3092/Memory: Themysciran Healing VIII

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Memory: Themysciran Healing VIII
Date of Scene: 25 August 2020
Location: Palace - Themyscira City
Synopsis: Yes, the flashback is STILL GOING. In this week's episode, Donna tells Caitlin the secrets of how to become an Amazon, and explains why she'd make a terrible Disney princess.
Cast of Characters: Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild




Donna Troy has posed:
    The Megaron, with its statues, colorful friezes and gold throne, is normally empty except on state occasions. Queen Hippolyta does not normally sit there unless there's some good reason to - the throne is not that comfortable. Donna knows this - when she was twelve, she sat on it once, for an entire minute before the guards chased her away.

    Today, she's only sitting on the steps next to the throne. That, apparently, is allowed. The two guards on the door occasionally peer in, presumably just to check that Caitlin and Troia aren't drawing mustaches on the statue of Zeus, but otherwise the pair have the hall to themselves. It's the middle of the day and the sun is hot, but the Megaron is cool and shady. It's a rather grand place to be taking a break from the sun.

    "Soooo," Donna begins slowly. "Three more days. Then back to... normal life. For both of us." Caitlin's trip to Themyscira has been almost like a dream, a world so apart from what she had been used to that she would be forever changed by it. Donna's words... Troia's words, are a reminder that this, to her, is normal life. She sounds a little sad, but that's no surprise. She'll miss her friend.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's two steps furthur down, partially because it puts her head on level with Donna's; partially because of some twisted logic that if Donna's closer to the throne, she'll get in more trouble than Caitlin would.

"Criminey," Caitlin says, echoing Donna's tone. She's taken to the light tunic that is popularly worn on Themyscira; she's sprawled out on the marble to cool herself off as much as possible, with her legs tucked to one side. A cool ocean breeze would be quite welcome, but until that comes, Caitlin's keeping herself cool with a starched palm frond fan swaying back and forth in front of her face.

"I mean, it won't be so different for you. I'm gonna be going back to the City. Starting school again." She makes a face. "I'm going to have to get an /apartment/ again. I haven't had an apartment since like... 2012."

Donna Troy has posed:
"Just remember to get a big enough apartment," Donna replies with a grin. "Remember you promised me that I can stay there when I come back!" She reaches a foot out and uses it to give Caitlin a playful shove, taking advantage of their relative positions on the steps.

    "It'll be more different than you think," she responds after a few moments jostling, a more serious air taking over her expression. "These last few months have been... it's not normally like this. I mean having you here. Having someone my own age..." she stops herself, looks hard at Caitlin and breaks into a grin. "Well, you know what I mean. But it's like... until I was ten, I never spent any time with anyone who wasn't more than three thousand years older than me. Then finally I got to meet with my sister, who everyone had always told me I was so alike... I mean, she was only nine hundred years old. Practically a kid still."

    "It was... it was never /lonely/. I was kinda... I was pretty much doted on by everyone. But... my whole life here, I've been apart. The kid. The ONE kid. When I went to America, when I met you guys, that was the first time in my life I had... well. Proper friends. Not like... everyone's your friend here, but people who got me, and I got them, and we liked the same things, and... you know. Friends."

    "When I came back here, it was like nothing had changed. Except me. I'd changed a lot. But what's six years on an island like this? I felt like I'd gone back in time. Like I was sixteen again. Just about the first thing I did when I came back was I became an adult."

    She turns to Caitlin, blinking. "I mean an Amazon. Like officially an Amazon. It's complicated. There is a notion of how old you have to be to be and adult here, it's to do with... well, when... doesn't matter. An old tradition that basically says when you're... twenty-two-ish, you're an adult. But you're not an Amazon, not really. Because being an Amazon is about being... they were chosen. By the goddesses. So you need to be chosen, and I did that. But nobody really... it didn't change how I was treated. You've kinda seen that, Cait. How everyone thinks of us as the kids? Well... with you here, that's fine. It's fun! I kind of got to have a side of being a kid that I didn't ever get here before, except a little with Diana."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I think they call that 'being the little sister'," Caitlin points out to Donna. "I can lift Billy over my head one-handed, and he still calls me 'munchkin'. I don't think that's something you ever really grow out of," she says with wry sympathy.

She sighs and slouches back against the marble, looking for cooler spots. Even a little bit of heat wilts the redhead, and Themyscira's warmest days are just at that threshold of discomfort for her. "Yeah, how does that whole thing work again, anyway?" Caitlin inquires, and cranes her neck to look at Donna. "Since Diana's not an original Amazon, right, I mean-- she wasn't. But shee's one now. You're one, aren't you?"

