4722/TJ Phone Home

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TJ Phone Home
Date of Scene: 14 January 2021
Location: Lobby - Titan's Tower
Synopsis: Pizza Party with X-men and Titans to hand off a Ragamuffin Waif Stray to them
Cast of Characters: Talia Wagner, Donna Troy, Bart Allen, Terry O'Neil, Damian Wayne, Illyana Rasputina, Julio Richter, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Caitlin Fairchild




Talia Wagner has posed:
For Talia Wagner, aka TJ or Nocturne, it has been a super long day.

Like pretty much inexplicably long when you really come down to it.

The TLDR on this one is she spent most of the day in a race against time to stop Vampiric Avengers led by a Vampire King Captain America from enslaving the entire city of San Francisco and becoming Immortal while also trying to kill him to free her teammate Sunfire from becoming one of the unholy bloodsuckers. Then she got dropped here on Earth-7WhateverTheHellWrongThisPlaceIs12 hard, like crash landed from a rough transition and none of her team are anywhere. Queue the Cheshire Cat tricking her into going to Titan's Tower to be cleared so they could call the X-Men.

That is the short version of her day.

But hey pizza. So yeah Talia is eating pizza while they wait for the emergency Mutant Pickup Squad to arrive. To pass the time besides eating pizza she has started to pepper Troia and Impulse about things like, Does Tony Stark own a Coffee Chain here called StarkBucks. Is Lex Luthor President. Is Victor von Doom on the Fantastic Four.

Odd Blue Chick

Donna Troy has posed:
    It wasn't entirely a trick! While lines of communication between the Titans are limited - more limited than Donna would like - after working together to recover Bushwick and Genosha from Brainiac, the Titans do have a channel of communication with the X-Men, and a message had duly been sent about Nocturne.

    Not, it should be duly added, the message that Donna had claimed she was sending. The real one had been rather less provocative, merely stating that they had a lost mutant at the Tower by the name of TJ, who was from another dimension or timeline or something, but not /that/ other dimension, she has been checked, and she claims to know the X-Folks from where she's from and is looking for help. The only provocative part was the admonition that she was currently being fed pizza by a speedster, and was thus liable to die of over-eating unless collected in reasonably short order.

    Donna had spent the wait rather enjoyably filling Nocurne in on those vital questions, as intrigued by the alternative realities Nocturne describes as Nocturne is of the one in which she has arrived. the answers she gives are almost all correct, though Nocturne may go away with the impression that Tony Stark once declared war on Starbucks.*

    *According to some sources he did in fact once consider it, but was talked down by Pepper.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen is sitting with his feet up on one of the folding chairs, having polished off one of the pizza's he brought back tot he tower. He tried to contact his own X connections but seemed they do not have their coms on or out of range. He looks over to TJ, and says "Lex just won the election last year should be sworn in soon." He then adds in "Never seen Doom as a good guy though. In the other dimensions, you ever see another of me?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal had left Talia in the capable hands of the Amazon and their speedster buddy while he brought the tribute to he hungry, hungry hippo in the lab. Okay, Gar wasn't a hippo this time, still working on his hybrid form to help him regrow his arm, but the hunger was always the same. After food was consumed and Gar moved out of the tank to sleep and recover, Vorpal came down to join the Titans and their guests.

"He's gone off to sleep..." he says, approaching the pizza fest, taking a sip from a soda can he carried with him, "How's the catching-up going? Did she tell you I apparenty don't exist in her world? What kind of a bleak reality is that?" he says, occupying the nearest chair in the most feline way- not so much sitting on it as draping himself over it.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Robin had posted up on a couch, his boots laying over the seat back, and his earbuds in. He seemed to be humming to the music he was listening to.

  He'd kept to himself, of course, but he still liked to be around people. Meanwhile he enjoyed tapping his foot in the air to the sounds of a sea shanty. "More like a godsend." He added in to Terry's words before he started to gently sing to the Wellerman.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
X-Men? Check.

Pickup squad? Check.

Meeting the core criteria, and being generally known to the Titans after that nasty business with reassembling cities ensures that, hopefully, no orbital strike or array of unhappy friendlies will boil out the moment Illyana and Julio manifest in sight of the landmark tower. A flash of blue-tinged silver fire ricochets around the rim of a fissure in reality so quickly that a bystander on a bus rounding the corner might be forced to blink twice, rub their eyes, and decide the paparazzi in this part of town is getting outright out-of-control.

Otherwise, they haven't much reason to look twice considering the girl in the knee-length white swing coat and black boots is moderately 'normal.' The smart pace taken to the Tower allows her time to briefly reply to Donna with all due politeness and a total lack of emojis, confirming the imminent arrival. Less step-through-a-wall arrival, the kind that entails approaching a proper door. "Do I look amiable enough for this?" she asks Julio in an aside. "You can do the smiling."

Julio Richter has posed:
A second X-man steps through the flaming portal, brushing a hand back through his dark, unruly hair to dust away any hellish embers that linger there. He's definitely an X-man, because he has X symbols all over his outfit: at the collar and belt of his skintight black and gray bodysuit, and on the shoulders of his jacket, which is forest green paneled in gray. For a secretive mutant liberation front, the X-men sure do attend to their branding.

"You look fine," he says to his traveling companion, accented voice hushed but proud as they walk toward the entrance to the T-shaped tower that is their destination. "Intimidating, but that's not a bad thing. I didn't realize I was supposed to be the good cop, though. You know Limbo's ground gives me a migraine." He winces, but at least this time, a caiman-faced mesoamerican blood god didn't try to devour his soul! That was a memorable Limbo visit.

