298/Mascarpone, journalism, and the problems of heroing.

Mascarpone, journalism, and the problems of heroing.
Date of Scene:	05 March 2020
Location:	Giorgio's Pizzeria, Metropolis
Synopsis:	People talk. Things happen. After that Gar and Terry take a dread ride home, while Colette sips coffee thoughtfully.
Cast of Characters:	Colette O'Connail, Terry O'Neil, Gar Logan

---

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    'That pizza place with the tiramisu. Got news. My treat this time. When?' If the message Terry had received was vague, the sender obviously realized that, because seconds later his phone pinged again with 'This is Colette by the way.' A couple of seconds later, 'The one who gave you the video.' A time had been arranged, possibilities of a plus-one mooted, but no further hints of the news. After a missing super and a mysterious alien, what could she possibly have today?

    Colette is there first. This was intentional - to be absolutely sure, she'd gone there half an hour before the arranged time. She's two lattes in by the time they are due to arrive, and she's amusing herself making faces at her phone. She's probably trying to get something she deems a worthy enough selfie to post on some popular social media site filled with photos of people making faces at their phone. Judging by the frustrated expression she makes between each pose-face, she's not satisified by the results.

    Obviously whatever news she has is weighing heavily on her mind.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
At this point, it's a miracle that Terry is being allowed out of the apartment. Yes, last night he ended up in Suicide Slum again without telling anyone. Yes, he did have a beacon set up in case of distress... and yes, he got in trouble.

The fact that his phone couldn't find a signal and only sent a distress message and his GPS location to Gar hours after the fact did not help. By the time the Titan arrived, there was no hint of Terry- only signs of a scuffle... and the redhead's phone discarded in a dumpster.

Nevermind that Terry finally contacted Gar to let him know he was alright, and that he had been rescued from certain death by a Man-Hyena in whose care he spent the night, because had gotten a bad head bump and they were in fear of a concussion.

"... I really did try to reach out..." Terry said. But it was to no avail- as he was explaining things to Gar, the text from Colette came, and there was no question whatsoever that the injured and rather bumped Terry would go alone.

Arriving at Giorgio's, Terry looks rather worse for wear- a black eye, and a right shoulder bandaged from what appears to be a bullet wound, fairly visible under his tank top.

Still, the spring in his step is still there, and he heads towards Colette, knowing a certain green teen is not far behind.

"Hey there," he says, sliding into the table.

Gar Logan has posed:
To say Gar was not happy with the last number of hours would be a massive understatement. He didn't get much sleep after the phone's signal pinged his, back in the same area as the gang matter from some days prior. Tracking the phone's exact location was handled by a combination of using his own phone along with going all bloodhound to pick up Terry's scent.

From then, he searched the area high and low until the scent disappeared, then flew circles around in hope of catching a glimpse of something else, and that strange scent of hyena was confirmed by the note that was sent his way hours later. That would only bring about more questions, but none he was ready to ask.

There was no real ability for him to contact Terry because he had his phone, so there was relief as a few things were explained once the guy worked out an alternative way of reaching him. Finally, they met back up, the phone was returned, and they got on their way to the restaurant in question following the text that came in from Colette. Only thing is...Gar was very quiet for most of the trip. He had very little to say.

It changes as they enter the place, and Gar disappears from view just long enough to sneak around behind Colette and hop into view of her phone's screen. "If you really want to make a good duck face, I can show you how it's done." So says the green duck.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette looks Terry up and down, her expression evincing no particular surprise or shock. Not even sympathy. Possibly a hint of bemusement. "Sit down before you fall down," she says, gesturing to the chair opposite. "Either fetching Lois Lane's coffee is a more dangerous endeavor than I expected or Captain Marvel knows less than she thought." Probably best not to think too much about that line, it might be a bit ego-deflating for the cub reporter.

    "You look like crap, Tommy. Terry." She's full of tact. "What the hell happened to you, and did you get the number of the car? Looks like you could use some coffee." She gestures to the waitress, who gestures back with a finger. One minute, not an insult.

