15451/The Four Treasures: The Lotus-Eaters

The Four Treasures: The Lotus-Eaters
Date of Scene:	24 July 2023
Location:	A dream, probably.
Synopsis:	The three Titans who were tricked by Fae partygoers into falling into a Fae Sleep dream that they are the comic book creators behind the successful Titans comic. The Titans go into their dream to show them just how crazy the notion that the Titans are just a bunch of comic book characters really is. OR the three creators of the Titans comic book got ensorcelled to believe that the stories in their comic book are real and they're members of the fictional super team the Titans. Take your pick.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Kian, Gar Logan, Wally West, Terry O'Neil, Michael Hannigan, Jinx, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    The trailer comes to an end, with the inevitable hoots, cheers and stamping feet of excited fans. It's par for the course at Comicon, though in all honesty there was little there to warrant it. Just a teaser trailer of the most basic sort, with a few silhouetted figures, not even an actor reveal to go with it. It didn't matter though -- the silhouettes were enough. Everyone in the hall knew exactly who those silhouettes were, they were distinctive enough. And everyone in the hall was seriously hyped to see some of their favorite characters hitting the big screen. Oh there had been a few seasons of a TV series, and they'd appeared in animations often enough, but this was the real deal. They were going to Hollywood. The biggest cheer of all had come when the logo had appeared on the giant screen:

    TITANS

    As the cheering finally dies down, a spotlight illuminates the compere on the stage. Gary pats the air with his hands, grinning, trying to calm the crowd down. When it's finally quiet enough to be heard, he speaks up. "Now I know you all terribly disappointed we didn't reveal the actors..." various boos, cheers and laughs from the audience. Gary grins. "But I can promise you that next year's Comicon is going to be something special for fans of the Titans. We'd hoped to have James Dunn here to answer questions, but realistically there's just not a whole lot he can talk about right now." More boos, but it's all good natured. "So instead we've brought in these three guys we found wandering around the halls..."

    The lights on the stage go up, revealing three people sitting there, and the crowd goes wild again. It takes a while before it's calm enough to introduce them, but finally Gary manages to quiet things down enough. "I kinda guess you guys know them already huh?" he jokes. "Well, tough. I'm paid to introduce them, so I'm gonna. These are the guys who created the comic book you all love so much, and without whom we wouldn't have this movie. They created the Titans for Eclectic Comics back in 2012 and have been the creative team behind the title ever since. When the book returned in 2020 after a three year break, that happened because EC managed to persuade them to come back -- they knew you guys would see it as sacrilege if they got anyone else to do the title. They're known in the industry as the 'Three Stooges' because they're three friends who we almost never see apart and have a bit of a reputation for funning around. They've famously self-inserted themselves into the comic as three of the characters on the team. They are..."

    The spotlight moves to the first figure, a short man with dark hair. "Ken Takei, writer of the Titans!"

    The second, taller, with red hair. "Walter East, the fastest penciller in the world!"

    The third, shorter again, wearing a cheesy grin. "The inker of the Titans, Mark Lucan!"

    There's wild cheering between each introduction, and more when the three are introduced. When it dies down, Gary leans his elbows on the lectern, and grins over to the three comicbook creators. "Before we get on to the questions from the audience, let's kick it off with some words from you three. In turn, what does it mean to you seeing this trailer? Are you hyped to see the Titans appearing in the EC extended universe, or worried that they won't do your characters justice? What are you most looking forwards to seeing, and how much involvement in the movie are you guys going to have?"

Kian has posed:
    "Well, let me tell you all, I wish I knew where this came from," Ken remarks, leaning back in his chair.  "I mean, half the time, it's more like I'm taking dictation than actually creating, like it's a real universe somewhere else I get to peek into, or that resides in the back right corner of my brain.  And if that sounds crazy, you should try living inside my head for a while."
    And then he leans forward and flexes his shoulders, as if spreading imaginary wings.  "But wherever it comes from, I'm glad it does.  And I don't mind admitting it would be an interesting universe to live in, wouldn't it?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Mark Lucan adjusts his position in his chair, resting an arm across the table. The readers know him as someone who's a fan of the color green, down to dying his hair that way. He's got a reputation as a joker, and he's made a game out of slipping little easter eggs into the pages while inking over Walter's work. It's turned into a whole thing with the fanbase for the comic.

He's also fond of wearing a small octopus pin, an obvious play on his role. It's visible against a purple shirt.

"Isn't that what it's all about, Ken? Getting everyone to feel like they have a connection with the characters and the stories? You've done a pretty good job with it. Me? I'm just in this for the huge stacks of money this is gonna bring us. Papa needs a new pair of shoes..and a Lambo."

There's a bowl of strawberries just to one side, and he casually reaches over to pop one in his mouth.

Wally West has posed:
"My name...is Walter East. I'm the fastest penciller alive."

And there he is, tall with a yellow sweater vest with a gold tie and a blue undershirt, like Mr. Rogers threw up on him. His hair is styled with gel and his face is clean shaven. Thick glasses are over his eyes and he wore slacks and Oxford shoes. -- To the present! --

"Amen boyos. But I prefer a Tesla to a Lamborghini. Do you know how unsafe those are Mark? They suffer malfunctions all the time."

Because Walter loves life slow. It's peaceful. Calm. Relaxing, even.

"But man, let me tell you all, I really love to create and write. It's a beautiful world out there. Even if we're all taking more dictations than anything else, to be able to help provide that kind of entertainment to you all well...golly, I think that's just the purpose of life right there. I'm excited to see these characters come to life and the design was just...I think you're all really gonna like it."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Before I throw this open to questions from the audience, I've got one I'd like to ask myself," Gary says with a grin. He half-turns towards the panelists, leaning his elbow awkwardly on the lectern, which starts to skid out from under him. Fortunately he catches himself in time and a small disaster is averted. "I'm probably not going to get an answer for this questions, because none of you have been willing to discuss it before, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't at least ask. So back in 2017, after the Death of Superman company wide event, the Titans went on a surprise hiatus. We've never heard the exact reason why, but there have been rumors ever since that you guys were told by editorial that you had to kill off Kole and Don to help build up Doomsday as a threat. I guess this one's for you, Ken. I'm expecting a 'no comment', but could you just like... wink?"

Kian has posed:
    "What, have you never heard of a Noodle Incident?  C'mon, TV Tropes is totally a thing!" Ken replies with a totally disingenuous grin.
    He also does not wink.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Gary starts fielding questions from the audience, and hands go up. Gary indicates a tall, slender and slightly nervous looking woman a few rows from the front, and a mic is handed back to her. She stands and grins towards Walt. "So uh... I know uh... I know Ken likes to keep his secrets, but we're all wondering about Irie's mom. Seeing as Wally is based on you, kinda... well, who do you think Irie's mom's gonna turn out to be? Or do you already know?"

Wally West has posed:
"Good day ma'am."

Walter sat delicately and his slender physique and kind smile added to an approachable demeanor. The question seems to catch him slightly off guard as he clears his throat before speaking.

"Honestly, I wish I knew. Iris's mom is based off of someone I hold very near and dear to my heart and I just know when she's ready to be revealed, you're all gonna be surprised. But know that she's gonna be a big deal and I think an important question...Are you guys team Don or Team Cait?" He chuckles softly, looking...uncomfortable by the way he rubs his wrist.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Ken's answer had only prompted a few snorts of amusement, but Wally's gets the crowd going. A few people yell out "Donna!" and a few others "Cait!". This goes on a while until someone yells out "Jinx!" which gets a few whoops of support, and then someone else with a loud voice screams out "Terry is Irie's mom!" and the hall descends into laughter. That had been a running gag in the letters page for a few months last year.

    The next questioner is so much the stereotypical comic-book guy that if his skin was more yellow, he'd be a Simpsons character. There's a noticeable tensing of the atmosphere around the room when the mic comes to him, as people brace themselves for some question-that-isn't-a-question highlighting some incredibly anal observation about a continuity problem that's going to mean nothing to anyone who doesn't remember exactly what happened in panel 3, page 4, of the april 2014 issue.

    It's therefore something of a surprise when he looks Mark straight in the eye and says "So, two part question. You guys based Kian, Wally and Gar on yourselves. Two of those characters are dating Vorpal. So part one, is Vorpal based on someone you two know? And part two, can you confirm Gar is bi? 'Cos Titans has been really good for gay representation, but the bi community is underrepresented in comics."

Kian has posed:
    "Well, I make no secret that I'm gay," Ken says, "but any inspiration for Vorpal is going to have to remain under the heading of 'Noodle Incident'.  All I'm going to say is that I'm nowhere near fucked up enough to have come up with a character like that in a sober state of mind."
    **Now** there's a wink.

