4374/Returning to Abnormal

Returning to Abnormal
Date of Scene:	11 December 2020
Location:	W03 - Troia's Dorm - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	In the aftermath of the return of the missing Titans, Raven and Donna get a little quiet time together where we learn that they both feel that getting back to normal is a /really good idea/ about now.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Rachel Roth

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Donna Troy has posed:
    There had been pizzas. It was inevitable.

    Outside the tower, the Milano still steamed slightly with the heat of re-entry, that chaotic descent to Earth less than an hour past. Inside the tower, some of the less suspicious Guardians had joined Titans returned and Titans left behind for a celebration of the fact that Troia, Caitlin, Victor and Terry had finally arrived home. While it was an occasion of some joy, it was not destined to be a long-running party - there hadn't exactly been time to organize, the mood to celebrate was tempered with exhaustion, and for some of the four returning Titans at least, there were things to do in private. One by one, in relatively short order, most of them had slipped away.

    Donna stands in front of her door for a few moments, just staring at it in silence before opening the door. She steps in but doesn't immediately switch the lights on, standing on the threshhold with a peculiar sense of uncertainty and alienation. It should feel like home - one of her homes, at least. For three months though, 'home' had meant the shattered remnant of a Warzoon dreadnought, orbiting a black hole. Earth doesn't quite feel real again, yet.

    "Rae?" Donna asks the darkness quietly. "Are you here?"

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven had taken her leave swiftly. The need for food had not returned to her just yet, but the craving for darker reaches and- if we're being honest- the desire to sleep for the first time in a long while were a little too difficult to ignore. Raven is, for her part, happy to have the others back: But she is not the type to celebrate. She was perhaps just as exhausted as the four who'd returned.

    When Donna entered the room, Raven wasn't actually there. Instead, she was off in her own room, but there is enough of her in the shadows that she is fully aware when Donna speaks. There is only a moment's lingering silence before Raven is present in the darkness.

    "Troia. I am... Here. Fully."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna reaches her hand to the light switch, and after a moment's thought turns the light on to their dimmest setting. "Rae," She says, her voice just above a whisper as she steps forwards. Her hand reaches out to touch Raven's face but stops just short. Whatever Raven says, Donna doesn't want to risk finding her intangible again.

    She's silent a few moments just staring at Raven, studying her face as if to check it hasn't changed in the months they had been apart. "You came to me in my dream. I remembered. I don't know how you did that, but I know you did. Know it was really you. It was..."

     She shakes her head and looks away. "It wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to know what had happened, that everyone was safe. Not knowing ate at me. I wanted to... I wanted your companionship, when I was alone. You held that back. It hurt, thinking about that when I woke up. Thinking about it for weeks afterwards. But I understand why you did what you did. That the message was more important."

    Donna sighs and lowers her hand. "It was a hard message to convey to the others. At first at least they took it like it was a... threat, or an ultimatum. I hated that Rae. So much."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven is, as most would not believe, not dispelled by the resurgence of light within the room. There is, to a degree, a warmth to her flesh. A returned sensation of body heat, that tells that she is tangible. That Raven is again 'real.' She regards the hand in silence for a moment looking it and, quietly, slipping a hand out of her pocket. That hand wraps around Donna's wrist, such that she can pull the hand to her face, to let the palm feel that Raven sure isn't intangible.

    "I had... Red tape. There were entities to which I had to appeal in order to make the journey. Not because they could- or would- stop me, but because it was the... Right thing to do." Less moralistic, and more out of protocol.

    Raven is again fully silent, after that. She doesn't seem to be able to take her eyes off of her shoes. "I had to tell you. I had to tell you what I had to do or else- or else maybe you wouldn't have made it in time. It was very important that you stopped me. I know you know that."

    To the latter statement, Raven offered a shrug. "I don't care how they perceived it. They don't understand. Maybe they never will. In the end it doesn't matter how it was seen, as long as it got the right response. Which it did."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna lets her hand be guided to Raven's face, and she rests it there. After a moment, she strokes the pale skin of Raven's cheek with her thumb, and a smile of simple happiness breaks across her features. Suddenly it feels real.

    "It matters to me, Rae. Maybe you don't care, but *I* do," is the heartfelt response. "It matters to me that they don't see you how I do. Oh they care, because you're part of the team, because you're a Titan. But they also fear. And you'll probably say that's a good thing." She shrugs her shoulders a little, but her hand remains in place on Raven's cheek. "Maybe you're right, in the end. But when they speak like that... even in jest, speaking about how... how it was important to get back so you wouldn't wreck reality, as if this was somehow... as if you'd /chose/ to do that. It hurts, Rae. I love you, and I want other people to love you too, not to fear you. Fear where you come from, maybe. Fear what you could be, if you weren't who you are. But the person who you are, the person who you chose to be... I love her and it hurts when people can't see her."

    Donna lowers her hand finally, and reaches to take both of Raven's hands in hers. "It was so hard, Rae. Being away from all of you. Not knowing what had happened to everyone. I felt so lost there. I suspect the last few months have been quite a struggle for you too. But I'm back. We're all back now. I hope we can let things get back to normal."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven's pensive expression never seems to leave some combination of Troia's wrist or the floor, whichever seems most likely. Instead, her eyes linger there for a long time- longer than they should, as the half-demon considers what to say. It is harder now, than normal, as much of her mental effort is wrapped up in battering down her emotions and, well, very nature with the equivalent of a broom.

