15629/All that glitters ain't Wayne

All that glitters ain't Wayne
Date of Scene:	16 August 2023
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Casual evening in the Titans Tower reveals truths about orbs, bugs, and speedsters
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Terry O'Neil, Wally West, Irie West, Donna Troy, Yaretzi Acama

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Jinx has posed:
Jinx has her tank top hanging over the back of a chair as she stares with a magnifying glass down at circuits. She has disassembled a pen like device and carefully placed all the pieces in to their own little containers so that she can put it back together again.

This intense kind of study does require pressing her tongue in to her cheek though and she's certainly not paying attention. The fact that her hand seeks out a slice of pizza from an empty plate next to her says a lot about her focus and how long she's been at this.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Cats can stare for a very long time. They are incredibly patient- except when they aren't. But on the whole, they are. Except when they're nott.

Sitting on his haunches on a chair across the room, quiet as a statue, Terry has been watching Jinx for a bit. Long enough to see the last pizza slice disappear a while ago. Lon enough to see her reaching for another slice-

And having another slice appear on the plate, ready to be grabbed by the Titan, courtesy of travel by Rabbit Hole.

He has a little bet with himself to see how long it'll be before Jinx realizes she's had more slices than there could have been on her plate. He's keeping count. Except when he forgets.

Wally West has posed:
This is just one of those days.

Wally's been working hard, his FTL Delivery service has seen some killer numbers lately! So he's been practically running through the city one package at a time and looking good while doing so! But that often meant that Wally crashes hard when he's back at the Tower.

Today is a post crash day.

He's walking up to the roof while rubbing at his eyes, heavy lids opening just enough to spot Terry and Jinx, his hand lifting to stifle a yawn.

"Heeeeeyyy guys!"

Irie West has posed:
    Since Irie's room is one of the rooms that live above the central room, it's not unusual to see her just drop down from the ceiling in a flash to grab a quick bite to eat. Though, to be fair, for a Flash a quick bite to eat could consist of a whole dang pizza. As tempting as that is, she decides to grab one of those 64oz cups that you get at convenience stores and fill it to the top with Caitlin's patented Snacky Shake.

    "Hi, Jinx! Hi, Terry! Hi, Dad! Hi, Donna!" she calls out (once Donna shows up), giving each an enthusiastic wave. "I met somebody new today and I really like her! I mean, not in that way. But she's cool! Her name is Charlie Gage and she's got these gloves that she can power up with her chaos magic and she can punch angels and demons with them!"

Donna Troy has posed:
    It is a well-known rule around the tower that You Do Not Mess With Caitlin's Kitchenware. Technically it's the Titans' kitchenware as the kitchen equipment is paid for out of the team budget, but nevertheless You Do Not Mess With Caitlin's Kitchenware. It is almost as well known a rule as You Do Not Disturb Raven in Her Room, and it's a toss-up which one is the more dangerous rule to break. Both rules are there for the health and safety of individuals who might otherwise be prone to breaking them.

    It is then perhaps a little surprising that Donna Is Messing With Caitlin's Kitchenware. On the other hand she also Disturbs Raven in Her Room on a regular basis, so perhaps she feels these rules do not apply to her. She is however Messing With Caitlin's Kitchenware in a particularly outrageous fashion; she is using an expensive Japanese chef's knife as a throwing blade.

    Specifically, Donna is using one of the fancy Japanese chef's knives to attempt to murder a small metallic sphere, approximately the size of a softball, that is floating up in the rafters high above. It has been floating up there for about a year now since it was brought back from Alpha Draconis by the Titans, but it's quite unobtrusive so people don't really notice it any more. Apart from Donna, who for some reason takes offense at it. Throwing kitchen knives at it is new though.

    The knife is well-aimed, but the metallic orb is proof against knives, and the only result is a faint clunk and a falling knife. Which Donna catches, then returns to the knife block with a sigh. "Hey Wally, hey Irie," she says. The others were there before and don't rate new greetings. "There are pizzas on the counter, grab yourself some before Jinx eats them all." When speedsters converge on a kitchen, you know what they're in need of!

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle lands on the rooftop and enters the Tower via the doorway up there, coming down and into the main room... in time to see the knife get thrown, deflected, caught. "Uhm... want me to fly up there and try and catch it?", she asks, eyes wide at that there was literaly knife-throwing going on when she arrived. As she offers this idea, her feet come up off the floor so that she's floating the rest of the way into the room, instead of simply walking.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx's fingertips dance over the plate and she alllmost looks up and over at the plate until her fingertips feel warm crusty pizza goodness with cheese and all the delicious meats. She takes it and has a bite. Putting it half eaten back on the plate she grabs tweezers.

