13866/The Leaning Tower Of Pizza

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The Leaning Tower Of Pizza
Date of Scene: 17 January 2023
Location: Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis: Welcome to Titan's Tower, Jinx! Come for the pizza. Stay for the drama. But mostly the pizza.
Cast of Characters: Terry O'Neil, Bart Allen, Kian, Gar Logan, Jinx, Donna Troy




Terry O'Neil has posed:
Giorgio's does great business. Their pizza is some of the best in the city, and their business is usually hopping-- and that's before you factor in the Titans' frequent pizza party orders. Some have theorized that Giorgio's could shutter the rest of their clientele and subsist solely on Titan orders... but that would be a risky endeavor, as sometimes the Titans have a tendency to get sucked into alternate universes for days, weeks or months at a time. Not a stable business plan whatsoever. So the Titans are gravy on top. A lot of gravy. As evidenced by the veritable tower of pizza power in the Main Room. Several of the boxes are empty already, because there are speedsters, shapeshifters, and people with ungodly metabolisms in the team.

There's soft music playing, and video games (for those so inclined), but Vorpal is doing something other than video games, for those who want to join him.

He's set up a CLUE board and is trying to explain the game to Kian. "-and you have the suspect cards and all of that, and you try to figure out who was the killer, with what, and where, to solve the mystery. Easy peasy, right?" the Cheshire cat grins at Kian while putting down his chosen piece, the sultry and mysterious Miss Scarlet (because of course) on the starting place in the middle of the board. He has not, as of yet, suggested that Gar play Professor Green. Mostly because he imagines this will get him thrown out the window.

But he really, really wants to.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen comes walking into the tower main room. That maybe a sign of the apocalypse, but then again maybe not. He does have his hand in his pockets, and is looking around "Hey anyone seen Wally or Irie?" He asks of those in the room, but is making his way towards the Pizzas as he waits for an answer and looks about to see whats going on.

Kian has posed:
    Kian sounds kind of horrified.  "You made a *game* out of someone being *killed*?"
    Followed shortly by, "Ooo, peacock. That's a bird, I'll be that one.  Green is Gar, of course."
    Someone doesn't have to worry about being thrown out a window.  Also, someone has twigged that this is a logic game with a murder theme, as opposed to a murder game, and that makes a difference.
    And left-behind Earthers are a little twisted as well as weird.

Gar Logan has posed:
"I'm just gonna watch," Gar says, pulling up a chair around the game that's been set up. "Besides, everybody always says I don't have a clue anyway." Bad joke, his trademark. In hand is a slice of pizza, a couple more on a plate currently balanced on a knee, napkins tucked beneath it at one side, and a soda is in his other hand. "It's supposed to be for people who dream of being detectives someday," he explains to Kian, sounding quite serious.

Jinx has posed:
The room was nice. Too nice. The art on the wall is not so much art but magical protection Raven created. Still, it's art if you want it to be art. The furniture has been re-arranged to be... more 'correct', the way Jinx was taught to have a room. Even if this room is too big.

She has to wait for the package to arrive from Nettie Crowe but she expect it to be here soon enough. The tower is a strange place. There's a submarine in the basement just.. sitting there. Who has a private submarine? these people apparently.

It's not like any of the doors are locked either. Donna and Raven seem supremely confident that if she were to run, they'd catch her. Jinx isn't sure she doesn't believe it too. With a bit of soil under her feet she is formidable, but Raven? Raven is a whole different level of trouble. And Donna? well, Jinx has known a lot of powerful people who put the fear in to her and Donna seems to fit that profile.

The elevator goes *ding* and out steps Jinx. Her expression isn't one of joy, more one of trepidation, like she's stepping over someones sacred land and touching anything will get her in trouble. Yet, there's a giant tower of pizza, console games, and the stirrings of Clue.

She stares at the people, some she recognises, and waits for the penny to drop. Just how many of them were told she was going to be here.. and how many of the ones she recognises will be ready to put bygones behind them. Then there's the ones she doesn't know - yet she knows her face has been on plenty of Most Wanted lists for a long time now.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's here for the pizza, clearly. You can tell by the way she's nabbed herself several slices, and is sitting on the kitchen counter with it, watching Terry attempt to explain Clue to the alien birb with an expression faint amusement.