When they arrive at the tower, he holds the door open for her, though he does so with a wry expression; she is a queen, but she's also his friend. From the second his green boots scuff the lobby floor, following her in, it's clear that the young Latino doesn't really fit into the gleaming technological geometry of Titans Tower. He peers around the inviting architecture suspiciously, a verdant St. Elmo's fire snaking over his arms and shoulders. The aura pauses to fragment and quake ominously every so often, but he doesn't fire off his powers any further than that. Given the building's precarious, ridiculous shape, he's going to have to be extra cautious for this to remain a diplomatic visit.

His eyes alight on TJ and he raises a hand in a little wave. "Hola. Are you who we're here to pick up?"

He pauses, looks around the crowded room, and realizes that that's probably insufficient for a greeting. "Hi," he adds, extending the wave. Oh, much better.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The elevator doors open and Nadia comes running back into the Tower lobby, not long after Illyana and Julio arrive. Does she ever stop running? Probably only when the caffeine runs out. Whatever it was on her wrist that had begun flashing that baleful red when TJ arrived seems to have stopped at least.

"Guys! Guys! The dimensional breach monitoring system just picked one up occurring right outside the tower!" There is a pause as her eyes catch up with the people in the room, including the people who are not typically in the room and her mind puts two and two together.

"Illyana!" Nadia exclaims happily! She sprints over to give Magik a hug! "How are you?! I haven't seen you in forever! Please don't be a doppleganger and try to murder me!"

Talia Wagner has posed:
"For the record, when I asked if Doom was on the Fantastic Four... I in no way said he was a hero." a light shiver there. Then a bite of cheesy pepperoni pizza. "Yes." to the question Bart asked. Not a lot of details given though. Then because she knows he will ask "You were on a team called Young Justice tho."

"Also yes I've never once run into anyone claiming to be the Cheshire Cat or even having heard of a hero or villain like that.." light shrug. "Though also to be fair a lot of the places I have been have been mid or post horrible disaster causing things to go wrong... lot of dead people and not a lot of survivors usually..."

She reaches for an energy drink and takes a deep slug from it, caffiene at this point is important so she doesn't just fall asleep in a slice of carby meaty glory that is pizza all the way from Chicago thanks to Bart.

When the door opens though she looks over and just goes very still staring at Magik. There is a very .. careful.. guarded even.. look across the gulf of the room. The very yellow with absolutely no pupil or iris eyes slant towards Richter and then back to Illyana.

That brief staredown, which may be one sided, is broken when Nadia goes running happily to hug Magik though. I mean, if this Magik is a hugger and doesn't smite Waspette maybe this will be fine.

TJ shifts and with a lot of agility slides up to her feet facing Ilyanna and Victor. She has velvety blue fur, only three fingers, yellow eyes, pointed ears. Leather battle gear without any team symbols on it. Honestly she looks like a hot younger female version of their teammate Kurt.

"Ah yeah that would be me Richter." from the lady Richter has never met, and a nod to Ilyanna "Magik." still watching to see if Nadia is disc'd to limbo.

Donna Troy has posed:
    With the power in partial lockdown, security is pretty tight at the tower, though this is hardly apparent to the casual visitor. The lobby is large, bright and welcoming, and the Titans differ dramatically from the X-Men not only in the fact that their base advertizes their position to the world, but that they actually welcome walk-in visitors. Nevertheless there are a number of sensors following the visitors as soon as they appear, and hidden turrets tracking their movements. Illyana will also be aware of a startling array of magical wards, but as with the technological protections they are watchful rather than aggressive. The path of the vistors to the tower is unimpeded, the door unlocked ready for them, and a group of Titans lounging around the lobby, enjoying an impressive selection of pizzas with their guest.

    "Hey Nadia," Donna says, studying a slice of pizza fresh from Chicago with a curious expression. "Oh, that will probably be our... and she's gone. Hi Illyana and..." she switches her curious expression from pizza to Julio. "...And friend. Ah. Richter. And Richter." Sorry Richter, TJ just spilled the beans. "Welcome to Titans Tower. We have a stray for you. Or possibly a waif. I have never been entirely clear of the difference between the two."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "Waifs are mostly kids, where a stray can be adult of kid, and most times it is about animals." He offers, as once Bart has read something it is in his head so he might as well share it." He looks over to the two new faces and sits up a bit more to look them over." He hmms, and studies Rictor for a moment, and will look over to him, and says "Friend of Hope, and Laura's sister right?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal doesn't reach for the pizza, his stomach being full of pastrami. "Well, isn't /that/ reassuring..." he says in regards to TJ's comment that he could have existed, just... you know, murdered everywhere else, "Young Justice has a nice ring to it, don't you think, Bart? Maybe-" the Cheshire gestures with his can, his other arm immobilized due to the bandage and the sling, "-we can form a rock band? That could be our band name. Donna can be on keyboard, you can be on guitar, and I'll be the vocals. It'll be fab."

"And we have more guests!" He sits up straight, abandoning his lackadaisical position, and waves. "Hello, Richter and Magik and... Nadia." The Waspette pouncing on the other adult indicates that she must know her somewhat. He hoped. Sometimes, you didn't know with Nadia. He stands up and walks over to the new arrivals, extending a hand to shake.

Then he realizes he is holding his soda can in his only free, non-immobilized hand. He tries to shift it to the other hand, and it's not very successful. "One second..."

