2459/Quiet, At Last.

Quiet, At Last.
Date of Scene:	15 July 2020
Location:	W03 - Troia's Dorm - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	In the aftermath of the aftermath of the Brainiac invasion, Donna and Raven catch up to talk about leadership and think about pyramids.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Rachel Roth

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Donna Troy has posed:
    It had been a busy day. Correction, it had been a busy three weeks, but that had been a busyness leading up to the more emphatically busy sort busyness of the day. When the alarms went of indicating the return of Brainaic's skull ship, the Titans had swung into action with a plan that had been developed over the long nights preceding, dividing up into smaller groups to take the fight to Brianiac on multiple fronts. There had been the control team at the tower, several ground teams being shuffled around the city by portals to deal with the attacking drones wherever they arrived in concentrations, and two teams involved in attacking the ship, one directly and one infiltration squad to recover the stolen cities.

    It had all gone off remarkably well, but then there had been the after party. Titans old and new had celebrated the amazing fact that they had not only won the battle but were /still alive/ in the traditional fashion of eating pizza and playing video games. All days must end though, and finally the tower is quiet and Donna makes her way back to her room.

    The door opens and Donna slips in quietly, without switching the lights on. "Rae? Are you here? Or in your room?" she says lightly as she shucks off her armor finally, and dumps it on a chair. "What a day. What a month. It feels weird not to be running training sessions and drills."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven had taken part in the battle, but holding the front she had, had taken its toll. Raven is normally begrudginly part of the festivities, but today it was different. Overtaxed might be the word to use, as she had spent most of the day teleporting large swaths of androids to places that are best not mentioned in polite company.

    This meant that, once Donna arrives and announces herself, the cured up shape of Raven is visible in the bed, and she stirs quietly, groaning herself awake as soon as Donna does the deed of forcing her conscious. She sits up, the bedsheets doing the job of keeping modest the miles of pale flesh that it can, though soon after, a shadow creeps up around her torso, momentarily grasping her throat before it becomes something akin to clothing.

    She unfurls herself from the sheets, then, placing one mostly bare foot upon the floor. Taking a stand, she then walks somewhat languidly towards the end of the bed, sitting herself down there. The shadow seems to have formed the garment she wears under the hoody and boots- a stirruped bodysuit that exposes only the porcelain skin of her arms. It is clear in watching her, though, she's foregone a few details.

    "This was training enough, for now. Nobody died. That is good enough."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna walks over to the bed and sits down next to Raven, resting a hand on her leg. "Nobody died, and we won. I'd call that good enough, yeah." In the dim light, her lips can be seen curling up into a soft smile. "I was hoping you'd have the energy to show up for a slice or two of pizza. But I understand. You must have thrown around a lot of magic today, and I know how much that takes it out of you. How are you holding up?"

    She tilts her head to one side and raises her hand to Raven's cheek, her thumb brushing gently over the skin. "I wish the others could see you how I see you, Rae. But I understand."

    Her hand lingers there for a moment before she lowers it and starts unstrapping her greaves. "Everyone did so well today. Part of me says I worked them too hard in training the last couple of weeks. Part of me says that's why they did so well. I guess it was somewhere inbetween."

    The left greave comes away, and she hangs it carefully over her armor stand before working on the straps on the right. "I'm tired, Raerae. Really tired. Maybe we need a vacation."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven nods along, listening and processing more than speaking. When she does reply, what she says is short, but not curt. She's exhausted, and it shows, but not too tired to talk. There isn't much of a physical response to Donna's attention, but that also means she isn't backing away like she would with basically anyone else.

    "It was taxing. The androids could not be sent anywhere they would return from- nor anywhere they could communicate with the core."

    Offering this small sigh, Raven leans herself into Donna, in silence for another short while. "I prefer they see me with clothes, Troia." Funny. Regardless, she clearly understands Donna's meaning, but isn't placing too much faith in it. Raven is viewed however others interpret, and she isn't bothered by that at all. "I suppose much of that is your fault. You may have a clap or two, if you wish."

    Another somewhat forlorned sigh. A quiet roll of her eyes. The usual Raven things. "You were gone for three years and already you want a vacation. Fine, I wager you may be allowed your beach episode."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna pulls her remaining greave away and puts it with the other. The smile on her face at Raven's joke isn't entirely lost in the dim lighting in the room. "I wasn't proposing you start wandering the tower naked, Rae. I mean you don't have the excuse of being a Tamaranean, for a start."