Gar Logan has posed:
"Dude, you drive a Tesla and you're talking about another car being unsafe and breaking down?" Mark scoffs at Walter, giving him a pat on the back. By this point, everyone knows the similarities between him and the character of Beast Boy, down to some of the same bad jokes and all.

He urges on the chanting by calling out both Donna and Cait, then when that dies off and the question is raised he lifts a brow and glances between Ken and Walter before clearing his throat. "Well, and I'll let Ken back me on this because he's the head honcho here, but the characters that feel the most real are usually the ones the writer can find a connection with. It's a lot easier to write about things you're familiar with, which is gonna leave me asking Ken a few things I don't think we've got a lot of time for right now, but hey. That said, Gar has a lot of love to go around under the right circumstances."

He adds, following up on Ken's next comment, "This is why you check the expiration dates on all of your food, and you don't mix any of it with the hard drugs. I can also say none of us have ever experimented with glitter as far as I'm aware."

Wally West has posed:
Walter chuckles nervously at this positive fan feedback towards who Iris's mother is, though Jinx was a surprise. Terry was an even bigger surprise!

"I hear he has his hands full already! Sorry guys." He chuckles, but then he falls into a steady silence so the other two on stage with him can answer questions.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The camera viewpoint of narrative focus draws back from Comic-con, where the question and answers session with the three creators of the Titans comic continues. It draws back from the San Diego Convention Center, or at least the dream version of it, to Titans Tower. There in the tower, a few Titans are assembled -- real Titans, not comic-book drawings nor silhouettes in a teaser trailer -- are watching a magical projection of what the three Titans suffering from a cursed Fae sleep are dreaming.

    Donna leans back in her seat and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Gaia give me strength," she mutters. She takes a deep breath then leans forwards, looking around at the others. "So. Here's what we've established. We can get into the dream, but if we do we'll be subject to the rules of the dream. They're dreaming about a world where super powers exist only in comic books, so we won't have superpowers there. We know that if we make them doubt the reality of the world they're dreaming, they'll start to wake up. But we also know that the dream is going to be resilient, and if we do anything that undermines the reality they are dreaming of too obviously the dream will resist. It won't register with them, and we may even get kicked out of the dream."

    "Now Raven's working on a way we may be able to alter the flow of the dream itself to make things happen we want to happen, and that could be a great tool for persuading them that something's not quite right. But she hasn't cracked that yet. Fae dreams are weird. However we do have Mike with us, so I suggest we take a trip in now and just test the water a little. Can't really hurt. Mike, you up for that?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"... can I put my fiances in the doghouse for essentially comparing me to the headspace required for concussive diarrhea? I want to sue for divorce, and we're not even married yet," Vorpal mutters, glancing at the projection. It's clear he doesn't mean any of it and isn't actually insulted. But he is filing things away for later. For when conversation happens. "...I also noticed nobody asked questions about Raven. Even as a fictional character, she knows how to scare the bejeezus out of people."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike looks to the view of the dream and arcs a brow to Donna's declared rules. Just from the sheer nature of his ability-.

He sighs. "I could go into a lot of technicalities and stuff but- yeah, I can pop some of us in. But, those who do. Three rules. One, don't let go of me while we're crossing over. Two, keep your eyes closed while we're crossed over, until I tell you it's safe to open them. Three, don't wander too far away from me, just in case."

Mike glances to those around and looks to the theme before his form shifts, at first reversing in features. And then the attire changes as well. His usual street clothes have been replaced with the visual of much higher quality attire. Still comfortable, just more expensive. His hair is pulled back cleanly and upon his face are a pair of glasses. Around his neck a convention badge appears, showing him to be one of the featured guests. Oh hey! a VIP!

Jinx has posed:
Jinx shakes her head at the three very mundane men talking about a comic book based on their actual lives. "This is trippy even for the Fae..." She presses her lips together. Even if she had her magic going in to the dream would mean she didn't.

"If we're smart we can nudge the narrative - influence them. Like in that movie - inception. Put an idea in to their dream that'll eat away at it. I mean, after all, we're going to easily win best dressed costumes just by being there."

She then grins, "And we can skip right past their self censorship and find out what they really think of us." A wink is given to Terry and then she nods to Hannigan, "Send me in coach. This is going to be weird and probably fun in a surreal way."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Terry, don't be gross," Caitlin says with an absent tone. She's looking over Donna's shoulder at the the screen, considering their options. "I'm already weirded out about the fanshippers in that reality being as bad as the ones -here-," she mutters with a sour disposition.

The redhead paces a little, listening to Mike and Jinx while formulating her own thoughts. "Well psychologically, we see lucid dreaming happen in certain wavelengths of thought," she points out. "There's certain inductive frequencies we can apply that could strengthen the signal resonance in their brains. Or, disrupt it," she allows. "I can't make any guarantees about waking them up, but I might be able to keep things from getting out of hand-- either getting too active or falling apart early," she suggests.

Caitlin clearly is not wild about going into dreamland.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry glances at Cait. "Oh, I'm the gross one? Kian just compared me to eating a three week old dank burrito from the back of the fridge, and I'm the gross one?" He smirks and looks determined. "I'm goin' in," Was there ever any doubt, Terry? "Along with Jinx. I think I know what my approach vector will be." After all, he knew his fiances, right? And cosplayers were a thing at cons. He, sometimes, has actually gone stealth by cons as himself just to see who catches on. He often gets told that the ears are realistic but his tail needs work.

"Who else is coming?"

He glances over at Nick and gives a grin, "I know the drill, don't get separated from you. Or else I end up on top of a cake at a kid's party. But in my defense that kid was /stoked/ that I was there. Absolutely over the moon." He glances at the magic dream-screan, "And he didn't mind glitter. Either."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The Q&A has come to an end and the hall is emptying out as people head out to the next scheduled event, though there's a small crowd gathering at the foot of the stage to take photos of the 'Three Stooges'. Gary kills the mics and steps over to shake hands with Ken, Walt and Mark. "Really appreciate you three stepping in," he says. "The studio kind of shafted us on this one, booked in for the trailer and left it to us to arrange guests at the last minute. We're really lucky that you three could make it."

    He nods in the direction of the edge of the stage, where phone flashes are flashing busily away. "You guys want to leave by the stage exit," he adds quietly with a nod towards the side. "We've got refreshments waiting for you in the green room. If you want to stay and talk to fans, you've got about 30 seconds before someone gets the courage to ask for a selfie or autograph."

Wally West has posed:
Q&A done!

Walter stands up as the event draws to a close, lifting his hand to wave at the crowd with a laugh leaving his lips. "Thank you guys!" He is happy to throw a thumbs up or two for photos but otherwise, his attention shifts to look at Gary.

"Hey, anytime. We're really passionate about this project and anything to help fans get invested."

He looks out towards the audience, gulping. "Autographs....I uh, might have had my fill on asking who the mom is today, haha..." Walter looks a bit nervous. "What do you guys think?" He asks his fellow compatriots.

Gar Logan has posed:
"Yooo! How's it goin', sugar? Our future is so bright together, mama!"

Mark rubs his forehead. "Oh, for crying out loud..."

There's someone in the crowd, cosplaying as Beast Boy, trying to hit on a Raven cosplayer who looks wholly unimpressed. She's got the look down pat, really. "What's up, dudes? It's me, none other than Beast Boy himself, the coolest cat in the room! The dapperest dog! The awesomest alpaca! The bodaciousest baboon! The studliest seal! The wonderfulest wolf! The.."

With a sigh, as he's shaking Gary's hand, Mark turns a bit. "Security! Who let Greg Cipes in here? He was banned from the con two years ago! They never should have let him voice Gar, I swear. Tried to push his veganism on everybody, force dumb catchphrases...so obnoxious. Ah, there they are."

Sure enough, a few people with 'SECURITY' across the backs of their shirts arrive to handle the guy dressed up in the black and purple costume, any visible skin and hair painted green. "I'll get you, Lucan! This ain't the last you've seen of the real Beast Boy!"

After this, Mark is left to shake his head and pinch the bridge of his nose this time. "Right now, I'm thinking I need the refreshments. We've still got the rest of today and tomorrow ahead of us."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"Oh I wouldn't put it that way, Terry." The newly attired Nick Drago, rock star and actor, replies. He holds out his arms for people to grab on to. Shoulders are a possibility as well most likely.