A Rabbit hole hopens up and Vorpal tosses the can through it, and taps the comm on his shoulder, "Ooopsie my bad trash disposal byeee" *click* and then he holds up his hand out to the new arrivals.

"I'm Vorpal!" he says with a cheshire grin, "I was the one who stumbled upon TJ. Nice kid. Very strange travel itinerary."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The elevator *beeps* and the doors open. A little tardy, Caitlin joins the party! and starts instinctively making a path towards the food. Deeply-ingrained manners divert her attention and she heads towards the X-men and the newcomer in blue. She's dressed fairly casually, in grey calf-length leggings and a faded pink hoodie that says 'Columbia' in white. Low canvas trainers give her a relaxed look. She's perhaps a year or two too old to still be in college, but not by much, and pulls up next to Donna to make with the introductions. It's shoulder to shoulder with Donna that one might get a sense of the scale Cait's built on, easily bigger than some Asgardians.

"Sorry I'm late, had to finish working in the lab. I'm Caitlin Fairchild, welcome to the tower." Polite and gentle handclasps are offered to each in turn as they're willing. TJ's a new face; Julio and Illyana, vaguely recognized from the Titans databases and some chance encounters with their allies in passing.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Gleaming technology might not suit Julio but it certainly frames the Demon Queen of Limbo well enough. It has something to do with that Russian element, cold and austere as her black-earth homeland and its endlessly snowy plains. "Hello, Titans. You are well this evening? We are glad to see you again." Glad is a hard word, but she -tries- to find the appropriate phrase for the moment.

Julio waves. She nods with a moderated degree of respect for the collective Titans in company, lingering deepest on Donna as the messenger. "Whatever best describes it for you. Are you expecting anyone else?"

In history any signs where she willingly /attempted/ a smile usually come with an assortment of motley harbingers of reality's demise, but not now. Nadia, though, that's another matter. Collapse space and she is being hugged, managing to even return it with one arm around her shoulder and that briefest glimpse of a wintry smile. "No doppelganger. One of me only."

When her gaze lifts to assess the stranger over the way, Talia receives that singularly direct stare rude by almost any measure. She doesn't back down, though a blinking contest would be lopsided. Not an X on her in sight, no hint of that horrifying artifact bound to her soul manifesting, and not -one- inkling of brimstone nearby. But something in the way she holds herself, standing so self-contained and immobile, is a promise of checking a tsunami waiting to rip free. Something about that might be deeply disturbing to a sensitive; doubly because the magic potential in her announces exactly what she is. "Illyana Rasputina, Magik otherwise." Her name is given freely when the doors open to admit Caitlin, and for the benefit of the rest. To Nocturne, she asides, "How did you come to be here? You are enjoying the pizza?" Casual lolling of Vorpals aside, this is one of those situations to be approached like starving polar bears or hungry teenagers. His hand is stared at for a moment. This is not a common custom, so she adjusts slowly to it. But she's trying, for all her aura is laden with a hell of a mana charge. "We have our fair share of dimensional abruptions. If only dinner would solve all the problems, da? Katz's should be an interdimensional beacon of peace."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Troia, really? A waif? was ragamuffin too fanciful?" He must not have those earbuds on high if he's hearing everything.

  The X-Men show, and Robin just keeps lounging. His head was upside down handing off the seat of the plush couch. "Well, at least they are letting /someone/ in the lab now. I thought it was /someone's/ personal playground." Yeah, Robin remembered the closings. He is always a bit...prickly. But today, he's a little extra.

  Luckily, everyone referred to Nocturne as TJ so far.

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio raises his eyebrows, then gapes in shock as Nadia throws her arms around Illyana. He starts forward in an attempt to intercept her and stop the approach, but he's too slow. That... actually is a good way to get bisected by the soulsword, so it's a good thing Illyana is feeling patient today.

"Doppawhatnow?" he echoes Nadia, imperfectly, obviously baffled by the term. "You should be OK," he goes on to assure her, after a second's silence to convince himself of that fact. "Magik doesn't really... 'try' to murder people."

When TJ uses his surname, he looks at her sharply, eyes flashing green, then that look turns on Donna when she repeats it. He hasn't really bothered to come up with a code name, sure, but it's weird to be addressed like that. He doesn't use his full name outside of the school, given that he's wanted by the governments of the US and Mexico. But when even Bart recognizes him, he visibly sucks in a frustrated breath, blinking wide eyes. Apparently the T here stands for Talmbout Everybody's Business!

"Si, sure! Purgatory, right? Call me Richter." (Rictor? Homophones!) He extends a hand to shake Vorpal's, somewhat more forcefully than the situation calls for. "I guess everybody does, now." By the time Caitlin comes over for a handshake, too, he doesn't even notice, because he's facepalming harder than Captain Picard in the middle of a Romulan war fleet.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia grins at Illyana and releases her, now satisfied that she has been sufficiently hugged. "Good, I'm glad you're okay. We have been having problems with murderous counterparts from another dimension lately and people have been calling them Dopplegangers. Terry said I have one too and she apparently calls herself Ant-Girl. Weird."

She peers at Julio for a moment, "Are you okay ...Richter?" She adds the last part after he supplies a name. It seems like his interpretation of what she was concerned about and what she was actually concerned about do not match at all. "I'm Nadia or Waspette. Nice to meet you. Any relation to the Richter scale?"

But Nadia's attention is a fleeting thing, "Oooh the pizza arrived, Illyana do you want some pizza?!" And she's already heading for the food.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Dangit. TJ is very tired and will blame it on that. Still she does notice that Julio is a bit thrown about the whole Richter thing and may have wanted to give out his name.

