2703/Sister Talk

Sister Talk
Date of Scene:	31 July 2020
Location:	Muircastle Gallery, Metropolis.
Synopsis:	Donna and Diana get together over photographs and tea to discuss heroism, history and Cassie.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Diana Prince

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Donna Troy has posed:
    St. Martin's Island in Metropolis is home to a lot more than the Titan's tower. The Uptown area in particular is a trendy and popular part of town that houses the world-famous Jules Verne Extra-Terrestrial museum, a host of technology start-up companies and a concentration of small galleries that help give the area an arty and almost bohemian feel.

    The Muircastle Gallery is a small private gallery that specializes in photography exhibitions. It's the location that's going to host Donna's first ever exhibition. She had spent the early part of the year, before she'd arrived in America, touring the war-torn areas of Syria and taking a lot of photographs. She'd managed to sell a couple of them to newspapers, but some of the rest, the more artistic ones, were going to make up this small exhibition.

    It's all quite a small-scale thing. The gallery is a narrow building slotting between a cafe on one side and an antiques dealer on the other side, and probably couldn't fit more than about twenty people in at a time. At the moment there are only two. The one answering the door is the gallery owner, Patricia Muircastle. A quiet, respectable older woman who has worked in the art world her whole life and opened up her own gallery as something of a retirement. The other is Donna. The gallery is, technically, closed for the day - it's set-up. Donna's enlargements have arrived, all nicely framed, and she's busy trying to figure out how to hang them around the gallery walls to the best effect.

    She had asked Diana to come and give her a hand; Diana after all has a great eye for this kind of thing, and has helped to curate countless exhibitions in the past. It's a good guess that it's mostly an excuse though. Donna probably wants advice.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana was more than happy to help Donna with this. This kind of life event is the kind that she really enjoys most. These things are what living is all about, at least in her opinion. The life of a 'super hero' was an important role to play, but this was an important role for your soul to flourish.

Or so she felt.

So Diana had gladly driven in to Metropolis today in her silver sports car, up to Muir Castle where she parked it in the circle drive and exited the vehicle dressed fairly casually with a white sleeveless shirt and black denim pants. Her hair tied back in a ponytail, Diana carried a small gift bag with her toward the castle as she greeted the woman who owned the gallery.

She exchanged words with said owner for several minutes, taking a small tour of the place in fact before she found Donna and was quick to greet her sister with a hug. "Here." Diana says, raising the bag and offering it to her. "It is nothing much, just a little 'Congratulations' gift that I picked up the other day for this very event." She grins to Donna.

Inside the pink and powder blue bag is a box wrapped in thin white paper. Within that is a classic idea, modernized. A Polaroid digital mini camera. Handheld sized, barely larger than a phone. But it still can print out 40 card-sized photos on the fly. Or just take digital photos with it!

Diana looks all around where Donna is setting up her exhibit, and starts to wander around it. "This is going to be truly wonderful..." She says as she stops at a table and picks up one of the enlargements to hold it in her hands and look the image all over.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna returns the hug with a happy smile, and receives the gift with a look of wide-eyed excitement that is just so... Donna. In the years they've known each other, that wide-eyed look has been a common one. It's easy to remember that look on the face of the ten-year old child she had been when Diana first met her.

    "Always so thoughtful, sister. There are times when you just don't want to be carrying a big old Leica camera! Terry asked me if he could get some bodycam footage for an article he's writing when I went aboard Brianiac's ship. Whenever I had a spare moment I found myself trying to frame a good image with a camera intended for video. It's not the same. He'd have been much happier if I'd taken this along!" She gives a happy laugh and puts the camera down on a table before diving in to give Diana another hug.

    "You know Patricia?" Donna asks curiously. Diana had been a while chatting with her, and does seem to know half the people in the art world, after all. Donna's dressed perhaps slightly more casually than Diana, with calf boots, black jeans and a t-shirt, her hair up in a braid. There is definitely a semblance though - while Donna may have developed her own style over the years, there's no doubt Diana was a big influence. They really do look the part as sisters today.

    As Diana looks over one of the unhung prints, Donna fusses over the positioning of a small printed text to accompany what's obviously the centerpiece of the exibition. The giant print shows three people, one with a sack over his head, being frogmarched towards the camera by the other two, who are wearing uniform. The foreground figures are soft, dark, grainy, and out of focus. In the background, visible between the figure wearing a sack and one of his escorts, a shaft of strong light picks out a tableau in sharp focus. A young girl struggles in the arms of another soldier, her face twisted in anguish, her mouth open in a frozen scream. The image is in stark, contrasty black and white, with a misty grain to it that makes it look almost like an old pre-digital image.