    Colette catches motion on the screen in front of her and glances down at it. She blinks a few times, looks puzzled, and spends a couple of seconds trying to figure how to switch off the weird green duck filter she assumes she must have accidentally activated. Her attempts are brought short when the green duck talks.

    Colette carefully puts her phone away in her jacket pocket as she turns to look at the duck. She stares at Beast Boy for a few moments, then calmly turns her back on him and faces Terry again. "There's a duck. A green duck. You have brought a green duck as your plus one. I had not planned for this. I don't think they have pondweed pizza on the menu."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"That's ok, he'll return to normal soon. He's super pissed at me, though."

Terry does sit down and exhales. What happened to him? "I got shot by a gang member. Then I got hit by a gang member and nearly killed. Different night. Same place. SO you said you had something for me?" he says, trying to steer away from that topic.

Gar Logan has posed:
Beast Boy's moment of humor is just that, a moment. Very short-lived, and he hops back down to return to his usual self, casual attire, no costume or uniform of any kind.

The only difference with him right now is he is not very talkative. Not yet. In fact, after he quietly says, "I'm Gar. You must be Colette," is that he leans against the nearest open spot by the wall and crosses his arms rather than sitting down, and he wears a look on his face that shows an effort made to mask any emotion. Something's got him out of his usual mood, and considering he isn't looking directly at Terry, it might not be hard to figure out why.

There is a grunt after Terry explains he's upset.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette nods her agreement, she is indeed Colette. "Gar. Hi, nice to meet you. You were a duck. You know that right? Not judging, just checking. You are no longer a duck, but you seem to still be green."

     She turns back to Terry. Less to process. "Okay, I take that back, your plus one is not a duck, Just green. I mean I was going to fill you in on what's happening to the alien, and tell you an important lesson about journalism. But..." She looks back and forth between the two now. "Okay. Well first, there's food. We could order some food, maybe that will take the chill out of the air. Secondly, that place you keep going, you shouldn't be going. You got some gang after you? Thirdly, do you two need some marriage counselling or something? 'Cos that's not really my area, but I can go powder my nose if you two need a minute."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry blinks. "We're not married." He sighs and looks at Gar standing. He feels guilty, but also embarrassed. "Actually... yeah, can you excuse us for just a sec? Go ahead and order."

He stands up and gestures to Gar with his head to follow him. He goes to the small area that leads towards the bathrooms and stops, turning around to see if Gar is coming.

Gar Logan has posed:
"It's what I do," Gar says to Colette, opening his mouth after 'the alien' is brought up, but he clamps it shut tightly at the last part. In unison with Terry, unplanned, "We're not married." But a hint of color shows in his cheeks, his brows darting upward at the implication. That's not how they're acting at all! Is it?

Either way, he makes Terry wait a few seconds once he's stood up to move to a quieter spot, then he pushes away from the wall with a long breath and goes over there, an expectant look forming as his hands set at his hips.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette tries real hard to supress the smirk their chorus of denial rouses, but she can't quite manage it. She raises a hand in the air and gives it a shake - no problem, go deal.

    The waitress arrives at the table as Gar and Terry go for their air-clearing excercize. Colette puts in an order and then retreats behind her phone. Googling this time, rather than instagramming.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't know what's going on here. I know I screwed up big time here ,I made you worry, I scared you- I'm sorry. I really am sorry. I didn't think it through, and if you want to make me eat shit for it, you can go ahead, and we can talk about it afterwards." Terry frowns and points to the booth down the restaurant, "But she hasn't got any part in it. She shouldn't have to get the sullen treatment because I screwed up, okay? For the brief time we'll be here with her, can't you be your usually disarming, charming and loveable self? Even if you want me to eat nails, we can go back to my place and you can tell me at length why I am the scum of the earth then. Okay?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan's answer is quiet and firm, words showing he's trying to hold on to some emotional control. "Dude, it's like nothing Lois or your cousin told you, let alone me, got through to you. We all warned you that you had to be careful, and you went right back there and probably would have got killed if someone else hadn't shown up, and it hasn't even been a week since the first time. You have to be more careful!"

