with Harls to figure it out. Not that I'll be /gone/ gone. One comm call away and I can rabbit hole wherever if I'm needed. But..." he tits his head, "The, um, performance at Lois' party kind of made me think... as did the time that Gar had the Cheshire and I could see myself from someone else's eyes ..." he glances at the green boy.

"I realize that not everybody has the... um, appreciation for the kind of weird... sense of humor I'm prone to. But I figure that every now and again getting some time in with someone who is exactly on my level might help me get a lot of it off my chest so it doesn't build up..." he glances around the room, "... especially since Gar's green glitter seems to have done things to the roombas again..."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Raven's glance Donnawards is met with a look of approval, one subtle and focused enough that Raven knows it was probably never Donna's intent to show it. She probably thinks she's being quite neutral, but Donna isn't the best at hiding her emotions, particularly from those who know her very well. Particularly from Raven.

    In that moment, it will be apparent to Raven that despite her teasing, that's exactly what Donna was hoping to hear from Raven, and any need to confirm Donna's acquiescence is entirely unnecessary. It may further occur to Raven that Donna, in her characteristically open and honest yet at the same time sneakily cunning and even sometimes a touch machinatory way, may have a whole layer of quite complicated thoughts about what has happened to Raven over the last few months that has not really come up in their private discussions of the matter.

    That Terry is learning and growing and becoming more the person, indeed the /Titan/ that he is capable of becoming, is something Raven and Donna have discussed in private. That he may not be the only one to have earned a little personal growth from the experience of the last few months is inevitable, but perhaps Donna's including Raven in that list in a way she has not spoken of explicitly. Of course Donna has from time to time pointed out to Raven that she /could/ go a little easier on people from time to time. That during the period of time the greatest weight of Raven's worries had lifted from her shoulders she indeed had been going easier on people and nothing bad had happened because of it. That it was an experience Rae should consider going forwards, and that having her soul-self complete again perhaps does not mean that absolutely everything must return to how it had been. That Raven could be /happier/ is of course important to Donna; it had always been something of a driving force behind her spending time with Rae as they'd grown closer. That subtle, unconsciously approving smile hints that she is observing some of that right now.

    Scratch all that. Look closer. There's a hint of a /smirk/ on Donna's face. There will be words, later.

    "Well said, Gar," Donna says. "We all make mistakes. We're here to help each other get past those mistakes, not to rub their faces in it. If one of us makes a mistake, we might point out that mistake to make sure the person who made it acknowledges it and learns from it. We might tease each other in private, because we're close and we're a family, and that's just having fun. But that's not /punishment/. Nobody deserves to be punished for a mistake, ever."

    Her eyes flicker over towards Terry and she gives him a smile. "Enjoy your trip, Terry. Say hi to Harley from me."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Terry's gratitude does little to sway her neutral attitude, but admittedly, there is little else that she can say. Gar put it perfectly, and is basically Terry's prototype for making mountainous mistakes, in Raven's view. So, dealing with Terry should be nothing new. He just ends up making /weirder/ mistakes.

    Regardless, everything that she needs to say has been said- it's the look from Donna that breaks Rae's concentration. Much of what the two share is left unsaid. Their link is, well, aggressive in its permanence, and like a nerve in its sensitivity. Donna does not have to /speak/ to Raven to convey. She just needs to /feel/, and of all the voices and feelings that Raven has around her, that she actively tunes out to keep herself sane, Donna's is the one that she really cannot. So, it goes without mention that when she gets that smirk from her partner, that unspoken hint that they will be having a discussion later, there is a returned glance.

    A raise of a brow. A long stare.

    It's /really/ easy to misinterpret, frankly, watching the two interact. Truth be told, the unique bond they share is one that is absolutely awkward in every sense of the word. For example, right now, it is very easy to wonder what they're going to do with the couch when the other two have left, despite that Raven and Donna are just basking in the shared appreciation of growth- and Raven, herself, acknowledging her own.

    But, its wordlessness, and the way they have interacted before... Well, it's hard not to make /assumptions./ It's not hard for the mind to return to the louri incident, and /not/ question what exactly is going through the pair's heads. This lasts for a little while, but Raven for a moment worries that she's rubbing off on Donna in ways that she hadn't anticipated. Donna isn't supposed to smirk, after all.

    Looking up from her partner, Raven regards Terry with a nod. "It's always good to take a little time away. Be with people who understand you intrinsically. Even family take breaks from one another. Take your time. We'll still be here when you get back, and if we need you, you'll know. We will do our best not to need you."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan ends up with the tome of 'fic in both hands. At least he doesn't go through the whole stunt of pretending it's so heavy it'll cause him to sink into the ground and make it all the way to the Earth's core.

"If I randomly flipped to one page and you were writing about my butt, that's like someone getting busted for DUI and saying it was his first time drinking and driving. Half the stuff in here is probably that kind of thing," he remarks. "Not that I can blame you for being fixated. I'm just gonna believe there's nothing in here about you, though." He ends that by looking toward Raven specifically, then begins to put a little distance in, back toward the elevator - the actual elevator this time.

"Cat, you and Harley better do your best not to get into any real trouble, but I know you will. And if you need me, or any of us, you aren't going to forget to let us know. I need a vacation soon, too," he finishes, ducking into the elevator and blindly slapping the panel to take him up to where he's going.

Unlike that doppelganger some time back, he of course reaches out to the correct side. "I'll make sure this finds a very safe place."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
There is no mistaking /that/ look.

Well, at least that's what Terry thinks, which proves that there is, indeed, such a thing as mistaking that look.

Nevertheless, now that Donna brought up /that/ story, he realizes now that there are other things he needs to put in order before he leaves on his vacation. Such as, for example, find out if there were any pictures from /that/ HeroCon when he went in cosplay. Admittedly, it was a /very/ good outfit, and he had spent a pretty penny on the materials. But this was neither here nor there- he needed to find if there were pictures. And then he needed to figure out how to bribe the site owners to take them down, just in case Raven ever happened upon those sites.

Why would Raven ever do such a thing, you might ask? Terry would answer: 'Because I know my luck.'

But, right now? He is under the impression that Donna and Rae need some privacy. Soon. "Oh, I will, don't worry- I'll bring back souvenirs. We'll probably hit The Vortex and be pedantic at people about how it's all explained by science," he says, making a hasty retreat towards the elevator. "But I guess I'd better get to packing, and all of that!"

Slipping in just before the doors close, he grins at Donna and Raven. And then, when it finally closes, he slips an arm around Gar. That look had given him /ideas/.

Now, he just needed to explain some of them to Gar.