13665/Super Training Montage

Super Training Montage
Date of Scene:	28 December 2022
Location:	Palace - Themyscira City
Synopsis:	Alura over the weeks goes through metamorphosis, adapting to a new world and new super powers, with the help of the Amazons, and with the help of Donna.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Donna Troy

---

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Aikaterine is less surprised than Alura. The tip of the spear hit her right in the chest and bent from tip to neck. Alura is still processing this sudden increase in durability - sure, she was told it would happen and apparently it's 'good for when you're learning to fly' but the first time is a revelation.

The amazon smirks, props her spear up and says, "You weren't paying attention."

Alura sighs and nods. She motions off in to the mountains and says, "There are three women up there ... " a touch of a blush comes to her cheeks, "enjoying each other and I can hear it quite clearly."

Aikaterine laughs, "Do you think your enemies will care if you're embarrassed?"

--

Alura looks at the beautiful horse. She has introduced herself, as she likes to do, then attempted to jump up on to its back like the Amazons. This is her second attempt; and the vault has gone a little further than she expected.

The grunt of disapproval from the horse, Alura pushed on it too hard and threw herself over, crashing in to the ground. Melitta stifles a chuckle behind her hand, approaches and offers an arm to help Alura back up.

--

Syntyche looks over the painting that Alura has made. She attempts a smile as she observes the perfect squares the Kryptonian woman has created to represent the beautiful landscape of trees, mountains, sky, and lakes before them.

"In art," she begins, "There are no wrong answers. However, do you not think this is perhaps a little too abstract for today's work."

Alura looks to the Amazon teaching her the art of painting and looks a touch crest fallen. "This is what came to mind - they're the ratios represented as double triangle geometries."

Leaning back on her seat she glances at the other Amazons and their art - beautiful renditions of rolling grass lands, weaving rivers, and clouds in the skies.

--

Tryphaina glances over the cliff side. The water below, nothing too dangerous if one falls. Not that she can fly but Kryptonians are meant to right? She pats Alura on the shoulder and says, "It will be as simple as missing the ocean."

Alura looks confused for a moment and half turns to debate the point before Typhaina suddenly pushes her off the edge of the cliff. The rush of wind and the rapidly approaching water is met with a panicked woman flailing about wildly. "Fly fly fly!," she cries out to herself since no one else can hear her.

The minor explosion of water around her as she hits it hard splashes the sky burned cliff rock face. Alura knows how to swim and she makes her way back to the wooden staircase that winds back up the cliff. "Just miss the ocean.. so easy.."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The arrows are fast. Perhaps that would be less of a problem if there were fewer of them, but there are so many -- or at least it feels that way. The heads are flattened and soft and the shafts made from some soft material designed to absorb the energy of impact and shatter, but it's still hard to get over the expectation that they should /hurt/. It's most the pride they hurt though.

    The three Amazons firing at Alura are /fast/. Not so fast as it seems a Kryptonian under Sol's light gets to be, but this island of Amazons is a stark reminder of what was missing from Jor-El's assessment of Earth. Every single inhabitant of this island seems to be supernaturally strong, fast and durable. Is this what Krypton had been like at some point in the distant past? It's possible. It's almost a surprise the Amazons don't seem to be able to generate beams of heat from their eyes, or fly.

    Flying is perhaps the hardest thing to understand. What is the mechanism that allows a Kryptonian empowered by this yellow sun to defy gravity in that fashion? Mostly the changes Alura is undergoing, and the changes she has been warned to expect, represent an enhancement of the standard capabilities. Flying without a machine though - extraordinary. An ability these strange Amazons don't possess. Except, for some reason, the Queen's daughters. Diana and Donna. And another, an adopted Amazon from the same nation Kal and Kara have chosen to inhabit, a girl by the name of Cassandra who Alura has yet to meet but has been mentioned when the subject of training newcomers to their powers is discussed. One of those three, the woman Donna who had been there when Alura had broken out of the Phantom Zone, was there, watching.

    The arrows continue to fly. Alura's job is to dodge. It seems like it should be simple, with the enhancement to her reflexes, but it's not. The three Amazons fire fast, and they are anticipating Alura's movements with uncanny precision. She dodges a flight of arrows only to find another flight already heading towards where she has moved to, and if she can escape those, it feels like there's already a third flight waiting for wherever she choses to move to next. It feels almost unfair - however random Alura attempts to make her motions, they seem to always be a step ahead. Are they tapping into Alura's mind, the way Monet seems to be capable, to know what she's going to do in advance? No, that seems unlikely. A great awareness of Alura's biomechanics, rapid pathing prediction, intuitive stochastic analysis, that's all.