    "It isn't their place to see me." she offers, "I know that isn't how you want it. That you see it that way is part of why I love you... But what is important to me is not how I am perceived. If they're afraid, it'll be easier for them to do what they have to do, if it comes down to it." There was an if there, so that's an improvement.

    "But, in the end, I'm not invested in how they feel, and never will be. Not like this. What is important to me is what -you- see. I can't do anything for the blind. Not when they want to be that badly." Her hands squeeze Donna's a bit- it doesn't do much, but the pressure is there.

    "We have to let things get back to normal. It's not optional."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Three months is a long time," Donna says with a sigh. "And it felt longer. Felt longer than three years did. Perhaps because I was so much further away. And because I couldn't just... because I didn't know for sure I would /ever/ come back. "

    She responds to the squeeze with a squeeze of her own - a bit more pressure there, but she's being careful. "It was a weird place, Rae. Some kind of grand experiment. We never did figure it out completely, but there were seven worlds there, each with its own unique view of how society should be run. I think a lot of people would class it as a flawed paradise. There was one world where they believed the answer to society was eternal warfare, but a warfare that is so tightly controlled that people rarely get killed. The rest had no wars. Virtually no crime. I felt so useless there. I have a purpose, a clear purpose - and that was a place that didn't need me. I couldn't help thinking about you - about how both of us were given a purpose by what you might describe as higher powers, and while I believe in mine and embrace it, you oppose yours and fight against it. You live in a world you know your purpose would harm, and you found a way to turn that around and do something good with what you are. I'm not sure I could ever have done that, ever have found a purpose to live there."

    Still holding Raven's hands, she steps closer. The two women stand barely separated. "But I'm back. Back in the world where I don't need to look hard to find a purpose I believe in. And where you struggle with yourself to find a purpose you believe in, but where here... this, the Titans, us... you have found that purpose. I know the importance of you not losing that again. I know the importance of things getting back to normal."

    Her smile grows wider. "They will. I promise."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    "I was manipulating time, after a point. Things were getting out of control. Part of it was stretching the moments so that it felt longer than it was, with as long as it was artificially longer than it should have been." There's a sigh. "I hate me, sometimes." Clearly, technically-self-inflicted temporal torture is not exactly normal, but she seems to be handling it well, or at least handling it sardonically.

    "I knew you were coming back, but I was clawing at the asphalt, hoping that we wouldn't have to pay for it. That there'd be no piper, for once in our lives." Finally, her eyes move upwards, lingering nowhere until they lock on Donna's own. "Don't think about it." she remarks, somewhat blandly. "It sounds as if it was some grand experiment of which you were not part, and designed by that which it's best to not even try and comprehend." she offers, looking for a moment earnestly sympathetic.

    "Best to focus on the now. You know, all the ways and places in which you're useless here."

    Raven shrugs. "You don't have the same sort of spite that I do." she admits, quite directly. "When I found it all out, when I learned that I was designed to do what may be inevitable, I understood only that if it was going to happen, I was going to be as obstinate as I could possibly be."

    Her eyes remain where they are, as she speaks again. "The philosophy of it isn't important in the end. We aren't the same people. Trying to consider what you could or couldn't do is a fine exercise, but there's no worth in dwelling on it."

    There is a short pause. "If it's any consolation, I was sure if the universe was going to be forfeit, I could keep you around. Vorpal was going to be the first to go."

Donna Troy has posed:
"It was some grand experiment for sure. Where we were was not natural. As for whether we were not part of it and who designed it... " Donna gives a wry smile. "Well it depends on who you believe. But it may very well have been designed by humans, or someone human, in the future. And we were part of the pattern. I don't know how... but the guy that was running that experiment and possibly who created the place in the first place knew we were coming, and seemed to think we would... I don't know. Shake things up a bit. I can't help wondering if he somehow manipulated things so we'd end up there."

    Her smile grows wider, and becomes simpler, just an expression of happiness. "But that's in the past. I'm back. We're back. I include you in that. And as far as I can see the only price we're having to pay is putting up with those weird aliens for a little while. They call themselves the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' but I suspect they are a little less altruistic than the Titans. We may have to keep a close eye on them. It seems the piper didn't notice our absence though."

    Donna glances quickly down and back up again, her smile growing ever wider. Finally she decides she can't wait any longer and lets go of Raven's hands to wrap her arms around her. Raven can feel the tension in Donna's arms, the urge to hug her /too/ tightly that Donna has to fight back. She holds Raven silently for a while, then gives a soft laugh.

    "Terry's okay. I think the trip was good for him, he's growing up a bit. Found some new powers too, while we were there. But let's stick to the option where /nobody/ gets eliminated from reality, huh Rae? Those are the best outcomes."

    She raises a hand to the back of Raven's head, and presses her cheek to Raven's cheek. She holds Raven in her arms a while, feeling her lover's heartbeat against her chest, and sighs softly, a contented sound. "No. This is the best outcome."