3020/Escaping the Echo Chamber

Escaping the Echo Chamber
Date of Scene:	21 August 2020
Location:	The Danger Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Kara and Troia share in each other their struggles understanding Earth.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Kara Danvers

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Simulation pause!" Troia calls out. The four figures Supergirl had been fighting - blue humanoid abstractions standing in for generic super-powered opponents, their tactical programming boosted by the advances to the system that had been worked out for simulating Brainiac drones - freeze in place. She gives Kara a few seconds to wind down from combat readiness and steps down from the control platform into the arena.

    "I know this might seem kind of... unnecessary," she says with a smile. "I mean when you're fighting a regular human obviously you need to be more careful, but these guys are set up to simulate opponents who can take quite a punch. And yes, everyone knows you're a Kryptonian, so you don't really get the same advantage of surprise I can benefit from by fighting under-strength most of the time. But a lot of this is about efficiency of motion. Watch."

    Donna takes a swing at one of the frozen opponents, her fist passing through the now-intangible hologram with a whoosh of air, and stops her motion at the end of the punch. "See how far my arm is extended, and how my shoulder is now lower than the other one. I need to correct my position to move on to the next target."

    " Sometimes you want to make sure of an opponent with that first punch, but there are three more opponents and they may be endangering someone else. In this case, the quicker we ensure they are not a danger to other people the better. So, limit the power. Enough to stagger the first opponent means you can more quickly take out the second, then return to the first while they are still reeling."

    Donna steps back again with an encouraging grin. "I know it's counter-intuitive when you have so much power not to use it. But however fast you are, more efficiency in your use of power makes you faster. You're improving a lot tactically, SG - but the more efficiency you have in combat, the more time you have for optimizing those tactics."

Kara Danvers has posed:
The tutelage from Troia has been invaluable. Without it, she'd be thumping one enemy after the other with as much gusto as she can manage, which is a lot more gusto than is typically needed. Kara tugs at the tips of her cape as she looks over the four enemies and then watches the explanation from her older team mate.

"I see. You have been training in this your whole life have not you. You are very good at it. I imagine that back home the warriors guild had similar levels of training. It is what they devote their lives too, though they are mixed genders," she says with a smile at the concept of the all woman society. Her curious accent and lack of contractions quite obvious for the moment, which usually indicates her mind is elsewhere...

The thought of the warriors guild makes her pause and think deeply once more. About Conner, about what Caitlin says, about what Kal says, about what was discussed when Maxima arrived. She furrows her brow and sets her jaw to the side, "Troia have you ever thought that may be the ancient super advanced space faring civilisation you grew up in may be does not have all the right answers to things?"

She folds her arms and turns to face her, clearly not thinking about the fight parameters set up in the danger room for the moment. "It is just that, well, there is this guy .. okay I am explaining myself well."

She takes in a deep breath and then huffs, "Do you know how some times your mind gets stuck in a certain way of thinking about things, because that is all you have known growing up - and then you meet your cousin again after cryosleep and he has not grown up the way he should have? Nope, no, that is not right either... what I mean to say is what if I am bigoted because of my upbringing?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia looks thoughtfully at Supergirl for a moment, then announces "Simulation end!" and takes a seat on the edge of the raised walkway as the holograms fade out of existence. "Since I was six at least," she confirms. "Every day. Most of the day."

    She takes a deep breath, then nods her head to herself. "Okay. Let me tell you a little bit about what my childhood was like. Themyscira is... small. Population the thousands. Apart from me, that goes for everyone's age, too. Everyone on the island is a warrior, amongst other things. There is not a person there who has not trained at least a bit, for thousands of years. Except me. Well, and Diana. She's only a bit over nine hundred years old. So I spent my life training with people who are /far/ better than me."

    "The other thing about Amazons is we all have superpowers. To a greater or lesser degree. Quite quickly I learned that when it came to that side of things, I had an advantage. I am stronger and faster than almost any of the other Amazons. The hardest lesson for me to learn was that if I thought that simply winning a fight meant I was better, I was doing myself a disservice. By the time I was fifteen, I could beat most of the Amazons on the island if I really tried, even though every one of them was more skilled than me. That made me over-confident. If I let myself rely on my strength and speed rather than the knowledge they had accumulated over the millennia, I would never get good enough to beat the few I /couldn't/ yet beat. The best of them are extraordinary."

    Troia runs her hand through her hair, lets it come to rest on the back of her neck, and rubs it. "The thing with millennia-old wisdom is that it has a lot to teach us, but it also tends to get tied up in dogma, and it's really hard to identify what parts of that wisdom should be listened to and what should be questioned. There were two other pieces of millennia-old wisdom I was taught as a child. The first was that we Amazons were created to be a lesson to the world, and the second was that our culture had to protected from the failings of the world of... the world outside. As a child I could see the contradiction in those two things, when those around me, who had accepted them both as true for so long, could not."

