3067/In The Wake Of The Kingfisher

In The Wake Of The Kingfisher
Date of Scene:	23 August 2020
Location:	Cafe Lalo
Synopsis:	Dawn gets introduced to a few more Titans, and Vorpal continues his never-ending feud with Bruce Monkeywrench.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Dawn Granger, Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark

---

Terry O'Neil has posed:
A peaceful Sunday morning, with bright blue skies and nary a cloud in sight to spoil the perfect weather. It's just the right kind of day for a little outing.

Terry O'Neil had been so caught up on his secret identity dilemma that he hadn't thought much about the significance of recent events at the Tower- of which Donna had filled him in, having been absent at the time of Dawn Granger's visit (mosty due to being stuck at the Planet bullpen for another set of revisions.) Now that a way forward was open, the implications of what had happened were free to hit him over the head. He was going to have to add another change to his article.

The fact that Dawn had been given a T-Comm lite made contacting her a lot easier. Terry had introduce himself in his double identity of Vorpal and Mild Mannered Cub Reporter Terry O'Neil, and asked her if she would like to join him for breakfast to talk.

"I'd like to talk about some Titan stuff... so you'd probably want to wear your mark. If that's okay with you, that is. They're fine with that over at Lalo's- Donna and Kori have been there a few times."

Lalo's was a delightful little place, and the bonus was that during the Summer months, the outside tables were a lot more crowded than the inside, people wanting to get their fill of summer before the fall and its impromptu rain made it a gamble to sit outside.

Terry found a nice table, one by the corner, with easy access to the patisserie. He's dressed presentably- since he's 'technically' here as a Planet guy. Even though he's here as a lot more. He spends a good time looking at the menu to decide what he'll have when Dawn arrives.

Dawn Granger has posed:
Not knowing what he meant by her mark, Dawn's appearance at the cafe is anything but notable. The most striking thing about her beyond a bone structure, the envy of anyone hoping to be a model or actress, is her silver-white hair, which gleams in the sun and her dark blue eyes. The hair is natural, the color accentuated since she received her powers. No one is going to turn and look at her - barely made up, in Converse sneakers, neon blue today, thin torn jeans, the kind that can only come from years of repeated washing and a light jacket in a blue that intensifies her eyes, she does not stand out in the crowd.

She, on the other hand, searches the outdoor seats for her mild-mannered reporter, a faint smile for the summer sun, and the cafe's conviviality lighting her face. Threading her way over to his table, "Terry? Hi! I'm Dawn."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry looks up from his menu, having just then decided that the deviled eggs sounded divine, and his freckled face lights up with a grin, "Dawn! Thank you for coming! I hope it wasn't an imposition!" He stands up to shake her hand, and he sits down, adding "I think you'll like this place, they've got the best stuff. It's a little on the pricey side, but you don't need to worry about that- Planet's picking up the tab."

Brushing some of that unruly red hair from his face, he says "I'm sorry I wasn't at the Tower when you came by. I was dealing with, you know, stuff... but I got a breakdown from Donna."

Dawn Granger has posed:
"Hey, hi," Dawn replies sliding into the seat opposite him. "I hardly expected a greeting on par with what I've received. It's been," she pauses, looking away briefly to find her words, "overwhelming, I suppose." Her hands open trying to frame the enormity of finding a group of people where she might belong. "It's been hard for people, too. Troia, ah, Donna has been so kind, Dick, too. Oh, and Kara and Heather."

After a brief shy smile, she picks up the menu, deciding within a minute of reading. "Smoked salmon sandwich on sourdough and a fresh lemonade, for me."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Good choice!" Terry comments on Dawn's choice, and places his order in as well, going for the eggs and peach nectar.

"I know what you mean. A few months ago, that tower was empty and the only occupant was Raven..." his voice goes a little quiet, "And her grief. It was like a physical presence all of its own. Everybody was broken and scattered, and grief and anger had a hold on just about everybody in one way or another."

He takes a second to glance at the woman with the silver hair, "Dove wasn't, of course, the only casualty of Doomsday, but you know that a gentle soul being struck down is especially painful."