    All? The word is too reductive. These women, Alura has been told, have trained themselves in these martial arts for thousands of years. They're very long lived, another oddity that does not appear normal for humans but is normal in this strange island. This then is what martial arts is all about. Making that kind of analysis instinctive. Gaining an advantage in any situation by improving one's awareness of the situation they are in and their ability to analyze that situation.

    Another flight of arrows makes several hits on Alura. She's aware that she's getting better, that she's now regularly able to dodge a clear and solid majority of the arrows. Nevertheless it's hard not to feel doubts. What if they were firing from closer range? Using faster projectiles? On top of that there's a casualness from the three women that's a little unnerving. Are they going easy on her? Are the even trying? The Amazon trainers all seem kind. They all seem /patient/. That is not however entirely reassuring.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Enough!" Donna calls out. She rises from the bench she has been sitting on, watching the practice, and walks over to where the three Amazon trainers stand, bows lowered. "Thank you Kora, Melia and Ione. I think that's enough for today. Why don't you take a break and I'll take over from here?"

    There's something hard to read in the relationship between Donna and the other Amazons. Something about her doesn't quite fit in here, and there's an ambiguity in the way the others seem to regard her which is difficult to make sense of. There's respect, but also something else that's hard to get a sense of. Perhaps it's something to do with her position in the royal family? Seeing a monarchy in action is new to Alura, after all. Is there a hint of resentment towards her because of her position? No, that's not quite right. A degree if indulgence towards her? Perhaps. Oddly it's different with her sister. The other Amazons seem more deferential towards Diana than they do towards Donna. Another mystery.

    The Amazon named Melia smiles at Donna, and rests a hand on her shoulder. "Don't make her work too hard, Princess," she tells Donna with a smile that has a distinct show of that odd hint of what might be indulgence in it.

    The three salute Alura with the crossed arms clashing of their bracers Alura has seen so often here, gather their equipment and set about clearing up the many broken arrows littering the palace training grounds. Donna walks over to Alura with a smile and reaches out a hand to give Alura's shoulder a squeeze.

    "Perhaps we need to rethink things a little," she suggests. "One problem with Amazon training methods is they aren't really intended for quick learning. We're more used to the idea of continual training over a vast period of time than getting someone unfamiliar with our methods up to speed. You're doing well, but perhaps we need to focus more on what makes you different rather than trying to get you to fit into what we're used to doing."

    "I've spent some time training your daughter. With her, perhaps the most important thing was teaching her to understand both how and why it was important not to rely wholly on her strength, but instead to learn how to limit her strength. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it has significantly improved her ability to do what she wants to do with her life. Efficiency is no less useful when you have a lot of power than when you have only a little. In your case it's a little different. I think you are perhaps being held back by the fact that you are trying to learn new things when your own personal baseline is moving rapidly. You rely on reaction speed when your reaction speed is getting faster every day, and you end up learning assumptions that are already redundant."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura has been enduring a litany of teachers expecting her to excel when she is encouraged to do tasks she has no basis for. She's a scientist, she was very highly ranked in the thinkers guild. Dodging arrows? not really part of the criteria for her life before now.

Yet, Kara told her she went through this. Donna has confirmed this. If her daughter can do it, she can't give up. That's a certainty. Not that she has a choice about it - living on this world means becoming safe to cohabitate. She can't live in the Fortress 24/7 for the rest of her life.

Tugging a part of a broken arrow out of her clothes, she hands it back to the Melia. Joining Donna she listens to her analysis and nods along, "Yes. Every day I've broken a cup because every day I get stronger. If I understand it correctly, this will continue for years. I need a strategy that will allow me to adapt every day."

--

Alura sits, cross legged, atop a perfectly rounded stone. Hands out and a blind fold across her eyes. An object is thrown, she hears and catches. A stone. Not crushed. Success. She places it to the side.

Another. A feather, she can feel it. She smiles, placing it to the side. Then another, an egg.. crushed. She flicks her hand and sighs.

--

Alura dances from wooden pole to wooden pole. Balance is not terrible but this is some ninja level stuff. Arms wave about with each jump. The wooden poles are getting smaller with each jump; not in height but in width.