    "Hey Bart," Donna greets with a wave. "Haven't seen Wally today. Irie's not back from school yet. Probably hanging out somewhere with Madison. I'm sure she won't be long. Got some speedster business to deal with?"

    "Kian, the game isn't about murdering people, it's about finding out who already murdered someone so they can be brought to justice," Donna points out. "Earth is crazy, remember? There are murders. When they happen, we try to find out who did them. Think of this as a game that instructs people in utilizing the scientific principles rather than telepathy to determine which of a group of people is guilty of committing an act that would require psychic redaction. In those terms I'm not sure it isn't a game that would be very popular on your homeworld! Well, once people get over the inherent scandal, that is."

    And then there's a Jinx. Lest any of the Titans unaware and failed to read the message indicating she'd be staying at the Tower for a while, Donna's reaction to the supervillain's presence should be fairly indicative. She gives Jinx a nod, and gestures towards the stack of pizzas. "Help yourself if you're hungry Jinx," she tells the sorcerer.

    It's not exactly super friendly, but at least no threats are involved. That's got to be an improvement, right?

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen makes a so-so motion with his hand in answer to Donna "Yes, and no, more a family thing. My Grandpa and Grandma are hoping to get the family together for dinner soon. Irie has not met them yet. I got a chance to go talk to Grandpa Ba.." He catches himself "Grandpa yesterday, and we were talking about family and stuff. I told him about Wally getting back recently" He might worry a bit about saying the real names in front of Jinix, but Donna did so he goes by her judgement.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yes, BUT- it's ok, because nobody is actually dead. You know, there is an entire genre of literature dedicated to murder mysteries and the whole take-away from it is that murder /doesn't/ pay, because there's always a clever sleuth who pieces things together and exposes the murderer after they make an apparently innocuous slip-up that is actually full of significance only for those with eyes to see!" The Cheshire cat says, waving the evidence envelope at Kian. "Usually the crimes are solved by elderly women, housewives who are experiencing empty nest syndrome, precarious young children, or inexplicably hot men with abs. And, on occasion, Belgians."

He glances up as Jinx comes in, "Oh, hello!" he says. Of course he knows who she is. Of all people, he would- considering the Titans' past tussles with the Fearsome Five, and the fact that he used to be a Titans super nerd before becoming a super. Er. Cat. Like Bart, he follows Donna's lead, "There's vegetarian, and vegan, if you are looking for that. The carnivore section is at the top," for easier access of the aforementioned carnivores, because that tends to go fast, when Gar and company are about.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen 'em," he says to Bart, "... and I mean that, I am not making a joke about them being too fast to be seen. Which they are. So are you. But I. see. you." Oh god, an Avatar joke. Did someone just watch that? "Anyways, where was I-- OH, yes. MURDER MOST FOUL!" A pause, and a glance at Kian. "Or Fowl."

Kian has posed:
    "Yes, I figured that out," Kian says, addressing both Terry and Donne.  "And you left-behinds have got some strange ideas about suitable subjects for games.  But at its heart, it's really a logic puzzle, isn't it?  We couldn't play this among my people, everyone would 'see' what everyone else had.  In their minds.  So be careful not to touch me while we play or I might get more information that I should have."
    Kian, the painstakingly honest.
    He looks up and sees Jinx come in, and blinks.  "You look familiar from somewhere."  In fairness, when taking down The Villains That Can't Count, Kian was way to focused on The Blasphemer.  Also, he really wouldn't expect someone they fought to be here.  But if Donna is okay with it, it must be okay.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan's greetings for others and attention on the game is interrupted by the arrival of Jinx from the elevator. There was that vague note about her being here, the alarms quiet. There's the fact that as one of the members of the team's council, signing off on this was necessary.

That doesn't mean he has to like it.