Blink. Blink.

She walks closer to both Julio and Ilyanna now though nodding to Magik then looking to Julio "Sorry I figured you went by Rictor here." slightly different lilt to it than a moment ago but hard to say. "You know..." she sort of wobbles her unusual hands there. "With the vibrations and all?" she gestures at what Nadia said about the scale.

Innocent look.

"So .. uh... I go by Nocturne or TJ mostly, but I'm Talia." gestures a bit towards herself "Talia Wagner" pause "Also yeah the pizza is fantastic. As for how I came here.. portal from another timestream. I figured if anyone can help me sort out the mess and find my missing teammates so we can do our job it would be the X-Men." she just sort of shakes her head "I still can't get over this being a Justice League and Avengers world tho to be honest.. first one of those..." pauses a beat "I figured a pickup was better than a drop off though for secrecy reasons..." and then shrugs a little helpless.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Thanks Impulse," Donna says with a smile. "English is a weird language sometimes. You know I think I have only ever heard the word 'waif' used in front of 'and strays'. Ragamuffin sounds good though, I'll use that next time. Thank you Robin. Please feel free to use one of the /other/ labs, Robin. And if you wish to put up a sign on the door saying 'no ragamuffins', you are free to do so."

    Linguistic discussion and lab policy is interrupted by a bleep from Donna's T-Com. She pulls it out of a pocket, flips it open, reads a message and smirks "Vorpal. Official request from SHIELD. They say 'Can you please make him stop. Please. P.S. Please. Praying hands emoji'." She flips the T-Com shut and puts it away again.

    "Nadia, it's particle entanglement, right?" Donna asks. "Suppose it's a two-step journey. Like he opens a portal to Wond... ah, later." She gives Caitlin a friendly shoulder-bump and returns her attention to the visitors.

    "Ah. Donna, Caitlin, Vorpal, Robin, Waspette and Impulse in case you didn't catch any names," she says, pointing people out one after the other for clarity. "Please help yourselves to pizza if you'd like something to eat while introducing yourself to TJ here. Still warm and freshly brought from pizza parlors the nation over, courtesy of our impulsive speedster. TJ's story seems to check out." No explanation of what has been done to check out said tall tales. "And she's not a doppelganger from the ZZGU dimension. Or at least she genuinely doesn't think she is."

    Donna leaves TJ to relate those aforementioned tall tales with their rumor of worlds that don't have both an Avengers and a Justice League herself, though there's a brief flicker of her eyes towards Robin when the story is recounted.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin rubs her brow at the exchange between everyone. Big personalities in the room, ranging from hyperactively friendly Nadia to brooding Robins to Vorpal just creating chaos in general.

An elbow nudges Donna, very gently. There's a little long-suffering edge to Troia's voice that Cait recognizes. It's not a nudge to 'straighten up', so much as a reassurance of solidarity.

"Sorry, Richter, Magik," Caitlin says. "We're, uh... kinda sloppy about secret identities around here. But only inside the Tower, I promise. No one's going to let anything slip out in the street." She gives TJ a warm and welcoming smile, trying to offer at least one friendly face to the uncertainty the girl is facing.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "And if you want something besides Pizza, and it aint here let me know, and I can get it, no problem." He tells the new folks. He finishes the pizza he was working on and starts looking through the others, and hmms. He is off again in a blurr, and back with another couple of pizza, smiling as he opens the top one and takes a couple pieces of a philly steak and cheese pizza back to his seat.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you both," Vorpal says with a genuine smile, "Like Donna said, help yourselves to the food."

He turns around and starts heading back to the main group, and then points at Donna, "Donna, it's not my fault that they're spying on me when I open Rabbit Holes. Next time, I'm not going to be responsible for what other personal uses..." he trails off and then jumps onto another track, "But yes. Identities here are mostly on the loose side. Except for the Bat-people, who are paranoid and trust no-onem" he says, grinning at Robin... oh, if only he knew.

After ruffling Impulse's hair and managing to resist temptation and not grab a pizza, he approaches Nadia.

"Miss N, there's something very important I gotta ask you about later. Don't go anywhere... also, I'm afraid that my doppelganger kind of shot that device you gave me to pieces. I know you put a lot of time into it..."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "I have already done so, /away/ from anyone else meddling around in the lab. As if they were the only science-leaning Titans." Deigns Robin, still bobbing his boots up and down to the beat.

  It was a good song. But he made his 'Talia'. There was the name. Immediately, his eyes flare open, and the sound of it sends Damian off of the couch. "Talia?!" Flipping backwards to land on his feet, as if something shook him to his core.

  It wasn't but two seconds before he thumbed at his belt, raised and threw whatever he had in his hands to the ground. The sound of cracking glass echoed, soon followed by a hiss, and a thick grey smoke bellowed upward, concealing Robin as he ran off. The smoke would clear in five seconds time, but there would be not a trace of Robin left.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"Coterminal selves rarely end well," Illyana observes after the update about the doppelgangers. "Violent ones in particular." She rolls her middle finger around the pad of her thumb, an imprint cushioned on midnight leather, controlled to an exacting ovoid diameter. "We let you know if we see them, da?" A Slavic accents gilds her every word, all harsh edges and clashing syllables wedded to PhD-level English.

Wisps of frozen humour might just be present in the low tones turning her lips. "Ragamuffin. We have no one called that, why?" A missed opportunity she footnotes, then shifts onto her back foot.