She jumps to the next and it wobbles. She corrects tossing her weight back and arms, then over corrects and tumbles backwards. Her foot reaches out to the previous pole but it is too far away and she tumbles.

At this point, though, she is used to crashing and burning. Hitting the ground doesn't hurt so much after this many weeks. But, still, her eyes squeeze shut. The thud doesn't happen and she pries her eyes open to find herself hovering just off of the ground. This lasts perhaps a second before she drops on to the dirt.

--

The record is made of some kind of bone. An animal that passed away, not killed, and it has been decorated with carved artwork. It is exquisite just as the others are. The group are playing a folk tune from their history and Alura is trying to coordinate her fingers to keep up.

Eyeing the music and trying not to tangle her fingers, she doesn't immediately notice the sudden arctic frost freeze over the instrument and her hand. Her fingers, frozen, waggle and break apart the ice. She draws the recorder away from her mouth and peers at it, frozen solid. A puff of cold breath coming from her mouth still.

--

Alura runs to the horse and jumps up on to its back. The horse is eager to start running and moves with haste. She scoops up the throwing spear stuck in to the ground and holds on to the horse as it races down the path. The target is there - she aims, she throws, and it goes sailing past.

The spear lances through a wall, and another, before pinning a pie being cooled by the head chef of the palace. Alura stares in wonder as her vision zooms in through the several holes she made. This means her eyes are not on the path as the horse races ahead and she hits a tree branch, knocking her off and on to her back with a thud.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna is there almost straight away to offer Alura a hand up from her tumble. Donna can move very fast when she wants to -- Alura has seen her do it a few times, though not often. Often enough that the suspicion must arise that Donna may have been able to catch Alura as she fell, and spare her the fall. It seems probable there was intent in that.

    As this time of intensive training has progressed, inevitably Alura has got to know Donna better. Aside from the fact that Donna seems to have taken charge of Alura's training program, Donna's the one who speaks Kryptonian. So, despite the help of the translator device that had been loaned to Alura, Donna tends to be a major part of Alura's linguistic studies too. Enough time spent together that Alura has come to know Donna well enough to guess that there's probably a message behind letting her fall, and a message behind being there to offer her a hand up too afterwards. Donna isn't sparing Alura from the pain of failure, but she's there to pick her up when she falls.

    "In the Amazon philosophy," Donna tells Alura, "our mastery of combat is essential, vital, central to our lives. But only in so far as it serves what is important. The survival of culture. Of wisdom, knowledge, creativity. "

    "That's part of why your training involves so many things that may seem irrelevant. We believe that to reach our potential, to be the best people we can be, we should be well-rounded. Not dedicated to a single purpose, but guardians in every way of all the things that make a species worthwhile to the universe. I know that's something unfamiliar to you. Kara has told me enough about Kryptonian society that I understand you are used to a far greater degree of specialization. That is somewhat true elsewhere on this world too, but most humans do not live for thousands of years. A normal human lifespan does not last long enough for people to excel in more than one or two fields."

    Donna gives a wide grin. "That doesn't mean we're simply trying to indoctrinate you in our ways though, Alura. There's more to it than that. All these disciplines work together, in an odd way. Studying the workings of the universe we live in, creating art, playing music -- all these things contribute to mental habits that benefit us in combat, too. The scientific mind analyzes, the artistic mind observes, the musical mind is more sensitive to rhythms and patterns. There are few situations in life that compare to combat when it comes to the importance of being able to rely on our instincts to tell us everything we need to know rapidly and reliably. Training the mind is at least as important as training the body. You fell because you did not trust your instincts to let you know what you needed to know in the moment, and focused your attention on one thing to the exclusion of others."

    "Beyond that...." Donna gives a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's always worth remembering what we are fighting for. Now, would you like to have another go at flying? It's an art most of my sisters don't have, so they are really only guessing how it's done. I can't explain to you exactly what it is I do when I fly, but I can give you guidance in what to do when you do manage to miss the ground."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura takes Donna's hand. The life of hard knocks is what the warriors guild was all about, not the sciences guild. But now that she has decided to embrace every part of life, not just continue to be the scientist, she has begun to see the connections and the links she missed before. There is a truth in the dedication she had for science - the results spoke for themselves - but was that really a good life?