"So, didn't work out with your pals, huh? What, did you 'jinx' it for yourself?" he asks, a little too much snark and vitriol in it. Oh, he hasn't forgotten the attack on the Tower and the follow-up. No, that doesn't just go away.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx seems to take Donna's invitation as permission and she approaches the leaning tower of pizza boxes. Taking out a slice she looks it over and even sniffs it. Clearly she's wary of it and for all she's lived outside the control of HIVE, outside the control of the orphanage, she's never actually had pizza before.

It is like a forbidden fruit, one she isn't even sure she should take a bite of, so she hesitates or perhaps procrastinates. She really can't help herself when she says to Bart, "It's too late." Her lilt is decidedly central London, "I can read your mind." Which is a flat out lie. She absolutely cannot read peoples minds. "There's nothing you can hide from me now."

Old habits die hard and she interjects on Terry's explanation of murder mysteries. "A foolish romantic notion, most murders are solved because the murderer tells someone, not because of fancy sleuthing. Actually most murders are never solved."

She says it so flatly it's easy to suspect she's speaking from experience. But then again, she did just mess with Bart. Her eyes come back to the hot slice of pizza in her hand. She's seen people eating pizza plenty before and they always looked to be enjoying themselves. It is just pastry, cheese, and misc toppings... what's so special about that?

She takes a bite and the cheesy goodness on crusty base with some kind of Italian sausage assaults her senses in the best way possible. Her shoulders relax just a touch. It feels like she's earned a treat, an indulgence, a reward. But for what?

She shrugs a shoulder to Kian and says, "I'm Jinx. We used to play hungry hungry hippos together as kids." It's a defence mechanism. Trusting doesn't come easily to people like Jinx. And from Gar she gets what she rather expected. "Settle Jurassic Park," she quips back at him. The last time she saw Gar he was a gigantic t-rex after all. But he did hit the money on the nose. Her jaw shifts a little to the side dejectedly. The tension comes back in to her shoulders instantly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Mostly Belgians," Donna confirms between mouthfuls of pizza. "Belgians are great at solving crimes. We should get a Belgian on the team. No wait, scratch that. We need to get Batman to recruit a Belgian Robin, and then grab him for the team when Bats has finished his training. Imagine the detecting powers of a Belgian Robin."

    Donna gives a quick nod to Bart. Family stuff. "Send them a message, but I know Wally's terrible at checking his T-Com. I'll let them both know you're looking for them when I see them. Oh, and she's lying. She can't read your mind. Stick to first names, though."

    Is it better or worse that Donna doesn't actually berate Jinx for the lie? The way she denies Jinx's ability to read minds is very /casual/. What does that mean? For that matter, /how/ does she know? Maybe she's bluffing, but she seems pretty confident about it.

    Donna goes back to eating pizza and watching Terry attempt to organize a game of clue. Maybe she's going to say something to Jinx about that later? It can't be easy for a Supervillain to figure out the dynamics of all this. Superhero teams just don't seem to operate the way Jinx is used to.

    Donna catches Gar's eye and gives him just the subtlest of shrugs. Another thing that she's not addressing directly, but Gar knows her well enough to know that's a 'we'll see' message. Which probably means she's hinting at him not to be too hard on Jinx just yet.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh god a Belgian Robin would be unbearable. And we'd have to call him 'Robin'" yes, he uses the French pronunciation, Roh-BAHN. Emphasis on the nasality. "And then /our/ Robin would get all murder-y again out of jealousy and we'd have a murder mystery to solve and no Belgians, only waffles. But I like waffles, so it might be for the best..."

A hand goes out to stroke Gar's hair. He's Terry. He is aware of the subtle Amazon Eyes Donna is giving all over the place, but he is cat, so subtlety isn't something he does unless there is some reward involved. "You'll have to forgive my boyfriend, he's got a very good memory -comes with turning into an elephant at times, so understandably he gets a little ruffled remembering past tussles." He finishes shuffling the cards now that Kian has chosen a character. "Now, this is just to show you how you play the game because you /can't/ play it with two people, three is the minimum... so we each get ... these cards..." he shuffles the deck, hands out the cards, but he portions them out for three players, leaving one deck to the side as the imaginary third player. Or in case anyone wants to join the game mid-way while he's teaching the birdman. He instructs Kian to mark his cards on his sheet and not show them to anyone.

