14761/Future Speedsters and Emotional Support Amazons

Future Speedsters and Emotional Support Amazons
Date of Scene:	24 April 2023
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Irie is sad because Maddie's returning to California. Bart, Caitlin and Donna cheer her up with ice cream and reminders she's not alone.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Bart Allen, Irie West, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    The life of a superhero is full of glamor, at least when you're a superhero of the more showy and public kind that the Titans are. Rooftop chases at night, capturing the badguy, saving the world. There's the paparazzi, the interviews, the celebrity of it all. Invitations to parties, request to appear on TV, sponsorship deals, people who want to put your face on a poster, or sell toys of you.

    That's what everyone thinks, anyway. There's another side to it that only a bare handful of people know about. One of those, to her eternal dismay, is Donna.

    Mostly Superheroes don't have to pay much attention to the paperwork their activity generates. The Titans however generate rather a lot. While most of it is done by people who never even get the dubious benefit of being named in these narratives, the Titans Foundation needs information from the team. They handle purchasing, but they demand requisition forms, or they don't know what to purchase. They handle legal affairs, but require statements. They deal with licensing but in the end they ask the team to clear anything before giving a go-ahead. Donna is the one who does most of that side.

    This is the far less glamorous side of being a Superhero. Troia, princess of the Themyscira, sitting at the counter in the kitchen area at Titans tower with a mug of coffee and a laptop open in front of her, typing away. Making sure expenses claims go in, asking the Foundation to purchase more T-Jet fuel, signing off on some very strict agreements for some of the more dangerous military-grade hardware the Titans maintain, and writing regular reports on Jinx, who the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit are demanding constant updates on, in exchange for not demanding she goes straight to jail and does not pass go.

    Donna sighs, takes a sip of her coffee, and daydreams of punching villains.

    Villains made from living paperwork. They would need punching /so bad/.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen is here as well, he made animal snacks earlier, so now he has just finished cleaning the kitchen, making sure to leave it how he found it for Caitlin. He then hmmms and says "And now, I want to eat." He ponders and speeds around the counters and fridge trying to decide what he wants.

Irie West has posed:
    "dooonnnNNAAAAAA!" Have you ever heard the doppler wail of a teenaged speedster coming at you at nearly Mach speeds? Well, now Donna does. Irie comes racing down the stairs and tackles the Themysciran in a hug that would knock a normal human three states away. Fortunately, Donna is not a normal human.

    "Donnna!" Irie says, tears rolling down her cheeks and nose sniffling. "It's the *sniff* end of the *sniff* //world//. Maddie is *sniff* moving back *sniff* to California! We won't be able to *sniff* hang out after school or *sniff* paint minis or //anything//." Ah, to be a teen, when the worst thing in the world is when your best friend is moving across country.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "There's some left-over pizza," Donna says to Bart, not looking up from her laptop. "Three or four whole ones, and another box of mixed slices. Why don't you throw them in the oven? Or you could eat the animal snacks and take the pizzas to feed the animals, but I'd suggest eat the pizzas myself."

    She takes a sip of her coffee, and is sipping as her ears register the dopplering of an incoming Irie. Fortunately Amazon reactions are fast, and the coffee is put down before speedster hugs happen. The counter barely shakes.

    Donna wraps her arms around Irie, holding her tightly, and smiling gently. She smirks slightly over Irie's head at Bart, and gives her hair a quick ruffle before closing the lid of the laptop and giving Irie all her attention.

    "Irie, Irie... hey, slow down," she says. "Just for a moment..." She pulls back a little, resting a hand on each of Irie's shoulders and looking her in the eyes. "Aren't you forgetting something?" she asks. "Yes... Maddie's heading back to California, and we're all going to miss having her around." Donna gently guides Irie to a chair at the counter. "But you can run to California to visit any time you like. There's no reason you guys can't still hang out together. It's not going to be easy for her to come visiting at the tower, but you can still go visit her. If you think about it, it'll take you less time to get to her place than it used to take her to get to the Tower. So no Irie, it's not the end of anything! You'll still get to see plenty of Maddie, you'll still be able to hang out after school, paint minis, and /everything/!"

    Donna looks up at Bart again and gestures with her head towards the freezer, mouthing the words 'ice cream please'. This is the Donna way of trying to cheer up Iries!