"Well rounded," she says with amusement and dusts herself off. "When learning a new skill, it's important to remain humble because you will fail again and again. The master has failed more times than the student has tried. But - here - I am learning a dozen new skills at once and I'm afraid my ego is greatly bruised."

A small smile though and she looks out after the horse who is still running the course without her. At least he's having fun. "Flight... I have been thinking about that and perhaps that's the problem. I don't know how it's meant to work so guessing at it is getting in the way."

She motions a hand toward the cliff side and starts to walk with Donna, "So I'm better off not thinking about it and simply... observing. Like an artist. How it is that I am able to fly."

At the edge of the cliff, she peers over. It's a long drop but she's fallen off here so many times now there's little fear left of what will happen - even if a bunch of water goes up her nostrils and in to her mouth. The wind whips up against her and she spreads her arms letting the cool breeze rush over her clothing, over her skin.

The sun is threatening to set, spilling its wild colours across the horizon - a sight she still hasn't gotten used to but appreciates the beauty of. "Sol, catch me," she says and doesn't wait for Donna or another shove she isn't expecting. She leaps.

Her body soars in to the air and with the wind rushing by, her hair flying wild, it almost feels for a moment like she is defying gravity. But then the ocean is approaching fast once more and she knows what is to come. She stretches her hands out to dive and relaxes her body.

And arcs back up high in to the sky. Up up and away she flies straight up before the shimmering sunset. With a twist she spins in the sky and spreads her arms out. She begins to fall once more and lets out a cry of joy. Again, she turns in to a dive and scoops back up high in to the sky.

There is nothing but pure joy on her face.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The joy does not seem to subside. Will it ever? Donna assures Alura that she has been flying for years, but Alura sees her own joy at the freedom of the air echoed on Donna's face too.

    There are a few days dedicated to flight training, once Alura has managed to break free of gravity's shackles, that first time. There is a distinct feeling that once that first step has been taken the rest is easy -- you don't forget how to do it after the first time. Yet Donna finds ways to make it complicated. Beings who are used to moving within the constraints of gravity inevitably tend to think about movement in two dimensions rather than three, and those few days are spent hammering the message home that flight opens up different possibilities and requires different ways of thinking. Up and down need to be as instinctive as forwards and backwards, left and right. Inertia and momentum have unexpected consequences that will take some getting used to. There is much that is simply not obvious, such as how carrying extra weights impacts flight, or how utilizing that force of propulsion can be used in subtle ways to control the body's motion in smaller hops, when almost earth bound.

    The truth though is obvious. It comes down to the joy. Donna loves to fly, and this kind of training is simply a lot of fun.

    Close by the palace is an arena of magnificent proportions. The thousands of seats that must be filled with life and excitement when there's some event here lie empty, but the arena itself has facilities that are ideal for this kind of training. Hidden mechanisms below the arena floor contain a variety of equipment intended to provide athletic challenges, and amongst those are a series of metal hoops mounted atop pillars that can be raised up to varying heights. An afternoon has been spent flying through this course, practicing the precision of flight required to twist the body through one hoop then another. At first they are all of a level and the course is all about angles in a plane parallel to the ground. Then the mechanism is activated and the heights vary, creating a truly three-dimensional course. When that too is mastered, at least to Donna's immediate satisfaction, another adjustment to the mechanism is made and the pillars rise and lower continually as the pair fly loops of the course through them.

    It is only when the light starts to fail and the sun is low in the sky, the burning bronze light spilling a rippling path over the ocean the arena overlooks, that Donna calls a halt to the session, taking a seat atop one of the great metal hoops.

    Donna beams a bright smile at Alura. She smiles a lot, and smiles wide. "I never knew I could fly as a child. It never occurred to me to find out. The other Amazons generally cannot do so. My sister discovered she could do so when she was away from the island. When she returned and I first met her, her ability to fly amazed us all. I told myself that if she could fly, then I must be able to as well. For weeks I hurled myself from tall cliffs when nobody was looking. I was only a child, my tutors and my mother would have disapproved. "

    "Then one day, it happened. It was as if a switch had been turned on. I stopped falling, and started rising up again. Not once after that did I fail to fly when I tried. Nonetheless I kept my success to myself for what felt like forever, though it was only a few weeks. When I felt confident, I showed my sister that I could fly too. We flew all around the island together, and I felt a freedom I had never felt before. The joy never leaves you, Alura."