As an aside, he says to Jinx, "I can afford to not have soreness due to the fact that we've never fought. I happened to be dead at the time that you guys came knocking." He adjusts his cards, "Well, not dead, but Donna, Cait, Vic and I were lost in a pocket universe for months and everybody thought we were dead. We went through many ridiculous adventures, the highlight of which being the planet where Caitlin became queen for a day, the one where Donna became a political strategist, and the world where I helped stop a never-ending war by tattooing the entire population's forehead with the image of a cat's butthole."

He glances up at Jinx and gives her a wide, million-watts Cheshire grin.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "No biggie Donna, I know Lucky here did not read my mind, first time people read my mind, they usually get all woozy headed at the speed I think." He offers with a smile. He then looks over to Jinx, and says "And trust me, playing who knows more about who with me is not a winning game for most people." He does not seem to have any malice in his words. "I'm Impulse." He says and offers her his hand to shake.

Kian has posed:
    Kian blinks twice at Jinx.  "I wasn't raised on this planet and I have no idea what 'hungry hungry hippos' are," he says pedantically.  Because of course he does.  He's Kian, that's his thing.
    He watches Terry closely.  "I think I understand.  By the information I have, and by the information I gain from you and anyone else who plays."  He gives Gar a look as if to say, /Get over here, there's a green pawn waiting for you!/
    "Also, I don't want to be a detective.  But I like math and logic."

Gar Logan has posed:
"And I can do it again if you want," Gar answers as Jinx draws attention to his moment as a T-Rex. "So if you need to get back on your feet, fine. We agreed to let you stay here. Temporarily. But we're watching you. We don't forget someone attacking our home just like that. It's gonna take more than a 'sorry.' Did we even get a 'sorry?'"

Somewhere along the way, he ducks the attempt to soothe him by reaching for his hair. Not in the mood for that, not in front of everyone, not right now. The plate and napkins end up in the formerly free hand as he takes a few steps to the side.

The various looks he gets are shrugged off. Donna's, Kian's, even Vorpal's. Jinx is more his focus. "If you're here for help, or because you want to help, well...what are you going to do to earn our trust?" The food and drink ends up set on the nearest tabletop in order for him to cross his arms. There is no offered handshake from him. Yet.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx is suckered in by Terry's weird story. It's weird and weird can be interesting. But it's very weird. "Huh. So that's what happened. Light was all like 'they're down numbers, we can hit them now, they won't even see it coming'." She rolls her eyes as she mock mimics his voice.

She could almost get in to a good mood with the way Terry flashes that biiig grin but then Bart calls her Lucky and she glares at him, "Wot did you call me?" A flash of anger over her face as she feels utterly mocked by Impulse. Annnd nothing penetrates Kian if he doesn't understand her jabs at him.

Gar on the other hand seems to be looking for a fight. Her head dips down and her eyes look at him past long lashes. Magic swirls about her right hand and she grips it tight like a fist. "Not fuck you up is what I'm going to do," she says and seems to shrink back away from the group.

Her breathing is getting heavier and she steps around the corner in to the corridor to be out of line of sight where she presses her back to the wall and thumps the back of her head to it too. The bad luck absorbs in to her and she knows she's about to have a really bad day by choosing not to use it on Gar or Impulse. It's not like Donna wouldn't have been all over her in a heart beat if she had whammied Gar. And if she let it get the better of her and whammied the lot of them then the deal would certainly be off.

"He's just goading you Jinx," she whispers to herself. And it was working. Of course there was no 'sorry' either. She thumps her hand against the wall softly just to feel it there and stares down at the floor, "Nothing ever changes," she tells herself.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna flashes Bart a megawatt smile. Jinx may have yet to uncover the dynamics of this team, but it's obvious that Donna is rather fond of the young speedster. "He's got you there Jinx," she says. "You'd be shocked what Impulse there knows. In fact I'd suggest you really hope /hard/ that he isn't trolling you when he called you 'Lucky' there. I mean he /might/ be. But he also might know your future and made a little slip."