Dawn Granger has posed:
Laying the menu down, Dawn leans forward to examine Terry's face, "I had no idea it was so recent." Nodding with a withdrawn look, "The building looks so new and people seem so close to one another. Adversity can do that, I suppose. Only Raven, was it?" Her voice lilts with an English accent tempered by having traveled and attended international schools.

"I'm learning more about him. I'm so sorry that he's gone." Dawn's eyes drop, her lips narrowing into a flat line, with a lift of her hands which she steeples together, she nods at him. "I want to know more about everyone. How did they meet? How did you meet them?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh, the original group goes back, way back. How they formed was one of those stories of extraordinary individuals and outcasts finding a purpose together- sort of like the Breakfast Club, with a lot more spandex." He gives her a grin. "And they were definitely the young hero group to watch out for. I was a big fan of them. I had posters, collected clippings, you name it. From early on I knew I wanted to report on things like that. I don't come into the story until way after Doomsday, though."

He rests his chin on one hand, "You of course have Wally, who is one of the Flashes. Public identity and all that. His was the more standard 'I'm a sidekick hanging out with fellow powered teens.' Then you've got Vic, Cyborg, who can't hide his identity because of how he looks. His is a tale of tragedy turned into triumph, really. Troia, who unbeknownst to everyone turned out to be Wonder Woman's sister, and was here in 'Patriarch's world'- as they call it- before Diana."

He grows serious, "She is the one who struggles with the strongest guilt. She was called away to Themyscira shortly before Doomsday, so she was not here to fight Doomsday." Of course, the world knows that that was the day in which Wonder Woman first stepped into the light, facing off Doomsday.

"Caitlin, who is a giant heart walking in a seven foot body, and also the most amazing cook ever. And Beast Boy, a giant heart walking around in a tiny body."

He raises his eyebrows, "Donna mentioned something you said... about the Lord of Order putting his house in order? Sorry if I digress, but that phrase just jumped into my head a propos of what I was going to say next..."

Dawn Granger has posed:
"I meant him sending Heather to grab me. The bank robbery. I'm beginning to believe in destiny," she nods abstractedly, clearly thinking of something. "A friend was talking to me about the Moira. I think I am starting to believe. Really."

Coming back to herself, she smiles, "They are all amazing. That's sounds so inadequate but it's wonderful. They're wonderful. So, how did you meet?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna is late. When Terry had sent her the text asking if she'd like to meet up with him and Dawn at Lalo's she'd replied with 'Sure. I'll be just across the park at the embassy, be right over.' Inevitably she's late, as usual. Whether this is because there was actually some pressing work at the embassy that needed to be done, or because she'd been held up fighting mutant pirate antelope ninjas in the park, or because she has /no sense of time/, she will undoubtedly never say.

    She looks rather different from the last time Dawn saw her. Less military. There's no armor, no sword, just a pair of black jeans, a smart looking leather coat that seems a bit much for the weather, stylish boots and sunglasses. She greets the guy behind the counter, asks for a cappuccino, pauses briefly at the glass-fronted display to peruse cakes, and makes her way over to the table where the other two Titans are seated, greeting them with a big smile.

    "Hey you two, getting to know each other?" she says as she removes her coat and folds it over the back of her chair, takes off her sunglasses and puts them on the table, and takes her seat. "I hope you're not scaring her off already Terry. Do give her time to settle in to things before you convince her the world is so strange she should flee to a mountain-top monastery."

    Donna shuffles her chair forwards and gets comfortable. "Dawn. I'm sorry about... you know. Kind of took us by surprise, is all."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh, see, that's what's so funny, the way I met them almost seems like it was orchestrated by-"

And then Donna arrives, stretching the notion of fashionably late to the point that it's no longer fashionable- it's Punk.

"Donna Troy, whom do you take me for? /Raven/ is usually the ones who scares people into vows of silence. I am merely colorful and entertaining." He gives the Amazon an smirk before adding, "We were just talking about history. She wanted to know how I met you guys so I was about to go into mentioning that it was the strangest coincidence."