    She gives a soft sigh. "Nonetheless, we can't focus on this forever. There's much more for you to learn."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
It is like a flood gate had opened for Alura. And time was moving like a blur from day to day as Alura found new footing with all her endeavours. One thing not mentioned to her, but she had noticed, was her clarity of thought. She was absorbing things faster - including language - but these new skills were coming to her more naturally than before.

Conversing in Themysciran and sometimes English and fewer times still Kryptonian she had never thought herself a polyglot not the least because Krypton only had one living language that mattered. She could now more easily question the Amazons teaching her about the finer points and thus improve her training more and more.

--

Alura makes a flying start and lands on the horse back. Scooping up the first spear, she throws and hits the target without taking her eyes off the path. Duck. Horse jump. Scoop up second spear, throw. Scoop up third spear, wait, duck, throw, round the path and race back to finish line.

She is not the best horsewoman by a long shot. No, likely the worst in Themyscira. But on the rest of the planet she might give people a run for their money.

--

Alura cups the clay in her hands and draws up its shape, digging out the insides, her hands moving gently and controlling with the wet proto-cup. It takes form and she stops the pottery wheel to attach a hand. Presenting it to the clay mistress, it is added to the pile to be fired later.

--

Alura dips to the side and parries the strike of the sword with a 'tink' of metal on metal. She swaps the sword to her other hand and tries to grapple the Amazon across from her. She is skilled and doesn't allow the capture. Alura brings her sword up and forces the amazon to dance back and Alura pushes the attack with a blow that forces the sword from her opponents hand. With a blur, Alura catches the second sword and holds them out to the other amazon who salutes with pleasure at Alura's progress.

--

Alura stands before the trio of archers once more and their arrows begin to flow. She knows why she failed before - she was trying to dodge the arrows, not the archers. Her movements are small and smooth now, sliding between the arrows as they just barely pass her.

She can hear all the animals and birds across the island and the sounds have become like a background noise to her now, a calming presence - even when the amazons are enjoying each other.

She grins and reaches out, plucking an arrow from the air when sudden things start to go wrong. Her vision becomes red and she can feel a heat building up inside her. It wants out and she doesn't know what to do. Her eyes dart about and the archers dive and duck about dodging the beams of energy as they burn across the ground and lance through the sky.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Again Donna is there, but this time it's different. A new side to the friendly Amazon that Alura hasn't really seen before. Donna is friendly, relaxed, easy-going. She never really seems to exert herself. All part of the strange pace of life on this warm, comfortable island where time seems to barely impact the inhabitants and all is patience.

    Donna had been her normal relaxed self, watching with satisfaction as Alura was starting to really demonstrate the lessons sinking in. That realization Alura had made, that she should be dodging the archers not the arrows, was a breakthrough. How clear that might or might not be to Alura, it's very clear to Donna, and fills her with satisfaction. It's not the only breakthrough though.

    Heat ray vision. This was not something Donna could help Alura with, because it's not a trick Donna herself has. It's something her Kryptonian friends do, but she doesn't know the hows or whys of it. That it should come on like this, so suddenly, so uncontrolled -- it's as much as surprise to Donna as it is to Alura.

    The Amazon archers are fast and alert. They are agile, and they dodge well. Nevertheless, they are in danger from the motion of beams of energy that move as fast as Alura turns her head.

    There's a blur of motion and Donna is in front of them, her arms raised. While the other Amazons seek to escape the roving beam, Donna puts herself in its path, flying a little way above the ground so she can change direction as rapidly as possible. She tracks the beams, intercepting it on those metal bracers she wears on her wrists, and the destructive beams of energy are directed up and away from her sisters. What are those metal bracers made of that seems so resilient to this destructive force?

    "ALURA!" Donna calls out, an urgency and a forcefulness in her voice Alura has not from her before. "Look up! Straight up into the sky. Stop moving, do not panic. Breath slowly, breath deeply. Be calm! You are not in danger."

    A tone and a forcefulness that Alura has not heard from Donna before, but not wholly unfamiliar to Alura. There is a note of command that almost slips past conscious thought and tries to worm its way into subconscious action. A voice that demands attention and action. It's a voice Alura has heard before often enough from the mouths of ranking members of the military caste, from the priests of the Mediator's Guild. Sometimes from the mouths of politicians, too. A voice she has heard from her own lips from time to time, when there was something that demanded to be said to the lawmakers of Krypton and of Argo City.