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and starts to say something but since Donna seems to have it covered, he will end up getting a couple cartons of Ice Cream and a couple spoons for each. He has bowls set out but not sure if they will be using them, but they are there. He then starts putting pizzas in the over. He wants to help his cousin but experience with the cassies has taught him sometimes it is best to be quiet.

Irie West has posed:
    "But it's so //faaaar,//" Irie sniffles. "It'll take me, like, a whole //half hour// to get there!" Leave it to a speedster to think taking a half hour to cross the US is a long time.

    Still sniffling, she releases Donna and sits down at the counter and pulls a bowl towards her, scooping some cherry garcia into it. "I mean... I know it's not //that// far away. But I'm gonna miss her at school. I'm gonna miss going to Science class with her and everything. It's just not gonna be the same."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Bart a smile of thanks and gestures for him to join them at the counter. He may not feel sure about what if anything to say, but sometimes someone just needs their fam around them. She pulls a chair out for Bart one side of Irie, and sits on another chair the other side of her.

    "It took Maddie longer than that to come here," Donna points out. "But she's always glad to make the journey. And I know that you'll be glad to make it too, because there will be Maddie at the end of it. Irie, I'm not gonna pretend to you that you're not going to miss her at school, but after school it'll be just fine."

    Now Irie has her ice cream, Donna wraps an arm around her shoulder again. "I know it's hard for you Irie, and not just because Maddie's going to be further away, but also because she's the first really good friend you made when you came back to here. Now. And that gave you a sense of normality and of belonging. When you arrived here, that was something that was lacking for you. Except you know... it wasn't really. I know you miss Wally... the older Wally who was really /your/ Wally. And your mom, and your brother. And I'm sure you had friends in the future and you miss them too. But distance is a lot easier barrier to cross than time, and Maddie's not that far away for a speedster. And you know what, even though maybe you didn't know it at the time, when you came back here you may have felt a lack of a sense of belonging, because you belong in the future. But you /also/ belong here, Irie. With us. With Bart and me and your Titans family. And we're not going anywhere."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "She is right, I mean there have been times when I could not see Rob or SB, for like weeks. I was living in Alabama, and only allowed to go hang out with them like at the weekends and such, and it sucked, but you will make sure you enjoy your time when you do get to spend with them.

Irie West has posed:
    Irie stuffs her face full of ice cream as she listens to Donna and Bart. "Yeah, I guess," she says grudgingly. "I mean. With Maddie around, this place felt like //home// you know? Not just an accident." She's silent for a moment, staring at her bowl. "I had a chance to go back to the future, but I chose to come back //here//. I know I miss dad and Jai but... it was hard to turn away from Maddie and you and Bart and, heck, //all// of the Titans. You're all just as much my family as they are."

    "Even though Dad let me and Jai go superheroing with him it was just... hanging out with them." she explains, but hastily adds, "Don't get me wrong. I still miss it. But here, I'm part of a team, and the longer I stay here the more right it feels." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "If I think about it it kinda scares me. Doing this might have just sent us down an alternate timeline and what scares me more is that I think I'm okay with that." She gives Donna and Bart a wan smile, "Maybe a reality without Cats 2 isn't so bad."

    Her attention turns to Bart and she just //stares//. "You were in Alabama? //Why?//"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Cats 2. Now I know you're making it up," Donna says with a grin. "Because I'm pretty sure I'd have stopped that happening." Donna's grin widens and she gives Irie a wink.

    Donna nods her head at Bart. "When I first came to America, I had Di here... but I missed home terribly. And I'm fast, but I'm certainly no speedster. I had learned to fly, but I wasn't that good at it yet. Getting home wasn't that easy. But you know, I think it was a good thing. I mean if I'd been able to go home even as easily as I can today, I'm... I'm not sure I'd have stayed in America. It was pretty tough at first. The first six months, year... I thought about packing it all in and going home a lot. I came here certain I could deal with anything America threw at me, but the one thing I wasn't prepared for was just... that it wasn't home. Without Di here I don't think I'd have made it. But what really made the difference was meeting the Titans. Making friends here, /real/ friends. I snuck back home when I'd been away a bit over a year, just for a visit. And... when I was there, it was wonderful to be home. But I was missing Cait and Rae and Vic and D... Nightwing and the others. It was so /exciting/ here, and pretty much as soon as I got home, I was itching to get back here."