He turns to Dawn, "I literally bumped into Beast Boy on the street. I was answering texts from Lois, he was doing a selfie video to his fans and we collided. And then the strangest things just kept happening- before you know it, Gar was visiting the Tower and trying to talk Raven out of her grief, he started reaching out to people, and... life sort of came back to the Tower. Demons were fought. That sort of thing. I was mostly an observer and the chronicler for posterity." He sits back on his chair."

Dawn Granger has posed:
"There is really nothing to apologize for," Dawn looks intently at Donna, her innate kindness warming her eyes as she shakes her head. "I think I understand some of what you and the others are feeling. If there is a way I can help, I will. You all have been nothing but kind."

Gesturing at Terry, "He has just started to catch me up. It feels like the Fates may have intervened for both of us."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Terry is more likely to intervene with the Fates," Donna counters with a grin. "I have a feeling that if he ever met them he'd tangle their yarn. It's a cat thing. They'd have to untangle their looms and history would become drastically re-written. Probably it would be for the best if it never happened." She gives Terry a wink, but further teasing is forestalled by the arrival of her coffee.

    "Raven took it remarkably well, to be honest. I wasn't sure how... she wasn't as close to Don as some of us, but she has a strong sense of how things should be. She's very defensive of the team. But... she's also very level-headed. You didn't exactly meet her under the best of conditions, Terry."

    Dawn on the other hand perhaps had. Of the older Titans there, she was the one who most quickly accepted the idea that the mantle of Dove had passed on. "Which is not to say you should entirely ignore the comments you'll hear about her, Dawn." Donna grins a little. "She likes her privacy. She won't actually banish you to the Dungeon Dimensions if you annoy her though. Possibly dump you outside the tower, she has been known to do that in the past."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Donna is late... but Cassie, try hard that she is (at least when it comes to being fail?) is later!

More to the point, the younger Amazon comes in on the heels of the elder with a timing that suggests it might not be wholly coincidental. Like her counterpart, she is in street clothes (albeit more seasonal ones), although her street outfits tend to nonetheless suggest a certain heroic fandom, if not actual participation. Namely, she's got one of her 'WW' t-shirts on, black with gold for the logo. Jeans, sneakers, and a sensible handbag that may or may not contain heroic accessories!

"Oof, hey Donna wait-" she's saying as she pushes through the door, even though it's a little irrelevant now, since they've presumably reached their destination and there is presumably nowhere further for Donna to run off to. Extradimensional excursions aside, anyway. "Sorry, I just saw this in a little tourist place as we were passing by and I couldn't not-" She holds up some little plastic bobble-head version of Diana. Is it weird to carry around a plastic icon of your mentor?

"And the tag said something about part of the proceeds going to a charity..." Of course. "Oh, hey Terry!" And, because there is someone else besides Terry, she eventually reaches them and turns her attention to Dawn. "Hi, I'm Cassie."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"That looks adorable!" Terry interjects, trying to dismiss the notion that he might tangle with the strings of fate. "I might just have to get one for myself." He doesn't mention that he also has several posters, as well as the action figure. Because every purchase goes towards funding a good cause.

And the light-up lasso.

... and a tiara...

This is the reason why Garfield Logan is the only Titan Terry has trusted enough to invite back into his apartment. And also because, since the Incident With Harley's Gift, Terry has enough blackmail material to buy Gar's silence, if it comes to that. "There aren't any of these of me, thank goodness. I'd make a terrible bobble." He shoots a glance at Donna, telling her in no uncertain terms that he's not about to believe someone has made those.

"Raven is very private. I have never actually spoken to her alone. I get the impression that it's by design. She probably would cast me into the Dungeon Dimensions...."

He gestures to the menu, "Cassie, they've got deviled eggs. You must."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's grin at the bobble-headed Diana is a mile wide. "Okay, this is amazing. I am going to buy one of these for Hippolyta. She will love it. Also hate it and everything that it stands for at the same time. She will order it burned, threaten to destroy the people who made it, and then hide it in her bedroom so she can take it out and look at it when nobody's around."

    "Cassie, meet Dawn. " It's introduction time! "We just found her. Heather found her, actually. Brought her back to the tower. Dawn, this is Cassie. She's my sis... well not actually my sister." They hardly look alike. "It's complicated. She's my sister's... okay, not my actual sister, I'm adopted..." Donna blinks. This explanation is getting altogether confusing. "We're both Amazons," she concludes.