Caitlin flops back, looking at the domed roof and the intricate frieze overhead. "Holy smokes, don't tell them how old I really am," she mutters under her breath.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "My lips are sealed," Donna says with a laugh. "Though here? I'm not sure it makes much difference in most people's eyes whether you're six or sixty, you're still basically a kid who has barely opened their eyes yet. But yeah, the little sister. Imagine being everyone's little sister. That's me."

    Donna leans back, resting her elbows on the dias bearing the throne, and laughs. "I guess from their persepective... well, they're just not used to people growing up. Most of them. We do occasionally have children here, but they're kind of... well, they're kept apart, largely. And they're not thought of as part of our society."

    "They're the children of the World of Men, who by chance find themselves orphaned on these shores, and are raised and schooled in our ways until they are grown, so they can return to their world. To bring a little of our ways to the world outside, without... without us doing what Diana did. What I did. I should have been one of them, but..." she shrugs her shoulders.

    "But they are apart, mostly. Most Amazons never see them. So with me... and Diana before me, it's like... they turn their backs and suddenly we're a foot taller. They don't really get what that means. A child changes far faster than an immortal does, it doesn't register. There are a few... well, you can see why I like Chara. She treats me like an adult. Philippus does too. She's practical. She sees the strength in steel, not its age. Some though... there are times when I've had to pull rank on people, just to remind them I'm not a child, and I don't like doing that."

    Donna leans forwards again, craning her head around to look Caitlin in the eyes, an odd expression on her face. "Thinking of taking a shot at it yourself, Cait?" she asks. "Becoming an Amazon, I mean. Officially. It's... you shouldn't rush into a decision like that."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I had literally not even thought it was an option," Caitlin confesses with that instinctive honesty. "I figured it was a big deal just for me to *be* here. My whole goal was to be super polite to Queen Hippolyta, and not get underfoot, and hopefully I don't leave and everyone's cheering the boat when I sail off."

Caitlin sits up and braces her palms out behind her on the wide step, giving Donna a wide-eyed look. "Is that a thing, though? No one's mentioned any of the women who lived here, at least not in more than passing. I hadn't heard of anyone becoming like, an Amazon."

She hesitates. "I-- it's not weird, is it? I don't know if I wanna be made out of clay. I'm only just getting used to my stupid body the way it is. Being made of clay would really mess with me," she says with a worried tone.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna snorts and sticks her tongue out at Caitlin. "Come on, do I look like Clayface? Does anyone here? It's not like that. Becoming an Amazon doesn't mean being turned into clay, and those who were born anew as Amazons may have been shaped from clay, but they aren't clay any more.

    She leans forwards and rests a comradely arm around Caitlin's shoulders. "It /is/ a big deal you being here. People used to be invited here more often in the past, but it has been extremely rare since... for a very long time. Accept the honor being paid you here, Cait. You're not underfoot. You're here because you are... because it's /right/ for you to be here. You're what... you're like we are."

    The arm is withdrawn, and Donna leans back, hands folded under her head, until she's lying in a sprawl on the slope of the steps, staring up at the ceiling. "The Amazons were chosen by the goddesses," she explains. "Women who had died, who's souls the goddesses saw being true and worthy, who could with their help be in their next life what they never had the chance to be in the first. Those of us who were not in that first choosing have to be chosen separately. To be... I guess you'd say to become sponsored by the goddesses."

    "For you... I don't know. Diana and I... we may have come later, but we were... we have both received the favors of the gods. That kind of... I guess it makes it easy, you know? Like you know in advance that you're not going to get turned down, if you ask. Honestly Cait, if you... well. I mean you'd have to face the goddesses and ask if they will favor you. Sponsor you. Wouldn't that be... I mean isn't that something that your faith would... you know. No other gods, that kind of thing?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin leans into the hug, drawing strength from Donna's reassurance. The words are heeded with a rapt attention, eyes focused on the middle distance as she processes what Donna's offering. When the princess reclines, Caitlin shifts sideways a few inches and rests her head against Donna's hipbone and stars up at the same roof overhead-- the mural adorned with glorious art, tribute to the Goddesses and to the Amazons.

She's playing with the silver crucifex she wears almost everywhere, fingers rolling over the imprint the metal makes against the thinner fabric of her simple cotton tunic. "I am the LORD your God, who brought thee out of Egypt and the house of bonadage; thou shalt have no other gods before me," Caitlin agrees. "Exodus 20."

"You were the one who told me they were also called the Theoi," Caitlin points out, a beat later. "I mean, I've seen some pretty extraodinary things in the last five years. We live with Raven, for gosh sake. If her dad's not the literal Devil, he's something pretty close to it."

Caitlin sighs. "But if the... goddesses need someone to worship them, I'm probably not going to be a good fit. It's-- as lovely as the idea is, it's just not something I can do." Frustration tinges her voice.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "They don't need us," Donna says quietly. "They love us, but they don't need us. There was a time they were worshipped widely, but that is long ago. They could have left us, but they do not. Because they love us, and teach us how to love. We don't really... worship them, Cait. We adore them for who they are and what they have given us. We honor them, with rites and with our lives, because they deserve that honor, not because they are powerful."