    The text sign Donna is positioning bears the name of the photograph - 'No Right Choices' and a short explanatory text that reads 'Two militia men of the Yekineyen Parasitina Gel arrest a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist after a market-place bombing as the terrorist's daughter looks on. Sometimes there are no right choices.'

    The question of intervention has always been a difficult conversation in the world of photo-journalism. The ethical considerations of when you stand back and report and when you simply cannot stand back. How complex is that dilemma when the person behind the camera could take on a small army? And how could you even intervene in a situation like this one - save the girl's tears by rescuing her murdering father from the authorities, who's hands may be far from clean but are so much better than the alternative?

    "I'm so glad you could come, Diana. Thank you. I know I want this one here, but I'm struggling to decide how to arrange the other prints around it. The opening isn't for a couple of days, but I really want to get this done before some other emergency comes along. How are things with you?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana's eyes are lost on the painting, she could tell why it would become the center piece of the showcase here. After scanning it thoroughly she sets it back down and tries to summon up a smile, even if the subject matter of that photo does tend to put one into a contemplative state, if not somewhere else.

She steps toward Donna and then glances around at what has been setup. "Yes, I've known Patty for some time. She was... your age, I think, when we first crossed paths." She steps up toward some of the photos on display near windws, the sunlight shining in upon her as she glances back to Donna. "How time flies."

Her eyes go back to the photos and as she scans them she speaks further. "Terry is the one that I gave the Cloak to, yes?" She asks then, taking a step to the right a moment later. Slow and casual she moves from piece to piece. "You have plenty of space to work with here, what we need to do is set up the art so that it flows from one piece to the next, and it builds in impact, up to that last piece."

She glances back to the table. Then to Donna. "You have so much here to work with though, I really had not considered just how much traveling you have done so far."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "The one who fainted, yes." Donna barely hides her smirk. "He's trying to make his way as a journalist, working for the Daily Planet. Nobody else got photos from the inside of Brainiac's ship. It was quite a coup for him I imagine."

    "I've been to some pretty strange places," Donna says with a laugh. "But not enough... well. Normal places, I suppose. When I decided it was time to return here though, I took my time. Three months. Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, England. There's so much more to see though. Almost all of my life outside of Themyscira has been in America. I guess it's a second home to me."

     She step back and looks at the positioning of the sign, then steps forwards and adjusts it by about an inch. Finally she seems satisfied with it and goes to the table to pick up another print, showing a small group of children playing in a burnt-out tank. She holds it up critically and looks around, trying to decide a place for it, thinking about what Diana had said about the flow of the exhibition.

    "Honestly I was kind of making excuses. I'd put off returning for almost three years, what difference would another three months take? Well, three more months where I didn't have to face... my friends. Cait was right of course. Nobody blamed me for what happened to the Titans. I knew intellectually she would be right, but it was hard to convice myself."

    She lowers the photograph with a sigh. "I did... I was sure I'd at least have to /work/ at it though, Diana. You know. Building bridges. I wasn't expecting everything to come back together so /fast/. And I certainly wasn't expecting everyone to look to me for leadership. Nightwing is... well he's got other things going on. He's kind of the least back of us. Gods, even Aqualad is back. He left years ago, long before Doomsday. Before we even had the tower."

Diana Prince has posed:
As Donna speaks, Diana moves slowly about, this way and that. She's starting to move some of the photos around as though she's in a video game trying to unlock a puzzle. She splits her attention between what she's doing and listening to Donna. "We should find a way to bring Terry to Themyscira. You said he was a photographer as well? He could take photos of the island and share them with the Daily Planet. It could be a good way for him to get his name out there."

Of course, there's that whole rule of gender locked island... though Diana is confident she can get past it in certain scenarios. One being a historian-photo-journalist coming to document the island and show some elements of it to the outside world.

Diana approaches the table with the photos yet to be hung and begins to sort through them. "This is a very dramatic exhibit you are hosting, so we should build the drama as the guests pass through it. Up to that last photo..." She holds hone image up and steps toward one of the displays to rest it beneath the light that is shining down upon where a picture will reside.

After she sets it down she turns to face Donna, her hands resting palms-together in front of her waist. "The Titans are a strong team, under your leadership... or just with your inclusion. It is together that they will flourish. Aquaload returns because, I assume, he knwos it is a good team with a valiant purpose. Nightwing will re-engage too, when he is able. All you have to do is, be there... for them. Each of them." She pauses and smiles just a little. "As you have been. This is why they hold no ill-wills."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "He's more on the writing side than the pictorial," Donna says. She comes to stand beside Diana, watching her as she sorts through the images, ordering them. She nods her head as she makes sense of the pattern Diana's coming up with. "He'd love to come to Themyscira. If we can arrange that I have no doubt the Planet would be very happy to have him file a story. And I can always supply photos for it."