    She wraps an arm around Raven's shoulders, pulling into the lean and resting her head lightly on her lover's. "I don't know Rae. I mean I can't imagine you lying on a beach and sunbathing, and I was sort of hoping the next time I take a vacation, it could be with you. "

    Donna sits there in silence for a little while, just enjoying the physical intimacy, before she speaks again. "When all this started... after Sam and I got back from DC, when I did the debriefing and we started figuring out what to do... I laid out a plan of approach. Vic said 'yes boss.' It's... it's weird doing this with Dick staying in the background. I didn't mean... well, when I came back I wasn't even sure if I'd be welcome to rejoin, let alone... this. I mean when you and I talked about all this, about where we were going with the Titans, I assumed you'd be the new... Not A Leader person. People keep acting like it's me. Which I guess is my fault."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    There is this quiet, seemingly contented Hmm that Raven lets out, thinking things over as Troia speaks. "You never know, Troia. I do not think you would be first to object. It would be amusing to see how you react to how the others would react." Regardless, she's kidding, but she seems amused by the idea more than anything else.

    Another moment of silence, as the gears turn in Raven's head. "I think you can imagine it, but whether it is at all likely is another story. I do have a rather impressive parasol." Then, she looks away for a moment, and then up at her lover. "I did not say I wouldn't go with you."

    Raven sighs, somewhat pensively, as she considers this line of thinking. "It was never going to be me. People are far too loud." she comments, offering this little shrug that Donna feels more than sees. "I think that is at least partially just how he talks. It does, however, carry the weight. I can sense your discomfort. You are doing fine, and should not worry. Either it will pass, or you will grow into it."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head a little, the motion something Raven can feel rather than see. One arm still wrapped around Raven's shoulder, she moves the other hand to find Raven's. "I just think it's important that people don't start seeing me that way. Dick was always so good at leading without giving orders. Me... I've been groomed for leadership, trained for it, since I was small. When I first came to America... well you remember. The weird know-it-all who knew nothing."

    Her lips twist into an amused smile. "I must have been intolerable. My whole life I had spent with people who were incredibly... competent. You all seemed ridiculously raw to me. It just made perfect sense to me that I should be the one who you all listened to. Until I got to know Dick."

    "Then when I went back home, mother started to give me commands. Small things, really. But there I was, leading a small band of women with millennia more experience than me, who couldn't quite stop themselves from thinking of me as the small child swinging her wooden sword at bushes and pretending I was my sister that I had been fifteen years earlier. I couldn't really be nice about it, you know? Give an order, give it fast, don't give them time to think. Now I'm back here, and there are all these new Titans looking up to me like I'm the experienced one. I just hope I'm not overstepping any lines."

    Donna untangles her fingers from Raven's and withdraws her arm from Raven's shoulder, to finish off removing the last pieces of armor and the undertunic, stripping down to the cycle shorts and sports bra she wears as underwear when she's going armored. Given how she spent the day, she seems to have come out of it remarkably unbruised. The infiltration mission must have gone fairly smoothly. "It's a promise then. A vacation together. Where would you like to go? It doesn't have to be a beach, as much as I would love to see you with your parasol. China, maybe? London? Egypt? Your choice. Somewhere with some good museums might be nice. Somewhere I can take the time to do a little photography. Mostly though... somewhere with you."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven's fingers intertwine without needing any coaxing from the other woman's. She doesn't laugh, but her tone is as close to jovial as it gets when she responds, at first. "It was entertaining to watch you stumble." That's a form of Raven code. Sure, of course, there is a sadistic part of her that enjoyed watching Donna fail in those early days- but, similarly, what saved Donna from being insufferable was that she learned.

    Learning is good.

    "To them you really, really were a toddler barking orders. There is only so much in learning from the recorded experience of others, rather than your own. It was perhaps one of the most intense condescensions, to say nothing and wait for you to learn from reality rather than history." A shrug, then, "If the other Titans do not understand that you have fought many of these battles before, it will be everyone's loss. You cannot teach that. You can only let it happen." Everyone should be more like Raven, in that sense- be condescending. That's the lesson.

    "We will see." she remarks, falling back onto the bed softly in a way that evokes different thoughts. "I have been to China, Egypt, and London. Where haven't -you- been?" she asks, somewhat finally. "If they're going to be your photos, where do you want to take them?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gets up from the bed and stands in front of Raven, one leg either side of Raven's. She looks down at her lover, a wide and playful grin on her face. "I didn't stumble! No more than the rest of you anyway. I just presumed you all would stumble much more," she says, punctuating it with a soft laugh. "We were all pretty naive really. And yes, that does include you Raerae."

    "I was staying with Diana when I first met up with you guys, you know. She was living in New York. Just as Diana, not as Wonder Woman. That was kind of her secret. She gave me a lot of advice when I started working with you guys. Eventually I started listening to it.

    Donna stands there a while in thoughtful silence, eyes running up and down Raven's languorous form. "Egypt," she says eventually. "I would like to see the pyramids and temples. Let's take a few days to recover and make sure that nobody actually forgets we haven't restored Bushwick and Genosha yet, then take a few days there."

    She lapses into silence again, and after a few moment she bites down gently on her lower lip. When she speaks again her voice is a little lower and huskier. "Rae? I'm going to go take a shower. You're not planning on falling asleep again too quickly, are you?"

Donna Troy has posed:
Here, gentle reader, we fade to black with Donna heading for the shower and Raven thinking about pyramids.