He's gesturing with a hand, and Colette can hear some of it even if she might not be meant to, but only Terry can see the distinct worry and fear that's etching itself into Gar's face. "The Titans fell apart because we couldn't keep our own people from dying, and I haven't even been back here for a month yet and I'm not even sure we'll be able to get the Titans back together, and someone else I just met but I think is kind of cool and fun almost got killed and I wasn't there to be able to do anything to stop it. /I'm/ supposed to be the idiot!"

He leaves it at that, turning away to go back over to the table where he sits down and smiles at Colette. It's forced, but it's a smile. "Sorry. I'm ready to be happyfunGar now."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
And they say that in Terryville on that same day, Terry felt three feet tall. The redhead drags his feet back to the table. There was no way they were going to get through this here, of all places. The best way about this was to get through the meeting and then talk in private. But whatever they did, he was due for a metric shit-ton of apologizing.

"So... you were saying?" he says, sitting down next to Gar.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Garfield Logan, right?" Maybe that's Colette's googling, maybe she just caught enough of the conversation. "Terry's keeping interesting company. First Captain Marvel, now you. Hmm. I ordered coffee all round, a jug of home made lemonade, three assorted pizzas one veggie, and three tiramisus. Want anything else, just tell 'em. I thought it was better to order now in case your two were too long arguing. "

    Colette lets the two sit back down and settle. "All good now? Okay. Caught your interview with Captain Marvel, Terry. Quite a scoop, should do you good. No mention of captive aliens or protocols though. Terms of the interview, no doubt. When you're more senior, you can push back, but I know you couldn't. That's okay. Why did you show her the video?"

Gar Logan has posed:
"Yeah, that's me. Starving artist, goofball Titan, and any animal you can think of..or I can think of," Gar replies, making an effort to turn on the charm by offering to take one of her hands for a quick smooch to the back of it, if she'll let him. "That sounds like enough food to last us a few minutes."

He rests his arms across the top of the table, leaving it to Terry to take up the answer as far as Captain Marvel, the interview, and the video are concerned, only adding, "I tried to let any of the Titans who are still around know about that, but I haven't really heard anything back."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Showing her the video was the best way to know which side of the fence she was playing," Terry says, folding his hands in front of him on the table. "Her actions after that will let me know if she is trustworthy or if she is too far in with SHIELD's interests. Call it a calculated risk. From what I read of her, I trust her. She has no intention of holding that alien, and I get the impression that if SHIELD is of a contrary opinion, there might be some serious inter-office tension."

He raises an eyebrow, "You disapprove."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Protect your sources." Colette looks up at Terry from under an arched eyebrow. "You give away as little as possible. You tell her what you've seen, she knows you must have seen it. She doesn't know what else you know. She'll assume you're holding back something. That widens the scope of things she's more likely to talk about because she assumes you already know. But also, protect your sources. You didn't know the context of the video, so you don't know what it revealed to her that it didn't reveal to you. Like my identity."

    Colette leans back, and takes a sip of her coffee. She doesn't appear to be annoyed at Terry's action, or having her cover blown, it's more like she's trying to give tips, really. "Partially my fault for not telling you everything. I was... closer to the action. " She lowers her voice a little. "The two videos... well there was a bit of a gap between them. Captain Marvel wasn't first on the scene. I was. She found the pair of us on the beach after I pulled the alien out of the water. From what she saw of the video, wouldn't be hard to guess the source, and I'd told her my not exactly common name. So, she came calling."

    There's a short pause before Colette nods her head. "And you're right. She's... she seems... okay. They are keeping the alien secret, but they are planning to integrate him into society. I can go check on him to make sure he's good. So. That's my news."

    Colette shrugs it away and cocks her head in Gar's direction. "Getting the band back together?" she asks. "You guys broke up 'cos someone got killed, right?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan reaches to pour some lemonade for himself, and there's a moment of bitter Gar face after the first sip. Licking his lips, green tongue and all, seems to suggest it's tasty as he goes for another drink right afterward.