    Donna's hand reaches down to find the top of Caitlin's head, and gives her hair a quick scruffing up, a gesture as full of fondness as it is mischeif. She breathes deeply. "There is a place, deep in the wild woods. It is not safe to go alone, but that is the only way to go. You remember telling me how you thought Themyscira was timeless? Because everything looks like it ought to feel ancient, but everything is bright and clean and new? In the woods there is a clearing, and in that clearing is a small temple that feels older than anything you have ever seen."

    Her voice is soft and gentle, the smoke-and-honey of her Themysciran accent barely above a whisper, the kind of tone even an athiest will unconsciously adopt when speaking in a church, reflective of the a reverence they may not themselves feel, but that can be sensed as if it were absorbed into the walls themselves. "The stones crumble with age, and weeds grow through cracks in the marble floor where once perhaps the first priestesses in the world stood and prayed. None pray there now, but it feels... loved. Cherished. The animals of the forest do not go there - they know it is not their place. The vines that wrap around the columns and the weeds that grow through the floor do so quietly and reluctantly as if they too honor the goddesses, and wish only to be close, not to tear the stones with the strength of eons."

    "We call this place /naos pantheion/, the Temple of all Goddesses. It is precious to them. If you go there, they will know. If you wish to speak with them, they will know. They will know the hardships and the dangers you faced to come to them, and they will know the love you bear for them, and the fear you feel of them. They will know you in a way that you never will know yourself."

    "If you are brave enough to face that, knowing all that, then when you step across that threshhold and enter the temple, She who has the answer to the question you need answered, whether it was the question you believed you sought or not, She will be there."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's very quiet and very still while Donna speaks. The princess certainly paints a vivid picture with her words; Caitlin can almost see it in her mind's eye, and while Donna's voice floats towards the entablature overhead, she follows that vision along until she can almost *see* the building herself.

"She?" She turns slightly to try and look back at Donna, to no avail. Fingers land on her stomach and Caitlin twists her bluntly trimmed nails against one another, a little unconscious expression of apprehension at the idea of meeting one of the theoi directly. "Wait, so it's not -- it's not like a vision quest. You literally meet one of the godde-- Theoi. In the flesh, like, for real?" she presses.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "For real," Donna confirms. She reaches a hand down again, this time not to mess up Caitlin's hair, but to squeeze her shoulder. "And she will speak to you, and tell you what you need to hear."

    Her voice becomes a little more matter of fact. "When I returned here, I was determined to prove to my mother how much I had grown. To show her that I was as true an Amazon as any. She smiled... she smiled wider than I have ever see her smile. I thought she would cry. She told me to go into the forest and seek out the /Naos Pantheion/ and present myself there. She told me I should come back and tell her what I had been told to tell her. If you wished to become a true Amazon, I imagine it would be the same for you."

     "It took me three days to find the temple in the forest. Three hard, exhausting days. There are things in the forest. Many dangers. I fought harder than I have ever fought, and I arrived at the clearing red with my own blood, stumbling with fatigue, and bruised from head to toe. And when I reached there, reached the clearing... it felt like I had known that place my whole life, even though it was the first time I had been there. Like I was coming home to a home I had never known /was/ my home. It was so peaceful. So perfect. I could have stayed there forever."

    "But I had a task to do. I crossed the clearing, mounted those ancient steps, and stood in the pale light of the temple. She spoke to me. Then I came back. It took me less than a day to find my way out of the forest. Nothing accosted me. I returned here, and told my mother what had happened, and she smiled and told me... 'Troia, now you are not just the daughter and sister of Amazons, now you too are an Amazon. Do not think too long or hard on your experience, just be proud of what you have achieved.'"

    Donna sighs softly. "That's it, really. If you want... if you want to try yourself, I think my mother would grant you leave. But be very sure it is what you want to do, or you will never find the temple."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin sits up slowly and hugs her knees to her chest, chin balancing on her forearms. She's quietly contemplative for a few minutes, uncharacteristically quiet; clearly, Donna's given her a lot to think about.

"I'll think about it," she says, finally. "I don't-- I mean, I don't know what to say," she confesses. "I never would have imagined being an Amazon. I thought you... y'know. Had to be born into it. Like you and Diana. I mean, it helps your mom's the Queen," Caitlin says, looking back at Donna. "She's been really swell to me but I don't think six months on the island qualifies me for adoption," she remarks with a wry laugh. "Plus, I wouldn't want to make Billy and Uncle Peabody feel like I was... I'unno, bailing on them. They took care of me when no one else would."