"I think he was referring to you more as a drug of the forbidden variety. Or chocolate." Nick gives a slight smile to the chaotic guy, "And yes that worked out well. He was quite happy to get an actual Titan to show up to his Titan themed party."

Glancing to the screen, Nick smiles to two words he's very much familiar with. "Don't forget to imagine yourselves with badges."

Once Nick's sure everyone who is coming along is latched on He repeats his instructions before starting the steps over, positioning them in a less traversed area that is not being focused on due to the vengeful vegan making a scene. A couple are asked to adjust their steps before he gives the all clear for eye opening.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx puts a hand on Nick's arm. Rockstar dream walker extraordinaire. The motion feels somewhat seamless to her. It's an impressive display of dream acumen. As she opens her eyes in to the convention hall they were only just witnessing she spies the three wound-be comic book makers.

"It's kind of egotistical that they've become the authors of our lives in this dream..." She then looks at Nick and says, "Oh. And never ever work for HIVE. They would want you so bad if they knew what you could do."

She looks down at her attendees badge. Lanyons, they're kinda fun. If she fiddles with it too much the pin will bend. They always do. "Okay. So now we know what happens if we rock the boat too much." Security, that is. Being kicked out will likely result in them being kicked out of the dream itself. A metaphor works well there.

She looks at the redheaded fastest penciller in the west and smirks. "If this weren't serious this'd be more fun." Then her eyes go to formerly-green Gar, "Let's plant some ideas people." She tugs on her jacket and realises she's wearing sneakers - that tracks. Jeans too. She looks just like Jinx, pink hair too. Because she is Jinx.

She approaches the group, "Hey guys. Great presentation. My vote is still on Donna being Irie's mum." English accent on pointe; someone has taken cosplay of Jinx to perfection.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Vorpal isn't far behind Jinx after coming with Nick. He looks like someone who has mastered the Cheshire cosplay. The latex prosthetics are on point- the fur looks very realistic! To boot, the natural redhead doesn't need to wear the wig, as he has a naturally messy 'do. It's long enough to hide human ears. The outfit is a variant of one of the many that Vorpal has worn over the years.

    "Oh that's too predictable," he says approaching in Jinx's heels, "And too obvious. I'm SURE Raven has to be Irie's mother. That's a twist, right?" He grins at Mark. A very good grin, to his credit.

Kian has posed:
    "What, leave?  When presented with our adoring public?" Ken says, feigning being more scandalized than he actually is.
    Hint: his level of scandalized is mathematically stated as zero.
    Walter gets a really evil smirk.  "Don't tempt me.  I can write in that mom is actually a dad, you just watch me!"
    He hears the suggestions of Donna and Raven, and genuinely giggles.  "Pff.  For maximal weirdness, can you imagine calling Batman 'mom'?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    There are only about fifty people from the crowd still left at the front of the stage. Not too many, but enough that when there's a bit of a commotion at the back of the group it takes a moment for those on stage to see exactly what's causing it.

    These days a really good cosplayer can be almost as much of a draw to the crowds as the celebrity guests. The quality of costumes just seems to get better and better each year, and the Three Stooges have seen a few really great looking Titans cosplayers while walking around the halls. This group is another level though.

    One of the things you can't necessarily get right however good your costuming skills are is looking the part. Oh if you're smart, you cosplay as some character you've got a passing resemblance too anyway. The first of this group of cosplayers to come into view, easily seen over the heads of the crowd, is a red-headed giant of a woman who must have been born to cosplay as Caitlin Fairchild. She's probably getting the most of the attention of the rear half of the crowd right now, simply because of the scale she's built on. What makes it really impressive is how she's managed to find people who look as much the part as she does. There's not much by way of a distinctive costume other than the hair coloration, but that Jinx cosplayer has just the right face for it. Donna and Vorpal could get away with not looking the part so much because their costumes make it very clear who they're playing, but nonetheless they're spot on. There's even someone who's come as Phantasm -- not a member of the Titans, but a frequent enough ally of the team to make sense when he looks the part so well.

    The costumes though! They are all spot on, but Donna's and Terry's particularly stand out. Terry's costume itself isn't anything particularly difficult, but the facial prosthetics are amazing, and how many hours did it take to apply all that fur? Donna's armor is spectacular. It had been a challenging design for Walter and Mark to come up with, a hybrid of traditional super-suits with Themysciran armor styles, and here it is. Shining and black, flexible yet somehow still looking metallic. As cosplays go these are almost too good, and inevitably someone in the crowd asks "Are those the costumes for the movie?"

    There's no real gap for the Titans to get through to get closer to the stage, because half the crowd is paying attention to them now, rather than to the three creators on the stage. Camera and phone flashes flash away as people take photos, and many a selfie is requested. The crowd does not however stop the Donna cosplayer from addressing the Three Stooges directly.

    "No need to do a casting call," she says, her voice carrying strongly over the crowd. Ken has mentioned in the comic a few times how Donna had been trained by General Phillipus in how to make her voice carry so an army can hear it, and there it is in action. "We're hear to claim our parts in the movie!"

    'Smoke and honey' was a phrase Ken had used a few times to describe the Themysciran accent of Donna Troy's voice. This cosplayer has that down perfectly too!

Wally West has posed:
Oh God, it's already begun!

Donna, Cait, Jinx, now Raven?! Walter has no idea who Irie's mom is supposed to be. But..he's trying to let go of the idea. Trying to be free. But in this? He was honestly just considering a poll.

Worked out for Jason Todd.

"Oh, uhm-" He looks at Jinx. "I think Raven has a reputation for being scary, but I think she's truly a wonderful person and a character who will always do the right thing, even with a hard exterior. She's pretty great." No bad mouthing! He makes no comment on the possibility of Raven being the Flash's wife. He turns to Jinx for a moment and he considers Donna for a long moment.

"Donna..."

He runs his chin. "Well, she's just as spectacular. In many ways, she leads the Titans and they all look to her. But, who knows how the story will go?"

He looks at Ken, lifting his shoulders. "I guess that means we're sticking around." Though he frowns. "Come on, man...that's not how his story goes..." he reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Then strange figures are approaching! Lead by one Donna Troy Cosplayer and a hand lifts to his chin. "Wow, they're costumes are spectacular and...they really do meet the part my designs were conveying. Like...wow, the one playing Fairchild looks /just/ like her and Donna sounds....just like how I had thought. Smoke and Honey I think was the writing?" He looks at Ken and Mark for confirmation.

"...I mean, I could call the casting agent? Give them a chance? Could make this a Con to remember."

Gar Logan has posed:
Mark squints toward the new arrivals, who seem to have snuck in amid much of the crowd departing. "I think they're a bit late. I have other obligations," he says to Ken and Walter, though his eyes pause on the guy with the Vorpal costume, leading to him doing a mild double-take as he shakes his head.

There's a Fairchild, a Donna, a Jinx, even a Nick. "I think they've done their homework. I'll give them that. But it's one thing to look the part, another to be able to act. I'm not going to green-light anyone just on sight alone. If I did..you know what, I'm not even going to dwell on him any more today." One guess who he's talking about.

All the same, he can't help but watch and listen.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"... Everybody focuses on the Amazon and the Adopted Amazon. Nobody even says 'hey, that's a great Cheshire! The ears are /so/ realistic. Oh my god aren't you hot under that fur?' - at which point I would say, 'Wouldn't you like to know? Wink wink." Vorpal actually says wink wink. He's got the right insouciant demeanor and the twinkle in his eye, that's for sure. He crosses his arms over his broad chest and raises an eyebrow- the prosthetics are solid enough to catch that. What, did he spackle them on with concrete? "I guess that's what I get for hanging out with these two skyscrapers," he jabs his thumb in Donna and Cait's direction. He's not tiny like Damian used to be, but next to them, he might as well be. "Isn't that right?" he asks Jinx.

To the creators, he says in that distinctive baritone: "C'mon. We are /born/ for this. And we can prove it--" he smirks at Mark and Ken, "The feel test. We don't even need to look the part, let us read a script. I bet you that if you close your eyes and hear us, you will swear to Rao that no-one else should ever play the Titans." Hands on hips, grin. Gauntlet tossed.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"Nah, it's how the mind works." Nick responds to Jinx's comment, shaking his head. "Dreams are often a patchwork of memories jumbled together. We make up the memories so we become part of the story." He glances over to Terry, "Some more than others..."

Nick's words drift off for a few moments, seemingly considering other things. Hearing Jinx's advice, Nick looks over to her. "I will... keep that in mind. It wasn't part of my to do list."

As Terry suggests Raven as Irie's mother he considers the possibilities of how to make things not seem right.

