15990/Rendering Assistance

Rendering Assistance
Date of Scene:	01 October 2023
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Despite his reservations, Raven decides to assist in helping Kian choose violence.
Cast of Characters:	Kian, Terry O'Neil, Rachel Roth, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

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Kian has posed:
    It's a typical appearance from the Titans' resident birdman: pop out of the open shaft, touch down at the fridge, get his liquid diabetes on ice.  The only detour in the proceedings is tipping in a little liquid from a small flask in his belt pouch.  Not a lot.  His dad's brandy might also be a pretty efficient rocket fuel.
    It's definitely an effective grill lighter.
    And then… well, not much.  Kían pulls up a stool at the kitchen island and stares into his drink, looking irresolute, or at least moreso than usual.
    He's got something on his mind, it seems.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "Penny for your thoughts."
    It's a disembodied voice.  But it soon becomes bodied as the Cheshire Cat slowly fades into view, lounging on the counter across from Kian, sipping a sparkly fruity water drink.  One of those with a fancy name.
    How long he's been there is hard to tell.  Sometimes he likes hanging around invisible to startle people or play pranks on them.  Not on Gar, though—he can usually detect the Cheshire by scent.
    Cheating shapechangers.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven is attuned, to a degree, to the emotions of the team.  While she deafens herself to the emotions of the rest of the world, sparing herself that sensory overload, she specifically filters out that of the Titans.  She only does this to help her understand, but also as a way of making sure that there is no imminent danger.
    For the most part, she renders them only as small voices in the back of her head.  However, at times like this, when one of the team is having no small amount of distress, Raven is aware.  Perhaps not of what, but of that.
    So, as Kian begins his pacing, and drops into a seat, Raven materializes in the room, announcing herself audibly nearby.  "Yes," she states, agreeing with Terry, in a roundabout way.  "Please tell us of your woes."

Kian has posed:
    Kían brightens when Terry appears.  "Kié, Tarík.  You can have them for free.  I am… oh!"
    Maybe it says something about how long the birdman has been here, that Raven's appearance only elicits a slightly startled 'oh' and not anything louder or more forceful.  "I will," he says, looking just past her shoulder, avoiding eye contact.  "I don't know that they're woes.  There is really only one and… nnh."
    He drains off a good third of his Kool-Ade and brandy, and thus fortified, continues: "First of all, there's only one.  And it's less of a woe than it is a… nnh."
    Another pause, but this time his drink goes untouched.
    "I am being a disappointment to Ría q'San, the viceroy of my homeworld.  And she is understanding of the reasons why, but she's also going to run out of patience sooner or later."
    Clear as mud.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Vorpal glances at Kian and purses his lips, then he glances at Raven.  Should he?  Shouldn't he?  Chaos goblin impulses intensifying.
    It's not like he doesn't know what's going on.  He could translate.
But, on the other hand, he can feel Kian squirreling out of saying it.  And he probably shouldn't enable him.
    He sips his drink and raises his eyebrows.
    "…care to elaborate, love?  Hey, Rae!"
    He still has not told her about Fae Rae in Wonderland.  He doesn't want Wonderland to be destroyed.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Somewhere, deep down, Raven is looking only for an excuse to destroy Wonderland.  It wouldn't take much.  However, until she is aware of the exact transgression, she will not take action.  It is, perhaps, only a matter of time.
    She looks from Terry, to Kian, and then back again a couple of times.  She's like this for a moment, before offering a roll of her eyes.  "That's.  Great." she states, in response to Kian.  Her head tilts forward, and she calmly massages her temples.  "If you could please, translate those words into English."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    There is a shimmer in the air as Kian is talking and then there is a Nadia standing in the kitchen dressed in her white labcoat and safety goggles.  "It worked!  Whew.  Well mostly, I wanted the common area not the kitchen, but close enough."  She makes the gesture of wiping her brow in relief.  "Which is a good thing, last time I got split into several different quantum states and it was a mess.  Hi guys."
    But then her attention is on Kian when what he was saying finally registers.  "Viceroy?  Sounds important.  How are you disappointing them?"