    The mutual goading continues, and a after a few more moments of it, Donna sighs a little and slides of the counter to her feet, setting her pizza aside for now.

    "Right everyone," she announces, her voice rising for those two words to a boom that echoes momentarily through the room with the forcefulness of a battlefield order. "Listen up. Jinx is here because she has asked to be given a chance, and has offered to prove herself by giving us information on her former colleagues, and help us take down the bad guys. Should we trust her? No, we should not. Should we give her a chance to prove herself? Yes we should. In case you've forgotten, there are people on this team who have not exactly the most illustrious of pasts already. People you all now count as friends."

    "I've got more reason to dislike Jinx than the rest of you, she just wrecked my latest exhibition. You'll notice I am not punching her in the face right now. I'm not saying you should like her. I'm not saying you should forgive her until she has earned it. But we're going to be working with her, so I am saying don't pick fights with her. I am saying give her a chance to prove that she can be better than she has been in the past."

    Donna jabs a finger towards Jinx. "That goes for you too, Jinx. Don't pick fights."

    Donna settles down again, recovers her pizza, and chomps on it like nothing just happened. After she has finished chewing the mouthful, she says to Jinx, in a perfectly calm and level voice, "Yep. The four of us were missing and presumed dead. Nightwing was recovering from a broken arm. Overall lack of leadership, and we were still sorting the team out after getting back together. Oh, and Raven was involved in things which made her not exactly available to deal with you guys too. The magic she was involved with at that time was aimed at tearing holes in the universe and it took her a couple of weeks to come down from that enough to deal with minor things like bothering to have a physical existence. Doctor Light wasn't being /totally/ stupid, for once."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
There are things that don't change. For example, war- war never changes. And Garfield Logan's wariness and slowness to trust once he or his loved ones have been injured. And Terry O'Neil existing on the opposite spectrum in being far too eager to be welcoming and trusting and, potentially, being a little too eager to see the potential for good in people. This can be a strength at times, and he might be able to take partial credit in being one of the influences behind Harley Quinn doing her best to walk the straight and narrow (bless her heart, it does tend to be more of the wobbly and incredibly wide at times but /she's trying/), or in Catman veering away from the more villainous path after that fateful incident with the enchanted catnip and the awkward morning after (there's another story for Jinx in the future)... but it can also be a weakness. Which is how he ended up de-powered after making out with his evil doppelganger from another universe (there is definitely another story for Jinx which, probably, will be told to her by every possible member of the team before Terry gets around to it.)

When you look at it, every strength can be flipped into a weakness when pushed far enough, and every weakness can turn into a strength when you're clever enough. And Terry, being the chaos cat, has a tendency to jump back and forth along that spectrum more than a gaggle of middle schoolers playing jump-rope.

"Explain to birb about how you go finding out cards, Greenie, I'll be right back?" he says, with no particular anger in his voice as he rises to walk over to where Jinx is. It's not the first time that Gar and Terry have engaged in a pull-me-pull-you of trusting and distrusting someone. Colette and Harley, for example. But Terry doesn't resent Gar's cautious nature in this aspect- he may have a tendency to be reckless, but he can be self-aware, and is more than aware that Gar's caution helps ground his lack thereof, whereas Kian serves as the cool-headed anchor for both.

Who could have known that Raven had hit the nail on its head about those three that early on?

Shut up, Donna.

"Right, no picking fights. Anyone who picks a fight gets to spend an hour in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's tea party," he says with a smirk, and then extends a hand to Jinx. A Rabbit Hole, a tiny one, opens up, depositing a plate with tiramisu into his hand. This, he offers to Jinx. "A peace offering. My mom's tiramisu. I've had people offer their first-born to me in exchange for the recipe." He's exaggerating. They've only offered their second born.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "Oh she goes by Jinx now?" He asks Donna, showing maybe he legit thought her name might be Lucky. He hmms, and sees Terry going to talk to Jinx, so he will let the other one deal with it, and walks over to Donna and says "You know stuff like this would be much easier, if people put exact dates in books." It being a thousand years in the future may make that a bit harder to do, but he can wish. "Oh I may need to check the database and see if you guys have anything on a group called Cyberdata." He says as he gets more pizza.