Do you think offering Kian and Gar fried chicken would be considered an immediately bannable offense or just the right level of something wrong?

"You know, I kind of thought it was going to be a deep dive like she was like a half-sister to Squirrel Girl or something... I mean there's just something in that personality."

Getting the general sense of the focus turning on them, Nick frowns slightly but upon an attendee coming up for a photo and Donna setting the stage for them to be seeking a role, he immediately puts on his rock star look for the dream camera.

Time to sell himself as the role of him by pretending to be not him who is also him.

Stage personas are weird.

...Is Phantasm even part of the script? Normally don't they save the crossover team up stuff for sequels and just regurgitate the origin story for the first of each rebooted series?

Jinx has posed:
Jinx shakes her head, "Couldn't be Batman. Has to have some Irish red headed heritage in there somewhere." She then glances at Donna, "Really Donna. That's what you're going with?" She scoffs and smirks. As she gets the attention of Wally's dream brain she shakes her head, "Are you kidding? Raven is fucked in the head. Everybody knows it. She's scary as shit."

Just how she's written, yet this 'cosplayer' is doing it off the cuff. "But I'd still ship it. Wally and Raven. Funny.." She looks side long at Donna as she says this and then grins a touch more. "Don't drag me in to your height inferiority complex Terry."

As the people crowd around her she scowls a touch. She is not a 'people person' - it's kind of one of the requirements for supervillain sorceress after all. Not that she can do anything about it here. People want to pose with her. "..oight, come get your snaps in."

It's like she's channeling Ken's character Jinx saying things in a situation he's never put her in in the comics. "No touching." That lasts all of five seconds before some guy who is clearly a fan of Jinx .. also wearing a Jinx costume and pink hair .. wraps his arm about her and snaps a few selfies before moving away in triumph. "Wankah!"

If she had magic in here right now she'd pause the lot of them and re-pose them in humourous ways. You take the small joys where you can. But it's not just how she's talking - it's also how she's moving, just like Walter East would draw her. The micro expressions, the slouch, the hands in pockets half the time in 'just so' a manner. That vague distrust in the way Mark would ink her in. These 'actors' really pop.

"Oi twats," she says to the three of them, "ever consider may be your characters should have listened to me more closely before talking to the Fae..." from an issue they have barely put pen and pencil to paper on. A fan shouldn't know where they're going with the story. May be it's just a lucky guess. May be it's AI predictive ChatGPT nonsense.

On the other hand that might have just been the best audition for a Jinx actor ever. Titans indeed. She's also trying to carefully dance the line between what could happen in this dream and what might get her kicked out.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna smirks slightly at Jinx. "For the moment it's what I'm going with," she says. "Think of it as testing the ground. This is very much a play it by ear sort of thing."

    Donna and Vorpal are the ones who's 'costumes' are the most obvious, so they're perhaps getting the most attention from the con attendees who want selfies with a Titan. Of course this is no new experience for them, though normally they're doing that for people who know them as really being Supers, not as people who think they are dressed up as comic book characters. Most of the Titans are pretty comfortable dealing with members of the public now, and Donna works her way easily through the crowd, stopping to give selfies with whoever asks. She does however politely refuse any time someone suggests she pose with her sword out of the scabbard, or lassos anyone with the rope hanging from her hip.

    Once she has made her way to the front she vaults up to sit on the edge of the stage, glancing briefly up at the three 'creators' with a smile, before turning her attention back to the crowd of fans. She raises her hands slightly to indicate 'later' to a few people asking questions about the costumes, watching the rest of the Titans make their way through the crowd.

    "Ken, right?" she says to the writer, without bothering to turn to face him. "Tell me, the Themysciran dialog. How do you manage that? I mean it's not like you can just rely on Attic Greek. Mycenaean Greek is obviously closer, but it's simply not that well attested in the records that survive in man's world. Do you have to do a lot of research for it?"

Kian has posed:
    Wait, is someone questioning the *plotting*?  That completely awakens Ken's sense of /amour-propre/... even if the questioner is a spot on Jinx cosplayer.  "Well, first, I think I need to sweep the office for bugs and ban webcams," he says, addressing here with a raised eyebrow.
    And that morphs into a smirk.  "And second, Kian listened, but had incomplete information," he continues, ticking off a second finger -- and unsurprisingly rising to the defense of the character assumed to be based on himself.
    Another finger is ticked.  "And third, the needs of the story sometimes require characters to do ill-advised things.  Anyone here ever heard of the Smithee Awards?"  There's a little applause and a couple whoops.  "So, they have a category called 'Acting Appropriately Stupid' where a character goes and does something dumb because it's necessary to move the plot along.  Well, the plot needs to move along, and if not dumb, sometimes even the sweetest and most gentle characters have to do something odd."
    He glances at Mark.  "And no, I wasn't referring to Gar there."
    He returns his attention to the spot-on Jinx.  "And really, where would Jinx be if she hadn't done something unexpected like, well, hook up with the Titans? ...whoa."
    Pick the moment he noticed there's also a spot-on Donna in the crowd.
    "Best cosplayers I've seen in a long time, really, wow.  Anyway, I *did* study classical Greek in college for one semester, so I have a ballpark familiarity with it, and the rest I get from the /yia-yia/ of the owner of the best Greek restaurant in my home town.  Sweetest little old lady, although I bet crossing her would be a life altering -- if not ending -- event."

Gar Logan has posed:
Mark raises a finger to say something, but he cuts himself off when Ken brings up Gar as part of that particular award. "I was about to say," he remarks, then turning his attention toward the people in costume.

"Look, just because you might have the appearance down, that doesn't mean you have the acting ability. We've all seen fan-made shorts where the costumes are pretty good, but you can tell there just isn't much else going for it. Now before you start throwing things at me, I'm not saying that's the case here. You'd have to go through screening, read for the parts, all that stuff. And for stuff like this you're gonna need to be in the union and get your SAG card," he explains, popping another strawberry from the bowl. The amount in it doesn't seem to really change. "That said, you all look pretty good except for the Vorpal cosplayer, who's clearly trying too hard and doesn't know if he's trying to go to a furry con or I don't know what else."

He's coming off like he'd rather be getting on his way to other activities.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Being that Mike is dressed as the Nick Drago persona, the pictures he ends up taking with those wanting photos end up being more Rockstar-ish in nature. Yet with each picture he seems to follow general publicity friendly rules. One of which being him not initiating actual contact with the others.

Nick does gradually make his way up, seemingly more because the rest of his group went up rather than him actually challenging anyone directly. Instead, he watches the interview quietly, cocking his head in a manner reminiscent of his most often used avian form. When Gar insults Vorp's appearance, there's a slight clench to his jaw as he bites back a comment.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal is a natural. He usually is. He takes selfies as he follows Donna down the crowd. At one point he even does a very in-character thing when a fan built like a brick wall cosplaying as the Mammuth asks for a selfie, and there is a whole four minutes where he insists on getting up on his shoulders to pose. Then there are the requests from Beast Boy cosplayers- after the third one, he indicates 'later' because he is lagging behind, and makes his way to the stage, where he joins Donn and gives Mark an insouciant grin.

Every mannerism from the pages is there. The way he tilts his head, the lift of the eyebrow. "There is no such thing as trying too hard when it comes to this character, isn't it? You created him, I'm only following the rules you laid out."

He taps his chin, "You know, for a character like Gar who is constantly running away from things, don't you think it's a little out of character to suddenly just propose in one of the recent issues? Unless..." he glances at the writers, "Ooh. Is the proposal meant to be Gar running away from his trauma in a different manner altogether?"

Jinx has posed:
It's a dream, right? A nudgy weird fae induced dream. "Today's your lucky day. We're all in the union, we all have our SAG cards. This troupe here? Literally and Figuratively born to play the Titans." Jinx throws a smirk back at Donna. If that's her play she'll lean in to it.

"Oi Vorp. Don't.. you know.. abuse this to get answers to questions he wouldn't otherwise tell you." There's slight distress on her face. Jinx has plenty of hurt when it comes to mind control and mental manipulation. "It's not fair for any of you."

Demonstrating strangely some of the 'inner workings' of how Jinx really behaves. Things that haven't been put pen to paper yet. It's weird to see them being acted out by this cosplayer so accurately. "I get you Ken. Doing dumb shit. But I have bad luck when she's not giving it off to other people." She mutters quietly after that, "At least that's what I thought."

"Oight. You want some proof we can act - throw us a scene meistros." She flicks her hands out and rocks her neck back and forth, "We're ready to rumble if you're ready to write. And be honest, not like I can throw a fireball at you for real... right?" She waggles an eyebrow.