    "My sister was the first Amazon to leave Themyscira in a very long time. To do what we were all really /supposed/ to be doing. I couldn't wait to walk in her footsteps, and I came here, to America, when I was just sixteen. Because I believed firmly that we could make the world a better place, and that we had to throw out one part of our ancient wisdom to do so. My mother does not approve, but slowly she is coming around to accepting. What my sister has done... and what I have done... are helping her to realize that. But would I have realized it myself, if not for my sister's example to follow? I like to think I would have, in time, but I just don't know."

    Troia lowers her hands and folds them into her lap, looking over to Supergirl with a faint, and perhaps slightly sheepish smile. "Does that help answer your question?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Supergirl walks over to the edge of the raised walkway and joins Troia, seated. She leans against the metal railings and listens to a while. She frowns a touch here and there, smiles a little here and there too. "Hmm. That is complicated. I have not really talked to anyone about this culture shock I have been experiencing. It is starting to catch up with me, as my social circles grow."

She offers her hand to Troia and says, "I would like to introduce myself properly. Hi. I am Kara Zor-El from Argo City, Krypton." She smiles a moment, it felt good to say that out loud. She has been thinking of telling Troia that for a while now. "Not that I have told everybody yet, but I have been thinking about it. I have a secret identity too that I have been trying to keep a secret. I know you do not do the secret identity thing, but my cousin had good logic behind it and I trust him."

"The thing is, Krypton is so different to Earth. When Brainiac came to Krypton no one raised a finger to stop him, he was not even mentioned on the news. Just - Kandor was gone, our capital city. It was talked about as if it were a mystery, but people in power must have known. My uncle must have known."

She frowns, "We are a mighty people, or, we were. We had an empire spanning the stars and over time we shrunk back to Krypton and stopped exploring space. The reasons were many and varied, but I suppose everyone else out there was just too much of a hassle and - well now I sound like I am making excuses."

She throws her arms open, "But here on Earth, when Brainiac came, every one united together and not only fought him, but we won. The science guild and military guild, if they had worked together, could have ended Brainiac with barely a shrug back home - but they did not."

She frowns deeply again, "Yesterday a visitor arrived on Earth, her name is Maxima. She called Earth a backwater planet. I rather like this planet. But she scoffed when she heard how divided the people of the planet are, with many kings and leaders and nations. I said that eventually Earth will become united, they are just trying to find themselves. But what if that is wrong? What if the strength of Earth is the disunited?"

With a thunk that leaves a small dent in to the metal Kara rests her head against the beam before her. "And I have been questioning other decisions and things that I learnt growing up. Things that Kal has no concept of, no thought of. He is ignorant of so many Kryptonian things, I feel I cannot talk to him about it sometimes. He has this light in his eyes - if only he knew what our people are really like. But.. but he might soon. If we gain access to Kandor." There is a real grimace of concern on her face.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia takes Kara's hand with a broad smile, and repeats the name. "Kara Zor-El. I am pleased to meet you. And thank you for trusting me with your name." If she makes a connection with that other Kara, the mild-mannered Kara Danvers, she at least doesn't reveal it. "This is my life, so I don't need a secret identity. Those who wish a life that is separate, whether to protect a loved one or simply to be able to step away from this life a while, it makes sense for them to have one. "

    "There is a strength in unity, but there is also a... there are advantages to competition. I think it takes a very mature civilization to find a right balance. We defeated Brainiac because we overcame our differences and unified against him. But I think you are right - if we had no differences to overcome, we would be in danger of losing the things that drive us to try to be better than we are."

     "Three thousand years ago, when my people went into isolation, we were a part of a larger culture. That culture flourished for a long time, but eventually it declined. Became decadent. I couldn't tell you exactly why it is that my people - that offshoot of the classical culture of Greece - hasn't declined in the same way. Perhaps it is the inspiration the gods have granted to us, or perhaps it is that there is a dream of our people that is more lasting - to live not just for ourselves, but for the world."

    Troia falls silent, lost in thought for a few moments, her fingers intertwining in her lap. Then she gives a short snort of amusement. "Culture shock is interesting. I could tell you some stories about when I first arrived in America. In some ways I suspect that Krypton is more alike to America than Themyscira is. For example, I had not met a single man until I left Themyscira. To my people, men are... well. Considered as children. Dangerous, misled children. My sisters had reason to see the world that way, historically. The men they dealt with, in one part of the world, thousands of years ago, generally were those dangerous and misled children, and every one of them had painful reasons to know it. I had no such experience. Nevertheless I came to America assuming that it would be so, because that's all I'd ever known. Perhaps it was easy for me to overcome that because it was something I'd never given any thought to and gave it no value as a fact - it was just an assumption. When I met men - when I made male friends - it became easy to see the opinion is nonsensical. "

    Troia turns to Supergirl and raises her hand to rest it gently on Supergirl's forearm. "Kal is a good person. What you say of Kandor... it may be that he will suffer a worse culture shock meeting his own people than you have received from meeting ours. There's something about Kal that... well, you just don't want to let him down, you know? Don't want to disappoint him. You may have to, SG. Because it would probably be a good idea to forewarn him about what to expect."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara nods and sighs softly. "He is a good person. A very good person. I am starting to wonder if may be I am not. The moment I learnt that Conner existed. I.. I was so furious, that some body from Earth would dare to clone a Kryptonian. I wanted to fight. I did not know who I wanted to fight, but I felt I needed to avenge the memory of my people in some way.