Her brow furrows as a thought occurs to her. "Hey... so if Diana's made of clay, that means you're made of clay too, right?" she says, shifting topics. "Howcome you never mentioned that to me?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna raises her head to stare at Caitlin with an expression of mixed amusement and bafflement. "Caitlin... Cait. I... You know I'm not made of clay. I mean I just explained how it's not like that, right? But also, hello, adopted? I've /told/ you this."

    She laughs, throwing her head back and shaking it, then rests back down on her arms to stare at the ceiling again. "I mentioned just now about how sometimes there are children of the World of Men taken in here, schooled, taught our ways, then returned to the World of Men. Girl children orphaned on our shores. I was one of those. I suppose my parents were fishing folk from one of the islands, the ancestors of Mycenaean sailors who have lived there for thousands of years. I certainly have the look for it, don't I? I should have /been/ one of them. Sent back to the World of Men to be an agent of Themyscira, but never to return. Except that Hippolyta decided to... I've always assumed it's because I look quite similar to Diana. She had left Themyscira almost a century before, and Hippolyta... mother missed her terribly. So she chose to adopt me."

    "And I suppose... I guess it is out of the respect that the goddesses have for mother. Because in a way they adopted me too. It is the goddesses that granted their gifts to the Amazons, when they were reborn. Each Amazon has received their blessings according to... I guess something the goddesses saw in them. Diana and I have received much more of those blessings than most. When mother adopted me, the goddesses showed her their favor by favoring me. And when I returned here and took that quest, to be accepted by the goddesses as an Amazon, I was returning the honor they did to her, by honoring them in return, the only way I could. By promising I would use the gifts they gave me the way an Amazon should."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin makes a complaining noise at the chastisement and raises her hands in the air to let them drop in protest. But she lets Donna finish, listening patiently, and fleeting irritation smooths away from her features before long.

"You and Diana just... you two look *so* alike, I mean, you could be sisters. I always assumed it was biological, not just... good genetics?" she says, tentatively.

Caitlin's face brightens then. "Golly, that kinda-- actually, that makes me feel a little better," she admits, and tucks some hair away from her face where it's escaped her loose ponytail. "About becoming an Amazon. It's not something you're born into. You worked for it."

Caitlin takes a deep breath, exhales, and looks around the temple. "I could see growing up here," she admits. "Things worked out for me OK in the long run, but... I mean, high school was /all/ the suck. So was college."

She's pensive for a moment. "Then again... ice cream," she says, as a counterpoint, and spreads her fingers at Donna.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Cola. Video games. Cartoons. The Internet." Donna bursts out laughing. "Gods, Cait! You think it's hard being without wi-fi right now? The first sixteen years of my life, I'd never even /heard/ of the Internet! On the other hand, Themyscira is..."

    Donna falls silent, her eyes fixed on the dome set into the ceiling, with its painting showing the gods in conference in the halls of Olympus. "Home," she eventually concludes. "Though I guess for me now America is too. I miss it, Cait. Miss the tower. Our friends. Themyscira is so perfect, but I miss the imperfections."

    Donna scrambles to her feet and walks away from the stairs to the statue standing to the right of the throne, the statue of Hera. She looks up into the statue's face, studying it. "In a way nobody was born into being an Amazon. Except Diana I guess. Each of the Amazons was born as a woman like any other woman. She lived, she suffered, she died. When the goddesses chose to make the Amazons, they sought out those souls that had learned the lessons in life that would make them good Amazons, and who had not in their lives done all that they needed to do. They sculpted bodies from clay, for each soul a body that reflected who they truly are, rather than the accidents of the flesh that mortals are born with. They wove their power into those clay forms, making them flesh and giving them each a portion of their own power, and they planted those lost souls in the vessels made for them. Each soul was questioned and proven to the goddesses before they were brought back to life."

    She turns from the statue of Hera, looking back at Caitlin. "I'm the lucky one, Cait. I didn't suffer. I mean... I lost my parents, my real family, but I never knew them. I was too young. My first memories are of here. Of moth... of Queen Hippolyta, smiling at me. The goddesses blessed me because of the choice mother made to adopt me, not because of what my soul had experienced or what it deserved, and they gave to me more of their strength than they gave to almost any other Amazon. If I complain sometimes that I lacked for playmates, I was always loved, always safe. Raised in a palace as a princess, with no worries or responsibilities. I live in paradise without a worry in the world, with the wisest mother who has ever lived, and the best and most loving sister anyone could dream of." An odd expression crosses her face, and she shakes her head and turns back to the statue. "Has anyone ever... fallen on their feet... to the degree I did?" she asks. Perhaps she's asking the statue of Hera.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin moves to stand behind Donna's shoulder, looking up at the statue and absorbing it all with rapt attention. At the question, she can do little but smile lopsidedly, trying to find the words. A hand rests on Donna's, squeezing, and moves in a reassuring little circle before dropping again.