Kian has posed:
    Kían glances back and forth between Terry and Rae.  "You're right, both of you, I need to just face this directly.  I just don't want to even though I have to.  Ah, kié, Nadia."
    Heavy sigh.  Gonna have to just do this.  "I think Tarík knows what I'm talking about," he explains.  "He was there when I got the command."  He picks up his drink, looks at it… then sets it back down again and slides it away.  "She has tasked me with learning how to fight, like happens on Earth.  Or at least with learning how to apply violence.  Which is really not easy because we as a people and me personally have virtually no experience with it.  Our words for 'violence' and 'insanity' are related, and… I'm letting myself get sidetracked.  I have not learned anything about using my rhy'thar offensively.  It's so… alien."
    He frowns, picks up his drink again, and sets it back down again.  "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I've been ordered by my viceroy to learn how just in case.  And I'm running out of time, and excuses, and options."
    Fleetingly, he makes eye contact with Rae.  "So… I don't know.  I don't really understand your rhy'thar either, Rae.  But maybe you can… take away just enough of my hesitation, so I can learn?  I don't want to enjoy doing it, and I don't want to be numb to it, but I need to be able to."
    Now he takes a long drink.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    The Cheshire cat waves at Nadia and grins at his friend.  "Nadia!  It's been a hot nanose—"
    He pauses, then, as Kian speaks.  The Cheshire's eyes shine and his eyebrows raise, and he takes a long slow sip of his drink as he glances at Nadia, then at Rae.
    Did Kian just ask… THAT?
    Oh dear.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven's attention shifts to the spot where Nadia will appear some couple of seconds before she does.  When it happens, her attention is back on Kian.
    "So, this… Tarik," she begins, "you have no other way to appease them?  Aside from learning violence?"  Sure, Raven was all about the Titans learning to defend themselves… but Kian isn't the first Titan to be a pacifist.
    The question of her abilities… That made her think.  She looked… for a moment, visibly uncomfortable before eventually returning to her steadfast, neutral stoicism.  "It is possible," she admits, "but I would only do it if this was not just the mandate, but something you want to do as well."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia gives Rae a little wave and a smile when she notices her looking her direction and flashes Terry a grin and finger guns.  "It has!"  Before she pulls her focus back to Kian and his problem.  "I think you may be approaching this wrong.  Take it from someone who had methods to kill instilled in them from the time they could stand up and has had a lot of time to think about what that means.  Skill with fighting is a tool like any other, it doesn't have to be violent, there are ways to completely incapacitate someone without actually hurting them depending on the situation, and like any tool or even SCIENCE! itself, how you choose to use and apply it is the most important factor in determining the morality of it."  A pause.  "Who is Tarik?"