Donna Troy has posed:
"That checks out," Donna replies to Ken. "Yiayia. Typical of the modern /dimotiki/ you'd hear from some Greek restaurant owner in New York or Metropolis. I'm not sure when the gamma becomes so softened like that, but your instructor in classical Greek should have taught you to pronounce it as a velar stop. More like /gyagya/. Of course it's an anachronism for Themysciran anyway. You should be using /tethe/ instead."

    It seems the Donna cosplayer has done her research too, though with that accent it's a fair bet she is actually Greek. Her pronunciation is a little weird in places. 'Anna-khrrron-ism'?

    Donna gives a nod in agreement to Jinx, and raises an eyebrow at Vorpal. "She has a good point, Terry. You could perhaps try to demonstrate to him how good your costume really is instead? Or..." she glances quickly over her shoulder at Mark before turning back to Jinx and Terry. "Or demonstrate your acting abilities, perhaps. Phantasm, you have the most experience in acting. Would you like to join in the performance? Or perhaps it would be better for you to do some directing."

Gar Logan has posed:
Holding up a hand, Mark shakes his head. "We'll get you in touch with management. It's not our decision. We're just advising." He really doesn't seem to want an actual demonstration. Is that a result of his own dream self, or an act of the dream trying to deal with the interlopers? Hard to say for sure.

"I'll tell you what I tell everyone else: keep reading," he answers the Vorpal cosplayer, still unconvinced. Jinx gets a longer look as she tells Vorpal not to pry like that. Not being a writer himself, he isn't paying the closest attention to Donna's efforts on Ken. After all, he's only the inker, even if he gets more involvement than some members of a creative team. Leave it to Ken to offer up a scenario if he really wants to.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike glances over to Donna. His head tilts a bit the other way. "That I do." He confirms of Donna's pointing out the added experience. "And sure."

Nick turns his head back to look to Kian, studying him for a moment. He gives a smile, that looks eerily similar to the one that has unnaturally appeared upon a raven's beak from time to time, "Although you will have to use SOME imagination as it's not like I can change forms on my own. Although... how well do you know the character of Phantasm anyways, Ken? Didn't you guys just borrow him from another series?"

Kian has posed:
    "Well, union cards aren't the problem, it's that none of us are the casting director."  Ken nods to Mark.  "So we advise, but we don't decide.  That said, you people *definitely* should be doing professional costuming work.  I mean, you've got it nailed."
    He peers closer at the Cosplay Cat.  "Except not enough glitter.  Probably the only time that's ever been said to Vorpal."
    Another raised eyebrow.  "I wouldn't say 'just borrowed'.  I know him well enough that the creator lets me play with him from time to time.  And I still occasionally zap off the occasional text to make sure I'm not stepping on any creative toes, but you know, it's actually a lot of fun taking up the challenge of writing someone else's character and being true to *their* vision without breaking my own."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx remembers her training. This is all a lot easier when you can apply real magic to the situation. But you need to get the dreamers to become lucid. Once they're aware they're in a dream it's easy for them to wake up on their own. The best way to do that is to push the credibility of what's going on around them.

The good thing about being in a dream is even though she doesn't have her magic in the real world - she can have it here. It's not like those three know how magic works anyway. That works in her favour. Nor had she told them before they fell in to the dream that she'd lost her magic.

Something benign that might grab their attention and make them go 'huh?' ... she draws out her hands and pink magical energy bursts forth around it. She then pushes the window to blow off papers from the panel desks. "P-cha!" Sound effects added by Jinx.

The dream glitches and one of the AC units revs up randomly to blow the papers off the desk and Jinx has pink party streamers twirling about her hands decoratively. She pauses and looks at them, letting them dangle down, "Huh. I did not see that coming." Yet - even though it's all 'plausible' now, how the heck did she time that stunt with the AC unit? weird.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Not enough glitter?" the Vorpal cosplayer seems offended at this. If 'Ken' looks at him again, he might see that he was wrong. Every turn of his head and body practically gives of little sparkles here and there. It's clear glitter has been liberally applied.

But was it there in the first place and they failed to notice? How likely is that, when it's /glitter/, though?

He whispers to Jinx, "I was just trying to get him into the point of view of the character, that's all." The way he figures, the dream puts psychological distance between the created persona and their real selves. Trying to make them take on the 'character' perspective could blur the lines. But it likely would only work on the one who identifies as a writer- you can snag him with story, probably. Mark? Tougher cookie to crumble. Harder squid to fry.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"Oh okay. So did Sogno give you the full backstory or just the barebones of what was put in print? Did he actually tell you what happened to the murderers? Or what all happened in Hell's Kitchen?" Nick glances over to Vorpal, "It's alright I got you..." Walking over towards Vorpal, he reaches into his pocket to pull out a canister of glitter, handing it over to Terry. "Figured you might need a touchup."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The 'pink magical energy' that Jinx produces falls to the ground as a fine sprinkling of pink glitter that blends in with the glitter Terry has started to shed. Tricks, sleight of hand, all perfectly credible if superficially impressive. There are a few hoots of approval from the gathered crowd, and from somewhere near the back someone yells " Let them audition! Give them a chance!" There are some scattered laughs, and a few other people take up the call. Donna raises her hands for quiet and smiles over to the person who had called that out. "Sister, thank you but they are correct. They do not choose who will be cast in our roles. Nor do we truly have time to act in this movie even if they did -- we are just briefly visiting your world anyway . Back on our world, where the Titans are real, we are needed. Aside from the whole fighting crime thing, you must all realize that my sister is really bad at answering the emails at the embassy. You would not believe the backlog that I had to deal with when I was away inside that black hole for three months. I think if I stayed here to act in a movie then by the time I got home Themysicra would probably be at war with Canada or something."

    This lot are certainly playing up to it all, and apparently the Donna Cosplayer even has a back story to explain things!

    "However it could be a little fun for everyone, yes?" She pivots on a hand and flips athletically into a standing position on the stage, still keeping a little distance from where Ken, Mark and Walter are. "Come," she says to the others. "Let's give a performance. And Phantasm? Please try to remember where we are. They believe they are our creators, but they do not in fact know what happens to us in the... space between the panels. Let us focus on the mission."

Gar Logan has posed:
Mark pops another strawberry into his mouth, then a couple more. They're really good! And, perhaps they're a visual manifestation of the hold the dream continues to have over him.

There are some things about this that feel familiar. Too familiar, in fact. He glances toward Walter and Ken to see if he can tell if they're experiencing something similar.

The show of 'magic' with the papers startles him for a moment, and by the time he looks back toward Vorpal there's some glitter that appears legit. Briefly, confusion registers and while he doesn't say anything just yet, he reaches for another strawberry that leaves him coming up empty. Glancing that way, his skin appears green to himself, but only until he blinks again. Then it's back to 'normal.'

"...a performance?" he asks.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Nick looks over to Donna as she takes a moment to admonish him for doing his job be it for real or acting, Phantasm reacts. "...That's the point." He replies back, expression darkening as he steps away from Vorpal with the canister added to the chaotic one's glittery arsenal.

He glances to Kian, then Donna. "So, what will it be? Some given dialogue? A scene prompt? A revisitation of my time as Dominic? Perhaps a song number? If you want I still got some lines memorized from the Sea Wolf mini-series I did recently. Or I could do a song from The Count of Monte Cristo since we just finished filming for that."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh yes, a touch up, my public expects it," the Cheshire smirks and eagerly sprays himself a little more.

When the performance is suggested, he cackles. "That's a wonderful idea!" The Chesire stands up in one fluid motion. This cosplayer has the feline agility thing down pat. Clearly aside from a rigorous gym membership, the dude must be a dancer. Or a gymnast of some sort, because he holds himself in a way that is distinct from most people. And that tail moves, too, it's rather realistic.

Which can easily be explained, of course. You see very advanced tails at furry cons all of the time. And Terry /has/ been doing his best to keep that movement restricted to avoid suspicion. It's harder than you think.

"Like a Commedia Dell'Arte improv, only with the characters! You know-" he fixes Ken with an intense emerald stare, and that grin, "Isn't Vorpal, after all, just Arlechino with fur?"