"It's like something out of a fairy tale," Caitlin agrees. "Lost baby floats to sea, gets found by enchanted island, adopted and made into a princess by the Queen. Throw a wisecracking animal friend into it, you've got a Disney film."

She stops and thinks, then laughs. And laughs. The guards peer into the area, brows furrowed at the outburst of sound, but Caitlin can't help herself. She grips Donna's arms for balance and rests her head on Donna's shoulder, trying to get a word in. "W-wait, you... became a Disney princesss..." she swallows a laugh. "When you got *Garfield!*"

She explodes into titters again.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna is very glad the guards don't speak English, and have never heard of Disney. Her shoulders tense. "Caitlin Fairchild," she says in a cold voice. "I am not a Disney princess, and I will destroy you utterly."

    Her shoulders start to shake, and she snorts from trying to hold back the laughter, but it's not to be held back. Soon the pair are clinging on to each other to stop from falling to the floor as they laugh like a pair of lunatics.

    The guards watch for a moment, then share a glance. One rolls her eyes, but the other looks distinctly amused.

    "Oh Hera... Hera help me," Donna gasps as she fights to regain control. "Hera, protect me from my insane friends." She rests her hand on the statue's for a moment, then escapes Caitlin's grasp to stagger back and slump down on the stairs again, still fighting back the giggles.

    "I always assumed that looking like Diana was why mother decided to adopt me," Donna says eventually, when her breathing is under control again. "I mean... we're not /that/ alike. I mean if you think about it, mother was from... well. From here. This region. So if my parents were too, I guess we actually could be related very distantly. But I'm sure that nobody in America looks at Diana and says 'Hey, you look very like Troia'. I mean when you first met her, you'd known me for years. We'd lived together at the tower. Did you think she looked like me?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's distantly humming 'Some Day my Prince Will Come' while Donna speaks, and cuts off when the question's put to her. She shrugs, turns the motion into an upward stretching of her hands, and then lets her arms flop loosely against her sides.

"I'unno. No? I mean, yes," Caitlin amends, "but not in the sort of... immediate sense. I'm not very good at that sort of thing, though," she admits. "If I didn't know either of you, I'd maybe have gone 'okay yeah, sisters here', but I guess I know your face well enough that there wasn't any confusion for me. I didn't even really put it together until someone else said it. Now that they pointed it out, I can't *un* see it, but..." Her hands waggle back and forth, illustrating uncertainty. "Besides, babies look very little like they do as adults, right? I know Queen Hippolyta's thousands and thousands of years old but Diana's really old, too. She hasn't seen a baby face since ... I'unno, what, the Middle Ages? And hadn't seen Diana in a long time. Maybe she saw something else in your face besides lookin' like Diana."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna stares at Caitlin with wide eyes, then bursts into another fit of giggles. "Cait, sometimes you are so... so... Caitlin. Seriously, what does any of that even mean? 'No I mean yes'?" she says, before the laughter returns for another bout.

    "You know my face so well you didn't notice that Diana looks like me until someone pointed it out?" she asks, once the giggling has subsided. "That doesn't make any sense at all! Besides, Diana's told me that when she first met me she felt kind of like she was seeing her younger self."

    For someone who's accusing Caitlin of making no sense, Donna's not doing a whole lot better - she doesn't seem to be fully aware she's undermining her own argument.

    "I mean... we look kinda similar. So when you're told we're sisters, you see the similarities more. That's what I'm trying to say. But if you're not already looking for similarities, we don't look as similar. As for mom, I mean she was probably thinking about Diana a lot. She really missed her. So along comes a baby that looks a bit like Diana did when /she/ was a baby, and... you know. I mean... what else would she have seen in my face apart from that to suddenly think, like... hey, of all the babies that have come through here, yeah, I think I'll adopt this one, just because.' And then that one just happens to look enough like Diana that now I'm grown up, everyone sees it? Hoo. Wow. Caitlin, you're... you're... not making any sense!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin starts looking flustered at Donna's reprimand. "Well I don't know, you're putting me on the spot and all!" she splutters. "You /kinda/ look like Diana, but you aren't, like, twins," she says, defensively. "There are a lotta Amazons with your kinda general... bone structure and dark hair," she says, trying to articulate herself.

She just tosses her hands in the air again and rolls her eyes skywards in supplication while Donna gets her giggles out of her system. She turns to look at the statuary, eyes lingering on the tribute to Hera as if trying to discern what about the goddess drew Donna's attention.