    Donna's smile widens. "I learned that it's possible to have more than one home. Just like you, Irie. One home in the future, one home in the present. I mean even if it's approximately the same physical place, just separated by time. It's about belonging, and you /do/ belong. Funny thing though, in your case one home is going to become the other home, isn't it? I mean maybe it won't be exactly the same. Tmelines and all that. Or maybe it is the same but details are a little flexible. Who knows." She tilts her head to the side. "Well maybe you do. I mean I don't want to ask, but I've always wondered if there was an older Irie hanging around when you were young Irie..."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "If so, she was probably going by another name." He offers to Donna's words. Then to Irie, when I came here your dad had no idea what to do with me, and not the same ties as he does with you. He ended up getting Max Mercury to mentor me, and Max wanted me to see what a normal life was, since I was raised in VR and all that. So, he moves us to Manchester. I made some friends there, but yea it was not the same as being around the others, but then again they had things they had to do so, I had to find things to keep myself busy already," His phone beeps and he looks down at it "Looks like I am being called into work." He offers Irie a hug and says "You need me you know where I am."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie gets all series and looks Donna dead in the eye. "Am I though? Am I?" After all. Why would anybody joke about the possibility of Cats 2?

    She nods slowly as Donna explains her case and says, "Yeah. It's like that. It would be nice to be able to go back and forth. To somehow tell Dad that I'm okay. Maybe he already knows because he's here." She shakes her head. "I don't know."

    "I mean, yeah, I wondered why I hadn't heard about me in the past before," she says, quickly taking another spoonful of ice cream and shoving it in her mouth before it all can melt. "Like... the sheer amount of effort needed to keep my existence in the past secret is improbable. It's why I think I'm in an alternate timeline. I don't know what I'm going to do when dad finally meets mom, or when she gets pregnant with me and Jai. Maybe I get sent back and I'm only here a few years? I just don't like any of the answers I come up with."

    She nods to Bart "Yeah. I get that. I didn't want to go to school at first, but in the end I'm glad I did. I wouldn't have met Maddie or Dyani, or any of them. I'd never had a taste of normal before then, and I thought that I wouldn't like it, always moving so slow but..." she shrugs. "It's surprising how easily I got used to it."

    When Bart's phone goes off, she returns his hug. "Okay. I'll catch you later, alright Cuz?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The elevator lights up and *dings* softly, marking down the floors from the dorms to the main level. Caitlin steps out with a little bounce in her step, looking well-rested and actually groomed for the day, with a touch of mascara and her hair bound behind her neck in a neatly pulled-through ponytail.

"Whoops, hi Bart-- bye Bart!" she calls as the speedster vanishes. She rearranges her bags and tosses them up onto the table, one full of textbooks and the other holding her laptop. In rubber shoes and bright pink crocs, she's pretty obviously on her way to school. "Hello, hello," she sings, and heads into the kitchen to wrangle herself some coffee. "I think I just got my first eight hours of actual, consecutive sleep in six months," she declares to Irie and Donna. "I love it when morning classes get cancelled."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives a big smile to Bart and nods her head to him as he makes his exit - a 'don't worry I got this' nod to let him know he doesn't have to worry about Irie. Donna slides a tub of ice cream closer to Irie's bowl as she does this, perhaps subconsciously some way of telling Bart that she's there looking after Irie. It is well established by know that giving Irie ice cream is a major part of Donna's concept of looking after her, after all.

    "You know," Donna says, turning back to Irie. "You've had the concept of avoiding damaging the timeline made very clear to you from a young age. I mean when you came back here, it was pretty much the first thing you said, that you had to be careful what you say. To me that suggests that Wally knew. Your dad was preparing you for going back in the past, because he already knew that it would happen to you. It kind of flips the equation, if you think about it. When your dad and mom meet, they know their future, because to him part of his future had already happened when you showed up here fifteen years earlier. Or at the least Wally does. But he'll have to be very careful what he says to avoid changing the timeline of both his future /and/ past. Not just him. All of us in the TItans who've known you since you got here are going to get to meet you again when you're born."

    Donna greets Caitlin with a broad grin and a nod which hints at approval. She has been telling Cait to get more sleep lately, to which Caitlin usually responds by grousing about how much she's got to do. "There's a pot that's pretty fresh," she says, nodding. "Rae's coffee. Don't tell her I'm sharing it with people."

    Then back to Irie. "So you know if you think about it, it's entirely possible that when you were born, there was a thirty-something Irie hanging around very carefully keeping out of your way, and all of us were very carefully not telling young Irie about adult Irie."