The tweezers are carefully inserted in to the electrical circuit and she pulls out one particular innocent looking capacitor. But it's no capacitor. Paranoia serves her well once again as she finds the bug that the detector thief put in there.

The magnifying glass is placed down and she calmly, oh so calmly, turns the seat around to look at the gathering people.

"An announcement. Please. I have a new nemesis. One most beguiling and possibly an Agent of H.I.V.E." She wipes at her mouth in case there's pizza sauce there. "Several days ago I was at a gala hunting down HIVE agents. My device went off but before I could identify who it had found a stupid villain attacked. When the fight was over I couldn't find my device."

She has a look of seriousness on her face. Cold, calculated. "A few days ago I was in Gotham hunting down.. a.. thing. And while I was there I ran in to a man who was at the gala. Coincidence? Hard to say. Very improbable. BUT - he gave me back my detector. HE stole it! and returned it... and put THIS in it."

She holds up the fake capacitor by tweezers as evidence for all to see. "A spying device! And this mans name you ask? None other than rich boy Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne." She rises from her chair and thumps the palm of her free hand to the desk, "He shall rue the day he messed with JINX! We must assemble at once. We cannot have a Wayne under the thrall of H.I.V.E."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry watches Donna's 2392th attempt to commit orbicide with amusement. But he knows better than to make any quips- not only is Donna fearless in fiddling with Caitlin's cookwear, she is also a very accurate shot when handling knives. When Wally and Irie arrrive, he waves at him, and gestures towards the pizzas as Donna invites the speedsters to feast. "Hey, everybody- and the Eagle has landed, hello! Don't bother with the sphere, it's just... there. But Donna has bad memories of it from when she accidentally erased herself out of continuity. She got better, though."

As Jinx makes her pronouncement, the Cheshire Cat's face is perfectly impassive, even as his internal mischief coil starts winding up tighter than a Baptist minister's wife's girdle at an all you can eat pancake breakfast.

"I have heard of this Timothy Drake," he ventures, "I have heard that he is cunning and a true mastermind. A veritable Napoleon of Crime. I suggest-" he holds up a finger, "That we ambush him right away." He stands up on the chair and stretches, "I can go and get the tub of glitter!"

Wally West has posed:
"Hey Kiddo-" Wally lifts a hand to ruffle Irie's head a little bit,but hopefully not so much that he messes up her hair! He tilts his head. "Charlie Gage? That's pretty rad. I wish I could punch angels and demons...I mean I can, just might not be super hard." Wally smirks at Irie. "I'm glad you're making friends!"

He turns his attention to Donna as she breaks the cardinal sun of messing with Caitlin's stuff. "Don! Don't incur the wrath! Plus, can't you fly?" Wally asks as he suddenly /zooms/ across the room in a flash of movement, feet carrying him up the wall and to the ceiling where he grabs the ball with a 'yoink!' and he brings it back down to her with it firmly in his hands.

"Candygram! Do I get a tip?"

Then to Jinx.

"....who?"

Irie West has posed:
    Irie watches Jinx and her declaration with mild interest slurping up the Snaky Shake. "What does the device do?" she asks, innocently enough. "I mean, your device. Not the spying device. I know what the spying device does, unless it does something that isn't really spying, like if it's a microbomb or something." Her eyes widen and she gasps, "Is it a microbomb? Is Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne trying to blow you up?" She squints at the tiny capacitor. "Blow up your thumb?" Squint harder. "Give you a painful scorchmark?"

    And suddenly, on a completely different subject, Irie turns to Donna. "Oh hey! I had an idea! Why don't I grab a net, right? And then figure out where the orb would be on the floor above, and then I can just phase down from the ceiling and snatch it up like *that*!" Sluuurp. But then her dad ups and catches the ball. "Aww. I could've done that, too. But I like the net idea better. That would have meant that Donna gave me a net. Hey, Donna?" She gives the senior Titan the puppy dog eyes treatment. "Can I have a net?"

    Her attention shifts over to Terry, now, and she just lets out a snort. "Your solution to //everything// is glitter, Terry."

Donna Troy has posed:
"Uh... thanks but no," Donna says to Golden Eagle. "Golden Eagle, right? We haven't met. I'm Troia. Or Donna. Either name works. I can fly too. But thanks. I want to stab it, not catch it. Unfortunately it's annoyingly stab-proof. Do you want some pizza?"