"Have you ever asked her?" Caitlin cuts her eyes to Donna, curious. "I mean, I asked Uncle William why he adopted me, like... six weeks after I unpacked my suitcase. It wasn't the whole -truth-," she concedes, "but I can't really blame him for not jumping right into 'yeah you're a weapons-grade cloning project'. He told me daddy asked him to look after me. It was true enough, I guess."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Maybe it's some sense of mercy that Donna has in response to Caitlin's increasing flusterment, but apparently the question of Donna and Dianna's similarity is now officially dropped. "Of course I asked," she replies. "Often. She just smiles at me and says... mom stuff. Like, 'Troia, you looked up at me and smiled and I couldn't resist.' Things like that."

    Donna shrugs her shoulders, and follows Caitlin's eyes back to where they had came from, the statue of Hera. "The Diana thing makes sense. I kinda felt like... Huh. I don't know how to explain it, but like mom kind of... don't say this to her, okay? Or to Diana. But like she grew to love me more as I got older. Like maybe there was... when I was younger, before Diana came back, like there was an element of... I don't know. Maybe like she had kind of... mixed feelings? I think having me around reminded her a lot of Diana, and sometimes she... sometimes it was like she didn't want to be reminded. Or she wanted to be reminded, but also that made her miss Diana more. That's kind of what makes me think that she adopted me because I reminded her of Diana in the first place."

    Donna falls silent for a few moments, still staring at the statue. "It's a very good likeness," she says, picking her words slowly and carefully. Perhaps she sensed Caitlin's curiosity as to why the statue had drawn Donna's attention in the first place.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin shakes her head apologetically and looks back at Donna. "Sorry. Criminal psychology, sure, all day, but I'm not as good at the... family stuff, I guess," she says with remorse. "But for what it's worth, she does really love you and Diana, both in the same way and just as much. Even I can see it, and if I can see it, anyone can."

She looks up at the statue again, examining the fine details, and then lifts one shoulder at Donna in a shrug. "It's a very good statue," she agrees, non-committally. "I haven't seen all the statues of Hera on the island, so if it's better than the others, I can't really say. I don't have an eye for art. Makes sense the best one would be in here, though," she says.

Her arms swing loosely back and forth to clap her hands gently in front of her; would they were a little higher, they might catch the point as it sails over her head.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna looks at Caitlin with an expression half amusement and half disbelief, then shakes her head and turns away. "Oh I think the other statues of her on this island are generally based on this one," she says casually. "I mean it's not like every sculptor can ask the mother of the gods to sit for them, but I guess you can rely on the ones in the throne room to be... you know. On the money."

    Donna sits upright, the giggles finally fully gone, and intertwines her fingers between her knees. "I didn't... I didn't mean it like that, Cait. I know mom loves me. I asked you not to repeat that because I don't want her to think... or Diana, either of them, that there's any..." she shakes her head. "I don't know. It's not something I feel bad about. Or unloved, anything like that, not in the slightest. It's like I said before. I really feel... blessed. So lucky that I kind of try not to think of what has happened to me. I can't... rationalize it, you know? To be this lucky. To be loved as her daughter by the queen. To have... all of this. "

    "It's like... I mean what would my life have been, if my parents' boat hadn't been... whatever happened to it? I would have been brought up in some small fishing village on Alonessos or Tenedos or somewhere. Probably have married a distant cousin when I was eighteen and run some little guest house full of German tourists. Maybe we would have honeymooned on the mainland and that would be the only time I'd see the world outside that little village. Or maybe my parents were refugees, trying to cross from Turkey to Greece, that would explain what they were doing in a boat crossing the Aegean with a baby. So perhaps that life on that little island would have been an idyll compared to what my life would really have been. But then the waves took that boat, and by a million to one chance, I lived. And if that wasn't extraordinary enough, for whatever reason, the queen for the first time in the thousands of years of the history of the Amazons decided this baby, this one baby out of all of them, she would adopt and raise of her own. If I think too much about it, it's overwhelming."

    Donna looks up and smiles. "I know /matera/ loves me. And Diana does too. And because they are who they are, that million to one chance on a million to one chance on a million to one chance, their love has brought me... everything. All of this. My strength. My life. The Titans. My friends. You. What can I do but love them back, and be the best daugher and sister I can be? The best Amazon I can be?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I'unno. Maybe you were /meant/ to be here," Caitlin posits. She turns and rests her bare shoulderblades against the plinth to cool off, resuming the idle sweep of her fan near her face again. "You know? Because you weren't meant to be running a B&B on Santorini. What-- I mean, yes, I'm sure you'd feel fulfilled. Even happy. But what a waste, y'know?" Her free hand grasps expressively, trying to coalesce an idea out of the air. "Queen Hippolyta saw something in you that made her think you could be more than just another refugee. Maybe it was the same look Diana had as a baby. Maybe it's a look Diana *didn't* have," she suggests. "Diana was born to be an Amazon. You coulda just signed off as a kid, said 'I'll never be as good as Diana', and never tried again. But you pushed yourself. Queen Hippolyta didn't make you--" she glances at the guards some distance away, lowers her voice just to be safe. "Didn't make you *better* than the other Amazons. She just gave you the tools to compete fairly with them. Because of all the babies who washed up here over the ... whenever, thousands of years, you were the only one who had that going for her."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Caitlin's shoulder a playful shove. "C'mon Cait. Now you're being silly. I mean... this is a baby we're talking about. The only one who had what going for her? You think I was like this six month old baby doing push-ups and demanding to train with the adults or something? A baby is a baby. You can't just look at a baby and... anyway. If I push myself, that /is/ because of what she gave me. And because of Diana. It's because they inspired me."