    "Hmm no... this one I want to have closer to the door," she says, picking up one of the prints. "It's more ... it's gentler. It'll lead people in." She takes the photo to a spot on the wall where there's already a print hanging, and swaps the two.

    "The Titans are a strong team," Donna agrees. "I think we proved that pretty effectively against Brainiac. But... well. We've been expanding. There are twenty-one names on the roster now, Diana. Twenty-one! I think that might just make us the largest single hero group on the planet." She shakes her head and gives a short laugh.

    Donna returns the picture she'd swapped out to the table and looks at Diana with a slightly rueful expression. "I wasn't..." she sighs, smiles a little and gives a slight shrug. "How does mother manage it? That much responsibility. All those people?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana takes a step back to let Donna run the show after she's given little bits and pieces of advice. She moves back to stand beside the central table where the other prints are resting and just lets her gaze take in the sight of it all as her sister sorts through the rest.

"Alpha Flight has quite a roster, but I do not think it is at twenty one members. That is ... a lot." Diana agrees as she glances back to Donna.

At the question of the Queen, Diana takes a moment before a grin grows across her lips. "She lives on an island isolated by the magics of the gods. The most simple of answers is, even if she makes the worst decisions... the others have no where to run."

That is a joke. Diana is making a joke. She's always had a teasing-side to her, especially about her mother. One of her favorite games as a child was to get the Queen to get a little flustered, annoyed or bothered by Diana's actions or words. It was just fun to make her mother come down 'from the clouds' for a moment, to deal with her daughter.

"Terry can come to the island on the premise that he is a journalist recording and sharing some aspects of Themyscira to the world. Gender is irrelevant in this scenario. This would allow him to interview... record, describe as much as he's allowed to. And you could be right there with him to photograph and illustrate his words."

After a small pause the Princess steps forward toward the far end of the room. "Should he desire, at least. If it seems like something he would be interested in. He is a Titan after all, that alone speaks for his quality."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna stops hanging for a moment to look at Diana with a smirk. "Diana!" she says in mock admonishment. "Mother does not /make/ mistakes!" The smirks widens into a broad smile and she gives a fond shake of her head.

    "There are a few of the Titans who'd love to come visit Themyscira," Donna says. "Particularly among the new ones. I think between Cait, Cassie and I we have them all fascinated. Hawkeye - our one, not the Avenger's one - I gave her a Themysciran bow. Cait and Vic reworked it with some of the technology of Man's World, and even Supergirl contributed with some Kryptonian technology. They are calling it the WonderBow now. You have inspired so many people, sister. And now you have even inspired a bow." Donna laughs a little and gives Diana a quick one-armed hug.

    Donna spends a little time going over the ordering of the prints that Diana had come up with, making a couple of small changes. She leans them all up against the wall in a long line, and stands back to look at them, elbow resting in one hand, finger tapping on her chin.

    She gives a short nod, then sits herself on the table the prints had been, and looks over to Diana. "Um. Cassie seems to fit in quite well. And she's good. You know that. Effective. It's fun having her around the tower, when she can get away. And nice having her on the team. But there's something... I don't know. She's always been a touch impatient but I've been getting the feeling that there's something bothering her that she isn't telling me about. Sometimes she's seemed a little... frustrated maybe?"

    Donna gives a wry smile and a shrug. "She looks up to me, Diana. But she /adores/ you. I think someone should talk to her. See if she wants to open up. And I think it would be better coming from you."

Diana Prince has posed:
For Diana, hearing stories of inspiring others is always an invigorating thing. It humbles her, gives her perspective and pulls /her/ back down out of the clouds. She momentarily shows a grin to Donna for admonishing her on the joke at Hippolyta's expense... she didn't mean it, of course, it was just for fun.

"We should probably start with just one other member of the Titans, and should it go well we can maybe bring a few more another time." She says as she approaches that photo of the children using the burnt-out tank as a play-thing. This makes the Princess just draw in a soft breath through her nose before she step son to the next photo in the line.

She pauses though and looks over to where Donna was sorting out her items. "I am also happy to speak with Cassie. Now more than ever, in fact. I have had the pleasure of knowing her for some time now, and she is truly one of my favorite young minds. And... if something is troubling said mind, I expect to find out what it is, and solve said issue."

Patricia is soon to arrive carrying a silver platter with a fancy tea set upon it. She greets the both of them and offers either of them a cup. This, of course, grabs Diana's attention as she moves to help the aging woman find a place to set the tray down. "Thank you, Patricia." She tells the woman, a sincere and heartfelt tone to her voice as she prepares herself a cup of tea.

