3088/Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain
Date of Scene:	25 August 2020
Location:	Gymnasium - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Donna and Damian spar in the Titan's dojo and talk about things they couldn't talk about if anyone was there to enjoy the impressive display of swordsmanship.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Damian Wayne

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    She's been holding back.

    The practice has been going on for the best part of an hour, and there will undoubtedly be bruises. Several wooden training swords have already been broken and lie in a corner in splinters. Troia and Robin have barely exchanged a word during the bout - it has been intense.

    It's obvious Troia has been holding back. He doesn't know for sure exactly how strong or fast she is, but from Dick's dossier, and the things Damian himself has witnessed make it obvious she's trying to present a peer threat to him. This is normal in the way she trains with people.

    Peer threat is a good term. The fight is extremely well balanced. Both have got a few good blows on each other, but after the first few minutes the sparring had become very cagey. It has been a while since Damian had this hard a time in a sword fight. Troia has been superbly well trained.

    The interesting thing is she's not holding back completely. There are times when her blows are just a bit stronger than they should be, when her reactions are just a little too fast. And yet the fight is balanced on a knife edge. She's superbly well trained, but it does look like on skill alone, Damian has the edge.

    Blades clash with a thunk of wood on wood, almost the only sound that had been heard for the best part of this sparring session. There's a rapid jockeying for priority, each trying to work a position past the other's guard, but neither finds it. The pair separate and circle.

    Donna breaks the silence. "You're really good," she says. "Do you have any experience with shield and sword?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian had been able to work into a sweat. Since the two had been focusing on swordplay, Damian went without his usual uniform, even shedding his mask once he was in the confines of the gym. Luckily, the security system was able to deny access to anyone who was not aware of Damian's secret.

  They had been going on for enough that Damian's respect for her abilities has grown. Not many can keep up with him in an equal fight, the blows where Donna has put a little more mustard on her blows a clear indicator to him that his skill is getting to her. This pleases Damian.

  As the two break off, and start circling he answers. "In theory. But not many assassinations require the use of a shield. The whole point is to not be detected."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head. "You're not assassinating people any more though. In extended combat, a shield is a huge advantage. Particularly when you are facing more than one opponent. Nor is it just about protecting yourself. "

    She raises her spare hand, signalling a halt to the fight, and stops circling. "It's also a weapon. And opens up lines of attack you wouldn't have without a shield. When your sword is not your primary guard, it fundamentally changes where you need that sword to be. If you don't have a shield and your opponent does, you are at a severe disadvantage. Want to try?"

    Donna steps over to the edge of the dojo space, where her own sword and shield are leant against the wall. She picks up her shield, and holds it out to Damian. "Remember, strap tight, handle loose. It may be heavier than is ideal for you, but give it a go."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian's brow furrows as Donna calls up his current situation. The comment on not assassinating anymore hits close. "I know this." He retorts, before approaching and picking up the shield.

  The strap is tightened, and the shield was in place. Damian moved to his side, before waiting for Donna to be ready.

  He bobbed and swung a little to get accustomed to the weight, it was more than what he expected, but that just meant he needed to change his strategy a little.

  Damian waits for the signal that his opponent is ready, staring at Donna with his intimidating eyes, with their fire and drive behind them.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Bend your arm a little more," Donna advises. "Or your arm will tire too quickly. Your shield should be held forwards, but not too forwards. Tilt it slightly outwards. It's not a buckler - that seems the be about the only kind of shield that is trained much outside of Themysicra. You're still leading with the shield, but us the size and the curvature to deflect the direction of the blow more than simply blocking. And remember you can punch in with the leading edge."

    Donna gets herself ready too, her wooden training sword held a little differently now. A bit closer to her body, her stance keeping her center of gravity a touch lower. She raises a hand to signal the restart, and circles, giving Damian a few moments to register the restart and be ready.

    As soon as he is, Donna darts forwards and low, towards Damain's sword hand. Her sword swinging up high and out from her shoulder, she attempts to get her blade under Damian's to push up and drive Damian's blade towards the inside of his shield. He can see the intent there - by forcing his sword too close to the inside of his shield, she'll have his body from the waist down exposed, and will be able to step past a counter-stroke.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian led with the sword, holding out the weapon in front before watching Donna's sword's position. Instead of fighting against it, Damian drops to his seat, attempting to slide under Donna enough that he can force the shield to springboard her off.

  It was unorthodox, but he had seen Captain America pull off a similar move, without much experience with a shield, he was trying to feel it out, and buy himself some time.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Damian's drop takes his legs out from Donna's target zone, and he's able to pull his shield in to cover the counter-stroke. Just for a moment, he catches a pleased grin crossing Donna's face, but then she's moving again.

    Donna springs back a little from the crouch, and there's a sudden thumping pressure on Damian's shield arm. At first it feels like a kick, but then she's somersaulting over him - she'd used his shield as a springboard for a leap. With his experience he knows instantly what to expect next, the tag on his back - but it doesn't come.

    "Tricky," Donna says from behind him. "Unexpected. Might work against a less experienced opponent, but you're committing too much, restricting your motion too much. Maybe that's your instincts kicking in as a reaction to the weight of the shield, you're trying to keep your center of mass below it to retain leverage. The shield needs to be your center. You attack over it, below it, or around it. If you'd like to learn this, we should get you a lighter shield, maybe a little smaller too. Something suitable for you."

    Donna comes back around in front, and offers Damian a hand up. "One day I'm going to figure out how to get you in front of general Philippus. She trained me. I think she'd like to meet you." The conversation veers suddenly. "What do you think of the team?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian looked behind himself, before he accepted the hand up. "Possibly." He said, unstrapping the shield and handing it back to Donna. "Sounds good." He added, concerning Phillipus. He knows how good he is, but there are still those around whom he could learn from. Not many, but some.