    She follows Caitlin's glance over to the guards, but doesn't bother lowering her voice. She knows they don't speak English. "And you know? I can compete with my sisters. Better than compete. I can beat Phillipus, if I really try. Not because I'm better than her, because I'm not, not by a hundred miles, but because I am faster and stronger. There's probably not an Amazon on this island who isn't better than me, because as hard as I do train, what's twenty years of dedication compared to thousands of years of even the most casual training? But even though I wasn't even born here - when I was adopted, the goddesses loaned me more of their strength than they have loaned almost any other Amazon, just to make up for that. So that I /could/ compete. Why? Why would they do that? You think that would have happened if I hadn't been adopted by the queen?"

    Donna nods her head towards the statue of Hera. "That's who I met, Cait. At the temple. The mother of the gods. What does that tell you?" She gives a shrug of her shoulders, and turns away. "Mother thinks I try too hard. That's because she /does/ love me. If I did nothing, if I gave up and didn't try to compete, she wouldn't mind. She wouldn't hold it against me. I would still be her daughter, and she would still love me. But this is... this is because I love /her/. If the goddesses are willing to accept me as her true daughter, then I will /be/ her true daughter. Whatever it takes."

    Donna turns back, smiling, and gives Caitlin's arm a squeeze. "I wonder which goddess you'd meet, Caitlin. If you... you know. If you did decide to do it. To become an Amazon."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin grimaces and tugs her hair through her ears. There's something nagging at her about Donna's logic, but she can't quite muster a sound argument in light of Donna's steadfast adoration for her mother. So, she resigns herself to it with a sigh and a nod of concession. Her eyes follow Donna's up to Hera's features, and those green orbs widen quite a bit when Donna says she 'met' Hera there.

"Oh. You-- you actually... met her. In person," Caitlin says, a bit weakly. That's a bit of a stopper, and it takes her a few seconds to process it.

"I ... I don't know. I don't if any of 'em would *want* to meet me," Caitlin says. She shivers as if cold and rubs her hands over her arms, hugging herself. "I wouldn't even known what to say if I did meet any of 'em." Her eyes go around, reading the faces of the statues lining the temple walls. "'Hi, my friend Troia thinks you're great, how badly did they screw up your Wikipedia entries'?" she hazards.

"To be honest I feel like it's one thing for your mother to let me stay here as a guest, but ... the reason Greco-Roman theology died out was because of people like Emperor Constantine. Don't you think I'd be... a slap in the face?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    The wikipedia line brings a broad grin to Donna's face, but it's not quite enough to bring back the giggling fits. "I'm pretty sure that if that was a big deal to them, all the pages would suddenly get updated and edit locked so hard even the Wikipedia editors couldn't edit them any more," she says, smirking a little.

    Donna stands and walks behind the throne, leaning over the back of it. One of the guards flashes her a narrow-eyed look of disapproval, and Donna replies with a nonchalant shrug that says 'Hey, I'm not actually sitting on it, whatcha gonna do?'. "They'd hardly blame you for Emperor Constantine," Donna reasons. "I mean you never even met the guy. Just easy on the 'died out', okay? As for whether they'd want to meet you, I think that's entirely up to you. If you truly wanted to dedicate yourself to the Amazon way, and have truly convinced /yourself/ that it is who you are and what you want to be, then they will find you interesting enough to speak to. They know you already, Caitlin. They know everyone, and there is a little... a divine spark, in every person. They would know the divine spark you were born with, and one of them would come to you, one who knows that you... belong. My bet would be Hestia or Artemis. "

    She turns to look thoughtfully at the statues of those two goddesses. "If you one day step across that threshhold, I promise you the temple will not be empty. But you will only find it if you are truly ready in your heart to do so. Probably Hestia. I mean Artemis has that whole hunting thing, and you're not much of a hunter. On the other hand..." Donna turns back to Caitlin with a smirk. "There is the whole... /chastity/ thing too."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin lids her eyes and looks up and away with a positively saintly expression of benevolent patience. "I'm waiting for someone who actually cares about me as a person," she says with a little stubborn note in her voice. "I got catcalled, hit on, and stalked after that stupid YouTube video went live. I almost dropped outta school."