    Donna's voice becomes more gentle now. "This is expected," she reassures Alura. "Your daughter does this. The other Kryptonians do it. Channeling an excess of the energy a Kryptonian body absorbs through their eyes in the form of heat." Her words come more slowly, filled with calm, as if addressing a child. "Try not to panic. Just look straight up, and let it happen. Let the energy flow outwards. It will not hurt you. Be calm. Everything will be fine, Alura. Just one more thing to understand and to get used to. No problem at all."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura responds to a trusted voice who knows what to do in this moment. Panic, yes, but she looks up in to the sky. The clouds above dissipate from the sudden extra heat. She drops to her knees and keeps her head craned back. Trying to steady her breathing.

Putting two and two together, with Donna's prompting. What she's experiencing is what her daughter showed her. That glow of her eyes, but unleashed. But why now? Kara said they were walking talking capacitors. Growing pains, she reached a limit and had to let some energy go before her capacitance could expand.

Each time she made a new discovery, mastered a new power, got stronger, faster, more durable - flew. Each time she expanded and grew, flexing like a muscle she never even knew she had.

And now, the inevitable conclusion of that journey. The most energy dependent ability beyond going completely solar burst. The heat vision. Even calming herself, that has no affect on it. It simply needs to happen, like a pipe unclogging for the first time.

The beam of energy fades away and her the haze of heat leaves her sight. She takes in deep breaths. The heat is still in her face and her eyes are still glowing. She is aware of it but not how it must look to have eyes that can burst forth intense energy with a thought.

But she can feel it now too. It really is much like these other abilities. It's a feeling, a gestalt within her, that needs to be relaxed. She shuts her glowing eyes and the heat is drawn back in to her body.

When she opens her eyes again she looks around at the training equipment, the grasses, trees, that are still burning. She rises knows what to do. Drawing in a deep breath she breaths out across the flames and puts them out. That won't heal the trees though, or repair the archery targets, nor mend the stools, or regrow the grass.

Alura presses her lips in to a thin line of concern. Such a powerful weapon within her, within her daughter, within her nephew. What a burden to walk this planet with every day.

Donna Troy has posed:
    As the days and weeks pass, Donna is increasingly scarce. Of course she has other responsibilities out there in the world beyond the shores of this island, but also she is increasingly not needed.

    The language lessons become easier and easier as Alura grasps the principles of English and Themysciran, and the lack of Kryptonian speakers around simply becomes less of an issue. The skills Alura has learned puts her in better stead when training with the other Amazons - simply being less far from their level, having those basics down, makes those training sessions more productive.

    There's something else too. Somehow learning is just /easier/ now. Perhaps the solar energy that has changed Alura's body is changing her mind too, making her think faster, absorb information more quickly and thoroughly. Even though this education for a life on a new world is far broader than the Kryptonian tendency to specialization would imply was ideal, Alura's progress just seems to keep improving.

    There is a competence to her trainers that perhaps Alura will never match. They have, after all, been doing all this for an extraordinary amount of time, and if the people of this land seem rather backwards technologically it's certainly not for a lack of intelligence. Yet the praise comes faster than it ever did, and the words of encouragement are marked with increasing respect for what Alura has achieved rather than simply a desire to encourage.

    It's one of those increasingly rare days where Donna is around, and in an odd way the training has come full circle. Today had been spent with spear training, and the lessons learned had left their mark. Donna's movements had sometimes been dizzyingly unpredictable, but the day had ended with a distinct satisfaction -- Alura had acquitted herself admirably, and would no longer need to rely simply on the fact that spear couldn't actually hurt her. Donna had seemed notably satisfied, and declared exactly that to Alura as they sit together in the evening, enjoying a meal at the palace.

    It's a particularly fine meal, as many on Themyscira seem to be, and this perhaps is what prompts Donna's subject matter. "Diana's a terrible cook," she says with another of those huge smiles she is so prone to. "It's one of the few things I can confidently say I am better than her at, though I wouldn't claim to be particularly good myself. Most things though..." Donna gives a careless shrug and nibbles at the remains of her meal. "Diana is over nine hundred years old. Almost everyone else on the island is about three and a half thousand years old. I'm twenty-eight. I am more blessed with what we call 'powers' than most, but for the most part I attempt to redress the balance by training as hard and as often as I can. Perhaps in a few hundred more years I will consider myself marginally competent compared to my sisters."