Kian has posed:
    Kian tries to concentrate on learning the game, but there really are too many distractions.
    Something Donna says resonates, though.  "Well, if anyone understands being given a chance, I do.  The Gods know no one here knew me, but they took me in and made me one of their own."  He glances between both Terry and Gar.  "And more."
    He bows slightly, and spreads his wings slightly.  "/Kie/, Jinx."

Gar Logan has posed:
There are many things Gar is impulsive over. Trusting someone who was once an enemy ranks up there as things that are just going to take time.

"If I was going to goad you, I'd say something like 'go ahead and try, then see what happens.' But I'm not goading you, so I'm not saying that. Whether you all thought it was smart or not to attack us when we were down, you did it when I thought some of the people that mean the most to me were dead or I was never gonna see them again, so excuse me if I don't just treat you right away like we're best friends," he states, focusing on being patient and choosing his words carefully while waving a hand at the attempt to get him to shift focus to the game of Clue and explain things he doesn't want to explain right now.

Donna's interjection is what leads to him spreading his hands apart to add, "Okay, then what do you have so far? And why are you offering to help us? What happened?" He's already en route to a few of the pizzas when Vorpal does his little trick with the tiramisu. Stole a bit of his thunder, but he puts a couple slices on another plate and begins his approach. "Yeah, sure. Peace offering, or something. Maybe that'll be a new thing. We give food, it means you're accepted. Kind of. If something you tell us turns out to be useful."

His hearing, even when he looks his usual green self, is good enough to pick up on at least part of what Jinx mutters under her breath about nothing changing, at least he thinks he does, but nothing definitive is said about it. Instead, he offers the plate while watching to see how she reacts. Closely. Like a hawk. "All I'm saying is this better be legit."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx pushes off the wall and folds her arms across her chest as Donna gives her speech about not picking fights. She knows her lips are pinched tight in anger and she knows her expression is written all over her face and body language. There is clearly a game in understanding what's happening here that she's all too happy to explain.

Terry's approach pauses her venomous response and she looks down feeling his magic as the tiny portal opens and a plate appears. She looks back at him distrustingly - but then Gar is coming over too. And Bart is saying weird things. Going by Jinx 'now' - and Donna suggesting he knows things. Pfft, Lucky, as if.

Kian's strange greeting is taken with confusion on her face. Aliens. She lowers her voice as Gar gets closer and says in an almost dark tone, "I don't care how big a monster you can turn yourself in to, you better believe I'll bring the pain."

She knows it's coming. The bad luck. She swollowed it up instead of using it. It's going to be the plates, she can feel it, they'll break and she'll get cut. It's not quite a premonition like she might have if she were standing in earth - but it's there. She knows she can't escape it.

She reaches out and takes the plate of pizza because there's no point running from this fate. She knows she can't beat out her bad luck and this is the price she pays for being kind to strangers. Except... nothing happens. The two plates make a 'tink' sound when they touch briefly but they're fine. The food is fine. The expression on Jinx's face is bewilderment.

"Ahh...," she says trying to fathom an impossible thing that only she knows about. She looks at the two of them standing right in front of her, then the other three behind them. "Hmm," it's a noise of acceptance. May be the bad luck will hit her later. It doesn't -feel- like it will though.

"His name's Arthur. Arthur Light. Yeah sure he's a doctor or whatever, but he's a right shyte of a man. If he's not gaslighting you he's thinkin' of a way to screw you over later. He was never really.. one of us anyway. HIVE I mean."

Her body tension relaxes and she stares at Gar and his demands of proof she's going to be useful. "I don't -want- to be here and I'm not trying to make friends. If I go to jail, HIVE will have me killed. They don't accept resignations you see. They've tried to kill me three times since I quit and the last one ..."

A shake of her head, "They reanimated a dead djinn, a frankendjinn, and sent him after me in Mutant Town. He almost had me and Harley and everyone else in that bar but we got..." she doesn't say it. She can't say it.. Lucky. They got lucky. There was a single pot plant in the bar she could use to access her full sorcery powers.