Briefly her language shifts out of English to something adopted far more easily, German for those who know it. Directly Talia-ward, it's not intended as a secret, not at a conversational volume. <<May I ask if you have parents or siblings?>>

Dropping back to English comes swiftly enough. "Pizza would be welcome, if it is not trouble. Please no pineapple. You would not like me hyper." Bart's box is beyond comprehension if anyone were to ask, but food is food is food. Accepting what they give her is sufficient. "I leave him," a nod to Richter, "to speak for himself. But we are associates, after Brainiac--" Whatever more she would say dies on the tongue, no more than that. Robin goes bounding down the hallway in a frisson of smoke, his explosive movement out of relative musical chilling nails-on-a-chalkboard up her spine.

Her arctic-fair pupils lose all their frost, gone entirely blue, a subtle deviation distinguishable only for the collection of wards when her senses drop totally into a mystic's spectrum. No weapons show, but then, do they have to?

Julio Richter has posed:
"Yeah," Rictor, as he is now apparently known, answers Nadia. "I do have relations with the Richter scale from time to time." Cryptic? Metaphorical? Gross? Possibly all three. Her explanation of the Doppelganger problem seems to be the first he has heard of it, judging by his blank look, but he doesn't inquire further. You learn to roll with these things after a while, although Donna's 'Zeezeegoo' reference gets a particularly puzzled reaction.

He gives Talia a bemused look when she addresses him, then shrugs. His powers, at least, aren't especially secret. "Yeah, that's me," he confirms. Another whisper of green energy snakes up the arm of his jacket, pausing here and there to shudder and crack. "I guess you knew another me? I know another Wagner. One you're definitely related to."

It's good that Donna and Caitlin are playing diplomat, because he and Illyana aren't the best suited for the role, and the situation certainly isn't helping where his Limbo-headache is concerned. Still, he gives them a weak smile and hitches one shoulder upward. "It's OK," he says, trying to play down his own reaction to being named. "Nice to meet everybody, I guess."

Or it is getting nice, until Damian has an episode and decides to violently bamf out of the room. "No," Rictor says simply, and with a gesture, releases a thunderous crack of vibration through the air, dissipating the smoke pretty much instantly. If Damian is still in the cloud, he's going to look pretty stupid, and especially if he's gone, Julio doesn't have the patience right now to sit coughing and sputtering in the Bat equivalent of a panicky cloud of squid ink.

Turning to Illyana as though nothing just happened, he says, "I don't know Rag A Muffin. Is it a better code name than Rictor?" He seems genuinely curious, but he does hang around with some world-class deadpans, so who can say for sure? He also accepts a slice of pizza, although it sits on its plate in his hand for the time being.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia perks for a moment at Donna's question, as she is piling two plates full of pizza that does not have pineapple. "It.. yeah I'll explain it later." She seems a bit reluctant to discuss the inner workings of the dimensional breach detection system in mixed company.

Plates filled, she begins making her way back towards Illyana with the pizza bounty. "Terry, by the way, all of that shows up on our system too and there is a function for backup records." She informs him innocently, completely matter of factly.

She comes up short and blinks a few times at Damian's sudden smokebomb exit, but seems to chalk it up to a 'Damian Thing' and continues on her way to present the plates full of pizza to Illyana and Julio, before dashing back to grab a few slices for herself as well.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal blinks as a puff of smoke emerges out of Robin, leaving no Robin behind once the Boy Wonder has disappeared in record time. He takes a sip from his soda and says, "Guess the MiraLax must have kicked in..."

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ was probably about to say something else in answer to something that someone said....

She is though utterly derailed by Robin shouting her name like that, throwing a smoke bomb, and then pulling the Ninja Vanish Act... ... Regardless of Rictor vibrating it away with a wave of vibrations.

That was such an over the top flail of a reaction and she honestly has no idea what is going on. "Uh." she finally manages blinking a couple of times and looking towards the Titans like they may have some explanation for what the hell just happened.

Slowly though she looks back at Julio nodding lightly "I.. yeah I imagine you do, heard he is here which is good." a smile.

To Ilyanna in German "Ja, Kurt ist mein Vater und Wanda Maximof ist meine Mutter."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives TJ a helpless shrug of her shoulders. "Please excuse our Robin. He's part bat. They have a love for the dramatic," she explains. There is of course more to explain than that, and Donna has a pretty good guess at what the explanation is, but doesn't seem to be about to elaborate. Nor, perhaps slightly surprisingly to those who know her, does she seem to be making any effort to check up on the obviously shaken Robin. Cait's observations of an edge in her voice were well observed, but Caitlin has known her a long time.

    Donna's attention turns back to the visitors, eyes narrowing a little. "You guys haven't been briefed about the doppelgangers?" she asks the two vistors. "That is... not optimal. We have been suffering dimensional incursions from an alternative Earth that was conquered by an alien being called Zhed'Zhud'Ger'Uth - and nobody pays me to say that name, so we all generally just refer to ZZGU. The alien has potent mind control abilities. It has been dealt with, but an estimated five thousand incursions have taken place and these represent individuals from that other reality some of whom may be attempting to take the place of their opposite numbers in our reality. All the super-teams were supposed to be informed because of the obvious threat of super-powered doppelgangers."