Meanwhile, he keeps out of the video discussion as it pertains mainly to Terry and Colette. They have things to cover as far as what happened with it and Captain Marvel's involvement. "I suggested maybe we could help him out," he does mention, then he shakes his head to her. "Doomsday," is all he says about the reason they broke up. "I don't know if the others are ready to try again. Nightwing had someone else he was looking to get help for."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Advice taken under consideration," Terry replies to Colette, and nods. "If you want to check in on him, I think that would be cool. Nobody else seems to be able to. I don't even know where they are going to release him for this integration program. I imagine that's classified. Quote unquote mark."

He nods, "Knowing the full story prior to the video helps. It's a pity I didn't have it before I saw captain Marvel. I might have acted differently," he tilts his head at Colette.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "I don't mean to be rude, but..." It's never a good thing when those words are spoken. The phrase, essentially, means 'I think I'm about to say something rude but I'm going to say it anyway.' A good argument can be made that the phrase should be banned from the English Language.

    "I don't mean to be rude, but..." Colette turns to Garfield, her head shaking slightly. "You guys put your lives on the line every day. All of you, by your own choices. Then one day you found out what that actually means. If that's the reason you broke up in the first place... well maybe some of those guys decided the price wasn't paying, you're going to have a hard time getting them back together.

    Colette turns from Garfield and gives Terry a nod, acknowledging his point. "You're right. I put you in a tight spot. And you're not exactly experienced. That's on me, sorry. I wasn't thinking when I gave you the video. I shouldn't have. But it worked out okay. You got yourself a scoop, and I get to check up on the alien. He's called Kian by the way.

    She picks up her coffee cup and smirks into it. "Yeah. Classified. She wouldn't tell me their plans for him either, but she did tell me what not to tell to any journalists. So I think I'm going to have that figured out real soon. I plan on keeping an eye on him for a while. Make sure..." She stops suddenly, her forehead creasing, then looks sideways at Garfield with a speculative expression.

Gar Logan has posed:
"We thought we were ready as a team, but I don't think we even scratched him," Gar explains, shaking his head. "And if you haven't been in a battle and lost someone that was a part of your family, I don't think you're in a place to talk about anyone who's not ready to do it again. It took me two years to come back, but I did. If it takes someone else longer, I'll still give them a big hug the day they show up."

He frowns, coming off as a little on the defensive, but it's just the perspective he's coming from. He was right there when they were thrashed, and not all of them made it out. It's traumatic, and many of them weren't ready for it.

"I was thinking if we could start helping some other people out, it might remind the others there's still something we can be good for," he adds. "Kian?" His head tilts when she looks toward him again, like something's on her mind, and he glances Terry's way afterward.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry tenses up when Colette points the dangers of casualties to Gar, and he manages not to take too loud a sharp breath. He also resists the urge to reach out to Gar and instead focuses on what Colette says.

"Well, it's not going to be hard to find, right? We know what he looks like, and those honking big wings are going to be hard to hide. Plus, he'll be acting like the Mermaid from "Splash." So we're bound to hear about sightings..."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "I said keep an eye /on/ him, not /for/ him," Colette says to Terry. "I already..." Her words fade. She's still looking side-eyed at Gar. She blinks a few times and shakes her head.

     "Garfield Logan, you're an absolute... genius." Yes, she just called Gar a genius. It may be the first time in the history of the world that has happened, at least unironically. "That's it. Something you could be good... You /could/ help Kian. Nightwing has someone else. That... that's the solution." She takes a deep breath. "You've /got/ to get the Titans back together again. And find /new/ Titans. Kian. The Alien. He was glowing too, like Marvel and Red Star. Think about what that means." She blinks a few times and stares out of the window, mouth slightly open, lost in thought. She shakes her head again.

    "Luthor and Stark are irrelevant." Colette shakes her head at her own reflection in the window. Her fingers rap idly on the table top. "It has to be... /enculturated/. Not by fiat. You see, about twenty thousand years ago... no. I... I mean all the mutants and metas suddenly appearing, it's an /emergent/ genetic expression. This is the tip of the iceberg, and /nobody/ is... I mean could be five percent, could be a hundred, but it's what will define Earth's... Look; Avengers, Justice League... doing it wrong. No future. The ideas, the principles, that all has to develop out of a shared experience, not just throwing individuals with preexisting... It has to develop organically from within the culture, rooted in..." She stops and shakes her head again. It's obvious her mouth just can't keep up with the speed of her thoughts, nor does it seem like she's particularly bothered about being understood. She knows what she's talking about, and it's really herself she's talking to. She turns from staring out the window to look directly at Gar.