    "Cassie," Donna says warningly. "Do not listen to Terry or take any advice from him until you've gone over to the counter and seen all the amazingly delicious and unhealthy pastries and cakes this place has. You've got to try some. Don't fill up on eggs first or there may be a cake you don't have room for."

Dawn Granger has posed:
"Hi, nice to meet you. Cassie, is it? Call me Dawn," Dawn blinks, bemused at the beauty ranged around the table and the, at least to her, undeniable sense of strength. Alright, she might be projecting. The bobble-head doll doesn't quite make sense to her, at first. She reaches for it without touching it looking at each of them in turn.

"Oh, of course. I'm slow. For charity, no less. You Amazons make good subjects for dolls, I must say."

"Being adopted into the Amazons sounds amazing. I'm going to run out of superlatives. Sisters," she tilts her head to one side, smiling between Donna and Cassie.

What she doesn't say, but thinks is that she will never be a bobble-head doll and moreover, is thankful. "I ordered a smoked salmon sandwich and then I'm going all out for their Chocolate Trip Cake. Terry and Donna have been catching me up on the history of the Titans.."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Yeah, I thought it was pretty cute. We came over from the Embassy, so all the tourist trap places around there have her merch," Cassie informs Terry, in case he really does want to go buy one later. It's probably convenient that she can buy replacement costume parts right nearby! But it's Donna's reaction that really makes her grin, as if she'd encapsulated the precise mix of affection and sacrilige that Cassie herself was going for: "I'm going to put it on my dashboard."

So less 'hero worship' and more 'passive aggressive way to get back at Diana for buying her a car older than she is and conspiring with her mom to make her drive it instead of flying around at low supersonic speeds.' Normal sisterly relationship things!

"Nice t'meetcha Dawn," she echoes back, although the particulars of Donna's introduction do give her a momentary pause, and NOT for the difficulty in untanlging the less branching than ideal Olympian family tree: "'Found?' Did you lose her first?"

Donna gets A Look, but then just turns the beaming smile back on Dawn. "I'm new to it, but they're pretty great. So you, uh, do-" And she kind of vaguewaves at the bunch, assuming a little since they're talking 'Amazons,' at least. "Oh! So you're joining too?" Maybe /she/ could use the history lesson.

Foodwise, Cassie takes advice from all sides. "It all sounds- looks! -good. Hmm. Eggs are just protein so I'm still allowed dessert afterward!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You know, Donna RoseannaDonna, if you keep telling people not to listen to me, they might just start taking it seriously." He looks to Dawn and says "Don't listen to Donna about not listening to me. Listen to me. Amazons are a handful."

"So... where have you been all this time, Dawn? The thing that I find interesting, and which has me thinking back to that thing you told D here, is that you could have come here at any one time. But you show up just at the perfect time- just when everything has gelled back together and grief has been acknowledged, and people start to process mourning in a /healthy/ way." He emphasizes healthy, which is decidedly not getting caught up in emotions so powerful that you almost unleash Practically Satan into the world. "Once again, it's almost as if there's an order to things that have unfolded. Or an Order. Which makes me wonder if I am really in the right team," he says, with a hint of humor, "since as the Cheshire cat, I am technically classified as a creature of chaos."

His peach nectar arrives, and he takes a sip out of it. "I might have forgotten to mention I am /the/ Cheshire cat. Sort of. Kind of like you, I received my mantle at someone's passing- my father, in this case. He was the OG."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You never know, if you glue it to the dash with strong enough glue, Diana might buy you another car," Donna tells Cassie with a smartass grin. Yeah, she knows what Cassie thinks of that car.

    The 'did you lose her' line gets quite a different reaction. Donna puffs her cheeks out and mutters "/Heras maztos/" to herself, a phrase that might just cause Cassie to giggle or be scandalized, and Terry to blush if his Greek is up to it. "We kinda did, Cassie," Donna says quietly. "There used to be a member of the team called Dove. Died during Doomsday. Dawn has inherited his... thing."