    Donna glares at Terry. Perhaps she's thinking of throwing a knife at him too. There are oh so many reasons for glaring at Terry right now, but she'll concentrate on the most recent one. Admittedly only the most recent by a few seconds, but that's Terry for you. "No," she explains to the cat before continuing the explanation to Jinx.

    "I'm /pretty/ sure Tim Drake is not a HIVE agent," she says to the sorceress. "Just a tech nerd who can't keep his hands off exciting gadgets. I caught him trying to get the back off my T-Com once. His older brother has made some sizable donations to the Titans Foundation and you may have noticed quite a few Waynetech logos on equipment around the Tower, so I'm not going to sanction a raid on the Wayne Mansion. Even if the raid only involves glitter. I'll have a word with him for you if you like."

    However there's a father-daughter double-act distracting her and Donna looks at the pair with an expression of bemusement before chuckling a little and shaking her head. "Really, the pair of you..." she says fondly. "I'm not trying to /catch/ it though... catching it is easy."

    Donna demonstrates. She holds out her hand and the metallic orb slips remarkably easily from Wally's grasp despite his firm grip, as if it was suddenly much smaller than he thought it was though there's no visible change, and flies straight into her waiting palm. She wraps her fingers around it.

    "No, I'm trying to /get rid of it/," she says. She suddenly hurls the orb towards the window, a pitch fast enough to break a baseball bat. The orb doesn't get as far as the window though, coming to a halt in mid-air and then drifting lazily back up to the ceiling. "Unfortunately it has other ideas."

    Donna shrugs her shoulders, and gives Irie a grin. She ruffles the young speedster's hair and says "Sure, you can have a net. Uh... if that's okay with Wally. I mean I don't see why it wouldn't be."

Jinx has posed:
"You _think_ he's not a HIVE agent? The device went off! right near him at the gala... Eagle can testify... and she's gone." Jinx huffs and then waggles the bug about, "And he bugged me! spying on US! trying to learn our secrets." She puts it on the table and then crushes it with the plate. It makes a satisfying noise.

"...also do not try punching angels and demons. Really, that should be right up there on the list of things not to do." Then she snap points to Wally, "Tim Drake Wayne. Adopted son of playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises no less."

"He's the perfect mark for HIVE. Exactly the kind of person they'd go for. Easy to slip under the radar, close to the money, close to the tech... he could have been turned years ago."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You don't punch angels, you either fire a shotgun in their face to take their heads off like mom dd, or you slaughter them by Rabbit-Holing their god-rays back at them. True story." The O'Neils have seen some shit, okay? Harley might not have had the chance to talk to Jinx about the time she went joy-riding with Terry's mom and shot angels out of the sky in New York.

Fun times.

"Timmy Drake? He's adorable. Kinda dorky. I've interacted with him a few times." Tim couldn't possiby have gotten HIVED, could he? He was just here a few days ago to mope to the chaotic redhead about having broken up with a chaotic redhead, and then Garfield turned into a hippo and Tim was thrown from the pool. Could he have knocked his head and suddenly turned evil? That's how it works for some people, right?

Nah. Timmy couldn't be evil. At most, he could be ... miffed?

"Glitter solves almost every problem. Just ask General Zod," he says, crossing his arms, and then glancing at Jinx, he adds, "... I've interacted with Timmy Drake before. Maybe I should go pay him a visit?" he glances at Donna, looking perfectly innocent, before looking back to Jinx, "If he puts a tracker on me, then we'll know for sure."

Wally West has posed:
"Wha? Microbomb? Nah, that isn't a microbomb. Lemme show you...micro bombs always have a few things in common and one of them is that you're better off using nanotech. I mean...it's so /noticeable/! Super lame villain move to make it look like a spy bug." Wally remarks to Irie for a moment before he smiles at her. "Good instincts though!"

Yes, Irie and Wally are literally the same person.

He looks at Donna then, letting her take the ball thing back with extreme ease. "Can't help it, we're tgd dynamic- no wait, that one's trademarked...we're the fantastic t- no, no that one's gone too." He lifts a hand to his chin. "The Spectacular Pair!"

Boom. That's money.

"Don't see why she can't have a net. Knock yourself out kid, long as you don't use it on people who would totally murder me."

I.E: Raven and Caitlin.

"Why're you trying to get rid of it? It seems nice to me." He looks around. "And am I seriously the only one who doesn't know Tim Drake?"