    "The world needs the Titans." Colette reverts to a slower, more comprehensible way of talking. "No. The world needs what the Titans can become. So... um. You guys' tower is kind of not in a good way. My family owns O'Connail Construction. No promises, but it would be prestigious... pretty sure I can arrange at or below cost refurbishment, get it up to code. Maybe /well /below if the total cost. Amortize it against the marketing budget over multiple cycles, it's an ongoing... damn. Daddy's going to make me do a costed business plan as revenge for refusing to do business studies." She bites her lip. "No matter. I can do that. What do you say?"

    The pizzas arrive, but Colette is in full flow. "As for you Scoops..." No, she hasn't quite forgotten Terry in all of this. "You need to tell their story. They need the story told. For this to work. For it to become established in the global consciousness, everyone needs to understand it. That's a career for you right there. You want to make a difference with your writing? Change the world? That's how."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan rubs the back of his head, looking around at various patterns in the decor of the place, the food others are consuming, that guy over there with a limp who almost stumbled over his own feet, and he sort of just goes into stasis while Colette is speaking.

It happened to come a moment or two after she called him the G-word. No, not groovy, even if he is. Not gregarious, though that's also true. Definitely not green, of which there is no question.

"Did you just call me a genius? Stop messing around, yo." Yet he's still squinting at her, mostly trying not to look directly at Terry, his expression twisting into something that shows general confusion. You can't blame him for not really following everything she's saying, but he does pick out one or two things.

"Uh, yeah, Nightwing said her name was Gwen Stacy and she's, like, from another timeline or something weird like that. Raven was haunting the Tower when we went back a few weeks ago, and I've just kinda been living there again ever since and she hasn't teleported me into the ocean yet so I consider that a step forward but I haven't really heard from anyone else so I dunno if they're gonna come back or not and that pretty much sucks."

All in one breath, too.

"It isn't like I'm not trying to get people back together. It just feels like there's nothing to come back to." That, at least, comes with a dejected attitude.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry looks at Gar, with a slightly sad expression. "Maybe the Titans are an idea whose time has passed?" he says quietly, and looks up at Colette, "You're getting a little messianic there, Colette. Gar, look for new Titans?" the redhead chuckles and shakes his head, "Aren't you putting too much on his shoulders? He's just gotten back. Unless there's a budding catastrophe to bring people together, capes tend to stick to themselves. It's a well-known fact that most superhero coalitions were formed around one major event or another."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Look forwards, not back," Colette tells Garfield. "Ask yourself why you guys got together in the first place. What were you trying to achieve by setting up on your own instead of hanging out with the... older crowd? Were you just trying to duplicate what others had already done, or were you trying to do something new?"

    She seems to have settled down from that burst of motor-mouthed intensity. Colette seems almost placid now. She takes a slice of pizza and pours herself some lemonade from the jug. "You're right," she tells Terry after a mouthful. "Good pizza."

    "So, that's why they're not the future, Tom... Terry. There /is/ a budding catastrophe. It's just a slow-motion catastrophe. Doomsday was the prelude. " Alas, being called on it doesn't seem to have discouraged Colette from speaking messianically. "If this planet is going to survive the next few centuries, there needs to be a superhero group that's a reaction to the future, not a reaction to the past. What's that saying about always preparing to fight the last war instead of the next one?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan picks unenthusiastically at the pizza, a definite sign that he's not himself right now for a variety of reasons. "I wanted to be a Titan because I thought I could do good things with them and help people. They'd already been around a while," he explains, his voice approaching more of a monotone as he tries to hold some of his emotions in and in check.

Just the mention of Doomsday brings a grimace. Must be some form of PTSD still sticking around. It would explain a whole lot as to why the group has yet to officially get back together. "Maybe he's right," he says, jerking a thumb toward Terry. "Maybe the Titans should stay in the past and remain a memory."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry frowns, almost as if something just backfired horribly. He frowns, and looks at Colette. He can feel the tension as Gar's walls go up. He is not in a receptive space, and there seems to be a lot of unsaid things that are getting in the way.