    "And yet..." Donna reaches for a bottle of wine, to top up both their glasses. "In some ways I'm one of the most experienced person here. I've been to a dozen different worlds, been to other dimensions and even visited other universes altogether. I have fought genuine battles rather than simply training exercises far more times than I could count during my short life. I have lead forces in desperate battles to save the whole planet. What all that has taught me is that I will never feel that I am ready, but that does not mean I should not feel that I can help."

    "Learning never stops, Alura. But I think you've learned enough here that you're as ready as you need to be to start learning the things you'll only learn getting involved in the larger life of this world. You have not mastered your new capabilities, but you should no longer be entirely surprised by them. You know enough to maintain control of them and... " she looks up from her wine with a wide, mischievous grin. "You haven't broken any cups in /days/."

Donna Troy has posed:
    She tilts her head questioningly to the side. "Do you think you feel ready enough to visit Metropolis, where Kara lives? You will always be welcome to return here and spend the time you want or need to on Themyscira, learning and just relaxing. I'll have to give you one more lesson in how to return to this place when you wish, because it's not a simple matter of navigation. This island does not appear on maps, and will not be found by people who are not welcomed to find it. There's an art rather than a science to finding your way here, and there is a mental challenge to reaching the island's shores that is hard to achieve the first few times you try. I think you're up to that task now, though."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura sips from the awkwardly constructed cup. She made it. With her own two hands. No other cup on Themyscira is like it because it looks like a child made it while not looking. But she made it. She made art and it has practical purpose. And she hasn't broken it.

"It's nice not to break things every day. I don't feel as much a burden on Themyscira now and I've made some great friends. You foremost among them." It's been like a fantasy novel - whisked away to a strange land where your own job is self improvement and basking in the sun.

"I've learnt here that shying away from a challenge doesn't make it any less daunting. I also can't expect my daughter to visit me constantly. She has a life now which is a difficult thing for me to adapt to, even though I've lived with her in mind for many many years."

"It's time for me to learn about the rest of this world. I believe Kal can teach me more about my powers. While here, here I a have a home and learn a whole host of skills forbidden to me on Krypton."

She lifts up her cup and says, "Eviva!" Then takes another sip from it. She touches the alien necklace about her neck and asks, "Would it be alright for me to keep this a little while longer?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "/Propino soi/," Donna replies, raising her own glass with a grin. "Certainly you can keep the translator a while longer, though try not to rely on it. Your grasp of English and Themysciran is good enough to get on with, and will only get better through usage."

    She pushes her plate aside and leans back comfortably in her chair, enjoying the feeling of a good meal consumed and good companionship. "You are not a burden on Themyscira. On the contrary, you have given my people something to do. This is not just an island, it is also a mission to make the world a better place. That mission is why our people exist. Helping you to understand your powers and the possibilities they bring is a way for us to perform that duty."

    "If you feel you owe us something in return though -- well, one of my own missions in life is to encourage my people to embrace the more practical aspects of science, as opposed to our traditional focus on the more theoretical. You haven't yet really had a chance to talk with our scientists -- that's something I should arrange. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating. In terms of pure theory -- well, we are a people who dedicate ourselves to knowledge, and our thinkers have had thousands of years to improve their ideas. Yet we are a people who live in a paradise who lack nothing, and have had very little need to develop that theorizing into practical applications except in a few specific areas." She gestures towards the lights. "This, for example. The liquid that fills that bulb occurs naturally on this island. We have only to place it into a sphere of glass and speak some words of a simple enchantment, and we have lights that require no external power source, that are sensitive to motion. We never bothered to invent a method to convert electricity into light, or develop optical motion sensors. We could do with some help in those more practical aspects. Engineering is not our strong point, yet we find ourselves looking increasingly to the stars."

    "In the meanwhile though -- yes. I think it's time I took you back with me to Metropolis. You'll be able to see your daughter more often, if it's not too much of an inconvenience to her!" Donna gives a quick laugh. "Really, I'm sure she will be glad of it. I can arrange somewhere for you to stay in the city while you figure out what to do with yourself. Though perhaps Kal or Kara have ideas of their own. They both live in Metropolis too, after all. It will be a good place for you to extend your knowledge of Earth beyond the rather strange shores of this island."

    Donna grins and raises her glass again. "To Themyscira and Metropolis!" she declares. "And to Krypton and Earth."