    Donna shakes her head again. "You guys really weren't informed? Look... I know how much you all value your privacy and secrecy, but it would be helpful if... anything we can do to help build lines of communication, you know? We should do something about making sure you guys aren't left in the dark about things like this. If you're not comfortable working more in the open with the other teams in general, we will be happy to set up some kind of information drop to relay things to you . Whatever we can do to make it work for you. In the meanwhile there's pizza. I can't guarantee none of them have pineapple, but probably no stealth-pineapple so just pay attention to what you're eating. None of them are mustard pizzas, thankfully. That's a thing that happens quite often here, but not today."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over, and raises a brow "Mustard Pizza?" Seems he has not caught that one yet. "I can get some with anything, well most anything, I go get ones that are already made, if you want something specific it would take longer as I would have to wait for them to fix it." He informs the others. Which may explain why he hits so many different places.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks skyward for patience, in mute appeal. There's going to be a passive-aggressive sticky note on the Titans webserver later. The wheels are already turning. 'Sunday dinners are for teams who don't embarass the group in front of company'.

"It's been... a few weeks," Caitlin says, and her tone echoes the distress of the Titans as a whole. "The dopplegangers don't seem to be universal, but they're universally a pain and we're trying to get the mess sorted. If any of your people start reading high levels of off-spin neutrino emissions, best to put them under close observations. The Titans all were exposed to the radiation so it's not much use to us, but it'll at least help you with your security."

"And yes, please, /eat/. We brought-- close to a literal tonne of pizza, I'm sure, and I'm sure everyone's worn out."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"I have been hunting down traitorous infernal marquises and a duke responsible for bargaining in illegally acquired mortal souls and defying my authority," Illyana speaks with a certain smooth eloquence when she wants, a matter-of-fact tone absent of just about any emotion to speak of. What quizzical elements this may entail for others isn't particularly concerning to her, other than the necessity of explaining her part. "There is no alternative to my realm. It touches the others, and any attempted incursions are repulsed with exclusive prejudice."

Remember that bit about 'try' not applying to her. The answer may be best summarized in that straightforward statement, rendering her yet another vestige of bad childhood. "The borders were not violated. I have encountered the aftermath of two such incursions. Our senior counterparts are another matter." It's that interminable requirement to sidestep those who hold their authority, done with the grim mannerisms from a Russian through and through.

Pizza, though! Not forgetting the important parts. "It is good to improve communication." But not eating with her mouth full. Cue a nip of it. "We may have a relative of yours here. Not Maximoffs, though. Avengers." That unnatural cyanotic sheen to her eyes isn't leaving immediately.

Julio Richter has posed:
"Lo siento," Rictor apologizes, shaking his hand out, as though to restore feeling after a punch. "Didn't mean to make so much noise. I'm a little on edge." Still, he flashes a smile at Nadia as she hands him some pizza. "Gracias." Maybe letting off a bit of that tension with a seismic blast cleared his head enough for some friendliness to surface. When Talia seems to know of Kurt, he gives her a nod and says, by way of friendly advice, "If you're going to be spending time with him, I hope you like really, really, /really/ old movies."

That said, he turns his attention to Donna, and although her explanation of the ZZGU situation can't really be faulted, the more rapid-fire technical sections are a bit difficult for him to follow in a second language he only started learning in earnest a year ago. His brow furrows as he tries to keep up, and some finer details are a lost cause, but he does interject his own summary, to confirm the broad points: "People from other worlds, like her, but bad," he begins, pointing to Talia. "And they want to... switch with us? kill us?" He holds up a hand and admits, "It might be me that doesn't know. I've been..." It's undeniable: what flashes across his face is sadness, loss, heartbreak. "...off in my own world," he finally concludes.

Then his eyes widen and his hands come up defensively, and he rapidly amends, "Not the Zeegoo world! Just an idiom." His eyes dart over to his polyglot companion. "I used it right, right?" He doesn't wait for an answer before surrendering to Caitlin's urging and getting a mouthful of pizza.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal's grin fades slightly, and then he looks at Nadia. "Wait. What?" he asks, "... I need to have words with you about /that/... I kinda need my privacy, yknow? How am I supposed to take my boyfriend away to a surprise Caribbean retreat when SHIELD decides to show up and shove us into the Raft?"

He may be a little louder, and he might be a little more insouciant than usual, but he /had/ just spent about ten days under the impression that his boyfriend had been killed and torn to pieces by his Doppelganger. He might be excused for making a rather abrupt transition from Sturm Und Drang to An Die Freude by way of Glitter and Be Gay.

"I appreciate the way you can clear a room," he says to Rictor with a grin, gesturing to how he handled Robin getting a literal case of the vapors. "Can I put you in my pocket and bring you out next time he does that? I /really/ want to see how he hides so quickly. I still haven't been persuaded away from the idea that he's just pressed under the couch cushions, or wedged under a cupboard holding his breath and waiting for others to leave so he can sneak out."

He glances at Bart, and chuckles. "Koriand'r loves mustard pizza. Mustard everything, really. One of those 'alien tastebuds' thing. Don't give coffee to Kian, for example-- it is apparently a soporific for his people." He found that out the /hard/ way. He glances over at Caitlin, to see if she still remembered coming across Terry, dragging an unconscious Kian to his room.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Yes, both of those things." Nadia replies to Julio's questions. She is now devouring her own pizza and seemingly quite happy that everyone is able to eat pizza together.

Nadia gives Vorpal a helpless shrug, "I mean even if the system wasn't recording they likely backup the sattelite feeds they use to check the coordinates of the breaches anyway. Although I could probably help them recalibrate to ignore breach instances within the same dimension, since the main concern is other dimensions coming here. That would also reduce other false positives." She taps her chin in thought as she ponders this and shoves some more pizza into her face.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Talia moves back to pick up her meatlovers slice, which is cooler now but still delicious as she settles back into a chair and twists around sitting in it backwards so she can continue the conversation with Rictor and Magik.