"You're right, this pizza is delicious... but I'm kind of stuffed."

He gives Colette a look that might read as 'perhaps later?'

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Okay, I didn't know that," Colette concedes to Gar. "That you weren't there from the start. Hmm. Okay. So... say instead of the Titans, there was Justice League Junior. Probably you wouldn't have ended up facing Doomsday. Maybe you'd still be around. But would it have been the same thing? You were finding your own way. Making your own decisions. And maybe some of those decisions were bad, but how else can you learn? So, project forwards. Titans reforms. Titans recruits. New, young, heroes. Learning from you, but also influencing you. Then they recruit. And /they/ recruit... what do you have in say two-three hundred years? A tradition. Methods honed by generations of experience, but never with the dogma of establishment holding them back from growth, change, improvement. A model for supers to work together as a group rather than as individuals to protect the world. A..." She catches Terry's eye, and stops herself suddenly

    "This is too abstract." Colette sighs, looks down at her pizza, and chews her lip. "I can't explain this properly. You'd have to see. If only I could still... Okay. Forget all that. You want to do good things and help people. You went through all that and you /still/ want to help people, right? And if helping people is what the Titans /was/... well. Then you're still a Titan, anyway."

    "As for you," Colette says turning to Terry. "Do me a favor and try not to get yourself killed. Reporters need their brains on the inside, not the outside. Take someone along on those stakeouts to keep watch. If you're clicking away at a camera, your situational awareness is next to zero."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan usually goes wild for pizza. It's common for him to share pictures of him crushing multiple slices in succession, just to let people see all the different combinations he's willing to try. Today? Nothing.

"I..uh, sorry, but look. The Titans were only around for a few years. If we do get back together again, maybe let us just try to make it through five or ten more? I can't even wrap my head around two or three days from now half the time, let alone two or three hundred years," he explains. Abstract? Very. She sounds way, /way/ smarter than he is, and he's just not following with the mood he's in.

Rising from the spot he's been in, he apologizes. "Sorry, but I'm not really hungry right now and I can't focus long enough on all of this without feeling like I'm wasting your time. I don't want to just give up, but I'm not in the right mood for this. It's not you. It's me."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It was clear that Colette had an agenda, and she seemed to believe she knew something important about what was going on. As far as Terry was concerned, he wouldn't take anyone's word about the future, except that it was uncertain. The Titans coming back together was a good idea... but whether it happened or not wasn't in his hands.

And, right now, neither was it in Gar's. As the green Titan rises, Terry stands up as well, "We'll pick up later, yeah? As for danger- no promises. I have to go where the story goes, right?" he shrugs.

He thinks he's been light-hearted, but he doesn't really take into consideration how his words might come across to someone not in the rigth frame of mind.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette fastidiously wipes her lips and pushes back her plate. "Yeah. That's okay Garfield. Nice to meet you anyway." She gives him a smile, but her heart isn't in it. It's not exactly /cold/, but it doesn't seem to come with the same level of animation she'd been presenting before. Disappointment? Or maybe her mind's still on whatever she was talking about before.

    "Yeah," she says to Terry. "Go where the story goes. Just take someone with you. Whole fuckin' /world/'s dangerous, anyway. Take care you guys."

    Colette gestures to the waitress and holds up her coffee cup. Apparently she's staying long enough for a refill. "Oh, and if you wanna meet Kian, gimme about three weeks," she calls out after Terry and Gar.

Gar Logan has posed:
"Yeah, sure. We've got all the time in the world. Sorry if I'm not what you were hoping for," Gar answers. Things started out close to his usual when he showed up behind her as a duck, but it's gone mostly downhill since then.

Terry's talk of going where the story goes just leads to a low sound in the back of his throat, his eyes facing forward. "I'll drive you home, where you should stay for at least a day or two. You'll be safer there." He considers this, then adds, "Probably." Out the door he goes, surely having left a bad first impression on Colette, genius or not.