    The cloud passes a lot more quickly this time. "Terry, it might be the other way around. I mean all these random coincidences could be the work of chaos at play. In fact the entire thing might be your fault. Probably is, all things considered. I mean let's face it, nobody thought the team would get back together, then one day you show up and suddenly everything changes."

    Donna looks thoughtfully at Dawn. "How much of an explanation did you get?" she asks. "The whole order and chaos thing. We never really did get a full explanation of it from... back then. I'm not sure Hawk and Dove... the old Dove... really knew much themselves. You know it's not just the Lords of Order, right?"

Dawn Granger has posed:
Eyeing the sandwich that has been put in front of her with avarice, Dawn looks up and pretends that it doesn't exist. She'll wait for the others to get their food. After a sip of her lemonade, real honest to goodness squeezed from lemons, she smiles at idea the of the bobble-head on Cassie's dashboard. Being only nineteen herself, she is on board with annoying parents and the occasional mentor.

Terry's self-description has her eyeing him with interest, eyebrows lifted over wide eyes at the mention of Chaos. Diplomat's daughter training reasserts itself and she manages a milder expression, not letting any potential wariness show. She remains quiet at Donna's explanation to Cassie, nodding in places. The Greek phrase passes over her head.

Having just just met a boy whose aunts are the Moirae, she is more and more inclined to think that there is destiny, at least, for some things. "I can't say how much of an explanation I got. It was very quick. Like he was rushed. He did mention balance and that being the reason I wasn't asked. The universe," she winces at the term, at the idea that her very existence could affect the universe, "obliged it. So, there is a Lord of Chaos? Did you say Lords?"

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Is there a glue so strong it can defy Wonder Woman? Cassie looks determined to find it!

Also, the answer is giggles. Amazon swears are fun!

Otherwise, between Terry and Donna, Cassie does get a bit of a rundown of Dawn's - or rather the Dove's - whole legacy on the team, and presumably can do a little bit of the rest of the piecing together on her own. She listens, orders food, listens more, and eventually nibbles on food while listening, soaking up the Titan-lore with some curiousity.

Because she /is/ kind of a noob to the gang, only having graduated 'Team Baby' by virtue of a few other newcomers arriving.

"Does sound like you two have something in common, or well, in... opposite, whatever," Cassie muses, animated gestures accompanying her speech and indicating the proposed Order & Chaos pairing between Dawn and Terry. Oh but wait, they mentioned someone else. "So there's a Hawk too? Do you have bird powers? Or are these like, some divine animal icons that embody primal forces, peace, war, etc?"

If she makes it sound a little too mundane, it's only because she's gotten rather a strong dose of what she likes to call 'divine nonsense' in the recent phase of her life! Orderbirb? No biggy.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Well, what if it /is/ my fault?" Terry puffs out his chest, "I'll have you know that Chaos isn't necessarily evil and Order isn't inherently good. When Chaos and Order are in balance," and at this point, his affect changes a little, as if he were remembering a memory, "Order builds and Chaos creatively sweeps away what doesn't work. When Order is out of whack, it's tyranny, and when Chaos is out of whack, it's anarchy."

He blinks a couple of times, and then looks over at Donna. "Donna, did you just swear by... are you allowed to do that? I mean, how come you're not... what's the word? Smoted? Smotered? Kablooom."

"There is a Hawk, Cassie," Terry says, with a slight crinkling of his nose- truth be told, Ragebird had never been his favorite Titan. But now that he was out of circulation, the new Robin had inherited the appellative of Ragebird. "But... it didn't really end well after Dove fell. I don't know if he'll come back when he hears there's a new Dove. Maybe that's our final test as a team. Or maybe he'll remain in obscurity... wherever he is." From the tone of his voice, he does seem to prefer the latter rather than the former.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "The whole Lords of Order and Chaos thing is not something I knew about before Hawk and Dove, Dawn." Donna gives a small, apologetic shrug. "I really don't know a lot about it. But yes, apparently there's at least one of each. "

    "Peace and War is about it, Cass," Donna says. "War hawks and doves of peace, all that kind of thing. Hawk was... is... angry a lot. Solved problems with his fist. Dove... the old Dove... preferred to solve problems with words. As we understood it, and there's a lot of reading between the lines there, these two Lords or sets of Lords got together and decided to experiment with balance. It kinda worked. Hawk badly needed his brother to stop him from rushing in like an ox all the time. And there were times when Dove would have spent forever trying to think things through instead of actually solving a problem, if he hadn't had to go chasing after his brother."