...but Kal tells me that Conner is trying to be a good person, to fight for justice just like the rest of us in the Titans do. I was so quick to judge. I have been avoiding him. I know exactly where he is almost all the time and I have been staying away out of fear. Not fear of him like the childhood stories we were told said I should be, but afraid of myself. What I might do."

She looks up and into the eyes of Troia, "And if I am wrong about clones, what else am I wrong about? I fly around the world imposing my morality on others because people see the symbol of my family on my chest and think it means I'm there to save them, because that is what Kal does. But Kal, he is as much Earth as he is /zrhythrev ehl/.

Who am I to tell people how to live their lives when the rules and lore of my people resulted in to the destruction of our home world amongst pointless arguing. And that ... is not even the worst of those last days." She shudders at the insurrection by the military guild, those memories hurt almost as much as the destruction of her homeworld itself.

"You are right though Troia. I need to warn him, educate him. I can not tell what is the good and the bad but I do remember my mother and father always at odds with the council. I must trust my gut. My gut tells me the council of Kandor will make terrible decisions but they realise the error of their ways and Kal will just think they are all peaches and other nice things. His heart will be broken. I should pull the bandaid off, as Power Girl says."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "That's a struggle we all have to face," Troia says, folding her hands in her lap again. "Those of us who are strong can impose our wills on those who are not. Even amongst those of us who do that because we truly and genuinely believe we are doing good and making the world a better place, there are disagreements about how to do it."

    She leans back against the rail, not clunking against it the way Supergirl did, but resting her head gently against it, her eyes going up to the pattern of hexagons on the ceiling. "Suppose your cousin, when he first decided to present himself to this world and fight for it - suppose he had decided that the failings of this world were so great that his only option was to be in control himself? To trust his own values above everyone else's, and enforce those values on the world? However good his intentions may have been, he might have found the consequences of that action would have been to unite the world against him, and turn the opinions of those he was attempting to coerce in the wrong direction."

    Troia lowers her gaze again and turns to Kara with a smile. "I think that's what is so good about being in a group like ours, Kara. We don't need to rely entirely on our own morality. There are others around us, people with different backgrounds and different ideas, but a shared goal. We don't just help each other to fight, we help each other to know that we are fighting for the right things. I think that aspect of helping each other is the most important one."

    "As for your cousin..." Troia sighs softly and shakes her head. "It'll be difficult, I'm sure. Perhaps you should ask Power Girl to help you with that task, I assume she has a good knowledge of the same... issues. I don't, and I'm an outsider in this family business - but if you'd like me to be there when you have that discussion purely for moral support, you only have to ask."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara shuts her eyes thoughtfully, "Again, the them of unity and strength through diversity. It was the idea of the council of Krypton too, one for each of the guilds... except the workers guild. To present their perspective on the matters at hand. But they were an echo chamber, arguing with each other the same way again and again, never seeing new perspectives."

She stands up and leans against the railing, "Being sent here to Earth, living and learning and fighting along side Humans, Amazons, and Atlanteans. It is opening my eyes to new ideas, new ways. Ideas even my father would disapprove of." She chuckles softly and says, "No. It is okay. I can tell him myself. I think it would be better that he hear about it from me. I suspect he has a hint that this conversation is coming. He has been giving me looks from time to time when we have discussed issues."

She offers her hand down to Troia, "Thank you, once more for your wisdom and friendship Troia. /byshu/." A calm smile, but determined eyes. She has set herself a new mission and objective. Nothing shall stand in her way now.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Perhaps," Troia says slowly, and with a bit of a smirk, "Perhaps the council of Krypton didn't have one advantage that we in the Titans have. Any kind of commitee can become an echo chamber when they shut themselves off from new influences, and particularly when they are negotiating rather than discussing - fighting their own corner rather than trying to better the whole. We're not really a committe though, we're friends. We fight for each other, not against each other. We are there to support each other, not argue our own corner."

    The smirk gives away into a wide, open, friendly smile. "Also... we change. We bring in new faces, and new ideas. It took us a while to really get to that point. To be comfortable enough with who we were to look into changing it. But we're there now. We came together again because of new faces. Gar lead the way, but even he was new-ish, he only joined up about a year before we originally split up. Vorpal and Hawkeye and Kian coming to the tower and reminding us what we were supposed to be is made the difference though. And now there are more and more new faces. People like you, Kara. New faces with their own new ideas and new ways, moving the Titans forwards. I can't tell you how happy that makes me."

    She takes Kara's hand when offered, but rather than staying seated to shake, she stands and leans forwards to give Kara a hug. "For three years I thought the Titans was an idea that's time has passed. I struggled with myself with how I could go forwards, how I could be a hero again. But what I missed most was the camaraderie. Having people I could count on beside me, to help me, to tell me when I was going wrong, to be my friend. Thank /you/ Kara, for bringing us /your/ wisdom and friendship."