Donna Troy has posed:
    When Patricia arrives, Donna hops down from the table to help out too, and the sister act swings quickly into action to lighten her of the burden of tea and clear a space for it. She gives Patricia a warm smile and a "Thanks, 'Trish" of her own. The subtle difference says a lot about the two sisters.

    Once tea has been poured, Donna sits back down looking distinctly more relaxed. "Thanks Diana. You're better at Cassie things than I am. She's... I guess we're more just like friends, but she really does look up to you, sees you as her mentor. Hopefully it's nothing serious. At her age there are always pressures you don't know how to deal with yet. All things considered I think it's a good idea to check, though.

    Donna leans back agains the wall, stretching her legs out and sipping her tea. She looks at the line-up of photos, then at the pictures already hung. It seems to be coming together. Back at the tower, the science team is working hard on the final preparations for their end of the work on restoring Bushwick, working with Tony Stark and the Pyms, and things seem to be coming together. There are no imminent threats, none of the Titans are seriously injured or in any obvious trouble, things seem to be going relatively smoothly, and Diana has promised to look into the Cassie question. Things seem right with the world.

    "If I announce I am taking one or two members of the team to Themyscira there will probably be a revolution. They may all fight each other for the opportunity," Donna says with a grin. She falls into a companionable silence for a while, enjoying the tea. "And how about you, Diana? Is there anything going on in your life that I can help with?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana just shows a soft smile as she lifts a cup of tea up for a sip. "Cassie is an important person to me. She is right up there with you. The three of us, together, make me a lot happier than I realized I needed to be." The Princess explains as she takes a step back to find a chair that hasn't yet been claimed and moved from the photo gallery that is being setup.

Diana settles into the chair, at least so far as to sit on its edge. "I have spent so much time isolating myself for the past century that, having the two of you come in to my life has meant a lot." She opens up a bit, using a spoon to dab at her cup of tea as she spares a glance up and over to Donna. She smiles softly. "Truly it has. When I originally left Themyscira, I did not know that I would ... ultimately decide to observe, more than openly effect, the wider world as a whole. But in all this time, I have watched things change and these super groups, such as the Titans, rise up to effect rather than observe..."

She softly shakes her head. "The world needs those who wish to effect it, for good, to fight back against the injustices of those seeking to effect it for ill. You and Cassie have helped teach me that. Helped show me that I need to step out of the shadow and into the light."

She sips her tea, and then smiles yet again. "So to help her, or you, is to give back for what you have given to me."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's cup pauses half way to her lips as the import of what Diana is saying sinks in. "I... no. You..." She lowers her cup, blinking with surprise at Diana. "You taught /me/ that, Diana. How can you..."

    Donna leans forwards, shaking her head, then leans back again and gives a little laugh. "You know, when I was young... on Themyscira. I was always aware that there was a... contradiction, in mother. When you're a kid sometimes you sense that adults aren't really telling you the full story and you don't know why. Don't know if it's something you've misunderstood, or they're omitting stuff. But... it never really made sense. We... the Amazons. We're supposed to be an example to the world, but we must hide from the world. Mother taught me both those things, and I never understood."

    "Then when you returned... all those stories. All the things you'd done. In the wars, and in the other times when you... it was /different/ then, Diana. There were no super teams a hundred years ago. You found a way that you could effect change. You fought for what was right, and if you did it from the shadow then that's because that is the way it was done. When I came to America, all I wanted to do was to follow in /your/ footsteps. Because mom is wrong. This is how we can be the example to the world we are supposed to be.

    "When I joined the Titans, it was because... well. I had made some friends. We wanted the same thing, to help. So we did it together. We didn't do it in the light rather than from the shadows because that was our idea, we did it because that's the way the world was at that time. But we... I... everything I did was because of you, Diana. Because I could see that you were right and mom was wrong, and all I wanted in the world was to do what you had been doing for a hundred years."

Diana Prince has posed:
What Donna has to say in reply all settles within Diana's mind. But she doesn't immediately respond to it. She does, however, glance down to her tea and then look up again to raise the cup to her lips and sip from its contents once again.

A moment later and she is rising up from the edge of her chair to stand at her full height once more. She smiles to the other. "Well then, we are here for each other, so it seems." She finally answers as she steps to the platter with the tea pot, setting her cup down on its coaster beside it once again. "Now then, shall we get back to finishing up the arrangement of photos? I do believe you will have a number of friends who wish to come see all of this prior to the show, if they are not already on their way."

Another one of the prints is gathered up from the table and Diana moves to look upon it while comparing it to those that have already been displayed. "This one has a little dog in it. It should go near the front." She says, with a glance to her sister, and a slight grin to accompany her words.