With a roll of her eyes she says, "Whatever. Point is - HIVE is a way bigger problem than you twats even realise and if we don't work together we're all one hundred percent completely Bollocksed."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "We've had a few run-ins with Doctor Light in the past," Donna replies mildly to Jinx. "Maybe I'll show you our files on him some time. You'll probably like them. He's got some power, he could probably be a pretty dangerous supervil if he wasn't so... well. He's listed under the same threat assessment category as The Condiment King, and that should tell you everything. "

    Donna reaches for a fresh slice of pizza. "Name's not familiar," she replies to Bart. "But we're always having run ins with weird groups. If we've got nothing in the database, check with your Robin. If there's nothing on our systems or the Bats', they're probably new."

    "I've often wondered about the doctor thing," Donna says, turning back to Jinx. "What's he got a doctorate in, anyway? Do they do doctorates in being a joke?"

    "As for HIVE, nope, we don't have much. We captured a bunch of their soldiers once, accompanied by a couple of old friends of yours, Mammoth and Gizmo. We've tracked down a few of their shell companies. And yes, we did notice that you and your friends seem to have an unusually casual relationship with being put in jail. But then that's the reason you're here, right? To tell us more?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Arthur Light? Oh dear heavens, that's like finding out The Joker's real name is Whoopie Cushing." He pauses as if in the middle of some epiphany. What is it? Worry not, he immediately shares: "You know, that would legit be Whoopi Goldberg's legal name if she had married Peter Cushing." Nobody please tell him that Whoopi isn't her /actual/ name. He eventually veers his train of thought back to the topic, more or less. He snap-points at Donna, "No, no, I bet you five fucks that he's a podiatrist. Or a proctologist. You know there has to be tons of proctologists tired of dealing with shit who would completely go supervillain if they had powers. Back me up, Donna, let's get Vic in on this and see if we can get a grant for a study."

The Cheshire turns his attention back on Jinx after taking a brief stroll through his Folie-A-Un and picking some flowers along the way. "Kian's not from around here," he explains helpfully upon seeing her confusion at his greeting, "He comes from a planet of chocolate-loving polyamorist nudist telepathic bird-people and thinks we are the stranger planet, so think about that for a moment," he says with a grin, but then adopts a more serious demeanor when HIVE is mentioned.

"If you're wary of them, I'm pretty sure they are a big problem. So let's set about to solve this problem. And don't worry about our speedster, he says things like that... at one point he implied that Gar and I have children in the future, which is completely impossible. No adoption agency would ever consider me responsible enough to have children." He doesn't seem to consider how /else/ they might be able to have children.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan's eyes narrow as Jinx pushes it with him just that much more. He's trying. He really is, but something's got under his skin. It can't just be Jinx, can it? "Yeah, well, you're supposed to be asking for our help, so maybe you could try a little harder to keep that in mind. You know, since they apparently want you dead and all," he reminds her before waving a hand dismissively. "Or you can deal with them yourself. See if I care. You're the one who got yourself into that mess you want us to help clean up for you."

It doesn't look like the so-called peace offering is having the desired effect, especially when she resorts to the name-calling. "And that's a great idea. Stay under our roof, getting our protection, eating our food, and just go on insulting us. That's real smart. We're just a bunch of losers, huh?"

With her succeeding - for the moment - in avoiding any accidents with the plates, he turns to stalk in the direction of the elevators, wings beginning to grow from his back that quickly reflect his agitation, hair poofing out a bit as well as it begins to turn feathery. Vorpal causing his cheeks and ears to burn further isn't helping at the moment. "I'm tired of thinking about HIVE. We've dealt with them before and we'll do it again. I'm gonna take off for a while. The rest of you have fun talking to her. There's only so much I'm gonna keep listening to." Surely the prospect of children has nothing to do with it. Or talking about Dr. Light's possible professions. Or which planet is the weirdest.

By the time he steps into the elevator shaft that's left open for the fliers, he completes his change into a bird of some kind and zips up toward the roof and beyond.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx isn't quite sure how to take the non-chalant teasing of Dr. Light. But they've never had to live with him, so it's easier for them to separate what he does with who he appears to be. "Physics...," she says making the joke a bit more confusing. If he's such an idiot how'd he get a PhD. But, Jinx kinda agrees - he makes terrible decisions.