Kian has posed:
    Ken laughs.  "Oh, hell no.  I didn't even /ask/ for that information because Phantasm's story isn't mine to tell.  I just get to fill in around the edges, y'know?  As for me... you know, I really can't think of anyone off the top of my head I would trust with these characters.  Which I guess isn't really fair since I get to borrow Phantasm but... hey, I can't help how I feel."
    When Donna flips -- quite Amazonishly, he has to admit -- onto the stage, even though she's leaving distance, he still scoots his chair back a little, and stage-whispers to Mark, "Uh, do we need to call security?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx stalks a little as she dusts her hands off of the pink glitter. "Security. You're in no danger from us - you're our friends." She looks over to Mark and winks, "Even you. --" then back to Ken she adds, "But what good would security do if you can't even find me?"

Recreating one of her favourite magical tricks - illusion of multiple Jinx's. Suddenly amidst the crowd it's easy to spot.. 6.. no.. 7 of her. At least for just a moment, until the dream adjusts and it's just more cosplayers who haven't quite nailed it like Jinx has. Yet the experience of it is almost surreal, de ja vu.

"Don't you just hate those dreams you lose your grip on. Everything starts drifting away in weird directions and nothing makes sense. Just like a Titans story..." She's up on stage with Donna now. How'd she get up there? magicians tricks probably.

"Do you want to experience some real magic?," she asks and stares at Mark for a moment. "Somehow this feels easier for me to say it here than back in the real world." She has a vivid memory strike her - first pizza night at the Tower. Gar getting angry at her, she getting angry at him. Alls Gar wanted to hear was remorse for her part in attacking the Titans. But she couldn't do it. Since then she's grown a lot and gotten to know them and found a way to feel partly safe amongst them.

"I'm sorry Gar." Sincerity is written over her face and then she looks away from him. Admitting that outside of a dream would be so much harder for her. But here, where things aren't quite real, somehow it feels easier. She can bypass all the physical animosity and go straight to the heart of the matter. "We really need you sleeping beauties to /wake up/."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You are perfectly safe," Donna tells Ken. "After all who would be so foolish as to attempt to attack you when there are some Titans here? Look... " She gestures with a smile towards Caitlin, who is still towering over the heads of the crowd. "You think anyone could even get past Cait there? Maybe if they had Terry's rabbit holes."

    She nods her head to Mark. "Yes Gar, a performance," she confirms before looking back to the crowd. "Nothing could be more /Terry/ than just letting him be himself, that's a performance in itself. For Phantasm, yes. Singing would be perfect. After all you have all read in your comic books that he is a singer, yet none of you have ever actually heard him sing. You've had to take the word of some writers that his voice is good, now you can find out the truth of the matter for yourselves."

    She uncoils the golden rope from her belt, and starts to swing it. "As for me... well, I think that's obvious," she continues as she swings the lasso in graceful circuits around herself and Jinx standing at her side. "Amazon lasso skills take a lot of practice to master. Years of dedication. Whoever they cast in my role will not have the time to learn these skills, it will all be reproduced with CGI." The lasso moves in increasingly complicated patterns through the air. "I started learning the lasso when I was thirteen, shortly after my sister returned to Themyscira. If course my training was a little interrupted when I went to America to work with the Titans, but even then it was ten years before I was really skilled enough to use it as a weapon. "

    With a sudden flick of the wrist, Donna redirects the motion of her lasso and it snaps out to coil around the arm of one of the con-goers who had previously invited her to 'use your lasso on me'. She pulls the rope gently taught, and he looks startled. It's there only a moment before she flicks her wrist again, loosing the lasso from his wrist and bringing the end back over to her hand, where she starts to coil it up again.

    "There," Donna says to the surprised crowd. "No CGI. Unless of course we are all secretly in the Danger Room and this lasso is a hologram, which is possible." She turns to Walter, Mark and Ken with a grin. "Though as we don't hold comic book conventions at Titans Tower, if that is the case then this audience here may be holograms too. Who's next? You've had some magic from Jinx and some lasso work from me. Terry's comedy? Phantasm's singing?"

Gar Logan has posed:
"Secure? I feel very secure right now, especially after signing a deal with MeUndies, 'the world's most comfortable underwear for men and women!' Mark exclaims, though he does the whole room the courtesy of not showing that off. Another strawberry is reached for, but the one left in the bowl proves elusive to actually secure for some reason. "Weird."

By the time he's looking up, there are multiple people in Jinx costumes, one closer than the rest to him. And she's..apologizing to him? "Ahh..you read that part of the story," he wants to believe. Sure, they based Gar on him, but why are they insisting on calling him that? Don't they know the difference?

As an aside to Ken and Walter, he says, "I always worried about fans who took this stuff too seriously, thinking it was real somehow. Those are the ones you have to watch out for, because that's how you end up kidnapped, thrown in the front of an old VW Bug, and held captive to write or draw only what they want for the rest of your miserable life, fed only with heavily diluted fruit punch and stale honey roasted peanuts. It's not a good thing."

He gets one of those strawberries in hand, only for him to lose his grasp on it before he can get it to his mouth. It's as if something is stopping him.

Donna's lasso trick registers, and he looks dubiously again toward Jinx. Green flickers briefly over his skin again, but this time he doesn't notice it. They might.

"We..uh, definitely don't want him singing," he says, indicating Vorpal. "He might break into 'O Sole Meow.'"

Kian has posed:
    "Or you actually have been training rope tricks most of your life," Ken says, clearly impressed regardless.  "I mean, I really appreciate the effort you put into this, but... I mean, it's just a story.  Much I wish I had wings, I mean, I just *don't*."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vopal protests, "Wait, why is comedy /my/ power? I've destroyed angels. I've helped save Themyscira!" He looks properly indignant at this, and he shakes his head. Then, he zones in on 'Mark.' He noticed. Cracking 'Ken' requires a different tack, but he knows one or two things about 'Gar' that he can use. Jinx, bless her, seems to have started to crack his facade, so now he can be a good teammate and try to shove his foot in the door.

Truthfully, it's a bit of an unfair play, but all is fair in love and parasitic dreams trying to steal your fiances away.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't sing Neapolitan, Gar. It's my least favorite ice cream flavor, anyways, and it gives you brain freeze. I prefer another song-"

POP. That's the sound of a top hat extending from a flat disc. But where did the top hat come from? "Alright, so this phenomenal cat will --- now touch you from across the room!" he says to Mark and Ken, and slips his hand inside the top hat.

And there it is. Right in between the shoulderblades behind Ken, first, and then Mark, a decided *tap* with a finger, which should be impossible. And when they turn, they'll see nothing. Nobody. No Vorpal, because he's in front of them across the stage.

"You know, Ken... why /not/ have wings? In the best of all possible worlds, you probably do, so why not imagine you do and tell me how they would feel like?"

And then, looking at Mark, he sings in a lilting voice:

~And they all say:
Oh, well, I never-
Was there ever
A cat so clever as Magical Mister Mistoffeles?~

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As Gar determines Vorpal is not to sing and Vorpal sings anyways. Nick finds himself being handed a microphone by a staffer. But considering he was wearing a Featured guest badge all this time, perhaps this was all set up.

Once the Cat finishes singing, the stage lighting hits Nick and background music starts playing on the speakers, that really sounds set up.

A cool coloring of lights twinkle around the room as one golden light remains fixated upon the musician. A rich voice soon comes out, volume increased as they filter through the speakers for those in the back.

The night time comes in,
but you're not sleeping for now.
Those thoughts, they plague you,
and you don't know how.

An evening terror,
when you shut your eyes.
dreams just so twisted,
and you don't know WHY.

It builds until that just won't do,
the nightmares that keep terrorizing you.
Fix your eyes on the dreamed up threat,
Not so fast, You're not giving up yet.

Nick lifts up his hand gesturing to the crowd and in an odd instance, several members of the audience sing along for the chorus.

...One thing to ask,
a tone demure...
Raphael's flask,
give me a cure.

Nick nods, continuing into the next verse...

Jinx has posed:
Jinx moves closer to Ken and she leans in to him as the singing begins. Soft words are spoken to him. She's in for a penny, in for a pound at this point. The principles are sound but there's no push to shove them out of these dreams. They have to leave on their own.

"Ken, you think you understand Jinx? you wrote her story? But you don't know people. You don't know humans. Their emotions and their motives. Not intrinsically - you never understood that those first few days in the Tower, the only person who befriended me without hesitation... even Donna was still angry at me for ruining her photo gallery. It was Kian."

She waggles her finger, "I'm trained in keeping people out of my mind but Kian is an alien and his Ki'thar... yes, I pay attention and listen to your silly alien words. His /ki'thar/ is not like regular mind reading. You could feel my pain and you tended to me. That's who you are - not some writer detached from life."