Irie West has posed:
    "Hi Cait," Irie says. She still seems a little glum, despite the ice cream and Donna's pep talk. "Maddie's moving back to California. It's... I'm gonna miss her. I mean. I //know// I can just visit her whenever but school's not gonna be the same without her."

    She mulls over what Donna says for a while, accepting the tub of ice cream and scooping more into her bowl. "I mean... possibly?" she says dubiously. "But proof of my existence would extend just beyond the Titans and dad, don't you think? Or maybe when we were old enough, dad just kept us too busy to really pay attention to something like that. But four years... that's a long time to keep a secret." It's certainly something to think about.

    "I don't think I've ever slept more than four hours at a time," she admits. "It's the speed thing, I'd guess."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Lips are sealed," Caitlin confirms for Donna, and mimes zipping her lips shut. She pours herself a cup and promptly commits sacrilege by dumping in cream, sugar, and olive oil. Once she's got the cup secured she curls both hands around the cup and sips greedily. "Ahhh," she exhales, and lids her eyes for a moment of blissful satisfaction.

"We're talking about timelines?" she inquires, confirming the discussion going back and forth. Caitlin finds her chair at the table and drops into it, crossing her legs on the chair's seat underneath her. "You know there's a hypothesis out there for this. 'Temporal convergence'," she explains. "The physics are pretty complicated but the idea is that at some point in a continuity anomaly, everything just corrects itself by snapping back into place." She snaps her fingers to punctuate the word. "And it's retroactive. So the timeline doesn't just change, we're totally unaware of it because from our perspective, everything is carrynig on exactly the way it should have from the beginning. Maybe someday we'll all wake up and the timeline will be restored to what's always made sense to you," she tells Irie encouragingly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head at Cait. "There's a philosopher on Themyscira who wrote about that. Well, not exactly that, but she was exploring the idea of what would happen if you could jump through time. A lot of it would be pretty familiar, right down to everyone's favorite river analogy. She proposed a few different options, but one thing she was convinced of is that any model would be inherently conservative. Essentially it comes down to energy. She favored the idea that you could in theory change elements of the timeline, but it would... not snap back into place exactly, but essentially you'd find that you only changed small details. Bigger things would find a way to happen, because if you treat time as equivalent to the spatial dimensions, it's less energetic for the timeline to find some small tweak that puts it back on track than for it to change dramatically. So for example if you were to look up the winning lottery numbers and jump back in time to buy a ticket, rather than the timeline changing that dramatically, you'd end up having bought the winning ticket and then having it fall out of your pocket and be found by the person who was previously going to win it, or whatever."

    She gives a shrug and smiles at Irie. "From that perspective, it might be that the timeline itself effectively helps to preserve itself. Maybe when you were born we ran around hiding every trace we could of your prior years heroing with the Titans, but we couldn't hide newspaper articles and so on. But maybe because of that, you just kinda happened to never read the right thing, or look in the right place."

    "Or... maybe it's a different timeline. But if so, I'm sorry for that Donna. She had to wait a whole lot longer for you to grow up enough to take shopping. Summer's coming up and you're still growing, Irie. I think it's time we spent a day buying you some new outfits, don't you?"

Irie West has posed:
    Irie stares at Cait. "I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse," she says honestly. "The idea of rewriting reality to the point to where it rewrites us to just not notice is kinda scary if I'm to be honest."

    She nods at Donna. "I've heard that take before. That seems more plausible to me." She lets out a sigh as she scrapes the bottom of the bowl to get the last of the ice cream. "I guess we'll find out, right?"

    Her eyes light up at the mention of shopping. "Heck yeah! I saw this cute dress the other day. I never really wore dresses before so I thought, why not? Let's give it a try! And I want to get blinky shoes, so when I run fast people will see it!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"We could always ask Nadia to spin up her Pym Dimensional Door and hit the 'Roulette' button on the controller," Caitlin says with a dancing mirth in her bright green eyes. "But the nice thing about either conjecture is that neither of them require us to actually *do* anything. Except eat right, work out, and fight the bad guys we wanna fight."

She slurps down more of her coffee and goes back to top the cup off again. "I'm afraid on the fashion front, you're on your own," she tells Irie with an apologetic grimace. "My wardrobe is basically whatever I see on the cover of Reader's Digest. And I have to have it all custom made. /No one/ makes jeans that fit me."