"Oh I am very very well aware of the movies." a smile though, lot of fondness there and then to Magik "Scarlet Witch yeah... that is who I meant yes. I mean not really my relatives but I am glad they are both alive and from what I hear good people." which is most assuredly not a given in her experience.

"I'm honestly not sure if we will be here long enough for me to meet both or even either of them though. My team might already be doing the job without me here and I could just... move on to the next assignment at any moment." which now that she thinks about it she probably should have warned the Titans that could happen. "Man I hope they aren't having problems with SHIELD thinking they are dopplegangers.. there is a chance they are interdimensional dopplegangers from another timeline technically... just not evil ones from this ZZGU dimension...." frowns "That would be a bad complication but might explain why I haven't seen them yet."

"I'd really like to go see if you can help me find them after Pizza." that is to Julio and Illyana. "It's critical."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Richter an encouraging smile. "Just as you say. And please don't worry, we don't suspect either of you two of being doppelgangers. We don't yet have an... easily sharable way to detect if someone is a doppelganger, though I believe in your team there are a few people who could deal with that. If, just for example, you had a telepath, she would be able to tell. Of course assuming she isn't a doppelganger. Though if you send her here, we could clear her for you. Or he. If it happened to be a he."

    "Nadia is working with the SHIELD team detecting incursions, TJ," Donna says to the dimensional traveller. "If you are concerned your companions may have been apprehended as suspects, we can make inquiries for you. Would they have come through about the same time you did?" She turns to Nadia, giving her a questioning raise of the eyebrow. "Think you can check that out for us?"

    Donna rolls her shoulders and reaches for a slice of pizza. Automatic responses make her check it for mustard before consuming - it's long ingrained habit.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over, and says "And if you have pictures, or descriptions of your team, I can take a lap around the city, state of what ever, see if I see them, and if I do bring them back here to talk to you." He offers.

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio shrugs at Vorpal and says, "He's very quiet. I barely felt him moving. He started with too much force to be going for the couch cushions, though." He lifts and pointedly taps one foot, then says by way of explanation: "Vibrations. Kind of my thing." Cocking his head to one side, he continues, "I'm not the one who is pocket size. Maybe smoke boy should go in the pocket and I'll stay out here." He reaches up to tap the side of his nose, ducks his head forward, and says conspiratorially, "Maybe that's where he's hiding now."

When Nadia clarifies the points he's wondering about, Rictor grimaces and asks, "If you're going to a whole other universe to meet yourself, why kill him? You could do so much better." He hitches his shoulders up and suggests, "You could make out. Even evil doppler things have to wonder what that's like." He shakes his head ruefully, then takes a seat on the back of one of the lobby couches.

From there, he listens to Talia. "If you come back with us, I'm sure you'll meet Kurt, at least," he tells her. "And you should definitely come back with us. If there are mutants on your team, we have ways to search for them anywhere in the world, very very quickly. At least, if they're still in this world." He glances over at Donna, answering, "We do have telepaths, hes /and/ shes. I'll ask them about it when we get home."

He nods but winces at Bart's suggestion, answering, "That would probably help, but I'm not sure all of us would like to have our descriptions spread around. We can't be as open as some people." He glances at Talia, but it's reflex rather than recrimination; he seems to have decided that blurting out his name is water under the bridge.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal raises an eyebrow, "Yeah, the little bugger might be hiding in a pocket. Wait. Does anybody here have pockets?" he glances around. Your standard superhero suit was short on pockets. It's why pouches became very de rigeur for a time, and then rigeur mortis when people started wearing too many to even move. The Cheshire cat shoots Richter a side-glance and says "If your doppelganger's first thing is to try to mack on you, then good for you. If mine had tried that, then I'm pretty sure my boyfriend would have found the whole thing incredibly weird, but fortunately-" he taps his bandaged shoulder, "my doppelganger chose to shoot me instead." He grins.

"Nadia might also be able to check with SHIELD to see if any members of the team ended up... you know. In 'the Raft.' And there's something I need to discuss with her, too. About Gar's treatment." He takes a sip of his soda. He won't mention what it is because, unlike his boyfriend, he doesn't have a huge mouth.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia stops inhaling pizza for a moment and nods. "It should be in the records," She says after swallowing a lump of cheese and pepperoni, "if we know when they showed up. As long as it was after I brought ours online. Anything before that I would need to get at SHIELD's system and while I probably could since I helped build it, Nick Fury is Nick Fury and hopefully he isn't around if that becomes necessary. But given when TJ arrived, if they arrived at the same time, it should be in our system. I can call Dr. Morse either way, she's a senior agent and probably either knows or can figure out if they have them. Unless it's super secret triple classified and she can't tell me or something." Nadia's expression betrays she is not the biggest fan of the concept of classified information when it means she doesn't get to know things.

Julio earns an odd look from Nadia, "Make what out of what?" The expression seems utterly lost on her.

She nods when Terry says he needs to talk to her, she'd already registered it earlier, along with the fact he broke the emotional manipulation laser she made for him, but that talk can wait for later, for now she resumes stuffing her face with pizza.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Talia rubs the back of her blue fuzzy neck there. "I'd rather not give their descriptions in case they do have dopples here or full names." she admits to Bart after Julio says what he says. Hindsight.