She places a hand to his shoulder and stares in to his eyes, "Kian, even when you sleep your /ki'thar/ does not. You can feel us now. I know you can. /Wake up/."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head towards Ken. "Of course, Kian. We're not really the actual Titans. Mark doesn't need to worry about obsessive fans, it's all just method acting." She raises an eyebrow at Mark. "You know all about method acting, right? That pretty much explains everything here, doesn't it?"

    "The people who put together our costumes just found the right people for the job. For example, Phantasm there... they found a world-class rock musician who just happened to look exactly like the character in your comic books. In my case, it is as you say, just that I spent much of my life studying 'rope tricks' as you call it. It is just simply good fortune that they were able to find a lasso expert who also just happens to be the world's leading authority on ancient pre-classical Greek and looks exactly like Donna Troy in your comic books. The genetics expert we got in to play the part of Cait had the hardest job of course. I mean she was basically just a typical college geek before she took this role. You can imagine how much work she had to put in at the gym so she could put on two hundred pounds and eight inches of height to play the role. Jinx, Terry... same kind of thing."

    She looks from Mark to Ken to Walter and gives a shrug. "That all makes sense, doesn't it? I mean people can do these kinds of things, do it all the time. Look at Kian there. Sorry, I mean Ken. Just for a bit of extra background detail in the comic book he writes, he quickly became an expert in linguistics and invented a grammatically complete natural language with an entire vocabulary. Isn't that right, Ken? How would you say 'Much as I wish I had wings, I just don't' in Akiar? I don't remember the... /ki'thar/ is mind gift, and wings are... what again?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Mark shakes his head. "You don't just gain that much for a role. You find someone who's already tall enough, or you use shoe lifts and creative camera angles for shots." There's only so far one can stretch the boundaries of common sense. But, with those things possible, it means Donna might not be wrong. Not entirely.

And yet, the combination of what's going on has him doubting. Everything Donna's doing is so familiar. Jinx sounds like she knows everything she's talking about. Vorpal's not the worst remaking of that costume he's ever seen. Even Nick can sing. There's a startled sound at the tap, but by the time he turns to look there's nothing to see.

But then..Vorpal does as well, and Mark's eyes dart back that way. "That wasn't in the comic.." he says, just enough that Ken, Walter, and anyone else directly close enough can hear.

A hand runs through his hair, pausing in spots Vorpal has noticed before that are clear 'tells' for things Gar has felt along the way in the sense of apprehension, unease, discomfort, confusion, and more. "Don't sing that," he tells 'Vorpal.'

Michael Hannigan has posed:
With the audience concluding the chorus, Nick brings the microphone back to his lip to complete the verse.

'Sleeping.
A pleasant sleep.
Perhaps that will buy us awhile.
Dreaming.
A wonderous dream.
Time to give nightmares denial.

Deprive.
It's time to thrive.'


The light blue light converges, focusing upon Nick as he moves on in the lyrics. There's a soft smattering of white rays caressing the audience as he continues on.

'It started so slowly,
didn't see it come.
The tears, the aching,
and thoughts that scare some.

Yes the feeling is seeping in
It's a pain deep within.
We're not sure if we'll survive.
This thing inside that thrives.

It builds until that won't do,
this sickness residing in you.
You're not sure how to keep it at bay
Just need to know what to say-ay yay, hey.'

Once again the microphone is turned to the audience.

'One thing to ask,
a tone demure...
Raphael's flask,
give me a cure.'

Kian has posed:
    "GYAH!"
    Guess when he got touched by Terry.  And guess what sounded a lot more like 'kya!' than 'gyah!'/
    Okay, this is getting *really* weird.
    Ken does his best to try to roll with it, starting with pretending that didn't just happen.  "Sorry, I don't have my English-Akiar dictionary on me."  He pronounces 'Akiar' exactly the same way Kian does.  "That's on my primary writing PC and backed up because if I lost it I would be in a whole world of hurt.  But 'wings' are '/kan'thar/'."  Same pronunciation as Kian's again.  "But I only have the really common phrases memorized, since those are the ones most needed."
    He does beam at 'grammatically complete natural language'.  "Hey, conlangs are a thing, you know?"
    Jinx gets a smile -- exactly the kind Kian uses.  "I figure compassion isn't a human thing, it's a sentient thing.  I mean, if you want to understand the little birdman, it's that he genuinely wants to like and think the best of everyone and everything.  Except Canada geese.  He's learned his lesson with them."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal looks at Gar, as he is asked not to sing that song, Nick starts singing. He cannot hold a candle to the actual rock star. There's lights, there's songs, so Vorpal says nothing, he merely stares at Mark.

In one of those blue light shifts, there is the brief impression that maybe, maybe, Vorpal is suddenly black and white, with a bowtie.

But that's not true. After the shift, he's there, as usual.

Jinx has posed:
Lost in Translation is famous for obscuring whatever those last words were between the two main characters. And so it is when Jinx leans in to talk to Walter, her voice is low and his expression more a mask than it usually is in real life.

The corners of Jinx's mouth twitch up just a little bit and she makes some strange hand gestures. Whatever she's saying to him, it's no doubt similar in a personal nature as she has done with Mark and Ken. She dips her head just a little and draws back from him.

Crazy super fan? or actually Jinx. She returns to Donna's side as the music is reaching its climax. Damn he's good. Inside or outside of a dream he's good. She folds her arms and sighs. "I have nothing left Donna." There's a sterility to how she says it - not some 'i can't go on' nonsense, but 'without my magic there is nothing more'.

She knows with certainty now that she needs to get her magic back. Whatever it takes - to be in a position to affect the world and help the ones who helped her means more to her than being free of that curse. Her lips press together. "This whole thing is bollocks."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The small crowd of comic book fans who stayed behind are having the con of their lives and would remember it forever if it wasn't for the fact that they aren't real people. All the 'performances' have been impressive in their way, though Nick Drago's the one who's got the real stagecraft and whether they're fans of his musical style or not, everyone knows they've just had an impromptu performance by a serious professional singer. The growing doubts that the three dreamers have is echoed in the expressions of the crowd of fans, who are acting increasingly uncertain of what's actually happening here.

    Donna frowns a little and shakes her head at Jinx. She rests a hand on the de-magicked sorceress's upper arm and turns to face her. "Jinx, listen to me. Without your magic, you're still you. Maybe you're not ready to hear this yet, but... try. There is value in that. Since you've come to us... you have begun to forge bonds with the people you've found yourself alongside. Sometimes those bonds are ones of friendship. Sometimes not. But they are real. They're meaningful. You've reached through that to touch them and try to remind them of who they are, and that has helped. Look at them..." she gestures towards Ken, Mark and Walter, but her attention remains on Jinx. Whether there may be some benefit to them or not from what she's saying -- and this is certainly a very /Donna/ thing -- it's Jinx her attention is on. "You couldn't just resolve a problem like this with magic, Jinx. I mean no offence, but if you could, then so could Rae. Fae magic like this is just... it's too dangerous to meddle with on that kind of level. HIVE might have thought of you as nothing more than the utility of your powers, but this... this is about reaching out and touching people who have touched you. The fact that you can even /try/ proves how much more there is to you as a person than your powers, when you're allowed to let there be. It's not true that you've got nothing left, Jinx. You've barely even started, and when you doubt yourself less, you'll realize that."

    Donna holds Jinx's gaze for a few moments before looking back to the 'Three Stooges' with a smile. "Just a little bit more of that method acting I mentioned," she says. "Where were we? Right. /Kan'thar/. The body-gift to go with the mind-gift. But I think you could do better than that if you tried. Forget about only having the common phrases memorized. Try. Come on Ken, forget about the dictionary, I bet you can manage this if you try. Try saying something in Akiar, and I bet you can manage. Try telling us that you don't have wings in Akiar. Give it a try."

Gar Logan has posed:
Nick's song has no particular effect on Mark. It holds no familiarity for him. Most of his attention is on Vorpal. As the light show continues and it catches the feline up in it, there /is/ that brief glimmer of recognition of the costume that becomes visible, as if there in the back of his mind as a mark or memory of a snapshot seen some time before. A ghost image or artifact that looks familiar only to someone who'd understand what he's seeing.

It causes him to rub his eyes and squint, blinking rapidly. "I.." he says, now looking mainly between Ken and Vorpal. Why /did/ Ken write the three characters into having a relationship? What gave him the inspiration to have Raven, of all possible options, be the one to literally pile them on top of each other in one of the earlier issues after the restart?

Not only are there no more strawberries in the bowl, the bowl itself is gone as if it was never there to begin with. The strongest connection keeping him tethered to the dream is no more.