  Then there was the veer, and Damian looks towards her, then out to the distance. "Undisciplined, some are quite possibly insane, and..." He stops, remembering Sam and his sudden departure. How he left them after everything they had been through. "Deserter." He said softly, doubting himself as he said it.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Her opinion of me is that I am... 'not too bad for one who is absurdly inexperienced,' would be about the correct translation," Donna says with a grin. "Unlike the rest of our team, with the possible exceptions of Starfire and Nightwing, we two have trained most of our lives. So has Philippus, and her life has been thousands of years. I struggle sometimes to know how much to let her demanding nature inspire me when I try to give our team a little more training, a little more discipline. Her attitude has always fired me, but it might discourage many of our team-mates."

    She returns the wooden training sword to the wall rack, and fetches a couple of bottles of water from the mini-fridge in the corner of the dojo, holding one out to Damian.

    "Perhaps you will disagree, but I see the Titans as being more than what we can achieve in righting the wrongs of the world," Donna says. "When we started - we were all inexperienced. We learned together, became something good. We were not always effective, especially in the early days. You've come to us in many ways much more ready for this life than most of the new members. I believe that helping our team-mates to better themselves is as important as doing what we do in the field."

    "As for Sam..." Donna shrugs her shoulders. Yes, it was obvious what that final word of Damian's referred to. "He was not ready. We gave him a chance, but this was not what he needed right now. He needs help before he can help others. But it's more personal for you than that, isn't it?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian took the bottle of water, more of just accepting than a grab. It was slow.

  "I do not understand most of them." He comments, musing on many of the other Titans. "As for Techno...it is." He admits, he never kept his feelings hidden, but he also did not flaunt their relationship in front of others. "He was the first person who saw what I was. And did not try to change me. Everyone else has." Present company included, it wasn't a scathing remark, but it was earnestly honest. "Everyone else. In some form or another. Except for Sam." His voice was slow, and just a tinge of sadness.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head slowly. "Do you believe you don't need to change?" she asks. "I would say that we all do. We can all become better. It was perhaps not entirely healthy that he accepted you entirely for what you are. A better friend would have helped to guide you to be better too. Not a criticism of Sam; he had his own demons, and perhaps in you he saw too much of a mirror. I do not think he was the best judge."

    She sits down on the floor of the dojo, legs crossed, and unscrews the lid of her water, taking a quick gulp before she continues. "I imagine it is hard for you, feeling that you are not accepted for who you are. You are very different from your father in many ways. There are those that are too quick to judge, that is for certain. But you /have/ changed, have you not, Robin?"

    " You are a different man than you were a year or two ago, I am certain. I do not hold that past against you, though if you were still the man you were we would probably be enemies instead of friends and allies. I accept you for who you were and who you are, but I also hope to see you change, because I hope to see you grow into the man you can be. There are precious few in this world who have the potential to be so great a force for good as you have, Damian."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian's fist clenches as Donna asks him. "I do not know. But I am tired of everyone forcing me, instead of letting me decide." Thats a whole other ball of yarn to unravel. "We were becoming better. We were having fun. Probably for the first time in our lives. Then he left."

  Damian could only nod at the question. "Of course I am not. But I was the one who took the mantle. It was mine. Not something my mother wanted, not something...okay he probably wanted me to be, but he acted like he didn't." Yep, reverse psychology, a parent's old standby.

  Overall, Damian was a ball of emotions without much of a rudder to lead himself. But he is too proud to let himself be led. The boy is a mess, overall.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "No, you are right," Donna says. "We should all find our own paths. It's essential that we become ourselves, not someone else's vision of who we are. But that does not mean we should avoid listening to the ideas of others. We must make the final choice, but if we resist an idea of who we should be or how we should grow just because someone tries to push it upon us, we are being lead by them as much as if we accept it."

    Donna rolls her bottle over and over in her hands, lost in thought for a while. "For all your knowledge and training, there are areas you don't have a lot of experience. I suspect that having fun is one of those. You and Sam... yes, I'm sure that's something both of you needed. Something comfortable and normal, where you could be yourselves for once in your lives. Try not to blame Sam for that too much though. He probably wasn't ready for it. Wasn't ready for a... the more normal aspects of life. I believe that you are. It's not his fault that he is... broken. That's something that was done to him. You were good for him, but I believe in time you will find people who are better than he was for you."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     For all of Damian's faults, he did listen to Donna's words. The only person on the Titans he felt like he could take such council from. But as she kept going on, a feeling welled up inside the teen. A feeling he had experienced perhaps only once before. Immediately, he grasped at his chest, pulling out the whistle he kept on the necklace. Even if he blew it in here, Goliath couldn't hear it.

  He tried to make it look like he wasn't rushing, but he did grasp the mask again, and attached it to his face. He had to get out of here, he had to be alone. Even if he trusted Donna enough to know his name, he couldn't allow himself to break down in front of her.

  "We must spar again." He said, before a small bow and an exit back to his room. He'd run once he wasn't able to be seen.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gets to her feet when Damian starts to make his excuses, and she gives him a bow in return. It may not be her tradition, but she knows that in the martial arts Damian was raised in, it is normal to bow after sparring.

    "It was a genuine pleasure, Robin," she says. "Any time you wish to spar with me, just give me a call."

    "Or... any time you wish to talk."

    She watches him leave, and starts to slowly move around the Dojo, picking up the shards of smashed training sword, clearing out the space and generally just making work for herself. She is most assuredly not leaving the dojo too quickly.

    Sometimes people just need space.