Kian has posed:
    Kían blinks a little in surprise, but then, Terry's First Flight was a reasonably quiet and private affair, Canada geese notwithstanding.  "Terry is Tarík.  We can't be joined if he hasn't had a First Flight, so we got his wing set and had him jump off the Tower.  And it went about the way you would expect, considering it's him."
    He inhales slowly, gathering his thoughts.  "I don't know that I want to, but I need to.  Ría is my viceroy, and the heir to the Imperium."  The way Kían speaks of her, it sounds like respect for the Imperial line is all but bred into him at the genetic level.  He reaches over to give Terry's shoulder a squeeze—and does a good job of keeping his mind to himself despite the contact.  "Terry… Tarík and Gar were both with me when Ría q'San called, when we were on my world by accident.  She explained that our radioastronomers have detected several other sentient races in the galaxy, and some of them seem… not friendly.  We haven't made contact with any of them yet.  I think she wants me as an emergency option in case we get noticed."
    That stops him for a moment.  The full implications of what that might mean haven't hit him yet, but it sounded a lot bigger actually saying it out loud.
    He starts counting off on his fingers.  "Anyway.  It makes my viceroy happy.  I might learn what these qokh powers actually are if I start using them more.  It'll make me more useful to the team, and more able to protect myself, as long as I'm staying on Earth.  I don't think whether I want to do it stacks up very well against the fact that I need to."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Glances at Nadia.  Because things have happened, and she has been gone, she has missed a lot of things.  That comment about his flight going as well as it could go gives the feline a slight taste for revenge.  "Nadia, Gar and I are getting married in Wonderland.  You need to be there, you know.  Then Kian and I and Gar are hitching it in his homeworld…."
    This was a calculated move, because Nadia was likely to joysplode at Kian.
    "But Rae is right, love.  You should do this only if you want to do so.  Although I think it could be an interesting experience for you…."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven stands in quiet understanding.  She is solemn and quiet, but she knows what Kian is going through.  She'd had to do it herself—Azaranth was a realm of peace.  Violence was a corruption.  The idea of using her powers offensively did not come natural to her, raised in that realm.
    "I see.  I cannot deny that you would benefit in ways from this training.  The only question is whether those benefits truly matter to you.  Whether they outweigh the cost of learning."
    She moves around now, her hands finding themselves within her pockets as she wanders the room.  Her hood, for the moment, is up around her features, blocking them from light.  "If it does, I can temporarily pull them from you.  Long enough at a time that you can attend the lessons required.  If it's meant to be… more than daily, we will need to discuss a more permanent arrangement.  I do not want to manually hold back your emotions longer than absolutely necessary."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    There is a lot going on in the words being said to and around her.  Nadia places her hands on the sides of her face for a moment as if to steady the spiraling chaos of the many thoughts within her head.  "Wait, Terry can fly now and you're getting married, triple married?!"
    Terry is very astute, there is an exceedingly high probability Kian was about to be glomp hugged as the result of a joysplosion at such news, had Terry not drawn her attention causing her to miss some of the explanation about the Viceroy.  "Married in Wonderland?!  Let's go!"  Joysplosion intercepted, Nadia has pouncehugged Terry instead, she is also bouncing.  "Oh wow, that's great!  I'm sorry I've been super busy, there was an alternate Earth dimension that was going to collide and destroy this Earth but we can talk about that another time, you're getting married!"
    The bounce hugging of Terry lasts for a good minute at least before Nadia finally regains her composure and remembers Kian's problem.  "Rae is right, I didn't have a choice but you do.  And, while I think battle skills are a tool that can be used for good, learning them will change you and you should decide for yourself if you want that change.  Also expecting you to single-handedly fight off hostile invasions seems incredibly selfish.  If your Viceroy wants your people prepared, then your people should prepare.  This shouldn't all be thrust upon only you."  Maybe she actually was listening, somehow, during all of that.

Kian has posed:
    "I don't think she expects that of me, Nadia… or maybe she does, I don't know.  I don't think she expects an invasion in the first place.  But if it's difficult for me when I'm on a world where it's… well, not uncommon, it's all but impossible for my fellow Akiár, who have absolutely no frame of reference for the use of force.  At least if I do it, I'm somewhere that the ability is useful rather than disruptive."
    Kían tilts his head inquisitively at Rae.  "I don't know if it needs to be once, or longer term.  I'm hoping once I can do it in the first place, then at least the dam will have been broken.  And is hesitation an emotion?  Or… well, I don't know.  I don't want to do anything permanent if I don't have to, but I should imagine it's something like redaction.  If I were a strong enough telepath and highly trained enough, I could probably make the mental alteration myself, but even for the professionals that's risky."
    And then he chuckles softly, and reaches over to pat Terry's cheek.  "What isn't an interesting experience for me, hm?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry leans into the pat and wrinkles his nose playfully, once Nadia has done pounce-hugging him in what was a failed plot by him.  It would have worked, only if he hadn't distracted her from his initial distraction and thus, petard-hoisting was had.  "Nadia is right, though.  You don't need to cultivate aggressiveness.  There are ways to perform surgical strikes that disable a threat without being necessarily violent."  He glances at Raven.
    "If Rae can inhibit your inhibition long enough to develop some semblance of that, and ensure that it is not lethal and thus satisfying your standards, but effective and satisfying their standards… like Nadia said, this doesn't need to rest on you alone.  This can be taught to your people."
    He is aware of the pacifist nature of the birds, and he doesn't want to push Kian into a path he feels is antithetical to his identity… but the Cheshire knows that absolute pacifism is simply impracticable in the universe at large.  At best, a realistic pacifism was more workable.  After all, worshiping peace to the point that you allowed yourself to be destroyed in order to uphold it was an excellent way to ensure that warmongers won, because there would be no pacifists left.