    Donna gives Terry a warning nudge with her foot, but it's short of a kick, just a 'let's not talk about that 'kay?'. Because she's not going to. No, generally goddesses don't kabloom you. They're too nice, if you're an Amazon anyway. "No, it's not good and evil. They were both good men. Just different. Hawk... doesn't answer the phone. Has no desire to talk to us or have anything to do with us. I think there's a good chance he turns off the TV if there's a news item about the Titans, these days. But if he does happen to hear there's a new Dove..." She tilts her head to one side and shrugs. "I don't know. He might get mad. No. He /will/ get mad. Whether that means he smashes his TV or comes to the tower spitting feathers, I do not know. That's one reason why we owe it to Dawn to be there for her."

Dawn Granger has posed:
A strange sensation, a tightening of her chest, and heightened awareness hits Dawn each time her counterpart is mentioned. She lowers her eyes, trying to take it all in and not feel overloaded by the emotions. Food helps.

Nodding, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth at Cassie's question, she says, "Something like that. I can fly. I have wings, white ones. I get very strong...and fast. And see things differently; see the order in things."

Terry's thoughts on Hawk fascinate her. "Ragebird," she repeats silently, tasting the word, giving Terry an inquisitive look. "Where is he?" The question popping out of her mouth before she hears Donna's explanation to the end. She pretends not to have seen the looks exchanged between Donna and Terry.

Taking a bite of her sandwich, to give herself time to digest their opinions of Hawk, she remains silent. "I don't like being around people who are angry all the time. They sap all the energy out of me," she says quietly at last. "It must hurt to be angry all the time."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Hera is, far more than Persephone or Demeter, or really any other, the goddess of women in all aspects of their lives," Cassie informs Terry in a mock-lecturely way that, for a brief moment, makes her sounds enough like her mother she'd probably be upset if she realized it. "Hardly one to get offended over swearing on -those-."

But the ideology, themes, and everything else of the Hawk and Dove imagery is something she can get behind, or at least grasp, nodding along with Donna's clarification. "Makes sense I guess. Lotta cultures use birds of prey for aggressive deities, symbols of personal strength and all of that. Including dad," she adds, offhandedly. "So it makes sense that we might see law and order that way, through our mere, mortal-ish eyes." Ish, she says! Already getting big in her divine britches. "Plus, as a hero team goes, it's a pretty cool motif!" Because she can't help but thinking of things like that either.

However, Terry's musing over the missing Hawk does seem to set her thinking, and along with Donna's reassurance, quickly hops on board. "Yeah, for sure. If he's an angry dude, well, it'd make sense he'd be angry about what he lost AND someone else stepping in. But we'll be with you. And if he does show up, we can always lasso the dude for ya until he calms his tits." Is that a throwback?

"And in the meantime, wings and punching and uh, Order-vision? Sounds sweet. We can never have enough people flying around punching things." Says a member of the proud flying brick club!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"... everybody can fly, but me," Terry says in a sulk. Sulkity sulk sulk sulk. "Why does everybody else get the good powers?" he muses, as his deviled eggs are delivered and he starts digging into them with gusto.

The thought of Ragebird coming for Dawn cause him to frown for a moment. "Of course we have your back, Dawn. And if Hawk comes over and decides he will not listen to Reason... there's always Raven. It is very hard not to listen to Raven. Especially after you've been inside her, like we have," he gestures to Donna, "And you see just what an unstoppable force she can be."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Terry is on the receiving end of an Amazon stare, but what exactly has triggered this reaction off in Donna, she's not saying. It may be pure coincidence that it started just after that line that could so easily be taken wrongly.