She looks at Terry like he must be joking too when he mentions having kids. The ways in which that could be done are sooo obvious. She really wants to burst that bubble and blurt it out but Gar gets right back under her skin.

Her hands shake a little holding the two plates as he says she got herself in to this mess. Why doesn't she just tell them? it's hard to get those words out - and Gar is storming away. It's hard to tell them she never had a choice in any of it until she finally broke free of them.

She looks angrily over at Donna and shoves the plates back at Terry, rejecting his potentially amazing Tiramisu and the pizza slices Gar gave her.

She takes a step back and says, "None of you will understand unless I show you. So I'm going to show you. I went to the mystic fair yesterday and bought a spell. Stuff's going to come to the Tower. Let me know when it arrives I'll be in my ... cell."

There's real pain on her face, somehow Gar and Jinx got under each others skin. She never cared to study the Titans before they attacked. She knows they likely know nothing about who she is either beyond 'supervillain' and 'sorceress'. There's a gaping void between her and the Titans, this won't be an easy road. Jinx turns and stalks away.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's not chasing after anyone who feels like stalking away. If they want to stalk, they can stalk. More pizza for her. Also, there's now spare tiramisu.

    Donna has pizza. She looks at the slice in her hands with an anticipatory smile. Without looking up from the slice, she calls out after Jinx. "Already annoyed one Titan who was offering you an olive branch. Maybe if you want to change your name you should ask yourself how much is fate and how much is self-inflicted."

    Pizza goes in mouth. Food goes in tummy. This is the way the world should be. Giorgio's does good pizza. Donna reflects on the fact that Vorpal's tendency to do things like making out with his own evil doppelganger or cause people to spend days sneezing glitter means he doesn't always get the credit he should for his contributions to the Titans, but he's the one who introduced them to Giorgio's, and that's worth a medal.

    "So. Did we finish explaining Clue to the bird?" Donna asks brightly. "I mean in a way that didn't leave him even more confused than before we started, which is kind of the normal situation with these things."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry watches Gar stomp off in a squawk, and Jinx stomp off in a grr, and he sighs quietly. "I see there's a fun conversation in my future," he says, shuffling the cards. They are not Tarot cards and he isn't predicting the future so much as making an educated guess. Gar's public persona- and yes, it is a mask that he wears- would leave most outsiders baffled, should they see how spiky he can turn /without/ becoming a hedgehog. But not Terry.

Someone with Gar's past takes betrayal seriously. Someone whose designated guardian abused his trust and tried to drain his fortune, tried to have him killed to get his mitts on it? After your parents died tragically? And then only to go on being treated at an arm's length, inexplicably, by the one man who should be a father to you but can barely be bothered to acknowledge you becoming an adult? Those types of betrayals leave a mark. The should-have-beens that became never-weres stay with a person. Held on to as a survival tactic, protecting the soft underbelly.

That Gar would have a latent hostility to someone who had started the board game on the betrayal square was no surprise, and it wasn't upsetting to Terry. It was expected, even, because of the things he head learned from Gar- and the things Gar didn't talk about, but about which Terry inferred much. As his mother would jokingly say (out of Terry's earshot), he pondered it all in his heart, like Mary.

"Well, I think it's best to give up explaining it to Kian-" Kian, his other boyfriend, on the other hand, was the opposite in many ways. Very little was hidden or not spoken of. That comes with the territory in a planet of telepaths. The cat stands up and stretches, and nods towards the TV. "Why don't we just watch a movie instead and enjoy the rest of the pizza? I'll load us up a good one."

He leaps over the back of the couch and lands in a crouch on the cushion, his hand reaching for the control. After flipping through options for a moment, he smirks.

There we go: CLUE, the movie (1985) with Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn and- let's be honest, you stopped at 'Tim Curry' and went 'I'm in.'

"Besides" the cat says at this point, "there's no reason to carry on with the game. The murder has been solved. It was Donna, in the living room, with the sass bucket."