Vexation enters her voice. "It's just... it's just easier not to deal with it. Even the guys from church are weird. I tried the youth group thing and they're all, like... 'so how many kids do you wanna have' and 'when can our families meet'. And there was that time I broke that poor guy's toe at that gala, remember?" she says, finger waving vaguely in Donna's direction. "So if I don't date in the community I'm gonna end up breaking someone in half, and if I *do* date in the community, it's weird and awkward. I don't know how Richard stays on such good terms with *his* exes... though I guess we only hear about the ones where it works out," she allows.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "What do you mean, Cait?" Donna asks, a mischievous grin spreading across her features. "You say it like you've never met someone who actually cares about you as a person. I mean for one, /I/ care about you as a person. A lot." She makes a kissy face at Caitlin, then cackles and dodges quickly out of punch range, dancing down the stairs that lead to the throne with a laugh.

    "I don't know about Dick. Maybe he's just kind of good about not letting them expect too much, so if they are cool with that it stays friendly." She keeps stepping back lightly, just in case Caitlin's about to attack her for that earlier teasing. "I mean I'm not the person to ask. It's not like I exactly have the best record either. I mean my last two. Rae and Marv... both of those I messed up with pretty good. And before that? You don't even want to know. My first couple of years in America, I was... naive. I mean you only broke that guy's toe by accident. I broke a guy's arm on purpose. And I /liked/ him. "

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Thank you, that's extremely reassuring," Caitlin says with the dryest voice ever. "You've completely validated all my concerns about dating in one fell swoop." She makes a half-hearted lunge towards Donna when she closes the distance, just to keep her on her toes. "At least I know I can't do it any worse than you did."

She walks in a slow circle, looking around the statuary; Aphrodite gets a wary look and a little distancing. "You really think they'd want me? I mean, the Theoi, as a ... collective. To be an Amazon." The idea had seemed ludicrous at first, but it's dawning on Caitlin as a possibility. She looks away from Athena's calm visage towards Donna. "I admit that being able to fly would be a ... really, really tempting bit of icing on that cake," she confesses, and looks skywards again with a wistful expression.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna shakes her head a little as she takes another step back, avoiding the lazy lunge. "Probably not Cait, no. I mean that kinda proves I'm no Disney princess, doesn't it? If any handsome princes ever fell for me I'm pretty sure I'd manage to mess up the happily ever after bit. I'm kinda figuring the average Disney prince would storm off in a sulk if the princess broke his nose and spoiled his pretty face."

    When Caitlin stops the lunging and starts circling, Donna accompanies her on the miniature tour of gods and goddesses. "It's not so much about whether they'd want you or not, Cait. I don't think it really works that way. It's kind of more like... if you are an Amazon, you're an Amazon. They'd kinda be just acknowledging that, you know what I mean? To be strong, but for that strength not to detract from your respect for those who are weak. To be compassionate, but not shy away from those times you have to fight. To be wise, but able to forgive the foolish. To be able to love even those who are unlovable. If you aspire to be all those things, if it is your passion and your heart, how could they refuse you?"

    Donna looks from Caitlin to the face of Athena's statue and back again. "Ah... you know most Amazons can't fly, yeah? I mean that's why you're generally seeing people walk around the island. It's... pretty rare." Very rare, but Donna's not planning to say just how rare. "Becoming an Amazon isn't about... these powers aren't a reward. I didn't get like... a /power-up/ when I did it. But... who knows. With you. I mean your strength doesn't come from them in the first place, so it might be different. They might feel like if you needed something to help you be a better Amazon, you know."

    Donna's face breaks into a broad grin. "I mean at least they might give you the gift of being able to hover just enough that you don't break quite so many chairs."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Wow, how would that be for a lame superpower?" Caitlin retorts. Her tone is dry but her grin's amused all the same. "'You have the ability to not wreck the chairs at Applebee's'," she intones. "Yeah, that'd... be the sort of thing I leave /off/ my official bio, I think."

She puts her palms against her lower back and stretches, then looks to Donna and tilts her head towards the doors. "C'mon. We've been dawdling long enough. I wanna help out in the kitchen for dinner so I can get those last recipes figured out."

She falls into step next to Donna and puts her arm around Donna's shoulders with a squeeze. "Thanks. For-- all this," she says, gesturing vaguely at the temple. "This was an eye opener. It's given me a fair amount to think about."

"And if I didn't say it before, I care about you, too," Caitlin reminds Donna. "A lot, also. The best part about coming here was finding out you were here, too.' She beams a smile at Donna and leans down to rest her temple against Donna's brow for a moment with an affectionate hug, and the two of them pass the guards and head out of the throne room towards the pristine, timeless city beyond.