Staring down, he's quite certain there's a green tint to his skin now, even if nobody else can see it. It's not just dyed hair after all, is it? "Kian," he says, looking toward the writer. "Shouldn't you have wings? You don't look right without them." He gets up, the better to go over and touch Ken between the shoulder blades, where those wings would be.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
'Saving.
A saving grace.
Perhaps that'll buy us awhile.
Smiling.
A smiling face.
Time to give sickness denial.

Deprive.
It's time to thrive.'

The lights shift once more, the blue light upon Nick becoming a light green while the pin pricks of light dotting the audience become more golden.

'It came so quickly,
Didn't see it come.
The blood its flowing,
You think you are done.

The pain as you move,
Knocks you to the floor.
It leaves you asking,
Can you take anymore?

It builds until that won?t do,
The pain overcoming you.
Bite your lip and keep it in
A little faith will help you win.'

As Nick's voice lifts to the last word, building up, he directs the microphone to the audience where their voices end up swelling in response

'One thing to ask,
a tone demure...
Raphael's flask,
give me a cure.'

The microphone is brought back to Nick's lips as he brings the song to a close with the final round of lyrics, tone leaving the room with a gentle warmth in tone.

'Mending.
A Mending pace.
Perhaps that'll buy us awhile.
Healing.
A Healing place.
Time to give hurt denial.

Deprive.
It's time to thrive.'

Once the last of the note dies away in the back of the room, he lowers his microphone, bowing a head to the audience.

As the lights in the room raise up, he hands the microphone back to a stage hand. His bit done, he turns his head, looking over to Kian and Gar, checking for any signs of improvement.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Contact.

Vorpal takes a few steps back. He has nothing to add to Donna's speech- he is good with words, but his vice is that he is melodramatic, and at times can be long-winded, meandering around before he gets to the point. That's not what Jinx needs right now- although he did blabbermouth at her back at the tower when this all started. Whether it helped or not, though, he doesn't know.

So instead he reaches over with his hand to touch Jinx's shoulder and give it a gentle squeeze. As the song ends, he gives her a smile and a little wink, and then turns back to watch Gar. Because that's Gar, starting to come through right there, not Mark.

Kian has posed:
    "Nnh!"  There's a familiar sound, especially to Gar and Terry, especially when touching /that/ spot between Kian's wings.  "That iss... that *is* very sensitive for some reason."  Ken closes his eyes and rolls his shoulders, the way Kian would when spreading his wings.
    This is all *way* too weird.  "Are... are you okay, Mark?  I'd swear you look a little... greenish.  Not just the hair."
    And then he hears something.  Except not with his ears.  Inside his head.
    And he thinks back, faintly, {/Gar... /tenar'h/?/}.  He doesn't say it aloud.
    And then he holds up his hand.  It looks like bad AI art to him -- well, okay, that's redundant.  But he can't tell if there are three fingers or four.  "How many fingers am I holdin'... holding up?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx sighs internally as Donna insists on giving her another speech about self worth. And then she almost gets another one from Terry too. Thankfully, she is spared and only gets the wink and shoulder touch. But then she notices the way 'Mark' suddenly becomes more aware of the dream. It's Gar becoming lucid. "Fuck off it's working.."

Then she notices the way Kian is talking and looking confused too. She looks looks over at Wally's weirded out expressions and then smiles. "It's actually fuckin' working."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Donna grins at Jinx. "Of course it's working," she says. "Have some faith. It's not all just talk you know."

    She smiles at Ken. "You've got the normal number of fingers for an Akiar, of course. Why would you doubt it?" She turns to Mark. "And of course he doesn't look right without wings. Why would you imagine him without wings?" And to Walter, "And the 'fastest penciller alive'? C'mon, are you really going to pretend that's the only thing you're fast at? You've /never/ let me win a race. "

    Donna turns to the other Titans, grinning. "I think they're at the point we can afford to give that final push. What do you say, let's introduce ourselves /properly/."

    She turns back to the three stooges. "You are Kian, Gar and Wally." She uncoils her lasso again, and this time it starts to glow in her hands. Holding it aloft, she rises up into the air. "I'm Donna Troy, and you are my friends. Wake up."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Of course it's not all just talk," Vorpal concurs with Donna. "There's also pizza."

He pats Jinx's shoulder after delivering this piece of eternal wisdom, and he stomps towards Gar first, looking somewhat displeased.

"Oh yes, I heard you. Trying too hard. Furry convention... Garfield Mark Logan, you are in /deep/ trouble!" by the time he reaches the green Titan, he looks rightly ticked. One hand reaches over to grab his chin, looking at him in the eye. And then he smirks. "You're a goober." And then he turns to look at Kian, "And you're a dork. And I love you both. I believe Jinx put it best-" and he leans in to kiss Gar, and then Kian, a la sleeping beauty- because faerie tales, and therefore faerie dreams, have rules. And if there is something the fae are sticklers for, it's the faerie tale ending.

And then he turns to Wally and-

"And if *you* don't wake up, I WILL kiss you."

That should do the trick.

Gar Logan has posed:
The mind-touch is there, and while nothing verbal is sent back through it there's a sense of familiarity that goes beyond just the writer/penciller/inker construct the dream has placed them in. Gar and Kian aren't close to Wally in that sense, but the dream itself is breaking down. The illusion is wearing away.

"The right amount," Gar says. Gar, not Mark. "I think I'm figuring it all out now. This isn't us. They tricked us."

He laughs, more to himself than not as he idly strokes at that spot between Kian's back. "Did you hear what I said about how Vorpal looks in here? That was funny."

Now, the visual of him is more as he's supposed to be, not the other way around. Vorpal is quick to remind about the furry convention comment. Donna's words help bring it all home. "I'm getting tired of this dream. Let's--"

Oh, a kiss. One he definitely knows the feel of well. At that moment, he stirs in the medbay of Titans Tower, sitting up with a short gasp, eyes wide before blinking as they adjust to the light, aided by a little rubbing. "That was..intense. I didn't expect...you know what? I don't think I like strawberries any more."

Kian has posed:
    "Nnh!"  Another roll of the shoulders.  "/H'qon kan'thar tan, i h'tan'e... *khe*!/"  Ken is looking right at Donna.  "That iss... that's not right.  I can't say that.  It iss... it's *wrong* for me to say that."  He genuinely sounds like he has an Akiar accent, just like Kian's.
    This is a dream.  He's aware of it, feels the texture of it, it's not a normal dream, like he's used to sharing and controlling.
    He stands up.  He's short, Kian-short.  Jeans and a butterscotch-yellow Polo, no kilt.  Sandals, yeah, he has those.  "/H'takh Kian k'Rhytak t'Kiare, na h'tan kan'thar./"
    For a brief moment in the dreamscape, those remaining get to see what Kian in Earth clothes looks like...
    ...and then, Kian, in normal Kian clothes, in the Titans' medbay, wakes up with a groan.  Before even opening his eyes, he asks, "Gar?  Tarik?"  He touches the spot where Terry kissed him.  "Home."

Donna Troy has posed:
    HALF AN HOUR LATER

    Donna arrives back at the Main Room, where the others have been sitting around eating pizza and discussing the latest bit of craziness, the projection into the shared Fae dream of Wally, Gar and Kian. "Nope," she tells them. "Caitlin still won't let me back into med bay. She's in a medical mood, and insists she's going to keep them in a bit longer for observation, and pizza is not allowed."

    Donna heads over to the counter to pick up a slice for herself and to punctuate her point. "I can't decide whether she's genuinely concerned there may be medical complications of the Fae sleep, whether she's just kind of reacting to the fact that the medical approach was doing nothing and we had to find a magical cure and that's got her in a bit of a sulk, or whether she's just getting a bit of revenge on them to teach them a lesson for falling for Fae tricks."

    Donna shrugs, then takes a bit of her slice. After a few moments chewing a thought occurs to her. "Let's take that as motivation for the rest of this particular mission. We're going to be spending a bit of time dealing with Fae. Just remember, if you fall for Fae tricks, you don't get pizza."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal is eating pizza. Mostly because he was not allowed to stay because Caitlin is in Serious Medical Mood, and no amount of Puss in Boots eyes would let him stay by Gar and Kian's bedside. So he eats, while listening to Donna. And Donna is right. And Donna is just. And Donna might just see the gleam in a Cheshire eye that is the only tell-tale sign there is, because his grin is otherwise occupied in devouring said pizza.

And that glint speaks very eloquently, now that things are resolved and the boys are back, and it says in the loudest, quietest way possible:

Whaddaya know? Someone did something foolish and impulsive.

And /it wasn't him/.

And if that wasn't a cause for a personal celebration, well- what was?