    "You can teleport," Donna points out to Terry after a few moments of The Stare. "Flying is a lot of fun, but teleporting is definitely quicker. "

    Donna leans in towards Dawn and, smirking a little, says in a loudly whispered stage aside "He's just sore because his weakness is laser pointers. And balls of yarn."

    Donna leans back in her chair, sipping her coffee thoughtfully and looking at Dawn. "Hey. Don't let us worry you with this talk of Hawk. He's not... his bark is worse than his bite. He /was/ a member of the Titans, remember. It's not like this is some supervillain who has your number or something. It's just... well, he's likely to be more viscerally upset than we were. If he turns up, and that's a pretty big if, we'll sort it out, okay?"

Dawn Granger has posed:
It occurs to Dawn that the Fates have provided her with a family - complete with bickering, advice, laughs, lectures on genealogy and shoulders to lean on. She giggles at the ball of yarn and laser quip, then darts a glance at Terry, asking, "How about balls with bells in them?"

That feeling hits her chest again, she frowns. "I believe you. Like you said, he's not a villain. We'll manage. I'm sure. I just hope he doesn't blame me if he is that unreasonable. War is seldom reasonable."

Pushing back her plate, "Terry, thank you for the invitation and for the explanation of about the Titans. I can't thank you all enough. I knew I had to come north to New York but I didn't expect this. I mean you all." She looks especially at Donna.

"It was great meeting you, Cassie. Amazons are much cooler than I thought they would be. I have some reading to do to prepare for next week so I need to be getting on."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
When Terry makes that comment and Donna looks but doesn't -say- anythin, Cassie looks like a kid who can't contain herself waiting for something, and finally bursts out, "What, are we not doing phrasing any more?"

Ignoring any other more cat-base Terry bullying, Cassie remains otherwise focused on Dawn. And on bullying her fellow Amazons: "Oh, I'm the cool one. The rest of them are like a couple thousand years out of date about most stuff, and they don't even have wifi. Donna's like -halfway- to normal though, so I guess she's /OK/." She makes it sound like that is the most tortured, grudging of admissions.

And then she returns to her usual bright grin, making clear just how silly it all is. "You found a great bunch. I haven't been here long myself, but they've been good to me. And the Tower is awesome. Have you had a chance to look around yet? So cool!"

And then her attention finally turns to non-heroic matters: "Ooh my cake!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry looks at Donna staring at him and blinks a couple of times. When Cassie speaks, comprehension dawns on him like daybreak at Mount Vesubius. His face suddenly turns a color that is quite close to matching that of his hair, and his eyes are wide. "Her soul! Her soul!" he says, repeating the words as if they were a mantram capable of exorcising the spirit of flubs past, "We went inside her soul and there was... with the... it was...." occupy your mouth with something else, O'Neil.

He grabs the remainder of his peach nectar, slowly, and then he finally comes up for air with some composure. Not much. But some.

"Thank you for coming, Dawn! I'll reach out to you later today about the article I'm writing on the Titans. I figured you're doing the secret identity thing, so I just want to run a few things by you to make sure they're okay for publication."

He is still somewhat reddish, but you can almost believe, if you close your eyes and add some faith, good thoughts and pixie dust, that the earlier flub was just your imagination.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I'm twenty five!" Donna objects with a laugh, before proving her maturity by sticking her tongue out at Cassie. "I mean Cassie kinda has a point. Getting satellite internet and wifi installed on Themyscira is kind of my life ambition at this point. But on the other hand our sisters have had thousands of years to learn how to be cool in other ways, so it's kinda... You know. I mean they may be so out of date they'd make a steam train look like a flying car, but on the other hand when you're on an island full of women who could basically /all/ win the world Parkour championships, and consider being able to catch an arrow out of the air and fire it back where it came from as a basic life skill... well there are different kinds of cool.

    Donna raises an eyebrow at Cassie and grins playfully at her. "On the other hand, you really shouldn't take Cassie's word for just how cool she is until she's given you a ride in her car. " Hey, at least she didn't mention the wig.

    "As for Terry," Donna says, doing her best to fight back an ever-growing smirk. "He's the coolests of the lot, when he manages to keep his foot out of his mouth. Just never hand him a cloak."