Irie West has posed:
    "Okay. So. How about this? I take the orb and phase it into the middle of Mount Everest?" Irie has such wonderful ideas.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I have no idea how Terry knows Tim Drake," Donna says to Wally. "It's not like he attends Titans Foundation investor functions, or attends the kind of tedious social functions that deputy ambassadors and the sons of billionaires rub shoulders at. Unless... oh god, Lois probably sent him to cover tedious social functions. That's the classic junior reporter prize for good behavior. They think they're getting a cool job, but they have to write the world's most tedious reports about them."

    "Tim is... what? Irie, no. Thank you. We've tried. I got Raven to teleport it fifty million miles away into deep space and it just snuck back in during the night when nobody was looking. What are you going to do with a net anyway?" Say yes to Irie's request before asking why. That's a very Donna thing. Luckily Wally is there to be responsible.

    "Look, everybody forget the Tim Drake Is Evil thing. I know the guy. He's weird as hell, but he's not evil."

    Donna does not elaborate on why she wants to get rid of the orb. She's ignoring the question, because she doesn't have a rational answer.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx stares up at the orb since it keeps coming up in conversation. More than just today. She squints at it a little bit and then shrugs. "I'm sure it's fine. Just a lonely orb looking to sphere itself around."

"You know HIVE does weird shit to people. He might only be part time sneaky evil sending money to HIVE operations and we'd never know it. Most HIVE people are pretty much nobodies after all."

"Either way. He bugged me. So he's going to pay. HIVE or no HIVE. He's _going_ to pay." She does a classic Robin move of smacking a fist in to the palm of her open hand.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"We do not talk about Wayne charity galas, Donna. We just do /not/. Gary accidentally got us locked in a storage room for well over an hour on my first one. Lois had to crawl through an air duct. It was a whole thing." Terry shakes his head, "We do not talk about it. But-" he gestures to Jinx, "If you want payback, consider this. Let me flood his car with glitter in your name. If he's a HIVE agent, he will /glitter/ in the dark during those secret meetings, you'll spot him just like that in case you ever get a drop on them."

He glances at Donna. Yes, he's giving her something other than the sphere to focus - is he not simply magnanimous?

Irie West has posed:
    Irie blinks innocently at Donna. "Why, catch bad guys with it." Sluuuurp.

    She just shakes her head at the continued discussion of Tim Drake possibly being a secret HIVE agent. "Look," she says. "I trust what Donna says. Besides! These are the Waynes we're talking about. I mean, sure they're billionaires and everything but other than that they seem harmless."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna shakes her head and sits at the counter to help herself to pizza. As she checks pizza boxes to make her selection, she talks to herself. "Raven was right. Raven was right all along. Well... I couldn't have lived with myself if we didn't at least give it a try, but no. She's right. I'll go and tell her she was right all along, right after I've finished the pizza. We can probably spare Cait and Vic and Nightwing, but the rest are just going to have to go. Nothing too bad, I'm sure we can find some perfectly pleasant remote planet and just send everyone there. It's a shame, but what else can we do. I can probably talk her into letting Irie stay. She approves of me taking Irie out shopping, or to go for ice creams. She always says it means I'm not bugging her to leave the tower and get a dose of healthy sunlight as much, because I'm doing it to Irie instead."

    Donna settles on a pizza she likes the look of and tears the lid off the box to use as a plate, stacking a few slices onto it and sitting back comfortably on one of the counter seats.

    "The Waynes are fine," she says to Irie. "Weird but fine. Not all billionaires are bad. Grayson's the cool one though. Cait and I have a lot of fun teasing him at functions. And I have fun teasing Cait about the fact that she always calls him Richard, which /nobody/ else does. The other three Wayne kids are dorks though. "

    "I wonder if mom would count as a billionaire. Themysciran finances aren't really directly comparable, but depending on how you assessed it, she might. I should probably take some pizza up to Rae before it's all gone."

    Donna nods her head in Irie's direction. "You all listen to Irie. She's smart. No glittering any of the Waynes, any of you."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Okay... okay, no glittering the Waynes!" Terry holds his hands up and grins, "-besides, where would I get that much glitter? On short notice, I mean. It's not like I have a storage unit of it just laying around for when I need to dump more than I can produce in one go."

Nobody ask about the storage unit in Albuquerque. It's probably a red herring. "In aaaany case, I should probably go and... check that the books haven't run away from the library at the center, yeah. Before Raven decides to send me to planet Marva or something like that."

A Rabbit Hole opens, "See you guys later! No GlitterWayneing, I heard you loud and clear." He steps through the hole and waves, making his exit for the night, not wanting to wait and see how much of Donna's mumbles were true.