She does look to him and nod "I know or at least hoped." but also she didn't supply that intel either, just that the X-Men could probably help her best. "They are all mutants actually, we call ourselves the eXiles." a light shrug. "I was an X-man back home." she adds then takes a couple more bites of her pizza. Which explains why she asked about the hookup from the Titans as well.

She does after thought to Donna and Nadia "They should have landed right when I did yes a few hours ago at this point... Usually we come out of the same portal though but I didn't see them.... I'm a little worried that Vampire Union Jack's spell he was casting may have utterly borked us somehow.."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Richter a slight smirk. "I'm sorry... I may be an Amazon, but I try not to forget that men can have cool powers too. The pronoun thing was more about respecting privacy, but as you say it I am aware you have some telepaths on your team, and might have met one or two of them."

    She rests a gentle hand on Bart's shoulders. "It's a thoughtful offer. Alas not everyone can be as open about things as we are, Impulse," she says. "But from my experience they are good people and we'll do what we can to help without contravening that desire for privacy. Richter, Illyana, if there is anything less... /invasive/ we can do to help with the situation, let us know. I will make sure our files are sent over to you so you're up to speed with what is know, but honestly it's not a whole lot more than what we have just said."

    "As to why they want to kill their counterparts here, it would appear that in some instances anyway, it's because they hope to take over their lives. Their world is a mess. Last time I saw it, a nuclear war was kicking off, so you kind of can't blame them for wanting away. Though if it was for purposes of making out, that would certainly make things more..." Donna glances at Caitlin for a moment, then at Nadia. "...Harmonious," she finishes diplomatically.

    Donna rapidly changes the subject by checking her pockets. "I have pockets," she declares. "Nobody in them though. Unless it's Nadia's clone and she's /really/ small, but in that case she's probably drowning in sand. Uh. Dust bunnies. Do they call them that if it's in a pocket? Oh. Lint. drowning in lint." Julio's not alone -- he may be the newest to the language of the ESL crew present, but they all seem to have their own idiosyncracies with the language.

    "Anyway, I am glad we could help you out, TJ, and I hope you find your friends." Donna flashes the dimensional traveller a brilliant smile. "I'm sure it will turn out well in the end and they won't have been borked."

    Everyone has now had the experience of hearing the word 'borked' in a Themysciran accent. This is a rare experience.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and nods "I understand, I have a friend, who stressed the who secret ID thing, and I have not told a lot of people mine. " He hmms and says "You know, I had not thought of it, but I might be considered a mutant." He hmms, and says "The other Flashes had incidents where they got the powers, but my father and aunts passed down to them, and then to me and my cousin. My powers kicked in at birth though, and mutants normally kick in at teenage years right?"

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio's outfit does have pockets, in the jacket where they won't ruin the lines, and he pauses in his eating to pull open the left side to point at one. It appears to be 100 percent Robin-free. He doesn't respond further, though, except that his face tightens slightly around the eyes at the mention of boyfriends.

Nadia's talk of breach tracking then catches his attention, and he looks at her, perturbed. "This system -- does it track all teleportation? Even by magic?" he asks. "I don't think I go through dimensions or anything, but I wouldn't want to show up on a SHIELD radar. Uh, no offense. I'm sure it's... a /nice/ radar."

He gives her a blank look for a few seconds when she addresses him directly, then finally answers, "Just make out. No 'of.' Kiss like you mean it? Ugh. Am I using the idiom wrong again?" He glances at Illyana, who shakes her head without displacing a hair on it.

Talia's discretion regarding how, exactly, the X-men would be able to help is appreciated, and he flashes her an appreciative smile. "In that case, I'm sure we can help. As soon as we're done with our food, we can head back and get started searching."

He tips his head toward Donna, continuing, "I'll pass the message along, and let you know if we need help. I can think of a couple of people it would be smart to clear, since you mention it." Then, with an emphatic nod, he waggles a finger toward her. "See? She gets it! When you need someone to let you crash on their couch to get away from nuclear war, harmonious is the way to go."

Bart's question has an easy answer, and Julio offers it: "I got my powers as a teenager, but I know mutants who got theirs at birth, too. You can get tested for the gene, if you want, but if people don't see you as a mutant" -- he tightens his jaw -- "why would you want them to?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia just gives Donna a confused look, "Pockets are nice."

"It would depend how you do it." She tells Julio, "But it's quite possible, it picks up Terry's magic. Quantum physics and magic don't seem to be too far off from each other sometimes."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I'm going to agree with Harmonious. Donna comes from an island of immortal women and let me tell you, it's like the Annual Welsh Choral Festival there all year long!" Vorpal grins, knowing that any moment now there may be an object thrown at him with Amazonian precision.

"In any case, I hate to not eat and run..." he takes out his phone and looks at the time, "I should go and check on Gar and then call my mother and convince her she doesn't need to cook another batch of breakfast to feed an army. But-" he glances over at Julio and company, "We really should make stronger bonds. Improbable People should stick together no matter what. Hit us up sometime, we could do joint training, field trips, cookouts. The more friends, the better."

He grins and everybody and waves, "Be back in a few hours," he says, and he tries to make his exit while avoiding open terrain, lest Donna throw something at him. Possibly a team-mate.

Julio Richter has posed:
As the members of the small mutant delegation each finish up their slices, Illyana stands, attaining her customary still and imperious posture, then leads the trio back out of the tower with a smattering of friendly farewells. Less than a minute later, the Titans' breach alarm goes off again, and the visitors have vanished back into Limbo.